#114: Land Investing Tip’s & How to Scale your Investing Business

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Today’s guest, Brent Bowers, is an investor and coach with a focus on buying and selling vacant land. As an Army Officer with over 8 years of service, Brent was spending a great deal of time away from his family, and he knew he needed to make some changes to be more present with his wife and children. Brent began investing in real estate to support his family while having more time to spend with them. In a short period of time, Brent was able to expand his business, hire a team, and (most importantly) spend quality time with his family while still working hard and helping others. Brent now helps other investors learn the ins and outs of buying land. Welcome to the show, Brent!

In this episode, we’re discussing…

•        [2:51] How’s investing in land different from single family and multifamily

•        [5:58] Lease options and the advantages and how to find this option

•        [9:37] About the quitclaim deed and the risks it takes

•        [10:51] The criteria he has when he looks at land

•        [13:27] How he buys land? How he gets these lands? Cash, through investors, or by getting loans.

•        [17:34] The advantages of being first time land buyer and 3 tips to consider for buying land

•        [18:53] Don’t learn the hard way, get a mentor, someone that’s done it

•        [20:16] The advantages of VA loans

•        [25:36] Where do our listeners can get more tips and Brent knowledge to pass on

Resources from Brent

theLandSharks.com | Linkedin | Facebook

+ Read the transcript

Mike Stohler 0:01
What if you could be doing something smarter with your money that creates income. Now, if you're wanting to get ahead financially, and enjoy greater freedom of choice, if you want a comfortable retirement, and you know you'll have more choices, if you can do more with your money. Now, if you've wondered who else is creating ways to make their money work for them, and you want actionable ideas, with honest pros and cons, and no fluff. Welcome to the Richard geek podcast, where you here helping people find creative ways to build wealth and financial freedom. I'm Mike Stohler, and in this podcast, you'll hear from others who are already doing these things, and learn how you can, too.

Everybody, welcome back to another episode of the Richard geek. Today's guest, Brent Bowers. He's a investor and coach with a focus on buying and selling vacant land. More importantly, eight years of service as an army officer, thank you, sir, for your service. And as you know, all of us people that have served, we spent a great deal of time away from our family. When he got out, he wanted to make some changes in order to be more present with his wife and children. So he began investing in real estate. That's what we preach right, everybody. So this was a way for him to support his family while having more time to spend with them. And in a short period of time, Brent was able to expand his business, hire a team, and spend more quality time with his family. And now Brent helps others and other investors learn the ins and outs of buying land. So Brent, how you doing?

Brent Bowers 1:53
Hey, really good, Michael. Thanks for having me on the richer geek. I just got to put this one disclaimer though. I wasn't I was in the middle of care eight and a half years, but I did have on for about four of those years whilst and listed. So I just wanted everyone thought wasn't off for the entire time.

Mike Stohler 2:08
Well, you know what? You're one of the few that went both. did both. So you got more respect from the enlisted while you're an officer a bit?

Brent Bowers 2:17
Yeah, but less respect from the officer. Guy.

Mike Stohler 2:21
You know what? They always say, you know, it's like, you know how you can tell someone that went to the academy? No, they'll tell you.

Brent Bowers 2:29
Oh, that's so true for West Point. Yeah. Let's see make a show around. Let's Let's bust on some officers. Yeah.

Mike Stohler 2:39
All right, man. Well, thank you for your service. But

Brent Bowers 2:42
you too, I missed I missed that camaraderie is always messing with my fellow brothers, whether it be officers and listed. Sergeant Majors, you got to give them a hard time to

Mike Stohler 2:51
That's right example. Well, I was enlisted the whole way I went in for the GI Bill. That's why I went in. But anyway, let's talk about land. So a lot of people know about single family multifamily, you know, because that's all over TV, you know, the fix and flips. So how's investing in land differ?

