Today’s guest is Anita Verma-Lallian. Anita is the CEO and Founder of Arizona Land Consulting, where she provides full concierge services for land seekers and developers of all types of sites and assists investors in discovering viable properties in the West Valley. Anita founded Arizona Land Consulting in 2020, a year after she co-founded land development and investment company, Equity Land Group. She also holds the title of Director of Marketing at her father’s company, Vermaland, where she also heads the company’s solar division. Anita has been recognized as a leader in real estate including being named Most Influential Women in Commercial Real Estate in Arizona in 2014 by Arizona Business Magazine and a Global Real Estate Leader by the Phoenix Chamber in 2018.
Welcome back to the She’s Wild the Podcast. Today’s guest is Anita Verma-Lallian. Anita is the CEO and Founder of Arizona Land Consulting, where she provides full concierge services for land seekers and developers of all types of sites and assists investors in discovering viable properties in the West Valley. Anita founded Arizona Land Consulting in 2020, a year after she co-founded land development and investment company, Equity Land Group. She also holds the title of Director of Marketing at her father’s company, Vermaland, where she also heads the company’s solar division. Anita graduated from the University of Arizona in 2004 with a BS in Business Administration and a double major in marketing and finance. She received her MBA from the University of Southern California in 2007. Anita has been recognized as a leader in real estate including being named Most Influential Women in Commercial Real Estate in Arizona in 2014 by Arizona Business Magazine and a Global Real Estate Leader by the Phoenix Chamber in 2018.
Growing up Anita was exposed to real estate projects at a very young age and was fascinated by them through helping her dad with his business and seeing the sites develop into the final product. Throughout today’s episode, Anita talks about how being exposed to her father's business sparked her desire to start her own land consulting company. Anita and I also discuss the power of relationships and how important they can be to having a successful business. To learn more about Anita, tune in to today’s episode!
Memorable Moments:
4:30- What really resonated with me was that my dad would take me to go see a vacant piece of land with nothing there, and then years later, you would see a bustling development. So that was always very interesting to me, and I always knew I wanted to get into that business.
13:40- One of the benefits to working with our group is we can move very quickly once we know the properties. So a lot of landowners like to work with us for that reason.
16:31- I knew I always wanted to go into business, I knew I wanted to have my own business. My father has had different businesses ever since I was young, and that's kind of what's always attracted to me to have a business.
18:27- When the market crashed in 2008, I was all about solar at that time because that was the highest and best use of the land. So, it keeps changing, and after solar, it was residential. So it hasn't been one thing, but at this moment, I'm all about industrial.
20:12- It's such an amazing feeling to see something that was just dirt, there was nothing on it, and then to see something where it's benefiting the residents of that community. It's a very fulfilling feeling.
29:28- I think that that would be my advice, just become knowledgeable, and it starts with making as many calls as you can to different landowners, brokers, and agents, and then learn by looking at these maps as much as you can because it really gives you so much insight as to what's available and where the growth can go.
Connect with Nancy:
Instagram: https://instagram.com/nancysurak
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nancysurak/
Website: www.nancysurak.com
Connect with Anita
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anita-verma-lallian/
Arizona Land Consulting Website: https://arizonalandconsulting.com
Verma Land Website: https://vermaland.com/
Anita’s Book Recommendation:
Smart Women Finish Rich, by David Bach
https://www.amazon.com/Smart-Women-Finish-Expanded-Updated/dp/0525573046
She's WILD Sound Production by:
Luke Surak, Surak Productions: surakproductions@gmail.com
Nancy Surak 00:00
Welcome to She's Wild the podcast for women and land in development. I'm your host, Nancy Surak. I created this podcast as a way to collect conversations of women in the land and development industry. I've been a land broker on the west coast of Florida for nearly 20 years. And I love to empower other women and to tell them about this amazing industry. But I find often that there just aren't enough women being featured on big stages, whether that's at local conferences, or nationally. So I set out to find these women myself, that are killing it in my business across North America that are changing the communities that they live in every single day, whether they're building condos, multifamily, single family, office, or industrial projects, I hope that you will find this space to be inspirational, motivating, and educational. From time to time, I will feature women who are not only in my business, but also career coaches, and motivational speakers. Hi, welcome to shoes while the podcast for women and land and development. Today's guest is Anita Verma. Lillian from the Varma Land Company in Arizona, they are one of the largest landowners in the state of Arizona. I'm so excited to have you with us today. Anita, I always like for my guests to go ahead and do their own introductions, so that they could tell us a little bit more about who they are, what they're working on. And you know, just a little bit more about yourself.
