Land Academy Member Richard Alberty Interview (CFFL 407)

Recording Location: LAT (i.e.  33.838781)  (LONG i.e.  -118.391261)

Jack Butala:                       Jack and Jill. How are you?

Jill DeWit:                           Hello.

Richard:                              I'm doing good. How are you guys doing?

Jack Butala:                       Excellent. Thank you so much for joining us on the podcast.

Richard:                              It's my pleasure.

Jack Butala:                       Thank you for being flexible because I think we must have scheduled something incorrectly on our end. I guess that's what you can do when you have your own business, right?

Richard:                              Well, when you have your own business, you sit in front of the computer and work. The best part is you can work from anywhere in the world, so you can't complain.

Jill DeWit:                           Exactly. Exactly, so thank you again for being here. If you would, first, share with us and all of our listeners a little bit about your background and where you come from.

Richard:                              Well, I grew up in New York, moved to Miami many, many years ago. I was in the insurance business, an employee benefits consulting business. I got involved indirectly with a friend who had a son, who was getting into real estate, and I had another friend who was selling some properties. I just asked my friend, "Hey, you mind if I make a couple dollars on this?" He goes, "No. If you can sell it, I'll pay you." Then I got my real estate license and all then I bought a piece of property for 40, sold it for 80. I said, "Well, this is pretty easy." Then I bought another parcel for 40 and sold it to 80 to another guy.

Before I know it, I got into a satellite system and started looking for properties, vacant land. I found a nice parcels or multiple parcels in the east coast of Florida. I'm sorry, in the west coast of Florida. I started flipping those properties in 2004-5-6-7, buying them for seven grand, selling for 12 grand. Then I went to the county, got a database. You know how the nightmare that could be and the database they give you at the hodgepodge.

Jill DeWit:                           Totally.

Richard:                              Then you want to break everything down. You want to keep the first letter capital, and then breakdown the others into lowercase. That's another learning curve, but that's how I started. It's been about, wow, 10-11 years now.

Jill DeWit:                           Awesome.

Jack Butala:                       Yeah.

Jill DeWit:                           What brought you to us? It sounds like you had a good going.

Richard:                              It was good. In 2007-8-9, we were selling properties in South Carolina. Probably sold about 140-150 properties then and then everything, as you know, slowed down and it wasn't easy. I started thinking about, "What am I going to do? Is the party over?" I realized I missed the boat. It was probably the best time to be involved in the business. I thought to stay in ... Let me look what I used to do and get back into the real estate. Finding like-minded people in this land niche is almost impossible.

Jack Butala:                       Yeah, I agree.

Richard:                              I was one of your original five callers about 18 months ago.

Jack Butala:                       Yup. I remember.

Richard:                              Five listeners. I think I was number four. I was glad I found you and I listen to you every day. Just being around like-minded people and getting ideas, and getting motivated, and realizing it's a perfect business. It's inventory, you're pushing paper. You don't have to carry inventory. You don't have to buy from a manufacturer or sell to somebody on terms and wait. If you were buying and selling copy paper, you keep it for a certain price,