Tag: North Texas real estate

  • The Best Time to Look Is When You Don’t Have To

    The Best Time to Look Is When You Don’t Have To

    You’ve probably heard it said that the best time to find a job is when you don’t need one.

    Most people agree with that when they hear it. It makes sense. You don’t wait until something goes wrong. You keep your eyes open, pay attention to what’s out there, and stay aware of opportunities.

    Not because you’re planning to leave tomorrow, but because things change. If you’re paying attention, more likely for the better.

    The same idea gets repeated in different ways. Your real job isn’t just what you get paid to do. It’s to keep an eye on what might be next.

    And most people don’t actually do it.

    Not because they disagree with it, but because it makes them uncomfortable. They don’t want to have conversations that might go somewhere. They don’t want to deal with interviews. They don’t want their current employer to find out. They don’t want something to start that they don’t feel in control of.

    So they leave it alone.

    Until one day something changes. The company gets sold, things slow down, priorities shift, or they’re just no longer needed.

    And now they’re starting from zero.

    The time they thought they had turns out to be gone.

    Real estate works the same way, especially with land.

    The day you might need or want to sell is probably somewhere out in the future, if it ever comes at all. So it’s easy to assume there’s no reason to think about it now.

    But things change.

    Markets move. Situations shift. Priorities evolve.

    And when that happens, it’s a lot easier to make a good decision if you already understand what you have and how it fits into the bigger picture.

    The problem is, most people don’t want to look.

    Not because they think it’s a bad idea, but because of what they expect will come with it.

    They’ve dealt with real estate people before. They assume that once they start the conversation, it turns into pressure. Like they should have sold yesterday. Like they’re getting pulled into something they didn’t intend to start.

    So they avoid it.

    That’s the part that doesn’t need to be true.

    You don’t have to sell. You don’t have to list. You don’t have to make a decision about anything.

    But you are allowed to take a look and understand what you have.

    And it’s a lot easier to do that when you don’t need the answer right away than when you needed it yesterday.



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  • When Someone Keeps Coming Back

    When Someone Keeps Coming Back

    I got a testimonial recently from one of my longest-running clients. Probably the most consistent relationship I’ve had.

    Jack L. is the Executive Vice President of Acquisitions and Development for a national, publicly traded homebuilder. We’ve worked together on land and lot deals for over 20 years.

    Here’s what he said:

    “I’ve worked with Mike for over 20 years on land and lot deals. He’s a stand-up, trustworthy guy who is very knowledgeable about his market. He has strong relationships with landowners and a deep network in land development.

    He’s always willing to help with anything we need during due diligence, and he does a great job working with sellers, building relationships, and helping them understand what to expect throughout the process.”
    — Jack L.

    I went back and actually added it up after he mentioned the 20 years.

    A couple dozen deals.
    Over $50 million in total transaction volume.

    We haven’t done anything together in the last couple of years. The market shifted, and they opened a regional office in Dallas, so they handle more in-house now. We still stay in touch, but they don’t need outside brokers the same way they used to.

    Groups like that aren’t tied to any one broker. They see a lot of deals, and they’re more than capable of finding opportunities on their own.

    The fact that we continued to work together over that period of time is what matters.

    What stood out to me in that testimonial wasn’t the volume or even the length of the relationship.

    It was this part.

    Helping sellers understand what to expect.

    That’s the part most people underestimate.

    When a developer is the buyer, they can usually pay the most. They’re the ones who can turn the dirt into something else. But those deals come with a lot behind them.

    Underwriting.
    Market testing.
    Internal approvals.
    City approvals.

    The city alone can stretch things out. And it tends to get slower, not faster.

    What looks simple from the outside usually isn’t.

    Someone who doesn’t do this every day might assume a deal like that should close in a couple of weeks. Maybe 30 days.

    In reality, you’re often 45 days in just getting a survey and environmental work done. After that, you’re waiting on approvals, and those are not on your timeline. Four to six months is pretty normal if everything goes smoothly. Longer if it doesn’t.

    From the seller’s side, that can feel off.

    You know your property. You’re ready to sell it. Then you’re dealing with a process that feels slow and overly complicated, and it’s easy to start wondering what the buyer is really doing.

    Most of the time, they’re not being difficult.

    They’re trying to make sure the deal actually works before they commit to it.

    If that part isn’t explained up front, it can feel like the whole thing is getting dragged out for no reason.

    That’s where a lot of deals start to go sideways.

