115: One of the big values that members of the Land Investing Masterclass get access to is the free "Office Hours" group coaching calls we do each month.(Show Notes: REtipster.com/115)Not long ago, someone suggested that I take one of these members-only calls and publish it as a podcast episode.I thought it was a great idea, so I put together a sampler of some of the various questions and answers from these sessions over the past few months.If you're a land investor and/or if you've ever wondered what these calls are like, this Q&A mash-up should give you a pretty good idea of what it's all about. Enjoy!

114: Earlier this year, I stumbled across another YouTuber who was putting out some fascinating videos about a topic that I've been interested in for a long time.(Show Notes: REtipster.com/114)The channel is called Robuilt and it's run by a guy named Rob. Rob runs an Airbnb business that allows visitors to stay in tiny houses and glamping sites that provide a unique experience.This is a topic many land investors are interested in because it presents an opportunity to generate recurring income from their vacant lands.If you've done more than a dozen land transactions, you've probably seen your share of vacant lots that are beautiful properties in great locations. Perhaps YOU would even enjoy spending time there, but as a land flipper, your goal is to simply flip the property, make a profit, and move on to the next one.But what if you didn't flip land? What if you kept some of these properties as a long-term investment and instead, invested a small amount of money in a tiny house, RV, or glamping unit, and turned it into a source of income?What are the different ways this can be done? What does it take to manage this kind of business? How much time, effort, and energy are required to make this happen?Today, we're going to talk with Rob about how his business works and maybe, you'll learn enough to decide whether this is something you want to pursue yourself.

113: Back in the summer of 2018, I started working with Jaren Barnes.He was the first person I had ever hired as a full-time employee for REtipster.(Show Notes: REtipster.com/113)He was a special find for someone like me because he had a lot of specialized experience, not only in the world of content creation but also as a land investor and house wholesaler. He had all kinds of great insights to share, not based on theory, but based on his first-hand experience.Over the past three years, he has made some incredible contributions to the content library at REtipster and he brought a new voice and personality to the podcast and YouTube channel.As of October 1, Jaren is leaving REtipster to pursue his own projects. Jaren is still a great friend of the REtipster Community and we'll still hear from Jaren from time to time on the podcast, but we won't be seeing much from him on the blog or YouTube channel anymore.Let's talk about what's next for Jaren and why he's moving in a different direction. 

Today I'm talking with Mike Marshall about land entitlements.(Show Notes: REtipster.com/112)Believe it or not, I didn’t know hardly anything about the concept of getting land entitlements until about a year ago because, for most of my land investing career, I had never done any improvements or development with any of the vacant lots I’d flipped. I just bought them for really cheap, did nothing to them, and then resold them for a higher price.That’s all good and fine, and there are a lot of advantages of taking that approach, but what if you DO want to develop your land, or even if you don’t develop it yourself, but you want to obtain all the necessary approvals from the local government so that the next guy can start developing it? This is called the entitlement process. Land entitlement is the legal process where a real estate developer or landowner obtains approval from the local governing body for their development plans.When a property receives its entitlements, it brings certainty to the equation, so you know a property can be used for a specific purpose and developed a certain way (so you don’t have to buy a property without knowing if you’ll be able to use it for your intended purpose). This certainty actually adds value to the property.I’m talking with Mike Marshall because he’s an expert in this stuff. With nearly 20 years of experience in the land entitlement space, he knows all about how to entitlements to add value to a property without ever having to touch it. Whether it's subdivisions, change of use permits, zoning changes, or full-scale development, Mike knows how to help investors navigate the regulatory waters on their pathway towards entitlement approval.

111: Today we’re talking with Paul Moore. Paul has found great success in multiple domains as an entrepreneur, including but not limited to the real estate investing business.(Show Notes: REtipster.com/111)Paul has flipped over 50 homes and 25 high-end waterfront lots, appeared on HGTV’s House Hunters, rehabbed and managed rental properties, built a number of new homes, developed a subdivision, and started two successful online real estate marketing firms. After helping with three successful developments, including assisting with the development of a Hyatt hotel and a very successful multifamily project, Paul ventured into the commercial multifamily arena.With decades of experience and an impressive resumé, Paul offers a fresh perspective on creative real estate investing and philanthropy in 2021.

