Mike Browning

Tag: Land Ownership

  • We Don’t Decide With Our Brains.

    We Don’t Decide With Our Brains.

    We Decide With Our Guts and Hire Our Brains as Lawyers.

    There’s a genre of video that shows up online every election cycle.

    Someone reads a quote to a stranger on the street. Says a politician on the other side said it. The stranger nods along, agrees with every word, maybe adds their own commentary about how reasonable it sounds.

    Then the interviewer reveals who actually said it.

    The person on camera backpedals. Gets flustered. Sometimes gets mad.

    We watch that and think: what a rube. Didn’t even evaluate the idea on its own merits. Just heard a name and reacted.

    Here’s the part nobody likes hearing. That’s not a them problem. Everyone is prone to this sort of thing.

    We decide with emotion first. Then we go looking for the reasons. Most of the time we don’t even notice we did it in that order, because the reasons show up so fast it feels like they came first.

    Car salesmen have known this forever. Their whole job is getting you to want the car before you’ve priced it out and started the paperwork. Once you want it, you’ll find your own reasons the payment makes sense. Even though it’s more than you said you wanted to spend just a little earlier.

    It’s not just dealing with salesmen. It’s most of what moves us, all day, every day, if we’re not paying attention.

    I can tell you it’s smart to have a real handle on your finances. I can tell you that if you own land or commercial property, it makes sense to know roughly what it’s worth, what’s selling around it, what the county or the highway department is planning nearby. Not because you’re doing anything about it. Just because things change, sometimes fast, and it’s better to know than not know.

    You’ll agree with all of that. Nobody argues with it.

    And most people still won’t do anything about it.

    Not because it’s hard. Because of what happens in your chest the moment you think about picking up the phone.

    If an agent calls about your property, most people’s first thought isn’t “great, information.” It’s a mental preview of getting talked into something. Buzzwords. Pressure. A conversation that ends somewhere you didn’t want to go.

    Or it’s the family part. Land that’s been sitting in the name a long time carries more than a market value. Selling it, or even looking like you might, comes with a conversation you’re not ready to have with your brother or your kids.

    I know because that’s the same thing that runs through my head when it’s my property.

    None of that has to be true here.

    Looking isn’t selling. Nobody has to know you looked. You’re not committing to a conversation with your family, a listing agreement, or anything else. You’re just getting the numbers so you’re not guessing later, when guessing costs more.

    Give yourself permission to look. That’s smart to do, and you don’t have to go further.

    PS- Most landowners aren’t planning to sell today.

    But things change quickly. When they do, the people who already know where they stand tend to come out ahead of the ones who are finding out for the first time under pressure.

    That’s what the MBR Land Reality Check is for. Recent sales, what’s listed nearby, development pressure, the stuff that doesn’t show up from the road.

    Is it a bad idea to know where things stand?

    Get Yours Here

    PPS- If you’re not ready for a Reality Check but you liked this one, you can sign up below and get these posts in your inbox.

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  • The World As It Is

    The World As It Is

    Things work a lot better when you align yourself with reality, instead of expecting it to conform to you.

    Some people spend a lot of energy being offended by things that were never about them.

    Someone says something careless. Or acts a certain way in public, or online, or at work. And someone else sees it and decides it was aimed at them personally. Now there’s a problem to solve. A wrong to correct. A wound that needs acknowledging.

    A lot of times the other person wasn’t thinking about them at all.

    People are self-absorbed, although usually in ordinary, harmless ways. They’re worried about their own day, their own bills, their own kid’s homework. The comment that landed wrong, the look that seemed pointed, the rule that felt unfair. Most of it is just noise other people are making while they live their own lives. It only becomes about you if you decide it is.

    Obviously I’m not saying bad behavior doesn’t exist. People are rude and small and unfair plenty. As the saying goes, some people are just jerks.

    But there’s a difference between noticing things and letting those things ruin your day, or organizing your life around the idea that the world should have treated you a certain way and now owes you something for not doing it.

    That’s exhausting. And it doesn’t change anything. Whatever happened still happened. All that’s changed is you’ve spent the afternoon carrying it around.

    The people who do best are the ones who deal with the world as it actually behaves instead of how they wish it did. And move forward accordingly. That doesn’t mean you can’t be disappointed at times, but it happens to everyone.

    This is one of those concepts you see everywhere once you notice it for the first time.

    A seller looks at their property and decides what they want it to be worth. Based on what they put into it, what they need out of it, what the neighbor claimed his sold for at the mailbox. None of that is the market. The market doesn’t know what you need and doesn’t owe you a number.

    You can list at an unrealistic number you wish were true, but I don’t recommend it. Buyers will simply ignore you, politely or not, and the property sits.

    You can price it at what the market will actually pay, today, with the buyers who actually exist, and move forward. Or you can wait. And maybe later things will be more to your liking.

