Transcription
[Applause] Hello everyone, and welcome to the Only Land Fan Show! My name is Kendall Aun, and our guest today is Robin Syy. At 36— Robin corrects this to 38 years old—Robin Syy's career trajectory is as fascinating as his global footprint. Robin's entrepreneurial journey began early. Armed with an economics degree, he launched his first venture at just 21 years old. Over the past 15 years, he immersed himself in various facets of real estate, from construction to financing, successfully founding eight companies along the way.
Driven by a desire for location independence, Robin discovered land flipping. In a bold move, he entered the US market in 2020 despite having no prior experience in the country. Since then, he's impressively closed around 350 land deals. Robin's story exemplifies the power of adaptability and perseverance. Robin, thanks so much for joining us. How are you today?
I'm really well, thank you so much for the introduction. I think I’ve been on this show two years ago. I was researching when you launched, and I was one of your first ten guests. Since then, you've built an amazing thing here. We need to say thank you—Only Land Fans is a brand, man! There’s nothing else like it in the land space. I really love that.
Thanks so much! I’m just so glad to have you on and to have incredible guests. The land community has been amazing. The people that make up the land community are really special. I’m very excited that I get to work on this platform and meet and interview incredible people like you. So today we are talking about land dispositions in 2024. I know you’ve been on our show before. Can you give us a little bit of your background for those listening who may not know exactly who you are and what you’ve done?
Absolutely! First of all, I'm super happy that we met recently in Denver. We connected instantly, and it was so much fun seeing you there. Hey guys, I’m Robin Syy, 38 years old, born and raised in Germany. I’m married to my wife, Mara Christine, who is from California, and we have a beautiful five-month-old daughter, Katriella. We live in Spain, in Mallorca, the beautiful island of Mallorca, where it’s currently 1:00 a.m. That’s the life I chose! I was super excited when you asked me to talk about land dispositions because that’s my land journey. I started in 2020. I went through Jack Bosch’s program—he’s German too—and he introduced me to land flipping. I had never been to the US; I had no clue what was going on. I was totally naive! It took me a year to do my first deal, and I made exactly zero dollars profit because I did everything wrong. Three parcels all at once, on three contracts with the buyer and seller—six closing calls! The title company wanted $65; I negotiated it down to $1. From there, man, it was quite a journey: 2021—60 deals; 2022—over 300; and now, in 2024, we cracked the 1,000-deal mark a couple of months ago. We’ve been involved in multiple capacities, and I early specialized in the acquisition game. A lot of people love the acquisition game—texting, mailing, and all that. I was like, “How can I avoid that?” We don’t have direct mail in Europe, so I specialized in buying packages.
My first package was 144 lots in 24 counties in Florida! That was the first time I ever raised private money, and the first time I sat on over 100 lots of inventory that I needed to sell. That became the story of my land flipping career: building disposition strategies. We became pretty good specialists in that and are always on top of things. We still do acquisitions, buy packages, have a development company, run our own land fund, and have the Land Pilot, where we help people with dispositions as a service. It’s a lot! I love dispositions. In the last year, everything I learned before changed. We went through a tough year, reinventing what works and what doesn’t. It will change even more in the next year, and there are a couple of reasons why. Today, we’ll talk about building a scalable machine that works on a budget. I’ll tell you what to do with zero dollars, and what to do when you have $1,000 a month, $3,000, $5,000, or $10,000 for dispositions. I love land, I love being outside; we’re buying a second house in Dallas, Texas, so hopefully we’ll have some tacos in Austin.
You mentioned that a lot of people in the land space focus on acquisitions. They geek out on the texting and tech to get contracts, then post and pray that someone will buy. Can you talk about the most common mistakes people make with dispositions?
The first is deal evaluation. People look at a deal and value it too high. They think, “I buy it for $20, so it must be worth $30,” but the reality is it’s a bad buy. We see this all the time in this market—it’s an election year in the US, and I learned that over the past four years. I had conversations with Land.com and other elite producers; they all see a drop every four years. For ten years, it was a seller’s market; now it’s a buyer’s market, and sellers aren’t aware. The most common mistake is valuing deals too high. The second mistake is not having a budget for dispositions. We’re all wholesalers; we’re our own marketplace. This marketplace lives from marketing to sellers and buyers; you have the product in the middle. Most people budget for acquisitions but not for dispositions.
