Ed Mathews: [00:00:00] So the big question is this, how are real estate investors who don't have a ton of free time, don't have access to off market deals, and didn't start life on third base? How do we grow a real estate business conservatively to support our families, finally leave the corporate rat race and build a legacy?

That is the question, and this podcast will give you the answers. I'm Ed Mathews, and this is Real Estate Underground. This Is the real estate underground podcast show number 50. Welcome to the real estate underground podcast show. Thank you so much for joining us today. This one I'm fired up about because this guy is going to tell me over the next 30 minutes.

How many mistakes I made about flipping properties instead of investing in land. And I can't wait. This is going to be a blast. Cody, uh, Dugan, thank you so much for joining us today. Welcome to the show. And I can't wait to have this conversation, man. [00:01:00] Oh man. 

Cody Bjugan: Thanks for having me. It'll be a blast.

Ed Mathews: I Started stalking you probably about six months ago online because I was, you know, as the economy was starting to kind of tip over and we were putting our flipping business to the side.

To focus on multifamily, a friend of mine had sent me over a link to your podcast and I listened to it. I'm like, there's no way this guy's making what he's making. And then I dug in and dug in and dug in. And after the, I don't know, 10th, 12th, Coaching student that I had seen crediting your program to their success.

I was like, all right, this guy's the real deal. So I got to get, I got to figure out a way to meet him. So, you know, the cool part about having a podcast is that I get to one, I get to educate an audience about stuff that none of us know about and that's why we bring in the expert to, I get to meet really interesting people and it's a sneaky way to do it.

So welcome to the show. Nice to finally meet you. And I'm really excited to have this conversation. 

Cody Bjugan: Oh, appreciate it. Yeah. Like I said, you know, Hey, I'll just say this. There's a reason why our refund [00:02:00] rate at Vestrite or our charge back rate is basically non existent. It's because I know it sounds too good to be true a lot of times, but I want you to dive in and it sounds like you have a little bit.

It is the real deal. It's just, it's off everybody's radar because no one's teaching it because very hardly anybody knows how to do it, but I'm teaching it for a different reason. But yeah, it's truly a blue ocean opportunity. And so, yeah, whatever we want to jump into today, let's jump in and I'll, and I'll be open book with y'all.

Ed Mathews: Yeah, thank you. So I started to get on track and I know this is a little bit far field from what you're doing, but a little bit, I started to get intrigued when I saw that Bill Gates and Larry Ellison and Warren Buffett were buying up farmland by the heck there. I mean, it was just. These massive buys throughout the Midwest and elsewhere, I started to pay attention.

I'm like, I wonder why they're doing that. I can't figure it out. And then in parallel to that, I, like I said, our mutual friend of ours had slid me a link to your podcast and I thought, this is interesting stuff. So for those of us [00:03:00] who don't know about your system or who you are and what you do, why don't we start there?

Cody Bjugan: So I'm going to start here. You said, who am I? Right. A pastor friend of mine that I started meeting with one on one about four months ago, I picked five people that I was going to start meeting with one on one recurring scheduled meetings every two weeks, right? If it's not scheduled, it won't happen. And so I've been asked on different podcasts, Hey, how did you get To where you're at, tell us your story.

Right. And I'll, I'll run through all the highlights of my life up to this point, the, and the low points and kind of what's sculpted me into who I am. But one thing, you know, your team sent me over this kind of one sheet of some of these basic questions that you a lot of times ask, and I skimmed it just to be frank within 30 seconds right before this, and I like to roll more authentic with these podcasts and so, so what I wanted to share with you is, you know, My pastor friend asked me I'm going to say this about a month ago, and he [00:04:00] simply asked me this question.

And he said, who are you? And no one had ever quite asked me that exact question. And this is vulnerable for me to share this with y'all, but I committed that I was going to start sharing this more publicly as I had the opportunity. And I stopped in about, I don't know, five or 10 seconds. I just thought.

And then after those five or 10 seconds, here was my response because, and I'm sharing this because you also asked what drives me. It was one of your other questions. Who are you and what drives you? And I think this is going to answer both those questions. Okay. Here's how I responded to my buddy just off the cuff.

And it was just profound and it spoke to my life. Okay. And I'd never said these words before I ever written down here on my wall. It says, I'm a broken little boy. That's being very intentional and purposeful about pivoting the legacy of my family so that that same little boy doesn't show up in future [00:05:00] generations.

Okay. That's who I am. That's what drives me 

Ed Mathews: in my family. They call that breaking the cycle. And in fact, 100%, I call it that. Right. So let's talk about this 'cause you just hit upon something that really resonated with me. What does that mean specifically to your present day life? 

