How to Turn Raw Land Into Millions with Land Entitlement Deals

Greg Farricielli (00:00)
Yeah, I think that anybody can do it. I think you have to learn that you have to the quick dopamine hits of closing deals quick. You have to learn how to manage that, you know, ⁓ and we teach this. we dirt two millions as a school community that you can join, and then you can learn everything that we talk about in the book. have our monthly webinars, we have guests.

And we have all the resources that I’ve just been building out in the classroom of, you know, could be AI prompts, scripts. We use a lot of AI, learning a lot of AI implementing in our business. and then it’s just basic grassroots stuff, like stuff that you probably people already know and just need to relearn.

Scott Bursey (02:10)
Welcome back to the Real Estate Pros podcast powered by Investor Fuel. I’m your host Scott Bursey. And today we’re unlocking the secrets to turning raw potential into massive returns. Our guest, Greg Farricielli is bringing the ultimate fuel of creation. The blueprint for turning dirt to millions. He’s the mastermind behind land entitlement deals in Nashville, taking raw land to shovel ready.

and consistently delivering three to four times returns for Investors and National Home Builders. Get ready for an explosion of high octane strategy pros because Greg is here to show us how to build wealth from the ground up. Let’s fire this thing up. Greg, welcome to the show.

Greg Farricielli (02:50)
I appreciate you having me.

Scott Bursey (02:51)
It’s an honor to have you here and for our listeners who may not be familiar with your journey, please give us the front row seat and how your career ignited and where you’re pouring your fuel now.

Greg Farricielli (03:01)
Great question. I’ll started around 2015 as real estate agents and learning how to navigate a new type of job at that time. Started doing residential retail and working with listings and buyers and started working with a wholesaler, which I didn’t know there was a difference of type of real estate at that time. And I learned a lot of not to do, but I also learned

how to close quite a few deals and different type of real estate that people didn’t understand, which was great. And part of that, there was a lot of land leads that would come in. So the first development we did was like 12 units and a pioneering end of town. And we started there and I made a relationship with a builder. And over time, I started making more relationships with builders and finding people that are doing multiple deals a year. And I just started focusing on that.

We were building 40, 50, 60 houses a year for a few years, and that just kind of started burning us out. So we pivoted to just doing land development because we had so many deals. We were burnt out. couldn’t even execute them all. So we just thought it’d be a good idea to just start selling the dirt after we would subdivide them and have them entitled and they’re ready for somebody to just to go ahead and go vertical.

So we started realizing that there was a huge demand for that. Builders were wanting shovel ready projects and we were making just as much money, just passing the paper without taking any risk, taking any loans out. And then we decided to just amplify that to doing larger deals, know, 50 to a hundred units doing very creative type of projects and passing them to.

a mix of national home builders and regional local home builders.

Scott Bursey (05:32)
Thank you for that. And that is truly fascinating, Greg. You know, what really caught my attention about you was the way that you’ve been able to take raw land to a shovel ready asset and consistently return three to four times invested capital. That level of value creation is pure Investor Fuel.

Greg Farricielli (05:50)
Yeah, that’s true. A lot of it had to do with the markets shifting from 2019 to 2022 when these eggs will be bought and exited. That is still possible to do now, even though it’s a lot harder because banks aren’t lending to builders like they were before. And now you have to be a lot more intentional about finding the right buyers first and then

going back and reverse engineering the right deal, but those deals are still out there. You do have to invest a significant more amount of capital to make that type of return. Now you’re in the mid seven figures to get a mid seven low eight figure deal done because that’s just, you have to add that much value.

Scott Bursey (06:31)
Greg, now that we’re dialed in, let’s talk strategy for our pros who want to accelerate their returns in land development. How does specializing in raw land to shovel ready enable your firm to consistently deliver three to four times capital returns?

