What I am enthusiastic about: How does your land enterprise really create worth?
The reply to that query is the distinction between efficiently reworking what you are promoting with AI and failing to take action.
I’ve been digesting this text from Part (my favourite AI technique publication), in regards to the three AI technique investments leaders ought to make in 2026.
However earlier than you even assume about AI investments, that you must reply two foundational questions:
- How does our firm really create worth?
- What are we NOT going to spend money on anymore so we are able to fund the longer term?
The vast majority of operators skip straight to “let’s throw AI at this drawback” (raises hand) with out doing the cautious work of understanding their enterprise mechanics first.
Let me break down how I am enthusiastic about this for our enterprise as inspiration for you to consider yours.
The place Land Companies Really Create Worth
This was tougher to reply than I anticipated.
Once I was constructing out our ACQ AI system (the AI constructed upon Claude from Acquisition.com, educated on proprietary information from small-business strategist, Alex Hormozi), I needed to get crystal clear: Are we a service enterprise or a bodily merchandise enterprise?
You’d assume actual property is clearly bodily merchandise. I imply, what’s extra bodily than land?
The truth for many land companies (together with ours as a capital companion) is that this: We’re a service enterprise.
All the mannequin is oriented round a singular, repeatable technique for the acquisition of land.
The disposition aspect will get tons of consideration (particularly on this brutal purchaser’s market we’re navigating), and sure, it is most likely essentially the most troublesome a part of the enterprise proper now, on common.
However that’s NOT the place you’re creating (or capturing) worth.
You will be aggressive with pricing. You’ll be able to make the most of inventive disposition methods that could be amplified with AI. You’ll be able to work with the most effective realtors in your market.
But when your purchase value is improper… none of that issues.
You make your revenue on the purchase. Each single time.
(Inclusive of subdivisions and value-add performs. For those who misprice the price of these techniques, your mission falls aside. Once more, all the worth is reliant on the acquisition.)
So while you’re enthusiastic about AI transformation, that you must begin right here: What’s the true worth creation inside what you are promoting mannequin?
That is your North Star. That is the place AI must make you more practical, quicker, and extra dependable.
The Reallocation Query No One Needs to Reply
Subsequent: What are you not going to spend money on anymore so you may fund the longer term?
This one hurts. All of us need AI to add functionality with out taking something away. We wish to maintain the whole 2025 plan intact, sprinkle in some “AI initiatives,” and plan for transformation.
That is not how this works. Nothing can change if nothing will get lower.
Just a few painful cuts over the previous yr:
- Let go of working Land Pricer (incurred an enormous money and time funding, however now my deal with Severe Land Capital is razor-sharp, and we are able to implement the AI initiatives which have been sidelined for months.)
- Pulled again considerably from Land Each day Diligence (we nonetheless present up when handy for batched deal critiques, nevertheless it’s not a routine precedence as we deal with upmarket, complicated offers)
- Punted on a handful of AI initiatives we had excessive expectations for after vital funding (see instance under)
- Varied SaaS merchandise that now not stored tempo with our requirements or use instances (Examine your overhead month-to-month with an executioner’s mentality.)
No sacred cows. Effectively, besides your status and staying out of jail! These are the one two methods to break your self, in line with the famed statistician and Pores and skin In The Sport creator, Nassim Taleb. Every part else will be sacrificed or overcome.
My Largest AI Useless Finish (And What I Realized)
There was a 2- to 3-week interval in the course of 2025 once I spent massive chunks of my finest work hours constructing out a “Chief of Employees” AI mission.
It was tremendous in-depth, incorporating over 100 free-response questions that interviewed me about my complete life and enterprise.
Because the identify of the mission implies, the purpose was to supercharge our day-to-day operations, oriented round my best self’s decision-making, key recommendation from masterminds and mentors, plus copious inner enterprise information.
It was illuminating… and virtually ineffective.
It by no means match into our workflow. The underlying information was difficult to make use of for precise breakthrough insights.
Now, as famous, we’re closely invested within the ACQ AI, which continues to enhance each week. It pressured us to calculate metrics we should always have identified YEARS in the past however by no means bothered to trace.
