Brent Bowers  0:00  

And then there’s the other list that the tax lien investors don’t buy the tax liens on, because the property suck, like they’re not accessible, they’re not buildable, they’re blah, blah, blah, they’re they’re landlocked, you name it. So I mailed the sucky list, like the land that no one’s mailing any offers to or even buying their tax liens. So when these guys got a postcard for me, it was like, you know, when the rivers dry up and there’s little puddles left and the fish are starving to death. And one little cricket jumps across, it’s like explosion of Puranas, basically, and that’s what happened to my phone. And I was hooked. Like I did two deals within about a week’s time. Each one of those deals I bought the first one for $285 sold it to a realtor for 5000 next day, I was like, Holy crap, this works better than that guy was saying on the podcast.

Announcer  0:51  

Welcome to CRE PN Radio for influential commercial real estate professionals who work with investors, buyers and sellers of commercial real estate coast to coast whether you’re an investor, broker, lender, property manager, attorney or accountant we are here to learn from the experts.

J Darrin Gross  1:10  

Welcome to commercial real estate pro networks, CRE PN Radio. Thanks for joining us. My name is J. Darrin gross. This is a podcast focused on commercial real estate investment and risk management strategies. Weekly, we have conversations with commercial real estate investors and professionals who provide their experience and insight to help you grow your real estate portfolio. 

Today, my guest is a returning guest, Brent Bowers. Brent is an investor and coach with a focus on buying and selling land. And in just a minute, we’re going to speak with Brent about the business of buying and selling land and investing strategies. 

But first, a quick reminder, if you like our show, CRE PN Radio, there are a couple of things you can do to help us out. You can like, share and subscribe. And as always, we encourage you to leave a comment, we’d love to hear from our listeners. Also, if you want to see how handsome Our guests are, be sure to check out our YouTube channel. You can find us on YouTube at Commercial Real Estate Pro Network. And while you’re there, please subscribe. With that, I want to welcome my guest back to CRE PN Radio. Brent, welcome back to CRE PN Radio.

Brent Bowers  2:21  

You brought me on to quick I was trying to subscribe to your channel. I love it. All right. I’ll do that later. All right. Awesome. Um, first edition.

J Darrin Gross  2:33  

Hey, thank you. spike up today. So Brent, I’m looking forward to our conversation today. But before we get started, if you could share with listeners a little bit about your background,

Brent Bowers  2:45  

you know, I started out in real estate in 2007. And, you know, some say that’s the best time to start. Some say that’s the worst time to start. When I was in that position, I thought it was the worst time to start, which was 2008 was happening. Now, what I know now doing knowing what I know now I know it was actually the best time to start. And my problem was I threw in the towel too quickly. I got it in my head between my ears, that I was not going to make it because I saw others getting out of the business. So you know, I changed my course a little bit. I went back to school, I joined the military so I could pay for the school and they would pay for my schooling, and was pretty much out of the country until 2013 doing you know what the military told me to do. And that was deployed in Afghanistan. I lived in Germany when I wasn’t deployed, and pretty much took a break since about 2013. And then started doing something called House hacking when I got back to the States, and then started buying rentals, and then slowly found my way hole selling houses. And then I stumbled into the land. And what’s so cool is, you know, the CR e PN podcast, there’s things out there that educate us on how to buy commercial real estate because now I have a tax problem. And that tax problem that comes from all this money I’m making in land, I get passive income payments every single well actually, I’m paid every single day for land, sometimes multiple times a day, because we have a little over 100 notes, paying us on the land, we sell our finance, and we take that money and buy cash flowing assets, buildings, apartment complex, commercial office building, things like that. So I’ve actually just keep, you know, just stumbling into this stuff. And it’s usually because of a problem. It’s because of a problem I’m having. So with commercial real estate, there’s nothing better to depreciate in cost segregate and use the tax loopholes that the IRS gives us. So that is a really quick me in a nutshell. But a lot of my business has become has has come from problems I’ve had. So that’s me.

