The Untapped GoldMine of Flipping Land with Travis King

0:01Boom! Shake the room, Fire Nation. JLD here and welcome to Entrepreneurs on Fire. brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network with great shows like Duct Tape Marketing. Today, we'll be breaking down the untapped goldmine of flipping land. To drop these value bombs, I brought Travis King into EO Fire Studios. After a number of years entrenched in the corporate world, Travis discovered land flipping. Within two years, he had built up passive income, which enabled him to pursue this venture as his full-time job, resulting in a seven-figure empire over the following decade. It was from this pursuit that Travis found true purpose, helping others experience wild success through niche land flipping opportunities.

0:40And today, Far Nation, we'll talk about why land over houses. We'll talk about the income potential. We'll talk about strategies. We'll talk about the operation in general and taking the first step and so much more. And a big thank you for sponsoring today's episode goes to Travis and our sponsors. Many EO Fire listeners have launched franchises in a variety of industries outside of food. and Fran Bridge Consulting has guided them to these premier opportunities. The founder, John Ostenson, has done more placements than any other in the country. Sign up for a free consultation with John or get a free copy of his book, Non-Food Franchising at franbridgeconsulting.com.

1:20Outbound Squad, hosted by Jason Bay, is brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals. Tune in for convos with leading sales experts and top performing reps to help you land more meetings with your ideal clients. One of my faves, the monthly app with Jason and Ethan, where they share hacks, tips, and tricks. Listen to Outbound Squad, wherever you get your podcasts. Travis, say what's up to Fire Nation and share something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with. What's up, Fire Nation? Boom, shake the room, man.

1:55Happy to be here, yeah. So John, I would say something that people might disagree with is I think that entrepreneurs, you know, I think that you're often told you need to come up with this unique and groundbreaking business idea, right, to be successful. But I really believe that replicating a proven business model can be a lot faster, you know, path to both traction and profits, really versus trying to create something new from scratch. So you just kind of need to commit to mastering that model and then executing better and faster than others, right? And then really you can sprinkle in your own magic on that as you go and as you iterate.

2:35But I think following somebody else's proven system is the fastest way to get traction and start making profits. I agree with that message wholeheartedly. I love the phrase, we are all standing upon the shoulders of giants because we truly are Fire Nation. There's no need to go at it alone. And of course, you're listening to this, so you believe that as well because you're learning from myself, you're learning from Travis, just like, and we'll talk about this in a little bit, Travis has learned from this podcast for a very long time. The people that were guests on it to get to where he is today.

3:08And where is that? Well, that's the untapped gold mine of flipping land. And Travis, let's just break it down because I was in real estate. So I kind of fed into this fallacy, into this myth that the American dream is buying a home, living in it for over 20 years and building equity that supposedly comes along with that. And of course, those of us that really know real estate know that's a lot tougher of a dream than is promised. So why would anybody invest in land instead of houses? Great question. And it's one my wife asked when I was talking to her about the idea of getting into flipping rural vacant land.

3:47Okay. Because you're right. It's not sexy like commercial real estate, right? It's not sophisticated like commercial real estate. It doesn't sound sexy like HGTV flipping houses. So I think for me, I would say, I think that's exactly why you should get into it because it's overlooked. It's this boring, less sexy asset class in real estate investing. And because that, because you're not going to turn on your TV and watch somebody pick out new kitchen cabinets for their land flip, right? It's just not mainstream. So it's just a completely overlooked asset class. And because of that, it just becomes this blue ocean of opportunity.

4:30And it really is an untapped goldmine because there's just little competition relative to kind of the red ocean of household saline, house fix and flipping, and then house investing in general. See, I think that's a great visual analogy because a lot of people have seen those homes or those programs about finding your perfect home, finding your dream vacation home. And, you know, people narrow down to three and we kind of guess along, you know, oh, wow, the view's so amazing from there and the kitchen's, you know, the best and it's got a pool. And yeah, I don't really picture a reality TV show coming out where they're looking at, you know, three empty lots and being like, man, look at the overgrowth on this one.

