Winning Strategy to LandLocked Properties (Podcast Ep#168)
Travis King discusses his strategy for investing in landlocked properties—vacant land without legal or physical road access—which most investors avoid. By targeting this underserved niche, offering easement incentives to neighbors, and combining the strategy with subdivisions, he has achieved significant returns, including buying a property for $5,000 and selling it for $50,000.
Summary
In this podcast episode, Travis King explains why landlocked properties represent a valuable opportunity for intermediate and advanced land investors. Landlocked properties lack either physical access (an actual road to the property) or legal access (recorded easement rights), which prevents title companies from issuing title insurance and deters most traditional buyers. Travis distinguishes between different types of access issues: physical access without legal recording, legal roads that exist only on paper, and properties requiring access through neighboring properties.
The core appeal of this strategy is that most investors deliberately exclude landlocked properties from their acquisition lists, creating less competition and more motivated sellers who understand their property has a genuine problem. Travis positions this as a problem-solving business model rather than traditional deal-making—the seller already knows there's an issue, so the investor doesn't need to justify a low offer.
To find landlocked properties, Travis uses Land Portal with a landlocked-specific filter, then manually scrubs the resulting lists to identify properties that are only one or two parcels removed from public road access. The marketing approach calls out the problem directly (e.g., "Trouble selling your landlocked property?") and uses location-specific messaging ("landlocked Arizona property") to increase response rates.
When contacting neighboring property owners to negotiate easement rights, Travis starts with phone calls and text messages, then escalates to certified mail and finally to attorney letters if necessary. He typically offers a one-time easement incentive ($1,500-$4,000) rather than trying to sell a strip of land, which would require subdivision recording. If a neighbor refuses, having multiple neighboring options increases the likelihood of success.
Travis emphasizes making heavily discounted offers immediately and opening escrow to run title reports before investing time in easement negotiations—this prevents wasting effort on properties with liens or judgments that make the deal unworkable. He prefers manually valuing landlocked properties rather than using automated valuations, and he typically leads with letters of interest rather than blind offers unless he's already done detailed pricing analysis.
Travis shares three case studies: a property purchased for $5,000 and sold for $50,000; a 20-acre parcel bought for $6,500, access cured, and sold for $55,000; and two adjoining 20-acre parcels purchased together for $13,000 total, cured for access, subdivided, and sold for $110,000. He emphasizes that the strategy works best when combined with other plays like subdividing, which compounds the value creation.
The broader philosophy is that successful land investors must continuously adapt their strategy as market conditions change, maintaining a diverse playbook rather than relying on a single approach. Travis has documented this approach in his book "The Land Investor's Playbook" and offers a free masterclass on landlocked properties through Land Portal.
About this episode
<p>Jessey sits down with Travis King, a familiar face on this show and the host of The King Show, to talk about a strategy most land investors skip entirely: landlocked properties. While everyone else scrubs these parcels out of their lists, Travis has built a whole playbook around targeting them, and the discounts sellers are willing to give can be massive.Travis breaks down what actually makes a property landlocked, why it scares off traditional buyers, and how that fear creates opportunity for investors willing to do the work. He walks through his exact process for negotiating easement access with neighbors, structuring low offers sellers already expect, and even stacking in a subdivide to multiply returns.If you've ever passed on a deal because it lacked road access, this episode might change your mind. Travis shares real numbers from his own deals, including one property he picked up for around 5,000 dollars and resold for 50,000.What You'll Learn:- What actually makes a property landlocked and why title companies won't insure it- How to negotiate easement access with neighbors, including what to offer and what to say- Where to find landlocked properties and how to build a targeted list- How to price and structure discounted offers without scaring sellers off</p><p><br /></p><p>Connect with Travis King:📖 Free Book: <a href="https://travisking.com" rel="noopener noreferer" target="_blank">travisking.com</a> 📚 Landlocked Masterclass: <a href="https://thelandinvestorsplaybook.com" rel="noopener noreferer" target="_blank">thelandinvestorsplaybook.com </a>🔗 <a href="https://landportal.com/travisking/?a_aid=TK&a_bid=addff9bd" rel="noopener noreferer" target="_blank">mylandportal.com</a>🎧 Book also available on <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CPQ93Y5Q" rel="noopener noreferer" target="_blank">Amazon,</a> Audible, and Spotify: </p>
Key Insights
- Travis argues that as traditional easy deals become scarcer due to increased marketing competition, landlocked properties represent an underexploited niche because most investors deliberately filter them out during list acquisition.
- He claims that landlocked properties allow for more motivated sellers since the problem is obvious and doesn't require the investor to convince the owner their property has issues—the burden of proof is already on the seller's side.
- Travis asserts that the hardest part of executing landlocked deals is making initial contact with neighbors, not the legal or technical aspects of recording easements, which he describes as simple contractor template work.
- He contends that manually pricing landlocked properties before outreach is essential because automated valuation tools are unreliable for problem properties, making blind offers risky unless the investor has done detailed analysis.
- Travis argues that title reports should be obtained immediately after a purchase agreement is signed—before spending time on easement negotiations—to avoid wasting effort on properties with liens or judgments that make them unworkable.
- He claims that offering neighbors a one-time easement incentive ($1,500-$4,000) is more effective than trying to sell them a strip of land, as the latter requires subdivision recording and creates unnecessary complexity for both parties.
- Travis states that attorney-letterhead outreach gets responses from neighbors who ignore friendly outreach, not because there's legal threat, but because the professional letterhead changes the perception of legitimacy and urgency.
- He argues that subdividing cured landlocked properties multiplies returns significantly—his case study shows buying two adjoining landlocked parcels for $13,000 total, curing access, subdividing, and selling for $110,000 (8.5x return).
Topics
Transcript
Hey, how's it going? It's Jesse here from the Land Investing Business Secrets Podcast. I've got a return guest here, Travis King. He's one of my favorites. He, you know, he's always frontline. He's always adjusting. He's always trying different things. And he's always got a lot of different plays in his playbook. And today we're going to dive into one specific one that a lot of land investors avoid, but has been very, very fruitful for him and his students and his clients. We're going to be talking all about landlocked properties. Anyways, this is one show where it's super tactical. We talk about specifics, including messaging with marketing to, you know, how to find it. Pay attention to…
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