Now we all know exactly which levers we have to clear up our core constraint and get to the following stage. It’s knowledgeable by information from enterprise house owners many steps forward of us.
It is higher than our Chief of Employees mission in each method, AND it could nonetheless incorporate the 100+ questions I answered.
Salvage what you may from any failed mission or lifeless finish, and transfer on.
What a $1M Subdivision Taught Me About AI vs. SaaS
Here is a latest instance that crystallized a lesson from the above Part article for me.
We have been reviewing a minor subdivision deal exterior a serious metropolitan space within the Northeast (one of the macro-bullish areas of the nation from an actual property perspective, one thing I have been monitoring for a lot of final yr).
As a non-exhaustive checklist, it requires an in-depth understanding of:
- Current growth developments
- Engineering necessities
- Native ordinances for subdivision (usually far more stringent within the Northeast and Midwest)
- Variable comparable gross sales in an space the place vacant land is rare
- Current new-build house gross sales values
- Native revenue progress and demographic developments
This is not a typical land comparable gross sales evaluation. That is multivariate underwriting that requires pulling collectively information units that don’t usually discuss to one another.
And this is what hit me: No SaaS product can deal with ALL of this at present (nor can any out-of-the-box LLM).
That is why many SaaS instruments are going to get hit arduous over the approaching months and years (this has been enjoying out within the markets lately).
The long run is not inflexible (and even versatile) software program with restricted options. The long run is AI instruments that adapt to your particular wants (equivalent to Seth and Mike’s Stride CRM), simply as LLMs will be exactly personalized to every firm’s distinctive workflows.
The Framework: Incremental vs. Transformative AI
The Part article breaks down AI alternatives into two classes:
- Incremental: AI makes present workflows quicker and/or cheaper.
- Transformative: AI permits workflows you actually could not run earlier than.
Nearly each firm has been specializing in incremental shifts.
It’s miles harder (and scary) to ask, “What can we try this was actually unattainable earlier than?” (and with the acceleration of instruments like Claude Cowork, what was “unattainable” is diminishing by the day.)
For instance, we’re hurtling right into a world the place will probably be believable to have alerts arrange for any potential subdivision within the US, the second they arrive on market, having preliminary underwriting automated, and presents despatched out in your behalf inside a matter of minutes to hours.
That is the brand new bar, pondering past what even essentially the most subtle group of people might accomplish pre-AI. The alternatives are solely restricted by your creativity and execution.
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Lengthy-Time period Video games
Our AI push in 2026 is our #1 funding.
Which means accepting tradeoffs:
- Staff bandwidth reallocated to studying and implementation (anticipate some output dips throughout re-skilling)
- Capital redirected from “protected” investments to AI infrastructure and experimentation
- Quick-term inefficiency for long-term functionality constructing (the pattern throughout all industries shall be to construct, as an alternative of shopping for…as constructing turns into less complicated and cheaper.)
If you cannot lead by way of that discomfort, your organization won’t ever attain its full potential.
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Your Task (If You Need It)
Take half-hour this weekend and reply these two questions actually:
- How does my enterprise really create worth? (Not what you or your group does day-to-day, however the place the precise revenue mechanics reside.)
- What am I going to cease investing in so I can fund the AI transformation my enterprise wants?
Be particular. Share the solutions along with your group when you have one.
Then ask the follow-up:
What can I do with AI that was unattainable earlier than?
Not quicker. Not cheaper. Could not do in any respect.
That is your transformative alternative. That is the place the last word leverage is.
2026 goes to separate the operators who perceive this from those who do not.
Let me know what you give you. I am all ears.
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On the lookout for a funding companion who’s investing within the lengthy sport as an alternative of chasing quarterly wins? We’ve funded over $6M in land offers with industry-leading 41% working margins, and we shut 100% of offers we decide to. $50K to $1M+ examine sizes. Nationwide underwriting expertise on each transaction. Full-time land operators most well-liked.
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Initially printed at https://seriousland.capital on December 22, 2025.