J Darrin Gross  4:57  

I love it. iron your shirt, their land is that a logo for you the that’s a great shirt for you if that’s you?

Brent Bowers  5:06  

Yeah, that’s the land sharks. Absolutely. 

J Darrin Gross  5:09  

Okay, gotcha, gotcha. So, okay, got the shark? Yeah, the fin and the mouth there. That’s awesome. 

Brent Bowers  5:14  

You got to go to YouTube to check it out.

J Darrin Gross  5:16  

Yeah, definitely good to go check that out. What you know, it’s funny, the the, you started your introduction, they’re kind of just kind of telling them your tale. They’re about the the timing 2007 2008. And I haven’t, you know, read the tarot cards, or I don’t have a crystal ball. But it seems like all the the people that are talking are kind of looking at the current situation, we’re recording this in May of 2022, that there’s a there’s a lot of economic indicators that suggest we’re on the precipice of of a similar type of event, potential event, I guess it’s some sort of correction, just based on, you know, the the money in the system and an inflation, blah, blah, blah. And what I think is kind of cool is, is that, you know, one thing about all these economic cycles is that they are cyclical, there’s the up and the down. And, and, you know, like you were saying that that was the best time to get in, but you kind of throw in the towel too soon. And I’m just kind of curious, if you were to kind of use your hindsight, and kind of, you know, look back and some lessons you learned, or share what if you could share with us some of the lessons you learned and how you think you might be able to apply? Or, or, if you’ve given it much thought about what potentially is coming and how that, you know, what you’ve learned will potentially play out.

Brent Bowers  6:46  

Yeah, and going back to 2008 2009, when I bought that first rental property, it was at the absolute height of the market. And then 2008 in the 2008 happened and things kind of really just slow down, it almost stopped there. It’s almost like when you fall off the ladder, you’re gonna lay there for a minute. And I learned this from a gentleman named Matt Valera. It’s like you, you lay there for a minute, and it’s like, what is broke? And then that’s the same thing with, like, the economy, you know, when that happened, I feel like things just kind of like stood still a little bit. And what we’re seeing today is really, I mean, I think it’s a little different. We’re not really dealing with the subprime loans, or you know, if you can breathe hot air on the glass, you get a loan type thing, because that’s what it was in 2007. Now we’re dealing with we’ve gotten so used to having 2% 3% equity, or three and a half percent loan on a rental property, can you believe that? Like, it’s just unbelievable. And now rates just went up to like, What 5% And people are freaking out, because now they can no longer afford that $500,000 house, they can only afford the $400,000 house because their rates just went up. So that’s going to stop those sales from happening so quickly, because now less people qualify for it. So as more you know, time goes on the market, things start to slow down when they sell it like it went from like six days sold in one market that I’m in to now 12 days and then it’s just going to increase now the moratoriums are over on the foreclosure or I don’t know they might still be going it’s like back and forth. I’m so confused with these moratoriums now, but as the moratoriums end, more inventory will come and I’m talking about real estate as a whole. I’m talking about land, I’m talking about houses talking about for plexes triplexes. And I’ll tell you, I have an office building, which sucked going through COVID Trying to rent that thing out, but we’ve just had to shift, but so we got interest rates, we got moratoriums ending, and builders are building like crazy. So what does that tell you? Like I think that tells me prices are going to come down a little bit because we’ll have a little bit more inventory, less buying power with the interest rates, like literally going from like 2% to 5%. So sellers, it might turn in to you know, more of a I’m not saying it’s gonna turn into a buyers market, but it might be more of an even playing field.

