Episode 800 What We Have Learned from our Members (LA 800)

Transcript:

Steven Butala:                   Steve and Jill here.

Jill DeWit:                            Hello.

Steven 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 sunny Southern California.

Steven Butala:                   Today, Jill and I talk about episode 800 and what we've learned from our members. I can't believe-

Jill DeWit:                            Yay, yay-

Steven Butala:                   That it's episode 800.

Jill DeWit:                            Can everybody see this? Yay. I'm so happy, so excited. This is it. 800.

Steven Butala:                   This is clearly a battle that I lost.

Jill DeWit:                            What?

Steven Butala:                   This backdrop today.

Jill DeWit:                            Yeah, well, you know what? We're celebrating. Congrats! This is from our team. We're so excited, so happy. We have a lot to say, and I have to say because this is such a monumental, who ... People have shows for years and don't hit show 800.

Steven Butala:                   I know.

Jill DeWit:                            I mean, let's think about this.

Steven Butala:                   I know.

Jill DeWit:                            I can't believe ... Now I'm thinking oh, my gosh, we're gonna hit 1000 at some point here. But I just want to share, right now, real quick, hang out for the end because I have something special. I have something really special.

Steven Butala:                   Of course you do.

Jill DeWit:                            I do. It's gonna be really, really good, so you're gonna wanna hang out and watch at the end.

Steven Butala:                   What we're really here to talk about, besides this-

Jill DeWit:                            I'm just celebrating today.

Steven Butala:                   Shameless commerce celebration, is what we've learned from our members since we started Land Academy.

Jill DeWit:                            Doing our podcast or Land Academy.

Steven Butala:                   So I've been ... I'm right in the middle of filming Land Academy 2.0 to be released in late September. Late September, early October or late September. It's going well. I've been really looking back at what the difference is and what has happened since Land Academy 1.0 or a cash flow from land program. It has traces all the way back on paper and on notepads and stuff like this, traces back to January of 2015, and I think we released the program -

Jill DeWit:                            July. It was July 2015.

Steven Butala:                   Okay, sorry. There was about a six month period where we tried-

Jill DeWit:                            That's all we were doing.

Steven Butala:                   To figure out how to work a camera and things like that, which we still don't clearly know how to do. But it's better, at least.

Jill DeWit:                            It's much better.

Steven Butala:                   There's lights and stuff. And you can probably hear us, which is different than back then.

Jill DeWit:                            Hopefully. Yeah.

Steven Butala:                   But truly, truly what has changed for me, or what I learned ... what's ... the big difference between then and now is back then, it was all about us. It was all about what we did and how we accomplished purchasing and s...

Five Minute Land Due Diligence (799)

Transcript:

Steven Butala:                   Steve and Jill here.

Jill DeWit:                            Hello.

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

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

Steven Butala:                   Today, Jill and I talk about Five-Minute Land Due Diligent. When you buy a piece of property,

Five Minute Land Due Diligence (799)

Transcript:

Steven Butala:                   Steve and Jill here.

Jill DeWit:                            Hello.

Steven 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 sunny Southern California.

Steven Butala:                   Today Jill and I talk about how to choose a county to send offers ... all week.

Jill DeWit:                            Well, that sounds easy, piece of cake, right?

Steven Butala:                   All week is frequently asked question week, and this is our number two, or number three most popular question. I'll tell ya, we cover it in great detail in The Cash Flow From Land, our Land Academy 1.0 program, but, it's still, for whatever reason, it's not clear, so we're here to clear it up.

Jill DeWit:                            You know, I think it is clear, but, you know, it's still ... How do I say this? It needs to be talked about a lot. There's a lot to it. It's not like, "Well, you know geometry, have a nice day." Come on, there's a whole semester on geometry.

Steven Butala:                   Sure.

Jill DeWit:                            I think this is one of those topics that kind of deserves a semester, or at least more than just one pass by, because this is a defining moment in your investment career. That's not really the right term, but this is one of the most crucial aspects of your investment career, is pricing these offers.

The more that we talk about it, the more that we cover it, the better.

Steven Butala:                   This is about finding a county, and I agree with you.

Jill DeWit:                            Oh, excuse me.

Steven Butala:                   I took a sailing class a lot of years ago. If you've listened to the show you know I'm an avid boater. This was so far long ago, and it was in Michigan, so it was during the winter, so we couldn't ... there was no hands-on, it was ... we were just in a class.

For weeks and weeks we'd go on Saturday to get my boating license, and all we did was talk about, "This is how you put up a sail, this is how you take a sail down, this is what you do." After a while it's like, "You know what? I'd really like to put the sail up, and actually put it up."

I think this topic, and a lot of topics with real estate investing, there's only so much talk you can have before you actually have to put the sail up, or actually send a mailer out. Choose a county, and send a mailer out.

I'm following up on Jill, I was gonna save this for later, but you have to sit there and tell yourself, "It's okay if you fail at this the first time." Or, even the second time. Jill and I just got a heartfelt email from a very successful ... who is now a successful member saying, "Look, I failed at this twice. I failed at sending my first two mailers out. I scheduled a consulting call with you guys, we worked on it, and I just pushed through and figured it out."