Cody Bjugan: I mean, it's really most all the pillars.

It's pivoting, right? I mean, I, I, um. And, you know, I'd say I was in my late teens, I went to the school, you know, I got a degree from reality check. And what I mean by that is I got my high school girlfriend pregnant and got married right out of high school and had a family to provide for. So yeah, I got a degree from the streets, right?

Real world experiences. But I, I, you know, I made a choice back then, or I had this very, it was very clear to me that I wanted to pivot the legacy of my last name. Yeah. And it's really, and I'm not trying to, you know, I love my family, wish nothing, but the best for them as far as the generations prior to me, [00:06:00] but there was just a lot of pivots that had to happen.

I had to do sure with career in business, but man, it first started with me and who I am and my family pillar, my relationship pillar, my spiritual pillar. I mean, it literally, I, I had to. I'm trying to pivot every single pillar, some more than others. Maybe some, I'm just pivoting them 20 degrees. Others I'm pivoting them 180 degrees, right?

Or maybe I should go more like this to this, right? And it's been different stages of my life where I've been able to, Pivot certain pillars more than others. So I pivoted my career or my business from my entrepreneurship experience. I pivoted that early in life. Okay. But the problem is when I was pivoting that for the family legacy, I really was hurting other pillars in my life because I was a workaholic and then 90 percent of that got taken away from me in the great recession.

And, [00:07:00] and so now thank the Lord, learned through all that. And I'm, you know, financially. In a better position now than I was back then, but I'm actually more focused on the other pillars because of the mistakes I made in the first round. Right? And so that legacy, that pivot, that not wanting what's inside me.

To exist in my kids or their kids that motivates me, right? That's the why like money and businesses and career. It's all cool. It's all great, but it's it's byproducts of doing money's just a tool people. Money's not it's not the arrival point, right? You're never going to arrive. Let's just get that straight, right?

Like you're never going to arrive. 

Ed Mathews: And even when you think you do, so, you know, coming from a workaholic as well, right, where, you know, I was traveling 200 nights a year and my wife, I have two beautiful daughters at home and they're amazing and my wife is amazing. And, you know, at one point she turned to me and said, you're [00:08:00] missing so much good stuff.

And she was 100 percent right. And it's what put me on the path to creating Clark street. But also making sure that when I was home, I was present and focused on what was most important, which was not returning my boss's call, right? Or check an email or whatever else I was doing. It was, you know, spending time and learning about who my girls were and who my wife was and our relationship and, and all that.

That really hit home for me. I have a lot of respect for people who are that the introspective in terms of being able to look at not only when I hear your story, I think about life design, right? And you have these pillars, you know, I have these basic things that I'm trying to focus on, but all of it is about freedom and time and none of it is about money, right?

I mean, money, like you said, is a tool, right? It allows people to be able [00:09:00] to then not have to sweat. Going to work on Monday because that is more or less taken care of, or it is taken care of. And you can focus on the things that are really important in your life, like being a dad and being a husband and being a friend and, you know, contributing to your community and all that, right?

Cody Bjugan: Totally. Yeah, I pulled up my, as you were talking, I purposely pulled up my personal website for a reason. And the reason I did, so I have this bracelet on right now that I'll show you. It's called on this bracelet, it says, it says one legacy. Okay. On this bracelet. 

Ed Mathews: Yep. 

Cody Bjugan: So my two personal slogans, PIF, Purpose, Impact, Fulfillment, which I've kind of used now for several years.

And then one legacy I just came up with recently. And one legacy and a team just added that on my website. And it's one legacy is all about, Hey, how many legacies do you have? You have one. How many legacies do I have? I have one. How many legacies do each have? We all have one. And right now being in this moment with you.

I am going to impact your legacy in one way or another. [00:10:00] Okay. In a positive way or a negative way, because we're having this interaction, because the thing is every moment of your life, every action you take, every decision you make, or don't make, or action you take, or every single moment of your life, you are sculpting your one legacy.

Right. And not only are you sculpting your one legacy, but you're sculpting the one legacy of the people around you within your reach. And that's a big deal. If you take the time to get centered and get real with what matters, and people think a legacy is, Oh, Money. I mean, money is such a small part of your legacy or you look at that person over there and you say, Oh, they're successful or they're successful.

Bullshit. Like, by the way, I'm one of those guys that I can cuss and say, I love Jesus in the same sentence. Um, I just, I don't have a conviction about it, but whatever. I think it comes out when I get passionate and start talking about this stuff. But just because they have a great career, they make lots of money.