Greg Farricielli (06:47)
Well, a lot of it is knowing who the buyer is first. We spent a lot of times talking to the buyers and their demand, where they’re buying, how the property needs to be positioned, what type of utilities they need, what they pay for a paper pad, what they pay for a finished pad, what, how they get their money, like who’s making decisions and really knowing your end buyer, you’re kind of doing a shotgun approach where you’re just

You’re not having a list of 5,000. You’re going after maybe 150 properties in an area or a hundred properties. And that takes time too, because a lot of these sellers are, they’re not very motivated. They live on, they paid 30 grand for a farm that’s worth $4 million now. So you’re, you’re looking for the motivation throughout the time that you’re talking to the sellers and also making relationships with brokers and agents that are working that same deal too.

So it’s a combination of knowing who the buyer is, knowing how to work with the sellers, and learning how to get uncomfortable in different markets that you may not be familiar with. You may have to go outside your market. It’s a national level. It’s not gonna be a local level all the time.

Scott Bursey (07:56)
Thank you for sharing that, Greg. And Greg, I find your ⁓ book, Dirt to Millions, just truly fascinating. Could you elaborate on your publication, please?

Greg Farricielli (08:06)
Yeah, dirt to millions. I wrote that because everyone used to ask me what I did, especially my peers, because I would starting with the same people. They’re still trying to find listings where I’m like, you know, moved to Florida for four years and they’re like, well, what do you do? So this having the book was definitely the best way to describe what we do. And it’s the framework of how you, as an agent or a wholesaler, how you can kind of pivot what you’re already doing.

and just change your thought process and your strategy to be able to do this. Anybody can do this. It just takes more time than people are used to. And you have to have a significant runway of capital. And maybe you don’t get paid for a year. You know, have to be able to hold properties, you have to be able to work with investors and bring in partners and be able to execute deals so these investors want to keep working with you.

Scott Bursey (08:54)
That’s some pure gold right there. What is the biggest time or capital constraint when managing the entitlement and approval process for a 500 lot assemblage?

Greg Farricielli (09:38)
Yeah. 500. We like to stay around the, the 100 to 200, but the 500s are great too. And then it’s, it’s longer of time. would say even talking to national home builders this week, you know, they need a two year process. So we may need a year or so before that to get it ready for them, because we get it ready for them based upon whatever their requirements are. But then they have to almost start over and take our surveys and stuff and re verify and go through the process themselves to get it.

build ready for them on a contingency. So if you’re looking at 500 units, you know, there’s people right now that are looking at about a four to five year window out to be able to find something, get it entitled, find the right seller to work with them. You’re going to have to most likely close on these deals, doing them on assignment anymore is tough because the seller is not going to wait three, four or five years. Now you can maybe get some owner financing with them, maybe get a two year balloon, maybe so you’re, you’re not putting all your cash out upfront.

But it’s going to, you’re going to have to get super creative with these sellers that there know it’s going to be a long time. And sometimes of course we can pay more, but if they just want to sell, if they’re wanting to sell, it’s usually now. you want to either keep them happy with giving them non-refundable deposits that get released to them throughout the period of time, or just having to close on the deal and get it off of their hands and your ownership sooner. And then also got to be careful about your end buyer and also your, how are you buying? If you’re not using cash.

and you’re using a bank for instance, or they’re going to come in, you have to get rid of that first position. So there’s going to be a time where they’re not going to want that seller in first position. So there’s going to be a time where you have to be ready to close on the deal and then also have the funds to be able to get the entitlements and all of the engineering and stuff, whatever you need done. So you have your entitlement risk, your earnest money risk is usually, you know, pretty high.

And then you have to plan on how you’re going to close on the, on the first sale of the property before you pass it to the second buyer.

Scott Bursey (11:35)
Speed is definitely fuel. And I know that you play the long game. Can you give us some of your long ⁓ range vision, please?

Greg Farricielli (11:44)
Yeah. I I would love to do my vision would be one to two deals a year. Some that are under a hundred units, 50 units that you could push in a year, you know, the twenties, the thirties, you know, work and even work with single family stuff that you have to do in between while you’re getting working capital to have for these deals. But if I can do one or two entitlement deals a year would be fantastic. Maybe in between that you do 20 or 30 smaller land deals, like whether their land flips.

buying them and selling them on owner financing or just building them out yourself, hiring a contractor builder. You know, you got to be careful that you’re not spending too much time in that space. You know, I leverage everything, even though I have a, I’m a licensed agent. still hire real estate agents to sell my stuff. I hire contractors. pay them their fees. I’m happy to do that because it allows me to spend time finding more deals and then executing the ones I have that need my time and attention.

