Land Flipping for Beginners: How Michael Bull Buys and Sells Land Nationwide

Michael Bull (00:00)
I could put a marginal amount of effort compared to what I was used to in wholesaling of single family homes into the land space and make exponentially more money. So, you know, I created what I would consider a lifestyle business. Like I personally don’t love to work, right? I like to hang out with my family, I like to hang out with my kids, I like to be outside, I like to do whatever I want to do. So I want to go make as much money as I can and work as little as possible. I know that’s like the pie in the sky goal for most people, but I really found that in land is I could build a really good lifestyle around my business.

Freddie Steen (02:05)
Hey everyone, welcome to the Real Estate Pros Investor Fuel Podcast. I’m your host, Freddie. And today I’m joined by someone I’ve been looking forward to chatting with for quite some time. Michael Bull, the CEO of The Land Station, who’s been making serious moves in land development, that niche space in real estate. Michael, I’m glad to have you here. And I think our listeners are really going to take something away from how you’re approaching the kinds of land that you’re developing, making sure that you’re diversifying that in your business. So let’s dive in. So first off, for people who may not be familiar with your niche in the real estate world, give us the short version. What’s your main focus these days? And what markets are you operating in? Yeah.

Michael Bull (02:57)
Yeah, Freddie. Well, first of all, thanks for having me. It’s an honor to be here. I appreciate it. You know, we, our niche in real estate is a really small niche. We really are just buying and selling them. So we actually don’t do any improvements to the lots at ever. We do mass marketing to landowners across the country. We work in all 50 states, every county across the US. We try and purchase these lots really as cheap as we can, and then we turn around and we sell them. So a pretty niche world in real estate. We don’t do any improvements to the land. You just buy and turn around and sell.

Freddie Steen (03:28)
That’s awesome. So again, let’s dive deeper. Let’s talk about this niche of value add to existing lots that you may own. How did you approach that and how did that catch your fancy?

Michael Bull (03:40)
Yeah, well when I first started the business back in 2020, the business model was just it was no value-add, right? It was buy a piece of land, turn around, sell it. And then over the years, as more and more people entered the space, competition got a little bit tighter. And that was an opportunity where we could kind of get away from the competition. Most people weren’t doing that. So old business model, buy land, turn around, sell it. And now it shifted a little bit. Now we used to we still do a lot of standard land flips, but now the business model shifted to how can we improve the land in some way, shape, or form, you know, to to maximize however much we’re gonna sell it for? So, you know, we do it for a couple reasons. One, we make more money by adding value to land, contributing something to the property. And number two, most people aren’t doing it in space. So if we can do it, then you know we can.

Freddie Steen (04:28)
So first off, for people who may not be familiar with with your world, I also want to add that your raison d’être, your reason for getting into real estate was really lifestyle. Is that correct?

Michael Bull (04:43)
Yeah, it was it was a lifestyle thing for me. I I’ve been in real estate since I was younger. I grew up in a family on real estate. So I always knew I wanted to be in real estate in s in some way. I came up through the wholesaling single family world, which I’m sure most of you are familiar with, wholesaling houses. We did it across the country. I thought it was really difficult. It was so hard to start that business. And then I had a friend show me the world of land and it just like opened up my eyes. And that was back in 2020. And that’s where I was drawn to it, is I could I could put a marginal amount of effort compared to what I was used to in wholesaling of single family homes into the land space and make exponentially more money. So, you know, I created what I would consider a lifestyle business. Like I personally don’t love to work, right? I like to hang out with my family, I like to hang out with my kids, I like to be outside, I like to do whatever I want to do. So I want to go make as much money as I can and work as little as possible. I know that’s like the pie in the sky goal for most people, but I really found that in land is I could build a really good lifestyle around my business. So rather than the other way around when people are building a business around their lifestyle. I’m sorry. I could build a business around my lifestyle. Not my lifestyle around the business. Yeah.

