Can you believe it’s June already?

We’re halfway through 2020, and we know it has been quite the year already.

Now is a great time to reflect on where you are in your year, reassess your goals, and most importantly – send out mail! Our business hasn’t slowed (in fact – we’re growing more than ever) and hope we can help you do the same.

Don’t forget to check out our Facebook Groups (LAND) (HOUSES) to connect with like-minded investors, ask questions, create partnerships, and more!

As always, this newsletter is for you. Read it, bookmark it, share it, and feel free to let us know if you have any feedback, content suggestions, or questions!

Regular people are learning that they do not need to live in larger cities. The popularity of rural SFRs, land and mobile homes are scheduled to grow at “profound” rates.
CNBC interview Redfin CEO, Glenn Kelman on April 17, 2020.
Keep in mind that the operators of websites like Redfin, Realtor, and Zillow see real-time changes in market demand by measuring clicks in the form of heat maps. So if a ton of users have changed what and where they are viewing property based on a current event like this virus, they see it first.

Here are a few excerpts of what Kelman said;
“We have seen that people are more interested in that house at the foot of the mountains by the lake,” Glenn Kelman said on CNBC’s “Closing Bell.” “Rural demand is much stronger right now than urban demand, and that’s a flip from where it’s been for the longest time, where everybody wanted to live in the city. We’ll see how it comes back, but there seems to be a profound, psychological change among consumers who are looking for houses.”
There has not been a big drop in home prices, Kelman said, because new listings have declined more than demand from buyers. Kelman said buying demand is down about 20%, but listing demand is down about 60%, which has kept prices from falling.
“The people who are selling right now are the ones who have to sell, and that’s still an essential part of the U.S. economy,” Kelman said.
None of this is new or surprising to us at Land and House Academy. I believe it’s confirmation for what we have been doing for decades. Now is the time to stay-the-course and purchase more rural property than ever before at what may turn out to be the lowest prices of the century.

A Message From the Offers2Owners Team

Updates:

As Offers2Owners continues to break RECORDS monthly.

More and more mail is going out, we are proud to see you all are taking advantage of the time you have to send more mail and make more deals

Having trouble with the new Document Dashboard? Take a look at our Resources to find the new O2O How To Videos!

These will bring you information on the most common mistakes and how to have your Documents ready for Merging and or Printing.

Check out Our Favorite Recent Podcasts –

ParcelFact VS NeighborScoop – What’s the Difference?

NeighborScoop.com was released in March, and many of you have signed up to try it!
A lot of people ask, what’s the difference between ParcelFact and NeighborScoop?
Land Academy has worked hard to secure the best data in the industry for our members. Both ParcelFact and NeighborScoop have proprietary data on over 150 million properties in the U.S. and provide key details you require for your due diligence and offer mailers. So, what’s the difference between these two sites?

Steven and Jill have found that a high percentage of the neighbors next door to your property end up being the one who buys it! Phone numbers give you immediate, direct access to make offers and gather more information about the area that you would not have known otherwise.

If you haven’t already, sign up today and get the scoop on your neighbors!

*** Want to try NeighborScoop at a special rate for your first month? Email support@landacademy.com for details! ***

Member Updates!

If you haven’t noticed yet TitlePro24/7 just got a huge makeover!

All the resources you use and love are still there, but they also added new features.

Here is a list of there Top Changes –

1. The home screen is a single search bar.
2. The Farm search is now called the List.
3. The left sidebar is no longer there.
4. They added polygon and radius for data pulls.
5. Place more than one polygon or radius in one area.
6. The polygon and radius are resizable.
7. Data dollars is an account now.
8. The data you download will be emailed to you as well.
9. They added a cart now so you can check out all at once.
10. They integrated their maps with google.

For more details please feel free to check out their resource page HERE.

Get Your Questions Answered!

Get Your Questions Answered! Schedule 30 min consulting calls with our very own Moderator Kevin Farrell! Members can schedule a 30 min call with Kevin by going to LandAcademy under tools or looking on the right-hand side of LandInvestors. For just a $100 you can pick Kevin’s brain, from deal reviews to where to start with your land business. Just click the link below and schedule your call today!