J Darrin Gross  9:14  

Yeah. No, I I think that there’s a good case to be made for that. Like said the you know, one of the challenges I think that we all have is that our memory of the last one is what we’re looking for for the next one. And like you just indicated I don’t think it’ll be the same and we don’t have the subprime and we don’t have all the fog a mirror kind of mortgage situation that we had before. So that that will be different, but I think that you know, just some sort of a slowdown to where the maybe the the frenzy is not as hot. Maybe it gives buyers at least a little bit more flooding with sellers That kind of thing, and maybe perhaps a little less competition on every deal. Like, if you don’t buy it within, you know, you know, right away kind of thing. But I think that the the other side of that thing that I’ve come to recognize is that the opportunity is in the change in the marketplace, when the marketplace changes, that’s, that creates an opportunity, because there’s a mindset that everybody has of this as the market and then all sudden changed. And we’re in if you recognize that, that’s the opportunity and you you’ve been in the market and you’re sharp, and you know, you know where you need to be. And relative to what things are, I think that’s the, that’s the opportunity there. And hopefully, that’ll create some opportunities for all of us. If you’re, you know, in a good position, but

Brent Bowers  10:44  

Opportunity comes with a change, right?

J Darrin Gross  10:46  

Well, it certainly, I mean, if there’s, if there’s no other lesson to learn, it’s the you know, the ups and the downs, that’s what creates the opportunity, you know, it’s the, if you’re, if you’re only buying when things are up, and then you’re selling and things are down, you’ve got it all wrong, you’ve got to, you know, it’s in the down cycles, where you really make your money kind of thing. And, you know, just to be conscious of that, and to, you know, be aware of what’s going on and, and not not that everything’s going to crash and burn and everything like that, but there’s clearly signs of a slowdown when everything’s going up and cost and, and it’ll be there’ll be an adjustment, however, that, you know, that’s just the nature of things. There’s only and if you there was something I read the other day, and I was like, it’s always kind of shocking to me, it’s like, I think it was like 40% of Americans don’t have $1,000 in savings, you know, kind of thing. I was like, wow, you know, it’s that’s a pretty a pretty scary number. When you think about it, I couldn’t survive any kind of like, an enemy. You know how rare it is. But it just would you realize that how many people are basically they have no cushion, kind of thing.

Brent Bowers  11:57  

And then I have a car loan too, and a house payment, and then they don’t even have the $1,000 in savings. They’re big trouble.

J Darrin Gross  12:03  

Yeah, yeah. And so anyway, you know, that being said, if the cycles, if the markets changing, and the costs are going up, and they don’t have any kind of savings, they have no room for error, anything which to me, will, will create more opportunities, if you do have capital to deploy. So. But anyway, I wanted to just kind of touch on that just again, it was more of kind of a reflection point just based on where you started and where where things are and stuff. Let’s talk about your your land investing and, and how your, I guess kind of your journey, you started off saying that you you invested in. And I can’t remember the little bit of the story, but single family rental or something like that, and you were you’re overseas and and if I remember, right, there was like the pain of coming back to somebody destroyed your place. And the you know, there was just that it wasn’t a good fit based on where you’re at kind of thing. And that’s when he kind of threw in the towel. And then you ended up in that in the land thing that but help help us understand kind of, you know, how you got into land. And, you know, what you’ve seen and where you are now as to how your how it’s working 100 notes getting paid daily. That’s a pretty good story right there.