    And most of the time, it has nothing to do with price.

    It comes down to expectations.


    PS – Knowing what to expect is step one in making a smart decision.

    You may not be thinking about selling your land today, and you don’t have to make any decisions until you’re ready.

    Is it a bad idea to give yourself permission to just take a look?

    That’s where the MBR Land Reality Check comes in.

    It’s an in-depth look at recent nearby sales, market trends, development activity, and the types of buyers who might be interested in your property right now.

    Once you have it, you still don’t have to make any decisions about selling. But you’ll have what you need if things change.

    Allow yourself to take a look.


    PPS – If you’re not ready for the Reality Check but like this kind of thinking, you can sign up below to get these in your inbox.

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  • The Wisest Man Who Ever Lived

    The Wisest Man Who Ever Lived

    Solomon is usually treated like a success story.

    The wisest man who ever lived. Builder of the temple. King at the height of Israel’s power. Probably the richest man who ever lived.

    All of that is true.

    But if you read it straight through, it doesn’t land that way. He may be the most tragic figure in the Bible, although he’s got a lot of competition.

    God gave him what he asked for, wisdom, and then added everything he didn’t ask for. Wealth, power, reach. And He didn’t leave Solomon guessing. He appeared to him and told him directly what to do and what not to do.

    The instructions weren’t complicated. Stay loyal. Don’t go after other gods. Don’t marry foreign wives who would pull him that direction.

    Not all at once. It builds. More alliances. More marriages. More tolerance for things he would have rejected earlier. At some point it isn’t drift anymore, it’s direction.

    Seven hundred foreign wives and three hundred concubines. That’s not fudging what God says on some technicality. It’s about as blatant as you can get.

    And it didn’t stay private. He followed their gods, built places of worship for them, and made it normal.

    The wisest man who ever lived saw God, heard Him, knew better, and still walked straight into it.

    That part tends to get glossed over.

    Because it gets in the way of something people want to believe. That if things lined up for them, they would do better. More clarity, more money, more control, and they would handle it correctly.

    Don’t buy it.

    We’ve all seen it when we’re looking at someone else. Give them a little more room, a little more success, a little less pressure, and the lines start moving. What used to be off limits becomes negotiable. Then it becomes normal.

    So when someone says they would be different if they just had the right setup, don’t buy it. Things lined up for him as much as they ever will for anyone.

    Didn’t matter.

    The question isn’t whether you’ll hold the line perfectly. That part is already answered.

    Provision wasn’t made because we might succeed. It was made because we won’t.

    Through Jesus Christ.

    If you’re waiting until you feel more capable or more disciplined, you’re waiting on something that doesn’t show up.

    It’s never too late.


    P.S.
    If you’d like to read through the Bible this year, you can join us at His Word Together.
    No commentary.
    No telling you what to think.
    Nothing to buy.
    Nothing fancy.
    Just steady time in the Word.

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  • Unless You Want Something Truly Unique, This Isn’t For You

    Unless You Want Something Truly Unique, This Isn’t For You

    Most people looking at rural land think they’re buying distance.

    They’re not. At least not really. They’re buying time.

    Time before things change around them, before neighbors show up, before what felt quiet starts feeling crowded. Most people overestimate how long that lasts.

    I just put this one back in MLS. About 39.66 acres on Rochelle Cannon Rd outside Whitewright, with over 1,300 feet of frontage. Convenient to US 75 and the Sherman TI plant. Asking $30K per acre for the whole thing. It can be divided if needed.

    On paper, it sounds like a lot of other tracts.

    It isn’t. This one fights you a little.

    There are real creek beds running through it. Not decorative. They shape where you can go and where you can’t. There are mature oaks, uneven ground, and parts you’ll leave alone because it makes more sense to.

    Most buyers see that as a problem. It is, if your goal is efficiency.

    Flat land is easy. You can do whatever you want with it, and so can the next guy, and the one after that. That’s how you end up with something that felt rural for about five minutes.

    And once that happens, there’s no real way to undo it.

    This one doesn’t work that way.

    You don’t get a blank canvas. It pushes back, and you have to think about placement. Spend money in the right spots, leave other areas alone. That friction is what protects it long-term.

    You end up with separation that isn’t dependent on what your neighbors do next. That’s the part most people miss. They think separation comes from distance, but it usually comes from constraints.

    You’re still close enough to Sherman, US 75, and real life when you need it. But when you’re on the property, it doesn’t feel like you’re close to anything.