Anita Verman-Lallian 01:35
Awesome. Yeah. Thank you, Nancy. And thanks so much for having me. I'm excited to be here today. Yeah, so you know, my my background is real estate I've been doing, I've been working in commercial real estate for about 12 years now, my company and my family has been in the land business for probably about the last 30 years or so. And I've been working with them for about 12 a lot of land acquisition development, we do a lot of entitlement work, zoning cases, infrastructure planning, and things like that. So I've mostly been focused in the Phoenix area, the metro Phoenix area, we've seen quite a bit of growth over the last, you know, 1015 years. So it's been an exciting time to be in this business. The last few years, especially have just been, is just so wild and crazy. And, you know, we've had so many projects that we've worked on my I started my own company about three years ago, as well, it's a consulting company, so I kind of I act as a land consultant, and work with developers and investors that are just looking to acquire land for, you know, with specific criteria. So that's a little bit of a background on myself. When I first started out with my company, we were, you know, doing smaller deals, you know, in the $10 million range. And now we've expanded quite a bit, and I think my company's managing about half a billion dollars worth of assets at this point. So we've had, you know, pretty expansive growth, and it's, it's just been amazing. So excited to talk about that.
Nancy Surak 01:36
Sounds very exciting. So you mentioned that your family has been in the land business for 30 or so years, I want you to take me back to how did you originally decide that you wanted to either get into the family business or, you know, become a part of it? I know, you I know, you're you've created your own thing. But even before that you're working with a family. A lot of people who grew up with think, you know, I don't want to do what my parents are doing. Tell me about that story. Like, where did you go to university? What was sort of that background? And then take me through joining the family?
Anita Verman-Lallian 03:42
Sure, sure. Yeah, you know, I think my, you know, we moved to Phoenix when I was around eight years old, and my dad was involved in different real estate projects, he had commercial office buildings. And so since I can remember, I've been helping him with, you know, different things like payroll, or, you know, whatever he had, and we've, we would always go to his different buildings and just, you know, see what he was doing. So it's something that I was exposed to at a very young age. And I think it's just, it's just something I've always loved and been fascinated by. And, you know, my dad would, when we would, you know, on the weekends and things like that he would drive us out to different properties he was buying. And at that time, as a kid, we didn't appreciate it as much. But then, you know, five years later, you would go back to that same site, and you would see, you know, a strip mall. So it was just fascinating to see. And that really resonated with me how you would, you know, go see a vacant piece of land with nothing there. And then years later, you would see, you know, bustling development, so that that was always very interesting to me, and I always just knew I wanted to get into that business. Right as far as my educational background, I went to University of Arizona, I had a business degree I I got a degree in finance. And after graduating, I worked at Boeing. So that's some corporate finance experience and I got my MBA after USC. And that was a little bit more focused on entrepreneurship. And so in 2008, is when I officially joined the family business, the timing of it wasn't best the market, we were going through, you know, kind of that last big recession we went through, and, you know, the Phoenix market got hit pretty bad. So it was an interesting time to start. But it was also a really good time to start, because it was, you know, good just to kind of learn and position myself. And I think as you know, the growth continued to happen, we were well positioned, because we had those years to just, you know, kind of learn and understand, you know, the market and, and the different areas of growth.
Nancy Surak 05:44
Yeah, I got started in 2005. On the brokerage side of the business, I was trying to start around commercial real estate prior to that, but that's when I started doing deals. And so I tell people, you know, I saw the tail end of the run up. Yeah. And then I live through just like, the awful paws that we all experienced. So take me back, when so you're learning, you joined the company in 2008? Were you guys managing things under development at that time? Or were you really in more of an acquisition role? Like maybe a couple years later, I got really kind of crazy with all the banks selling things. Tell me about like those first few years.
