Mike Browning

Tag: Land Listings

  • It’s All In How You Look At It

    It’s All In How You Look At It

    We often make things harder in our minds than they really are.

    I’ve heard land investors talk about searching for deals and use the metaphor “like looking for a needle in a haystack.” And I get it. You have to look through a lot of stuff you don’t want to (maybe) find what you do want.

    But think about it a minute.

    And don’t assume rules that nobody spoke.

    Hay is flammable. Needles aren’t.

    Needles are magnetic. Ashes aren’t.

    So if you really want to find that needle, just burn the haystack. Then take a magnet or metal detector to find the needle in the ashes. And you’re done.

    Instead of getting worked up about how hard something sounds, just think it through and see if there’s a creative solution.

    I recently ran a quick search in the greater North Texas area (22 counties). In the land category, there were a little over 4,200 properties available.

    That’s a pretty big haystack. Over 99% of those aren’t going to be suitable for what you’re looking for. Makes it hard to want to start looking.

    And even if you could look through them all, the list changes every day. New properties come on the market. Others sell, expire, get canceled, or get reduced.

    I’ve figured out a way to screen daily for new and reduced properties that appear to be priced well based on recent nearby sales. Burning the haystack, if you will. That leaves me with a much shorter list to run the magnet over.

    Most low-priced properties are cheap for a reason. Floodplain. Access problems. Utility issues. Some other defect that isn’t obvious from the listing. Those get ruled out too.

    Every so often I end up with one or two that are worth a closer look.

    And I have a list of people I alert when that happens.

    But there’s not always a fit.

    It may not be in an area they like. Or it’s more (or less) money than they’re looking to invest. Or maybe they just bought something else.

    So every now and then I end up looking at something I think deserves a closer look and don’t really have the right investor to send it to.

    I’m trying to fix that.

    To hear about opportunities when they survive the filtering, click below and tell me what you’re looking for.

    No obligation. No pressure. Just a way to see what catches my attention before it disappears.

    Would it be a bad idea to know about them?

    Learn More Here

  • Everyone’s An Optimist, At Least For Today

    Everyone’s An Optimist, At Least For Today

    But reality will set in soon enough, and the smart folks will adjust.

    Opening day of baseball season. Technically the first game was last night, but for most teams, today is when it starts.

    A lot of people find baseball boring, but this is one of my favorite days of the year. A couple of years ago, the Rangers won the World Series. It hasn’t gone great since, but for today at least, everyone has some level of hope.

    Teams operate with a plan. They build a roster to fill the holes from last year. The goal is simple. Score more runs. Give up fewer. While it’s all playing out, you’ll hear the usual lines about doing the little things, having a strong culture, and taking it one game at a time.

    You’ll also hear a lot about how much teams value defense. Meanwhile, if a guy can hit, he’s going in the lineup ahead of the great fielder who can’t, every time.

    They all talk a good game, but what they say doesn’t always line up with their actual plan. You have to watch what they do, not what they say.

    Otherwise you might start thinking they don’t have a plan. But they do.

    But like Mike Tyson said, everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.

    You’ve got 26 guys on the roster. There will probably be an injury in the first week. Hopefully not, but it happens, and it usually happens to someone you were counting on.

    Some players don’t perform the way you expect. Others you barely thought about end up carrying more of the load than they were ever supposed to. You don’t really know until you play the games, and once you start, the plan starts changing whether you like it or not.

    That’s where patience comes in. You don’t want to overreact too early, but doing nothing isn’t the same as being patient.

    It’s the same in business.

    I know how to value a property. I know what should happen based on the market in front of it.

    The market doesn’t care.

    I’ve got a listing right now that’s priced where it needs to be. I’ve shared it with a number of agents who handle similar properties, and I haven’t gotten a single objection to the price, which if you’ve been around long enough, tells you something.

    Price is usually the first thing agents go after, even when it’s not the real problem.

    So I’m not chasing price.

    Part of it is just the nature of higher-end land. Fewer buyers. Every tract is a little different. It can take time to line up the right one.

    But if something isn’t happening, something is off. Maybe not the number. Could be exposure. Could be positioning. Could be that the right buyer hasn’t seen it yet.

    Most people default to cutting price because it feels like action. It usually isn’t.

    It’s also the one move that’s hardest to undo once you’ve made it.

    So we adjust, just not there yet. We’ll change the marketing, change the exposure, and see what that produces before touching the number.

    Plan A hasn’t worked so far.

    That tells you something.

    P.S. – Most landowners aren’t planning to sell today.

    But things change. Timing shifts, priorities change, or an opportunity shows up and you have to make a decision quicker than you expected.

    The ones who already understand their market tend to handle that better.

    That’s what the MBR Land Reality Check is for. It looks at nearby sales, current listings, and the details that actually move value, not just what people hope something is worth.

    Is it a bad idea to know where you stand?

    Get Yours Here

    P.P.S. – If you’re not looking for numbers right now but you like seeing how this stuff actually plays out, you can sign up below and get these posts when I send them. Or just check back when you feel like it.

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