Mike Browning

Tag: Land Investing

  • Back For More

    Back For More

    Same land. Another look.

    My Rochelle Cannon tract is back in MLS. If you’ve been looking for a unique homesite check it out at the link below or let your agent know it’s MLS# 21398700.

    39.66 acres on Rochelle Cannon Rd outside Whitewright. Over 1,300 feet of frontage. Convenient to US 75 and Sherman, including the chip plants. Asking $30K per acre for the whole thing, and it can be divided if that fits better. Up to three water meters available.

    This isn’t for everyone. Creek beds that actually shape the land instead of just decorating it. Mature oaks. Ground that isn’t flat, isn’t tidy, and doesn’t hand you a blank canvas to do whatever you want with.

    Most people want the opposite of that. Flat, easy, predictable. Land you can plan on a napkin.

    This isn’t that tract, and that’s ok.

    The buyer for this one usually knows it fairly quickly. You either want something that stays different over time, or you want something you can move fast and cheap on. Both are reasonable. They’re just not the same buyer.

    If you looked at this the first time around and it didn’t work out, whatever the reason, it’s back. Might be worth taking another look.

    Photos, aerials, and property details are below.

    MLS #21398700

    If you’d like to walk the property, text me at 214.354.3583 and I’ll give you the gate code. Or have your agent reach out.

    PS- I’m part owner of this one, so disclosing that as required.

    PPS- Friday is when I usually flog the Buyer’s Short List.

    It’s a service I run that screens land across 21 counties looking for things priced unusually well relative to what’s around them.

    Most of what gets flagged has a reason it’s cheap, and isn’t a deal. Floodplain. Access. Easements. Utilities. Something else that makes the price make sense.

    But every so often something clears the first few hurdles and is worth a closer look. When that happens, people on the Short List get an email.

    No schedule. No spam. No promises, either.

    There’s still due diligence to do. I’m not telling you something is a deal. I’m telling you I looked for the obvious reason it isn’t one and haven’t found it yet.

    The property I wrote about above was originally found through an early version of that process. I’ve expanded it quite a bit since then.

    In other words, it’s a filter designed to save you time.

    Is it a bad idea to have someone weeding out the junk for you?

    Check it out here.

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  • Yes, They Had TVs The Last Time The Cowboys Were In The Super Bowl

    Yes, They Had TVs The Last Time The Cowboys Were In The Super Bowl

    They were even color TVs. Just not HD.

    You have to be pretty old these days to remember it, but there was a time when the Dallas Cowboys were the unquestioned kings of the NFL.

    It can be kind of funny when younger people ask why older people continue to watch and pay so much attention when the team “never wins anything.”

    Habit, I guess.

    That and stubbornness, which is a superpower of mine. Not to mention we’re all sort of pot committed on the deal. We’ve been at it so long that really the only thing to do is keep going. Then on the off chance the team does win again, we can claim to have been behind them all along.

    We can hope anyway.

    I don’t know why it came to mind recently, but I was thinking about something I heard about those early 90s teams. About how, on defense especially, they noticed a market inefficiency which they exploited by prioritizing speed over size.

    Of course every team, including the Cowboys, wanted the athletic freaks. The guys who were huge while also having world-class speed.

    But there aren’t many of those.

    Once you got past them, most teams would look for big guys who might not be quite as fast. The Cowboys decided to go after really fast guys who might be a little undersized.

    Since fewer teams were looking there, they could find better players in that bucket. Not to mention they presented a different challenge than their opponents were used to.

    Or maybe it was just because they had Hall of Fame-level talent at all the key positions, and it didn’t matter so much who was on the back end.

    Either way, it was fun to watch.

    If you’re an investor, you’ve probably noticed it’s harder to find deals in the areas where everyone is already looking.

    You’ve heard the saying about location, location, location.

    Location matters.

    So does basis.

    Everybody already knows where the hottest areas are. And when everybody knows, you tend to pay for it.

    Sometimes I’d rather own something bought right in an outlying area than something I had to overpay for just to be in the fairway.

    That’s part of the reason the Buyer’s Short List covers more than 20 counties in North Texas.

    I look for things that appear to be priced well relative to what’s around them, then start looking for the reason. Most don’t survive that second part.

    When one does, I let the List know.