    That combination is harder to find than people think.

    There are up to three water meters available and strong frontage.

    This is not the right property for someone who wants simple, cheap, or predictable.

    If the goal is to buy something that stays different over time, this is the kind of land that actually does it.

    Most won’t want it.

    That’s part of the point.

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  • Why I Don’t Ask

    Why I Don’t Ask

    If you’ve ever requested a Land Reality Check from me, you may have noticed that I don’t ask why you’re requesting it.

    Most people in real estate start there. They want to know if you’re looking to sell, how soon, and what your motivation is. That makes sense from their perspective, because those answers usually shape how they handle the conversation.

    The reason I don’t ask is because I don’t want that to influence the analysis.

    People come to me in all kinds of situations. Some are thinking about selling in the near term. Some would sell at the right number but aren’t in any hurry. Others are just curious and want to understand what they have. All of those are completely valid, but none of them should change how the property is evaluated.

    So when I put together a Reality Check, I try to approach it the same way every time.

    I assume you’re what I’d call a sensible seller. Someone who might want to sell in the near term, but isn’t under pressure. Not a forced sale, but also not someone holding out indefinitely waiting for a perfect scenario.

    That middle ground is where most real transactions actually happen.

    You’re not trying to squeeze every last dollar out of it, but you’re also not looking to give it away. You’re trying to make a decision that makes sense, both financially and practically.

    That’s the lens I use when I look at comparable sales, how buyers are behaving, and what your property would likely look like in the current market.

    Once you see it laid out that way, you can decide how it applies to your situation. You might be more motivated than that. You might be less. You might not be planning to do anything at all.

    That part can come later.

    The first step is just understanding what you have and how it would likely be received, without that being shaped by what you think you might want to do.

    That’s why I don’t ask.



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  • All They Did Was Ask

    All They Did Was Ask

    Sometimes people assume there has to be a big reason to reach out.

    That you have to be ready to sell, or at least thinking about it in a serious way.

    Most of the time, that’s not really the case.

    I sent out a Land Reality Check recently to someone who owns property on Bois d’Arc Reservoir. There wasn’t any urgency, no timeline, and no stated plan to sell. As far as I can tell, it was just curiosity. I don’t even think it had been run by the other partners before requesting it.

    Just wanted to understand what to expect.

    After I sent it over, I got this response:

    That’s great to hear, of course, but it’s not really the point.

    What matters is what happened before all that.

    Just raising a hand and asking the question. Not to sell, and not to list, just to take a look.

    People check what their stocks are worth all the time, probably more often than they need to. But with real estate, they tend to avoid looking at it, even though it’s often a much bigger piece of the picture.

    Part of that is because they assume that once they start looking into it, they’re starting a process. That it leads to conversations, meetings, and decisions they may not be ready to make.

    So they leave it alone.

    Not because doing nothing is clearly the best move, but because they don’t want to deal with what might come with it.

    You don’t have to make a decision. You don’t have to move forward with anything. And you don’t have to keep talking beyond whatever you’re comfortable with.

    But you can take a step back and understand what you have and how it might fit with the rest of what you’re doing.

    Sometimes, after looking at it, nothing really changes. That’s probably the case more often than not. But sometimes it does, and when it does, you’re making a decision on purpose instead of avoiding one.

    That’s the difference.

    All they did was ask.



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  • It’s a bad idea to try to fix yourself.

    It’s a bad idea to try to fix yourself.

    The end of the Book of Judges is a long, ugly chain of decisions that all trace back to one moment.

    Israel made a vow not to give their daughters in marriage to the tribe of Benjamin. At the time it probably felt justified. Benjamin had done something so evil that the other tribes went to war over it.

    Then the war ended, and the consequences of that vow became clear. Benjamin wouldn’t recover. An entire tribe of Israel would disappear, not because God commanded it, but because of something they said.

    They saw the problem, but they wouldn’t deal with it directly. They could have admitted the vow was wrong and broken it. That would have cost them, mostly in pride, but it would have been clean.

    Instead, they started working around it.

    There was a town that hadn’t joined the war, so they attacked it, killed the inhabitants, and kept about four hundred young women alive to give to Benjamin. That solved part of the problem, if you ignore what they had just done to get there.

    It still wasn’t enough, so they came up with something else. There was a festival at Shiloh, and they told the men of Benjamin to hide nearby and take the women when they came out to dance. That way, technically, Israel wasn’t “giving” their daughters.