Brent Bowers  13:26  

Yeah, Darrin, you have a magnificent memory, holy cow that you remember that from like a year and a half ago. So yeah, you know, I built a team around the land business. So how I came into land was, you know, once again, I had a problem on my hands. I had just paid almost, I think $5,000 Roughly for some mailers to go out for a bunch of single family homes and Colorado Springs. And then our battalion commander told us, Hey, you’re going to the field for two and a half weeks, you can’t bring your cell phones. So I now had a huge problem. I had just went into debt on AmEx, to pay for these mailers. So I spent money I didn’t have sent nets and mailers to people that are going to hopefully return a phone call or call on that mailer because they want to sell their house. And no one’s going to be there to answer the phone. So that problem caused me to lose money. And yes, we miss out on some leads. But I also had did two things with that one, I hired someone to help me start taking those phone calls and meeting the sellers, you know, because I just surely couldn’t do it. And I was working almost 1213 hour days on bass as an Army officer. And then I was also still searching for answers listening to podcasts like CR EPN, things like that and just trying to educate myself. And I shared a little bit about this on the last one we did together. But I heard about this guy buying land at Crazy discounts and flipping it overnight. And I was like wait a minute. I I’m currently right now, mailing the tax delinquent list. And I’m filtering out the mobile homes and the office buildings industrial, I’m only focused on one little niche that single family homes. And guess what? It seemed like everybody else was focused on that one as well, too. We’re all fighting over the dirty stinky old cat pee houses that have foundation problems, and Colorado Springs. And like, I would have to go to a meeting. And I would like rush off base on my lunch break, if the seller can meet me at that time. And I would rush there, and I will rush the appointment. And if I didn’t get that house under contract, good luck, I was never getting it. Because, you know, it’s you have to be a very skilled salesperson, to get someone to write a contract with you with like, and within about 15 minutes like that is that you got to create rapport, you got to learn about the problem, see how you can serve the seller, because most sellers are not going to sell their house at a discounted cash price, unless you are going to provide them speed, or convenience, or serve them in some type of, you know, like creative way to allow them to rent the house back. So that night that I heard that man talking on that podcast about land, I went and called my virtual assistant, I said, Hey, you now we scrub that all the land, can you please put that back in there and send me an Excel spreadsheet as soon as possible, because I want to mail all these landowners a postcard. So I mail them a postcard and mail 687 postcards out to people that were behind on their taxes. And I thought I was mailing just a regular old tax delinquent list. I was actually mailing the county held tax lien list. What that means for anybody listening to this is basically in Colorado, you had pretty much to list, you have the list of people the list of people that their properties, you can buy the tax lien on make a return on investment. And after three years, you can you know, it’s becomes deed eligible and you can foreclose. And then there’s the other list that the tax lien investors don’t buy the tax liens on because the property suck. Like they’re not accessible. They’re not buildable, they’re blah, blah, blah, they’re they’re landlocked, you name it. So I mailed the sucky list, like the land that no one’s mailing any offers to or even buying their tax liens. So when these guys got a postcard from me, it was like, you know, when the rivers dry up, and there’s little puddles left and the fish are starving to death. And one little cricket jumps across, it’s like explosion of Puranas, basically. And that’s what happened to my phone. And I was hooked. Like I did two deals within about a week’s time. Each one of those deals I bought the first one for $285 sold it to a realtor for 5000 next day, I was like, Holy crap, this works better than that guy was saying on the podcast. And then the second deal, this is where my brain was broken. Like my mindset changed my paradigm shift like Stephen Covey says, the second one, I bought for 500 bucks, and then sold it on Craigslist the next day for $500, down, and 400 a month. And I was hooked. That’s where my passive income journey began, because I’d already had rental properties. And I pretty much at that time still hadn’t made a profit on any of them. But my passive income started and eventually financial freedom because it only took like, 10 of those to cover my expenses. And then my geography freedom. And that’s where I was like just gung ho, I would buy any parcel of land, as long as I can get it for a discount, and sell it for a little more. And seller finance it.

J Darrin Gross  18:39  

That’s awesome. So literally that fast, you shifted the focus from the single families to land. And you mentioned that the list was like there’s two sides to the list. In Did you also send to the the, the the back tax properties, or if I understood right there was the the properties that were inaccessible that were you know, nobody wanted, which are the sounds like those are the people that were calling you. And then you had the others which were the the county tax lien, the you know, kind of thing where there was more of a process. Did you get calls from those people as well? 

Brent Bowers  19:20  

Oh yeah, I figured out how to mail those guys as well because first Her name is Cindy. She didn’t send me that list because she still didn’t understand why I wanted that tax lien list because tax lien investors had already paid those back taxes. I was like, please just send me the list. I am going to buy the land from these people and get the let the taxes caught up. That way they don’t lose it. They make some money. And I will keep taxes caught up. So finally she sent me that list two and I mailed that and then I just mailed the entire county list like I eventually just started mailing the entire county landless but I never once took my I never I’d already built them. Gene for the house buying. So we just kept doing that one too. And we just kept growing and growing. I mean, my team is nine people now, which is very small, actually. But it’s perfect.