Brent Bowers 3:16
You know, what, you asked me kind of what I was looking to do on the show, I think let's just get on HGTV. Like, that's my goal. I'm gonna put it out there to the world to God. But how is land different than multifamily than commercial? I've dabbled in so much of it. I think it's because it's all we're all entrepreneurs. We call it shiny object syndrome. But it's a reason why we're entrepreneurs because like, if we can make money, we're gonna, we're gonna be interested in it. But I guess why I love land so much. And the major difference is, I mean, there's really five reasons but it's super simple. It's, it's easy, and there's virtually no competition. And why is it easy because there's no foundations to fix. I bought a 19 unit apartment complex. We spent 140 grand on the foundation. And that's underground. That's like kitchens and bathrooms like what women like and what why people want to rent it. But the land there's nothing to ever if there's no roofs repairs, no sewage, like I had a rental house. We lost a tenant for three months whilst pumping sewage out and replaced the entire basement. And then why is there virtually no competition is because, you know, I was guilty of this as well. We drive buy land every single day, and we don't look twice at it because there's no way to make money on it, right? There's no There's no hotels. There's no apartment complex, no storage units. There's no way nothing to rent out and make money unless you get it at a crazy discount. And you either flip it to a builder or wholesale it to a builder or you buy it at such a massive discount and turn around and sell or finance it to somebody. And that's my whole game. I love the passive income. That gives me the time freedom Because I'm paid 115 times a month for my land deals every single day, almost 10 times a day sometimes. We we built up 115 notes doing it and we've done it. We've we financed it via flipping land and wholesaling land. So I guess that's the difference to answer your question in the very long way.

Mike Stohler 5:19
Well, yeah, and the best thing is no tenants. Yeah, no tenants, no drama, good

Brent Bowers 5:24
termites. No rodents, the rats.

Mike Stohler 5:26
Yeah, yeah, I know, I used to like people until I had tenants. I'm just kidding. People. Kind of. So yeah, let's talk about, you know, it's very appealing. When you do seller financing. That's the same thing with what we do a lot with, you know, lease Dolan's and things like that with a single families. Having that type of note is really good. Because if they don't pay you get back.

Brent Bowers 5:58
That's right. That's right. You know, I love that lease option. Because we, you know, there's such a huge pool of people that can only make payments, they're not walking around with 10s of 1000s of dollars, and what you're doing, you're serving lease options, you're serving business owners and commission people with the lease option, they lock in that price for a year and get their get their credit straight, get a down payment, and it bought. So I love lease options. It's very similar what I do with land.

Mike Stohler 6:26
How easy is or hard? Is it to get in the land? You know, it's and that's one part of the question, then the second part is, how do I find it? Yeah.

Brent Bowers 6:40
No, great question, actually. And if you don't mind, I'll explain exactly how I started 2016 just became an army officer. Second Lieutenant, I moved out to Colorado Springs, Colorado, and I had already wholesaled a few houses by knocking on doors with people that were notice of default, Liz pendants, but I didn't have time to do that anymore. With when I was, you know, now full time army officer on base about 12 hours a day. I also just had a brand new baby, wanted to see my wife, things like that. So I started mailing and I was mailing a tax delinquent list for houses and I wasn't getting too far with it because I had to go meet these homeowners. I had to go sit on these dirty old couches and sit in the stinky cat pee houses.

But I I just decided after hearing the guy on a podcast talking about land and how he's like flipping it overnight, and three axing his money and I was like, Oh my gosh, like a light bulb went off. I was already mailing a tax delinquent list only houses though. So I mailed what I thought was a tax delinquent list. It was actually the county held tax lien list. This was like inefficient land parcels that no one was buying the tax liens on. But I mailed 687 land owners, a postcard that said, hey, and this is an El Paso County, Colorado, Colorado Springs were four Carter's that to hit like a buyer lands. Call me if you're interested. I pay all cash close quick. Well, my phone melted like it ringing off the hook. And that first deal I did. The guy told me I didn't have to negotiate. It was a retired CPA. He said, Just take it for $285 It's yours. So I was like, Do you mind if I look at the land? He had told me it wasn't buildable. So I drove out and looked at it.

