What Actually Works in Land Investing Today
Two land investing veterans compare the industry from 2020 to 2026, discussing how increased competition, improved software tools, new marketing channels, and evolving business strategies have fundamentally transformed the business model. While the fundamentals remain similar, successful investors today must be more strategic, diversified, and business-minded rather than relying on simple volume-based scaling.
Summary
The speakers reflect on their land flipping journey from 2019-2020 through 2026, highlighting dramatic industry changes. In 2020, the business was nascent with minimal competition, limited funding options (primarily 50-50 profit splits), and simple mail-based marketing. The core strategy was buying land at 25-40% of market value and flipping it. Lists were inefficient with poor data filtering, often including landlocked properties and houses mistakenly classified as vacant land. There were few public resources, and entering new markets like the East Coast required pioneering approaches without models to follow. Success was largely a volume game—send more mail, get more deals, scale accordingly.
By 2023-2024, significant shifts occurred: texting became a major outreach channel alongside mail, software solutions improved dramatically (culminating in their Land Portal platform), and new business models emerged including double closing, wholesaling, subdividing, and survey hacking. Social media grew as an information source, though still limited compared to today. The barrier to entry became lower due to better information availability, but competition intensified significantly.
Today in 2026, the business has matured into a professional operation. Competition is substantial, requiring strategic market selection and targeted approaches rather than blind volume scaling. Funding is more accessible with multiple options including hard money loans and varied profit split arrangements. Software now provides comprehensive data on buildability, water features, utilities, and property conditions—previously unavailable. New business models like land-home packages (mobile homes on land) have emerged as sustainable, repeatable opportunities. The successful investors are those who diversify strategies, look at properties with 'open minds' for multiple exit opportunities, and operate with business sophistication. The speakers note that top performers are making more money than ever, but the entry-level and less-strategic investors face greater challenges. Markets vary—some (Las Vegas, Tampa) have cooled after COVID booms, but land investors continue succeeding through adaptive strategies.
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 and Dan break down how land investing has evolved since they started in 2020. They cover the marketing strategies that worked then, how technology has changed the way investors find deals, and the strategies driving new opportunities in today’s market.</p><p><br /></p><p>If you want to succeed in land investing and consistently find profitable deals, this episode breaks down the strategies that stand the test of time!</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>01:13</strong> – East coast shift</p><p><strong>05:57</strong> – Flips & scaling</p><p><strong>10:30</strong> – The lack of land software</p><p><strong>14:47</strong> – Early competition & marketing</p><p><strong>19:50</strong> – Land industry growth </p><p><strong>23:43</strong> – Doing less & making more</p><p><strong>27:00</strong> – Mobile home packages</p><p><strong>31:23</strong> – The future of land investing</p><p><strong>34:54</strong> – Outro</p>
Key Insights
- In 2020, the land flipping business lacked established playbooks and successful case studies, forcing early investors to experiment across regions with high uncertainty about viability, unlike today where thousands of public examples demonstrate the model's legitimacy.
- The speakers argue that early mailing campaigns were highly inefficient because county data was unreliable and lists included 30-40% waste from landlocked properties, wet land, and houses—problems that modern software like Land Portal has substantially reduced through better filtering.
- Funding partners in 2020 were scarce and required strict adherence to 50-50 profit splits, whereas today multiple funding sources exist with negotiable terms, reducing reliance on any single funder and enabling more flexible deal structuring.
- The speakers claim that success metrics have shifted from pure volume-based scaling (more mailers = more deals = more profit) to strategic targeting where sophisticated investors buy fewer leads but execute better deals through diverse exit strategies.
- The emergence of subdividing and land-home packages represents a strategic pivot where successful investors are now willing to buy at or near market value, contrasting sharply with the 25-40% discount-dependent model of 2020.
- Social media content about land investing has grown from essentially nothing in 2020 to substantial presence by 2026, creating both an information advantage for newcomers and increased noise that makes differentiation harder.
- The speakers observe that the current best performers made significant strategic pivots away from pure flipping, suggesting that sticking with the original 2020 strategy is no longer optimal for maximizing profitability.
- Regional market conditions now heavily influence strategy—some markets like Las Vegas and Tampa have cooled after COVID booms, forcing investors to either adapt to lower returns or geographic diversification, whereas 2020 offered more uniform opportunity across regions.
Topics
Transcript
Welcome back, everyone. Today, we're going to talk about land flipping in 2020 versus today in 2026. And we're going to start, Ron, by going back to 2020. We started this business in around 2019. And the changes, especially in the last 12 to 24 months, have been drastic. The competition's changed. The ways you get funding changed. The way you do the business has changed. And we're going to talk about where it came from and where it is today. But to start, I think we go back to 2020. But welcome back to the show, everyone. Yeah, I'm excited for this topic. And I think it's a good one. I think it's good for people realizing what they're…
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