    Both are real choices. Waiting for the market to come around to your number may be the right call. Nobody knows the future, but in north Texas land has tended to rise over time. If you’re not in a hurry, or don’t need to sell, it might be the best choice.

    But the market isn’t being unfair to you for not acting like you wish it would. It isn’t being anything. It’s just being a market.

    PS-Most landowners aren’t trying to figure out a number today.

    But when the time comes, the ones who already understand what the market is actually doing make better decisions than the ones still arguing with it.

    That’s what the MBR Land Reality Check is for. It looks at nearby sales, current listings, development pressure, and the details affecting value that aren’t obvious from the road.

    Is it a bad idea to know where things stand?

    Get It Here

    PPS- If you’re not ready for a Reality Check but enjoy reading about land, markets, and negotiation, you can sign up below and get these posts in your inbox.

  • On the Way to Your Appointment at Hidden Oaks…

    On the Way to Your Appointment at Hidden Oaks…

    Or on the way out, assuming you didn’t get talked into anything

    If you’ve got a tour booked for Saturday, you already know roughly what’s coming. Clipboard. A site map with the clubhouse penciled in somewhere. Someone explaining where all the wonderful amenities will be someday, in a voice that makes “one day only” sound like a favor.

    Here’s what won’t come up on that tour.

    Just west of there sits 1.88 acres that isn’t part of any of it. Same road, same lake, same general price range as what they’re rolling out Saturday. None of what comes attached to it.

    No HOA. Which means no HOA dues showing up every year for the rest of the time you own it, whether you use the clubhouse or not. No architectural committee either, so nobody’s signing off on your house plans, your shed, or what color you paint the fence.

    You build what you want, when you want. Camp on it this summer if that’s the mood. Put up a tiny house later. Fannin County has a few rules, nothing heavy, and that’s a much shorter list than a developer’s binder of restrictions.

    There’s also no reason to time anything around a Saturday. This land was sitting there last week and it’ll be sitting there next week. Only question is when it sells. Frontage runs a little over 500 feet along County Road 2980, enough that it doesn’t feel hemmed in the way a lot of the smaller platted lots nearby do. Water’s already run along the frontage through Bois d’Arc MUD. You’re buying a meter, not waiting on infrastructure that hasn’t been built yet.

    What sits west of this tract is worth knowing too. Ground gets thin fast once you’re close enough to the lake to start running into flood-influenced areas. There’s only so much of it left to develop. However busy Hidden Oaks gets, this stretch isn’t built to follow.

    Forty-three lots, a clubhouse, and a binder of restrictions is one way to live near this lake. 1.88 acres and nobody’s permission is another. Both are real options. They are not the same option.

    $199,000. MLS #21283218.

    Call or Text 214.354.3583, or email Mike@BrowningRE.com. If you’re working with an agent, have them reach out.

  • Most Landowners Aren’t Stuck. They’re Just Not Looking

    Most Landowners Aren’t Stuck. They’re Just Not Looking

    Some people feel stuck but aren’t really. Others just have their heads in the sand.

    Some landowners are genuinely stuck.

    Most aren’t. They just haven’t looked at things in a while.

    Sometimes that’s because they don’t want to see what’s there. Other times life just moves on.

    They bought it with some kind of plan. Build later. Hold it long term. Maybe sell when the area catches up. Then the property slides into the background.

    A few years go by. Then a few more.

    At some point it stops being something they’re actively managing and turns into something they just own.

    That’s where things start to drift.

    Because the land didn’t freeze in place when they stopped paying attention to it. Everything around it kept moving. Development shifts. Prices move. Buyer demand shows up in pockets, then disappears. Infrastructure gets extended in one direction and skipped in another.

    Sometimes the property quietly gets better.

    Sometimes it doesn’t.

    If you’re not paying attention, you don’t know which one you have.

    So people settle into a simple explanation. “I’m just holding it.”

    That sounds like a decision, but most of the time it isn’t. It’s just inactivity dressed up as a plan.

    Holding can be the right move. Selling can be the right move. Reworking it, splitting it, or just waiting for a different window can all make sense depending on what’s actually happening around the property.

    But all of those require the same first step. You have to look at it as it sits today, not how it looked when you bought it.

    That’s the part people skip.

    Not because they can’t do it. Because once they do, they might have to make a decision they’ve been putting off.

    PS- Most landowners are not planning to sell today.

    But things change. Sometimes faster than expected. When they do, the people who already understand what they own tend to make better decisions than the ones starting from scratch.

    That’s what the MBR Land Reality Check is for.

    It looks at nearby sales, current listings, development pressure, and the details that actually move value, not just what it looks like from the road.

    Is it a bad idea to know where things stand?

    Get Yours Here

    PPS- If you’re not ready for that but like reading about land, markets, and how these decisions actually play out, you can sign up below and get these posts in your inbox.

    Register to Receive Posts Via Email!

    By submitting, I understand I will receive marketing emails and blog posts from Mike Browning Realty and/or associated companies. Unsubscribe at any time.