J Darrin Gross  20:11  

All virtual?  Or do you have people local? Or how are you? So we’re

Brent Bowers  20:14  

We’re all virtual. Several of us are in Colorado, couple in the Philippines, one guy in India. But yeah, we we actually rented out our office, we had a beautiful office, we renovated it. And one thing happened during COVID, we learned that we don’t need offices. So we rented it out. And that’s another cash flowing asset coming in every month.

J Darrin Gross  20:37  

It’s awesome. So, so you started almost by accident, you listen on podcast, you shifted gears from the single family into the land. You got to immediate success within just a week or so you’re you’ve got two deals. Are you still focused on Colorado, specifically, specific county? Or do you? How wide is your your focus? And how did you did you? If it is wider? Then how did you go that? Or how did you navigate that? From the first to where you are now,

Brent Bowers  21:14  

We first started in the backyard. And it was actually one county and I could drive that whole county within like, several hours, you know, three, four hours. And then I expanded to the actually two counties over because someone said, Hey, man, we’re doing really well, because the land business is a very small niche. And there’s not a lot of people in it. But I heard from a friend that was doing very well in another county. He’s like, Dude, you gotta come on. And so I did, I started mailing that. And then I realized, wait a minute, the cash buyers list, the buyers lists of people that I’m serving in this particular county, are now asking me for land in the next county over. So we started mailing that one. And then it’s funny what happens, realtor, start finding out what you’re doing. And then you get on a few podcasts. And then you all of a sudden you’re buying land in San Bernardino, and then Pennsylvania. And then I’ve got my father involved in this and we’re buying land in Florida. My dad’s done over 50 Something land deals now. He’s done manual labor his entire life. And this guy is like the flip King on a five by five mile radius, a one one area of his county, like he could tell you what’s going on in every single road. So he no longer does manual labor.

J Darrin Gross  22:28  

Well, that’s awesome. That’s awesome. So when you you said, like you started in your backyard? Was it basically just more people asking you to go, you know, to different counties? Or to expand your territory? Or? Or were there any parameters that you identified that were key to the success that you were having in your own backyard?

Brent Bowers  22:51  

Yeah, I wouldn’t say I’m a super detailed or calculated person. It was you mentioned that it was I saw the demand was there. And then number two, I had the buyers asking me, so I’m not one that goes out and creates a product and says, you know, I think people will like this, though. I want to see where the demand is. And then I get a product that they’re looking for and asking me for and then I fill that demand. So I’m kind of lazy, I don’t like to create, I like to feel

J Darrin Gross  23:20  

I mean, a lot easier just to sell to somebody it’s asking than trying to give in somebody that no, this is really good deal you could buy kind of thing. So that’s great. So talk a little bit about the, the, you know, the the, I guess the aspects of the land, you’re you’re buying and selling is it? Is it bare land? Does it have a structure on it? Is it acreage? Is it a city lot? Is it? 

Brent Bowers  23:49  

Yeah, it’s vacant, raw, unimproved land, I would say 99% of it. Now do we get the occasional parcel that had, you know, a house burned down at one time since so it’s already got a septic or sewer hookup and Water and Electric? Yes. We’ve done very well building on those parcels. You know, I’ve teamed up with a guy named Dan hammer cost. And we’ve started building together and we’ve done really, really well where I could have maybe sold the land quickly to a builder or developer or someone that wants to build their home and made $20,000 on it. We either order a modular home or build a stick built house on it and literally make 90,000 So there’s because there’s a huge demand right now, you know, the National Association of REALTORS says we’re 6 million houses short across the country. And then you look at the inventory and it’s only a couple of weeks. And now I remember I was just talking about interest rates going up and foreclosures I’m being very careful with what we build. I’m building houses that if I get stuck with it, I now have a beautiful rental. And they’re not massive houses. Which there’s a lot of money that too, by the way. So what are the parcels of land And look like, you know, a lot of times, I break it up into two categories, you got the rural stuff, the stuff that I love for cash flow. That’s the stuff on the outskirts of the city. And then you got the stuff that’s like in a neighborhood where there’s already sewer lines running by and Water and Electric. That’s the stuff that we call infill buildable lots. And that’s the stuff we sell to builders or developers. I just bought three lots down the street for me. And there’s a guy named eco son home builders, and he’s got a lot of demand right now to build his houses, what the builders need land. So I just listed the parcels with him, he put them on the MLS, he put his beautiful model home pictures, and now we’re gonna sell them to someone looking for a brand new home without a power bill or a water bill because the solar panels are going to cover their electric and then they’ll have a well, so it’s a really cool deal. So you just team up with guys like that, or build it yourself.