Which, by the way, is very uncommon. If you follow our instructions you're gonna do okay, but for whatever reason he didn't ... It doesn't matter. His situation, it worked out great for him, but I think more than actually learning how ... This is a compliment to you.

Jill DeWit:                            Okay.

Steven Butala:                   More than actually learning how to send ... to pick a county and send a mailer out mechanically, anybody can do that. You can learn that in a weekend. You have to have the right attitude, and that's what Jill brings to the table.

You have to have the right attitude,

How to Choose a County to Send Offers (798)

Transcript:

Steven Butala:                   Steve and Jill here.

Jill DeWit:                            Hello.

Steven 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 sunny Southern California.

Steven Butala:                   Today Jill and I talk about how to choose a county to send offers ... all week.

How to Choose a County to Send Offers (798)

Transcript:

Steven Butala:                   Steve and Jill here.

Jill DeWit:                            Hello.

Steven 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 sunny Southern California.

Steven Butala:                   Today Jill and I talk about how to choose a county to send offers ... all week.

Jill DeWit:                            Well, that sounds easy, piece of cake, right?

Steven Butala:                   All week is frequently asked question week, and this is our number two, or number three most popular question. I'll tell ya, we cover it in great detail in The Cash Flow From Land, our Land Academy 1.0 program, but, it's still, for whatever reason, it's not clear, so we're here to clear it up.

Jill DeWit:                            You know, I think it is clear, but, you know, it's still ... How do I say this? It needs to be talked about a lot. There's a lot to it. It's not like, "Well, you know geometry, have a nice day." Come on, there's a whole semester on geometry.

Steven Butala:                   Sure.

Jill DeWit:                            I think this is one of those topics that kind of deserves a semester, or at least more than just one pass by, because this is a defining moment in your investment career. That's not really the right term, but this is one of the most crucial aspects of your investment career, is pricing these offers.

The more that we talk about it, the more that we cover it, the better.

Steven Butala:                   This is about finding a county, and I agree with you.

Jill DeWit:                            Oh, excuse me.

Steven Butala:                   I took a sailing class a lot of years ago. If you've listened to the show you know I'm an avid boater. This was so far long ago, and it was in Michigan, so it was during the winter, so we couldn't ... there was no hands-on, it was ... we were just in a class.

For weeks and weeks we'd go on Saturday to get my boating license, and all we did was talk about, "This is how you put up a sail, this is how you take a sail down, this is what you do." After a while it's like, "You know what? I'd really like to put the sail up, and actually put it up."

I think this topic, and a lot of topics with real estate investing, there's only so much talk you can have before you actually have to put the sail up, or actually send a mailer out. Choose a county, and send a mailer out.

I'm following up on Jill, I was gonna save this for later, but you have to sit there and tell yourself, "It's okay if you fail at this the first time." Or, even the second time. Jill and I just got a heartfelt email from a very successful ... who is now a successful member saying, "Look, I failed at this twice. I failed at sending my first two mailers out. I scheduled a consulting call with you guys, we worked on it, and I just pushed through and figured it out."

Which, by the way, is very uncommon. If you follow our instructions you're gonna do okay, but for whatever reason he didn't ... It doesn't matter. His situation, it worked out great for him, but I think more than actually learning how ... This is a compliment to you.

Jill DeWit:                            Okay.

Steven Butala:                   More than actually learning how to send ... to pick a county and send a mailer out mechanically, anybody can do that. You can learn that in a weekend. You have to have the right attitude, and that's what Jill brings to the table.

You have to have the right attitude,

How to Price a Mailer by Land Type (LA 797)

Transcript:

Steven Butala:                   Steve and Jill here.

Jill DeWit:                            Hello.

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

Jill DeWit:                            And I'm Jill DeWit. Broadcasting with Steven from sunny southern California.

Steven Butala:                   Today Jill and I talk about how to price a mailer by land type.

How to Price a Mailer by Land Type (LA 797)

Transcript:

Steven Butala:                   Steve and Jill here.

Jill DeWit:                            Hello.

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

Jill DeWit:                            And I'm Jill DeWit. Broadcasting with Steven from sunny southern California.

Steven Butala:                   Today Jill and I talk about how to price a mailer by land type.

Well what the heck is that?

Jill DeWit:                            Yeah, wait a minute. What?

Steven Butala:                   There's rural vacant land, there's infill lots, there's commercial property, there's all kind of sub sections and stuff like commodity type property, like farmland. Or land that needs to be converted to sub divisions that is farmland. We'll talk all about it.

Jill DeWit:                            Cool. It's like a laundry list. There's a lot.

Steven Butala:                   I try to run thor it quickly just to ... oh, I don't know why.

Jill DeWit:                            You know, it's so good because so many people think, "Oh, it's just land," they don't even see there's land that's zoned for mobiles and land you can do this. If you think you buy a piece of dirt and you can just put anything you want on it, you can't.

Steven Butala:                   That's right.

