Brent Bowers’ interest in real estate began in 2007 when he purchased his first home. In a short amount of time, Brent was able to expand his business. While Brent invests in many different types of real estate, his favorite investment strategy deals with buying and selling vacant land, and he enjoys sharing his expertise in this area with his coaching clients.
Did you know that he bought his first property by borrowing a money deposit from his Great Grandmother? He felt like his grandma tricked him by saying that if he won’t pay her, it’ll come out of his inheritance. So he paid him back from his agent’s commission, but in the end, he never got his inheritance. Brent started buying houses and buying rentals. He wanted to be a little bit different so he started buying land at massive discounts. He started turning around and selling land at premium and retail prices to people that can afford a monthly payment. That took him into a whole new strategy. He’s getting passive land income. He started reinvesting back to buildings, houses, and commercial apartments for the tax savings.
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Passive Income Land Investing with Brent Bowers
Brett:
I am with the gentleman who’s going to help you invest in more passive income through land investing. In fact, he is the Founder of The Land Sharks and he always felt that or has believed that generating passive income and building legacy wealth, there can be some problems, right? You may have lots of money to invest. You may need to be a real estate expert. You might feel overwhelmed and don’t know where to start. He’s here to tell us some practical tips on how to get going right now. Please welcome to the show with me, Brent Bowers. Brent, how are you doing?
Brent:
Really good. Brett. Thanks so much for having me.
Brett:
Give our listeners a little bit more about your background and your current focus.
Brent:
Yeah, thanks for asking, Brett. And thanks so much for having me on Capital Gains Tax Solutions. I am a tax student. I love studying this stuff. I love reading these books. Because you know what, if you’re gonna pay all your profits to Uncle Sam, what’s the point of being in business. So I love that you put the show on. Thanks so much for having me. I would say a little bit about myself. 2007, I became a real estate agent. And I also became a real estate investor purchased my first property and ended up having to borrow the earnest money deposit from Great Grandma. And she said, “Look, if you don’t pay me back, that’s okay. It comes out of your inheritance.” I said, “Don’t worry, Grandma, I’m gonna pay you back because I’m getting a buyer’s agent commission for buying this house.” So pay grandma back. I never got that inheritance. I don’t know what she was talking about. I think she just tricked me into paying her back. But I was now a house owner, and I wanted to be a landlord. So I rented this property out, had the school of hard knocks. I found out that you don’t rent to people that can pay the highest amount, you rent the people with good credit, no backgrounds, no felonies on their background. So I had to learn a couple of times, as far as renovating the house after your tenant trashes it. And just so happened to be when I was out of the country when I had to do these renovations because I ended up joining the military in 2009. Because the real estate market really kind of kicked my butt. So I was overseas for a few years deployed a couple of times, get back to the states in 2013. And guess what, guess who’s back in the real estate market? Brent Bowers. so I started buying houses again buying rentals. And you know, it was all well and good. But I wanted to be a little bit different. So I started buying land at massive discounts. And I started turning around and selling this land at premium and retail prices to people that can afford a monthly payment. So I buy it at a massive discount and turn it around and sell it at a retail price. And I’ll be paid for the next 3, 4, 5, 7 years on this piece of land. And then that took me into a whole strategy. I’m getting passive land income. And then I started reinvesting back and building and houses and commercial and apartments for the tax savings. And here we are today. Hopefully, we’re gonna have an awesome conversation about it.
Brett:
Amazing. We just met three minutes ago for the first time, never talked to Brent before and I can already say we’re gonna line a lot of things. Before we dive into some of the strategies through Brent, I believe we’ve all been given certain gifts in these lives. Some people call them superpowers. Some people call them strengths, I believe their God-given gifts and I believe these gifts have been given to us to be a blessing to others. So, I’m curious to sprinkle back to the high school days, college days maybe, and picture yourself and what was maybe one of those one or two gifts that you believe that kind of naturally came to you. You know, what are those gifts and how do you use those gifts to help and bless people today?
