The REtipster Podcast | Land Investing & Real Estate Strategies · Seth Williams

The End of Easy Land Deals w/ An Undercover Millionaire Land Investor

·1 hr 22 min·5 clips

JB says sellers are now sending offers to 30 or 52 investors at once, turning direct mail into an auction.

1. The REtipster Podcast episode centers on JB’s changing land-investing strategy as Seth Williams frames it as a conversation about “the end of easy land deals.” 2. Seth Williams hosts the show, JB returns as a land investor and former guest from episode 162, and Travis King is mentioned at the top as a coach with more than 2,500 one-on-one calls. 3. The episode asks what land investors do when direct mail, blind offers, and old assumptions stop producing the same results. 4. JB says he started in 2016, did his first deal in 2017, quit his W-2 job in 2019, and then had six-figure and seven-figure years. 5. He says his earlier business ran on direct mail and blind offers, and he describes his role as helping owners clear affidavits of ownership, back taxes, liens, foreclosures, judgments, and quiet title issues. 6. JB says his old model depended on being the person with expertise, honesty, and a checkbook for owners who wanted to sell but had title or legal problems. 7. He says the market is now more mature, more competitive, and less forgiving, with sellers often contacting multiple investors at once. 8. One example he gives is an email sent to his work address that was BCC’d to land investors and asked, “what is your bid?” after 30 people had already been contacted. 9. Another example is a letter saying “52” investors were contacted the previous year, which he says makes the old model unsustainable. 10. JB says cold calling through a third-party land calling service for 90 days cost about $10,000 to $12,000 and produced nothing he would call a deal. 11. He says the service pitched “a deal or two a week” and “a few leads a day,” but his experience was the opposite. 12. He says double closes usually mean 10% to 30% margins, which is too tight for the amount of data, mail, and follow-up work involved. 13. JB says he avoids double closes because he does not control the asset, and a seller can still receive a higher late offer before closing. 14. He says his current path is on-market buying, subdivide-level deals, and larger parcels where there is less competition and more room to underwrite. 15. JB says the business now focuses on deals with buy-side prices of roughly $300,000 to $400,000 at the low end and one deal over $2 million in December. 16. He says he is willing to buy properties with buildings, including a widow’s ranch where his offer included letting her live there rent-free until she could move. 17. The tone is reflective and pragmatic, with Seth pressing for specifics while JB gives numbers, examples, and operational changes. 18. The format is an interview with a long back-and-forth, including several pauses for clarification about pricing, mail volume, and what counts as a real deal. 19. Listeners who own or want to scale a land-investing business will get the most out of this episode. 20. Listeners looking for quick tactics or a beginner-friendly hype story may skip it.

As heard by us

A direct look at land investing under financial strain.

This episode tracks JB as he talks through weak sales, rising marketing costs, overhead, and the discomfort of watching the bank balance slide. Seth keeps pulling the focus back to the basics: expenses, inventory, and what changes when a model stops working cleanly.

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Why you'd press play

Hear what changes when land deals get harder and the numbers stop flattering you.

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