Quit calling them successful. because they could be [00:11:00] failing miserably in every other pillar of their life. Right. And tell what I, the way I explain it is you have these different pillars and I'm going to tell you what my pillars are here in just a second is, and I'm going to draw a line in the middle.

Okay. And let's just say that lines at five. Okay. And it's a scale of one to 10. Okay. And above five, you're succeeding below five. You're failing. Okay. My goal in life is to keep every one of my pillars. Above five at 18 given time, and some of them are going to be at six. Some of them are going to be at nine.

The reality is, I'll never have all of them at 10 all at the same time ongoing. That's not humanly possible. That's called perfection. And that's only humanly possible. Jesus is only capable of accomplishing that. Okay. But can I keep them all above the line? And that's my goal right now. So what I did is I said one legacy, I said, we only have one.

And then I spelled out [00:12:00] legacy. And the first one is L is lasting faith. For me, that's spiritual, a relation to Jesus Christ, but you need to have faith in something. Okay. We all have to have faith and I'm not even going spiritual faith. You have to have faith in what it is you're trying to accomplish You've got to have faith in that you're not in control of everything You have to have faith and it has to be lasting Another one of your questions was by the way is what holds people back No questions asked the number one thing in my opinion that holds everybody back is fear fear holds everybody back The only time it doesn't is when they choose to face it.

And what I would suggest to everybody is allow faith to win over fear. The way you overcome fears through faith, faith will win the battle in the ring every time against fear. Okay, so one is lasting faith. The E for legacy is exceptional relationships. It is that we are built to have relationship, [00:13:00] to have community.

And even if you call yourself a loner, you're lying to yourself. We all need relationship. Okay, yes, some of us are more introvert like myself. But that doesn't mean that I don't need exceptional relationships in my life. The G is genuine impact. So this goes to my other personal slogan, which is PIF. A lot of you think it's PIF is paid in full.

Well, if you want the best shot of paid in full, tell you what is my PIF, which is purpose, impact, fulfillment, go figure out your purpose, go have a positive impact through that positive impact. You will find fulfillment. I talk about this all the time. Cause I love it so much is the reality is I don't even like the word happy.

The word happy is temporary. It's empty. Okay. Y'all always want to be happy. No bullshit. You don't want to be happy. You want to be fulfilled. And the reality is we are all searching for fulfillment, whether we know it or not. And you don't have a shot in hell at fulfillment unless you're making an impact in lives around you.

And you're [00:14:00] making a difference. And so the next one is genuine impact. Okay. Cause you're not just having an impact to have an impact. It's genuine. You're not having an impact. So you can get something back. You're genuinely just want to have an impact, right? Right. Like you and having this podcast, right?

You genuinely want to have an impact. Next is able finances for the a and legacy. And I didn't say. I didn't say multi millionaire or anything. I said, able finances, what is able finances for me is different than the person next to me is different than the person next to them. We all, it takes all kinds for the world to go around and able finances means something different for each person.

The next thing is the scene legacy, which is cherished experiences. People were here for a short period of time, and there's amazing opportunities to have beautiful experiences with your loved ones, with your friends, with travel, with blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. There's have cherished experiences in your life.

And then the last one, the why. You might be able to guess is [00:15:00] you, where are you at on your spiritual health, your emotional health, your physical health, where are you at on your personal development, trying to become the best version of yourself. So those are my six pillars and they spell out legacy.

Ed Mathews: That's phenomenal. It completely makes sense. You know, the one that really resonated with me was you've got to have a genuine impact. Right. And like you were saying, the, you know, the fact is, is that I don't know if you're a Tony Robbins aficionado. I happen to be. And one of the things that he talks about is moving from service to contribution, to fulfillment.

Right. And when you are serving, like we're trying to do with this podcast and the other things that we do, we do it with no expectation of anything coming back. Right. This is just, you know, I was fortunate that I had half a dozen people in my life who threw an arm around me at one point in my personal or professional life and said they either took pity on me or saw something in me.

And it doesn't matter which one they did. Right. And the fact is, is that they helped me [00:16:00] move forward in one aspect of my life or another. And. I am eternally grateful to those people. And in fact, most of them, one has passed away, but the rest are still actively in my life. And I'm very fortunate to have them to be able to pick up the phone and call them.

Cody Bjugan: That's so good. 