Anita Verman-Lallian 06:25
Sure. So I was doing a variety of things, I think we were heavily in an acquisition phase at that time, just because there were several opportunities. So we expanded our portfolio, we actually I think, doubled, or even tripled our portfolio during those years, you know, 2008, to 2014, we also, I helped my, you know, our company transition into the solar space as well, that was, you know, kind of a growing market at that time, renewable energy on large tracts of land. And so I was working with solar developers bringing them to Arizona, and they would build, you know, these huge solar farms, and transmit electricity to different parts of town. So that was that was, you know, kind of one of the things I was involved in, and then, you know, we just had some commercial office building and things that I was managing is to just kind of help thinking in property management for some of the different assets we had, but it was, it was an interesting time, for sure. But I would say, you know, the opportunities that existed at that time were, you know, tremendous, you were able to buy things that you know, 10 cents to the dollar. So, so it was definitely an exciting time. And, and I wouldn't say exciting, but it was it was a different time where you could really position yourself for the future growth that was coming.
Nancy Surak 07:47
Yeah, I would say 2008 to 2009 was very challenging. Yeah. But then once the bank started to release some of their assets for buyers, like your family, who had capital, or term we used to use as powder, fresh powder. If they had that, to be able to deploy, you could just get such great buying opportunities. I you know, I sold a lot of bank REO assets, land assets during that timeframe. 2010 through 2012. There were folks and companies that invested in those pieces made tons of money. Yeah. And people, you know, when COVID first hit, people said, you know, like, Well, I'm here, I'm a buyer. And I'm like, I don't know if we'll ever see that time again, that 2010 is just, it was pretty incredible. So I I'm with you, I wasn't on the buying side. But I helped people buy. So take me from then to now, when you think back of your favorite part of the business, and or maybe your favorite project, tell me something that comes to mind when I say what was the like, that's something you think back at the last 15 years and say, like, God, that was so much fun. Love that deal.
Anita Verman-Lallian 09:04
So could it be a more recent deal?
Nancy Surak 09:06
Sure.
Anita Verman-Lallian 09:08
You know, so I have so many the last, you know, there's just been every deal is so unique. As you know, there's always, you know, different challenges, different different learning experiences. So you learn a lot from every deal. I would say one of the, you know, the most, one of my favorite deals was a deal. I just did this past February, so about six months ago or so, we acquired a piece of land it was 2000 acres, and it was it was you know, $40 million deal. So it was a pretty large deal. And this property was just a phenomenal buy. And so I was able to get it in escrow. And you know, the terms that we had with the seller was we had to do a very quick, quick acquisition, we had 30 days to close it basically. Yeah, so in 30 days, we I had to do all the due diligence on it and when we're kind of trying to reposition it from residential to industrial. So, you know, just work with the city make sure you know, they would be supportive of its versus zoning goes and, you know, the infrastructure required, we could kind of, you know, make that work. And then, you know, so that was kind of one big portion of it. And the next one was raising the capital through the our investors. So coming up with that amount of capital so quickly, it was, it was one of the hardest deals I've ever done. But it was, you know, when we finished and actually closed, it was, you know, just the most amazing thing ever. And, you know, it's, you know, right after we close, we had offers, you know, like, you know, almost four times when we bought it forward, so it was one of the best deals I've ever done. And just but you know, the timing of it that for, you know, that 30 days, I don't think I slept. So it was super exciting. But that's probably one of my favorite deals.
Nancy Surak 10:57
So I jotted down when you first started talking about it, like a follow up question, and it was gonna be, how much did you sleep during those 30 days. Now, that is an incredible timeline. So So you have to you have to take it back, just for, for my curiosity more than anything else. So you get it under contract, you have 30 days to do your due diligence. For context. For you on a normal land deal as a bar, what would be a normal timeline, you would have for due diligence,
Anita Verman-Lallian 11:33
It's typically 90 days, sometimes, you know, sometimes you can get even more, you know, if it's a more complex deal in terms of, you know, just what you have to find out from the city. So 30 days is very quick, for a deal of that size for 40 million, you know, I would probably like, you know, under normal circumstances, I would say, five, six months, even, you know, anywhere from three to six months would be kind of a normal inspection period.