Scott Bursey (12:36)
That’s exactly the type of spark right there that starts a flare, Greg. And now let’s shift gears. And very curious to know, outside of Nashville, where do you see the next big overlooked opportunity for land assemblage deals right now?

Greg Farricielli (12:41)
Yeah.

And that’s the magic question. And that’s what I don’t really know. That’s what I’m looking at right now. What I do see is a trend of outside of metro cities where more rural areas where people are still buying either manufactured or new construction for, you know, 250 to 350,000, maybe up to 400.

those are going to be, you know, an hour or so out of any metropolitan area. And I’m starting to see national home builders pick up in those areas where they normally wouldn’t before the closer you get to a city, the more saturated, the higher the price that you need to buy the land, the less motivated the sellers. But I’m seeing, I’m seeing the opportunities in the rural areas. I think more than anything right now.

is probably what I would focus on if I were going to just have something on the side.

Scott Bursey (13:40)
It really boils down to anticipation. ⁓ Thank you for that very good explanation. And Greg, if someone’s listening to this and they’re thinking to themselves, hey, this is somebody that I like to learn from. What would you like them to know first about your business?

Greg Farricielli (14:36)
Yeah, I think that anybody can do it. I think you have to learn that you have to the quick dopamine hits of closing deals quick. You have to learn how to manage that, you know, ⁓ and we teach this. we dirt two millions as a school community that you can join, and then you can learn everything that we talk about in the book. have our monthly webinars, we have guests.

And we have all the resources that I’ve just been building out in the classroom of, you know, could be AI prompts, scripts. We use a lot of AI, learning a lot of AI implementing in our business. and then it’s just basic grassroots stuff, like stuff that you probably people already know and just need to relearn.

And the more AI is getting better and better and more used.

I think the grassroots skills of talking to people and showing up and knocking on doors and making phone calls is going to be more scarce. But I think the better people are going to respond to that. Then they are the AI. And I’ve noticed that on my, used to have an AI agent that would, she’s fantastic. She answers the phone. She could have a full conversation, but

People, soon as they know that they’re AI, hang up. You they’re losing credibility. Now there’s AI agents, people that make these that are like, Hey, I could swear by mine and everybody thinks a human. When you’re talking about their property and you have to ask really, really specific questions, you know, I’m always, I’m pulling, have maps in front of me. am dialing in my micro questions that AI just will not be able to pick up on that.

builds rapport and then they want to talk to a normal person or a human. So I think AI is fantastic in our business because now I can do due diligence in seconds that would take me weeks and I could build lists fast. But when it comes to the human interaction, you have your AI as your first means of communication, but then it has to go to a human in between and then AI could take over after that.

Scott Bursey (16:26)
Thank you for highlighting that, Greg. you know, kind of on that note, where do you feel the biggest opportunity is right now? This could be a market shift, new offering, or just a part of your business that you want to double down on.

Greg Farricielli (16:38)
Yeah. I, you know, again, part of my business, I would say, well, I mean, definitely looking at rural areas. ⁓ second, I think the education platform is huge right now. And I think everybody has a story and they have knowledge that somebody else wants to know. And teachers that are in schools are not the teachers anymore. Like they’re teaching kids and that’s a whole new, different, all different system.

But a lot of the people that are building wealth are finding people like me that have done something and could give it to somebody else. So I think education and coaching and masterminds for sure. Finding the right people and getting in the right rooms because there is so much noise is super important. And then.

AI is fantastic and there’s so many rabbit holes and everybody’s opening AI businesses. Everybody’s building AI agents. I think that’s fantastic, but you can’t get away with what your business needs specifically and not getting a rabbit hole of all these other things. Like I can build something for my business. I’m tempted to build a CRM and just have everybody. And then it’s a whole new business monthly, more promoting more infrastructure. And you got to.