    No spam. No schedule. Just when something looks worth a closer look.

    They won’t all be a fit for you.

    But is it a bad idea to have someone looking where everybody else isn’t?

    Check It Out Here.

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  • It’s a Short List

    It’s a Short List

    In more ways than one.

    Successful land investing isn’t complicated. You find something underpriced, verify what you’ve got, buy it at the right number, and let time do most of the work.

    Simple. Not easy.

    I recently ran a quick search. Drawing a 60-mile circle around DFW Airport, there were just under 5,000 land listings of one acre or more currently on the market.

    Most aren’t investment opportunities.

    Anyone who’s spent much time looking at land already knows that. Pretty quickly, most people start looking for a better way to sort through the noise.

    Which might lead to joining a few wholesaler text lists. I’m on some myself. I’ve never bought anything from them, but I did make the mistake of asking for more information a few times. It didn’t take long to realize the property wasn’t a fit. The follow-up calls lasted much longer.

    Makes you wish there was a better way.

    Guess what?

    There isn’t a perfect way, but I’ve built a process for filtering thousands of listings down to a handful that deserve a closer look.

    Most get rejected immediately because of something obvious. Floodplain. No access. Bad location. Unrealistic pricing. Some other issue that makes the property unsuitable as an investment.

    You don’t need to hear about those.

    Every so often, though, something survives the first pass. Not necessarily a deal, and not necessarily something I’d buy myself. But interesting enough to warrant a closer look.

    Those are the properties I pay attention to.

    When I find one, I prepare a short report explaining why it caught my eye, what nearby sales suggest, and what I think deserves further investigation. Then I share it with people who have asked to see them.

    No requirement to become an exclusive client. No incessant follow-up. I may check once to make sure you saw the information, but that’s about it.

    Because I’m not a salesman. I’m a filter.

    Be In The Know

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  • It’s Probably Not Time Today

    It’s Probably Not Time Today

    Or maybe it is, but the smart thing to do today is the same.

    From what I’ve seen, the land market around here has been moving mostly sideways for about three years now.

    With acreage it’s hard to do an apples-to-apples comparison because every tract is different. But I’ve seen it with custom home lots, where the exact same lot has sold more than once over the past few years.

    From 2020-2022, rapid appreciation. Since then, basically the same prices, But much less activity overall.

    The usual explanation is that interest rates are higher and that’s slowing down development and investment. Or uncertainty about wars and geopolitics.

    Those are both probably part of it, but I think there’s sort of a musical-chairs aspect to it as well.

    There was a growing subset of land investors who would buy tracts, sell at a profit when new investors came along, buy something else, rinse and repeat.

    Until the new guys stopped showing up.

    Some of them are now trying to sell things they may have overpaid for, and so far they haven’t been willing to bite the bullet.

    Some of that probably needs to work its way through the system before things really start moving again.

    And with agricultural valuation, debt-free land can be relatively inexpensive to carry. So owners who don’t need to sell can, and probably will, wait out the market.

    So it’s probably not time to sell today.

    That doesn’t mean it’s not time to know where you stand.

    Things can change fast, and getting your ducks in a row now pays off. You’re not scrambling at the last minute.

    The MBR Land Reality Check gives you a clear-headed review of where things stand for you today, with actual sold comps and other information that puts you ahead of the game.

    You’re not deciding to sell and there’s no pressure. You’re just giving yourself permission to look.

    You can do that below.

    Of course, you could be someone who needs to sell sooner. Loan coming due, estate issues, you found a better opportunity, or whatever.

    If that’s you, the course of action is the same.

    Get the MBR Land Reality Check and go from there.

    Get it here

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  • No Calculator Required

    No Calculator Required

    I can wade through 90% of it before you even pick up a pencil. Sound interesting?

    There’s a saying you’ll hear a lot in real estate investing: if you need a calculator to determine if something is a deal, it’s not a deal.

    Obviously you need to run financial projections and all that.

    But the point is that a truly good deal will sort of jump off the page at you. It’s clearly priced in a way that makes it appear to be below market, without requiring a spreadsheet.

    Of course, it doesn’t take long being in this business to learn that if something is really cheap, there’s usually a reason.

    Something’s wrong.

