His First Land Deal Changed Everything
Brad Maulman, a six-month-old land investor, discusses his first deal—an 18-acre subdivision in Tennessee that he purchased for $220,000 and sold for $335,000, netting $61,000 with no money out of pocket. He shares how persistence through multiple funding rejections, strategic comping, logging opportunities, and breaking down complex problems into manageable steps led to his success despite numerous obstacles.
Summary
Brad Maulman started his land investing journey after discovering the business through YouTube and podcasts while managing a full-time tech job and a franchised cleaning company. Motivated by a desire to build wealth for his family while maintaining time flexibility, he invested in coaching with Derek and allocated a $20,000 budget to get started. His initial marketing strategy combined direct mail (3,000-4,000 letters) and text messaging (3,000-5,000 texts), which yielded minimal results from mail but generated his first deal lead through texting.
The deal itself was an 18-acre property in Tennessee originally estimated at $375,000 in market value. The seller, going through a divorce, requested $220,000 with competing offers at $200,000 and $210,000. After conducting extensive due diligence and pulling numerous comps, Brad discovered the realistic market value was approximately $275,000, initially making the deal appear unfeasible at $220,000. However, he recognized subdivision potential and adjusted his analysis to reflect parcel value variations (ranging from $22,000 per acre for 2-acre parcels to $10,000-12,000 per acre for larger parcels), projecting a combined exit price of $320,000-$370,000.
Brad's journey to funding proved challenging, with approximately 15 funders contacted and only 5 seriously engaged, with most declining the deal. Key obstacles included property slope, an easement that initially blocked east-west subdivision, and soil issues for septic perk sites. Through persistence and systematic problem-solving, Brad worked with surveyors and soil scientists to convert the problematic easement into a 50-foot easement and enable the desired east-west division. He also discovered a logger willing to select-cut timber worth $80,000 on a 50-50 profit split, which improved deal economics and helped secure funding from Sean Cohn at Cohn Capital with a 15% fee and 70-30 profit split.
The deal ultimately sold for a combined $335,000 across three parcels. Brad netted $61,000, with $41,000 in immediate cash and $20,000 seller-financed to the final buyer at 10% interest over one year. His marketing has since evolved to handwritten letters (3,000 sent weekly) targeting 70-80% of market value and on-market deals using AI-driven alerts for counties with improving absorption rates. His long-term vision extends beyond flipping to owning 5,000+ acres by age 50, exploring options like farmer leases, mobile homes, RV storage, and Airbnb properties to generate ongoing cash flow while holding land for long-term appreciation.
About this episode
<p><strong>Want to quit your job and build a real land investing business?</strong></p><p><strong>👉</strong><a href="https://landportal.com/subscriptions?a_aid=LandInvestingOnline&a_bid=9e9b000b" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><strong>Land Portal</strong></a> gives you access to the fastest-growing land software <em>plus</em> <a href="https://landportal.com/subscriptions?a_aid=LandInvestingOnline&a_bid=9e9b000b" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><strong>Land Portal University</strong></a>, where we walk you step-by-step through getting your first land deal.</p><p>🎯 Looking for <strong>1-on-1 Land Flipping or Subdividing coaching</strong>? Schedule a <a href="https://landinvestingonline.com/pages/consultation" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><strong>FREE strategy call</strong></a> here.</p><p><br /></p><p>================================</p><p>In this episode, Ron sits down with Brad Mallman to discuss his first six months in land investing and the story behind his successful $60K subdivide deal. Brad shares how he manages a full-time career in tech while building his land investing business, the challenges he faced in refining his marketing and securing funding, and how persistence helped transform his first subdivide project into a foundation for future success.</p><p><br /></p><p>If you're interested in real estate and want to learn how to build long-term wealth for yourself and your family, you won’t want to miss the lessons, strategies, and insights that made it all possible.</p><p><br /></p><p>================================</p><p>SOCIAL</p><p><strong>Ron's Instagram </strong>📸:<a href="https://www.instagram.com/ronapke/" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> <strong>https://www.instagram.com/ronapke/</strong></a></p><p><strong>Dan's Instagram </strong>📸:<a href="https://www.instagram.com/danielapke/?hl=en" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> <strong>https://www.instagram.com/danielapke/</strong></a></p><p><a href="https://www.instagram.com/danielapke/?hl=en" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"></a></p><p>================================</p><p><br /></p><p><strong>TIMESTAMPS:</strong></p><p><strong>00:00</strong> – Intro</p><p><strong>00:21</strong> – Low time & High opportunity</p><p><strong>05:04</strong> – Text & mail marketing strategy</p><p><strong>09:36</strong> – First deal focus</p><p><strong>13:53</strong> – Coaching acceleration</p><p><strong>16:43</strong> – $60K subdivide</p><p><strong>22:23</strong> – Finding the right funder</p><p><strong>26:55</strong> – Figuring out the next step</p><p><strong>31:07</strong> – Subdivide deal focus</p><p><strong>35:26</strong> – Under analyze & Over-prepare</p><p><strong>38:11</strong> – Cash-flowing with land</p><p><strong>41:05 </strong>– Expectations vs Reality of Land</p><p><strong>44:55</strong> – Ambition & persistence</p><p><strong>46:35</strong> – Outro </p>
Key Insights
- Brad discovered that his initial mail marketing campaign of 3,000-4,000 letters targeting 45% of market value yielded only 1-2 legitimate leads, forcing him to pivot to text messaging which proved significantly more effective for generating deal conversations.
- Brad argues that extensive due diligence on comparable sales revealed the property's true market value was $275,000, not the initial $375,000 estimate, which changed his entire deal structure and required subdividing to make the numbers work.
- Brad states that approximately 15 funders were contacted but only 5 engaged seriously, with most declining because the deal lacked obvious profit margin and presented complications like slope and easement issues that made it unattractive.
- Brad discovered that discovering a logging opportunity worth $80,000 on a 50-50 split with a logger was crucial to securing funding, improving deal attractiveness enough for a funder to commit despite initial hesitation.
- Brad emphasizes that his coach Derek told him multiple times the deal wouldn't work, but Brad persisted by solving incremental problems (easement issues, soil scientist findings, survey adjustments) rather than abandoning the deal.
- Brad claims that completing a complex subdivision with multiple obstacles in 60 days significantly educated him on processes he can now execute more efficiently on future deals, giving him confidence to pursue larger subdivisions.
- Brad states his marketing metrics have changed dramatically since switching to handwritten letters at 70-80% of market value, generating daily calls and identifying subdivide opportunities that bulk mail at 45% of value never produced.
- Brad expresses his long-term vision involves holding land long-term while using subdivision sales to cover acquisition costs, eventually owning 5,000+ acres through a combination of flipping, farming leases, mobile homes, and storage solutions rather than pure wholesale flipping.
Topics
Transcript
All right, everybody, welcome back to the Real Estate Investing Podcast. Super pumped to have Brad Maulman with me today. Brad is someone who's newer in this business, but I like people bringing on people like Brad who can give you guys a really good perspective of what the grind looks like the first few months of land investing. So really excited for this episode. Brad, welcome to the show. Yeah, thanks, Ron. Super excited to be here. So you've only been in this for about six months or so. So I really want to, obviously, everything in your land business is probably relatively fresh. So let's just get from start. First, I always like asking, what got you into…
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