Land Academy Member Luke Smith Buys a Vacant Church Riddled with Drama (LA 1775)

Transcript:

Luke Smith:

Hi, guys.

Jill DeWit:

Hey, how are are you?

Steven Jack Butala:

Hi, Luke.

Luke Smith:

Hey. It's my...

Steven Jack Butala:

Here we go.

Jill DeWit:

Cool.

Steven Jack Butala:

Let's just jump right in. I'll start it, Luke, and we'll just... We're pros, both of us. Steve and Jill here.

Jill DeWit:

Hello.

Steven Jack Butala:

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

Jill DeWit:

And I'm Jill DeWit, broadcasting from the valley of the sun.

Steven Jack Butala:

Today we have Luke Smith, and not just an interview with Land Academy member, Luke Smith, but Luke's specifically here to tell us a story about buying a church.

Jill DeWit:

It looks like a fireside story based on where Luke is sitting. The only thing we need now is a pipe.

Steven Jack Butala:

And a beard.

Jill DeWit:

And a fire behind you.

Steven Jack Butala:

Hi, Luke, how are you?

Luke Smith:

Hey. Yeah, why not buy a church, right?

Jill DeWit:

We got to hear this. Okay, wait. So how did you... Was this in Discord?

Steven Jack Butala:

It was in Discord. Yeah.

Jill DeWit:

Okay. So, did you just drop some nuggets in there and people started asking questions? Or do you just tell the whole story, I'm just catching it?

Steven Jack Butala:

It was a rant. It was in the rant section, I think.

Luke Smith:

I was heated. I was heated because I just got off the phone with the sheriff, right? And I've had a lot of sheriffs call me, and my favorite sheriff call is like, "Luke, the road's blocked because there's a bunch of people here. They say they're looking at your property that's for sale and there's no for sale sign and they're blocking the road. And you made a video on TikTok and nobody sells land on TikTok, you idiot. This has to be a scam." That's my classic sheriff call. My sheriff's call, neighbors are pissed because of some TikTok video I made, right? But this one, I sold a property on TikTok earlier this week, 240 grand on TikTok.

Jill DeWit:

Wow.

Steven Jack Butala:

Wow.

Luke Smith:

Yeah, baby.

Jill DeWit:

That's crazy.

Luke Smith:

I got multiple buyers, too. I got more buyers after I signed the first one. Like mom forwarded-

Jill DeWit:

Was it the house next door?

Luke Smith:

... to daughter a video. Like, hell, yeah. Sorry. I'm off on a different angle here. So-

Jill DeWit:

Great.

Luke Smith:

... I was heated because of the sheriff call and he just did not make sense. He did not make sense. And I get into these different phone calls, lawyers call, and people are always haggling over something, and I feel like I'm at the short end of the stick because I don't know any better. And I started taking law classes. I'm not going for a degree or anything, but like property law and contract law. I've got all the books and all the audio lessons, and I ride my bike to the notary, listening to contract law and property law. I can quote cases on down the line. And this sheriff is telling me that this church that I sold is not on the deed and these guys that I sold the property to, they went to the church and they broke into the church and the sheriff showed up and they're inside the church, and they said it's their church.

I'm like, "Yeah, it's their church. What's the big deal?" And the sheriff says, "Well, it's not. I've had them in prison. I've had them in jail all weekend, waiting to get in touch with you." And I'm like, "Oh, man, these poor guys." And like, "Who's the victim? What's the problem?" Nobody owns the church. It's vacant. It's been empty forever. I tried to sell it to the pastor I found online and there's no contact. It's all closed and done. I had multiple people. I marketed the thing on YouTube. I marketed on TikTok. Lots of people got into it on TikTok. And they went and checked out the church. They researched the church. They looked at it, local people from the local town and people from...