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House Deals Made as Easy as Land Deals (LA 1680)

Transcript:

Steven Jack Butala:Steve and Jill here.

Jill K DeWit:Hello.

Steven Jack Butala:Welcome to the House Academy Show. Entertaining real estate investment talk. I'm Steven Jack Butala.

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

Steven Jack Butala:Today, jill and I talk about house deals, made as easy as land deals. Is there really, such a thing?

Jill K DeWit:Yep. You know what's funny? I'll share one story with you now. And then I have another story for in a minute. Well, first of all, happy Career Path Day, for those of you who are with us and joining us in Career Path, today is day one day. One of the rest of your life.

Steven Jack Butala:Jeez, that's cheesy.

Jill K DeWit:I know, isn't it.

Steven Jack Butala:Something's probably cheesy.

Jill K DeWit:It's stupid. I know.

Steven Jack Butala:Who else walked up to me and said, you are cheesy. Some people have said a lot of stuff to me.

Jill K DeWit:I'll do it.

Steven Jack Butala:A lot of crazy stuff to me, but not you're cheesy and fake and this doesn't work.

Jill K DeWit:Well, I never say you're fake, but sometimes I say goofy. I do. I did call Aaron a goofball the other day. So anyway, it was funny, because this whole show is, house deals made as easy as land deals. So last week, and I was talking to one of the attendees who's in Career Path with us, starting today. He was talking about how, two or three years ago, I think that they were three years in now. He's adding land to his portfolio, but they were doing all houses. Started year one doing one house, year two was six houses. And then year three was 145 houses. Well, here's what the difference was. And the money was so much better. But year one, they were doing it all wrong. They were doing the renovations themselves.

Steven Jack Butala:Yeah.

Jill K DeWit:And they got one done. Year two, he and his partner got six done, because again, they're doing renovations. And then they realized, why are we doing this. Year three, they transitioned to what we're about to talk about today. And they're like, "I'm not doing any renovations. I'm buying it, selling it quickly, and moving on", kind of thing. And that's how they went from six to 145. He's like, "And this year we want to do 250 or something like that." And it's a small crew, but they've got it.

Steven Jack Butala:Yep.

Jill K DeWit:It's good.

Steven 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, and don't forget to subscribe, seriously. Subscribe on the Land Academy, YouTube channel and comment on the shows you like.

Jill K DeWit:Luke wrote, "If I have a signed purchase agreement and the owner gets a better offer in the mail for other land buyer. Do I have any recourse?" I think we covered this question last week.

Steven Jack Butala:I think we did too.

Jill K DeWit:So I'm just wondering, this is funny. So let me think of a different question that I can sub in here-

Steven Jack Butala:About houses.

Jill K DeWit:Real quick, that can solve our little typo.

Steven Jack Butala:God, whoever produces this podcast really needs to-

Jill K DeWit:Get their act together.

Steven Jack Butala:Yeah. Geez.

Jill K DeWit:Wonder who that is.

Steven Jack Butala:Come on, podcast producer.

Jill K DeWit:All right. Here's a house question for you. I'm going to say, Jill asks, "What would be a fair dollar amount that I should expect to get on a house flip. I understand the way you guys do it. You buy houses, you mark it up. You sell it to another investor. What dollar amount makes sense to you?

Steven Jack Butala:Between 50 and $100,000, if you're funding it yourself. Here's an example. Buy in a market that, where, it all done, it's $600,000 let's say, five to $600,000. You're buying a house for 200, because it needs a lot of work. You buy it for 200, 250, sell it for 300, 350.

How to Buy Your First Parcel of Land (LA 1679)

Transcript:

Steven Jack Butala:

Steve and Jill here.

Jill K DeWit:

Good day.

Steven Jack Butala:

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

Jill K DeWit:

And I'm Jill DeWit, broadcasting from the Valley of the Sun.

Steven Jack Butala:

Today, Jill and I talk about how to buy your first parcel of land, the ever present question.

Jill K DeWit:

Yeah. People watch, they hear us, they see us. They're like, "I can do this. Okay. What do I do? Ready, I'm here. I showed up. What do I do? Is there a list somewhere? Do I just pick from them?"

Steven Jack Butala:

Keep going. This is great.

Jill K DeWit:

Do I just, I don't know, go online and pick one that looks good to me and just call the person, just call the agent? Is that the best way? And they just handle it all. I just write a check.

Steven Jack Butala:

I'll tell you a hint, and we're going to obviously cover this all in just a few minutes here. The secret to buying your first piece of land is in our ebook. If you haven't downloaded our ebook, even if you're a long time Land Academy member, it's like 10 or 15 pages, I think. It's just blow through a read, but it tells you how to get your first land deal done fast. 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. Please don't forget to subscribe on the Land Academy YouTube channel and comment on the shows you like.