Jill DeWit:                            And I think some people are confused by that too. "What do you mean? It's mine." Yeah, but there's rules though, depending on where it is. Even the type of construction you can do, there might be rules.

Steven Butala:                   However, the good news is if you know what you're doing and comply with these rules, fortunes are made. Jill and I are splitting property right now in an urban area that should've been split a long time ago. We're doing okay.

Before we get into the topic, let's take a question posted by one of our members on a Land Investors online community. It's free.

Jill DeWit:                            Carl asked, "Hello, I've been studying for a month for land business. And yesterday was my first time I contacted counties for the delinquent list. I emailed them." Oh, I'm like who'd you email? He emailed the county clerk. "I went to the county clerk office. Most of the county clerk representatives told me they don't know of any list." Oh. Boy. This is such good information.

Steven Butala:                   You're answering your question.

Jill DeWit:                            This is awesome. "And that maybe I need to contact each township's tax collector."

Steven Butala:                   I can read Jill's mind right now.

Jill DeWit:                            "So my question is,"-

Steven Butala:                   And I love what's in your mind right now.

Jill DeWit:                            "My question is, am I contacting each town or the counties? The only county I spoke to said they have no list and taxes are submitted on municipals\township level. What has me confused is everything I heard and read about this getting already is from the counties. Also, one county tax office told me they can not give me that type of information and I would need to fill out an open republic relations actually form." Oh, my gosh. "Are others needing to do this? Thank you, Carl."

Steven Butala:                   Go ahead, Jill.

Jill DeWit:                            Carl, Carl, Carl. Boy, can we help you.

Steven Butala:                   Yeah.

Jill DeWit:                            It's like I'm trying to give it...

How to Find a Money Partner (LA 796)

Transcript:

Steven Butala:                   Steve and Jill here.

Jill DeWit:                            Good day.

Steven Butala:                   Welcome to the Land Academy show, entertaining land investment talk. I am Steven Jack Butala.

Jill DeWit:                            And I am Jill DeWit, and we are broadcasting from sunny Southern California.

Steven Butala:                   Today Jill and I talk about how to find a money partner. It's our number one frequently asked question.

How to Find a Money Partner (LA 796)

Transcript:

Steven Butala:                   Steve and Jill here.

Jill DeWit:                            Good day.

Steven Butala:                   Welcome to the Land Academy show, entertaining land investment talk. I am Steven Jack Butala.

Jill DeWit:                            And I am Jill DeWit, and we are broadcasting from sunny Southern California.

Steven Butala:                   Today Jill and I talk about how to find a money partner. It's our number one frequently asked question.

Jill DeWit:                            Yeah, funny. I see it all over social media, not even just in our area, too. So many people are ... There's like three things that they are hung up on, and this is one of them.

Steven Butala:                   Yeah.

Jill DeWit:                            First, it's finding the deals, and then they find the deals, and then they're like, "I don't know how to fund the deal."

Steven Butala:                   Yeah.

Jill DeWit:                            Well that ... No kidding.

Steven Butala:                   Well, finding the deal is like 80% of the battle.

Jill DeWit:                            Right.

Steven Butala:                   I think. That's what we talk about constantly.

Jill DeWit:                            And if you have the right deal, I know it sounds silly, but I feel like a good deal, the money's there.

Steven Butala:                   Oh, yeah.

Jill DeWit:                            That's the thing that people don't understand, so I know you're going to cover all that.

Steven Butala:                   I'm filming Land Academy 2.0 right now-

Jill DeWit:                            Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Steven Butala:                   And we make ... It's all about creating equity, so-

Jill DeWit:                            Yeah.

Steven Butala:                   Very, very quickly, I mean the way you create equity is by buying a property for less than it's worth that day, or-

Jill DeWit:                            Exactly.

Steven Butala:                   Buying it and fixing it up.

Jill DeWit:                            Exactly.

Steven Butala:                   Which one do you want to do? I know which one I want to do.

Jill DeWit:                            Me, too.

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

Jill DeWit:                            Matt asks, "Hey everyone. I've been working on building out my own Podio CRM for my acquisition virtual assistant." VA, good job. "I recently sent a 2,000 unit mailer that put about 30 leads, I'm probably going to close on three to five of those sellers-"

Steven Butala:                   Good numbers.

Jill DeWit:                            "Through the CRM funnel with her, and we were really getting that part of the process streamlined. Now, I'd like to expand her role to be the person who sends a Purchase Agreement off to the title company, and manages that interaction. I was hoping to leverage the collective experience of the group to see if anyone has outsourced their interactions with the title companies."

Steven Butala:                   That's a good question.

Jill DeWit:                            "How do you structure your staff to interact with title companies? Does anyone have experience trying to outsource this part of the business? What has worked for you?" Of course, we've done this.

Start with a Budget (LA 795)

Transcript:

Steven Butala:                   Steven and Jill here.

Jill DeWit:                            Hello.

Steven 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 sunny, like my shirt, yellow, sunny southern California.

Steven Butala:                   Today Jill and I talk about starting with the budget. It is imperative that you start all this stuff staring at a blank, blinking excel spreadsheet.