5:09Look at that tree there that has to get, you know, bowled over and yada, yada. So this is why it's being overlooked, Fire Nation, because it's not sexy, but I want to talk, Travis, about dollar-dollar bills. What kind of income potential is possible as a land investor? We started out a little different model where we were selling on payments. We had rentals, we had rental houses, but we realized buying a rental house, one every two years, and we're cash flowing like$250 a door. Long-term, that was a great plan, But it was a really slow plan, and it also meant I'd have to stay at my job, right, and keep those pay stubs so I could buy those rental houses.

5:51And then when we started buying land and selling it on payments, you know, we're getting similar-sized payments selling this land with seller financing. So here we were stacking up all these payments, and we had – it's kind of had the no renters, rehabs, no renovations, right? None of that stuff you deal with with houses. you just get the same payment with land. So for me, when we started, like my goal was just escape the job, right? Get out from the W-2 job. What's my escape plan? So for me, it's really about replacing my income. So I started with some, you know, not that ambitious of goals, I guess, just that dream of like leaving the job and, you know, having that freedom of running my own thing.

6:36But so I'd say like, depending how ambitious you are, you know, You're really only limited to your inputs, right, John? So how much time are you willing to put into the business? How much money are you willing to invest in generating leads and marketing? Because our strategy, the way I teach it, is really to identify off-market vacant land opportunities. We're not looking at on-market stuff. So really the marketing piece, how much are you willing to spend and then how much time are you willing to put into it? But that's really how you're limited by. Some people, that could just mean like, hey, I want to build up a six-figure second income stream in case something happens to my job.

7:15And that's kind of where I started. And then I realized that this could become a seven-figure-per-year thing after we were two, three years into it. So, yeah, you can take it as far as you want. For my wife and I, we always started this with like we want it to be a lifestyle business. You know, we never thought that we could grow to this point. And I think that just kind of speaks to your mindset sometimes is limited, right, to your means. So at the time, even my goals, my goals weren't that big, you know. But as we've fervent ourselves, right, like you can just keep scaling, scaling this up based on how big you want it to be.

7:56It can be a seven-figure business, or it can just be something that replaces your current income and allows you to kind of become that solopreneur, you know? And Fire Nation, this is one of those things that I really do like is that, hey, start small, get a taste of it, see how you like it, and then slowly you can potentially watch it grow and say, hey, do I want to dedicate more time, more energy, more finances to it? It doesn't have to be overnight, but the thing is with compounding over time, you might look back in a couple of years, maybe even like a decade and say, wow, look at the land empire or fill in the blank.

8:31Look at the empire of X, Y, or Z that I built just by waking up every day and taking small but positive action. Now, what strategies make your teaching style unique? Because a lot of people are talking about real estate. You know, obviously fewer people are talking specifically about land, but there are people that are talking about land as well. So how are you unique? No, yeah, I love that. I love that question because you're right. Like there's there's obviously there's hundreds of educators, right, in the real estate investing space and hundreds of thousands of people doing it. A lot less in land, right?

9:06A lot less in land. But still, there's absolutely other people. But I really feel like for us, when I say us, I speak to me and my wife, Becca. We started, we ran the business together from the start, like as partners, as a team. So really, you'll hear me say we and us a lot because really we went at this hard together from the start. And I think that people can relate because my journey is so similar to theirs. And like a decade ago, I was just a guy driving to work, commuting, listening to podcasts at his truck. And I know this is a short show. We don't have an hour to deep dive into all the 15 years of failed side hustles and the 08 housing crash and all the things that really humbled us as we tried to be entrepreneurs and we tried to be real estate investors.

9:57But finally, fast forward to when we found land. For me, I was just commuting to work, listening to podcasts at the time, trying to find my niche. What would it be? So when I became aware of land and started, as we progressed through our own journey of, you know, as we would get traction, do some things right, we would scale up, we would hit these ceilings. You know, we'd hit, I guess, what people call growing pains. So as we solve those growing pains in our own business, you know, that allowed us to move forward, right? And we just kept doing that and doing that as we grew the business, you know.