Ed Mathews: It's a blessing, right? And, but the fact is, is that, you know, the way that. None of them wanted a piece of my company or me to buy them dinner, or even a thank you, which I have profusely, you know, I've given them over the years, but yeah, they wanted me to pay it forward. And so this is one of the ways that I do this is by having this podcast because I get to meet people like you who drop the golden nuggets and help people become better either personally, professionally, or both.

And yeah, so that really resonated with me. 

Cody Bjugan: Well, I appreciate that. And I, and thank you. And I, I think the golden nuggets really start coming out when someone's willing to be [00:17:00] vulnerable without a 

Ed Mathews: doubt. One of the things that I've noticed in human beings is over the years now I'm 53. Right. So I've been here for a while.

And you know, one of the things that I find is that. If I'm speaking to an audience like in a conference room or we're here, or I'm meeting just a person over a cup of coffee, they're not going to engage until they figure out two things. One is we have shared experiences. I've been there. I understand. I know what it's like to grow up in a house where the government sent you a block of cheese because you know, your family couldn't afford to pay for, you know, the food themselves, right?

I've been in that house and to be able to then. Grow through a lot of generosity and a lot of hard work and a whole bunch of other stuff. But the other piece of it is how much you care about that, right? I always tell people I'm a cheap date. You buy me a cup of coffee. I'll tell you anything and everything you want to know about real estate.

I'll tell you everything I know over a 20 minute cup of coffee. And most of the time I'll buy the coffee, right? It's just, I just, it's really fun. Right. [00:18:00] And I think it's in those two specific situations where people really start to pay attention and go, Oh, This guy actually wants to help this guy is helping me and he doesn't want anything from me, right?

He's just there to help and serve. That is to go back to fulfillment. That's one of the ways that I, that creates fulfillment in my life is, you know, walking out of that meeting, my feet don't touch the ground all the way back to the car. 

Cody Bjugan:Totally. 

Ed Mathews: That's a good day for me. Right. So 

Cody Bjugan: that's good, man. I love it.

Ed Mathews: Yeah. So, so let's talk about land.

I think we understand where you're coming from and what you're looking to accomplish in terms of living to those pillars, which are profound. And I'm, I'm really glad you shared that, but let's talk about how you have built this program that has helped lots and lots of people create the freedom in their lives.

Cody Bjugan: Sure. Well, let's just start off by saying I started Vestrite, the online education company, right? I [00:19:00] started that in 2019. So a little over three, about three years ago, really. And I did it for my other personal slogan, which is PIF, Purpose, Impact, Fulfillment. I have a very specialized knowledge and experience.

That I felt convicted and called to share. And, you know, I've had people, you know, haters, a lot of times you're doing things great. People love to hate haters, love to hate. Right. And so I'll hear things like, Oh, you know, he makes so much money doing it. Why the heck is he teaching it? Right. Like, you know, he just wants to make his money teaching it.

And the thing is, let me just be very frank. What I make teaching this stuff is like. a blip compared to what I make doing it. Okay. Secondly, I think it's very important that whoever you're learning from, you're learning from someone that actually does it. Okay. So I do what I teach, right? You want to, um, but the reason I started The reason I started this was PIF, Purpose Impact [00:20:00] Fulfillment.

Go, I have this purpose to go share the specialty knowledge and experience. It's going to impact people's lives, which it's already had dramatic impact on people's lives, changed their career, their finances, their life balance forever. And through that, man, like you were talking about earlier, I mean, I find tremendous fulfillment.

Like, you know, one of our grads that I recently handed a check, Two for like 610 grand and that he worked full time at his church for minimal amount of money. I mean, that's emotional for me that because I chose to go start vest, right? That happened in his life. 

Ed Mathews: And it mentally changed his life. 

Cody Bjugan: I 

Ed Mathews: totally, right.

Cody Bjugan: 100%. And so, you know, I started this vest, right? You know, so I teach what I do and I'll tell you, I'm not as smart as probably people give me credit for. And I'll tell you why I say that is. You know, when I started Vestrate, it was strictly out of piff. Just teach what I do, teach what I do, which is I, what I teach just to be clear as I teach one, [00:21:00] how to find off market raw land.

But the key is that has development potential because that's where the value add is. I'm not in the wholesale business. Okay. I'm not in trying to buy stuff below market and flip it and make a quick buck by taking advantage of someone that's motivated or desperate. Okay. So I teach how to identify. off market raw land that has development potential, which we can dive into.

And then I teach the entitlement process, what the governmental approval entitlement process, how does it work and how to get through it, how to take that raw land that has development potential, get it through that approval process, turn it into a, uh, an approved development. And then once it's an approved development, you exit the deal with, through a double closing, simultaneous closings.