J Darrin Gross  25:56  

Sweet. So the purchase price, you know, you mentioned like a couple 100 bucks. Is this? Is that the the net net price of the the property? Are you finding? Is there owner financing? Or how are you describe a little bit about the the in and out of the I guess the money side of this? I know you’ve talked about it, but I’m just kind of curious, is it? Is it predicated on you come in with cash? Are you getting a loan? Are you are you owner financing? What’s the what’s the

Brent Bowers  26:30  

I mean, I’m sure I could have gotten a loan from that guy for $285. And you know, I didn’t have to at that point. And really, it’s funny how it worked out. I was so afraid to buy the land and spend $285, I lined up a buyer first. And she agreed to close on Wednesday with the title company. So I told the seller, I would pay him on Tuesday. So that way my money wasn’t locked up too long, right? Cuz I was like buying, you know, we had just moved across the country with the military, I had diapers to buy, we just had a verge baby, I was broke in 2016. Man. The second one is 500 That one actually wrote the check for before I found the buyer because I was getting a little bit more confident. You know, you get really cocky when you start winning. You know, Tony Robbins says when when we lose money, we ponder when we make money we party. So we learn a lot more from our failures. So about the 10th or 12th deal that I’m using my own cash for I’m not even getting financing. They did start costing more and more and more though, I think the next one was $1,300. And the fourth one was from a bank, I actually got under contract for 25,000. But here’s how I sold that when I didn’t even need, I didn’t even need a loan, I went out and put signs up all over the place. And I said 44 acres 38k phone number, and I put 30 Something signs out, I started getting phone calls. And it was literally, you know, a gift from God. Basically, these people had just sold their ranch in Texas, and they’re driving around Colorado looking for somewhere else to buy. And they saw my signs popping up while they were driving around. So no, I wasn’t getting loans at first. There’s some things I’m doing now bigger deals. We just bought one for 1.2 million. We’re working on another four and a half million dollar parcel that we’re bringing in partners for you know, that’s a you know, totally different but yeah, I I wish I was still plucking those, you know, $285 parcels out to make five grand, but you could spend, I mean, I’ve found that bigger deals take just a little bit longer. But there’s way more money. There’s way more zeros at the end of it.

J Darrin Gross  28:45  

That’s awesome. On those larger deals. What kind of timeline do you find between acquisition to disposition? And I assume if you’re if you’re developing the land, that’s obviously a whole nother kettle of fish here. But are you? Is it I mean, you’ve been talking about buying on Tuesday sell it on Wednesday? What kind of timeline? Are you dealing with these larger deals?

Brent Bowers  29:11  

Yeah, the larger stuff that we put on the MLS and it depends what area it is. There’s certain parts of Texas where we can sell this stuff and like 12 hours, Florida, you know, 3030 days, but our development stuff, that’s the stuff we’re sitting on. That’s that takes a lot more time. You know, and then a lot of times we will get it under contract with a due diligence period. So we can start working with the city start talking to the engineers to do the drawing. So that’s like more like a six month you know, just it’s sometimes it takes us six months just to buy it. Because if I go and buy a piece of land like we’re looking at another deal that we could put almost 300 RV lots on and that that price tag is a little higher. Now if I just went and paid that price without having the stamp of approval on engineer plans from the city, that’s totally gambling. And I mean, you might do, you might get lucky, kind of like I was in the very beginning of my land business till I started making big mistakes, because I got cocky, but you learn you learn the hard way. So I would say the answer your question, it’s it’s all over the place with acquisition disposition just depends. There’s so many variables.

