This episode chronicles the dramatic reversal of an 8-month messy title deal that closed Monday and secured a family buyer by Friday at $230K—far above the initial $200K offer. After investing $118K all-in and planning a sub-$260K listing in a soft market, a text-based negotiation with the seller’s cousin leveraged family history (property held since slavery/plantation era), created artificial urgency with a noon deadline, and captured a 30-day cash close worth approximately $100K net profit split 50/50.
Key Takeaways:
- Emotional Stakes Drive Premium Pricing The negotiation text explicitly acknowledged family history significance while positioning $230K as the minimum to sign before aggressive marketing began, converting emotional attachment into $30K above the opening bid.
- Silence Closes Better Than Counteroffers After stating “we’re gonna hold firm at $230K” and going quiet, the buyer immediately agreed rather than risk losing the deal—demonstrating that strategic silence outperforms defensive explanations in high-stakes negotiations.
- Double Tax Hits Destroy Margins Buyer-paid prorated taxes ($2,100 in this case) create double taxation since you’ll pay again at disposition—always push back on this standard contract term even when relationships feel sensitive, as it directly impacts final profitability.
Listen to the full episode for the complete text message script and family buyer negotiation framework that secured this rapid exit.
(Podcast transcript below)
Welcome to get serious. Have another pretty exciting story today. Um, I know, there’ve been a few podcasts over the past week that I was discussing that messy title deal we were involved in, um, out in, uh, East Texas and, know, the back and forth over eight months dealing with crazy airship situations, like a hundred years plus of family history. And, you know, we thought the seller.
got cold feet at literally the closing day last week and you’re prepping, okay, do we potentially pursue this legally? How do we loop him back in here? And he did come back. He just had some hospitalization coincidentally at that point in time. And we actually disclosed on the property earlier this week, four days ago.
And we already had our broker out taking some drone photos getting the listing prepped here And just to give you you know the down low, know our all-in costs were roughly 118 grand or so and We were planning to list at Just under 260,000
And we thought that was even priced a little bit below market. And generally we won’t price above market or even at market unless we have like a very superior property, which is rarely the case. What most people consider superior is usually not superior. Or if anything, you should be more conservative on what you consider to be superior properties. But that’s another topic in and of itself.
So that was our game plan there. And interestingly, just yesterday, our land investor partner on the deal had emailed me and said he heard from one of the family members of the seller, a guy in his 40s who apparently had some connection to the property and wanted to see if we might be able to work out a deal with him. So, you know, obviously that’s.
kind of intriguing, you know, literally just purchased it. Let’s see, you know, especially in a tough market, uh, you know, willing to, um, you know, entertain anything, uh, to, uh, to potentially consider there. don’t know what his numbers are. Um, you know, our land investor partners passed it off to us. Obviously we’re the title holder. Um, and, know, generally I’m not talking with buyers nor am I involved with seller conversations. Almost any case, uh, is well here. Yeah. So we.
tend to work with brokers in pretty much every property that we work with. And we didn’t pass this lead off to our broker just because it was so connected to the seller’s family and we literally just closed on it. I at least wanted to entertain the conversation to see what we could do. And then we could cut our broker in based on the work that she had done on the property if we were able to figure out a deal.
So I just went ahead and called that guy quickly again, you know, also speedily too, right? So not not what just letting it sit around. And again, kind of the strategy is when you reach out to folks, just kind of start start hearing them out, letting them talk, listen and figure out what what room there is to to potentially work with. So, you know, when when I got this guy on the phone,
And then he lives in the area near the property and he’s like, I really can’t believe that this property was sold. It’s like deep family history here, if I would have known. I think they were cousins. I’m not positive from the communication, some family relation. I would have reached out to my cousin, tried to work something out.
But honestly, even if he had done that, I’m not sure they would have been able to figure it out. Like we put in so much work, especially I have to credit our land investor partner too on this. mean, genealogy charts and just seeing like a hundred years plus of his like there was probably three or four times during this whole process that I was just ready to write this property off. didn’t think it was going to be able to close. It was just at that store so many times.