10:33We would rebuild the business more intelligently. We would solve this problem. And then eventually when I started, like just through forums and communities, I just started helping people one-on-one, one at a time for free, you know, taking phone calls, just, you know, just trying to pay it forward and help people that are just starting their journey. So really my journey is similar to other people's and very organically, John. We never set out to start like an education or real estate investing training company. It just came like as a byproduct of helping people out one-on-one, one at a time on forums.

11:06So I think a lot of people can relate because we've built this huge community of other advanced investors and beginners and other land people that I'm accessible. I think I'm relatable because I didn't walk into this exiting a company with a whole bunch of money or some fancy white-collar job. I didn't start with a bunch of money. My wife and I started with$4 ,500 to start this business, and we've snowballed it into the empire we have today. So I think as I'm teaching people, that kind of comes across because people feel like, all right, this guy might be average or slightly above average intelligence.

11:47There's nothing special here, right? So I think people go, if he could do it, I could absolutely do it. And then I think where we're a little different, too, is a lot of people teach the traditional flip. along the way we've added plays to the playbook like subdividing properties, how to go after owners that own duplicate or portfolios of properties. So we've kind of developed some proprietary and innovative strategies along the way that others just aren't teaching. And Fire Nation, that's what you want when you're learning from others who have been there and done that. Is there something proprietary here?

12:21Is there something unique? Is there something that's going to give me that edge? And we have a lot to talk about around this topic when we get back from thanking our sponsors. More and more entrepreneurs and investors are discovering the awesome franchise opportunities that exist outside of food. Franchising can simply be the better path, and interest in franchising is at an all-time high. Lucky for you, John Ostenson, founder of Fran Bridge Consulting and a frequent EO Fire guest, is here to help you explore the premier franchise opportunities today. John and his Fran Bridge Consulting team are part of the largest brokerage in the U.S.

12:54and have vetted the market thoroughly. Franbridge is hands down the premier source for the best opportunities in the non-food franchise world. They represent every type of non-food franchise, from healthcare to dumpsters, youth soccer to oil changes, specialized senior care to dog training, to insulation and floor coatings. John has served as an Inc. 500 franchisor and a multi-brand franchisee, and he does more placements than any other in the country. Sign up for a free consultation call with John today or get a free copy of his book, non-food franchising at franbridgeconsulting.com. That's franbridgeconsulting.com.

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14:05ChatSpot's got your back. HubSpot's new AI tools are powered by OpenAI's GPT3 and are all-in-one AI-powered tools designed to help save you time, get more done, and grow your business faster. The easy to use CRM just got even easier. In a world buzzing with AI solutions, HubSpot just released some incredible tools that are going to level up your productivity and grow your business. Get early access to HubSpot AI today at hubspot.com slash artificial dash intelligence. So Travis, we've talked about a lot today, but I want to talk about investments. Let's talk how much it would actually cost to run a land flipping operation.

14:42Well, John, like all great answers, it's going to start with it depends, right? But it really does. I think it's more it depends on your goals. OK, you know what I mean? It depends on your goals. You're trying to make an extra, you know,$20 ,000 or$50 ,000 a year or if you're trying to make an extra$200 ,000 a year. There's a correlation there, right? So what I'd say is it does kind of depends on your goals. But I'll share with you, when we started, we were buying lots for$500 at online tax delinquent auctions. And we were reselling them for anywhere from$2 ,500 to$5 ,000 on eBay. OK? So we – you know what I mean?