Nancy Surak 12:00
Thank you. Thank you for answering that. Because I know in my world as a land adviser and a land broker, 90 days is considered fast. Yeah, yeah. And so really, for in my deals, we have a due diligence timeline, typically, and then some sort of an entitlement process timeline, a lot of buyers are at least trying to negotiate those terms. But it's not uncommon for me to have a due diligence, that's 150 180 days, and then sometimes followed with a permitting period of another 180 days, like it's not uncommon. So 30 days makes my head spin. So I applaud you, during that 30 days, was the land position by the owner, like whether already due diligence reports available? Or did you guys have to go out and do studies,
Anita Verman-Lallian 12:49
We introduced studies, yeah, you know, a lot, the previous seller had bought it 10 or 15 years ago, so a lot of the studies were outdated, we have to go in and do new studies, and we were looking at, you know, we had a different use that we had in mind. So we had to look at it from you know, a different perspective. So all the due diligence we did was what's new, you know, fortunately, my company, we do so many transactions, so we have subs that worked very quickly for us. So you know, we have all people who can do all the surveys and phase ones within a week or so which is not common. That's, you know, typically, those surveyors could take, you know, three, four months to do a survey. So, fortunately, we have those relationships. So we were able to kind of move things along quickly. And I think that's one of, you know, kind of that's been one of our benefits in the benefit to working with our group is we can move very quickly. You know, once once we once we know the properties, right, so a lot of landowners like to work with us for that reason.
Nancy Surak 13:56
Yeah. No, I love buyers like you guys. Much. Let's go. Because the faster you can move, the faster my likelihood of getting paid. Exactly is. Okay, so you so you close this land earlier this year? Where are you guys in the project stage? Are you gonna actually be doing the development? Or are you positioning it to sell to someone else?
Anita Verman-Lallian 14:17
We are to answer entitlements right now. And then we will and then we'll sell it to somebody else. But we're doing all the, you know, kind of infrastructure work. And we may, you know, we may partner with, you know, an end user. So we're kind of open, but we're at this point, we're doing the entitlements on it.
Nancy Surak 14:36
So when you mentioned earlier that you wanted to make sure the city was going to be okay with changing. Is it zoning you guys have zoning out there? Right. Yeah. So you have just kind of like a loose conversation with the city, you wouldn't have gone to any sort of a public process. That would be what you're doing now. Right? Okay. Very cool. So that's really that's really exciting to talk Buy $40 million worth of land and not know for certain that you can actually do what you want to do with it. So I'm sure that there had to be some sort of underwriting that if for some reason that were not possible after closing, you'd have some other avenue to dispose.
Anita Verman-Lallian 15:18
Right. Exactly. Yeah. So if that was wouldn't be a possibility, we would use it as an as a residential site. And which is, which is still still great. So very covered both ways. Cool.
Nancy Surak 15:33
Yeah, that's great. We've seen some of those deals were much on a smaller scale, multifamily versus industrial, it could go either way. When both of those food classes are very hot, it makes underwriting much easier.
Anita Verman-Lallian 15:48
Right. And even, you know, for us, what we're trying to do is we're trying to keep our zoning, very flexible. So we could have a mixed use site, if we want some of it to go residential, we can, could go commercial, so we're keeping, you know, our zoning, very flexible.
Nancy Surak 16:03
Awesome. So when you think back kind of that 2008 When you join the family, and then when you created your own thing, You closed this big deal. Sounds like you're doing you got your hands on a bunch of stuff. When you think back to when you were a much younger girl going on site with your dad? Did you think back then, you would actually end up in the family business.