And I didn't know what it was worth. I called the real estate office right down the road. The realtor that answered the phone on the Saturday was very familiar with it. She understood why it wasn't buildable, and she made me an offer for five grand and ended up buying it from me four days later for $5,000 and had it under contract for 285. I call the seller on the way home I said can I meet you Tuesday and give you the check for 285 and you gave me the he gave me a quitclaim deed I don't do that anymore. I learned the hard way. But I brought that quitclaim deed the land title and had my $5,000 Check on Wednesday. And that's that's how I found the land. I didn't have the 285 I was nervous. That's why I had the buyer lined up before even paid for it. So it was really easy for me to get started. I had no money and no time and most people have at least time or money one or the other. But I had neither. So if I can do it. Most people can it's like the easiest barrier of entry. It's like the probably the easiest way to get started in real estate.

Mike Stohler 9:26
Now, you mentioned something about the quick claim and why you learned not to do it. explain to the listeners why you don't do that anymore.

Brent Bowers 9:37
Yeah, I buy on a warranty deed now. I want that seller and I use title companies to buy. I want that seller to warranty any liens and encumbrances? Any issues with that land a quitclaim deed. Michael, you sold me a piece of land. You gave me a quitclaim deed you quit claiming it forever. I can't come back to If 157,000 are IRS tax lien or, you know, whatever, like you were not warranting anything a warranty deed, you're warranting it from the beginning of time. If there's any issues with it, you are you are legally responsible. And then there's special warranty deed where you can get only that from the time you've owned it. So I don't want to that's not what the show is about. But yeah, don't buy things on quitclaim deed unless you're getting a crazy discount like I did for $285. But I did have a title company run an E No, like owners, encumbrance, just a quick title search, but I didn't buy title insurance? Because it's $285.

Mike Stohler 10:41
Yeah, yeah. It's kind of it's not a lot of risk there. No, no, you look at any type of land, you know, here's, you know, the farm land, there's, you know, you can you can buy some land and say, hey, you know, farmers, you can farm it, you know, is there anything you look for? Or do you just look for land, you know, is there have to be some type of driver next to it on like, why, you know, I want to buy this land, because I can see in the future that it might be something for houses to be, or do you just buy is there like criteria that you have, when you look at land,

Brent Bowers 11:23
I'm very broad on the criteria, if I can get it at a discount, there's usually a way to guarantee that you will make money, whether it be all those things you just mentioned, you're on the path of growth, where, you know, Hey, I heard Tesla's coming in, or Facebook's coming or Amazon, like we're on the path of growth, let's sit on and hold it for a year, or another one we just bought, we could build 38 townhomes on it, and the seller held back half of the loan $600,000 0% interest for one year, like stuff like that. But the stuff that really gets me excited that I just see so much potential, and I love this stuff on the outskirts of the city. And I'm telling you, like, god bless everyone that got sick with COVID. But it changed my business with land because people are pushing out of the city. And that stuff. I mean, I bought 117 parcels of land in the middle of nowhere in Arizona. And the stuff has tripled in value. Since I've purchased it. Just because people are trying to get out and just get away. They're not going to Disney World. They're not trying to fly, things like that. But my goal is to get it at such a massive discount and be able to turn around in seller financing to somebody that's that can afford a monthly payment. Because that gives me now passive income time freedom, a note where someone's gotta go to work every day to pay me for that land.

Mike Stohler 12:48
You still have the Arizona land? I do.

Brent Bowers 12:50
I do. Well, I don't I don't own all of it. I've sold almost 100 111 of among on a contract for deed.