You mentioned sellers aren’t aware we’re in a buyer’s market. How do you educate them?
My team does that. Most people think sending mail gets contracts, but now you need to do much more. That’s the same in dispositions—you need to do more to get results. I personally do deals in Texas and Florida because I love hard buyer’s markets. When you position something—acquisitions or dispositions—you need value, scarcity, and urgency. You need to show the disvalue of the property: deep research. When you make an offer, figure out if it’s in a flood zone, has wetlands, etc. Focus on the issues. Opportunities are less frequent now. We used to send 400-500 mailers to get a contract; now it’s four or five times that. You need to wait longer. When you talk to people, always try to take something away from them; build urgency and scarcity. Devalue their property, find their “why,” and align that with your business model. We also need to adjust business models. The age of double closings is over; sales cycles are longer, even in Texas and Florida. You need to be prepared. Consider subdividing, working with hard money lenders, offering shorter closing periods (30, 45, or 14 days), distress properties, or entitlements. If you’re starting now, learn to work with hard money lenders. You could do equity partnerships: you bring the deal, they bring the money, and you split the profits. Or, you could pay them interest and take ownership.
You’re seeing fewer double closings and more traditional buy-and-hold. Risk goes way up when you hold properties longer. How do you mitigate that?
When you’re new, find a private equity partner who’s experienced and knows how to evaluate deals. When you do it yourself, you need to learn due diligence. It’s a new skill. This is the same with subdividing: you need surveys, approvals, road access, etc. With money lenders, you’ll need a network of note buyers. 80% of properties under $100,000 go on owner financing. You need to offer owner financing; people have money but think they don’t. Adding private money to your network is a must. If you do double closings, use owner financing in the back end—80% more buyers!
You’ve done over a thousand deals. What would you suggest for someone starting with a $0 marketing budget?
First, learn to make the right decisions. Deal evaluation starts with this. Second, make your deal ready to sell. In the land space, titles are important. Use AI to read deeds and titles, build relationships with title companies, and get a title commitment. Shoot for a double closing; do a 45-day test to see if the property is sellable. Before closing, have a seller, buyer, agents, title company, hard money lender, and maybe a note buyer lined up. Find a good realtor; build a relationship. When you have zero dollars, spend your time. Two reasons Realtors don’t take contracts: unclear titles and no earnest money deposit. Pull a title commitment and have an enforceable contract with an EMD. For an EMD, I sometimes send the seller $50. When you go to a realtor, say you’ve solved the issues. Leverage a realtor friend to talk to brokers; this elevates your standing. Facebook Marketplace is a lottery; it’s not reliable, but use it if you have zero dollars. Make exceptional marketing materials; GIS data isn’t enough. Get drone footage; real footage elevates the listing. When using Facebook Marketplace, use original photos. Real footage is key. Hire a VA for editing. When giving this to a realtor, they’ll list it because they make money. Most people don’t think about the realtor’s cut (6% average, which needs to be split with the buyer’s realtor). Think about the realtor's business model; you want to give them enough spread to make it worth their while. Build relationships; it takes time but pays off. One client built a relationship over years with a realtor and now they bring him deals.
To clarify, are you listing with a realtor as a double close, or are you closing first?
We list as a double close. Explain your business model to the realtor and the broker. You can’t stretch out a contract for six months anymore; buyers aren’t buying that story. You may need to close, and if you don’t have an exit strategy, the realtor will drop you.
You mentioned saying “no” to deals. How do you decide?
You need to be confident in your area’s sale prices. Reverse engineer; figure out typical turnaround times. Then, decide what you’re willing to pay. When you're experienced you can tell a deal's value just by seeing its location on a map. If you don’t have experience, talk to several people to get a feel for the number. Be confident about your sale price then reverse engineer.