Brent:
I would say the first thing that comes to my mind is stubbornness. When I get something in my mind, I get it done. Sometimes that gift got me in trouble. As Peter Irwin, spider man’s uncle said you know with great power comes great responsibility. So sometimes you can get yourself in trouble with these gifts as well. But I would say what’s been my superpower is I get something in my mind. And I will jump over walls to get there. And then how we bless people today with it is just we’ve got a big team now we get to others. I’m also coaching people on how to do this, I literally just had a student text me, right before we got on here, he’s going to a $2.5 million profit on a land deal. And he’s also blessing others’ lives. So that’s really cool to know. You know, this is a good guy making an amazing profit on a land deal, one land deal. And this man is a servant, a God’s servant like he’s always doing things to improve other’s lives. And I don’t want to get into what he does. But it’s just good to know that I had a very small tiny part in that.
Brett:
That’s remarkable and amazing. And by the way, you can learn more about Brent Bowers at thelandsharks.com. So now let’s dive in right into what is it that you do and how you help people create what’s called is transformational wealth? It’s not just perhaps for someone, it’s 2.5 million, some people it’s 200,000, maybe 200,000. But that can be huge for somebody right, with either path, getting more passive income, building their wealth outside of the stock market. So let’s dive right into that step one. What’s the best-kept secret when it comes to land investing in what you do?
Brent:
That’s a great question. And I’m glad you also said that transformational wealth. At the end of the day, sometimes even an extra $250 is okay, it was life-changing for someone. And that could be per month, it doesn’t have to be 2.5 million or 200,000. You know, $250 a month could change someone’s life. But going back to the best-kept secret I would say is, most people have no clue how to make money on land. And that’s why there’s virtually no competition. So that’s maybe my second best-kept secret, but it’s how to make money and land. People drive by this stuff every single day, they don’t even look twice at it. Because there’s no building on it. There’s no storage unit on it. There’s no mobile home or single-family residence, how in the world to make money with land, that’s probably the best-kept secret. And then the second secret is there’s no competition because people don’t realize how to make money on land. So they’re not investing in it. And I’ll let you take a lead on that. If you want me to tell you how to make money and land, I would be more than happy to
Brett:
What is the next secret? So the first secret is, people just don’t realize that you can do it. And or they don’t have a guide or coach like Brent Bowers, showing them how to do it by that we get that all the time the deferred sales trust. People don’t understand how to use the deferred sales trust, to defer tax to build your wealth to diversify to get liquidity, because they haven’t been shown by somebody who’s done in the past. Right? The first time, I did a 1031 exchange as a real estate broker. I didn’t know what I was doing. But I had some guidance from coaches at Marcus and Millichap who showed me how to do it. First time I did a deferred sales trust. I didn’t know what I was doing. It was 2009 after the crash. But then I had a guidance coach who showed me how to do it. Wow, what a concept, right? And then after you do these deals, and you know, I say the 10,000 hours, right? You become an expert, as you’re looking at deals, underwriting deals, closing deals, finding deals, understanding the needs, the wants, the motivations behind each circumstance, right? And as you collect that experience, all of a sudden, you’re the expert, and you can provide that next level of service. So walk us through that, Brent, how are you coaching and step by step of helping somebody to become a land expert?
Brent:
Yeah, that’s a great question. And you know, coaching has been such an amazingly fulfilling experience. Because when you see a student actually take action, and get a result, we call a win from it the action creates the result, and the result is the win. And that’s where education comes from. And enough of that the education comes while you’re getting paid to learn basic is what we call it. How do I coach people, I have a series of modules, which is another word for video, very short videos with action steps to where you take the action, and then you celebrate have a lemonade, enjoy your time, take the rest of the day off. One action step could be you know, pick your playground, hey, I’m giving you 24 hours to pick your playground, pick it next day, let’s get a list of mail, let’s get a list of people that would be highly motivated to get rid of this land in this particular situation, what would make them motivated, they might be out of state, they might be behind on their taxes, there might be liens, and the number three, day three, get a letter in the mail to these people. And then so on and so on its step by step by step. And that’s how we’re coaching people.