Mike Stohler 12:59
Wow. Yeah. Because, you know, of course, my ears kind of perked up because, you know, we may be looking for some land to build a hotel or something here in Arizona. So

Brent Bowers 13:14
let's let's talk route

Mike Stohler 13:15

66. Baby, very

Brent Bowers 13:18
terrified. For us. It's like in the middle of nowhere, I don't know how good of a hotel but hey, I'll talk with you all day we can get back from these guys.

Mike Stohler 13:27
There you go. Now, you start buying land. You know, one of my worries is because there's no income stream, and you have a payment? Are you you're buying cash. So is it through investors? Or you just are you getting loans? You're getting hard money? How are you getting these lands? This land? And then are you worried about okay, now all of a sudden, I now have taxes? Are you trying to flip it or do the lease prior to you know, the payments coming up? Because that's kind of my worry is there's not an income stream?

Brent Bowers 14:06
Yeah, absolutely. And that's why I have no competition in this business. Now, because because most people don't see the end. It's there's two types of genius and I'm not calling myself a genius whatsoever. There's Einstein equals MC squared. And then there's this guy that's so simple, like this is so simple. It's pure genius, because there's not much to it. We're buying it at a discount and we have a buyer lined up already. That is gonna give us a down payment for the purchase price that we're making for this property. So for instance, that that second land deal I did I bought for $500 and I already had a buyer lined up on Craigslist that gave me 500 Down $500 Down and $400 a month now I have a note. So there is income coming in. And then we prorate the taxes so if the taxes are $1,200 a year we collect $100 a month and we can use that money or we got the money until the tax payments do And then we pay with the AMEX and get SkyMiles.

So it's all these cool things we can do. But out of all 115 notes that we currently have, and I haven't done all this by myself, I have a team that helps me with it. All the 115 notes, we have zero debt on all of it, we just paid off the debt on three of them, we did a subdivide where a hard money lender lent me the money. And we sold all three on contract for deed, and we had to get $40,000 down for each one of them to pay off the loan. So that's kind of how we do it. And I don't do a lot of subdividing, I'm more in the volume business, but there's no lending on any of it now, have I gotten lending on it before? Yes, I'll borrow for instance, I'm buying a piece of land that's worth $30,000 in the in the on the outskirts, or maybe in the mountains, I borrow $10,000, to buy it, because that's what I'm paying for it, I'm getting it for 3033 cents on the dollar, the land is worth 30,000. And let's just say mother in law, loans me money at 6%. So I am now paying my mom, my mother loss on $10,000, an interest rate of 6%.

And now I find a buyer, that's gonna give me like three, four, or five and preferably $10,000 down, but it doesn't always work that way, I'll just sell it as fast as possible, because what you just said, I don't want negative cash flow, I want cash flow coming in. So I get a down payment of $3,000, I get a payment that's higher from a buyer than what's owed to my mother in law, and my buyer is paying me 9% interest on 30,000. So it's really just an arbitrage and I just continue to continuously do it. And I get my mother in law paid off as fast as possible. That way it's free and clear money, because and I try and go as long as possible on these terms. There's a reason why the banks do 30 year mortgages, they know people move every five to seven years. So it's pretty much interest only for the first five years. So I can triple what I'm gonna make on a piece of land by offering a mortgage. And it's gonna get me paid longer, because that's one of the big things that people ask me Well, geez, I love rentals, because they're, they're never gonna get paid off. They're gonna rent for me forever. Well, a 30 year mortgage is quite a long time to

Mike Stohler 17:17
Yeah, it is. Alright, if you're a first time land buyer, give me three tips for buying land that maybe me and the listeners don't really consider?