Anita Verman-Lallian 16:28
I, you know, I think I did, I always I knew I always wanted to go into business, I knew I wanted to have, you know, my own business. My, my father has had, you know, different businesses, because ever since you know, I was young, he's at different businesses, and I've always just, that's kind of what's always been attracted to me is to have a business. And so I always knew, that's what I wanted to do. And as I got more involved in learn more about what he was doing, I you know, over time, I just knew I wanted to go into real estate. And that was, you know, kind of what I wanted to do my mom is, she's a retired physician. So you know, I kind of seen both of them. And she worked very hard. But in her but in a completely different way. And my dad worked very hard in in, in his own way. So you know, kind of seeing both of them. I just, you know, knew that business was kind of, you know, my calling, and that was kind of the direction I wanted to go. Yeah, that's awesome.
Nancy Surak 17:25
So you do different types of assets on the land. So you mentioned industrial, you mentioned residential, what's your favorite type of development?
Anita Verman-Lallian 17:36
Currently, it's industrial. And, of course, you know, it changes with what's happening in the market. Right now, I like industrial the most, it's, you know, been, since COVID, there's been so much demand for industrial, industrial, also, just, as far as infrastructure is concerned, it's a little bit easier on the planning side, residential, you know, you have higher water demands and things like that. So I've found, you know, residential projects to just be easier as it went as it pertains to infrastructure. Last year, we were also doing a lot of build for rent that was, you know, very popular as well. And, you know, the values on the build for rent side, were just, you know, they're, it's astounding to see what you know, those users will pay for land. So that's, that's also been a favorite of mine. But yeah, over the last few years, I would say that, you know, when the market crashed in 2008, I was all about solar at that time. Because that was, you know, the best highest and best use of the land. So it, it keeps changing. And, you know, after solar, it was residential. So it's, it hasn't been one thing, but at this moment, I I'm all about industrial.
Nancy Surak 18:49
Isn't it interesting, how you, it's what you're working on, that tends to be your favorite, because I'm the same way like, I love land, right? But whatever it is that I'm like, hot and heavy and selling and doing deals on that's like, Oh, love it, you know, at that moment, and then that'll cool. And then I'll find a new love keeps you going. But it makes it it makes it interesting, too, because it's totally, when you're looking at land planning. For a massive industrial project, it's completely different things you have to consider than if you're looking for a different asset.
Anita Verman-Lallian 19:28
Right, right. Yeah. It was also what's fascinating about industrial is the employment it creates and how much cities love that. So that's, you know, it's also there's, you know, kind of economic impact that you're making to cities, which I enjoy.
Nancy Surak 19:46
Yeah, so talk to me a little bit about that. What is your view when you when you mentioned this a little bit earlier? Being able to go back and look at a site that was once vacant? What does that feel like now that you're older? are in responsible for some of the decisions, or many of the decisions that you guys are making as a company, what's that like to know, you're completely changing the fabric of your community where you live,
Anita Verman-Lallian 20:11
It's amazing. I mean, it's such an amazing feeling to see, you know, something that was just dirt, there was nothing on it. And, you know, then to see something where, you know, people are going and, you know, restaurants or whatever it is, and it's benefiting the residents of that community to see residents in that community, it's, it's a, it's a very fulfilling feeling. And I think that, you know, when you're, when you're kind of in the day to day, you don't kind of, you don't always realize the impact you're gonna have, but when you go and kind of see the final product, that's when it kind of all hits home that, you know, this is what you created, and this is what you did. So it's a very rewarding feeling. And, you know, it's, it's fascinating, you know, and, you know, like, my dad, one of the communities who used to take us now, there's, you know, these like, multimillion dollar homes on it, and, you know, there's, it's right, nestled along the white tank mountains in Phoenix, so they're just beautiful homes, and it's just, you know, amazing to see that. And so it you know, each and each property we've sold, there's different things on it, there's grocery stores on some of them carwashes medical offices, so it's, you know, we have kind of a range of different services that are on these sites, and each one, you know, just gives us so much pride and satisfaction. So, that's definitely the best part of it all.
Nancy Surak 21:33
Yeah. What about, uh, do you guys actually do any vertical development? Or are you just strictly land development, horizontal infrastructure?