    It’s almost totally in the floodplain. It’s got pipeline easements on it that make it look like a spiderweb. It has no road frontage. Or any number of things.

    A lot of times what catches my eye turns out to be something that wouldn’t really be worth owning if they gave it to you. At least not from an investment perspective.

    But not always.

    Every so often I run across something that’s priced low and doesn’t appear to have the usual problems. The sort of thing that makes me stop and look harder.

    And if it’s in an area where I already know someone who would be interested, I usually know who to call. But sometimes it’s in an area where I don’t have someone looking.

    That’s what the Buyer’s Short List is for.

    Covering 21 counties in North Texas, I have a screen that flags newly available or reduced-price listings that are priced low relative to what’s been selling around them.

    Most of them aren’t deals, for the reasons discussed above.

    But every once in a while, one makes it through the first screen and still looks interesting after I dig into it.

    If you’re on the Short List, when that happens you get an email and a chance to see more.

    No schedule. No spam. Just when something makes it through.

    Is it a bad idea to minimize the time you spend looking at bad deals?

    Learn More Here

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  • If It Sounds Too Good To Be True

    If It Sounds Too Good To Be True

    It probably is. Except when it isn’t.

    It’s happened to most of us.

    You’re in the used car market and see something online that looks like a really great deal. You’re skeptical that it’s just a scam to get your info, but it turns out to be a real person. So you get excited, only to find out it has a salvage title. Or it’s been in three accidents. Or something. The seller wasn’t lying exactly. He just wasn’t volunteering.

    We’ve all heard the saying and mostly believe it. If something sounds too good, be skeptical. Knowing that and acting on it in the moment are two different skills, and the second one is a lot harder than it sounds when you’re the one standing next to something you need and want.

    Nobody falls for the Nigerian prince anymore. We’ve all had that training by now. It’s the smaller version that still gets people. The retirement account with a “guaranteed” return. The stock tip from a brother in law who heard it from a guy at work. The story about a politician you already don’t like, one that fits exactly what you expected to hear about him, so you share it before you check it.

    There’s always somebody out there advertising a screaming deal on rural acreage, half the going rate or less. The honest question isn’t whether you can afford it. It’s why a deal that good needs to be advertised at all.

    Most of the time it’s cheap for a reason you haven’t found yet. Floodplain. An easement running through the middle of it. Something next door nobody wants to look at from their porch. Maybe the listing agent knows. There’s a pretty good chance the neighbor who’s farmed next to it for thirty years does.

    And by the time an obvious screaming deal reaches somebody two counties away with no history in the area, it’s worth asking why somebody closer to it hasn’t already grabbed it.

    There’s a difference between a deal nobody’s found yet and a deal everybody already turned down.

    Every so often, the real thing does show up. An estate that needs to close fast. An out of town agent who priced it off the wrong comps. An owner who’s been sitting on it since 2004 and never bothered updating his number. Those exist. They’re just a lot rarer than the other kind, and the little jump in your pulse feels exactly the same either way. That’s the part that gets people.

    Whether you check first or get excited first is on you.

    That’s why I run a screen through thousands of available tracts looking for the ones priced under what’s around them. And that’s only the first pass.

    Most of what survives it turns out to be fool’s gold once I actually dig into it. Every once in a while, one doesn’t.

    Usually I already know who the right buyer is for it. Depending on the area, the size, the timing, sometimes I don’t, and I end up sitting on something worth a look with nobody in mind for it yet.

    That’s what the Buyer’s Short List is for.

    When something actually clears the screen, I send a short note to a small list of people who asked to see them. No spam, no newsletter, nothing on a schedule.

    They won’t all be a fit for you. And something being on the list doesn’t mean you should buy it.

    It means I’ve looked for the reason it was too good to be true and haven’t found it yet.

    [Add me to the list.]

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  • Say It Before They Do

    Say It Before They Do

    Turns out the fastest way to defuse an accusation is to make it yourself.

    One of my repeat clients told me something I really appreciated not long ago. They are capable of performing on large transactions both as a buyer and seller, so naturally they have lots of brokers showing them anything and everything.

    Some of it makes sense and a lot of it doesn’t. But as you can expect, most of it gets presented to them with all the good parts highlighted and the not-so-good downplayed. If mentioned at all.