Brett:
That’s amazing. I love that. And I might pick your brain on that because we also have a portal and it’s you know, at your own pace. It’s kind of like here’s an A to Z, what you need to know, 90% of the answers to your questions on the different Salesforce you can find and but I like how you’re doing, it’s simple, 24 hours like little mini-challenges, right? Is that a fair summary?
Brent:
That’s it. Yeah, and it’s not overwhelming. I’m not giving you an hour and 35 minutes of video for you to listen to me and watch my thumb around on the computer and this and that. And as you could probably tell, I’m not a super analytical dude. Like, here’s the task, just do it. Don’t think about it, do it.
Brett:
Right, take the action, and let me put action creates the result. And the result is the wind. And the wind gives you the experience in education. I think sometimes we get it backward, right? We think we need to go get that education, we need to go watch that PowerPoint, or that YouTube video or whatever. And just keep absorbing, absorbing, absorbing, not realizing we’re just stuffing ourselves full of information. And that creates, and it can create procrastination, and then analysis paralysis. And guess what nothing ever happens, right? But it’s taking that action. So what’s the best-kept secret to helping your students take that action, besides the simple 24-hour challenges?
Brent:
You know, I say one, keeping it simple here’s the action step, and pull the trigger and pushing them to do that, I find that most of my students just want the confidence and the permission to be able to do it. You know, and most of our calls are our training calls, our coaching calls are not how to do it, it’s almost the psychology of why you have to do it like is taking the action is never going to be perfect, you’re never going to have, it’s not going to be to the penny exactly for the offer amount, it’s just knowing that it’s okay to just take the action, even though it’s not going to be the absolute perfect result. And the result could be beautiful. And sometimes it’s not even planned. And it turns out better than what we actually anticipate. It’s almost like asking one of our land buyers when we’re trying to figure out, hey, it shows on here our ad, we’re asking for 399 a month, what’s an affordable monthly payment to you, if our minds are thinking, Oh, he’s gonna say 250 I don’t want 250 a month, I need 399. And sometimes, they completely go the opposite direction and surprise us and say what I can probably do for 50 a month, we’re only asking 399 a month. So sometimes the result is the opposite of what we’re thinking in our minds, don’t let your limiting beliefs and your minuscule understanding, like, be what’s gonna happen, because you never know. And sometimes it’s just even better than what you’d expect if you know, sometimes it’s even more beautiful than what you expected.
Brett:
Beautiful, love all of that. So, now let’s get super practical with an example. I like to start that $2.5 million deal because it sounds like a huge win, and then we’ll get maybe a more average size deal. So walk us through without having to give away anything that’s confidential, right? What was the land that he bought? For what and how was he able to turn around? Did he entitle it? Did he improve it? Did he do something to make it a $2.5 million game?
Brent:
So I can’t talk too much about it, because it’s not 100% complete. But here’s the thing, it’s 96 buildable, lots of builders willing to come in and pay roughly 52,000 a lot for this property. And they’re actually paying a way bigger price tag, but the roads, and the culverts are going to come out of the proceeds. So he’s technically going to only have about a profit of about 2.5 million. So that’s that deal. But that’s not happening every single day, I can tell you the deals that we have every single day, I’ll tell you the coaching call I just got off of yesterday, we have a student that’s getting the parcel of land under contract for $2,000 $2,000. And he’s turning around and selling it for $15,000 on seller financing. And his buyer is going to pay a $2,000 downpayment. And he’s going to make money off of this piece of land for the next five or six years. So he is going to create time freedom because he’s gonna be paid for the next five or six years on this one transaction. Now imagine doing one of these a week at $200 a month that really adds up. You know, Saul does shavings make big piles.