Anita Verman-Lallian 21:38
We kind of stuck mostly to horizontal, we have done a few vertical projects, we've JV with a few developers where we've been vertical development. And we're not opposed to that as well. It's just our you know, specialties just didn't land in horizontal. So we, you know, kind of focus mainly on that, but one of my goals moving forward, as I, you know, kind of grow my company over time, I do want to, you know, kind of start going vertical as well. So that is, that is a goal of mine. At some point, the current, you know, we were developing a medical office, you know, kind of last year, and it's a tough environment to developing right now, just based, you know, due to the supply chain issues and things like that. So, we were, you know, kind of going in that direction, but I think, you know, we're, I think the the development, the supply chain needs to kind of resolve itself, and I think it's something I definitely want to get get into, at some point down the road.
Nancy Surak 22:40
Yeah, it can be really challenging when when costs are completely out of control, and you don't, it's just makes it difficult to underwrite anything, because you don't really know where the numbers are gonna kind of. Okay, so I love asking this question of specifically of land developers, what is the strangest thing you've ever encountered on a deal?
Anita Verman-Lallian 23:03
Strangest thing? There's been quite a bit of, there's, there's, I have so many different stories, but I assume one of the strangest things that's ever happened is we were working with a buyer on some land we had, it was a large tract of land, I think it was around 1000 acres. And so this buyer, you know, supposedly was, they were doing some sort of, like defense development. And we found out that they were, you know, just doing all kinds of weird things. Like they were like blowing up, like, cars, and just all kinds of weird things. And we found out through the city and, and we had to kind of terminate that deal pretty quickly. But that was, that was one of the Stranger Things that anyone's ever done that on one of our properties, they would have like firework shows, and all kinds of stuff. So that was weird. And then, you know, just different. I think, in general, just like every deal you do you have different personalities, whether it's, you know, sellers or working with or different investors, you know, whatever it is, it just, there's always, you know, different personalities and different ways of doing things. So, we've had, you know, I've just had a fair share experiences, you know, kind of with, with, with deals where you're just like, hey, this is interesting.
Nancy Surak 24:30
Yeah, I always say, Oh, that's a new one. I'm like, I learned like you. And you mentioned this earlier, I learned something new on every single deal.
Anita Verman-Lallian 24:37
Yeah, for sure. There's never, there's never a dull moment. There's always something
Nancy Surak 24:43
But it is pretty remarkable to for me at least I will see patterns. Yeah, or personalities and all my alarm bells will start going off and I'm like, Oh, I've I've heard these words strung together before I've seen this See? Or, you know, it's like the anticipation of, is my past experiencing getting in my way? Or is my past experience telling me that something's about to go down? You know? Yes, we do get to deal with some really interesting situations and people. Yeah. So you mentioned earlier, supply chain issues, being an issue for folks going vertical, what's the challenge that you're dealing with right now in your business more than the horizontal level,
Anita Verman-Lallian 25:32
I would say, you know, the, you know, there during COVID, you know, they're obviously there, you know, there were supply chain issues that arose, and then I think the market started to heat up after that, and everybody, you know, started trying to get their projects entitled, at the same time. So just, you know, going through that process is a lot longer than it's ever been, you know, you've been getting subs, everybody's so busy, everyone has so many different projects, and then, you know, employment is a challenge, everyone's having a hard time with staffing issues. So, you know, it's like fewer people trying to do more things. So, you know, that's just kind of been a bottleneck of trying to get things moved along. It's just, you know, kind of the lead times it's taking, to kind of get through some of these three zones and things like that, that's been a little challenging.
Nancy Surak 26:22
So when you think back all these years, what would you say, are the top skills you have to utilize on regular daily basis?
Anita Verman-Lallian 26:33
I think, you know, one thing that I think has been very important is just my relationships with people, you know, having been in this industry for so long, and even, you know, kind of utilizing my, my dad's relationships, you know, that's, that's so important. Because, you know, when you have worked with someone in the past, they know, you know, what they're getting with you and, you know, you're easy to work with it just, you know, cities are more responsive to you. And that's been so helpful to me, even finding deals, you know, like, I have a handful of agents that I have a long history with that, you know, kind of bring me off market deals that other people may not get access to. So, those relationships have been so important to me, especially these past few years, when, you know, the market just so crazy. And everything is, you know, everyone's looking for land, everyone's looking for deals. So you're competing with so many people and try to do you know, the same thing everyone's trying to do. So I think having those relationships with with people that, you know, kind of help you has been important, even, you know, with engineering firms, we've worked with some some of the same firms for you know, 20 years now. So, you know, they, they kind of work with us on some of our projects. So just those relationships have been very huge for us over the past few years.
