How to Find Land Deals Builders Actually Want | Craig Whiting

Craig Whiting (00:00)
How to find the deals. I teach people how to find the land deals, how to underwrite the land deals, how to value the land deals, so that when you send something to the developer or builder, you’re sending something that’s going to taste good to them. You’re fishing with good bait right there. They then want to do business with you. And part of that is the builders don’t need agents, they need deals. But if you can show them you’ve got the deals, they suddenly need you. And it’s a really easy way to get builders to interact and do business with you.

Meghan Escobar (01:56)
Hello everyone. Welcome back to Real Estate Pros Podcast hosted by Investor Fuel. I’m your host today, Meghan Escobar. And today I have the pleasure of sitting down with a fine gentleman here who’s doing so many different things. I don’t even know where to begin, but what we’re gonna focus on today is how to build a business in the land niche—land niche, which I think is—is gonna be an incredible subject and topic for our audience to hear. It’s not something that I have—I have heard yet. And so I’m excited to dive into this subject a little bit more with Craig who’s an expert in this subject. And so with that being said, thank you again for taking the time to be here. As I know you are very busy out here doing many, many different things. So for those of you that are watching and may not be familiar with what that world even is or what it means, give us a 30,000-foot view, Craig, of what that is. You know, what does that mean and and where’s the opportunity there?

Craig Whiting (02:59)
Yeah, Meghan, thanks for so much for having me on. It’s an honor to be on Investor Fuel and I’m—I’m—I’m—thank you for having me here. So land is a misunderstood topic, and because of that, a lot of people stay away from that. Because people stay away from that, it provides a rich, rich, rich opportunity for those that are willing to learn about it and engage in it. So with land, you have so many opportunities. There are builders and developers who are constantly buying land, developing it, and then selling the product types they’re building from it. And as a real estate pro, you have the opportunity to not only find them the land, but also to represent them on what they end up building after the fact. So you can pick up numerous deals from one transaction and these builders and developers become repeat buyers year after year after year. You don’t need very many of these relationships to have a super solid six-digit business and you only even need to work part-time. It’s not hard to bring these things together. But the challenge is people generally don’t go after land because they don’t understand it. Because they don’t understand it, they stay away from

Meghan Escobar (03:56)
Mm, absolutely. That sounds like lots of opportunity. And you know, one thing that caught my attention prior to getting on here was you already have a super successful brokerage running, and you’ve also now incorporated a coaching program called The Land Niche. So that’s not an easy thing to navigate, right? To have a successful brokerage with 90 agents, still, you know, creating time for home life, and the six kids, you know, talk to us a little bit about what helps you keep that machine running smoothly and how you’re able to, you know, keep yourself going.

Craig Whiting (04:38)
Yeah, well, if you want the real answer, and I’ll give it to you here, is that I’ve found that the more you serve others in your life, the more everything tends to work out in your life. Cast your bread upon the waters and shall return to you after many days. The brokerage really is just a gift to teach other agents how to build their businesses and feed their families. Same with The Land Niche coaching program. It’s just to teach other agents how to build a really successful business based on the land niche and how they can feed their families. I find joy in that. And what I find is if I’m giving value to other people at a high level, all the other aspects of my life, whether it’s my relationship with my wife, my relationship with my six kids, my own personal investments, my own representation of buyers and sellers, those things tend to go so much better. They tend to be magnified so much better. So it’s all about giving back to others as much as you can, pushing value out to the universe. The universe then rewards you in return. And yes, even though I’m busy, my life is exceptionally, exceptionally fruitful, abundant, and very edifying.

Meghan Escobar (06:19)
Hmm. It’s a beautiful thing to hear. And you know, you hear people say all the time, Well, I don’t have time. Well, you can’t tell me that after chatting with Craig because this guy is, you know, like he said, up at six AM and sleeps at midnight and he’s still energized and, you know, loving what he does. So it’s finding the passion, I think, in what you do.

Craig Whiting (06:41)
Yes, absolutely.

Meghan Escobar (06:44)
And every operator and entrepreneur that I’ve had the opportunity to sit with and chat with, you know, there’s always a moment in time where things got real for them. And that could be a deal that had gone sideways or a time that they had to pivot really fast. And that was either gonna make or break them. You know, they were either throwing in the white flag and surrendering to it all and or or you know, they kept pushing forward. Would you mind Craig sharing one of those moments for you?