And so even if another family member had come into this, I’m really not confident they would have had kind of the perseverance and, you know, focus in order to figure out how to actually transfer the property. it was such a man. And we use like the most specialized title, like the one Logan Fullmer uses, you know, first option in Texas to even sort this out. Like it took us three.
different title companies, like two title companies locally, they just gave up on it and said, yeah, we can’t underwrite this deal. And it took us, the third title company to actually figure it out and it still took them months. And honestly, I was pretty disappointed by their performance. With it, there were just a lot of errors and mistakes along the way and communication issues, but that’s besides the point. Either way, like…
You know, this family member, cousin, whatever he could have said. Yeah, I could have come in there, but more than likely he would not have been able to close on the property. Like it was, it was a disaster of a title situation. And that’s, that’s putting it lightly, but nevertheless, like, Hey, we came in, we, solved it. We just took title and, you know, he was mentioning, and I, I could tell talking with him, you know,
African American ethnicity. Again, I had no idea. I don’t talk to the sellers in pretty much any case. He’s just like, hey, this property has been in our family since slavery times and used to be part of a plantation. We took it over after a certain point in time. I could understand that from why that property would have some attachment to a family that’s had it literally close to 200.
some odd years or at least, you know, living in the vicinity or some type of ownership associated with it. Um, you know, who am I to argue, um, uh, about, know, any emotional attachment that anybody has with it. Like that, that one is certainly understood. Um, and, uh, uh, you know, I’m again, just kind of sitting there silent again as well, like let, people tell, tell their story and,
Yeah, so he’s like, hey, you know, I’d love to figure out if we can work out a deal before this thing hits the market here I’d love to keep it in our family said, you know, I certainly can empathize and you know can can understand your story here and like Again, you know, I know your family member like he chose to work with us it ultimately what was up to him to sell the property we we worked really really hard on this for several months to solve it it you know, it is
closed. We, we have title on the property. We’re planning to market this. Like we, we think we’re even under pricing the market at, you know, 260 K just under seven K per acre. And, you know, the, the potential buyer we were talking with, you know, he was really taken aback by that. man, that’s way higher than, than he thought. but then he was like, you know, would you take 200 K, to do it? You know, could do, you know, I could do 200 K cash.
keep it off the market. And, and, you know, I, I told him, and again, I had no idea how this conversation was going to go. I had an idea of what number might be potentially acceptable. It was closer to our list price that we’d be willing to do it. But that, that’s the thing is like, we hadn’t even tested the market yet. And based on all our data, I really thought that we were going to get some activity around that two 60 K mark. was pretty attractive property and price below market. was, you
relatively slow market, but there was enough moving recently, even post Q2 of 2025. Again, the fact that we funded the property should speak for itself. And we had a lot of downside protection. And so it would have been a different story if we had had the property sitting for even a few weeks, a month, two months, what have you. And it wasn’t getting that much activity. Then it’s like, know, 200K, it’s not, you
But it’s still you know solid profitable exit. You know especially a cash deal. We can do it, but you know I told him like that’s Just just not something we’re willing to entertain at the moment especially without you know Hitting the market here and given all the time and effort we put into this, but hey, you know you have My number I’m yours if you want to I don’t know you want to reach out to some other family members and anybody else you want to talk to you if you’re able to come up more than that
But again, like we’re planning to like market this following day. you know, we had ended the conversation there and it was friendly tone. Guy was a professional. And then I gave him a couple hours because I, you know, I wanted to see, you got to let people sit sometimes and let, let, you know, some ideas cook and simmer.
cause I wanted to see if he was, if he was going to come back and potentially anchor himself up higher. But I had gone back to our land investor partner. It’s like, you know, if, if he could get up to two 30 and close within a month, cash, like that would be a great exit for us. Like I said, near doubles it’s meeting in the middle here. and so if I don’t hear from him, you know, within the next couple hours and like re anchor himself.
And this was already late afternoon. So around 6 p.m. Eastern, maybe 530 Central rather. You know, I texted the potential buyer again and let me just let me just read it off because it performed well here. So it’s like, hi, Mr. So-and-so, it’s Chris. We spoke about the
you know, the property again, I’m keeping the actual address and names, you know, private here for confidentiality. and it’s like, you know, discussing with my partners, we are understanding of the meaning slash history of the property has for you, and your family and would love for you to come away with it. you know, if you’re able to meet us in the middle at 230 K cash, 30 day close, we’re willing to sign a contract before it hits the market. we can give you until noon.
CST tomorrow so you can sleep on it and make any calls you may want to. After that, we will begin marketing it aggressively given how long it took us took for us to purchase the parcel. No worries if it doesn’t work for you. Just wanted to give you the option and feel free to ring me. I also duplicated that text over to his email just for increased visibility there. And then I just let it sit.
And I didn’t hear anything back last night, but then earlier today, again, know, you get, you give people a chance to sleep on something. That’s usually a good option when you can, but you know, there’s a ticking ticking time bomb here. and, you know, we, we presented the, you know, the opportunity and, know, again, figure out like that. This is always the key thing. you know, what, what are the emotional stakes? Like what.
does your counterparty really want out of the deal like that is what you want to figure out within a negotiation here. Like it really centered in, like this is your family history, understanding of that. Here’s an option. Like we’re not going to get top dollar for it, but you know, we’ll still get a good deal if you want to come in by this time. Otherwise, like we’re going to hit the market. So, you know, just presenting them with, you know.
