I’ve been thinking a lot this week about being a better decision maker and investor after reading two great books. The first is The Biggest Bluff by Maria Konnikova and the second is The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel.

Both books helped me navigate how I can make better decisions when I have limited information. Often, as much as I do my due diligence, market comparables, county research, etc. I still have to buy properties with limited information. How can I navigate this uncertainty and still tilt the odds in my favor when making land investments or bets?

Being completely aware of my biases helps and both books showed me in pain staking detail how flawed my emotions can be when I try to make investments and decisions in life.

One of the biases I notice I fall prey to ALL the time is Loss Aversion. I’m more willing to avoid a loss than to take risks and gain. Simply put, it’s better not to lose $20, than to find $20.

Nevertheless, I have to make investments each day and as much as I like to think I’m buying at a 300% margin of safety maybe I’m only buying at a 50% margin of safety if there is some “black swan” event that I can’t anticipate which tanks the overall economy.

After living through the Great Recession in 2008 I find myself psychologically playing smaller than I probably should be if I hadn’t gone through that experience. Nevertheless, as Scott Todd likes to say, “Don’t be chicken restaurant without any chicken.” So, I persist in making investments with limited information and doing other things in my life to make sure I can survive any market down turn.

The one big takeaway I gleaned from the Biggest Bluff and the Psychology of Money is the value of “staying in the game” and “patience.”

So, now after going through my due diligence checklist, checking the market comparables, verifying the county has a strong market and that I’m buying with my perceived 300% margin of safety I can go to bed with a clear conscience that I did everything I could within my control to make the best decision win or lose.

Luckily, after over 6000 land transactions I’ve yet to lose money on a piece of raw land, but I now know that things constantly change and I can NEVER relax and get complacent in business and in life.

Here is a quote from the Biggest Bluff I think about often:

“People failed to see what the world was telling them when that message wasn’t one they wanted to hear. They liked being the rulers of their environment. When the environment knew more than they did—well, that was no good at all. Here was the cruel truth: we humans too often think ourselves in firm control when we are really playing by the rules of chance.” 

On this week’s episode of The Art of Passive Income, Mark and Scott welcome the Owner and CEO of Blackjack Real Estate LLC Bill Allen to the show.

Bill Allen is the owner and CEO of Blackjack Real Estate LLC, the CEO, and owner of 7 Figure Flipping, a real estate investor, a former Navy pilot, a husband, and a father of three boys. He operates from Nashville, Tennessee, and has amassed a large following of like-minded people who are either seasoned in the real estate industry or are new and need some guidance to reach their goals within a set time frame.

As an entrepreneur at heart, Bill made his first move as a businessman, selling candies when he was only in middle school. An action that got him in trouble with the rules, but never dampened his love for owning and operating his own business. Pausing his business ventures, he went on to serve his country for 18 years as a Navy pilot, but his love for business would see him venturing into real estate after completing active duty and transferring to the Reserves. The introduction to real estate was a bitter-sweet experience for Bill who started by buying and renting a few houses, in the hopes that he could achieve financial freedom and plan early retirement.

 At first, his sole focus was on buying rental properties in Pensacola, Florida; however, the 20% bank loan interest rates and recurrent costs of property management forced him to rethink his strategy when he acquired his tenth house and saw that the profit wasn’t adding up to what he had in mind. Going back to the drawing board, in 2014 he sold one of the properties he’d initially purchased to rent out and made a surprising $43,000. That’s when the idea of flipping houses struck him and he decided to diversify his investment portfolio. Only a year later, in 2015, Blackjack Real Estate LLC was created; a wholesale company that finds and assigns contracts to house flippers and landlords.

Today, Bill has gotten his business to the point where he works less than 5 hours a week and enjoys more time with his friends and family, while still making the income he wants and discovering new ways to expand his income and mentor those who reach out to him. 

Listen in as they discuss:

Listen in for more details.

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Last week the Land Geeks kicked off an exciting episode on the issues of wholesaling in the land community. For this week’s episode, they carried out part two to discuss the dos and don’ts of wholesaling.

Joining Mark this week are:

Listen in as they go around the table and discuss the dos and don’ts of wholesaling in the land community, their experiences buying wholesale properties, and more. They also highlight some of the dos and don’ts of wholesaling in the marketplace. 

Mike: I love Ray Dalio and his book Principles. The first tip is, you got to get the app Principles In Action on your phone; it’s free and even has coaching. Ray Dalio is a master at execution, and his principles for success are universal. The second tip is, if you’re feeling stress out: slow down, take a break, take a deep breath, and go to something else like meditate or play a game of solitaire and you will then reinvigorate.

Are you ready to learn more about land investing? Just click HERE to schedule a call.

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