Craig Whiting (07:13)
Okay, let’s back up to the Great Recession. So right before that happened, I was very successful as a loan officer at the time. And then I got my real estate license to I thought just to sort of just focus on my own investments, but I ended up buying multiple pieces of land then and multiple properties. The Great Recession happened. My net worth went from a few hundred thousand in the positive to negative six digits. As if I sold everything I had, I would be that much in the hole. And I was in my twenties at the time. And so I had an opportunity there to stare life in the face and really decide what was—what kind of person I was going to be. I chose to not file bankruptcy or short sale on anything that I had. I chose to pay every creditor back every single penny that that I had borrowed. In order to do that, I was cash advancing on credit cards. I was borrowing tens of thousands of dollars from from friends and family members. And as you said, I have six kids. All those mouths to feed was a superbly difficult time in my life. If there was any time that I never wanted to wake up and and that was that time. If there’s a moment of anxiety and depression, it was that. But I realized a few things. Well, number one, every time you you fall down, you stand back up. Number two, relying on a higher power to help push through moments like that. And number three, realizing that if you do push through, you are going to now have gained the character in life that the higher power intends you to have anyway. And so it’s in our life is so much about challenge. But what’s the purpose of that challenge? The challenge is really to develop who we are. And why is that important is that if we’re now developed in our character, we can then give back to the universe. And so that’s really what it was. So I didn’t give up. I didn’t quit. I didn’t throw in the towel. I didn’t switch industries. I stayed right where I was. I ended up going back to school, got a master’s degree in real estate development, developed my network even further. And I and I realized that through the—this land niche actually helped really vault me out of what was going on at the time because I started doing deals with builders and developers. And that started bringing an income that was above and beyond just normal helping of a residential buyer and residential seller.

Meghan Escobar (09:13)
That’s incredible. And you know, that’s really the stuff I feel like is not talked about enough. And honestly, it’s it’s truly what separates folks who are here to just dabble and, you know, make a couple of transactions, make a couple of dollars versus the ones who are here to stay in the game long term and to be able to impact more lives. And for you, it it sounds like, you know, that’s that’s where you are at this stage in your life where you’ve created enough assets, you’ve created enough income for you, and now it’s: How many people can I help create their success?

Craig Whiting (09:46)
That’s exactly right. Absolutely right. There there is a it’s incumbent upon us to give back in large quantities.

Meghan Escobar (09:55)
Yeah, that’s incredible to hear to know that, you know, there are people out here that are actually giving back and creating a differences for, you know, people who might not know where to start and so let me ask you this, Craig, you know, what are you most focused on scaling next? What’s the next real big goal for for you?

Craig Whiting (10:49)
Yeah, that that’s great questions. And I’ll answer them in more than one way. So in one way, I invest in land myself. So the beautiful thing is, you know, you start representing buyers and developers and helping them buy land. And at some point your your income and your assets get to a point where like you see a good deal and realize you you you’re about to send that to a developer or a builder, and then you realize, wait a minute, why am I doing this? I should just go buy that myself. And then you go and buy that yourself. And then you partner with the developer-builder to come in and build it for you, which I’ve done many, many times. So I recently acquired some ground where I’ve got a builder that’s gonna come in and he’s gonna build 10 townhomes. I’m gonna get all the commissions, I’m gonna get a portion of the equity as well. He’s gonna be doing all the building on that. And so expanding that aspect of what I’m doing at this stage, but then also teaching others who are in real estate how to create these relationships with builders and developers. And how to find the deals. I teach people how to find the land deals, how to underwrite the land deals, how to value the land deals, so that when you send something to the developer or builder, you’re sending something that’s going to taste good to them. You’re fishing with good bait right there. They then want to do business with you. And part of that is the builders don’t need agents, they need deals. But if you can show them you’ve got the deals, they suddenly need you. And it’s a really easy way to get builders to interact and do business with you. And so that so what part of what this future like steps for me is I would love to teach other people how to do this and help really escalate their business, bring it to a much higher level. And so I so I’m I’m doing that through coaching. thelandniche.com is a website you can connect with me on. But that so just doing my own personal investing in land and teaching others how to to have a land business representing buyers and builders and developers and then eventually becoming that person who is likewise buying land, entitling it, selling off, increasing the value, various things to really build your own portfolio of of assets.

Meghan Escobar (12:42)
Wow, that’s huge. So on top of what you already have, now you you’re looking to expand further into the education side of things and and really just keep climbing the ladder there. So it sounds like that’s gonna just help compound things for you, maybe create a little chaos in in between, but depending on how it’s played. So thank you for sharing that. And I know, a lot of our listeners, they’re either very early on in their journey looking to get their feet wet in the real estate world, maybe not knowing you know where to begin or you know the other half of our our audiences they’ve been in the game a while and they’re they’re looking for the next big opportunity and you know where to level up next. And I think they would benefit from hearing this here, Craig. Like when it comes to you know building relationships and growing your network, we talked a little bit about how you you know within your company you have mastermind groups where you all come together and all of that is great. But outside of that, when it comes to building relationships as you have with your builders and where you’re heading now, what would you say has made the biggest difference for you?