Brent Bowers 17:34
Yeah, absolutely. First tip is I'm and I just talked about it like running a proper title search and getting title insurance, you know, if the land like I have a rule of thumb, if it's over five grand, I'm getting a title insurance policy. If it's literally five grand or more, I'm getting a title insurance policy, you know, running a title search and seeing what's going on making sure that the chain of title is correct, because, you know, land like there's a book written about, well, I like land selling three or four times in a day in California. Imagine how messed up that chain of title is for that land. If Frank and Mary Smith, don't deed it over to Brent Bowers correctly, or maybe Mary Smith dies and it doesn't go through probate. So use a good title company to transfer the land. Number two, talk the planning and zoning see what's allowed to be built there, you know, what are the restrictions? What are the setbacks? Like, you know, is there a road going in? Do you have? Do you have legal ingress and egress aka access just getting in and out of the land? And you know, are can you put a septic system on it? Or do you need to be connected to the sewer system? So that's more than three tips, but you need to know all these little things. And the sad thing is, is I learned that all the hard way? I learned it by doing deals. Oh,

Mike Stohler 18:52
yeah. Well, you know, that's, that's the thing with, I always tell the listeners are trying to get into anything is get a mentor, get someone that's done it, you know, don't do it on your own. Because there's, there's the two of us that people can learn from our mistakes, you know, by reaching out to us so that they don't do it. Because we, we've all made mistakes, you know, we've all been, you know, and we've learned from it, but we've also had our mentors, we've we've developed our team. And so please, people, you know, and I've harped on this before do not do it alone.

You know, you're not that good. You know, you may strike you know, it's like playing the craps. You know, you might get lucky once or twice, but you're going to fail. And you might as well spend the money to learn from the experts and people that have gone before you so you don't have to screw up like we did. Now, you and I are both Veterans. And I see a note in here that I'm particularly interested in. How can veterans in particular get started in investing in why they might want to explore what option? What's what's out there for veterans.

Brent Bowers 20:16
You know what, there's so many options out there for veterans. I mean, I bought, I mean, I've now purchased one property, I've purchased five houses now with my VA loan, and you can always refinance, there's no cap in Florida now, for a VA loan purchase. As long as you're moving, I believe it's 60 miles apart, like a veteran's I mean, anybody listening to this, if you were a veteran, or are a veteran, you know, I learned a quick when I was in Germany, for I had a house in Germany for three years, I wish I would have got to stay there for three years, I was in Afghanistan multiple times in Spain all over the place. But I paid that German landlord over 40 $42,000 in US dollars, in rent that I will never get back in the United States government gave me that rent.

And I mean, it's not like I could have went and bought a house on the European market. Or maybe I could have, I don't know, but $41,000 that the government just gave to this German landlord, if you're in the United States, you have the ability be a good steward of that money, we've all heard the story of the talents, you know, the Master master gave one of one of the the stewards the talents, and he went and buried it. Well, Master wasn't too happy, because he brought it back. And then he gave another one, one of the servants these talents, and he brought it 10x, the master was very happy. And then the other the third servant brought it and he only doubled the money. But the master was still happy. But when he was upset, was the guy that went and buried it and did nothing with his talents. So be good stewards of so that's the first thing I would say to veterans buy a house? Oh, well, I'm going to be PCs in three years. So there's property managers? Well, what if the rent doesn't cover the mortgage, so what you're gonna, you're gonna spend an extra 100 or $200 a month on an investment that one day is going to pay off in 30 years, and it's also going to appreciate, and then you can also use depreciation to write it off on your taxes. Like, there's so many good things, it's a forced savings account, but it's better than a savings account, because you get to a higher yield than a savings account even higher than 4%. And I'm no financial wizard, but I virtually still don't pay taxes. I didn't pay taxes when I was in military with my rental property. So that's the first recommendation.

Mike Stohler 22:42
Yeah, yeah. And, you know, that's, that's the biggest thing is, is, you know, why everyone should diversify into some type of real estate, you know, whether it's, whether it's land or commercial, or homes multifamily is that depreciation is very, very, very, very nice. And, you know, the way that we can make a lot of money and depreciate things, and it goes, passes through to your personal income. And it allows you to save on that, that Uncle Sam bill at the end of the year, it's just wonderful. And, you know, a lot of veterans think that, well, you know, the VA loan can only be on your main house. You know, that's kind of the misnomer, the myth out there. It's like, well, you know, I have VA on my personal house, and I can't do it anywhere else. And so I recommend everyone kind of looking at the new laws and laws out there regarding VA loans.

