BATTLECALL GUEST EXPERT: Robert J. Abalos, Esq., InvestingInLand.com

I am often asked by new land investors about how to put together what Napoleon Hill called in his influential book THINK AND GROW RICH a "Master Mind" or a team of professional experts who will work with you to achieve your land investing goals with ease and great success.

Some of the professionals on this list would include the following:

* A real estate transaction attorney (for such matters as closings, writing contracts of sale and mortgage notes, filing deeds, etc.).

* A real estate zoning and development lawyer (for subdivision issues, zoning variances, and other land use matters).

* An accountant specializing in real estate accounting.

* A tax planner specializing in real estate tax law issues.

* A land engineer (for road or driveway construction, land clearing, installation of drainage, etc.).

* A surveyor for measuring land.

* A title insurance company for examining title questions.

* A bank or loan officer for business borrowing needs.

* A well driller for water access.

* A land inspector for toxic waste and chemical contamination questions.

* A geologist for land composition issues.

* A real estate sales associate, broker, or realtor to sell land.

* A home builder with experience erecting homes.

* A real estate developer with experience building larger projects such as residential subdivisions or commercial properties.

* And many others, depending on the size of your land projects and the number of acres you have to sell.

This can seem like a daunting task for the new land investor but it really shouldn't.

Building your Master Mind is quite simple and like most other rather complicated tasks, you do it one step at a time.

First, you only need to hire those professionals you currently need. You don't need to put together a team of experts to build shopping centers when you are flipping single family land lots. A good lawyer, accountant, and surveyor are necessary at the start. They can help you find all the other professionals you might need later on down the road.

Second, finding professionals is quite easy. ASK PEOPLE YOU TRUST! As part of your land investing information gathering you should be contacting and networking with all sorts of real estate professionals like bankers, mortgage brokers, developers, even large land owners. Ask them who they use. Usually in any small area like a city or county the same three or four names will keep popping up.

Third, meet the people others suggest to you. Ask all the usual questions any guide on the subject or common sense would suggest. You obviously need to know about their fees, experience, credentials, professional memberships, references, and the like. How can you judge the real quality of any professional? My experience suggests that the busier someone is, the more in demand they are, meaning the more happy clients they have. If a prospective professional seems to eager for your business, it probably means they aren't in demand and really need your work. That doesn't mean these people aren't professionals or up for your tasks, it just raises a red flag. If these people are so good, why aren't they busy doing what they do best?

When hiring any type of professional, listen to how they explain how they will make you money and service your needs. I know so many excellent real estate lawyers, for example, who can cite chapter and verse on the law and are so hypnotized by the legal process they forget their clients are hiring them to make money and not get an education on legal history. I despise accountants and lawyers who can give me 27 reasons why I CANNOT do something but not make a single suggestion how I CAN do what I want or need to do. The same is true of other land professionals who are paid by the hour. I know many who can give me three hours of excuses why they do not have time to do a five minute job. ALWAYS stress that you are hiring this professional (regardless of type) to MAKE YOU MONEY and that they need to make suggestions how they are going to do that for you either by cutting your costs, boosting your cash flow, speeding the turnover of your inventory, or making you a more successful land investor in some other way.

When I ask for the time of day from a professional, I do not want to hear a lecture on how to build a clock. So many want to prove the depth of their knowledge, the quality of their education, and their extensive personal experience that they drone on and on with unnecessary and unneeded information. They are too much in love with the history of their profession and the intricacies of the process they employ than in my real world need for them----MAKING ME MONEY. When I ask the time of day, I expect to learn two facts. What time it is, and how knowing that fact can make me money.

Lastly, always be on the lookout for better help. Just because you have a real estate lawyer doesn't mean you won't find a better one. When you hire professionals to work for you, never forget that YOU ARE THE BOSS! These people work for you, you pay them to make you money. Sometimes their expertise and skill makes it seem that you need them much more than they need you. WRONG! They are in business solely to service clients like you. If you find any of your Master Mind personally offensive, rude, arrogant, unethical, or otherwise distasteful get rid of them regardless of how much money they can make for you.

Like I said earlier, every town or county has more than one qualified professional practicing whatever skill you need. This is especially true of professionals who DO NOT RETURN PHONE CALLS. Lawyers are notorious offenders here and as a client you should not accept such rude practices under any circumstances. Make your displeasure known and threaten to take your business elsewhere if the offensive practices continue.

As a real estate lawyer and professional myself, let me give you my take on how I view my clients. They often come to me with a problem, something weighing heavily on their minds, an issue or situation that is causing them anguish, anxiety, financial distress, or sleepless nights. They want this problem to go away! That is why they are in my office meeting with me with their checkbook in hand.

They are not interested in how the courts and legislatures of their state have considered their problem over the last 400 years and the various solutions that have been tried and failed over the centuries.

They are not interested in a lecture on public policy and how other nations or the laws in other states give them options they do not currently have.

They do not want to know how their problem can't be solved.

They want their problem solved NOW, within the guidelines set by the law, common sense, and established ethics.

I view my role as an attorney as like a magician.

I put my client's problems in my magic box. I wave my magic wand, say some appropriate Latin legal words akin to ABRACADABRA, and POOF.....their problem is gone.

Of course, it really isn't that simple. I have to work hard to make my client's problems go away. But they shouldn't have to know that. Nor should they care. They are paying me to work hard, not to commiserate with them about how hard I am working for them. I am concerned with RESULTS not the process. I obviously cannot do anything illegal, unethical, or immoral when solving your client's problem. Otherwise, I simply create another problem for them----and myself! But beyond those guidelines, my goal is to quickly rid them of what is causing them grief.

All the professionals you hire should have this same attitude. A focus on getting you what you need----FAST! The more real estate and land professionals you meet and deal with, the more experience you will gain hiring them and the more names you will have in your Palm Pilot when you need something very specific done to your land.

With a team of competent professionals on your side, there is no limit to your profits!