Why AI & Data Centers Are Creating New Opportunities for Land Investors | Marcella Silva
Show summary
In this episode, Marcella Silva shares her expertise in land banking, focusing on how investors can capitalize on growth areas, green energy projects, and the future of energy infrastructure. Discover how her company has been successfully guiding investors for over 47 years and the exciting opportunities ahead.
Key takeaways
- Land banking means buying affordable, pre-developed land located in the path of growth, before infrastructure and demand catch up to it.
- Marcella's company targets a specific area within a 60-mile radius of downtown LA in Southern California, chosen for sunshine (per the National Renewable Energy Laboratory map), developable land, and existing transmission infrastructure.
- Electricity is framed as the 'first 7%' of US GDP because every other economic activity depends on it, and AI/data centers' growing power needs are driving demand for land to build green energy projects (solar, battery storage, wind, green hydrogen).
- Billions of dollars have already been invested in transmission lines and hundreds of billions in solar, battery, wind, and green hydrogen projects in the target corridor, partly driven by California's mandated green energy goals.
- Minimum investment to get into this land banking program is $25,000, and funds can come from self-directed IRAs, 1031 exchange leftover proceeds, or cash.
- Marcella started investing in land in 2008 using a self-directed IRA rolled from an old 403(b); the land's value more than doubled in the first year despite the 2008 financial crash.
- Her advice for building a network: focus on what you can do for others, not what they can do for you, and prioritize in-person relationship building (she's had over 4,000 one-on-one coffee meetings) over social media.
About the guest
Marcella Silva is a land banking investor and educator whose company has operated for over 47 years, focused on pre-developed land in Southern California within a 60-mile radius of downtown LA. She was previously a software engineer at a government laboratory in Northern California, left after her retirement benefits changed in 2007, and made her first land investment in 2008 using a self-directed IRA. She now works full-time helping investors buy land and negotiate with developers for outright purchases or land leases.
Listen to the audio
“Electricity plays a critical role in how the economy works. It's actually 7% of the GDP in the United States, but it's the first 7%. It's the 7% that all percentages are made possible by.”
Marcella Silva
“Land banking is the practice of buying affordable pre-developed land located in the path of growth.”
Marcella Silva
“That one word: network. Get out and meet people. And not to see what they can do for you, but see what you can do for them.”
Marcella Silva
Questions answered in this episode
What is land banking?
Marcella defines it as the practice of buying affordable, pre-developed land located in the path of growth, before an area develops with businesses like McDonald's, Chevron, or Walgreens, so investors capture the appreciation as growth arrives.
Where does Marcella's company invest?
Her company invests specifically within a 60-mile radius of downtown LA in Southern California, an area chosen for its sunshine (per the National Renewable Energy Laboratory map), developable land, and existing transmission line infrastructure already built for solar, battery storage, wind, and green hydrogen projects.
What's the minimum investment to get into this land banking program?
The minimum investment is $25,000, which can come from sources like self-directed IRAs, leftover proceeds from a 1031 exchange, or cash.
Why does Marcella see AI and data centers as an opportunity for land investors?
AI and data centers require massive amounts of electricity, and powering them is straining the grid. That demand is driving enormous investment in green energy projects, which require large amounts of land in areas with the right sunshine, infrastructure, and transmission access, creating a 'gold mine' for landowners in those corridors.
How did Marcella get started in land investing?
She was a software engineer at a government lab whose retirement benefits changed in 2007, prompting her to move money out of a 403(b) into a self-directed IRA. She bought her first land property in 2008, and despite the financial crisis that year, her land's value more than doubled within the first year.
Resources and links
Full transcript
Marcella Silva:
Electricity plays a critical role in how the economy works. It’s actually 7% of the GDP in the United States, but it’s the first 7%. It’s the 7% that all percentages are made possible by. And so owning the land needed to power everything, including things like what does everybody talk about these days? AI—artificial intelligence does not exist without energy to power it. And some of your listeners, I’m sure they’re very educated, have heard lately in the news that it’s a huge issue powering all of these data centers. Well, that issue is a gold mine for our land investors.
Issa Hanna:
Welcome back to another episode of the Real Estate Pros Show. I’m your host, Issa Hanna, and today we have Marcella Silva with us to share her knowledge. Marcella, welcome to the show.