When to Get Title Insurance for a Land Deal by Jill DeWit

As investors for our own private company, we decide whether we wish to complete a deal through an escrow company/attorney and purchase title insurance or self-close a deal. It’s important to not only understand the process but also set your own comfort level and transaction procedures.

We often hear the terms “title” and “escrow” used synonymously, so it is first important to explain the difference.

“Title” is a shortened term for title insurance which is a form of indemnity insurance that protects the holder from financial loss related to defects in a title to a property. “Escrow” is a service provided where an unrelated third party takes custody of a deed/document for a period and then takes effect when a specified condition has been fulfilled (like money changing hands).

Usually one will hire an escrow company to purchase a property with title insurance although there are times, we complete our own transactions.

What are our criteria for getting title insurance?

1. Expensive Properties. We typically get title insurance and close via escrow/attorney when we are purchasing a property for more than $5,000. The reason is because we have set that as our comfort zone and those less expensive properties are often not worthy of title insurance (property is for purely recreational use).
2. Transferability Issues. If there is any sort of ownership issue that we cannot easily work through, we will close through escrow/attorney and get title insurance.It is not worth the risk of buying a property only to find out that the transfer of ownership was done incorrectly.
3. End User Ready to Build. If the end user aka buyer is purchasing a property with the intent of immediately building on it (SFR, cabin, mobile home etc.), then they will need title insurance as that is a requirement imposed by most construction lenders.
4. Other/Simply to Provide Value. At times, we find properties that are worthy of purchasing with title insurance since it will immediately provide value to the buyer. And there is enough profit to justify the added expense.

Why is title insurance even a big deal?

Title insurance is not free, and deals take longer to close while the policy is being completed. Costs range from $500-$1500 and the title search requires going back through the history of the chain of title for a property, often 30-40 years. But the value provides peace of mind for you and your buyer as well as setting up your customer for whatever they plan to do with their purchase. I like to assume they intend to happily use their land for a long time.

Marketing Tips

What Statistics You Can See with Google Analytics?

Google Analytics allows you to view multiple statistics about your website visitors. Many of these statistics should be used to adjust your marketing plan and branding. For example, if you recently purchased a property in Arizona and have marketed it to only people in Arizona, but Google Analytics shows that a large number of visitors are in New Mexico, you may also want to take into account those visitors in New Mexico and target them. Here is a list of statistics you can see by adding Google Analytics pixel to your website.

• Traffic sources (You can see if traffic is coming from Facebook, a direct Google search, and any other website)
• Amount of traffic (You can see how much traffic you are getting per day)
• Demographics (You can see the different statistics on your visitors’ age and gender)
• Devices differences (You can see the number of users using computers, tablets and cellphones when visiting your site)
• Popular pages (You can see what pages are most popular to website visitors)
• Bounce rate (You can see the percentage and length of time of how long people stay/leave your website)
• New Users vs Old Users (You can see how many new users visit your site per day and how many old users keep coming back to your site)
• Real time (You can see all the items listed above in real time)

– Marketing Team

Land Academy: Real Estate Investing (Land Academy)

House Academy: Real Estate Investing (House Academy)

Offer2Owners: Offers2Owners Group

This month’s question came from Joe over on LandInvestors.

I’m not sure if I should focus on getting a better career first and then working toward investing in land, or just use the job I have now to save and get started?

Check out Steven and Jill’s answer HERE.

Long time member and friend,Aaron and Liz English is our Spot Light member this month!Business owners and entrepreneurs, Aaron and Liz English are our Spotlight Members this month! Aaron and Liz have been members for about 4 years, they have a plant nursery that they run, and they are buying and selling land!Listen to them talk with Steven and Jill about how they had to adjust their businesses for the better during this pandemic.Listen to them talk about what they have going on and what deals they’re working on HERE.

Watch and listen to our podcast!

We currently have TWO podcasts so you can catch us every week day. Our land podcast airs Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Our housing podcast airs Tuesdays and Thursdays. While they’re separate podcasts, there is a TON of overlap on information so make sure you check them both out.

If you aren’t a member yet – why not? We would love to have you “in our corner.” Visit LandAcademy.com for more information on joining or to schedule a call with our team.

If you want an opportunity to attend one of the weekly closed member calls to get a taste of what we’re about, send an email to support@landacademy.com