15:21So we started – that just kind of shows like that point of entry. You can start anywhere. It's not what we're doing now, right? So like recently, we had a student of ours that we partnered with on a deal. He put no money in the deal. He just found the deal, right? He identified this off-market, oversized double lot down in Florida. It was this waterfront lot. We put up all the money. We funded the deal with our funding company. And when he sold it, he walked away with$100 ,000. I'll give you to the dollar. So$100 ,147, okay, on a flip that he didn't put any money in. So, you know what I mean? So you really, if you want to go after the big stuff, you can leverage other people's money or you can use your own.

16:09Or if you're just starting out looking for proof of concept like us, we were buying lots for$500 and selling them for$2 ,500 when we got started. You know what I mean? So it's really how ambitious are you and what are you going after? Now, let me jump in here for a second because I want to know what you're going after right now. What is a really exciting deal for you at your stage in the game? Yeah, so we very early on, we did a whole bunch of rural vacant land in the Southwest. And we would buy that at 25 cents on the dollar. And then we would turn around and sell it with a down payment and then a monthly payment.

16:49And that's what we did until we built up this empire of notes. and we kind of realized we noticed like we owned a note servicing company and we didn't really like it. So although it provided all this recurring income, we also became kind of note rich or dirt rich and cash poor and that we had all this note income that wasn't liquid. So we kind of made a shift, one, because we needed more capital to go after bigger deals. So we started leveraging outside money and we started going after bigger deals. And today what excites me and a lot of what we focus on, we do both. So there's kind of two like products I would say in the business.

17:29We do rural vacant land and then we do residential lots like in metro areas. So what I get excited about nowadays is like these waterfront lots, right? That we get these beautiful drone videos of. we we bring you know bring somebody in to clear the lot you know to pretty it up we take these great photos and it's just amounts to an incredible listing and somebody ends up with like really this trophy property so I get excited about some of these waterfront lots they're fun these these hunting properties that are covered in trees and mountains right and so that's that's the fun thing is when we're reviewing properties like that it's exciting and it's fun and it's a lot bigger numbers There's a bigger demand.

18:13But at the same time, that's kind of the, you know, the triples, the home runs, right? It's really the real vacant land, that boring stuff that's kind of the singles and doubles that you can really rely on. You know what I mean? That are consistent. So brother, what I want to talk about next is next steps. Because Fire Nation has been listening. They've been hearing what you're excited about. even how you started by buying$500 lots, flipping it for$2 ,500 on eBay, how you've helped other people and their success as well, and just kind of your overall philosophy on what kind of business people can build around this.

18:53What are those next steps if people that are listening right now are like, I definitely am intrigued. I want to learn more. Yeah. So like I was telling you, I started out just helping people in forums and land communities. And then years later, as I got to a point where I would say I was probably like a 1 % top land investor, like a powerhouse investor, that's when I kind of started training and helping people. And as I would help people one at a time, they would get results, and then they'd refer a friend. And then it became this thing, though, where I was on the phone all day long, and people were picking my brain, and I couldn't keep up.

19:32So I started teaching these group coaching, these trainings. And they started small. And then eventually we had 40 people. Then we had 60 people. And these group trainings just kept growing. And then we ended up with all these fantastic testimonials and case studies. And a lot of people, they lead with the course. They lead with John, that MVP, that minimum viable product. We even had consulted years ago a course launch company. and they're like, hey, you got to start ugly and just release a course and iterate. And I couldn't do it, brother. I couldn't do it because my reputation and the community.

20:10So I said, you know, let's do all these one-on-one training. Let's do these group trainings and really iterate until I get that syllabus solid, you know, and then proven and locked down. So we kind of did it backwards. So it was all organic for me, right? We never planned on ending up with this training wing of things. But when I did that and I said, OK, now here we are. We're no longer this best kept secret, you know, in land and land investing and coaching. I said, if I'm going to do this, so I like back when I was getting started, whenever I had a question, it was always like, well, buy the course.

20:44You know, you got to buy the course to find out. Right. So for me, I was like, if I ever teach this, I'm going to I want to lead. I don't want to gate all the content. I want to have some free content. Right. so that people can kind of dip their toe in and get familiar. So what I did, John, I put together a free seven-day land flipping challenge where people can, over the course of seven days, they can get familiar with how this whole new world of land flipping works. And then they can also get to know me a little better throughout the challenge. And really the easiest way, I think, to access that is just go to travisking.com.

