0 (2s):
Boom. 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, IBOs Travis King into EOFire 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. And today, if our nation will 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 in so much more.

0 (53s):
And a big thank you for sponsoring Today's episode goes to Travis and ours sponsors. Many EOFire listeners have launched franchises and a variety of industries outside of food. And Fran Bridge Consulting has guided them to these premier opportunities. The founder, John Austinson, 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@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.

0 (1m 33s):
One of my faves, the monthly app with Jason Ethan, where they share hacks, tips and tricks. Listen to Outbound Squad, wherever you get your Travis. Say What's up to Fire Nation and share something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with.

1 (1m 53s):
What's up? Fire Nation? Boom. Shake the room, man. Happy to be here. Yeah. So John, I w I would say something that, that people might disagree with is I think that entrepreneurs, you know, I, 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, pathable, traction and profit. So 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, you can sprinkle in your own magic o on that as you go and as you iterate, but I think following somebody else's proven system is the fastest way to get traction and, and start making profits.

0 (2m 43s):
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, cuz 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. And where is that? Well that's the untapped gold mine of flipping land. And Travis, let's just break it down cuz I was in real estate, so I kind of fed into this fallacy, into this myth that, you know, the American dream is buying a home, living in it for over 20 years and building equity that supposedly comes along with that.

0 (3m 28s):
And of course, those of us, there really no real estate know. That's, that's, that's a, that's a lot tougher of a dream than is promised. So why would anybody invest in land instead of houses?

1 (3m 40s):
Great question. And it's one my, my wife asked when I was, you know, talking to her about the idea of getting into flipping rural vacant land. Okay? 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 H G T V, you know, flipping houses, right? So I think for me, I would say, I think that's exactly why you should get into it cuz it's overlooked, right? It's this boring, less sexy asset class in real estate investing. And because that, because you're not gonna turn on your TV and watch a, you know, watch somebody pick out new kitchen cabinets for their land flip, right?

1 (4m 20s):
It's just not mainstream. So it's just a completely overlooked asset class. And because of that, it it, it just becomes this blue ocean, you know, of opportunity and it really is, you know, an untapped gold mine because there's just little competition relative to kind of the red ocean of house wholesaling, house fix and flipping and then, you know, house investing in general.

0 (4m 44s):
See I think that's a great visual analogy cuz a lot of people have seen those homes or, 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 pool and yeah, I don't really picture a a, 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 and look at that, that tree there that has to get, you know, bowled over and yada yada. So this is why it's being overlooked fire cuz it's not sexy. But I wanna talk Travis, about dollar, dollar bills. What kind of income potential is possible as a land investor?

1 (5m 27s):
We started out a little different auto war. We were selling on payments, you know, we had rentals, we had rental houses, but we realized like, you know, buying a rental house one every two years, right? And we're cash flowing like two 50 a door. That was long term, that was a great plan, but it was a really slow plan and it also may not have to stay at my job, right? And keep those pay stubs so I could buy those rental houses. And then when we started buying land and selling it on payments, you know, we were getting similar size 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, you know, the, the no renters rehabs, no renovations, right?

1 (6m 9s):
None of that stuff you, 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 W2 job, what's my escape plan? So for me it was 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 a and you know, having that freedom of running my own thing. But so I'd say like, depending on how ambitious you are, you know, you're really only limited to your inputs, right John? So you, you know, how much time are you willing to put into the business? How much money are you willing to invest in generating leads and marketing?

1 (6m 51s):
Because our strategy, the way I teach it is, is really to identify off market vacant land opportunities. Okay? 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? That's really all you're limited by, you know, 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. You know? And, and that's kinda where I started and, and then I realized that this could become a seven figure per year thing right after we are 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.

1 (7m 33s):
You know, we never thought that we could grow to this point. And I think that just kinda 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 we've, as we've ed ourselves, right? Like you can just keep scaling, scale this up based on how big you want it to be. It 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 solo premier. You know,

0 (8m 6s):
In 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 a 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 years, you know, maybe even like a decade and say, wow, look at the land empire or fill in the blank, look 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? Cuz 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.

0 (8m 54s):
So how are you

1 (8m 55s):
Unique? No, yeah, I love that. I love that question cuz 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? A 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, we started, we ran the business together from the start, like as partners as a team, you know, so really you'll hear me say we and us a lot because really we, we went at this hard together from the start. And I think that people can relate because my journey's so similar to theirs, you know, and that like a decade ago I was just a guy driving to work, you know, commuting, listening to podcasts in his truck, right?