Marcella Silva:
Hello. Thank you for having me, Issa.
Issa Hanna:
That’s okay. I am super duper excited to have you. You have so much knowledge in a space that a lot of people, a lot of investors don’t really look at, and that’s land banking. So can you kind of give my viewers a rundown of what land banking is and then a day-to-day in your world?
Marcella Silva:
Absolutely. Thank you so much again for having me. And hello everyone. Welcome and blessings to all of you. So, what is land banking? That’s a term that a lot of people have never heard of. By definition, land banking is the practice of buying affordable pre-developed land located in the path of growth. So, what the heck does that even mean? A great example and something that you’ve probably seen happen before your eyes: imagine the area where you grew up.
Assuming it’s not out in the middle of nowhere, it’s likely that a lot of growth and development has happened over the years. Imagine being able to own one of the key corner lots where maybe there’s a McDonald’s there now, or there’s a Chevron or a Walgreens. If your family owned that land, would you be wealthy now? The answer is yes.
I’m helping people invest in land because they’re not making any more of it—and not just any land anywhere, highly researched, highly targeted land located in the path of growth. I’m sure you’ve experienced it at some point during your lifetime. And in my day-to-day, my goal is to educate investors about what the thing is, where we invest, how to invest, and the profits that can be made from investing in land. And on top of that, helping my investors negotiate with developers to get amazing returns for their properties. So that’s kind of a little bit about what land banking is.
Issa Hanna:
I love that. It is a huge opportunity and there’s some future opportunities that are coming up that land investing, land banking is just primed for. And I’m gonna give you guys an example. I live in Austin, Texas. Ten years ago, you could have bought a lot somewhere 20, 30 minutes outside of Austin for a third of the price, if not a quarter of the price of what it is today.
If you go to Austin, Texas, you see every suburb around Austin, Texas has been rebuilt with brand new homes. So that investor who bought those lots 10 years ago cleaned up when Austin boomed. So Marcella’s company helps identify where those growth areas are and helps investors just get the best return possible. Amazing business model you’re in, and you guys have been doing it for 46 years, so you’ve got it down pat.
And I want you to tell them about another opportunity where land investing, land banking is going to be crucial, and it’s for the future.
Marcella Silva:
Absolutely. Yeah, well, so if you think about it, land is needed for literally everything, right? Not just the houses that we live in, but the Amazon facilities that are delivering all of our goods. And we wouldn’t be right here right now without electricity.
Electricity plays a critical role in how the economy works. It’s actually 7% of the GDP in the United States, but it’s the first 7%. It’s the 7% that all percentages are made possible by. And so owning the land needed to power everything, including things like what does everybody talk about these days? AI—artificial intelligence does not exist without energy to power it. And some of your listeners, I’m sure they’re very educated, have heard lately in the news that it’s a huge issue powering all of these data centers. Well, that issue is a gold mine for our land investors because we’re investing in the number one location in America where green energy projects are going. There’s an actual picture of it right behind me. These are multiple square miles of land needed to power all the things, not just data centers, but the homes we live in, the cars we drive that are going electric, by the way, and so much more. So it’s a really unique and exciting opportunity.
Issa Hanna:
I love that. And the market you’re in is California. So are you like outside of LA on that corridor between California or Nevada, or where can we find that corridor at?
Marcella Silva:
So we’re located—the area where we invest is specifically in Southern California within a 60-mile radius of downtown LA. And if you look at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory map, you will see where sunshine is. But you can’t just have good sunshine. You have to have developable land and you have to have infrastructure.
Transmission lines. Billions of dollars in transmission lines have been installed in the areas where we’re investing, on top of the hundreds of billions of dollars that have already gone in the ground for solar, battery energy storage, wind projects, green hydrogen projects, and it just continues to blow up to be able to meet all of our energy demand, which by the way is mandated. So thank you very much, California, for wanting to go green. That means they need a lot of land to make it happen.
