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The first designation you want to look for with a land realtor is the ALC (Accredited Land Consultant) Designation. This designation proves they have the knowledge and experience to help you sell your parcel of raw land.  Here is a link to the REALTORS(R) Land Institute (RLI), and a search tool to find ALC credentialed professionals in your area: http://rliland.com/SearchForm.aspx Read More

“Buy on the fringe and wait. Buy land near a growing city! Buy real estate when other people want to sell. Hold what you buy!” -John Jacob Astor

Investing in raw land need not be complicated once you get a solid understanding of the niche as an investment. By being creative, there are a number of ways to make money investing in raw land.  First,  you can make improvements on raw land. Just like with flipping a house, you wouldn’t buy a house and then immediately the next day put that same exact house on the market for $30,000 more. You would improve it. You would install granite countertops, stainless steel appliances, or better fixtures in the bathrooms. You might update the cabinetry, and improve the landscaping of the house. Some improvements can be very expensive. Some can be very inexpensive. A paint job can really improve a home and cost only a few hundred dollars.

Well, the same principles apply to improving land and there’s many different, inexpensive ways that you can improve your property to vastly increase its value without you having to do a whole lot of work yourself and spending a whole lot of money. Read More

Question: I need to learn how to invest on raw land. Can anyone suggest good web sites or books?

Answer:   I have actually developed a number of programs to help people learn how to buy and sell raw land.   The best place to start  is to download my free program at www.3fatallandbuyingmistakes.com. Read More

Question: I need a loan for school but dont have good enough credit to get a student loan. I have 3 acres of raw land, are there any lenders out there that will give me a loan using my land as collateral?

Answer:  After the financial crisis in 2008, is now very difficult to use raw land as collateral for obtaining a loan. Nevertheless, there are many creative ways to sell property and use that money to finance your education. In fact, I even have a program that teaches people how to profitably buy and sell raw land and make amazing profits online. Learn more at www.artsofthelandflip.com. Read More

Question:

How do you sell raw land to mineral exploration companies or speculators? I don’t have the time, money, or resources to develop or do the exploration but the area is one of the most productive gold mining areas in the world.

Please note, I have not done any testing as yet myself. It’s strictly speculative. Sitting on raw land.What do I do?

Answer:

There’s so many variables involved, including front end money, back end royalty, etc. If you don’t own the mineral rights then there may already be a royalty in place. That in itself would change the scope of a sale to a mineral exploration company. It’s important to know what minerals the exploration company may be interested in as well. If it’s gold, it’s a different  type of sell than another mineral.

Answer: No.  Typically the County Assessor will value an improved land for residential use at a higher tax rate (as it’s more valuable) than raw land.  Some developers work with the local county to reduce their tax rate by changing the property tax classification to Agricultural which has an even lower tax rate than residential.  However, once you begin improving the raw land and begin getting permits with Planning & Zoning, the assessor will raise the tax rates on the property with the change in zoning.  Therefore, depending upon your best and highest use for the property you will want to hold the land at the lower property tax classification to improve your return on investment.

Question: Is it feasible to believe you can buy properties in other states and sell them owner financed without even seeing them. I watched a webinar from larry goins today and he made it seem pretty simple. I know you can buy cheap property in places like Michigan but what do you with it? If nobody is there who do you sell and rent to? Some people talk about buying houses for $5,000 and renting them for $750 a month. Do people in these depressed areas really have that kind of money? Larrys program talks about buying these kinds of properties all over the country and selling them owner financed and making good money. This cant be as simple and easy as he makes it sound can it?

Answer:   I’m not familiar with the Larry Goins program,  but I have been acquiring land out-of-state doing my due diligence using Google Earth, www.homeinfomax.com  and then use an inexpensive crowd sourcing site named www.wegolook.com  to take pictures and provide me a report. This saves me so much time and money performing due diligence and helps me sleep at night knowing the land has been investigated properly.

Question:

Hey guys,

I was wondering if there is a passive investing guide out there for rentals. I have not found a solid guide on BP on how to invest passively if you simply cannot make weekly or monthly trips to rentals unless in times of extreme emergencies. A few reasons might be:

1. personal preference.

2. Job requires frequent travel

3. Job requires 70-90 hrs/week

What are the most important steps to passive investing? Selecting a property management company that tries to keep costs down? A friendly realtor to lease your house when there is turn over?

Answer:  If you like the idea of passive income without any tenants, termites or toilets breaking in the  middle of the night, then you should think about investing in raw land.  With raw land of there are no maintenance headaches  and the pressure to keep the tenant happy.   Plus, there is less capital involved  with structuring land deals. What I like to do is acquire 5 – 40 acre parcels from a distressed owner, sell that property on a land contract and a promissory note and collect the monthly payments. In this way, I have monthly passive income, plus I don’t have to incur the expense of foreclosure should my owner fail to make their payments. Simply rinse and repeat.

Question: Can anybody share how they are investing passively? Do you invest with a syndication or buy the property yourself and put a property manager in place?

Answer:  If you like the idea of passive income without any tenants, termites or toilets breaking in the  middle of the night, then you should think about investing in raw land. What I like to do is acquire 5 – 40 acre parcels from a distressed owner, sell that property on a land contract and a promissory note and collect the monthly payments. In this way, I have monthly passive income, plus I don’t have to incur the expense of foreclosure should my owner fail to make their payments. Simply rinse and repeat. I’ve been creating land notes since 2007 and there’s no better feeling than waking up and seeing those payments hit my account.   There are a number of  3rd parties that will manage the paperwork, and collect the payments charging a small fee. They will then provide your customer with a 1098 so they can deduct the interest expense from their tax return.

I’ve been getting a lot of questions lately about specific issues regarding to land.   I thought I would share so everyone could benefit.

QUESTION:

I had someone contact me about selling his land. It’s 1 Acre and it has an old abandoned Mobile home on it. It’s been abandoned about 8 months. The land can be used for commerical or residential. He inherited the land and wants to get rid of it. He said he wants 38k for it. Is it possible to wholesale land. And how exactly do you run the comps for it. I ran the comps for the area and homes in that area sell between 90-190K.

ANSWER:

I would contact the local County assessor and 1st ask what the assessed value for that land is valued at, then I would ask for the comparable sales for the last 90 days.  You can also go online and for a few bucks get information at www.homeinfoMax.com, that will provide you with the comparable sales.