J Darrin Gross  30:31  

So, in the introduction there have mentioned that you do coaching. Do you tell me a little bit about your, your program your students? What are you? How are you working on?

Brent Bowers  30:44  

Yeah, so I’m fortunate to be a wholesaling Inc coach, I am their official land coach, we have a course that we put together, that is the action steps of how to build a land business that will serve you and your family and others, just like I did, just like I started out, because I just assume everyone starts out just like I did, no money, no time. So that’s the way the course is built. And the it’s all about revenue in the first position. Like I don’t talk a lot about CRMs. And starting an LLC, none of that stuff, I want to get money in your pocket, like within 30 days. And then we start worrying about building the business blueprint. And then it’s weekly, weekly coaching calls, they are recorded, we’re on there every week. And then we have a support group so you can get your answers. I’m sorry, you can get your questions answered daily, because I can tell you exactly what to do. And then you’re going to get a little roadblock. And then you’re going to have a question. So that’s where I found that a lot of these, I went to so many seminars there and I read so many books, but what would happen was I would fizzle out because I’m like in my own little like playground here, like getting kicked in the stomach all by myself and no one else to talk to. And the biggest thing about our weekly calls is, we’re always sharing wins. Like, like, you got to start with a win first before you ask the question. And a lot of times these wins, I just made $200,000 Last month, or blah, blah, blah, you know, you name it, I just sold my first parcel. And I just got a parcel under contract for 45,000. Hard to have a buyer for 90. Like things like that. That’s what I needed when I was just starting out. Maybe it wouldn’t have taken me from 2007 to 2013 to keep you know just swinging the bat swinging the back swing the bat.

J Darrin Gross  32:28  

That’s awesome. You mentioned your dad’s doing this now How long has he been doing it?

Brent Bowers  32:33  

Ah, he’s she’s I would say two and a half years now is the probably the first land deal we did together. And it’s funny one of the the buyer that purchased that parcel of land, it was this Latino couple we couldn’t even understand, like, we couldn’t even understand each other. Their child was translating, and they just paid their parcel of land off in Indian town, Florida. And we’re super excited because that was like, one of the first ones we did together and we just changed those people’s legacy.

J Darrin Gross  33:04  

That’s awesome. That’s awesome. So Brent, your students. In the success you you mentioned everybody’s having in the success calls that I’m curious how much of the success that your your students are having? Would you relate to a system you have that you I’m assuming you have a system that you introduce people to versus just their umption or their want to, you know, their their drive to succeed? 

Brent Bowers  33:30  

I love it. Yeah, every every student that comes in wholesaling, Inc, student or land shark student, we all want to make money. But that motivation goes away as we make mistakes and spend money and we’re not getting the phone calls. We don’t do a deal within you know, 45 days and the next shiny object comes around or our mother in law says why are you doing that? The problem is, is like we all go back, we all regress to the mean, we all go back to our old habits. But the systems we build with land sharks, it’s a community. And if you stay plugged in, you listen to the wholesaling, Inc podcast, you hear the winds that are constantly happening. And I was the reason why I know this so well is because I was one of those students back in 2016. Every single day on the way to work, I would still listen to the whole selling podcast. And I just wanted to hear that John and Sally, that Korean carry Rhema that Brent Daniels was still having success because even though I had had already I had already had success in real estate already and multiple properties by 2016. It still was not solidified in my mind that I could do it. Yeah, maybe they can do it. But every single day I needed that motivation. It’s like taking a shower. We got to still bathe every day. If we don’t want to stink sometimes multiple times a day. It’s like working out you can’t just go to the gym once a month. So What is that? And two is a system that you plug into, and we show you what to do when to do. We’re not We’re not educating you. We’re directing and giving you action steps and then we’re there. The system to when you hit the roadblock, when you hit the probate problem, or the financial or the legal issue to walk you through, okay, yeah, we’ve been there. Here’s what you do now, type thing. So it’s 100% of systems, and not just someone just wanting to make money because we all eventually want to make money. That’s why we that’s why we go to your YouTube channel or listen to this podcast.