Issa Hanna:
One hundred percent. And they’ve got the infrastructure to do it. It’s just—your company, an investor just has to call you guys. You know every single piece of land, you know exactly what’s gonna come up there in the future. Truly unbelievable. It makes it so much easier for an investor. And a lot of our investors here at Investor Fuel, they’re armchair investors, limited partners. They like to throw their money into something, see a return. This has potential to be massive returns, especially if you can afford to sit on it for a little bit. But I wanted to rewind the clock a little bit, right? I’m a real estate professional, I’m an investor, and you put your money where your mouth is. You said that’s one of your strengths, and you are also a land investor. So I want to get your origin story. We all have that cool thing, we kind of like fell into it, realized we can make some money, light bulb went off, we can help some people, and then we just kind of got bit by the bug. So what’s your origin story, Marcella? How’d you start?
Marcella Silva:
Absolutely. Thank you for asking. And I actually used to be a software engineer working for the government—a government laboratory here in Northern California. And back in 2007, they went through a major transition where they completely changed how they ran the entire laboratory, including all of the benefits. So at the time, what I thought was a terrible situation ended up being wonderful. They completely changed their retirement.
Do I take my old 403(b) and roll it into the new 401(k) program, or do I do something else with it? And Issa, I vividly remember sitting at my kitchen table—again, this was in 2007—looking at my old 403(b) statement, thinking to myself, “The only way this goes up is when I put money into it. This is ridiculous. I’m never gonna be able to retire at this rate. And I’m not just gonna continue doing the same thing. I’m not gonna put it into the 401(k), that’s probably gonna be even worse.”
And so let’s be honest. When was the last time we heard about someone making it rich with their 401(k)? It just doesn’t happen. So I knew I wanted to invest that money differently. I wanted a real asset that would actually go up in value without me having to constantly feed it. And the obvious choice for real assets is real estate, right? That’s why you have so many people following this.
So I started looking out for different real estate investment opportunities. And along the way, I just really wasn’t into doing tenants, toilets, and termites. Not that it’s bad or that it’s wrong—it just wasn’t for me. I didn’t have the time, patience, or resources for that. There’s fix and flip opportunities, but I wasn’t trying to create a job. I was literally just wanting an investment that I could put my money into while I lived my life, right? Something that would work for me without me having to work on it.
And eventually I didn’t give up. I ended up meeting somebody who started to tell me about land banking. I was like, “Land banking? What the heck is that? And how come they never talk about investing in land?” And along the way, I found out that land is not something that’s very easy to do. You really have to know what you’re doing if you’re going to invest in land correctly.
And I also had a natural affinity towards land because I grew up watching my parents invest in land. It actually helped put me through college and they’re retired now because of their land investments. So it was like, duh, why didn’t I think of that sooner? And I bought my first property in 2008 using my self-directed IRA—that’s what I transformed my old 403(b) into. And you all know what happened in 2008, right?
The economy was going down. Well, luckily I took my money out of the stock market before I lost it all. So divine right timing for me. And not only did the value of my land not go down, but it more than doubled in the first year. Wow, there really is something to this land banking. And I decided to learn more about it, met the owners of the company, and ultimately retired from being a software engineer to do this full-time and educate other investors about this amazing opportunity that’s available.
Issa Hanna:
I love it. I love it. Software engineer—so went to school, did the nine-to-five. Eventually you realize that in those nine-to-fives there is that glass ceiling. You’re not going to be able to make generational wealth from that nine-to-five job. And you gotta use it as a means to get somewhere else. So I just love it. You used your education, your software engineering background to lever it into becoming a real estate investor. And then having the parents with that background—what kind of generational wealth can happen from real estate? Unbelievable, truly inspiring, Marcella. And you’ve been in it since 2007, almost 20 years. So one of the foremost experts in the country on this, especially in her market. Totally unbelievable. I wanted to ask you now: I look you up in five years, right? Where am I gonna see you? What’s the five-year plan?
Marcella Silva:
What is the five-year plan? Well, I’m not going anywhere. So my goal is to continue to help my investors with their land and getting amazing offers, whether it’s outright purchases or land leases. And me, I’m not having to worry about working because I’m financially free, because my land is paying for my lifestyle. Ultimately, I want to buy my parents’ property, which is in New Mexico, move there, take care of them, take care of my new nephews—just had a brand new baby nephew. Always family is top and important, and I also include my investors as part of my family as well. So continuing to help people create wealth and living a joy-filled, free life.