Jill K DeWit:

Steven wrote, "Hope the holiday preps are going well for everyone." So this is obviously from a couple weeks ago. "A question I'm curious about. When listing with a flat fee MLS service, do you provide for the buyer's agent commission?" I have lot to say about this.

Steven Jack Butala:

I know you do. It's perfect. I'm going to zip it here. You go for it.

Jill K DeWit:

"I have had some horrible experiences with unprofessional realtors. The problems have been with the poor quality of the listings they prepare."

Steven Jack Butala:

Unprofessional.

Jill K DeWit:

I know. And in parentheses he wrote, "Why don't you use the pictures I gave you?"

Steven Jack Butala:

Unprofessional realtors is a-

Jill K DeWit:

I know, we could talk for a whole nother month.

Steven Jack Butala:

That's a redundant sentence, unprofessional realtors. Go ahead.

Jill K DeWit:

"Use the pictures I gave you, the ignorance of marketing outside the MLS." I know.

Steven Jack Butala:

And out and out laziness.

Jill K DeWit:

"And the out and out laziness. If you get an offer on my property, forward it the same day, not the next week. I could go on and on. I like the flat fee"-

Steven Jack Butala:

I wish you would.

Jill K DeWit:

"I like the flat fee because I can control the listing details. I've been offering buyer's agents the full 3%. No problem paying that if they bring a buyer. Do you guys think it makes any difference on the sales end to give the realtors their cut on the flat fee listing?" Okay. So here's what-

Steven Jack Butala:

I like fat fee listing. I like your way better.

Jill K DeWit:

Thank you. So Steven's talking about companies like Broker Direct MLS, and we've had other local companies that we've used. So what the heck are we talking about? Well, there are a number of places, brokers that say, "Hey, look for a flat rate fee, I'll put it on the MLS for you. You're doing the work. I'm not getting commission, but you can use my licensure and everything. This is all legal and legit. And through me, by paying me, I don't have to get a commission. I'll just take a flat rate. I'll put it on the MLS for you."

Steven Jack Butala:

It's a tech company.

Jill K DeWit:

And some of them, they might help you with the work. I'm sure there are people out there that do that. Most of the ones I work with, and this is the way I like it anyway, they just say, "Here's the paperwork. Fill it out how you see fit,

Are You Smart Enough for Land Academy (LA 1678)

Transcript:

Steven Jack Butala:

Steve and Jill here.

Jill K DeWit:

Hi.

Steven Jack Butala:

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

Jill K DeWit:

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

Steven Jack Butala:

Today Jill and I talk about are you smart enough for Land Academy? Who came up with this topic?

Jill K DeWit:

I know. Did somebody put that in Discord?

Steven Jack Butala:

No. And all kidding aside, this comes up every once in a while it comes up about, excuse me, geez. It comes up at the live event. It's come up and it just comes up in general. It's not so much, I decided to be really straight about it in the title.

Jill K DeWit:

Which we always are straight. So we'll talk about that. I have some notes here and there's always exceptions, but we want to talk about it with you, because we want for the right, well, how about this? You're all the right people. We want you to know, we either want to calm down your fears and or we want to be really honest with you and let you know what you're getting into.

Steven Jack Butala:

I titled this intentionally, but it could be titled, are you interested enough in doing this?

Jill K DeWit:

That's a good way of saying it.

Steven Jack Butala:

That's really what I think is happening.

Jill K DeWit:

That's brilliant.

Steven Jack Butala:

But people don't, they don't say it that way about themselves. Before we get into it let's take a question posted by one of our members on the Land Investors.com online community, it's free. And don't forget to subscribe on the Land Academy YouTube channel and comment on the shows you like.

Jill K DeWit:

Andy wrote, "If I have a signed purchase agreement and the owner gets a better offer letter in the mail from another land buyer, do I have any recourse? Just so weird that the week we were going to close, another offer letter would hit. They're wanting to take the higher offer, which is four times my offer price. Has this happened to anyone?" That's really not cool by the way.

Steven Jack Butala:

It's not cool at all.

Jill K DeWit:

By the seller, that is.

Steven Jack Butala:

This sparked a lot of interest in Discord.

Jill K DeWit:

I bet. What were the general responses?

Steven Jack Butala:

Let's answer the question first. The answer, it's the same how we're going to answer all of it. Your question is, do you have any recourse? Probably not. You might, but it's not worth it. It's generally not worth it to go down that path. My big comment is, do they really have an offer? Do they?

