Put Yourself In Charge (CFFL 577)

Transcript: 

Jack Butala:                       Jack and Jill here.

Jill DeWit:                           Hi.

Jack Butala:                       Welcome to the show today, in this episode Jill and I talk about putting yourself in charge. Before we get into that, let's take a question posted by one of our members on a LandInvestors.com online community, it's free.

Jill DeWit:                           Okay. Avery asked, "I'm looking to advertise my properties on social media. I'm wondering, what do you suggest is the best way to use social media to advertise land? Should I just list on my Facebook page or should I send links to my sites, or even possibly links to my Land Pin post? I'm sure you've come up with some best practices, but I'm struggling here."

Jack Butala:                       Okay, this is an incredibly intelligent question, and I'm glad you brought it up because there's a surefire way to do this. And just posting it on your page, your Facebook page, you're not gonna have a lot of luck with that. After you post it on Land Pin, and you have all the statistics correct, that's pone of the real reasons that you put it on Land Pin. That, and property sells there pretty well. What you wanna do is create a Facebook ad, and its not gonna to happen in twenty seconds. Go out on YouTube and learn how to do this. Find a really recent video, where someone way more intelligent than you and me tells you exactly how to post a Facebook ad.

This is how people who own, smart people who own, hair salons or local businesses, really, really do well, drive a lot of traffic. Because Facebook, not a lot of people know this, and Twitter and all social media, and Linkedin are geographically based. So, they know where your computer is and the internet knows where your computer is, and the internet knows where your phone is. So if you say, "Hey, I have a piece of property for sale," and you're advertising the actual content of what you're advertising is attractive, the price is cheap, and the picture looks good, and you got the right information in there, it's gonna hit all the people that have expressed an interest fore that kind of thing, where the property is located. And you're gonna sell it most likely overnight.

It's a huge secret in the real estate business that people don't talk about. This is how you sell houses and stuff too. Why real estate agents don't do it, I just don't know. When's the last time you went on a Facebook and you saw a piece of real, we're in the real estate business, it's all we talk about. I cannot recall one time where I've seen a house for sale in my neighborhood, and I would love, love to get pounded with that kind of information. I have no interest in buying a Volvo at all, I don't want that kind of advertising and I don't want it in my life, but I love real estate. In fact, I would love to get, where ever my phone goes, like Jill and I do a lot of traveling. I would love to get pounded by stuff for sale all the time in Facebook and social media, so here's a takeaway. Geographically specifically post real estate for sale, and you will sell it very, very, very quickly. Probably that day if its priced right.

Jill DeWit:                           Right, because all you're doing is reaching them, that's it.

Jack Butala:                       Reach, reach, reach.

Jill DeWit:                           Reach reach reach. Its priced right, you gotta reach them. Good question Avery.

Jack Butala:                       Right now, wherever your property is, that you have, or that you're thinking about buying, somebody's dying to buy that property. Your job is to reach them really effectively. By the way, this costs next to nothing. I mean, if you might spend thirty to a hundred dollars on a week long posting in Facebook.

If you have a question, or you'd like to be on the show, reach out to either one of us on LandInvestors.com.

Buy and Lease Disasters (CFFL 576)

Transcript: 

Jack Butala:                       Jack and Jill here.

Jill DeWit:                           Hi there.

Jack Butala:                       Welcome to the show today. In this episode, Jill and I talk about buy and lease disasters.

Jill DeWit:                           Huh?

Jack Butala:                       Why would you put disaster in a title, Jack? Let's find out. 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:                           Okay. [Bryan 00:00:22] E. asks, "I have a great parcel with two very anxious buyers ready to snatch it up."

Jack Butala:                       I like where this is going.

Jill DeWit:                           Yeah. "The obstacle is that it's not clear as to where the access easement is to the property. I've done my homework, and it turns out that in this particular section all the roads the exist are private and furthermore, about one third of the owners have to overtly, not just peripherally, traverse that neighbor's property to get to theirs. So everyone must traverse some form of private property. [inaudible 00:00:58] their private road owned by an adjacent property owner or an actual usable section of a lot to get to theirs. So here's the kicker," as if that's not enough, "I pulled deeds on most of the properties and none except one mention these easements. Even when someone is clearly traversing someone else's lot." Which by the way we can all see from Google Maps often. "I feel like my options are either a-"

Jack Butala:                       Right. I have to interrupt here for a second.