Freddie Steen (05:53)
I love it. I love it. What caught my attention about you, Michael, was the way you’ve also been able to handle the marketing piece of this with the direct marketing being so important to the life lifeblood of your business. That’s not easy, especially in this climate. What’s been the key to keeping that machine running smoothly?

Michael Bull (07:02)
Yeah, it’s good question because you know, the land we you know, land flipping business is just a fancy name. We’re a direct response business. So we send out a lot of marketing via direct mail, cold texting, cold to cold calling. And if we don’t send out that marketing, nothing comes in. The more we send out, the more leads we get, the more deals we get. So one of the most common things I see people struggle with in the space is consistency because what happens is people will jump in and month one they’ll send some direct mail and if they don’t get anything back, they stop. Or maybe they’ll do it for two or three months. If they don’t get anything back, they stop. When you have to be consistent and you have to stick with it for you know four or five, six months sometimes to really start to see results. So in a direct response business, specifically in the land flipping space, it the most important thing that people can have coming into the business is consistency with whatever marketing chance.

Freddie Steen (07:54)
Yeah. Can you give our audience full of real estate pros, chock full of real estate pros, an example of how you had a client that was not consistent that you worked with that became consistent and how that impacted their bottom line? Just at a thirty thousand foot view. Yeah.

Michael Bull (08:11)
I see it all the time. We come into the business, we send 5,000 letters. Let’s say it costs us 2,500 bucks to send it out, and we don’t get a deal. And then four months down the line, we think, I’m gonna pick up this land thing again. And then we send out 5,000 text messages, and then we don’t get a deal. And then six months down the line, we try it again. And when I, you know, I see this time and time again, try and work with these people. We you know, we we coach quite a few people in the land space, and we can get it to let’s say we have a budget that we’re gonna allocate with starting our rather than just spending it all month one or spending a chunk month one stopping, let’s try and allocate it over a six month span, be consistent in whatever it is, and that’s how we start generating results. So I think what’s crucial is whatever budget we contribute to this business is that we spread it across multiple months. Even if that that doesn’t mean necessarily getting results as as fast as maybe we want to get, that’s okay, as long as we can be consistent over some period of time and not just spending it all month one too.

Freddie Steen (09:09)
Michael, every operator I know has a moment where things got real. I mean, maybe a deal that went sideways or a time they had to pivot fast. You mind sharing one of those moments for you?

Michael Bull (09:22)
Yeah, I mean when I first started the this business back in 2020, the model was a little bit different. We were buying these lots and I was I was paying cash for them and I would turn around and I would sell them on owner finance. So to give an example, let’s say I bought a piece of land for five thousand bucks, and then I’d sell it to somebody for $100 down and $200 a month for the next six years. Well, what had happened is I had spent all my money on land. I had bought every I didn’t have a ton of time, but I’d spent it all on land. I was selling it on owner finance where people paying hundred bucks a month was. And I ran out of money. I was like six months into the business. I had no I had no money left. And I didn’t really know how to keep the business going. So I had at the time it was about fourteen thousand dollars left. That’s all I had to mend. I bought one piece of property out in a county called Yavapai County in Arizona. It was a forty acre lot out there. I put it on the market rather than selling it on financing I tried to sell it to a buyer for cash. So I put it on the market thousand, we sold it in a day to buyer. And that was kind of like the light bulb moment for me where I could get some cash back into the business and and reinvest that back. So then we stopped that old model of let’s start selling properties on owner finance, we run out of cash really quickly, and let’s start selling these properties for cash and then reinvest back into the business. So that was kind of the light bulb moment of I have no money. I need to kind of position differently or tweak

Freddie Steen (11:23)
What a pivot. I mean, that’s the kind of stuff, Mike, that people don’t talk about enough. And honestly, it’s what separates the folks who just dabble from the ones who stay in the game long term, like you. Let me ask you this, Mike. What are you most focused on solving or scaling next? What’s the next real goal for Michael Bull?