Jill K DeWit:

Yeah. Or are they changing their price last minute on you?

Steven Jack Butala:

Are they having second thoughts about the price?

Jill K DeWit:

Or selling?

Steven Jack Butala:

There's a lot of stuff going on.

Jill K DeWit:

Maybe they changed their mind and they could say that, that's true. That's a very, very good point.

Steven Jack Butala:

I've heard you on the phone many times in this situation and you know what she says, "You should take the offer."

Jill K DeWit:

That's what I do. I'm like, "So let's just go through, let's walk through the process. Shall we? You just got this offer in. You and I are going to close on Tuesday and you're going to get $18,000. And you're saying you got an offer for 40. Well, is there really? Let's just see. They haven't done any their due diligence. They haven't vetted this. You haven't even talked to them yet. Do we know that it's legit? Do we know they have the money? Do they know they're standing by? And after they do their due diligence, are they still going to want to pay that money? I'm sitting here right now. We are all done. You're about to get a check, a wire into your bank on Tuesday. Do you want to stop that and take the chance and or do you want a sure thing? We're done." And usually they go, "Oh yeah, hadn't thought about that."

Steven Jack Butala:

Jill Friday - Enthusiasm (LA 1677)

Transcript:

Steven Jack Butala:

Steve and Jill here.

Jill K DeWit:

Hi.

Steven Jack Butala:

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

Jill K DeWit:

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

Steven Jack Butala:

Today Jill and I... Well, it's Jill Friday and she's going to talk about enthusiasm. One of my most favorite attributes about you. I mean it.

Jill K DeWit:

Oh, I thought you were going to say one of your most valued attributes, yours. I'm just kidding.

Steven Jack Butala:

I don't understand. What do you mean?

Jill K DeWit:

Well, you have enthusiasm. How about this, on a scale of one to 10, how do you rank yourself as, enthusiastic about life?

Steven Jack Butala:

Probably, six.

Jill K DeWit:

Child raising?

Steven Jack Butala:

Two, keep going.

Jill K DeWit:

Having fun on the weekend?

Steven Jack Butala:

10.

Jill K DeWit:

Riding your bike around town?

Steven Jack Butala:

Nine.

Jill K DeWit:

Taking the RV out?

Steven Jack Butala:

10.

Jill K DeWit:

Hiring and training staff?

Steven Jack Butala:

One. It's a little impromptu game.

Jill K DeWit:

Wait, wait. Taking me to dinner?

Steven Jack Butala:

Nine.

Jill K DeWit:

Oh, taking me to a Mexican restaurant?

Steven Jack Butala:

Seven.

Jill K DeWit:

Okay. You get where I'm going here. We're going to talk about that, because I just threw out a bunch of different things. I have three main things I want to talk about, for you to be aware of, your enthusiasm in your life. That's one of them, and we'll talk more.

Steven 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, don't forget to subscribe on the Land Academy, YouTube channel and comment on the shows you like.

Jill K DeWit:

Okay. So Troy wrote... Did you just get questions from the same two people all week? Because all I could see, is the same names.

Steven Jack Butala:

No, is it Troy again?

Jill K DeWit:

Yeah. There's a Troy, there's Luke twice, Troy.

Steven Jack Butala:

Maybe I did the names wrong.

Jill K DeWit:

I'm like, okay... Do you just have favorites?

Steven Jack Butala:

No, somebody that's just active. There's active people in discord and there's not.

Jill K DeWit:

Okay, all right. So-

Steven Jack Butala:

Or I did it wrong.

Jill K DeWit:

Or, that too. Troy wrote, "My $80,000 dream buck, picture." There's a picture, there?

Steven Jack Butala:

A picture of a buck that he got with a bow.

Jill K DeWit:

Oh wow. And then he said, "I bought land for $80,000, arrow to buck, three days before closing." Oh wow. "And then sold it for $210,000 cash. Thank you, Land Academy, for making dreams come true." So he bought the land, was without loving and using it while he was selling it, and then gave it up.

Steven Jack Butala:

Yeah. He tripled his money.

Jill K DeWit:

Aw. And got his dream buck.

Steven Jack Butala:

It's January.

Jill K DeWit:

That's pretty cool, actually.

Steven Jack Butala:

So, that could be his whole year. He could be done. Completely done.

Jill K DeWit:

Yeah. I can live off that.

Steven Jack Butala:

$150 grand. Absolutely.

Jill K DeWit:

Yep. Thank you.

Steven Jack Butala:

So could I.

Jill K DeWit:

Totally.