1 (9m 40s):
And, and I know this is a short show. We don't have an hour to deep dive into all the, the 15 years of failed side hustles and the oh eight housing crash and all the things that really, you know, humbled us as, as we tried to be entrepreneurs and we tried to be real estate investors. But finally fast forward, you know, to when we found land for me, I was just commuting to work, listening to podcasts at the time, trying to find, you know, my niche. Like what would it be? So when I became aware of land and started as, 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 what I guess what people call growing pains.

1 (10m 23s):
So as we solve those growing pains in our own business, you know, that allowed us to move forward, right? And then we just kept doing that and doing that as we grew the business, you know, we would rebuild the business more intelligently. We had solved 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, and very organically, John, we never set out to start like a 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.

1 (11m 7s):
So I think a lot of people can relate, you know, cuz we've built like this huge community of other advanced investors and, and beginners and, and other land people, you know, that I, I'm accessible, I think I'm relatable because I didn't walk into this, you know, exiting a company with a whole bunch of money, you know, or some, some fancy white collar job. I didn't end with a b 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, the empire we have today. So I think as I'm teaching people that kind of comes across cuz people feel like, all right, this guy might be, you know, average or slightly above average intelligence.

1 (11m 47s):
There's nothing special here, right? So I think people go, if he could do it, I could absolutely do it. And then, 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, placed the playbook like subdividing properties, how to go after owners that own duplicate or portfolios or properties. So we've kind of developed some proprietary, you know, and innovative strategies along the way that others, you know, just aren't teaching

0 (12m 14s):
In Fire Nation. That's what you want when you're learning from others who have been there and done that. Like is there something proprietary here? Is there something unique? Is there something that's gonna give me that edge? And we have a lot to talk about around this topic when we get back from thinking 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 Austinson, founder of Fran Bridge Consulting and a frequent EOFire 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 US and have vetted the market thoroughly.

0 (12m 56s):
Fran Bridge is hands down the premier source for the best opportunities in the non-food franchise worlds. They represent every type of non-food franchise from healthcare to dumpsters, use soccer to oil changes, specialized senior care to dog training, to insulation and floor coatings. John has served as an Ink 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@franbridgeconsulting.com. That's Fran f r a n bridge consulting.com. Content is a major driver of traffic and leads in most businesses, but creating great content takes a lot of time and people, that's why AI is making major headlines these days.

0 (13m 40s):
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0 (14m 20s):
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/artificial intelligence. So Travis, we've talked about a lot today, but I wanna talk about investments. Let's talk how much it would actually cost to run a land flipping operation.

1 (14m 43s):
Well, John, like all great answers, it's gonna start with, it depends, right? But, but it really does. I think it's more, it depends on your goals, okay. You know what I mean? It depends on your goals. Obviously you're trying to make an extra, you know, 20 or $50,000 a year 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 w I'll share with you, when we started we were buying lots for $500 at online tax delinquent auctions and we are reselling 'em for anywhere from $2,500 to $5,000 on eBay. Okay? So we, you know what I mean? So we started that just kinda shows like that, that point of entry, you can start anywhere.

1 (15m 27s):
It's not what we're doing now, right? So like recently we had a student of ours that we, 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 and we put up all the money, we funded the deal with our, our funding company and when he, you know, when he sold it, he walked away with a hundred thousand, I'll give you to the dollar. So a hundred thousand $147 okay? On a flip that he didn't put any money in. So, you know what I mean? So you really, if you wanna go after the big stuff, you can leverage other people's money or you can use your own.

1 (16m 9s):
Or if you're just starting out looking for proof of concept like us, we were buying lots for $500 in seldom for 2,500 when we got started, you know what I mean? So it's really how, how ambition are you, how ambitious are you and what are you going after? Now

0 (16m 25s):
Let me jump in here for a second cause I wanna know what you are going after right now. Like what is a really exciting deal for you at your stage in the game?

1 (16m 33s):
Yeah, so we, very early on, we did a whole bunch of rural vacant land in the southwest and we would buy that, you know, at 25 cents on the dollar and then we would turn around and sell it with a down payment and then a monthly payment. Okay? And, and that's what we did, you know, until we built up this empire of notes and we kinda realized, we noticed like we, we owned a note servicing company and we didn't really like it, you know? 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, this note income that wasn't liquid. So we kind of made a shift one cuz we, we needed more capital to go after bigger deals.

1 (17m 18s):
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 we, there's kind of two like products I would say in the business. We do rural vacant land and then we do residential lots like in, 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, it's just, it mounts to an incredible listing and somebody ends up with like really this trophy property. So I get excited about some of these waterfront lots.