21:22You go to our website and from there, you can find the challenge pretty easily or you can check out everything else. You know, we've got going on at travisking.com. Fire Nation, I love this strategy. It's what I actually do with freepodcastcourse.com. I say, hey, we do have a premium course, Podcasts Paradise, but why don't you get to know me, get to know my teaching style a little bit first and get a lot of value for free. So I love this process. And Travis, I just want you to give one final value bomb. What's the one key takeaway that you really want Fire Nation to get from our entire conversation today?

21:55Give us that call to action one more time, and then we'll say goodbye. Got to sneak in two, John. I can't just do one. But my first one is going to be like, take action and now immediate action. Okay? Not tomorrow, not next year, not I'll think about it. Because it's one of those things if I had colleagues I would talk to as I discovered this opportunity, if they were interested, and they didn't take action. And they're still trapped in those same jobs. And our lives look a whole lot different, you know, a decade later. So really, it's one of those situations where awareness is one thing, right?

22:29You're aware of this now. But like action and execution, you know, that's really, you know, that's a whole other thing. So I tell people to take action. And then I would also just tell people that, hey, you say it all the time, GLD. you talk about how like you are the average of the five people you spend the most time with well that's that's why i say i've got two it's because i want people to understand like a decade ago um you know i was living in i grew up in montana i'm living in rural montana and so when i'm looking for my five people because i've been listening to you i've been following your brother for a decade or more now okay i'm listening to you and i said all right jld's my guy okay i have i have uh tony Robbins.

23:12He's my other guy. Oh, yeah. I'm in rural Montana. So like there's not access to like entrepreneurial mentors. Okay. Some of mine are dead and some of mine are you guys, right? Some are podcasters and mentors. So I had found my people and I found some of my other people like Grant Cardone and Peter Vogue through listening to your podcast. Okay. So your podcast had a huge impact on me and on my entrepreneurial journey. So I'll just leave that with people, you know, hey, take action, take action now. And just because you might not have access directly to a mentor doesn't mean that JLD or myself or somebody else that you're listening to, you can still view them as a mentor.

23:50Oh yeah. And if I sound like, you know, this sounds like something you're interested in, just check out travisking.com to learn more about it. Fire Nation, as Travis mentioned, I'm gonna say it because I say it every episode, you're the average of the five people you spend the most time with. You've been hanging out with TK and JLD today, so keep up that heat. If you have any direct questions for Travis, find this episode on the podcast app, Podopolo, post a comment, start the conversations. EOfire.com, type Travis in the search bar. The show notes page will pop up with all this jazz. TravisKing.com, check it out, Fire Nation.

24:23And Travis, thank you for sharing your truth, knowledge, and value with Fire Nation today. For that, we salute you and we'll catch you on the flip side. Absolutely, appreciate you, John. Hey, Fire Nation, a huge thank you to our sponsors. and Travis for sponsoring today's episode and Fire Nation, successful entrepreneurs accomplish big goals. That's why I created the Freedom Journal to guide you in accomplishing your number one goal in a hundred days, step-by-step. Visit thefreedomjournal.com and I'll catch you there or I'll catch you on the flip side. Many EO Fire listeners have launched franchises in a variety of industries outside of food and Fran Bridge Consulting has guided them to these premier opportunities.

25:04The founder, John Ostenson, has done more placements than any other in the country. Sign up for a free consultation with John or get a free copy of his book, Non-Food Franchising at franbridgeconsulting.com. Outbound Squad, hosted by Jason Bay, is brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals. Tune in for convos with leading sales experts and top performing reps to help you land more meetings with your ideal clients. One of my faves, the monthly ep with Jason and Ethan, where they share hacks, tips, and tricks. Listen to Outbound Squad wherever you get your podcasts.