Michael Bull (11:47)
Yeah, I I I think I have two goals. One is is really, really big land deals is kind of our our four or five year goal. So what we’re focusing on is is big, big entitlement plays. You know, we grew up in the mid-market land flipping. That’s kind of where I started. So buying lots anywhere from 25,000 to 250,000. That we could be considered the mid-market. Now we’re targeting more seven figure properties and entitling them, selling them off to developers. So that’s in our land flipping business. That is kind of our big goal right now. It’s going after bigger, bigger plays that take a few years to do. And then outside of the land space is trying to help others create land flipping businesses. So trying to help people who want to leave their nine to five, maybe they’re re where we work with a lot of realtors, wholesalers in the single family. So people that I want to start this landing business, you know, coaching them and helping them start. So those are probably the two goals that we have.

Freddie Steen (12:46)
Teaching and coaching and being able to look forward and scale, that’s big, especially when you’ve already got your toehold on the marketing side of things. The next move can either compound things or create chaos, depending on how you play it. Now, I know a lot of people listening are either earlier in their journey or looking to level up like you. And I think they’d benefit from hearing this. When it comes to building relationships and growing your network, what’s made the biggest difference for Michael?

Michael Bull (13:20)
Yeah, that’s a great question. Two things. One, be genuine, be yourself. And two, don’t expect to get anything from fruit for free from somebody else. Right? So don’t what I see all too often the networking space is I’ll get I’ll get somebody reaching out to me just wanting stuff. They just want information, they want deals, they want, they want connections. And I’m I love helping people. I’m I’m always willing to help people, but it makes it a lot easier when you when you can bring something to the table. Right. So be genuine, be yourself. And don’t just go out looking for stuff. We maybe bring something to the table. Maybe be be willing to work for somebody for for free or work their leads or be able to cold call somebody, but whatever it is, bring something to the table because nobody wants to work for free. So be genuine, be yourself, and then be willing to bring something to the table when you’re asking to support.

Freddie Steen (14:11)
Can you add just a small tag to our real estate pros audience and tell them a couple ways that they can be genuine and be themselves and not be concerned about that affecting their bottom line?

Michael Bull (15:03)
Yeah, I think you know, like for me in my case, I have no problem saying, I don’t like to work and I don’t want to go make eight figures a year. Right? That that’s who I am. I I want to hang out with my family. That that that to me is genuine. And I think when people come into the real estate space, they see these these huge, huge flippers making or developers making this money, and they want to appeal to that so they try and be that person. If your goal is to make an extra hundred grand a year or fifty grand a year, say that. Right? If your goal is to make a million dollars a year, say that. But whatever it is, be true to that and don’t try and you know maybe put on this front to appeal to whoever you’re trying to get information from because whoever that person is you’re trying to get information from is more attractive to somebody who’s just themselves.

Freddie Steen (15:46)
Yeah, you can’t fake that. I mean, relationships are everything in this space. All right, before we wrap, if someone wanted to reach out, connect with you, maybe collaborate or learn more about what you’re doing, what’s the best way for them to reach you?

Michael Bull (16:03)
Yeah, you can reach me at Land Flipping Simplified on all socials or on Instagram, YouTube, go to landflippingsimplified.com. Email me at [email protected] there. I’m happy to help anybody out. So

Freddie Steen (16:16)
Perfect. Well listen, Michael, I appreciate your time, your story, and your perspective. We need more people in this space who are doing it the right way. So thanks again for being here. And for those of you tuning in, if you got value from this, make sure you’re subscribed. We’ve got more conversations coming with operators just like Michael Bull and The Land Station who are out there building real businesses. Thank you, Michael.

Michael Bull (16:47)
Thanks, Freddie. Yeah, it’s been a pleasure being here. I appreciate your time.

Freddie Steen (16:49)
We’ll see you on the next episode.