Welcome to the January 2023 Income Report. 

In this report, I’ll document our revenue and profit as well as doing a deal by deal breakdown of every single property we sold this month.

For each deal, I breakdown what we bought it for, what we sold it for, how much profit we made, how long we owned the property, and our return on investment.

I’ll also give some insight into each property we bought, why it worked well, or maybe why it didn’t.

These are actual numbers and I’m not leaving anything out.

If a deal is a loser, I include that as well just so you can see that everything doesn’t always go perfectly in this business.

At the end of the report I break down where we’re at for the year so far. 

I’m a big fan of the land flipping model of real estate investing. As you’ll see, it can be very lucrative and also rewarding.

We resold our first property using this model in March of 2021 and we’ve been on an accelerating path ever since. 

We’re passionate about real estate investing in general. Land flipping is just one of the many business models that you can choose to pursue as a real estate investor. We dive deep into this model and many others in our real estate investing podcast called Turning Profit. You can find us on Youtube and all the other major podcast platforms.

Before we get into the report, I’d like to invite you to join our new free community. This is a brand new community is designed for you to learn about land flipping and compare notes with other land investors in all stages of the game. JOIN HERE–>>

First, here’s a basic explanation of explanation of how we flip land:

• We build a list of landowners within in a particular group of counties within a state
• The list is narrowed down by acreage range and also removed obvious owners that would not sell to us (city, utility, railroad, etc.)
• We create an offer price for each piece of land using average acreage values for that area
• We send out a 2 page letter to these property owners with our offer
• Some land owners respond and we work out a deals on the quality properties with owners that are motivated to sell
• We sign the contract and move towards closing with a title company, attorney, or escrow company
• We send out a photographer to check out the property and we do a lot of additional research on the property
• We close on these properties with our own cash. If it is a very large purchase, we may work with a money partner
• After we purchase a property, we may do some minor and quick improvements to increase the marketability. This could be brush clearing, a survey, or a perk test.
• We list the property with a local land agent or broker for slightly below retail value to generate a quick sale
• We sell the property and do the exact same process over and over again

That’s the basic process. 

It’s not the only way to invest in land and there are others that “flip” land much differently than we do.

But, this is the way that works for us.

In under 2 years of flipping land and refining how we do things, we’ve brought in over $5.6 million in revenue and nearly half of that is gross profit.

We try to double our money on every deal.

Meaning, if we buy a property for $20,000, we try to net $40,000 after all commissions and closing costs.

Sometimes it works exactly like that, but many times we’re either above or below that benchmark.

I really like this way of doing things for 2 reasons:

#1 The returns are amazing! 

#2 We normally only hold these properties for about 60 days* 

*this month the average was a lot higher than that

There’s a lot of detail that goes into that, but you get the idea.

I’m launching a completely free training program that breaks down every single detail of our entire process.

You’re probably asking, “why free? I bet it’s just an upsell to a premium training program that costs a lot of money”

I have no plans to offer a premium training program. In fact, I’m laying out everything I do in the free program.

Later this year, I may offer a higher end mentorship program that will offer a higher level of support and some tools to help your grow your business if the interest is there.

But for now, I’m not selling anything.

The free training program will be released in our brand new land flipping community.

Join here and let’s connect!

So why in the world would I publish a report like this for the whole world to see?

I’ve got 2 big reasons for creating these reports every single month:

#1 – Motivate ourselves to improve our business (nothing like putting it out there to the public in order to drive progress). 

#2 – Inspire you! My hope is that you’ll see what’s possible and learn valuable lessons (at my expense) which may take you down a path of financial success.

We also like connecting with other investors or lenders with similar goals. You can find us on social media on Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, TikTok, or by email.

Without further delay, let’s get into the good stuff.

Here are the January 2023 statistics:

January 2023 was our best month ever!

For awhile there, I thought we were going to hit our first million dollar month. It wasn’t meant to be because I had a couple deals fall through and a couple more got delayed.

The revenue of $728,137.29 was a big milestone for our business and now I’m confident that a million dollars a month in revenue is well within our reach.

To hit this mark, we sold a total of 11 properties which was a record.

The previous high water mark was 9 sales in July 2023.

On average, we profited $22,774.93 per deal. This number is right in line with our averages profit per deal in all of 2022.

We did over $250,000 in gross profit in January. That breaks down to $8,081.43 in gross profit per day. Not too shabby!

I want to note that this is gross profit. It does not account for all of the expenses in our business such as mail, our staff, software, professional services, and general overhead.

Our average days in inventory skyrocketed (in a not so good way) in January. This was because we sold a bunch of properties that were in our inventory for a long time. 3 of them were one subdivision project that took a while to get done. We also sold a few other properties that took too long to sell for various reasons (breakdown on these in the next section).