Jill DeWit:                           What?

Jack Butala:                       I say it a million times, I'm going to say it again. I cannot believe the level of intelligence of our members.

Jill DeWit:                           Oh yeah. It's true.

Jack Butala:                       Thank you, Bryan. Thank you for showing up and taking this seriously. I mean it. This is fantastic question, and I can tell by the way you're writing it out you're going to do well.

Jill DeWit:                           Thank you. Can I go now?

Jack Butala:                       Yeah. You mean leave the show?

Jill DeWit:                           Yeah, I know. Can I finish?

Jack Butala:                       Yeah.

Jill DeWit:                           Okay. Alright, so here's Bryan's options, he thinks. There's three. "A, pay $400 to find a good title company to find a title that mentions easements, but I doubt that they will find anything. B, the owner can record a deed with the access road with the neighbor, but they'll have to pay more for someone to access the owner. Or C, tell the owner that they can do whatever everyone else is doing," [inaudible 00:02:25] is a new buyer, "and arrange it with a handshake and access road with a neighbor as I understand that after five years without an objection, it isn't an easement in this area. What are your thoughts?"

Jack Butala:                       Okay.

Jill DeWit:                           I know what mine is.

Jack Butala:                       We have the same thought. Go ahead, Jill.

Jill DeWit:                           C.

Jack Butala:                       D. I'm going to give you a D option.

Jill DeWit:                           Oh, D? I'm with C. A D, keep your head down.

Jack Butala:                       This is what Jill and I do.

Jill DeWit:                           Don't talk to anyone and just do it. That's my usual answer.

Jack Butala:                       That's good advice for everybody. Just take the pain.

Jill DeWit:                           Just don't draw any attention to it, you'll probably slide right by.

Jack Butala:                       In with the crowd, out with the crowd.

Jill DeWit:                           Yes.

Identify Where You Need Help Upfront (CFFL 575)

Transcript: 

Jack Butala:                       Jack/Jill here.

Jill DeWit:                           Hi.

Jack Butala:                       Welcome to the show. In this episode, Jill and I talk about the Jack/Jill TV show called Get There First. It's in its concept stage.

Jill DeWit:                           Yep.

Jack 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:                           Yep. Heather asks, "When it comes to advertising of your vacant properties, I was wondering if it was a good idea to do subliminal advertisement." Alright, what does this mean? Is there like a woman with not much clothes on standing off to the side of the property on the lead photo? That's what I think of subliminal.

Jack Butala:                       That's a good idea.

Jill DeWit:                           Whispers, "Buy this land now. Don't ask questions. Just smile. Cash only. Buy, buy. Yes." Or would just try that or stick to the more traditional ways or have you ever tried that at all?

Jack Butala:                       Is this a serious question?

Jill DeWit:                           I'm wondering ... Yes. I'm sure it's not made up. I'm sure it's in ...

Jack Butala:                       I thought it was a joke.

Jill DeWit:                           No. Oh, you really did?

Jack Butala:                       Yeah.

Jill DeWit:                           No, yeah, no. This is ... I promise. My team is ... They would not think to do that. Actually, I think it would be cool if they threw something funny at us, like a zinger, but no, this is a legitimate question.

So, no. I would not doing anything like that. It's just my way. I don't think you need to. I think it speaks for itself.

Jack Butala:                       I think we go out of our way in this group-

Jill DeWit:                           To be transparent.

Jack Butala:                       And all of our stuff is to be honest and straightforward with everybody about everything.

Jill DeWit:                           Exactly.

Jack Butala:                       So, no. I don't-

Jill DeWit:                           Whether or not it hurts.

Jack Butala:                       This is actual ... If you're really asking us, Heather, would I suggest that you do this or have I tried it ever at all? The answer is no and no.

Jill DeWit:                           Exactly.

Jack Butala:                       I would never ever try to deceive anybody. If anything, it's the other way around. Are you sure you want to buy this property out there? It's pretty far.

Jill DeWit:                           Right.

Jack Butala:                       And if their answer is, "Yeah, I've had it. I've lived in Manhattan my whole life. I'm sick of it. I don't want to pay rent ever again."

Jill DeWit:                           Dying to go for a hunting property or whatever it is.

Jack Butala:                       Yeah. Then that's the right property.

Jill DeWit:                           Uh-huh.

Jack Butala:                       But if you're going to go out there and expect everything to work right away in a turnkey situation, that's just not how these rural properties are.