Brent Bowers 23:45
VA loan and I rented the house out, it's now rented, I think you only have to stay there one year. But if the government moves you, that's your caveat. Like that's, you show those orders, they're not going to take the house from you like the VA, as long as you're paying the mortgage. They don't give a darn,

Mike Stohler 24:01
that's right. You know, they're Yeah, the VA is into doing other things and not being a landlord. They don't care, you know, this kind of the same way that you know, with the banks and people think, you know, every time they buy rental houses or lands, it's like, Why can't put it in LLC, I have a mortgage on it. It's like, yeah, you know, I'm not your CPA or attorney but put it in an LLC people.

Brent Bowers 24:28
If the attorney tells you, no, you can't do that and talk to another attorney. Yeah, get another. I mean, daddy, we get asked until we get the right answer we want. That's right.

Mike Stohler 24:36
Well, Brent, how can people find you you know, you have a lot of knowledge. You have a lot of knowledge to pass on. And I'd love it for the listeners be able to get a hold of you. So you can teach them and be a mentor to them. How can they find you?

Brent Bowers 24:56
Yeah, thanks so much for asking. I actually just, well, I say just about a month to go watch a YouTube channel, if anybody goes on YouTube and searches Brent Bowers, you're going to find a load of stuff like talking about military housing, the military. You know, this is what allowed me to get out of the military, the land business. It allowed because once I replace my income, I mean, ultimately, all you have to do is replace your expenses and now you're financially free. So yeah, search YouTube, Brent Bowers, I'm also a wholesaling Inc coach. I'm their their official land coach, and I'm really proud of that. So you can find me on wholesaling, Inc as well, their podcast. There's there's a couple places

Mike Stohler 25:36
perfect in LinkedIn on LinkedIn yet.

Brent Bowers 25:39
I am Brent Bowers on LinkedIn or maybe it's Brent L. Excuse me, l. Bowers, I've been talking to you much today.

Mike Stohler 25:46
All right. Well, Brent, thank you so much for coming on the Richard geek. We appreciate you having the time to be with us and share everything you know about land. Have a nice day. Thanks for tuning in to the richer geek podcast, where we're helping others find creative ways to build wealth, and financial freedom. For today's show notes, including all the links and resources from our show, and more information about our guests, visit us at www.therichergeek.com/podcast. And don't forget to jump over to Apple podcasts, Google Play Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts and hit the subscribe button. Share with others who could benefit from listening and leave a rating and review to get the podcast in front of your eyes. I appreciate you and thanks for listening.

The information, statements, comments, views, and opinions (collectively, “Information”) provided in this podcast are not intended to be and should not be construed as financial, economic, legal, accounting, tax or other advice.  For our full disclosure, click here.

ABOUT BRENT BOWERS

As an Army Officer with over 8 years of service, Brent Bowers was spending agreat deal of time away from his family, and he knew he needed to make somechanges in order to be more present with his wife and children. His interest inreal estate began in 2007 when he purchased his first home, so Brent beganexploring real estate investing as a way to support his family while being able toenjoy more time with them as well. In a short amount of time, Brent was ableto expand his business, hire a team, and (most importantly) spend quality timewith his family while still working hard and helping others.

While Brent invests in many different types of real estate, his favorite investment strategy deals with buying and selling vacant land, and he enjoys sharing his expertise in this area with his coaching clients. Brent chooses to live his life based on Bob Burg’s quote, “Your influence is determined by how abundantly you place other people’s interests first.” He is passionate about helping other people find success in real estate investing, particularly in land investments.