Historically our days in inventory has been about 60 days on average. I know we can still average that going forward, so I’m not too concerned about what happened in January.

The other big metric that I track on these reports is the number of pieces of mail sent. Direct mail is the driver to our business. It brings us all of our leads.

I strive to send out 50,000 pieces of mail each month. It’s the most controllable part of our business and it’s a big reason for our success.

This single thing is why we are growing our business at a rapid rate.

This month we were a little short of 50,000, so I’ll make up for the shortfall in February.

Everything was not perfect in January, but it never is.

Overall, I am super happy with the way the month went. It was a big step for our company and motivates me to work to accomplish some big things in 2023.

Deal by Deal Breakdown:

In this section, I break down each deal. The goal of this is to show you how deals vary in their profitability and what is possible in this business.

These are all the deals that closed in January 2023. We purchased the property (normally in a previous month), and then resold the property to a new buyer this month. 

***Acreage and street name have been altered slightly to protect the anonymity of the parties to these transactions.

Purchase Price: The amount we paid for a property including closing costs

Revenue: This is the amount we received after paying commissions and closing costs

Gross Profit: Revenue – Purchase Price – Property Specific Expenses

Days in Inventory: The number of days we owned the property

Return on Investment %: Gross Profit divided by the Purchase Price, times 100

Deal #1 notes: The first deal of 2023 was a really solid one! 

We bought this property for $12,030.92 and resold it for $30,517.53 after all commissions and closing costs. That left us with a gross profit of $17,736.61. We more than doubled our money on this deal and it was a 147.43% return on investment. The best part is this only took 55 days of ownership to make this happen.

This was a smooth deal from beginning to end. It is a nice wooded parcel in a somewhat rural area. There were no real negatives with this property aside from the fact that it was pretty much untouched. We listed this property with a local land agent that we’ve worked with in the past for $45,000. Within a couple of weeks we had a solid offer from a buyer at $35,000. I decided to move forward with this buyer because it would still bring us a healthy profit. It closed pretty quickly and ended up being a nice deal for us.

Deal #2 notes: This was one of my favorite deals we ever did!

We bought this property in December for $62,088.67. We resold it for $156,695.39 after 22 days in our inventory. This deal made us a gross profit of $93,856.72 which was a return on our investment of 151.17%. We more than doubled our money on this property.

This 44 acre property had a large man made pond on it. It was used by the previous owners to mine sand. The pit where they were digging the sand from became a large pond because it naturally filled with the groundwater. The property was overgrown, but it it had a lot of potential. I was planning to get the brush cleared on the front part of the property, but the company was a couple weeks away from being able to get out to the property. So, we decided to just list it with a local land broker in the meantime at a price of $149,900. We instantly had a bunch of interest and multiple offers came in above the listing price. We ended up accepting a quick close cash deal for $175,000. The closing only took a couple of weeks and we ended up making over $93,000. 

I wish every deal was this good!

Deal #3 notes: Not every deal goes perfectly and this one is an example of that.

We bought this property for $98,450.98. Ultimately we ended up selling it for $112,334.99 after all commissions and closing costs. Our gross profit was $13,134.01. The holding time was 84 days in our inventory, which is almost a month longer than our average. The return on our investment was only 13.34% which is far below what we like to achieve.

Here’s what happened on this property. First of all, we didn’t list this property with a local land agent because we didn’t have a good contact in this area. But, we did find a flat fee mls service where we could list the property directly. This meant buyers and agents contacted us directly for information and offers. We initially listed the property for $199,900. We got an offer and negotiated a sale price of $180,000. This buyer was under contract for a couple of weeks and backed out because it would need a long driveway to build a house and it was going to cost too much for them. We put the home back on the market at $149,000 and quickly got another buyer under contract. This buyer backed out for the same reason eventhough we told them about the cost of the driveway from the start. We put the property back on the market again and found a new buyer. This time we negotiated a deal at $120,000 and made sure there were no issues regarding the driveway. This left us a much slimmer deal than normal and ultimately wasn’t worth it to tie up that much cash for that long. But, not all deals are perfect and I should have factored in the long driveway into our negotiation on the purchase.

Deal #4 notes: This big property left us with slim profits.

We bought this property for $77,043.59 and sold it for $95,502.61. The total time in our inventory was 83 days which was longer than we like. Our gross profit was $17,70.92 which made our return on investment 22.99%.

This property was located in an area where we didn’t have an established land broker to work with. So, we put it in the flat fee MLS to market it. We listed it at $149,000 and we had some interest, but weeks went by without any offers. We then reduced it to $129,000 and the phone started ringing. We ultimately accepted a very low offer of $99,000 so we could move on from the property. 