And I teach lots of different exit strategies, payday strategies in my content, but that is the kind of the bread and butter. And if there's anything you can learn from me from this podcast today is that if you're going to come play in my [00:22:00] space and that I know I'm the only one teaching this stuff, like I'm not teaching what like.

The land man's teaching or any of these other guys that are teaching land, they're teaching how to go make a few bucks doing rural land deals, right? What I'm teaching is a value add model of how to take a piece of raw land and turn it in to an approved development. And there's substantial value in that, but here's, if you can learn anything from me, if you're going to come play in my space, And you're going to get involved in raw land that has development potential.

Never pay development values for land, unless you're going to wait for the development to be approved before you close. Because until that development is approved, you have nothing. All you have is whatever you see sitting there right now. Okay? And so if you're going to go in and try to close on a piece of land, like a normal real estate transaction where you're closing in 30 days or 60 days or whatever, I sure the hell hope that you're paying as is value, which I don't have a [00:23:00] problem with, we have a business model around land banking, where we'll go in and buy stuff as as is value.

And then we have huge multiples when the time comes, you know, for development, but there's anything you can learn from me. It's that. And so we have this thing though, DCD, you're talking to, you know, about some of the billionaires that own a lot of land right now. There's reasons why they're buying that land, which we don't need to get into other than let's just dive down to the meat and potatoes.

Okay. Reason these guys are buying all this land. Is because the Lord's not making any more of it. They see where the, and they see where it's, it's a valuable asset. They see where it has limited supply. They see where, based upon how they're looking at things, where it's going to have substantial use in the future.

And. You know, reality is, you know, I have, and I invest in some of them, friends that do multifamily syndication or do storage or whatever it is, right? They're doing mobile home parks, [00:24:00] whatever it is, retail, there's all these different asset classes within real estate, but the thing is, more multifamily buildings are being created.

More storage facilities are being created. The limited supply is not near as relevant as it is with land because pure and simple, it's just no more is being made. That's just the, that's the backbone of why land to me makes total sense. 

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Go to C. T. R. E. I. A. Funding dot com or call us at 860 876 0572. You buy land that has. Development potential. Let's talk about your framework in terms of how you look at a parcel of land and how do you determine whether or not there's a development possibility. What are you looking for? 

Cody Bjugan: Absolutely. There's a lot to that, but let's just touch the tip of the iceberg.

Okay. So in order to establish if a piece of raw land has development potential. One is zoning. What is it zoned or what is the [00:26:00] jurisdiction willing to allow it to be rezoned to? Right? Maybe it's in one of their concept plans where right now it's zoned ag, but they want it to be zoned retail or residential or whatever.

And understand what we teach as far as the land use process, entitlements, governmental approvals. It's 90 percent the same no matter what the asset class is. Okay. So one is the zoning. And or what is the jurisdiction willing to rezone it to number two, utilities, does it have public utilities, right? So that'd be sanitary sewer.

That'd be water. So on and so forth. Does it have utilities? Yeah. Number three. Public access public right of ways. Does it have access to where the public can get to the property for it to be able to be developed? Because numerous parcels are landlocked. They might have everything you need, but you can't get to them.

So then what you try to do is buy the pieces around them. Or by portions of [00:27:00] pieces around it to try to get it access. Next is overlays. You might see this piece. It's it's got utilities. It's got public access. It's got zoning. Oh, wait a second. I just went and checked the overlay maps and the whole things in an environmental overlay, or it's in a flood plain, or it's got steep slope overlays or whatever it may be.

But there's a lot of overlays out there that can destroy the development potential of a piece of property, or at least destroy a portion of its development potential. And then the last one, number five, is topography. What is the topography of the land? Okay, is it flat? Is it upsloping? Is it downsloping?

The reality is a flat Piece is the cheapest piece to develop. And so what happens is, depending on the topography, the development cost might blow up the development potential of a piece because it just costs too much. Or it might be down sloping away from where the utilities are and the jurisdiction won't allow, say, pump [00:28:00] stations.

Or pumps in the homes to pump the sanitary sewer up to the main line. And so the downsloping topography kills its development potential. So those are the five basics that someone needs to get their arms around before going any deeper. 

Ed Mathews: And so let's say we find a parcel and that land fits the bill in terms of utilities and geography and all that other stuff.

And so you've got to go through some sort of zoning process, right? To do what? So what are your, what are you 

Cody Bjugan: So it might already be zoned for development, so I don't have to go through a zoning process. Or I might have to get a rezone depending, but the main process you have to go through is, let's just say we've identified that we think the piece is a good piece for development.