    So what did he say? Basically that he knows I want to sell deals, that’s how I make money after all. But he really likes that I get to the so-called “hair” on a deal pretty quick, if not right from the jump.

    To me, it’s the only sensible way to operate. But if you’ve dealt with real estate folks very long, you know it doesn’t always work that way.

    For my part, it’s just smart business. If you intend to be around a long time, you need people to trust what you tell them. And the best way to keep a client wanting to buy land deals is to make sure they do well on the ones they’re buying today.

    Besides, these are sophisticated guys. If I know about something affecting a deal, they’re going to find it sooner or later anyway.

    Chris Voss has a name for this in Never Split The Difference. He calls it an accusation audit. The best way to deal with baggage where your counterpart might have an issue with what you’ve said or done is to be the one who brings it up first. Usually right at the start.

    It sounds like handing the other person ammunition. It’s usually the opposite. Once you’ve said the uncomfortable thing yourself, they don’t have to wonder whether you see it too. You’ve put it on the table where both of you can deal with it. And often, hearing their own worst thought said back to them plainly takes some of the force out of it.

    Or maybe you are right, and they are carrying a grudge and they aren’t going to do business with you no matter what. At least you found it out up front, and saved time and effort for both of you.

    There’s a difference between defending yourself against an accusation and never letting it land in the first place.

    It only works if you’re honest about what the accusations actually are. Sugarcoating them defeats the whole point, and people can tell when you’re doing it. You have to say the version that actually stings a little.

    I’ve been flogging this book for about a month now, so I’ll give it a rest after today. But given that negotiation touches just about every part of your life, can it be a bad idea to get better at it?

    Buy Never Split The Difference Here

    PS- That link goes through Amazon, and I’m an affiliate. Doesn’t cost you a dime more, but if you click through and buy the book, or anything else while you’re there, I get a small commission.

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  • Take The Win

    Take The Win

    You don’t also have to announce it.

    Celina’s city council recently approved some incentives to land a second Walmart. I won’t break it down here, but it could be pretty substantial. And probably a smart move, I’d say. Sales tax is one of the few revenue levers a city actually controls, and a big box store just inside your line pulls shoppers in from both sides while the tax dollars only land on yours. So far, so good.

    Then the mayor opened his mouth.

    Ryan Tubbs told the room they were going to build the best Walmart they could “so every resident of Pilot Point comes and visits Celina and shops at Walmart… so that we cause sales tax leakage for our lovely neighbors.”

    He’s not wrong, that’s exactly what’s going to happen. Pilot Point residents will drive to the closer store, and Celina banks the tax revenue while Pilot Point’s roads absorb the traffic that got them there.

    But saying it out loud like that is a low status move. It’s also not smart business.

    There’s about a 100% chance Tubbs sits across a table from somebody in Pilot Point again before too long. A road project, a shared utility line, some regional thing nobody can avoid. And now he’s the guy who stood up and gloated about it on the record. Doesn’t matter that he was right. That’s not a great position to negotiate from the next time he needs something from them.

    Win the deal. Then keep your mouth shut about it. Be gracious.

    If you’re a land investor you know this.

    You make your money when you buy, not when you sell. Old idea, still true every time.

    When somebody’s willing to sell below market today, there’s almost always a reason behind it. A health scare, a divorce, a job that’s moving them, an estate nobody in the family wants to deal with, a note coming due next month.

    You didn’t create the situation. You just showed up with a solution when they needed one, and the price reflected the circumstances.

    The deal closes. You’re very happy with the deal. That doesn’t mean you explain to the seller how much you saved, or mention it to their neighbor, or bring it up again down the road when the tract’s worth double.

    You say thank you and you mean it.

    And that you hope your paths cross again, because in this business they usually do, and you want to still be the guy they’d sell to next time.

    Gloating doesn’t get you anything the win didn’t already get you. It just costs you the next deal, or the next referral, or the next seller who was on the fence and heard how you talk about the last one.

    Most of the good deals I’ve gotten over the years came from somebody who trusted me enough to call again.

    People have long memories when you make them feel like the loser.

    PS- If you’d rather hear about a deal before it goes anywhere else, I keep a short list for that. Nothing fancy about it. When something worth a second look clears my screen, the people on the list hear first. No spam, no newsletter, nothing on a schedule.