Craig Whiting (13:49)
I mean, it was super helpful for me to get a master’s degree in real estate development because it became a moment where I was networking on a daily basis with people going through a similar program. And so that built those relationships. But that I say that it that was a the the thing that sort of vaulted me out of challenges of the Great Recession. But people can accomplish the exact same thing without having to go to a two-year degree to make that happen. Because you you can easily begin networking with builders and developers, with—without being in the same classes as them. And like I said, fish with good bait. You bring deals to them, they’re going to want to do business with you. Connect with them on LinkedIn. It’s so easy to go after land acquisition managers, bring them good business, and you develop a relationship with them. And then you start to create your circle of influence within that realm to really have a solid foundation upon which to build.

Meghan Escobar (14:39)
Solid piece of advice there, folks. Definitely grab your pen and paper and write that down. So networking and who you surround yourself with is truly what is going to help you get to the next level. And I hear that over and over again. So thank you so much for you know sharing that piece of advice, Craig. I think it’s very beneficial.

Craig Whiting (15:40)
Can I add something and an addendum of what I just said? So, like, there’s there’s four words that I really like value. So we built our brokerage on these four words love, serve, connect, and transform. And what you’re talking about is that piece of connection. And we value it so much. So that’s where net networking is massively, massively beneficial. Whether you and whoever you’re building that with. And so I teach my agents and people I coach like it’s all about building those connections. And really providing value to those connections. If you love and that’s your motive for what you’re doing and you serve and you’re thinking about other people before you’re thinking yourself, you will build superb connections with people. That then leads to the transformation process. Now ideally you’re you’re focusing on the transformation of the person you’re serving, but the end result is you will yourself transform in a mighty way.

Meghan Escobar (16:32)
That was even more valuable than what you just shared. And I love those four words, you know, it’s something that I actually incorporate into my life every day as well. So, love, connect, serve, transform, powerful stuff. And you’ve built your company on these four words. Do you mind sharing a little bit more about that?

Craig Whiting (16:51)
Yeah. So when I first like back when I got my real estate license, I thought I was just going to do it for myself, my own personal investing. It’s when I and then I went through the Great Recession, which was a very, very big character-building experience and changed my perspective on a lot of things in life. I opened my—the brokerage in 2013, initially thinking I’ll just do it for myself. Friends and family decided to join. And then it wasn’t until late 2021 that I realized like if I’m gonna really serve the the agents that have joined me, because I only had like 15, 16 at the time, I really need to implement significant systems and teaching methodologies, et cetera, et cetera, to help them expand and grow. So I went from like operating a brokerage from my basement to being a big boy and like going off and getting a brick-and-mortar store, buying my own office building and and then developing systems, building staff around us and creating training programs and training systems to help agents go from zero to hero and stay at hero. And it’s been really fun and it’s been really edifying and abundant to watch agents that are even in their young twenties. Like we had an agent join at age eighteen and within a couple one of his earliest transactions was a two point plus two million plus commercial deal that yes, I had to step in and help him with, but nonetheless, providing the trainings that help agents get rolling and going in life and and finding success. So it’s been a fun journey.

Meghan Escobar (18:07)
Love that. And thank you for sharing so deeply here on the the whole relationship building aspect. I think that’s really important for people to understand, creating the network, getting into the rooms, learning from people who have the experience. You know, relationships are everything in this space and it’s something that you can’t fake. So I really appreciate you sharing that perspective with us. And before we do wrap here, Craig, if somebody did want to reach you and want to connect with you, collaborate with you, learn more from you, what would be the best way for them to touch base? Is it email, phone, website, socials?

Craig Whiting (18:41)
Yeah, you can Google my name, Craig Whiting. But I had to say just go to thelandniche.com. And niche is spelled N-I-C-H-E. So thelandniche.com. And you’ll you’ll be able to connect with me there, especially if you’re interested in this land topic. If you’re an agent and you’re not interested in the land topic, but you just want to connect, Prime Real Estate Experts is the name of my brokerage here in Utah. And primerealestateexperts.com is our website. But you’ll find my contact info at thelandniche.com and you can reach out to and I’m happy to network, answer questions with any of you.

Meghan Escobar (19:10)
Perfect. Well, listen, Craig, thank you so much for your time, sharing your story and more importantly, your perspective. We definitely need more people in this space who are doing things the right way and being authentic and honest. So thank you again for being here. And for those of you that are tuning in, if you got any value from this, please make sure to like and subscribe. We’ve got more conversations coming in with owners and operators, just like Craig Whiting here, who are out here building real businesses in real time with real people. We’ll see you on the next episode.