Jill DeWit:                           Wait. I have a Heather compliment, though. Heather does get a big star for thinking outside the box here, because that's one thing that we do say is get creative, and I appreciate that. So, Heather was getting creative and really trying to come up with something different. Not sure this is the right one, but that's okay. Keep going. You'll find it.

Jack Butala:                       How could you pull it off? Let's say if we wanted to do subliminal advertising on the Internet.

Jill DeWit:                           I would seriously...

Branding Yourself as a Real Estate Investor (CFFL 574)

Transcript: 

Jack Butala:                       Jack and Jill here.

Jill DeWit:                           Good day.

Jack Butala:                       Welcome to the show today. In this episode, Jill and I talk about branding yourself as a real estate investor. Before we get into it, let's take a question posted by one of our members on our landinvestors.com online community, it's free.

Jill DeWit:                           Okay, Merritt asks, "I know Stripe seems to be the default," I'm gonna put in parentheses is a way of accepting credit card payments, that's what Stripe is, "but how are others setting up their accounts when they specifically ask you what you're selling and what kind of business you're in. I was thinking that being totally straight up with them would flag you as the get go as real estate transactions are prohibited, right? Are you coming up with a gray zone description such as 'tree and dirt collections in Northern Oregon'?"

This is hilarious. "Or wholesale dirt and soil futures?" This is good stuff, man. That's another thing I want on my shirt. "I've seen so much conflicting information from investors, I want to come straight to the source."

Seriously, "wholesale dirt and soil futures," Merritt, I want a shirt. That's awesome.

Jack Butala:                       Wholesale dirt.

Jill DeWit:                           "I buy and sell dirt and soil futures."

Jack Butala:                       So, all kidding aside, we're gonna be serious just for a couple minutes here. This has been a massive problem in this industry since the very beginning.

Jill DeWit:                           Of time.

Jack Butala:                       Since the beginning of purchasing and selling real estate. Credit card processors don't like it, and we think we've found the answer. This is an incredibly timely question. So, we've negotiated a deal with Heartland Payment Systems, which is one of the largest credit card processors in the country. You probably don't know they're name because they're the company behind companies like Blue Pay and Stripe and things like that. Stripe and Blue Pay are just payment gateways, but the processors, it's all complicated and I don't want to get into it now.

Jill DeWit:                           There's only a handful and the government won't let any more.

Jack Butala:                       Exactly. Insurance is behind it all, and they see a real estate acquisition as a little bit riskier than purchasing a stereo, for example, online. Or anything else that you would buy online that gets shipped to you. So, Heartland has seen their way through it after, I think Jill and I have been working on this for a year.

Jill DeWit:                           Yeah, at least.

Jack Butala:                       So, we've asked them to set up people on their end specifically to process our members' requests without lying, without saying, "Yeah, we purchase and sell land and we process it online." So, reach out to us and we will give you, there's an actual, a procedure that you have to go through to apply, but the good news is that, you know, the procedure, they're all set up and they're ready to answer your questions and ready to deal with the whole thing.

Jill DeWit:                           It's all property types, too, by the way. We're working fast to solve this for everybody.

Jack Butala:                       It's solved. I received an email yesterday. I didn't tell you that.

Jill DeWit:                           No, you didn't tell me that.

Jack Butala:                       We have a-

Jill DeWit:                           I just wrote myself a note, I'm like, "Is the deal ready? What can we do? All right."

Jack Butala:                       There's a number that, there's like a serial number that you need, and you need to process it through one person to get it through the system. Again,

Flipping Pitfalls (CFFL 573)

Transcript: 

Jack:                     Jack and Jill here.

Jill:                        Hey, there.

Jack:                     Welcome to the show. In this episode, Jill and I talk about flipping pitfalls, but before we get into the topic, let's take a question posted by one of our members on the LandInvestors.com online community. It's free.

Jill:                        Okay, Peter asked, "Certain counties of Florida have a protected species of birds called a scrub jay. Lots are still buildable, but there is an environmental due of $2,200 to build. In most counties, there are many lots available with no issues. Would you pass this lot or just lower the price by X dollars to compensate for this issue?"

Jack:                     I would not pass on it. That's not a reason. In fact, I would buy the property, and I would sell it.

Jill:                        I would celebrate that, honestly.

Jack:                     I would sell it under the title of, if you are involved in bird watching in any way ...