Brett:
Beautiful. So we might walk through that. So he bought the land for $2,000. And he bought it in cash. So now he owns it. And then he goes and finds somebody and he says, Look, I’ll sell it to you on terms. I will carry back the note, right? I will lend you the money at 15,000. And you’d have to pay me about 200 a month for X amount of years. And they’re like, yeah, that’s sweet. I’ll give a $2,000 downpayment. So he gets his initial investment back. So now there has some skin in the game. Is that a fair summary?
Brent:
You got it, Brett. That’s right. And he’s profitable. And my student is profitable in 30 days. And he just rinses and repeats.
Brett:
Amazing. So now let’s back up to I mean, this is the secret sauce maybe we need to get with Brent. Where and how are they finding these deals and just tell us how maybe how simple it really is to execute on these things?
Brent:
A lot of times when we start with the low-hanging juicy fruit we’re looking for the out-of-state owners and the guys that are behind on the tax link or that are behind on their taxes for the property. So we call the tax delinquent list and can be easily found by calling your county treasurer and asking, hey, let me insert any way I can get a list of the people that are behind on their properties. And then you scrub that list and you figure out who to mail who’s vacant land, and send these guys a letter. Get in front of them, talk to him, serve them.
Brett:
The next step is to create a deal win-win for both sides. So 2000 bucks for the piece of land and the person is already behind it. Are you coming out of pocket to pay some of the delinquent taxes sometimes or how does that work out?
Passive Income Land Investing: “As soon as the land of any country has all become private property, the landlords, like all other men, love to reap where they never sowed, and demand a rent even for its natural produce. ” – Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations
Brent:
Yeah, most of the time that comes out of the $2,000. Every deal is a little different. I’ll talk about my first deal, the first deal I ever purchased $285 for a piece of land. Unbelievable, right? I’d actually found this parcel of land by mailing the county-held tax delinquent list. The county held tax delinquent lists, actually is the county health tax lien list, let me correct myself. This is land that was so inefficient, not buildable, not accessible. That tax lien investors don’t even purchase the back taxes on. They don’t even want to try and make a return on investment because they don’t get stuck with that land. So I mailed this list accidentally when I was just starting this out into early 2016. And I mailed almost 687 postcards, just a simple postcard, hey, I’d like to buy your land. And I must receive 85 phone calls. My phone almost melted. I didn’t have time to return the calls because I was still an army officer who had an hour-long lunch break. And I was on post at 6 am and leaving usually about 7 pm I returned to one of those phone calls and did two deals. Well, this first deal. $285 had no clue what the land was worth. I called a realtor that was close to the land. She was so familiar with it. She knew why it wasn’t buildable. She gave me the ins and outs. I was like, Listen, I don’t have a lot of money. I can’t just leave my money parked in this land. $285 like embarrassing, right? I had and that’s fine. A lot of people were in that position. And we had just had a brand new baby, just moved out to Colorado. I was scared. I didn’t want to buy a piece of land that I get stuck with. So I asked the realtors like what’s the 30-day blowout price? He goes well, I don’t know about that. But you could probably sell for maybe 10 grand. I was thinking myself 10 grand. I’m spending 285. great deal. So I hang up with this realtor that I called on a Saturday. I’m just so blessed that she was in the office and was willing to take my call. And she calls me back five minutes later and says, Hey, what do you think of I purchased the land from you? And I was like, I think that’d be a great deal. What are you offering? She goes 5000 I said, What do you want to close? She said Wednesdays, like four days from now. She was Yeah. And I was like, cool. Let’s do it. So she sent me the contract to close on Wednesday. I call my seller back. And I said, Hey, can we meet Tuesday, I’ll pay you then. Bring me the deed. So we met Tuesday. I paid him, I sent my deed to the land title company. And I had my $5,000 check the next day. So that’s it. It’s that easy.
