Author

Jessey Kwong
Pebble Co-Founder
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How I Handle Messy Property Titles (Podcast Ep#170)
Podcast
170

Jessey catches up with Karl James, a familiar face on this show and someone who was there for a lot of his early days in land. Karl retired from a decades long career a few years back and now treats land as a hobby he takes seriously, focusing on properties with messy titles, heirship issues, and delinquent taxes.
In this episode, Karl walks through how he pulls leads straight from tax court filings, why he only works a handful of counties in Texas, and how he decides between self-closing a deal or going through a full title process. He also shares a real case study where he turned $5,000 into $25,000 profit in about three months, and talks candidly about the ethics of buying distressed land at a discount.
Karl also opens up about bringing his son and daughter into the business, what worked, what didn't, and what he'd tell anyone thinking about mixing family and land deals.
What You'll Learn:
How Karl finds messy title and tax delinquent leads directly from court records
Why he sometimes self-closes deals and pays back taxes only at the time of sale
How he thinks through the ethics of buying distressed land for cents on the dollar
Lessons learned bringing his son and daughter into the family land business