1 (17m 59s):
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, but at the same time that's kind of the, you know, the triples the, the home runs, right? It it's really the real vacant land. That boring, boring stuff that's kind of the singles and doubles that, that you can really rely on. You know what I mean? That are consistent. So

0 (18m 31s):
Brother, what I want to talk about next is next steps because Fire Nation's been listening, they've been hearing what you're excited about, you know, even how you started by buying, you know, $500 lots, flipping it for 2,500 on eBay, how you've helped other people and their success as well. And you know, just kinda your overall philosophy on what kind of business people can build around this. What are those next steps if people that are listening right now are like, I definitely am intrigued, I wanna learn more.

1 (19m 2s):
Yeah, so like I was telling you, I started out just helping people in forums and land communities and then, you know, years later, as I got to a point where I would say I was probably like a 1% top land investor, right? Like a powerhouse investor, that's when I kind of started training and helping people. And as I would help people one-on-one, one at a time, they would get results, right? And then they'd refer a friend. And then it became this thing though where, you know, I was on the phone all day long and people are picking my brain, you know, and I couldn't keep up. So I started doing the, like teaching these group coaching, these trainings and they started small and then eventually we, you know, we had 40 people, then we had 60 people.

1 (19m 43s):
And these group trainings just kept growing, you know, and then we ended up with all these fantastic, you know, testimonials and case studies and a lot of people, you know, they lead with a course, you know, they lead with John, that mvp, that minimum viable product. You know, we even had consulted years ago, a course launch company and they're like, Hey, you gotta start ugly and just release a course and iterate. And I couldn't do it, brother. I, I couldn't do it cuz my reputation and I and the community. So I said, you know, let's do, let's do all these one-on-one training, let's do these group tr trainings and really iterate until I get that syllabus solid, you know, and, and proven and locked down. So we kind of did it backwards, so it was all organic for me, right?

1 (20m 25s):
We never planned on ending up with this training wing of things. But when I did that and I said, okay, now, now here we are, we're no longer this best kept secret, you know, in land and land investing and, and coaching. I said, if I'm gonna do this though, I like back when I was getting started, whenever I had a question, it was always like, well buy the course. You know, you gotta buy the course to find out, right? So for me, I was like, if I ever teach this, I'm gonna co I wanna lead with, I don't want to gate all the content, I wanna have some free content, right? So that people can kind of dip their, their tone and get familiar. So, so what I did, John, I put together a, a free seven day land flipping challenge where people can, you know, over the course of seven days, they can get familiar with whole, you know, how this whole new world right of, of land flipping works.

1 (21m 14s):
And then they can also get to know me a little better throughout the challenge. And, and really the easiest way I think to, to access that is just go to travis king.com, you 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@travisking.com.

0 (21m 31s):
Fire Nation, I love this strategy is what I actually do with freepodcas course.com. I say, Hey, we do have a premium course podcast is 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? Give us that call to action one more time and then we'll say goodbye.

1 (21m 59s):
Gotta sneak in two, John. I can't just do one, but my, my first one is gonna be like, take action and, 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 you, awareness is one thing, right? You're aware of this now, but like action and execution, you know, that's, that's really, you know, that's a whole another thing. So, I would tell people to take action and then I would also just tell people that, hey, you say it all the time, you talk about how like you are the average of the five people Yeah.

1 (22m 49s):
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, you know, I was living in, I grew up in Montana, 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, jail D's my guy. Okay, I have, I have Tony Robbins, he'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, some of mine are podcasters and mentors. So I had found Mike people and I found some of my other people like Grant Cardone and Peter Vogue through listening to your podcast.

1 (23m 31s):
Okay? So your podcast had a huge impact on me and on my entrepreneurial journey. I appreciate that. 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, you can't, you can still view them as a mentor. Oh yeah. And if, if I sound like, you know, this sounds like something you're interested in, just check out Travisking.com and it'll learn more about it.

0 (23m 57s):
Fire Nation, as Travis mentioned, I'm gonna say it cuz 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. Puto post the comment, start the conversations, eofire.com type Travis in the search bar, the show page will pop up with all this jazz. Travis king.com, check it out. Fire Nation and Travis, thank you for sharing your truth, knowledge, and value with Fire Nation today. For that we salute you and will catch you on the flip side.

1 (24m 32s):
Absolutely appreciate you, John.

0 (24m 34s):
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 EOFire listeners have launched franchises and a variety of industries outside of food. And FranBridgeConsulting has guided them to these premiere opportunities. The founder, John Austinson, 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.

0 (25m 18s):
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 app with Jason Ethan, where they share hacks, tips and tricks. Listen to Outbound Squad wherever you get your podcasts.