A decent level of urgency here. It’s not like he needs to come up with the cash tomorrow, but at least to go under contract. And we’re willing to sign. Like I gave him my word, you come up to this number, I’ll sign. And I heard from him at about 8.30 Central this morning, AM, and he really appreciated the text. like, yeah, I appreciate you chatting with your partners and discussing and giving me the option here.
So like it hit him on that emotional level and building that rapport there. And then, you know, he tried to, you know, Hey, can we do 225 K? Um, but I, held for him like, not, you know, 230 like that. That’s the lowest we’re willing to consider at the moment. Because again, like we, think we’re pricing it already below market here. Um, and, uh, uh, again, we, haven’t even listed it yet. And like it’s a five K difference. Like I figured, yeah, this like.
Okay, he’s basically there. And so then I just, you yeah, we’re gonna hold firm at 230. And then was just quiet, right? Like, that’s another key thing is like, let silence do the talking oftentimes on conversations because you have that now, right? I come in like, if I had to walk from this deal, like it’s fine. To…
You know, still still move forward with this deal in a different direction because I still think it was going to perform well. And, you know, the guy jumped on it right away. He’s like, it’s two 30 great. And I told him, you know, you, you come up to two 30, I will sign the contract today. It’s like, all right, let’s do it. I’m ready to sign. And, you know, then we hashed out a couple other items, like trying to sort out the title company to use their, you know,
EMD, mean, he’s I think he runs a development company, potentially. I’m not positive, but he wants to buy it with his with his LLC. And, you know, we just OK, put put a thousand dollars down. you know, by the way, I’d love to take your word for it. But like, you know, cash purchase, we’re going to need proof of funds. I can give you three days to show the title company that that you have proof of funds here. And, you know, can we close the day before Labor Day?
you a month. And if you want to close even quicker, great. But, know, really basic set up and, he agreed to all of that. That’s always the kicker, right? Like, we’ll see what once we sign this contract that he comes up with the POF, which is critical here, but I don’t think he would have made this offer or anything if he’s not able to deliver. I’d be very surprised by that. That’s not the vibe that…
I was picking up at the same time, like props for him too. Like there’s not many people in this country that just have, you know, 200, 230 K of liquidity just, just sitting around here. So, you know, he, he had it available to act on it. And then I immediately called our broker after and just, you know, we, found a buyer here and, you know, again, you want to reward people who are working for you at like, we had already signed.
you know, listing agreement earlier this week, she’d done, you know, drone photos had been, you know, working with us during this process, site visits, et cetera, you know, 6 % listing agreement, you know, able to split if a buyer’s agent came in. But effectively we’re serving as our own buyer’s agents. And like, you know, we lined it up, we found this family buyer, like we’re all going to get paid in a month here. Like, can we do the, you know, 3%, you know, we’ll pay you that. And, you know, she readily agreed and, you know, it’s helping prep our.
contract for the buyer, um, uh, as well, and, kind of managing the, the title company process too. So, um, you know, everybody’s bottom line is going to look solid and like net of all final closing costs on the deal. Like there’ll probably be about a hundred K in net profit on the deal split 50 50, um, you know, 50 K, uh, of, of, of profit after, you know, eight months of work.
But not that the capital wasn’t sitting out the door for that long. So especially again, in this market, tough to find results like that. Really hard to get 30 day closes from the time you purchase. It’s super rare. But we were able to figure it out. So it’s like literally been one week since we thought, we’re potentially going to have to explore legal options against.
The seller for not performing and you know, we were still sitting like 5k out on the deal like it would have hurt It’s potential like 5k loss now to you know, potential 50k net profit Within you know the course of a week or at least agreeing to contract there so, you know things can turn around quickly if You’re ready and willing to act. So hopefully you guys found this story to be informative
And exciting to hear, probably be writing about this one in the newsletter. Pretty pumped the way that it has turned out so far, right? The money’s not in our bank account yet. Never count your chickens before they hatch, but it’s looking good. So with that in mind, SeriousLand.Capital for any of your funding needs. Land Daily Diligence Facebook group for zero cost review of your land deals and landpricer.ai for the most reliable land funding tool in the market.
back and forth my engineering team on kind of final MVP fixes all last night. We are getting very close there before this on conference demo is what we’re gunning for. Subscribe and share everybody. Talk to you next time. Bye.
