Digital Dirt: Flipping Land in the 21st Century with Logan Swanson
Episode guide
Written by The Real Estate Investing Club from the recording’s transcript and show notes (). It summarizes what Logan Swanson said on the show; it is not a transcript.
Logan Swanson tells Gabe Petersen how he left two jobs to flip land, starting with a $2,000 loan for his first mailers and selling West Texas lots with owner financing. He covers managing cash flow, the cost of spreading across too many states, and due diligence problems such as water capacity, wells and breaks in title. He also explains why he builds lists from county data and why most of his deals now come from his network.
Questions this episode answers
- How do you start flipping land with little money?
- How does owner financing work when selling land?
- What due diligence should you do before buying land?
- How do you fix a break in title on vacant land?
- Where do land investors get the most accurate seller lists?
What Logan shared
- Logan says he started with a $2,000 zero-interest loan from a family friend to send his first mailers, and had land in 14 states within three years.
- Logan says he bought West Texas land for $50 to $100 an acre and sold to a speculative buyer for about $300 an acre.
- He says buying a 5-acre lot for about $400 and selling it for $99 down and $99 a month builds a note portfolio; ten such notes add about $1,000 a month.
- Logan says a planned 70-acre subdivision south of Dallas fell apart when the water company said its line had no spare capacity, which would have consumed most of the profit.
- He says wells in Texas can cost from $10,000 to $300,000, and broken title and probate problems are common on inexpensive land.
- Logan says he once mailed a $10,000 campaign from a purchased list whose acreage was off by a decimal point, so he now builds lists from county records.
- His lesson from a Tennessee subdivision: he stayed too hands-off, and about $1 million of sales sat stuck at a title company for six months.
Chapters (audio; approximate times)
- Introduction
- From two jobs to land flipping
- A $2,000 loan and land in 14 states
- Owner financing and a $300-an-acre buyer
- Cash flow and spreading too thin
- Due diligence mistakes: water, wells and title
- Fixing breaks in title and probate
- How land marketing has changed
- Getting deals through a network
- Quick questions and lessons learned
Go deeper on this site
- Investing in real estate notes more on owner-financed notes
- The best land investing podcasts
Show notes
In this episode of The Real Estate Investing Club, I sit down with land investing expert Logan Swanson to uncover the profitable world of land flipping. Logan shares his journey from working two exhausting jobs with no savings to building a multi-million dollar land investing empire that's given him both financial freedom and precious time with his family.
Episode highlights:
Logan reveals how he started with just a $2,000 loan and quickly built a land business that expanded to 14 states within just three years. He breaks down exactly how he finds undervalued land deals, creates passive income through seller financing, and why land investing offers an accessible entry point for new investors with limited capital.
Land investing strategies you'll learn:
- How Logan was buying land for $50-100 per acre and flipping it for $300+ per acre in West Texas
- Creating passive income through seller financing ($99 down, $99/month deals)
- The power of building a "note portfolio" that generates monthly cash flow with "no tenants, no termites"
- Why focusing on specific geographic areas yields better results than spreading yourself too thin
- How to properly conduct due diligence on land deals (water access, utilities, title issues, etc.)
- The evolution from direct mail to cold calling to relationship-based deal finding
- Why the best deals now come through building a strong network in the land investing community
Costly mistakes to avoid:
Logan doesn't hold back when sharing his expensive lessons learned, including:
- The danger of marketing in too many areas simultaneously
- How inadequate due diligence on water access nearly cost him a fortune
- Why title issues are especially common with land deals
- The mistake of blindly trusting third-party data providers for land lists
- How one decimal point error in his pricing cost him $10,000 in wasted marketing
Due diligence deep dive:
One of the most valuable segments covers Logan's approach to land due diligence, including:
- Checking water line capacity and access
- Understanding potential costs of wells ($10,000-$300,000 in Texas!)
- Navigating easement issues
- Handling title problems and breaks in chain of title
- Why county data is often more reliable than third-party providers for rural land
About our guest:
Logan Swanson is a successful land investor who's completed hundreds of transactions across multiple states. He hosts The Landfixer Podcast, runs a land marketing website, provides funding for other investors, and leads one of the largest networks of land investors in Dallas.
Want to connect with Logan? Visit thelandfixer.com to learn more about land investing without any courses or upsells.
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