What I’m thinking about: Moving premium lots when your buyer pool evaporates, and the dispo tactics we deployed to find a way to win.
We have officially funded over $6M worth of land deals (more en route) with industry-leading 41% operating margins. SLC had its most profitable year to date in 2025, exiting every property we purchased that year.
Every property except one.
We funded a roughly ~32-acre subdivide in the nicest parish in Louisiana. 3 child parcels with driveways and home sites cleared for each lot (basically turnkey for home development minus septic install).
First child parcel listed by early June 2025, the other two by early July. Each priced north of $350K, competitive to recent sold comps at the time.
The market turned on us immediately…buyers disappeared. Effectively zero phone calls or site visits for ANY land in the area, and this lasted for much of the second half of 2025. Local realtors were telling us land hadn’t moved this slowly in 10+ years.
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On average, we pull the price-cut trigger faster than most investors. But cutting into a vacuum where buyers simply aren’t looking burns through your pricing power without generating the attention that justifies it.
Eventually local real estate activity started to increase toward the end of 2025, and we enacted a price cut to take advantage of the returning buyer pool. At the time, our other inventory was moving well, we had manageable carrying costs on this particular property, and site visits were creeping up (typically indicative of incoming offers).
In the midst of additional price cuts after the holiday season, our lead volume climbed (remember, price will solve ~95+% of all dispo problems…assuming buyers are active). We were getting at least one or two site visits per week. Great feedback consistently.
…But no offers, verbal or written.
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As our urgency increased, and macro uncertainty continued to rise, we turned over every rock available to solve our dispo problem.
Here’s the compressed version of what we deployed (some of these were utilized earlier than others, for future projects we would almost certainly enact in tandem right off the bat):
Boosted Facebook Listings. Roughly $100/week across four listings (we added the parent tract as well, priced at a lower PPA than the individual child parcels). Generated significant activity, but huge pool of tire kickers on FB. Likely better tactic for land parcels more suited for owner-financing, which we offered, but no one has seriously taken us up on that.
Mailers to neighbors and large landowners. Direct outreach to surrounding property owners and recent land buyers. Substantial expense, no traction.
Direct dials/texts to builders and LLCs (that purchased land) in the area. Same result as the above, though less costly from a monetary perspective.
Co-marketing with custom home builders. Tons of leads from site visits ultimately decided to go after a home purchase instead (and local realtors were noting that interest in homes was significantly outpacing land once buyers started coming back to market in late 2025).
To adapt to that trend, we could partner with a builder, prep an initial home design, co-market a land-home package so buyers get approved for a construction loan that exits us without waiting for the build. Solid strategy (I know operators who have executed this successfully), but the builders in the area were stretched thin, were struggling to bring potential clients to the table, and follow-through was inconsistent.
Hormozi closing frameworks for our realtor. Took key scripts from the $100M Closing playbook and adapted them for real estate. The 1-to-10 commitment scale is excellent for surfacing objections (“What would it take to get you to a 10?”), and the spouse objection handling (presenting a non-binding offer to keep momentum) was critical. Our realtor printed everything, adapted it, and started running it on site visits immediately. Coachable partners are worth their weight in gold, and I made myself available for role play sessions. On our team, no one is above the work that is required.
(^ This tactic deserves its own newsletter, in the queue.)
On-site offer sheets. Pre-filled hard copies for every parcel, carried to every site visit. When someone loves the property, don’t let that momentum dissolve into a “I’ll send you a DocuSign later” situation. (Our realtor made it crystal clear to leads that the seller was very motivated, lowering the psychological threshold further.)
Contacting listing agents from recent area sales. As the land market re-activated in early 2026, found similar parcels that recently closed, most at a higher PPA than ours and less value-add (although some after 400+ days on market), and had our realtor reach out to ask about any unmatched buyers. One agent said she had a list but never followed through, even after multiple touches. Limited control, but still worth the call.
Shortening listing agreements to maintain alignment. Six months to three months to two months. Not blame-driven (our realtor was responsive and executing everything we asked), just ensuring everyone involved felt the same urgency to move these properties.
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We crossed 20, then 30+ site visits without a single written offer (general rule of thumb in real estate is ~1 offer per 10 site visits, at least for houses).
Our realtor made it clear to buyer leads that the seller was motivated (as if that wasn’t evident by significant price cuts), and they might be surprised at what would be accepted if they just put in an offer.
But still, nothing…not even a lowball. Even from folks who visited the property multiple times, spending hours out there, and claiming they, “absolutely love it.”
It’s hard not to let the emotions kick in…you almost want to reach through the screen and shake some of these buyer leads, cajoling them to join you at the closing table…whatever it takes. But that doesn’t help your realtor do their job. Discipline and poise are paramount.
Adjust to the data you’re receiving, maintain morale, and stay focused on the next actionable step rather than dwelling on the ones that didn’t convert.
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We recently received (and signed) a written offer for one of the child parcels from a newly-wed couple who had done multiple site visits. Their offer was contingent on selling one of their existing homes in Louisiana (both had previous marriages, highly motivated to sell one of their homes). We have never accepted that type of contingency before, so I wanted to understand the underlying market for their home before agreeing.
The data supported it. Comps in their neighborhood were going pending within 3 to 14 days. Their pricing looked fair relative to recent (within the past month) sales. The contingency still allowed us to show the property and accept other offers (with the buyers having right of first refusal).
They came in below our ask. We countered up, and I gave clear direction to our realtor…if you get even a hint they might walk, back off. We will take it. The initial offer cleared the threshold we needed for a profitable exit on this parcel (and gave us more margin to work with selling the remaining two). Fortunately, we arrived at a higher purchase price than their original offer.
Two smaller wins on the contract side:
- The initial buyer offer didn’t specify buyer’s agent commission, so our realtor proposed 2.5% instead of the standard 3% (they accepted, saving us over $1,000).
- And the surveyor for a required remapping agreed to defer payment until close. Our realtor’s brokerage offered to backstop it if needed (again, speaking to the importance of genuine rapport and working with quality partners).
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We aren’t out of the woods yet, but this experience reinforces that you make (and preserve) your money on the buy side. There are a limited number of levers you can pull on the dispo side, and the pricing lever is the ONLY one that is generally reliable.
The margin we built into this acquisition is the only reason we have the flexibility to absorb a year of carrying costs, systematic and steep price cuts, and a market that turned immediately hostile, and still are likely to exit profitably.
We have two child parcels remaining. Getting one under contract confirms we’re at the right strike price and buys us goodwill with our investors in this deal (folks who trust us, and maintaining their trust keeps me up at night, figuring out how to DO WHATEVER IT TAKES, regardless of historically challenging circumstances).
Protect investor capital above all else…don’t lose money. Everything else is secondary.
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If you’re an experienced operator and you want an ACTIVE capital partner who will pull out all the stops to successfully navigate this market, send us your best deals. We write checks from $50K+. We close 100% of deals we commit to. And we bring national underwriting experience to every transaction.
Let’s figure it out together.
P.S. Entrepreneurs trying to be glass half full in this market be like…
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