Do I pay for acquisitions? What's my number to get a contract? What's my number to get a deal? Because, hey, from 10 deals under contract, you'll probably sell five or six in the beginning, right? Or maybe just four. I started with much less than that. But even when you're really good, we get a lot of shitty contracts, right? And we just say, "I won't," yeah, we cancel them because something's wrong with the property we didn't see in the offer phase—like wetlands, or whatever. You need to know how much money you spend to get a deal. This includes everything: direct mail, calling, any CRM system, anyone you're paying—your due diligence guy, your comps guy, your due diligence portal, whatever. Just figure it out; it's simple. Look at the last 12 months: how many deals did you do? How much did you spend? Divide it by 12. That's your acquisition cost. You also want to know your closing costs in that area. When I calculate closing costs, I always think I pay full for the seller and half with the buyer. Especially with agents, you need to pay closing costs; you can negotiate, but it rarely happens.
So, on a $100,000 deal, maybe you spend $25,000 in closing costs and $25,000 in acquisition costs. Let's say your agent takes 10%, or $10,000. That leaves $85,000. You'll also need marketing money. Let's shift gears: what about marketing? You need more than finding an agent. Especially in September, we'll see changing business models with realtors when that NAR judgment kicks in. A lot of people are leaving the industry; solutions will come, but not for six to twelve months in the land space. They'll come into the house space faster, but the land space will take time. Specialized realtors who do ranches and million-dollar transactions will always be there, but the smaller deals ($50,000, $100,000, $150,000, $30,000) will take time. You'll have a disposition budget. Let's say you need $44,000 to sell a deal. Now we're at $85,000 + $44,000 = $129,000. Let's say your hard money lender charges 16% interest over 180 days (the average turnaround time). That's about $15,000 for six months. Annualized, that's $30,000. Let's add risk mitigation, bio jumps, due diligence time, etc.—another $8,000. So, that's $137,000. You want a $10,000 to $13,000 net profit, meaning you can buy it for around $60,000. That's how we calculate it.
Now, how are you using AI in your business, specifically in disposition strategies? If you don't have a disposition budget of $3,000-$5,000 a month, don't even think about it. You can use AI for listing text, but that's about it. I wouldn't use it for image creation yet; it's too weak. With $1,000, I'd start with neighborhood marketing. Elisa Jared's Buyers Finder is the best tool—use it on every property and reach as many people as possible. You can use that data later. With $1,000 a month, get a Land.com subscription; it's a strong marketing channel, or get listing slots. The key KPI in land dispositions is call-to-lead time. You want to reach a lead in under 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, the chance of contacting them again drops by 83%; after two hours, it's almost impossible. Zillow has similar numbers. For your Land.com subscription, get a call center to answer calls when you can't—even a $60-$100 service. If you generate 30 leads a month and spend $500 on Land.com, that's $16 per lead. If you don't answer within 15 minutes, that $16 is gone. Establish a culture of calling leads immediately.
With a $3,000 monthly budget, invest in CRM automation and AI. Collect data, import it into a CRM, build a buyer list, and organize email outreach. Focus on markets where you know things work. Don't bounce around; find an area you love and stick with it. Get an AI developer to build a text outreach bot. Start with text because it's scalable. You can't do a voice bot at 3 AM. A text bot can schedule a call later. This is a great investment. Don't use VAs; hire someone reliable you can train. This is the first step to a real business. That 15-minute KPI is key; you want to leverage those leads.
What CRM do you recommend? Whatever works. We use a mix. We use Pipedrive for dispositions because I don't like GoHighLevel's object model. GoHighLevel treats a deal as a person moving through a pipeline, with property attributes. If the person wants a different property, you have to manually create a new deal card. Pipedrive uses objects—properties—so you can easily switch properties. GoHighLevel will likely add this feature later. Talk to your AI developer about integration. Hire salespeople later. Build systems where you are the salesperson initially. You'll be the strongest salesperson; you can make ultimate decisions on the phone. When you have a system that pre-qualifies leads and filters out tire-kickers, you'll be more effective. A lead for me is a name, phone number, email, and interest in a property. With a good outreach machine, you can handle more leads, and your conversations will be more efficient.