Steven Jack Butala:

Today is Jill Friday. She's going to talk about enthusiasm. This is the meat of this show.

Jill K DeWit:

So I'm trying to remember why this came up. Why did this come up? Do you remember?

Steven Jack Butala:

Because I think enthusiasm... Here's why, I think. The message that I think this show is about is, that you send a bunch of mail out and, let's just assume that you do it correctly, which most people do. Especially if you use concierge data, you send the mail out, and then people are calling back. And Jill genuinely, honestly has enthusiasm for answering the phone and talking to these sellers. Even if, they're angry.

Jill K DeWit:

Right.

Jack Thursday - Welcome to Your Comeback (LA 1676)

Transcript:

Steven Jack Butala:

Steve and Jill here.

Jill K DeWit:

Hello.

Steven Jack Butala:

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

Jill K DeWit:

I'm Jill DeWit, broadcasting for the Valley of the Sun.

Steven Jack Butala:

Today's Jack Thursday. And I'm going to talk about, welcome to your comeback.

Jill K DeWit:

I like this. I love that title.

Steven Jack Butala:

This came from two sources. So Jill and I went to a Christmas party recently with some people that we've known for a lot of years. And they're real good personal friends of ours. And the host walked up to me and said, "Amazing comeback." Because when we met, he said that to me personally. He said that to me because we all met each other during the great recession in real estate... The real estate depression in 2010 when Jill and I basically had nothing.

Steven Jack Butala:

We had to sell our house. We had to move into a house that we had bought from a bank that was much smaller. And fortunately, we had a bunch of land that was paid for like we do now, like hopefully many Land Academy members there have accumulated land where we pay cash for it, and sold it. And that's what kept us alive through that period before we could start really doing acquisitions and sales again like we were used to.

Steven Jack Butala:

So that really brought a lot of memories, like we did come back. We didn't-

Jill K DeWit:

Big come back.

Steven Jack Butala:

So I know there's a lot of people out there, things change in their lives. That's what this show's going to about. You can come back.

Jill K DeWit:

Exactly.

Steven Jack Butala:

Before we get into it, let's take a question posted by one of our members on the land-investors.com online community. It's free, and don't forget to subscribe on the Land Academy YouTube channel, and comment on the shows you like.

Jill K DeWit:

Troy wrote, "Anyone here having experience with RS-10 zoning in mixed commercial slash residential growing cities? I'm looking at 18 acres I can buy for $63,000. And the broker says I could sell it for $150,000 on the low end. And even at a real quick sale of $125,000. My experience is in rural areas and would like another set of eyes on it if possible. Has a few cons, but no real deal breakers that I can see. I can PM more details. Thanks. Would consider partnering as well." So how'd that go?

Steven Jack Butala:

Well, it's a smash hit. So my whole point, and it's Jack Thursday so I can do what I want here... My whole point is-

Jill K DeWit:

Every day you can do what you want. Why is today different?

Steven Jack Butala:

My point in putting this in here is that Discord is an amazing tool, and this is how it was intended to be used. I've got this great deal. It's a little bit out of my comfort zone. Hey, other Land Academy members, if you have a bunch of dough... Love to do the deal with you. Our 10 has means residential 10,000 square feet. So if you take 18 acres and divide that by 10,000 square feet minus 10% for roads and stuff, that's an amazing property from a financial standpoint. Put in the right hands of a person who's going to develop it, which is not us. Buy for 60, sell for 150 is for us.

Jill K DeWit:

Yeah.

Steven Jack Butala:

So that's what Discord's for. That's what Land Academy's for.

Steven Jack Butala:

Today is Jack Thursday. Welcome to your comeback. I don't care where you are in your life. I don't care. I don't care if you're in your 50s, and you lost a dream job that you thought you were going to retire with, which happens to way more people than we know about. You can come back. It's not hard.

Steven Jack Butala:

You just have to get your head together and really want it.

Steven Jack Butala:

Jill and I professionally, got put to our knees in 2010. We were happily making tons and tons of money. We had a yacht, buying and selling land and selling it on eBay and on the internet.

Learn More About House Academy Here

Renovation Nightmares (HA 1675)

Transcript:

Steven Jack Butala:Steve and Jill here.

Jill K DeWit:Hi.

Steven Jack Butala:Welcome to the House Academy Show today. Entertaining real estate investment talk. I'm Steven Jack Butala.

Jill K DeWit:And I'm Jill DeWit, broadcasting from the Valley of the Sun.

Steven Jack Butala:Today, Jill and I talk about renovation nightmares.

Jill K DeWit:Is this not a show? This should be a show.