Jill:                        This is where you want to be.

Jack:                     This is it, because they are protected here.

Jill:                        Yeah, and you have that. I wonder if it's ... 2,000. So it's a one-time fee to build.

Jack:                     I think it is.

Jill:                        Okay, good. To help, I guess, with their efforts to care for, whatever they need to do for birds to keep them.

Jack:                     That being said-

Jill:                        I think that's cool.

Jack:                     I think it's also, and I'm speaking for my friend Jill, also a good reason to say, "You know what, I didn't realize there was this fee here. I might have to reduce the purchase price." But that's up to you. That's how you run your business. Jill is a little bit more prone to negotiate than I am, but I'm saying this is a pretty darn good reason ... Of all the reasons, the stuff that you didn't know when you sent the letter out, and now you just found about it in your due diligence, this is a pretty good reason to come back and say we might have to reduce the price. A legitimate, ethical reason.

Jill:                        Exactly. The other thing is we talk about having something that differentiates your properties, and I think this is really cool. You could have hiking property, this property, and bird watching protected areas. I think it's awesome. I think we all know what Corps of Engineer property is. My parents had this great house in Dallas-

Jack:                     Corps of Engineer.

Jill:                        Uh-huh. And it was up against the Corps of Engineer land, which was awesome, because we all knew no one could build on it. So, no one could block the view, and I think that's good stuff. I think this is great, too. If it keeps some people out, too, because of that, awesome. I think it's neat. I think it's good.

Jack:                     I don't want to get into it on the show, but Corps of Engineers property is usually environmental testing or intentional flooding. There's stuff that is reserved ...

Jill:                        That's what that was.

Jack:                     ... so it gets used for the betterment of the world kind of thing. Or the immediate subdivision.

Jill:                        Mm-hmm (affirmative)

Jack:                     But Jill said the residual effect is no one is going to build anything on there.

Jill:                        Mm-hmm (affirmative)

Jack:                     Do you have a question or you'd like to be on the show, reach out to either one of on LandInvestors.com. Today's topic: flipping pitfalls. We talk about the stuff that's possible and good all the time. We're going to talk about some of the stuff that's pretty difficult to get over in this part of the show. Maybe. I don't know. This is Jill's show. We're going to find out.

Long Term Planning (CFFL 572)

Transcript: 

Jack Butala :                      Jack Butala with Jill Dewit.

Jill Dewit :                          Hello.

Jack Butala :                      Welcome to the show today. In this episode Jill and I talk about long term planning and why it's so important. Or maybe it's not for you. We don't know yet. 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 :                          I'm trying to imagine going through life without any kind of planning, when you said maybe it's not for you. Could you imagine?

Jack Butala :                      No.

Jill Dewit :                          If you're like, yeah I'm going to do this now? Yeah, I'm going to do that now? I mean, how, I don't ...

Jack Butala :                      It sounds nice.

Jill Dewit :                          What?

Jack Butala :                      It sounds kind of nice.

Jill Dewit :                          What if you wake up and go I don't want to be married anymore or I don't like these kids any more, because there's no planning anymore?

Jack Butala :                      That sounds awesome.

Jill Dewit :                          Yeah. Jack.

Jack Butala :                      You asked the question.

Jill Dewit :                          I did. I didn't think ...

Jack Butala :                      I'm watching this show on Netflix called Life Below Zero and it's about these people that chucked it all and went up to Alaska and they're just, they're literally living off the land. Like they, there's no money involved in their life at all and they just go fishing, they shoot Elk and stuff and you know ...

Jill Dewit :                          Jack there's long term planning there. I watch the show with you. They have to plan with you.

Jack Butala :                      I know but I ...

Jill Dewit :                          They have to plan in October, because they're not going to make it 'till April with food and fire wood if they don't long term plan.

Jack Butala :                      I know. I wasn't saying that's not the planning.

Jill Dewit :                          Okay.

Jack Butala :                      It's just for a few minutes I have a little fantasy about doing, just living off the land. That's all.

Jill Dewit :                          Oh, you want living off the land with an assistant? That's your way of making it work. No, I know.

Jack Butala :                      Living off the land with an army.

Jill Dewit :                          Yeah. That's what you want. You just want to walk in and have everything done. I know you. That's really what you want.

Jack Butala :                      You know what? I can't even talk my way out of that. Jill you're absolutely right.