We then gotta go And establish what is the value of it, right? Which we teach through our magic math or our reverse engineering, where you can take a finished home value, or can we specialize in residential? I just love that asset class because [00:29:00] people always need a roof over their head. They don't need a retail front.

They don't actually need a storage facility, whatever. So I just, I'm a big believer in residential, but anyways, you gotta establish, you gotta do some basic back of the napkin math or underwriting to establish. What you're going to try to get this deal done at. Plus there are certain terms that you need to understand that we function within the space, right?

Like when I just shared with you, don't ever say you're going to close prior to approvals. They hate to be blunt, but stupidity. And in the last two years from mid 20 to mid 22, the guys that were out there doing that stupid stuff, they are getting their asses handed to them right now, and they deserve it.

I hate to say it, but they deserve it because they went and started doing stupid stuff. Yeah. So anyways, it's understanding the price in terms. Okay, so now I get this piece of property tied up. Okay, I control it now. Well, now I got to go through that approval process. But the first thing before I even go through that entitlement or land use approval, entitlement, whatever you want to call it, [00:30:00] process.

I first price spend on my first, 90 days plus or minus going through my due diligence process for my feasibility study. And we engage our civil engineer. We do lots of layout work. We meet with the jurisdiction. We do very in depth cost estimating that are, by the way, our engineer does all that. I should tell you one thing that's nice about our business model is the consultants do 90 percent of the lifting.

Deal makes it past due diligence. It looks good. Okay, great. Now, I'm probably going to make my first earnest money payment. And then, by the way, most of my earnest money payments are non refundable. They just sit in escrow because I can't have someone running off with my money. But the only way I get my money back is if the seller defaults, okay?

So then I start my land use application. And I put that together. And let's just say that takes 60 days or 90 days. Then I submit it to the jurisdiction and usually from the time I submit to the jurisdiction to the time They approve my land use application where now I have preliminary Approval for development is I mean some jurisdictions they'll turn it in 30 [00:31:00] days right in the country We're all over the country We're in numerous states now, but other jurisdictions from the time I submit my application to the time that I get approval Could be five six months.

So it's all across the board, but that's the basic idea You And then once I have that approved, then all of a sudden I got something, I got an approved development. I still got to go through construction drawings and all that, but I have something. And then that's when a lot of times you'll close with the seller and simultaneous to that, your buyer will close with you and you make your scrape out of the middle.

Ed Mathews: And that's the double close. I got you. Okay. 

Cody Bjugan: Yeah. 

Ed Mathews: Crystal clear. All right. So how long does this process you typically take? 

Cody Bjugan: It's wholly depends. I mean, we have a You know, I would just say on average 12 months, you know, we have deals that get done quicker, but we have deals that take two years, but I'll give you an example like that.

I think I just mentioned to you earlier about that one student that it was so fulfilling to hand him a check for over 600 grand from the time he turned that [00:32:00] deal over to us to the time he got paid was right. I think it was about 11 months. 

Ed Mathews: Oh, that's a nice year, right? That's a heck of a year good on you.

Cody Bjugan: You know what, I didn't finish what I was saying earlier and I want to make sure I share this because it's, I love spending time in humility is that I said people give me credit that I'm a lot smarter than I actually am because when I started Vestrite, it was just all about piff. Make a difference, help other people with my specialty experience.

I don't teach construction, even though I've developed lots of subdivisions and I've built lots of homes. I don't teach any of that technical stuff because it's a dime a dozen. You can go get all kinds of education out there on that stuff. So I don't teach it at all because I bring no value. Okay. I bring value in my specialty experience, but people like Cody, what a brilliant model.

You have all these people all over the country bringing your company deals. What a brilliant model. Like you have land acquisition people all over the country. Let me just humbly tell you that [00:33:00] was not the original plan. The original plan was just to teach what I do. But then what happened is students kept asking time and time again, Can we partner with you?

Can we partner with you? So finally, we opened that door. Where if you want to go do it on your own, great. If you want to partner with us, great. If you want to partner with us for your first few deals, just to watch us and shadow us and then go do it on your own. Great. Just to be clear, I wasn't smart enough to think up that that would be our original.

That wasn't the original plan of Esther. So, yeah, 

Ed Mathews: well, I mean, you think about it, it's, uh, you know, with one of the first concepts we talked about fear, right. And one of the ways that I find that a lot of people that even I work with, and I'm not a coach. Per se, I'm more of a mentor. Like I said, I'm a cheap date.

