This episode details a critical risk mitigation protocol for deals with extended closing timelines, specifically a Tennessee property delayed six months due to 100+ years of title errors requiring multiple affidavits. The strategy involves conducting secondary site visits immediately before closing to verify no adverse changes occurred—illustrated by a South Carolina deal where Hurricane Helene passed through the county during the closing process, requiring confirmation that mature timber remained intact and no damage affected the property despite widespread regional destruction.
Key Takeaways:
- Six-Month Gap Requires Re-Inspection Properties held under contract for extended periods (especially 4+ months) must be re-verified before wire transfer to catch changes like dumped personal property, fallen trees, or unauthorized timber harvesting.
- Natural Disaster Protocol When hurricanes or major weather events impact a property’s region mid-transaction, immediate broker site visits confirm both access and asset integrity before finalizing large purchases.
- Lumber Theft Prevention Check For properties with marketable timber, final 24-hour site visits prevent scenarios where sellers or associates harvest valuable assets immediately before closing.
Listen to learn the complete pre-closing verification checklist that protects six-figure deals from catastrophic last-minute surprises.
(Podcast transcript below)
Welcome to Get Serious, a short and punchy episode. Today, I know they’re all pretty short, ⁓ but this one, especially here. So a technique we started implementing, especially because again, we operate nationally, we’re never visiting properties physically ourselves. I’m very, very occasionally if something is nearby in Austin and a very significant purchase.
I may go take a look, but I haven’t visited anything in over a year that has qualified. So you’re really at the behest of, you know, the local experts you choose to work with, presumably a realtor. We work with realtors probably 99.9 % of the time for various properties. You know, folks who really know the area and what to look out for. And, you know, because
the site visit prior to purchasing is just so critical. ⁓ We ⁓ especially for larger purchases north of 100K in particular and for properties that might have been a bit delayed before we purchase them, we want to conduct more than one site visit. for example, this one has been
Like very delayed ⁓ Where we started working on this and I think like mid-december. It’s been yeah six months ⁓ Since we started working on this one just a nasty title situation. That’s just taken absolutely forever to figure out like a hundred years worth of errors and different affidavits I needed to be signed but we are finally Geared up to close on this one shortly. So, know the realtor we had
reached out to you had visited it, know, back in November, December of last year, initially. ⁓ But you know, lot of things can change. No one is really checking up on that property. And so, you know, six months later, yeah, we could just make the assumption, you know, we could still check our comps again, ⁓ still see, okay, the exit price breakers still making sense. But you know, if something actually happened to the property,
that could absolutely be a disastrous situation if we dismiss something from a longer term ⁓ delay from actually closing on the property. in this case, we reached out to the broker again, just like, okay, it’s been forever. ⁓ We are finally getting set to close here. Do you mind just, ⁓ and we didn’t reach out a day before the close again.
You kind of hate when title companies do that pretty much like every time, okay, here’s your docs and you got to send them out like immediately. ⁓ It’s just, some things just never change within this industry. So I try to give people as much heads up as possible to get some work done, you know, at least a week so they can fit it within their schedule. And I just reached out, hey, you know, we’re planning on closing here. We’re finally, the title is settling out.
You know probably over the next week or so we’re gonna be closed up on this but just since you had visited it so long ago do you mind just passing by and Checking to see that, you know, there has been no additional personal property that might have been, you know left on the property any damage any You know signs that folks might be I don’t know camping on it or some other
junk or trees knocked down, anything that might be a final red flag that we might have to reconsider before we potentially purchase the property. Again, nothing is finalized until your wire is out the door. So ⁓ that’s something we always keep in mind here. And this is just another way to be extra conservative, ⁓ especially when… ⁓
The actual condition of the property is the primary ⁓ value driver. making sure that you’re double checking when you’re not in the area is an absolute critical feature. So we did that for this particular property. The broker noted, yeah, nothing has changed here. It still looks the same as when I visited before. Still think the price per acre to exit is going to be the same here. You know, no key red flags. So
That’s a strategy again. We don’t use it every time. You know, if there’s a longer time that You know between the initial site visit and close And you try to get it as close as possible like we did this other much larger purchase end of last year in South Carolina where we got the broker to visit in less than 24 hours before our money was out the door and We just had a lot riding on this deal and this was when we hadn’t quite proven out
success metrics for, you know, above hundred 25 K purchases. And so it was like really, really critical that we got things right. Plus there was a hurricane that passed through the area. ⁓ what was the one hit Helene that went up the East coast and it like went right through, ⁓ the County and town that we were buying this property in South Carolina. And so we want her mate who knows, like did the hurricane just knock down a whole bunch of trees and the power lines and all that.
And it did a lot of damage in that county and like the title company was out of power for at least a couple of weeks, even delayed our close, but somehow it missed the street that our property was on. Um, you know, but we had the broker go out there and double check on everything. Uh, or at least drive by for the, after the hurricane. And then that day prior, we also got them to check out the property again, because there was also mature timber on it as well too. And like,
You you want to trust people, it’s all, you know, I trust, but verify, and especially if there could be some, you know, marketable assets on a property, it’s just like, okay, ⁓ you know, you, you, you all, again, always want to believe the best in folks, but like, who knows maybe the seller or they have some relation or friend or whatever, ⁓ contractor head onto the property and like, okay, let’s just, you know, we’re about to sell this thing, but let’s also like, you know,
collect the assets, chop everything down potentially and take it off. know it sounds almost a bit paranoid, but to me, ⁓ again, you can’t be too careful before buying something that is ⁓ potentially catastrophic for your business if things go wrong. So we like to keep those downside scenarios in mind. again, just try to give your broker a heads up. You could even, thinking ahead, you could even do this.
you and you first reach out to them. like, yeah, if you could do a site visit for us, but just know like before the close to, we always like to do just one final site visit, make sure, you know, who knows something could change in that last 24 hours ⁓ on the property key red flags before you purchase. So that’s just another due diligence checklist item that, you know, we incorporate within our business. ⁓ Something you might want to consider as well.
Again, tricky industry. I’ve been talking to a lot of people. Things are… There’s a lot of folks who might be putting on a brave face, but a lot of struggle going underneath the surface here. So you really gotta fight hard for wins in this industry at the moment. Real estate’s going through a bit more of a down cycle across much of the country, as I’ve talked about. So protect.
your capital, protect your assets and opportunities, do whatever it takes to double check before you send any money out. Hopefully this is helpful. 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 pricing tool on the market. Subscribe and share. Take care everybody. Talk to you tomorrow. Bye.