J Darrin Gross  35:36  

And another curiosity of your students. How, what’s the average time it takes for somebody to get their first deal? 

Brent Bowers  35:46  

Yeah, I want to say the average, you know, I wouldn’t say it takes about four months or so for most, have I had guys get make money in 29 days? Absolutely. has it taken some a year? Absolutely.

J Darrin Gross  36:02  

Hey Brent, if we could want to shift gears here for just a quick second. In the in mentioned it before we started, but you’ve been on here before, it’s hopefully, you know, the drill. By day, I’m an insurance broker. And I like to ask my guests you know about risk. And as a an insurance broker, we try and, you know, do some risk manager, we try and assess the risk can determine what to do with the risk. And there’s a couple different strategies we typically try and employ. The first is we look to see if we can avoid the risk. When that’s not an option, we’ll see if there’s a way we can minimize the risk. And when we can’t avoid or minimize them, we look to see if there’s a way we can transfer the risk. And that’s what an insurance policy is. And as such, I like to ask my guests if they can come take a look at their own situation, could be their clients, the market? You know, interest rates, however you want to frame the question the answer. But if you can take a look at your situation and consider what you can what you see as the biggest risk. And again, for clarification, while I’m an insurance broker, I’m not necessarily looking for an insurance related answer. But if you’re willing, I’d like to ask you, Brent Bowers, what is the biggest risk?

Brent Bowers  37:26  

I think the biggest risk is me dying. And my children and my wife getting taxed to death with this real estate that they’re probably going to sell because I didn’t set up a plan with trusts properly. I didn’t have proper life insurance, like it talks about this, this great book that I read called, become the Rockefellers and using a whole life policy to, you know, be your own bank. So I think that’s a huge risk. And it’s like, I’m just recently learning about these things and implementing these things, to where I can fund this policy for, you know, maybe I get a chunk of money 10 20,000, I can fund this policy, and now my, it’ll pass to my family tax free. And then oh, maybe I need that 20,000 Later, I can borrow like 90% of it at two or 3% interest. And that 20,000 is still making the 6% interest with the dividends and all this stuff. So I think that’s a huge risk. Business owners not having that and talking to you there and about that sort of thing. Because the Rockefellers set it up to where it passes on. That’s why they still have money six generations later, and the Vanderbilts don’t really have as much money as they used to. So that’s a huge risk, taxes, and death, to the things that we’re all pretty much guaranteed.

J Darrin Gross  38:56  

Here, the unavoidable death and taxes. So that’s good stuff. Right? Where can the listeners go if they’d like to learn more or connect with you?

Brent Bowers  39:06  

Well, I got a great YouTube channel. If you go on YouTube, and just search Brent Bowers, I talk about this stuff five days a week. I’ve got a video coming out five days a week, and I’m sorry, I just got really excited when you ask that because I’ve been pouring so much time and effort and airplane flights to build this YouTube channel. So I just asked that. Please subscribe. Even if you don’t like the content, just still subscribe.

J Darrin Gross  39:32  

I will make certain that that happens for me anyway. I always enjoy Yes.

Brent Bowers  39:36  

God to your channel. Yeah, no.

J Darrin Gross  39:39  

return the favor. Brent, I can’t say thanks enough for taking the time to talk today. It’s always a pleasure. And you you bring good information. And I appreciate that. Hopefully we can do it again soon.

Unknown Speaker  39:54  

My pleasure. Thank you. God bless. 

J Darrin Gross  39:57  

All right. For our listeners. If you liked this episode, don’t Forget to Like, Share and Subscribe. Remember, the more you know, the more you grow. That’s all we’ve got this week. Until next time, thanks for listening to Commercial Real Estate Pro Networks, CRE PN Radio.

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