They want someone who's been there and done that standing next to them. Even I'm doing this right. I've got a development coming up in the spring and the gentleman who's mentoring me on this, I sat down with them a few weeks ago and said, there is no way. I'm signing on the bottom [00:34:00] line, unless you are my partner.

And I mean, as part of the company that we're going to start this development, right. And he, cause he was always like, Oh, I'll gladly help you. No problem at all. I was like, no, no, no, no, no. I want you in. I want you shoulder to shoulder in the same meetings. I am because half of those meetings, I'm not going to know what I'm talking about.

You do. So, and I'm a, I'm a doing kind of guy. 

Cody Bjugan: That's the thing. Like you are spot on. Like, here's the reality. No two deals are the same. There is no way I can teach you everything in a course. It's just, or in a program and a code I can't. So yes, I can create a strong foundation for you to then build upon as far as knowledge.

But then there's no better education than learning through experience But I will say my students have an advantage over what I had when I started 20 years ago Because they have an opportunity to learn through a lot of my mistakes and my failures through my programs versus Having to go through some of the pain that I went through, [00:35:00]

Ed Mathews: right?

And that's the beauty of a framework, right? Is that, you know, you have a starting spot, you know, step by step, at least at a strategic level, here are the nine things I need to do. Yep. Practically, as you go into the deals, stuff's going to happen and things are going to change. And, you know, you're going to have to tactically Do different things within the silo of the, or pillar of that piece of the framework, but the framework's your friend.

Uh, I mean, I'm stealing, but the fact is, is that that is it, right? Is that's your guide. 

Cody Bjugan: That's right. 

Ed Mathews: Right. 

Cody Bjugan: That's good. 

Ed Mathews: So I'm curious about the coaching program. So is it online? Do you do in person? Is there a master? Like, how does that work? 

Speaker 2: We're still kind of in a lot of ways of startup. We're still kind of sorting out our way.

We have a laundry list of things we want to do a mile long, trying to prioritize them. We finally are launching some in person stuff in 23, where I'll be in person in workshops and even doing like small group stuff [00:36:00] with me. But right now, what. We are, or what we have available is we have a few different courses or programs.

One is, is if you want us to teach you off market and how to identify and how to analyze if a piece is developable or not. We have a course that teaches that, and that's a course we created after so many people wanted to be our partners and we said, okay, we're gonna teach you enough to where you bring value to us.

You can get through that course and probably three weeks, month, two weeks, online, login, membership, login, portal, modules, videos, homework, the whole deal. That's all built around. Just go find a ready, willing seller of a piece that has development potential, tee it up, turn it over to us. We'll go in, negotiate the deal.

We'll run the approval process. We'll get it approved. We'll sell it and we'll capitalize everything and we'll cut you it on the profits for bringing us the ready, willing seller. Okay. Okay. And we have the [00:37:00] full meal deal program where we teach you a to Z everything we've talked about here today, how to find these deals, how to analyze them, how to underwrite them, how due diligence works, how to get through the approval process, how to sell them.

And we've had students do both, right? Some do it themselves. Some bring us the deals. Some. Doing a combination of both. And then along with both those courses, we have live coaching calls, a group coaching calls that are every two weeks. And that's not only me on those calls, but that's also, you know, I have a staff based in Dallas, Texas at my headquarters for allied development, and my staff is involved with those calls as well.

And so. Yeah, we're excited next year. We're going to do some live workshops at our headquarters. You know, we have a classroom there at our headquarters where we can host about 150 people and we're going to start doing workshops and, but yeah, that's kind of what's, what it's all about anyways. And then the bigger guy should tell you the A to Z course, it's about eight weeks long.

Same thing, online login portals, [00:38:00] homework, crazy, amazing content. Like I said earlier, our refund rate slash charge back rate, as far as being an online based company, as far as collecting money is like non existent. Like we just have rating reviews, which is just flattering. And it's in line with PIF, right?

Like if I'm trying to impact people's lives, I don't want to have a bunch of refunds or chargebacks, right? Cause obviously something doesn't match up. You know what I mean? There's a gap there. So, 

Ed Mathews: yeah. Right. That's awesome. So let me ask you this. I mean, we started down the path of talking about personal lives and how we are personalized.

I'm curious when you're not talking about land or real estate or anything like that. What do you like to do? 

Cody Bjugan: So I moved to a town called Paradise Valley, which is. Really next to Scottsdale, Arizona. I moved down here a little over two years ago, so I've become a golfer. So I love to golf. So I would say by far, that's my number one hobby.