    They stacked one decision on top of another, each one designed to protect the original vow, and each one making things worse.

    Most people don’t go that far, but the pattern isn’t hard to recognize.

    We don’t like admitting we were wrong, so we adjust instead. We explain it, justify it, and look for ways to clean it up without ever backing up and saying it shouldn’t have happened in the first place.

    That trade almost always goes the same way. A smaller, honest wrong gets replaced by something bigger that’s easier to defend.

    The instruction from Jesus is simple. Confess.
    Not manage it. Not reframe it. Not work around it.

    Confess, and He will forgive you.
    Even the mess you made trying to fix it.

    The sooner you set aside your pride and say it plainly, the less you usually have to clean up later.

    Or you can keep digging.


    P.S.-If you’d like to read through the Bible this year, you can join us at His Word Together.

    No commentary.
    No telling you what to think.
    Nothing to buy.
    Nothing fancy.

    Just steady time in the Word.

  • You Don’t Have To Do Anything

    You Don’t Have To Do Anything

    One of the differences between highly successful people and everyone else is simple.

    They don’t talk themselves out of things before actually looking at them.

    They don’t act on every idea, but they give themselves permission to take a look before deciding it’s not for them.

    Most of the time, nothing changes. But every once in a while, they find something that creates a meaningful shift.

    If you look back over your own life, you can probably point to a handful of decisions that did most of the work getting you where you are.

    Like who you married. Or a job you took (or decided not to take). Something negative you stopped doing.

    It’s not dozens. It’s a few.

    The difference is, some people give themselves more chances to find those moments.

    If you own lots or land, you’re probably not actively trying to sell it.

    You may not even be thinking about it. Maybe you’ve been told the best move is to hold.

    Or maybe there’s an emotional attachment.

    But when you allow yourself to step back and look at the bigger picture, you might see it differently.

    Or you might not. And that’s fine. The point isn’t to force a decision.

    It’s to give yourself permission to look.

    Are you better off selling and paying down debt?

    Would selling allow you to move into something more useful or better located?

    Or does it make the most sense to leave things exactly as they are?

    In a lot of cases, doing nothing is still the right move. Probably most of the time.

    But you don’t really know until you look.

    And that’s where most people stop.

    Because of what comes next.

    Looking into it usually means talking to someone. And talking to someone usually means starting a process.

    Meetings. Conversations. Follow-ups.

    Dealing with someone who seems to be pushing toward a sale, whether it fits or not.

    Feels a lot like going to a car lot.

    Except this is something you don’t actually have to do.

    So you leave it alone. Not because doing nothing is clearly the best move.

    But because looking into it feels like committing to something.

    That’s the part that doesn’t need to be true.

    You don’t have to sell.

    You don’t have to decide.

    You don’t have to move forward with anything.

    But you are allowed to look.

    You’re allowed to understand what you have.

    What it might be worth. What your options actually are, without it turning into a process you didn’t intend to start.

    Sometimes, after looking at it, the answer is still to do nothing. Sometimes it isn’t.

    But either way, it’s a decision you made on purpose.

    Not something you avoided because you didn’t want to deal with what might come next.


    PS – Another reason people put something like this off is simple. It takes time. You have to gather information, sort through it, and figure out what actually matters. And if you don’t deal with it regularly, you may not even know what to look for.

    But what if you could have that done for you without getting pulled into a sales process on the back end?

    That’s what the MBR Land Reality Check is for. It looks at nearby sales, current listings, development pressure, and the details that affect value but don’t show up in a quick search.

    This is typically something I’d charge for, but I’m offering it at no cost for now.

    If you’ve ever wondered what your property actually looks like in today’s market, this is a straightforward way to find out.


    PPS – If you’re not ready for that but like thinking through land, markets, and negotiation, you can sign up below and get these posts in your inbox.


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  • Sometimes It Just Makes Sense to Sell

    Sometimes It Just Makes Sense to Sell

    Yesterday we completed a transaction where a long-time client of mine sold a residential lot at 702 Sperry in Red Oak to a spec builder. Thanks to Dawn Cano of United Real Estate, who represented the buyer.

    This was a pretty straightforward deal. A ready-to-build residential lot priced so someone can build a house that fits the neighborhood and still make a fair profit. Not a large transaction, but they all count. And you can’t ignore what might happen later. As you continue to do business, your circle grows, which creates opportunities down the line.

    But the most important part here is the seller’s thinking.