What's your disposition process? First, due diligence: online research, two people on the ground (a drone pilot and a local realtor). Clear the title, finalize contracts. Then, marketing: order drone footage (allow 2-3 weeks), create marketing materials. Launch a listing with stock images and GIS data, then replace with real footage. Find a realtor if needed. Use Land.com, neighborhood marketing, Facebook Marketplace. Build your buyer list and email them. Use AI to research buyers in the area; filter for cash buyers, builders, those who have bought similar properties before. With a bigger budget ($5,000), use warm audience Facebook and Google ads. Use bots to qualify leads. Have sales reps and realtors work together; warm transfers are great. Hire a transactional coordinator. Do direct outreach, cold emails, and calls (but use AI for compliance). When you have deal flow, add SEO and paid advertising. This leverages your systems; you'll handle more leads. Search engine optimization takes 3-12 months, but once it's going, sales run on autopilot. You can use this for acquisitions and dispositions.
You mentioned getting properties listed quickly; what's the difference between that and the actual listing? We have Listing 1 and Listing 2. Listing 1 is a framework, using stock or GIS data, immediately put in the market; Listing 2 replaces that with professional footage later. With hard money lenders, aim to close in 30-60 days. "Done is better than perfect." What other KPIs do you track besides the 15-minute call-to-lead? How many leads do you need to generate a sale? What are your disposition expenses? How much do you spend per lead and per sale? Track the time from lead to close. Track email marketing funnel performance (customer lifetime value). Average sale time is a bad KPI. Focus on the 15-minute mark, leads needed to close, and marketing spend.
You mentioned Alysia Jarrett's Buyers Finder and supercharged offers; how do you use it? Neighborhood marketing is essential; it gives easy access to data. We use our own mailing strategies, build lookalike audiences on Facebook, and run warm advertising and display ads to realtors. It works slower than expected. We offer disposition services. There's no shortcut to success; those who stay in the industry for four years or more make a lot of money. You need to adapt to market changes. Don't stop because something isn't working; adjust your strategy. Networking is important.
What is LandPilot? It started two years ago; people asked me to sell their deals. I professionalized it. LandPilot offers a disposition service (hands-off; we handle everything), a network of private money lenders, development services, and subdivision services. We do weekly calls. We help with raising capital. We're developing AI tools like a due diligence bot and a marketing bot. We offer a price structure, allowing you to focus on acquisitions. We call it "discovered true freedom." It's like autopilot for your disposition process.
What's the structure of LandPilot? There's a small upfront fee ($600 or so) for hard costs, then we work on commission (double what you’d pay a realtor). Deals under $60,000 are 20%; $60,000-$100,000 is 18%; $100,000-$250,000 is 15%; and over $250,000 is 12%. 10% of our commission goes to the realtor.
How do I reach LandPilot? LandPilot.com, Facebook (best way to reach me), or Robin online at landmarket.com.
Send an email or ask Kendall, and maybe you can hang out with us in Austin next time I'm around. We can eat tacos and hamburgers and all that stuff.
Absolutely! You'll be at A's event, I saw.
Yeah, yeah, I will be there. Dallas too.
Yeah, I said that was the Family Mastermind. I didn't check that.
No, it doesn't. Right? No, it doesn't. It doesn't. I think it's okay.
Good. Thank you for letting me know that it's the very next day. It's the very next day for Fam J. I was a bit worried. Right? Like I was a little bit worried about that.
Okay. Yeah, awesome. Robin, thank you so much. You've been so generous with your time. This has been really cool. I got a ton of nuggets. I'll be watching the replay for sure, probably more than once, to dig out some of these gold nuggets. Thank you everyone. This has been absolutely eye-opening. Robin, thank you for sharing this. This has been really cool, super valuable. Thank you everyone for joining us. I'll look for the replay. We'll be dropping this as a podcast episode on both the YouTube channel as well as an audio podcast. So thank you again. Until then, we'll see you next time. It will be one week from today. We'll have another fantastic presentation and interview for you with another land Rockstar. So thank you so much for joining us, Robin. This has been absolutely incredible, and I'm really looking forward to seeing you soon. So take care everyone. We'll catch you in the next one. Bye-bye. Thank you. Bye-bye.
If you're interested in hearing from other six and seven-figure land flippers about how they built and run their businesses, then check out my group, Only Land Fans, where I do a live interview each week inside the group. You can grab that link in the description below. Until then, be great. Have a great week, and catch you in the next one.