Brett:
Oh my gosh. Love it. I love that you’re coaching and training people on how to do that. Fantastic. By the way, you can find more about Brent Bowers, at thelandsharks.com. So Brent, are you in Colorado, where you’re located?
Brent:
Yeah, I’m in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Brett:
Interestingly enough, we just did a Deferred Sales Trust in Colorado Springs for about a 50 unit apartment complex. And they defer the tax using the deferred sales trust. So now it’s a good segue for us into the next part. So you’re doing these things on land contracts? Perhaps, are you doing 100% seller carryback for just about every deal? Or are there times when people are just coming to you and want to just pay cash like the 5000? Do you have a big game? If so, what’s the biggest frustration when it comes to capital gains tax for you?
Brent:
The biggest frustration is I pay about 40 cents on the dollar. You know, and yes, to answer your question, I lean towards seller financing. But there are times where we stopped advertising a cash prize on our website because we didn’t want that. And then they would try and negotiate that cash price. So we just only put the price that if they do the financing, but yeah, sometimes people will say, Well, I don’t want to finance it, or my self-directed IRA will not allow me to do that. And they will make their downpayment and then we’ll refund them the downpayment, and they’ll send us a big check. So we’ve had that happen a couple of times. But yeah, and I’d love to talk to you about some strategies that I’m using to delay those taxes and 1031. And I’m like, I was so scared to do one of those. But after you do it, it’s so easy and saves a lot of action.
Brett:
You took your false beliefs out of the way, and you found someone who helped guide you. You took action on your first 1031. You did it right. Yeah, land contract seller carries back. And so yeah, no, absolutely. So for our listeners who don’t know, but if you haven’t heard it yet, capital gains tax, which is what we do, we help people defer capital gains taxes, not using a 1031 exchange. And it works for high-end primary homes, it works for land sales, it works for cryptocurrency, which for stock, it works for foreign investment, real estate, businesses, okay. And it’s remarkable in that you don’t have to rely on the buyer who may or may not pay you, right, or you may need to foreclose on, and versus a traditional seller carries Brent, you can go on for as long as you want. Most of these traditional seller carries are three to five years, maybe 10. You can go for 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 passes to your kids, and you just keep going. But the best part is you can put it into other investments, real estate deals, or stocks, if you want to, and diversify your collateral, right? And good cash flow more even more cash flow coming forward. So lots of ways to go with that. But I’m curious, have you ever looked at that before? What’s your experience with the deferred sales trust?
Brent:
No, no experience whatsoever. And I’m so thankful to be on this. Because this is one of those avenues loopholes, blessings that I’m going to be exploring. Because I would prefer not to have to do 1031s.
Brett:
Right now I feel is really low and prices are through the roof rates have also dropped, which makes prices even higher. So we think it’s a great time to sell. It’s not such a good time to buy. I mean, you can always find a deal on every marketplace. Don’t get me wrong, but just be very cautious to not just call it the forced shotgun wedding identifying 45 closing 180 that’s usually like a fast marriage doesn’t end too well when you get engaged in 45 days. That being said, you ready for the lightning round?
Brent:
Let’s do it.
Brett:
All right. So knowing what you know, now, Brent, if you go back to your 25-year-old self, what’s the one Golden Nugget that you would make sure you would tell yourself to do?
Brent:
Not sell all those houses.
Brett:
How many houses did you have?
Brent:
I’ve probably sold at least, 30 of them that I wish it wouldn’t have sold.
Brett:
Got it! Especially in Colorado, just really exploded last 10 years. So okay, not all houses. Excellent. Question number two, what’s the number one book you’ve recommended or gifted the most in the past year?
Brent:
The Wealthy Gardener. I wish someone would have forced me, locked me in a room when I was eight or 25 years old to read it.
Brett:
Question number three, best real estate investment ever?