Nancy Surak 27:47
Yeah, it does. It does help when you know, you have a track record? Well, yeah, right. Especially when you know, they're gonna take your call, or return your call. It's, it's huge. Okay, so I love to ask three questions towards the end of every podcast. My first one of those is, if a young woman reached out to you and said, whether her family is in the business or not, I love the concept of doing land development and changing my communities. I'm very interested, what would be a piece of advice you could give me as I get into your industry? What would you tell her?
Anita Verman-Lallian 28:30
So what I would say is, I would say, to just, you know, kind of learn as much as you can about the, you know, my, for me, I've been very regionally focused, I focus on certain areas. And I think when you have a certain area that you know, really well, it's very easy to identify opportunities quickly. So I would, I would say, my dad used to make me do this, I hated it, but like, we he would make me like, look at maps. And on the assessor site, you can see exactly who owns what piece and we would write out who owns what piece, like how many acres it is, and then I would call them a lot of times and see, you know, if they want to sell or like what price they would sell that, just so you know, you know what, what's available, what's not, but the other sellers expectations are. So when a property comes along, you can quickly say, Okay, that's a really good deal. Because I know, you know, the landowner next door wants, you know, three times that or whatever it is, and I think that that would be my advice is just become, you know, as knowledgeable and it just starts with, you know, making as many calls as you can to different landowners, brokers, agents, and then, you know, learn by looking at these maps as much as you can because it really gives you so much insight as to you know, what's available, what's, you know, what could where the growth can go. And one of the things that was kind of critical to my company last year, just kind of trying to stay a little bit ahead of the growth is coming. So if you know, you know, on one street or one exit, you're seeing a lot of growth, then maybe look at what that next exit looks like and what you know, land is available there. So kind of just mentally try to stay ahead of that growth. So that would be my advice to somebody that's starting out. And just, you know, patience is in this industry, you have to be patient, because there's just so many, there's so many things that are out of your control. A lot of times, you know, with a cot, you know, the economy or you know, right now supply chain issues, or whatever it is. So, you know, just patients and position yourself as best as you can. So when the opportunity arises, you're ready to go.
Nancy Surak 30:38
So you said you have to really concentrate on relationships for everybody listening here today. Concentrate on building relationships, have a ton of patience, and go after what you want. Yes, don't be afraid to pick up the phone or contact people, because you're gonna learn a lot of stuff along the way. It might not even be that you learn it's available, but you're gonna learn through the process as to how to compare Right. Great, great advice. Okay, so the next question I love to ask, because I am a huge audiobook listener, I'm actually actually just downloaded another one new book, but I need to have more in the background, because I go through them, I bought a book every 10 days or so on my on my audiobooks, depending on how long they are. Because I listen, as I walked my dog every morning, do you have a book, even, you know, personal professional that you love, or that you say, Wow, this is a great book, and it's got easy, you know, if it's professional, it's got great advice in it that I adore. And if it's personal, you just love the story that you'd be willing to share?
Anita Verman-Lallian 31:45
Sure, so a book that I recently read, it's i You might have read it, it's called Smart Women Finish Rich, by David Bach. So basically, you know, this book, it's, it's kind of, you know, one of the things that I've been trying to educate some of my investors on, and it's just kind of empowering women to take control of their financial future. And it's, you know, he just talks about different things where, you know, it's, you know, you have to kind of be aware of how not only how much you're making, but also how much you're spending. And, you know, it's important to also set aside money for you know, the future, or whatever it is, you have to, you know, just different ways to invest your money and be mindful of, you know, the returns you're getting. So that's been, that's been a good, great book. And I think it's just kind of resonates with some of the things that I've been trying to communicate with my investors, which is, you know, just be mindful, you know, a lot of when I first started out, and we were, you know, finding investors, a lot of people that I came across, a lot of women would just, you know, kind of connect us with their husbands and say, you know, my husband kind of, you know, looks at all of our investments and things like that. And I think that there needs to be a little bit of a shift, where I think women need to get more involved in some of the investments that we're making, and just pay more attention to that. So this is kind of just in line with, you know, some of those thoughts. And I think, you know, this book also kind of talks about giving back to the community and just, you know, just having gratitude for, you know, what you're doing and enjoying life and just, you know, kind of just being mindful of like, you know, little habits you should get into. So it's been an interesting read, for sure, I would recommend it.
