How to Choose a County to Send Mail (LA 914)

Transcript:

Steven Butala:                   Steve and Jill here.

Jill DeWit:                            How the heck are you?

Steven Butala:                   Welcome to the Land Academy Show, entertaining land investment talk. I'm Steven Butala.

Jill DeWit:                            And I'm Jill DeWit, broadcasting from sunny southern California.

Steven Butala:                   Today, Jill and I talk about how to choose a county to send mail. We're kicking it all the way straight back to the most basic stuff this week.

Jill DeWit:                            Like episode four.

Steven Butala:                   Yeah.

Jill DeWit:                            914 might sound like episode 004, just kidding.

Steven Butala:                   This whole week. What's funny about that is when we started doing the show in 2015, how to choose a county was different.

Jill DeWit:                            Oh. Yeah, we didn't have the tools and the resources.

Steven Butala:                   And the information and stuff.

Jill DeWit:                            And the staff and the help.

Steven Butala:                   Yeah. And the practice.

Jill DeWit:                            And the bills.

Steven Butala:                   And the three years of feedback from our members.

Jill DeWit:                            And the bank accounts. It's gotten a lot better.

Steven Butala:                   Before we get into the topic, let's take a question posted by one of members on landinvestors.com online community. It's free.

Jill DeWit:                            Alice asks, hi, guys. Another quick question. I'm still a bit skittish, maybe pushing perfectionist when it comes to sending mail. I was inches away from mailing a county. It sounds like finger hovering over the button. Recent completed sales are decent. Days on market, not too long, et cetera, et cetera. Everything is good about that, then I took a quick moment to visually peruse the area in Google Earth and noticed it's completely riddled with oil pads and rigs.

Steven Butala:                   I know, you're in New Mexico.

Jill DeWit:                            Should I run away from oil rigs? Intuitively, it seems to me the oil pads would negatively affect value, yet, the county meets basically every other criteria that matters. Have any of you guys had success in and around oil rigs? Should I be turned off by them. Steve.

Steven Butala:                   You should be turned off by them. And yes, we have purchased property that has an existing oil rig on it, and with a lease in place, and they're usually very, very low revenue, like $500 a year. And all it is, is really complicating what we do. I've never had any interest in oil and gas, or any of that stuff. It's a whole separate industry. I mean, oil rights, it's a completely separate deal versus surface rights, which is what we buy.

Jill DeWit:                            Right.

Steven Butala:                   So, no.

Jill DeWit:                            For me, I took it at just like, even old-school, like who would be your customer? Yes, I want to live out there. I like watching that thing go up and down. It's very therapeutic. Could you imagine? That's where I want to be.

Steven Butala:                   My whole goal in life is to live 20 yards from the oil rig.

Jill DeWit:                            I can hang my laundry on it.

Steven Butala:                   I don't think that niche exists. I think of all the reasons that we sell property. We literally have a database full of people who want to buy property without acces...