Jill Dewit :                          This is going to be, so we all know the reason that we did this show is because Jack's, long term planning is very near and dear to Jack's heart.

Jack Butala :                      That's true. Actually, this is my show and not Jill's

Jill Dewit :                          So, that is why we're talking this. Totally. All right. So back to the question. So, Steven asked, I was just contacted by a seller with an offer sent in June asking if I would still honor it. I said that I would and I would start my due diligence. Should I ask him to send the original signed purchase agreement or should I send a new one?

Jack Butala :                      This is ...

Jill Dewit :                          Oh, this is good.

Jack Butala :                      We're preparing ourselves for Jill's rant on purchase agreements and how they're not necessary.

Jill Dewit :                          No. It's okay. Or should I send a new one with a new deadline closing date? After reading the recent post about not using a notary and sending a deed wit...

Perfect Side Business for Real Estate Agents (CFFL 571)

Jack Butala: Perfect Side Business for Real Estate Agents.Why We Can Afford to Give Land Away Every Month. Every single month we give away a property for free. It's super simple to qualify. Two simple steps. Leave us your feedback for this podcast on iTunes and number two, get the free ebook at landacademy.com, you don't even have to read it.  Thanks for listening.

 

Jack Butala:                   Hey. Jack Butala here for Land Academy. Welcome to our Cash Flow From Land Show. In this episode Jill and I talk about the very first day of my land career, and then we talk about today and everything in between. Jill, I look at the numbers and I can't believe it. Ask me anything if you want. This is not going to be our highest rated show, and you know how I get about talking about myself and stuff, but somebody called in and asked about this.

Jill DeWit:                            I love this topic. I actually have a list of questions that I think everyone would love to hear the answers. This is a great topic. Let me go back and explain. Do you want to explain what we're talking about. It's really ...

Jack Butala:                   I would love for you to do it.

Jill DeWit:                            Okay. This is really Steven started, no surprise and no secret, it's in our e-book too, with five hundred dollars and his checkbook sitting at his kitchen table buying a piece of land off eBay and who knew it would turn into twenty point, I don't know how many ... It's twenty-two. I don't remember what the final number was, but over twenty million dollars in revenue from that in not a lot of time. It is amazing, and it's all just buying and reselling rural land.

Jack Butala:                   Right.

Jill DeWit:                            That's it. Question one. Susie from Omaha said ... I'm just kidding.

Jack Butala:                   Jill is joking about that because we're about to have callers on the show. We really are. We're several episodes away from doing that.

Jill DeWit:                            Should I pretend, "Hi. My name is Susie"?

Jack Butala:                   Yeah. Let's try it.

Jill DeWit:                            Hi, my name is Susie. I'm from Omaha. How are you?

Jack Butala:                   It's kind of turning me on.

Jill DeWit:                            Long time listener. First time caller. Steven, your voice is just ...

Jack Butala:                   Hello, Susie from Omaha. What are you wearing today?

Jill DeWit:                            Your voice is just dreamy. Especially now that I know what your balance sheet looks like.

Jack Butala:                   I've always wanted your balance sheet.

Jill DeWit:                            Why do you like him? Have you seen his balance sheet. You know what? Next time somebody asks me why we're partners together or something I'll just say ... We're out in ... I going to say, "Have you seen his balance sheet?" Just kidding. Okay. Here is my question. When did you realize what was happening? When did you realize that you could actually make a living doing this?

Jack Butala:                   Yeah. That's a good question. I bet people would be [or 00:03:03] like members are interested in this. I had a very delayed response, years. I went into this. I had a job. Like everybody, I had a job, and so I started flipping land on the internet long from the location that I was in. I was not in the same geography, so did a few deals, did a few off deals. Actually, we don't teach this, but I bought some land on the internet and then resold it. That happened and I guess, I don't know, I made a bunch of money. I just didn't believe it. I figured, "Oh, that's just a one-off thing."

There was no education. I wasn't following a manual like Land Academy has or anything. I was just buying and selling property. The cash that I had on hand at that month is what I spen...

Land Investors Interview with Member Justin Sliva (Luke Smith of Houses)

Transcript:

Jack Butala:                         Jack Butala here. This is an interview with member Justin Silva on how he utilizes our program to purchase and sell houses. Enjoy.

