Mike Browning

Tag: land investors

  • 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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  • 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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