From Nuclear Submarines to 400 Land Deals with Justin Piché

Justin Piché spent five years as a nuclear submarine officer before walking away from an engineering career at ExxonMobil to buy raw land. He has now closed over 400 deals.

His model is simple to describe and unglamorous to execute: buy a large rural tract, split it into smaller parcels, and sell those to buyers who want land without the price of a finished home. The margin comes from arbitrage — a 50-acre tract at $5,000 an acre is worth double as 10-acre lots at $10,000.

Justin walks through exempt splits, the provision in many county codes that allows a division with nothing more than a survey. He explains the two numbers he screens a market for before looking at any property, why water lines sized for a single home are his biggest deal killer, and the roughly $70,000 a year he loses in earnest money on deals that don’t work.

There’s a direct message for agents in here too: listings marked “development potential” are usually priced as though the development were finished, and that markup is the developer’s entire margin.

He closes with three golden nuggets on scaling, keeping your word, and the contract he tore up the moment he learned the seller had dementia.

A holistic approach to life through real estate.