I'm a fairly disciplined individual. So over the last several years, I've really honed into what [00:39:00] my daily habits are. And so I have nine daily habits at this point to those consume several hours of my day, making sure I knock out my nine daily habits. 

Ed Mathews: Mind if I ask you what those are? 

Cody Bjugan: Sure, yeah, go for it.

Everybody loves, yeah, no problem. Alright, what are they? I didn't used to be a morning person. And over the many years now, I've become one. And so, you know, I'll get up anywhere between, say, 4 and 5 each day. And I get, I get a handful of hours in the morning all to myself. Okay? And so in the morning, I wake up, I pray.

Okay? I do my daily devotion. I journal. Okay. And then depending on the time of the year, because where I live, or if I'm traveling, well, even before I go there, I work out. Okay. So I work out in the morning and then from there, I'll usually go do an hour long walk depending on the season, or if not, if it's like right now, it's right now in Arizona, it's kind of cold in the morning.

So I [00:40:00] do my 

Ed Mathews: England. There's no such thing as cold in Arizona. 

Cody Bjugan: So what I do is, uh, so then what I'll do is I'll do my walk midday, right? And during my hour long walk, I will habit stack. And so during that walk, I will listen to a book. I will listen to the Bible and I will pray. Yep. One thing I failed to mention is while I work out every day for just call her an hour, give or take, as I listened to a podcast.

Okay. And then lastly, when we talk about my hobby of golf, I've been very disciplined about swinging the golf club. And so whether that's in the simulator at golf tech practicing, or whether that's my coach on the range or at the field, Golf tech coaching me, and then I play golf, I play 18 holes every Friday morning.

So, but yes, so swinging the golf club is the ninth one. 

Ed Mathews: Excellent. All right. Yeah. All right. Well, Cody, I've really enjoyed this conversation. I feel like I've learned a [00:41:00] lot and I can't wait to learn more about your coaching program, given that I'm now getting into development. Yeah, I may become one of your students at one point on the semi near future.

So I may realize that just getting the land ready for development is more lucrative than actually developing it in the longterm. But if somebody wants to find out more about your program or wants to hire you as a mentor or just wants to get to know you, what's the best way to reach you? 

Cody Bjugan: Yeah. So I'll give you a couple resources right now, but I'll tell you, even if you don't want to develop, even if you don't want to, because remember, DCD dirt controls deals, whoever controls the dirt controls the deal.

So even if you don't want to develop, if you control dirt, you have a huge advantage because you're in at the beginning. Secondly, knowledge is power. There's nothing like being one of the more knowledgeable people in the room. So even if you're never going to develop, if you understand development, you become more powerful than the average guy in the room.

Okay. If you understand what I understand. Yep. Okay. But with that, I mean, you can find Cody Bugin myself, last [00:42:00] name spelled B as in boy, J U G A N. You can find me on just search my name, Cody Bugin on Facebook, go to codybugin. com, go to Instagram, Cody Bugin, wherever, right? But where I want to send y'all today is where you can go and get some free resources.

So, um, there's a video series y'all can check out. There's also a free ebook that I created. Called seven figure raw land paydays. You can see how I can make seven figures on one deal versus some of the other models out there where you might have to do a hundred deals to make seven figures. Go to vest right.

com slash underground. Again, vest right. com slash underground. And you can go there and some phenomenal tools, resources go through my video series, go through the book. I guarantee, well, I can't guarantee anything. I wish I could, but I would be amazed if you don't come out the other side, much more knowledgeable than you are today.

Ed Mathews: Excellent. Well, thank you for that, Cody. I'm certainly going to take advantage of it, and I hope people in the audience do as well. Cody Bugin, I have really enjoyed this [00:43:00] conversation. It's great to finally meet you. Like I said, I've been stalking you for like six months, so it's nice to finally make this connection, and I'm looking forward to keeping in touch with you and learning more from you.

So thank you very much for your time today. It was a pleasure. 

Cody Bjugan: Thanks for having me. I, it was, it was nice being here. 

Ed Mathews: This has been the Real Estate Underground Podcast, a Clark Street Capital presentation. Thanks for joining us. If you're enjoying the show, please remember to like and share it with your friends.

Also leave a comment if there's a topic you want us to cover. We read every comment. If you'd like to learn more about Clark Street Capital and our upcoming projects, please feel free to reach out to us and join our investor club at clarkst. com/join, or join the Underground Insights newsletter at clarkst.com/newsletter. Until next time, happy investing.