What went wrong: This was a very large 57.5 acre property, but there wasn’t much of it that was very usable because it was pretty sloped. I knew this about the property before we bought it, but I thought that we were buying it for such a good price, that we’d still be able to make a great profit. I ultimately overistimated what I could sell the property for. It wasn’t a loser deal, but I still would rather get a better return on investment from this size of investment.

Deal #5 notes: Not my greatest deal for sure!

We bought this 5.95 acre property for a total of $10,434.10. We resold it many months later for $13,040.52. The total hold time was 221 days which is well beyond our 60 day target. We made a total of $1,856.42 in gross profit. That left us with a 17.79% return on investment.

First of all, this was a fully wooded and untouched property located on a dirt road. There were no big negatives, but also nothing that made it stand out. We initially listed this property for $29,900 and gradually reduced it until we had a buyer step forward. We took a very slim deal in order to move on because it was in our inventory for so long. Ultimately, I overestimated what this property was worth because the area had such little buyer activity. The location makes a big difference and I didn’t take this into account enough when we bought this property last year. This area will still work, but I have to buy properties here a lot cheaper in order to sell them faster.

Deal #6 notes: A very solid deal!

We bought this property for $26,167.19 and resold it for $44,719.80 after all closing costs and commissions. This made our gross profit $17,302.61 after only 58 days of ownership. The return on investment was 66.12%.

This was a really nice property that was well maintained with some access paths and nice trees. It was flat and had no real negatives. We bought this one along with another identical property at the same time from the same owner. We listed it for $49,900 with a local real estate broker and we got a full price cash offer right after we listed it. The transaction went smoothly and it ended up closing on time. The return on investment and profit were lower than our averages, but I would still take a deal like this any day of the week!

Deal #7 notes: Minor subdivision being sold off in separate lots

This property was part of a larger 75 acre property that we split into 5 parcels. In order to split this property up, we had to pay for some additional expenses such as a surveyor, brush clearing, and putting in a gravel road. When combining all of these expenses, and diving the costs equally between the 5 lots, it came to an average of $33,299.35 per lot.

This 15 acre parcel was lot 3 or 5 total. We sold this property for $51,011.00 after all closing costs and commissions. With our cost basis of $33,299.35 on this property, our gross profit was $16,961.65. We held this property in our inventory for a total of 218 days.  Our return on investment worked out to be 34.27%.

Since we had to go through the lot split process, our hold time was way longer than normal. We ran into some things on this property that slowed us down such as the availability of a surveyor, the brush clearing company, and also the contractor to put in the gravel road. In hindsight, we may have made a similar amount just by selling the property as one big lot. It definitely would have been quicker! The expenses for the road were much more than I anticipated which cut into our profit margins drastically.

Deal #8 notes: Another lot in our minor subdivision.

This property was part of a larger 75 acre property that we split into 5 parcels. In order to split this property up, we had to pay for some additional expenses such as a surveyor, brush clearing, and putting in a gravel road. When combining all of these expenses, and diving the costs equally between the 5 lots, it came to an average of $33,299.35 per lot.

This 25 acre parcel was lot number 5 or 5 total and it was the largest. We sold this property for $58,195.00 after all closing costs and commissions. With our cost basis of $33,299.35 on this property, our gross profit was $24,145.65. We held this property in our inventory for a total of 218 days.  Our return on investment worked out to be 72.51%.

Since we had to go through the lot split process, our hold time was way longer than normal. We ran into some things on this project that slowed us down such as the availability of a surveyor, the brush clearing company, and also the contractor to put in the gravel road. In hindsight, we may have made a similar amount just by selling the whole property as one big lot, instead of breaking it up. It definitely would have been quicker! The expenses for the road were much more than I anticipated which cut into our profit margins drastically.

Deal #9 notes: I learned a big lesson on this one!

This 5 acre property was purchased by us for $56,757.65 and resold for $65,234.00. That left us with $7,726.35 in gross profit. The problem was that we held this property for 280 days which is over 9 months. Our return on investment property was a very slim 13.61%.

This is actually a very cool property. It had a rustic cabin on it with no running water. But, it was unique enough that I could have seen it being used as an Airbnb, writer’s retreat, or camping getaway. It was a beautiful setting with large trees and a nice view. The problem was that the surrounding area had very little market activity. There were lots of listings and very few sales. I originally listed this property for $129,900 but gradually had to reduce it because we weren’t getting offers. We ultimately got under contract for $75,000 just to move on from the property. In the right area, this property would have done great, but I underestimated how dead this area was.

Deal #10 notes: I really liked this deal!

