All Forum Posts by: Kyle Ferguson

Hi, I specialize in solar land deals. I have worked with the top solar developers in the industry to find land that they can develop. 

I  can help you. Would love to take a look at the property(online). Can you send GPS coordinates?

First, you need to make sure the property is actually good for solar and why. If you don't know how valuable the property is then it is hard to negotiate and know what a good price is. There are also some key terms in the leases that are very important to address as well. 

If you do your research and know what you are talking about, you will get a lot more respect from the developers. As with every real estate deal, make sure to read thoroughly through the contract and get a lawyer if necessary.

If you can send me GPS coordinates or address, I can take a look at the property and give you my analysis. 

You could probably boot-strap a marketing campaign and do a test batch of about ~100-200 mailings to test the market. Could cost anywhere from $500-$5000 depending on how you do it. What did you have in mind for a marketing campaign?

@Anthony Johnson You are so young with nothing to lose. I would find someone who is doing what I want to do in real estate and go work for them even if it is for free. You will learn enough to become valuable and more people will be willing to invest in and work with you. 

@Joao Da silveira I would go find someone who does what you want to do and work for them either for free or at a low cost so that you can learn and prove your value. Eventually (Could take anywhere from 3-months- 12 months), you will learn enough to start participating in and getting a cut of deals.

That's how I started. I started out as an analyst at a small real estate firm where I got paid a very small salary and eventually worked my way into doing the deals myself, funded by the founder of the company. 

@Ronald Rohde Curious how you came up with a $250,000 budget?

I only speak from my own experience. By saying "every site that I find valuable", I mean the 200-500 sites in each state that are typically good for our use, solar. We get letters out to these landowners at ~2-3$ a letter.

I know it can get expensive investing in the systems to build the database and gather ownership information but there are many ways to do it inexpensively as well with free software online. We have a dedicated GIS system to do our acquisitions so it's hard to factor in how much that costs us over time but I would say a campaign for 500 sites would run on average:

$1500 for good direct mail

$0-$5000/month for GIS Software + easy access to ownership information

~20-40 hours of research - $400-$800 ( you could do this yourself)

Total Cost: $1500-$7300

For our purposes, we would also have to factor in data that we buy which over the course of a year might add $1,000 or so to each campaign. We typically buy data but we could also get it for free if we put in the work ourselves. The GIS system or free online resources should have everything you need for the average user.

If this marketing campaign yields you even just 1 good deal, you should be making a lot more then just your money back.

We typically convert 1% of our mailers into deals so that's 5 deals off a 500 letter campaign, which to us are worth ~$25-50,000 each deal.

Total Profit of ~ $118,000 - $243,000 

If you want to hit the campaign hard, I would also throw cold calling in the mix.

If you super ambitious, you can go knock on doors.

Keep in mind, this method only yields return if done right and if what you are offering the landowners is actually a good offer. 

I have been hearing a lot about self-storage. How are you guys going about identifying the properties that you want to acquire and then reaching out to the current owners?

Hi, we have used land vision to launch our land acquisition business and it worked very well. I think its worth it depending on what you will use it for. What are you planning on using for exactly?

I would run a marketing campaign targeting every landowner with land that I thought was valuable in Texas. Everyone is on loop net and land watch. It's better to find the off-market deals.

I have thought about this same thing a lot and originally, I did not call people back if their land did not look good for our needs. However, in one situation, I thought I should call the landowner back anyway, out of respect, even though their land was not so great for the projects that we wanted to do. It turns out that the landowner who I called back, owned another piece of land that did meet my specs for a solar project and it was well worth the callback.

It does not have to be at the top of your list but I always think it's worth talking to landowners. If their piece of land is not good, they may know another one that is good for your use or that landowner lead may be valuable to another real estate professional.

Hi fellow real estate entrepreneurs, investors, and developers

We are on a mission to teach others how to crush it in the land game, particular doing solar land deals. Using a targeted acquisition approach we have been able to increase deal flow for our solar development partners. Not only can others get in on the solar land niche but they can apply our methodologies to almost any real estate niche.

Using these methods, a small team has closed over 150 deals in the past 24 months.

Learn more at the link below:

Video and handout on how we did our first solar deal and made $70,000