Nancy Surak 33:26
Awesome. So I'm gonna take a little bit of a detour here, because you mentioned something and that answer that jogged my brain. I've read about, I think it's foundation that your family started, that you and your sister are involved when it has to do with education. Yes. All right. Tell me a little bit about that really quickly.
Anita Verman-Lallian 33:46
Sure. Yeah. So we started that foundation, I think it was in 2014. So it's been almost 10 years now. And so the goal of that foundation, my family's from India, that's, that's where my parents grew up. And so, you know, just, you know, there's a lot of poverty there. And there's, you know, unfortunately, children don't always have access to education. So the goal of the foundation is really to help some of those underprivileged children provide them opportunities for education and access to education, and we have family there that, you know, kind of act as are local, you know, partners that kind of facilitate everything that we're doing. So that's one of the goals of the foundation. And so it's something we're very excited about, and we kind of keep growing and, you know, coming up with different thoughts, and different ways to take it. But, but that's, you know, kind of overall, all of that.
Nancy Surak 34:38
Thank you for indulging me with that. I meant to ask you that question earlier and I forgot. Because for me, especially for women, I look at education as the great equalizer. And especially for women, I feel like you know, if you give a woman an education, there's just so many things She can do for herself. Yes, that she's not necessarily predisposed to relying on other people taking care of her or she's, you know, able to take care of herself in so many different ways. And so I'm a huge proponent of that. So, yeah, I think that's great that you and your family and you and your sister are so invested in making sure that you can pass that down. So on behalf of humanity, thank you for doing that. So then back to the interview. The last question I asked folks it is on every podcast is how can a listener keep up with you? Are you active on social media? Do you have an active like LinkedIn account where people can just sort of follow what you guys are working on? Or what you're working on? Personally?
Anita Verman-Lallian 35:47
Yeah, no, definitely. I have Arizona Land Consulting, which is like consulting business, we, I have a LinkedIn. And we, you know, post articles, you know, periodically about, you know, what's happening in the real estate market. And so that's a good place. I have my website, we, you know, kind of update some of the things we're working on there as well. But I would say LinkedIn is probably the best, the best way to start.
Nancy Surak 36:10
Awesome. All right, awesome. Well, I, you know, Anita, it was so fun to get to know you. I love connecting with powerful women, this podcast has been pretty remarkable. I've been able to connect with people all over. And one day in the future, I'm gonna bring everybody together and be like, hey, I need to meet my friends in Toronto that, you know, we're doing these amazing things, and my friends in Florida that are doing these amazing things. But that we're all happened to be female, and just killing it. So thank you, again, for joining me and for sharing your story and your history and your points of advice with us here. It's been a pleasure.
Anita Verman-Lallian 36:47
Thank you for having me in. The you know, congratulations on this podcast. It's amazing. And I think it's really remarkable to kind of connect with other women in real estate because there's, it's hard to find, so I appreciate that opportunity.
Nancy Surak 37:03
Thank you.
Anita Verman-Lallian 37:04
Alright, thanks Nancy.
Nancy Surak 37:05
Thank you for joining us for another episode of She's Wild the podcast for women in land and development. If you enjoyed today's show, please go out and rate us so that we can be found by other women in our industry. And if you know women who are working in land and development, please share this podcast with them. And if you know a total rock star woman, badass chick who is killing it in land and development anywhere in North America. I want to know who she is. Please reach out to me so that I can feature her on an upcoming episode.