We bought this property for $25,991.94 and sold it 68 days later for $44,479.25. We made a gross profit of $17,737.31 which was a 68.24% return on investment.

This was a really nice property that was well maintained with some access paths and nice trees. It was flat and had no real negatives. We bought this one along with another identical property at the same time from the same owner.

We listed this property with a local land broker for $49,900 and a couple weeks later we got a solid full price offer. The closing went smoothly with no issues. Eventhough the profit and return on investment were below average, this was a good deal for us.

Deal #11 notes: The premium lot from our 5 lot subdivision!

This property was part of a larger 75 acre property that we split into 5 parcels. In order to split this property up, we had to pay for some additional expenses such as a surveyor, brush clearing, and putting in a gravel road. When combining all of these expenses, and diving the costs equally between the 5 lots, it came to an average of $33,299.35 per lot.

This 10 acre parcel was lot number 1 or 5 total and it was the only property with road frontage. We sold this property for $56,407.20 after all closing costs and commissions. With our cost basis of $33,299.35 on this property, our gross profit was $22,357.85. We held this property in our inventory for a total of 2227 days.  Our return on investment worked out to be 45.17%.

Since we had to go through the lot split process, our hold time was way longer than normal. We ran into some things on this project that slowed us down such as the availability of a surveyor, the brush clearing company, and also the contractor to put in the gravel road. In hindsight, we may have made a similar amount just by selling the whole property as one big lot, instead of breaking it up. It definitely would have been quicker! The expenses for the road were much more than I anticipated which cut into our profit margins drastically.

Year to Date 2023:  

2023 Year to Date (YTD) Statistics

Each month I include a section at the end where we look at our year to date metrics.

Since we just completed January, the numbers are exactly the same as the month figures. So, there isn’t anything to add here.

The returns from the way we buy and sell land can be very substantial. That is especially true when you consider the short hold time and annualize the Return on Investment.

Let’s use Deal #10 as an example.

The return on investment was 68.24%, which is amazing in the world of investments. 

We bought this property for $25,991.94 and sold it for $44,479.25 with a hold time of 68 days.

I’m highlighting this property because it’s pretty typical and actually below average in a couple of ways.

If you were to keep this money invested for the whole year, the annualized return on investment would be 366.29%!!

And, that’s not considering any compounding effects either.

Where are you going to find returns like that?

In the stock market, if you’re getting a steady 10% a year, you’re crushing it.

But, if 10% a year is crushing it, what is 366.29% per year called?

How can you do the same thing as an investor and get these kind of returns? 

The first thing you’ve got to do is start learning.

It’s not rocket science, but it’s also not as basic as it seems.

Here’s a short list of some of the basics you’ve got to learn to make this work:

• How the business model itself works
• How to get the leads coming in
• Where are the best regions to find deals?
• How to evaluate properties. What makes a good property and what makes a property not desirable
• What software and tools to use to give yourself an unfair advantage
• How to talk with property owners that want to sell
• How to navigate the escrow/title process in multiple different states to buy a property
• How to find the best on the ground partners in each location
• How to find a buyer for your property in a short amount of time for a good price
• How to negotiate with sellers and buyers.
• How to build a team so you’re not doing everything yourself
• How to put a business system in place to automate processes and keep your business organized

You can also find a bunch of free content on our Youtube channel and on our podcast about real estate investing.

Just as a disclaimer, investing money comes with risk. Research any investments heavily before putting any of your money at risk. It’s never a good idea to risk more than what you can afford to lose.

And, you can also check out this page that features other podcasts and outlets where I’ve been interviewed and talk about land flipping.

If you’ve got funds that you would like a better return on, please fill out this form. I’m looking for private money lenders that want to earn a great return on their money secured by these deeply discounted properties we’re buying.

We know that the figures in this report may seem unattainable at first glance, but this did not just “happen” overnight. Like any business, we made progress and improvements over time to get to our current income level.

That wraps up the January 2023 Income Report. Sign up here to be notified the minute a new report is published.

P.P.S. In case you missed it, here are the links to my past income reports:

• 2022 Year in Review Report $3,474,800.60
• December 2022 Income Report $256,473.60 
• November 2022 Income Report $440,368.81
• October 2022 Income Report $275,462.13
• September 2022 Income Report $281,160.95
• August 2022 Income Report $322,223.92
• July 2022 Income Report $495,885.83 
• June 2022 Income Report $178,831.06
• May 2022 Income Report $208,782.57
  
• April 2022 Income Report $264,322.07
• March 2022 Income Report $479,193.91
  
• February 2022 Income Report $67,143.23
• January 2022 Income Report $204,952
  
• 2021 Year in Review Report