#110: Today we’re talking all about when, why, and how to hire VAs for your real estate business (or for that matter, any business).(Show Notes: REtipster.com/110)Hiring VAs is one of these things people love to talk about as an easy solution to every business problem, but in my experience, it’s not quite that simple.First of all, you need to have the money to pay for one. A decent VA isn’t necessarily that expensive, but it’s important to acknowledge that when you’re starting out and you’ve got a limited budget, hiring a VA isn’t an easy option for everyone. You need to get to the point of some profitability before you can jump into this.There’s also a lot that goes into finding the right person, for the right job, keeping them on task, paying them appropriately, and A LOT more.In this conversation, we’re going to talk about some of the things we’ve learned in our experiences of finding and hiring people.

109: Several years ago, I wrote a blog post that blew up and became one of the most popular articles on REtipster.(Show Notes: REtipster.com/109)It was called The Truth About Land Investing: 21 Warning Signs to Look for When Buying Vacant Land and the reason I wrote this was because after years of buying and selling land, I recognized there were a lot of tricky due diligence issues with every property I dealt with, and I wanted to create a solid list of the most common problems and stumbling blocks I had encountered.This due diligence checklist can apply to anyone buying land for any purpose, but depending on whether you're a land flipper or the end-user, there will be some differences in your perspective on these issues.Not all of these issues need to be scrutinized for every deal, depending on where the property is located and what you’re planning to use it for, but regardless of your situation, this is a good list of items to be aware of, so you don't get stuck with a property without recognizing some of the problems ahead of time.Even with properties that do have some of these problems, there is still hope in many cases, you’ll just be limited in what you can use it for.

108: Not long ago, I met a guy from my church named Caleb VanTimmeren. We got connected because one of the pastors here knew that both he and I were active in the real estate space, and figured we should meet up and get acquainted.(Show Notes: REtipster.com/108)I had lunch and with Caleb and he told me his story, and I was kind of blown away because he and his business partner Kyle Aho have been able to reach the dream that so many aspiring real estate investors are after, and they did it relatively quickly, all during a time when the competition has been very high and real estate prices have been insanely expensive.Today we’re going to talk about how they both did this while working full-time jobs, how they found deals that could actually cash flow, how they found the money to make it all happen, and a lot more.

107: Reid Kurtenbach has been a member of the REtipster community for some time now, and he has been funding land deals across the US for land investors since 2019, using both his self-directed Roth IRA and his own personal capital.(Show Notes: REtipster.com/107)We thought it would be interesting to bring Reid on the show because this idea of funding land deals has grown to be pretty popular in recent years, and for good reason.There are some land investors who get into the business, they see the opportunity, they work some deals themselves, but they realize pretty quickly that they don’t have the time or the desire to do all of this hands-on work themselves. However, they DO still believe in the business model and they have the money.Likewise, there are some land investors who DO have the time and desire to find and work the deals, but they don't have the money to keep deals flowing through their pipeline. They need someone who understands the land business (because most conventional lenders don’t) and is willing to provide the funds they need to buy the properties.Most land investors fall into one of these two camps… and regardless of which camp you fall into, it’s important to understand the perspective of the money partner who is willing to contribute the money and let the active investor take the lead while expecting a certain return after the deal is done.What’s it like to work with someone like this?What are the challenges in this kind of relationship?Why should or shouldn’t someone partner with a private money partner?There are a lot of things to unpack in this kind of partnership, and Reid is going to give us his perspective on it.This is also an interesting issue for us to explore because Jaren is coming at this from the other side, as the active investor who is using other people’s money to fund deals… so there will probably be some different options and perspectives as we talk about how things should look from both ends.

106: In this episode, we’re catching up with our old friend Danny Johnson. Danny is a house flipping veteran, a software developer, a serial entrepreneur, and has many years of experience in the real estate investing business.(Show Notes: REtipster.com/106)Not surprisingly, Danny had a ton of wisdom to impart to us and we covered all kinds of thought-provoking questions that every entrepreneur needs to think deeply about.