Issa Hanna:
Love that answer. And real estate—it’s one of the only fields you could get into investing where you can actually buy your time back. You want to be around your family, you make your own time when you have this investment, just residual income that just keeps turning for you and coming in every month. And then you have all this equity in it as well. So if you ever need that chunk of money, it’s there for you. And that’s why every wealthy person in the world, not just our country, has real estate in their portfolio. Congratulations on the new baby. Unbelievable, it’s a true joy. And I love that you talked about family—family first—and your investors are your family. That truly shows that you care. As somebody who is an agent who’s represented hundreds of clients in the past, that is exactly how I built my name and my business and my reputation: was by caring about that client, treating every single client like family.
And with that, I want to pivot into some advice. We got a lot of young guys in there, or young people that come into this, into the real estate game—whether they’re new agents, loan officers, new investors, just every single facet. Business relationships are super important in our business, growing your network. So if you had to give that new person one piece of advice on how to start growing their network, what would you tell them, Marcella?
Marcella Silva:
That one word: network. Get out and meet people. And not to see what they can do for you, but see what you can do for them. Introduce your network to your network. You never know where that can go. And that is what truly launched me into my career is networking. And I’m not talking about social media. I’m talking about belly-to-belly, face-to-face. Get out and have coffee meetings.
I’ve had over 4,000 one-on-one coffee meetings with people. You never know what you’re gonna learn from somebody. You never know where the relationship can go or what kind of referrals you’ll be able to give them or that you might be able to receive from them. There’s just endless opportunities and going out there with that unlimited potential mindset. It’s all about what’s going on right here. In the end, that’s it.
Issa Hanna:
One hundred percent. Truly golden advice. And my longtime viewers, you guys that watch this show a lot, every single person that understands our business, the professional world that comes on this show echoes exactly what Marcella said almost to a T. You’ve got to grow that network. It’s not what they can do for you at first, it’s what you can do for them. If they find you useful, you can learn a lot, even if they can’t do anything for you. They might have a referral for you, or they might be able to teach you something, just like Marcella is doing here on the show today. Knowledge is golden. The more, the better you are in this field. So truly unbelievable knowledge in your field, period, Marcella. So now I’m gonna give you the floor. If people wanted to get a hold of you, they wanted to get into land banking, how could they reach you guys?
Marcella Silva:
Absolutely. And thank you. And just to add a cherry on top of the networking thing, I found out about you guys through a lady who I met through networking. And how do people get a hold of me? DirtIsGold.com. Go there. I have a free webinar for you guys. You can watch that, learn all about the thing called land banking. And I’m happy to hop on a Zoom, chat with you, learn about your goals, and see how I might be able to support you. I also pay very good referral fees, too. So if you’re someone who has a database of investors who might be looking to diversify—or hey, maybe they’re doing a 1031 exchange and they buy another building or a home and they have 50 grand left over. Guess what? They can buy an amazing piece of dirt.
Minimum investment is 25 grand. So it’s not out of reach for people. Self-directed IRAs, 1031 exchanges, cash under the mattress where you’re losing money to inflation alone—those are all great opportunities in land banking. DirtIsGold.com.
Issa Hanna:
Make sure to go check out DirtIsGold.com. Marcella, one of the foremost experts in the country in her market on land investing, land banking. So make sure, my investors that watch this, this is the next big thing with all the AI coming out, with all the energy infrastructure that we need. This is where you want to go. And 25 grand minimum, unbelievable. Anybody almost can virtually get in. So it’s not just open to the hoity-toity investors. The average normal investor could get in. So make sure you guys go out, check out DirtIsGold.com, check out Marcella, one of the foremost experts in the country. And Marcella, if you wanted to add anything on top of what I just said, go ahead.
Marcella Silva:
I have a YouTube channel as well, Dirt is Gold, so you can find me on YouTube as well. And I really appreciate being here today. And blessings and much success to everyone who hears this podcast. You got this.
Issa Hanna:
You guys make sure check out her YouTube. I’m sure it is a library of knowledge. Make sure to like and subscribe. Marcella, thank you so much for coming on the show. I super enjoyed our conversation today.
Marcella Silva:
Me as well, Issa. Thank you so much for being an incredible host.
Issa Hanna:
Thank you. And to our viewers at home, if you enjoyed my conversation with Marcella and want to see more like it, make sure to hit like and subscribe. I talk to people every day that could bring us different knowledge on every aspect of the real estate industry. Until next time, the Real Estate Pros are out.