Hey, I didn't really give you much of an introduction here, so I'm just going to let you do it, because I think-

Justin Silva:                         You put me on the spot there, with Luke being on the call. I thought that was between us, Jack. Yeah, I've been a member for, oh ... I think we just hit a year with y'all. We started doing our first land deals in January, and so watching his success drove me to work a little bit harder in the land side.

In real estate, there's so many different avenues to work through that it led me into single-family residencies, here of late, while still doing the land too. That's a quick introduction, I guess, if you will.

Jack Butala:                         Ballpark, how many deals have you done?

Justin Silva:                         Land, I've done ... Just did two more today that I wholesaled land on, so it's 42 pieces of land. I've got seven on owner financing terms. Everything else has been cash deals. Then I've done five houses in the last month.

Jill DeWit:                            Nice.

Jack Butala:                         Yeah, isn't that great?

Jill DeWit:                            Justin.

Jack Butala:                         You went and got a buyer first, right?

Justin Silva:                         Yeah. We set up a ... I did one of the calls with you, the 30-minute calls, to ... I wanted to pick your brain on pricing, because you've talked about 2018 being a year of houses, so I was trying to get a head start on everybody on that. You were 100% up-front with me and transparent and said, "Hey, I have a buyer before I buy these houses."

I took that, and I knew some guys that bought houses so I sat down, talked to them, and asked them, "Hey, would you be interested in trying something?" They looked at me like I was crazy, because nobody believes that you're going to send out offers for less than something's worth and anybody's going to answer you.

We sat down. I had three areas in Texas that I had buyers in, lined up, ready to go, and all of them committed, "Hey, I'll buy as much as you can put in my lap." One of the areas, and I'll just break down the numbers, one of the areas I sent 865 mailers out, had zero responses, no hate. One of the areas sent 671 mailers out, got two responses and bought one house. Then another area, we sent 1,335 mailers out, got nine responses, walked six properties and bought four properties.

Jack Butala:                         Wow.

Jill DeWit:                            Love it.

Jack Butala:                         What are you making per house?

Justin Silva:                         One of the guys offered to pay for the data and everything up front, and so he wanted to negotiate a rate because he didn't think it was going to work. He's like, "Yeah, no way it's going to work." His data and mailers were 1,000 bucks, and that was cost-plus to give me something for doing it. He said, "Just negotiate the rate." We did $2,500 a house, standard fee, for the assignment.

What an assignment fee is, for anybody that doesn't know that, is you put a house under contract, you have a follow-up form that's assignment of contract, and you assign your equitable interest into somebody else. You essentially fill out two pieces of paper with the seller of the house: the contract, and then you sign the contract with the new buyer and it goes to title and you get paid at escrow. It's a quick $2,500 in that regard for him, and he ended up buying four houses.

Jill DeWit:                            Nice.

Jack Butala:                         Did you get paid out of escrow or did he write you a check?

Justin Silva:                         No,

Millionaire - What You Own (CFFL 569)

Transcript:

Jack Butala:                         Jack and Jill here.

Jill DeWit:                            Hi.

Jack Butala:                         Welcome to the show. In this episode Jill and I talk about millionaire. It's our final episode in a five-part series. This one's specific about what do you own. Do you own a ton of real estate? Do you get a better brand of underwear?

Jill DeWit:                            Do you have an airplane?

Jack Butala:                         Yeah, we talk about it. Before we do, though, let's take a question posted by one of our members on the landinvestors.com online community. It's free.

Jill DeWit:                            Okay. Marcy asked, "I have sent out mailers in the past and am now looking to send out more. But the issue is I have more data and I'm hand writing my letters." Uh oh. "But I'm not getting responses back."

Jack Butala:                         There you go. She answered her own question.

Jill DeWit:                            Let me see. I'm hand writing my letters and I'm not getting responses back. Okay. "I have received return mail stating, 'Stop sending this scam mail.'" That's funny. "I love the idea of a hand-written letter because I feel it's more personal. But how can I get more response with my letters? What information do you suggest that the letter or postcard contain?" Both of us are like, "Pick me! Pick me!" Go.

Jack Butala:                         There's a guy in our group who started exactly where you are, Marcy, and did this exact same thing. This is about two years ago. I talked to him recently, and here's how the conversation went. I said, "Man, I cannot believe how far you've come in such a quick amount of time. I really would like to share this with the whole world. What's different about you? How did you do this so quickly?" This is what he said, "I put myself aside and what I think was right and I followed the system that you guys put together to the letter. Right down to the letter. I used the same format you guys did, I used the companies that you did, all the support companies, and I put all this pre-notion stuff and I did exactly what you said. That's what I did."