    [Add me to the list.]

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  • Only Two Problems

    Only Two Problems

    Most people only solve one.

    There’s a line that’s been passed around for years, usually credited to Jim Rohn, who said he got it from Neil Armstrong.

    Going to the moon only involves two problems. How to get there, and how to get back.

    The key is you don’t leave until you’ve solved both.

    Rural land investment is pretty similar, although a lot of people ignore one of the problems.

    First problem is pretty straightforward. You find something underpriced in an area where you expect values to grow. Then you run all the traps, and if it checks out you have something worth buying.

    What a lot of people forget is the second problem. What’s the plan for unwinding it on the back end?

    Then they buy it anyway.

    Ask how they get back out and you’ll usually get a shrug. Something about how land always goes up.

    There are only so many ways out of a piece of ground, and they’re all worth knowing before you own it. Hold it and sell it whole to somebody who wants what you wanted. Split it into smaller tracts, since smaller acreage generally brings more per acre. Develop it, if the location and the money and your patience all happen to line up. Put a building on it and collect rent. Farm it or lease it and let it carry itself while you wait.

    None of those is the right answer. The point is knowing which one you’re betting on.

    You don’t want to be rigid about it. Things change. Sometimes a better exit shows up than the one you planned on. A road gets built, a neighbor decides he’d rather be your buyer than your neighbor. Someone shows up with a plan you never considered and offers you a price you didn’t expect.

    When that happens you don’t turn it down, and you don’t fret about being “wrong” about how you would exit.

    But there’s a difference between changing your plan and never having one.

    And there’s a difference between a deal that looks good going in and a deal you know how to get out of.

    A land deal needs to work today, on today’s numbers. It also needs a believable way back out before you write the check. Both, not one.

    Miss the first one and you overpaid. That stings, and you find out about it fairly quick.

    Miss the second one and you didn’t buy an investment. You bought a place to keep your money where you can’t reach it.

    That one’s quieter. Nobody finds out for years.

    Then they need the money.

    P.S. Most of what crosses my screen doesn’t survive the first problem, let alone the second. When something clears both — priced right today, with a way back out I can actually explain — I send a short note to a small list of people who asked to see them.

    No spam, no newsletter, nothing on a schedule. Just a note when there’s something worth looking at.

    Check it out here

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  • Sign Your Own Checks

    Sign Your Own Checks

    We all need advice, but don’t turn over control.

    I saw an article about Kathy Ireland last week, which said she was suing her longtime business managers. The suit alleges they used a power of attorney she’d granted them to take out loans and open credit cards in her name, and quietly ran up something like $100 million in the process. Ireland says she only found out about this when she and her husband were trying to help one of their kids buy a house, and the mortgage application was denied.

    Probably not much fun to wake up thinking you have a 9-figure net worth, only to find out you can’t cosign on a smaller mortgage.

    I also saw a press release where the managers’ attorney called the suit frivolous. So who really knows? I don’t pay a ton of attention to the news, but maybe one day we will see how it shakes out.

    You see it all the time with athletes on a smaller scale. They sign on with a management firm, give them too much authority and trust, and find out one day that all their money is gone.

    It’s a good reminder that handing someone the pen isn’t the same as getting good advice.

    We all need advice in some areas. So get advice. Get a lot of it. But if the person advising you tells you it’s easier if you just let them handle it, that you don’t need to be bothered with the details, it’s time to find a new advisor.

    Anyone who is my client knows the deal. I will put in the work. And I’ll get you the info you need (good and bad). I’ll explain to you the pros and cons of whatever decision is on the table. And try to help you get where you want to be.

    But you’re going to be the one who makes the decision. And the one who signs your name on anything.

    You don’t need to know everything about your land or your business. You just need to be the one who’s still deciding.

    P.S. Most landowners who request an MBR Land Reality Check aren’t planning to sell. They simply want to know where they stand before they ever need the answer. It’s recent comparable sales, current market activity, and my opinion of what a reasonable buyer might pay today. No obligation to sell. Is it a bad idea to know?

    [Request Your MBR Land Reality Check]

    P.P.S. If you want more like this, I write regularly about land, markets, and what’s happening with growth here in North Texas.

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