Dial in like where your time is worth the most for me is still just finding another land deal I love teaching in the school community But you know if I can make a million dollars off of a land deal and spend 20 hours on it two years and It’s a lot better than you know, just always having to hustle and find new people plus it’s a time freedom, too So you always have to be like you always make more money

but you have to know like where your time is best spent and where your best hours are during the day. You know, not everybody’s like, I have a good, I’m solid for maybe three or four really solid hours. Other than that, I could maintain and do stuff. like if I’m making phone calls and having conversations, it’s in a very small window of, of energy that I have to want to do that and do it well.

Scott Bursey (18:19)
That’s.

Absolutely, and you do do it very well. What’s some short term strategy if you could give us maybe the next 12 to 18 month plan, Greg?

Greg Farricielli (18:46)
I think is looking for smaller stuff that are, are you can flip quickly. There are a lot of markets in the country that summer distress, but there’s just a lot of saturated lots. There’s subdivisions that with no houses, you know, all over places like Florida and Arizona that you could just do quick flips that people just trade lots. You know, we had a tax, we bought 17 tax deeds in Florida one time and

We thought we’d have to get a clear title and wait four years, but we’ve traded 12 of them so far because people just want to be able to have something that they can make more money on at one point. So going for the smaller stuff in the probably in the pockets where houses are selling for like no more than, you know, 400 grand where you can get a pad for in the twenties to thirties is probably what I would, we’re going to start focusing on more in the future for sure.

And then also that same model in the rural areas, like the five to 20 acres, people are, you know, people want to be off grid. People want to build a house later. So you can almost use that model and the $150,000 price point instead of the 20, but you know, probably flipping some of those, you know, I’ve got some under contract right now that I’m going to relist for more.

And I’m going to couple that I’m going to actually just build out myself. doing stuff like that in the meantime is, is really good, especially in between looking for these larger entitlement deals.

Scott Bursey (20:07)
You just moved the needle for a lot of people, Greg. And you’ve given us such great, great words of wisdom today, great advice, but is there any additional information that you’d like to leave with our pros today?

Greg Farricielli (20:20)
Well, mean, so a couple of resources I would say is we have our Deutra Billions book. You can get on Amazon, you can join our school community and learn in depth about land in general. It’s land to wealth. I haven’t started yet, but I’m going to add a lot of modules about owner financing dirt. I like to buy land and sell them on owner financing instead of buying rentals because I don’t have to deal with rentals. That’s a whole nother subject. ⁓ We have the school community and then also the developer collective.

It’s a group of curated developers and operators in certain areas that is going to go national. Right now there’s a few local chapters and we get together and it’s a very high level group of developers. Everybody’s very transparent. We get to know each other on a personal level and we are able to curate deals, find financing. We’re able to even get questions and find subcontractors. It’s a lot easier than like just trying to Google or go into a Facebook group.

You know, it’s nice because you have the top of the funnel in a group that you could easily get information questions and stuff like that. And also, ⁓ if you’re looking for lending, also do fix and flip loans. We do a new construction and bridge loans. ⁓ I work, I own stacked capital and I partner with full cycle funding and together we, we do those and we’ve closed. I mean, we did two construction loans. One was 10 day close. One was 14 day close.

We make our own decisions. We’re in-house. We have our own fund and we know what we’re doing. My partner’s been doing it for about 35 years. And we’re also looking for capital. We pay 10.5 % to investors that are credit investors that will invest their capital with us.

Scott Bursey (21:58)
Thank you for that, Greg. You really brought the fuel today. And for those of our listeners that would like to continue this conversation or collaborate with you, what is the best way for them to reach you?

Greg Farricielli (22:09)
Yeah, well, my name is Greg Farricielli There’s no other one. There’s no fake profiles right now. So Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, dirttomillions.com or it’s just simple [email protected], but I’m pretty easy to find. By design.

Scott Bursey (22:23)
Greg, thank

you so much for joining us here today.

Greg Farricielli (22:25)
Yeah, thanks for having me.

Scott Bursey (22:27)
And to our listeners, we appreciate you. If you got value from today’s episode, please subscribe. We’ll be filling your tanks with elite guests, just like Greg, who are accelerating and setting the pace for the rest of the industry. Until next time, keep your standards high and your vision clear. We’ll see you in the next episode, everyone.