    I often say that the right way to approach these decisions is to look at how a property fits into your overall financial picture. Everyone wants to sell for the highest amount possible, and historically that has been in the future. But sometimes it just makes sense to sell now.

    Sounds self-serving, I know. But it’s true.

    This lot was directly behind a couple of retail centers my client used to own. He bought it at a good price, but the real motivation was control. He wanted to make sure nothing went in there that negatively affected his centers.

    Since then, he sold the strip centers along with other properties in the area. This lot became the only thing he owned on the south side of the DFW Metroplex.

    So the original reason for owning it was gone.

    At that point, he was just holding it and paying taxes.

    So he stepped back and looked at it.

    Does this still fit what I’m doing?

    The answer was no.

    So he decided the smart move was to sell it and deploy the proceeds somewhere else. Somewhere that aligned with his current strategy.

    We put it on the market and got it done. We didn’t give it away, but we also didn’t nickel-and-dime the buyer. When a reasonable offer came in, we accepted it and moved forward without worrying about whether it might be worth slightly more next year.

    He’ll put the money somewhere else, and hopefully that’s worth more next year.

    That’s what I mean when I say look at the big picture.

    Sometimes it makes sense to sell when you didn’t expect it.

    Sometimes it doesn’t.

    But you don’t know unless you allow yourself to look.

    You’re not tied to any particular decision or timeline. But you should give yourself the chance to make the right move, whatever that ends up being.


    PS – If you own lots or land, you’re probably not thinking about selling today. If you don’t live on the property, there’s usually no pressure.

    That’s where the MBR Land Reality Check comes in.

    It’s an in-depth look at recent nearby sales, market trends, development activity, and the types of buyers who might be interested in your property right now.

    Once you have it, you still don’t have to make any decisions about selling. But you’ll have what you need if things change.


    PPS – If you’re not ready for the Reality Check but like this kind of thinking, you can sign up below to get these in your inbox.

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  • When Doing Nothing Is The Best Option

    When Doing Nothing Is The Best Option

    I’ve written on here a lot about understanding what business you’re really in.

    As a real estate broker, the obvious answer is real estate. And that’s true in a literal sense. If you hire me, you’re getting advice and brokerage services. That’s my deliverable.

    But that’s not really the business.

    I’m really in the marketing business.

    Part of that is the visible side. Things like positioning properties, getting them in front of the right people, dealing with buyers, getting something from sitting to sold. That’s the part everyone sees.

    The other part is quieter.

    If you don’t know I exist, or don’t have a reason to pay attention when I show up, none of the rest of it matters.

    So a lot of what I do has nothing to do with a specific property. It’s making sure that when someone does have a decision to make, I’m already in the conversation.

    That’s where most people get this wrong. They think the job starts when someone decides to sell.

    It doesn’t.

    By the time you’re ready to act, most of the important decisions are already made—who you trust, who you listen to, what you think the market looks like. That gets set long before a listing agreement shows up.

    I’ve spent a lot of time studying how that works.

    One of the concepts that stuck with me is Dan Kennedy’s idea of a Unique Selling Proposition.

    To get that right, you have to answer a simple question:

    Most people skip that last part.

    But unlike something like a haircut or a restaurant, where doing nothing isn’t really an option, here it often is. Most of the time, it’s the best option for most people. You can afford to wait and see.

    Which means the bar is higher.

    It’s not enough to say I can sell your property. Plenty of people can do that. The real question is whether selling is the right move in the first place.

    Lots of brokers skip that step. When the only outcome is a transaction, that’s the recommendation you’re going to hear.

    List it. Price it. Move it.

    Sometimes that’s correct. Sometimes it isn’t. And once you’re moving, it’s a lot harder to slow down and rethink it.

    So I’ve tried to structure things a little differently.

    Yes, I get paid when something sells. But I’m not set up in a way where every conversation has to end there.

    A lot of the time, the right move is just understanding what you have, what’s happening around it, and what your options actually look like—then deciding.

    That tends to produce fewer deals. It also tends to produce better ones, with less regret.

    Most landowners don’t need someone to sell their property.

    They need someone who can look at it without needing that outcome.


    PS- Most landowners are not planning to sell today.

    But things change. Timing, markets, personal situations. When that happens, the people who already understand where they stand tend to make better decisions.

    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?


    PPS- If you’re not ready for that but like thinking through land, markets, and negotiation, you can sign up below and get these posts in your inbox.

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