Jill DeWit:                            Even when it felt wrong.

Jack Butala:                         Right.

Jill DeWit:                            Didn't make sense, but I did it. I know exactly who you're talking about. I remember that show.

Jack Butala:                         If you want to get creative, and I am all for getting creative, I want you to get creative with two things. Where you're sending the letters out, very, very creative with that. The more creativity, the better. Which subdivisions, which counties, and how you're pricing it. But I do not want you to veer very far from how many letters you need to send out, whether or not there needs to be a purchase agreement involved, whether or not you're hand writing letters, whether or not you put a cute little watermark right down the center of your letter because you think you're going to get a better response, Cathleen.

Jill DeWit:                            That's for Cathleen. This is Marcy's question.

Jack Butala:                         I've heard from other people that hand writing envelopes is the only way to go. You know what ... Go ahead, Jill.

Jill DeWit:                            Can I weigh in on this?

Jack Butala:                         Go ahead.

Jill DeWit:                            Here's my thoughts.

Jack Butala:                         You're never going to be able to scale this thing up if you're writing stuff.

Jill DeWit:                            That was what I was going to say. Marcy, do you want to buy one property a month, or do you want to buy one property a day? If this is a hobby for you and you're not in this for anything more than, "Yeah, you know, it's just something I do on the side.

Millionaire - How to Stay on Top (CFFL 568)

Transcript:

Jack Butala:                         Jack and Jill here.

Jill DeWit:                            Hi.

Jack Butala:                         Welcome to the show today. This episode Jill and I talk about Millionaire How To Stay On Top. You got there times 80 what do you do to stay on top? Do you do anything? Before we get into it let's take a question posted by one of our members on the landinvesters.com online community, it's free.

Jill DeWit:                            Okay, Heather asks, I'm just starting out and I'm trying to learn the ropes and what it takes to be successful in this business. I need some advice. I want to test out a county in each state at one time to see what type of sales and feedback I receive. Have you ever tried this and do you think this would be a good idea or am I shooting myself in the foot by trying to do too many at one time?

Jack Butala:                         Heather, I love your attitude. I love testing stuff before you're actually really put boot jumping with both feet. I can tell by the way what our producer did that you're not a member in our group and most of the intelligent questions that we get are from people who are already members and this is incredibly intelligent and so I appreciate it.

I would test, I'm going to give you a couple ways I test counties because I do test counties and it's not something we talk about often enough. Just by the fact that you're asking, hey, can I just test this out a little bit just to see, is fantastic. I want you to be as creative as you can about it.

Here's a couple things you can do really quickly to test pricing on counties and it doesn't cost a dollar. Post a Craig's List posting and say that you have a couple pieces of property for sale in X,Y,Z area, you can post 10 of these things, maybe 100 if you want.

Jill DeWit:                            Okay.

Jack Butala:                         If you're in an environment like California a real urban environment there's like 20 little Craig's Lists all over the place and so you can do it and price it and see what kind of feedback you get. If you're going to do rental houses, I was famous for this back in the day, posting a fake ad that said I have a house that I have for X,Y,Z and see how many responses you get. If you see you get nothing, maybe you're priced too high or whatever, then adjust it that way it doesn't cost anything. That's one way I test counties and pricing.

I will say something about this, this works. Sending blind offers that are undervalued works in every single county in this country, why, because we have all the data. The variable is using the data correctly for one simple thing, pricing.

I think yesterday or two days ago we had a question about, what do you do in a market where it's a seller's market, where every house listing becomes an auction. Well, you get creative just like you are here. You make sure it's a cash offer or whatever like that.

It'll work no matter what you do if you price it correctly, it will work. For houses, you may have to send out 2500 units in a very rare situation you might have to send out 5,000, but you're still making 10, 20 grand on each house.

I love your idea and if you're buying land and it sounds like you are sending mailers out to every single county is only going to strengthen and diversify what you're doing, it's not going to hurt you.

Concentrating in one area is like driving for dollars and all that, that's a pile of malarkey. I think it was a great thing to do in 1971 when you didn't have the data that's available and the computers and all that, but now you really can plan, test and attack.

Jill DeWit:                            I appreciate ... You know what, Heather is probably the first person that I've ever heard come forward that's not trying to do their county or the next county over where they feel the need to drive there and touch it a...