Brent:
My office building, I’m standing in right now. Who? Why? Because it’s an enterprise zone. Bought it dirt cheap, saved a bunch of money in taxes. They’re building a 350 unit apartment complex across the street. It was just definitely the path of growth. And it was almost I wouldn’t say it was by any of my intelligence. I was like, seems like a good deal. And we purchased it. You know, it was just a great blessing.
Brett:
Beautiful, worse real estate deal ever?
Brent:
My first house I talked to you about in 2007. Absolute worst, however, best learning experience ever to
Brett:
Right, exactly took the action, which led to all the other successes you have now and maybe didn’t take the action on that first house? Who knows what has happened, but that’s absolutely good. What are you curious about right now?
Brent:
I’m curious about how to have a better-oiled machine you’re always gonna have people problems and motion problems, drama problems. When you bring on a team and locations in different locations in different countries. You know how to have a more well-oiled, efficient, happy family-type team. So we’re always looking for ways to get better with it and things aren’t bad. They can be better though.
Brett:
Excellent. I love that, same here. We’re growing pains.
Brent:
Growing pains are real.
Brett:
Excellent. Next question. Number one leadership quote or theme that you strive to live by?
Brent:
I would say, just get after it. Do something every day to move the needle and it doesn’t have to be a lot. It’s a compound effect thing. There are 365 days in a year. If you did one thing every day to move you closer to your goal, you’re going to reach it faster than you ever realized possible.
Brett:
Excellent. I’m reading The Compound Effect.
Brent:
Great book. By Darren Hardy.
Brett:
Yep. Beautiful. Last question, Brent. And then we’ll wrap up the show. After all your success with land investing and helping countless others do the same. I’m curious how do you stay centered in your values and how do you stay encouraged to reach forward to reach new heights?
Brent:
Well, my wife helps me stay centered. You know, you ever want to kind of keep your feet on the ground and not get too high on your horse. Just marry a smart woman. That’s one way you know wife, family, God beliefs.
Brett:
Beautiful. Well, Brent, I want to thank you for being on the show. I want to thank you for using your gifts all these years to be stubborn and to persevere and to push forward so that you can help your family and others create and preserve more wealth with real estate and land investing. I want to encourage you to keep doing that. And for our listeners who want to find you can you give them one more reminder where they can find you?
Brent:
Check me out at thelandsharks.com or on Instagram if you like that platform @brentlbowers.
Brett:
Beautiful and for our listeners, that wraps up another show. I want to thank you for listening. If we can help you at all for capital gains tax, make decisions on finding investment, real estate you can go to capitalgainstaxsolutions.com. If you are a real estate professional, financial adviser, business professional, commercial real estate syndicator you go to experttaxsecrets.com to learn how to use the deferred sales trust to grow your business and unlock capital to buy more deals. We appreciate you listening to the show. Please look for this show to drop on iTunes real shortly here. And it’s on YouTube now. Always immediately when we air. Thank you so much. Bye, everybody.
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About Brent Bowers
As an Army Officer with over 8 years of service, Brent Bowers was spending a great deal of time away from his family, and he knew he needed to make some changes in order to be more present with his wife and children. His interest in real estate began in 2007 when he purchased his first home, so Brent began exploring real estate investing as a way to support his family while being able to enjoy more time with them as well.
In a short amount of time, Brent was able to expand his business, hire a team, and (most importantly) spend quality time with his family while still working hard and helping others. While Brent invests in many different types of real estate, his favorite investment strategy deals with buying and selling vacant land, and he enjoys sharing his expertise in this area with his coaching clients. Brent chooses to live his life based on Bob Burg’s quote, “Your influence is determined by how abundantly you place other people’s interests first.” He is passionate about helping other people find success in real estate investing, particularly in land investments.
Brent Bowers is currently the CEO of ZechBuysHouses LLC. Vacant Land of the Free, Discounted Houses Colorado Springs, Rent2Own Colorado and Co-Working & Shared Space are all under the ZechBuysHouses Brand.