Steven Jack Butala:I think it might be.

Jill K DeWit:If not, it should be.

Steven Jack Butala:You mean just like a title on HGTV?

Jill K DeWit:It should be. That would be cool. Speaking of which, I have one of my notes here is the first thing I was going to share is when we have done renovations, it does give you nightmares. That's a real thing.

Steven Jack Butala:I'm going to really press [crosstalk 00:00:40].

Jill K DeWit:Documented.

Steven Jack Butala:When we get into the topic here, I'm going to give you a mathematical example of all the things you can do with an asset that really make you money, a real estate asset, and all the things that are setting yourself up to fail. It's basically a roulette situation when you renovate a house.

Jill K DeWit:Understood.

Steven Jack Butala:Before we get into it, let's take good question posted by one of our members on the landinvestors.com online community. It's free. Understood. And don't forget to subscribe on the Land Academy YouTube channel and comment on the shows you like. Where does that come from? Do you feel like you're in the military when we do this show?

Jill K DeWit:Sometimes.

Steven Jack Butala:Where do you rank?

Jill K DeWit:Yes, sir.

Steven Jack Butala:Do you rank higher or lower than me?

Jill K DeWit:Oh, I'm way lower. Pretty far down there.

Steven Jack Butala:Oh, that's strangely attractive. I don't know why. Something's wrong with me.

Jill K DeWit:Yes. Yes, sir. All right. Luke wrote, "Responding to tire kickers on Facebook is exhausting. I've developed a system that works well for selling houses with owner financing on Facebook. It could be used for land as well. So it goes like this. Ad goes up on the marketplace. Regardless of who responds via Messenger or what questions they ask, I respond with a couple paragraphs about the price, address and what the house needs, if work is needed, and then instruct them to drive to the house and call the number on the sign in the yard. When they call me at that number, I know they follow the instructions and are sitting in front of the house. Then I get them inside. Most won't even do this step and they aren't serious buyers anyway. So it doesn't matter if I piss them off." That's good.

Steven Jack Butala:This is brilliant.

Jill K DeWit:I saw this.

Steven Jack Butala:Here's why. There's an old rule in sales. Not that I should really be talking about sales at all, because that's just Jill's thing. But if you want to vet people, ask them to do something. It's a legal thing too. It's customer service more than anything.

Jill K DeWit:We do it for hiring. Yeah.

Steven Jack Butala:With customer service, if someone just calls livid about whatever you're selling or why they're your customer and why they're upset, your response can be, "I really understand that you're upset. Please do this, this and this, and we will rectify the problem for you." And virtually nobody does any of that stuff.

Jill K DeWit:I do.

Steven Jack Butala:As a customer?

Jill K DeWit:Yeah. Oh, I'll do both.

Steven Jack Butala:Well, that's because if you get mad, there's a real reason.

Jill K DeWit:That's true.

Steven Jack Butala:So I think this is brilliant. Go to the house, sit in front of there, call me on the number and I'll get you inside, and we'll talk about ... So probably that avoids probably 90% of the garbage. So I think this is brilliant, obviously because I put it on the show.

Jill K DeWit:That's awesome.

Steven Jack Butala:Today's topic, renovation nightmares.

Everyone I know is Killing it in the Land Business (LA 1674)

Transcript:

Steven Jack Butala:

Steve and Jill here.

Jill K DeWit:

Howdy.

Steven Jack Butala:

Welcome to the Land Academy Show, Entertaining Land Investment Talk. I'm Steven Jack Butala.

Jill K DeWit:

I'm Jill DeWit broadcasting from the Valley Of The Sun.

Steven Jack Butala:

Today Jill and I talk about how everyone I know is killing it in the land business. This topic came from-

Jill K DeWit:

A quote.

Steven Jack Butala:

A talk that Jill attended I think-

Jill K DeWit:

I was on.

Steven Jack Butala:

Clubhouse.

Jill K DeWit:

I jumped. I now and then just have some free time and I'm trolling Clubhouse. If I find a real estate-based or women in business community that sounds interesting, I'll just jump in the room. This was a real estate one and they were talking about getting financing, financing for deals. I'm like, "All right, let's hear how you guys go about it," and it was comical. That's a whole other show.

Jill K DeWit:

Anyway, I do not agree with the first hit up all your friends and family. That's not what we do. Anyway, this was a quote. I jumped in and I gave some advice on how we do it. Three people jumped in after me and said, "Hi, Jill. We're so happy to talk to you." They said, "Oh my gosh, everyone that we know that does land is killing it right now." Then, I'm going to go on in the media show here and tell you how the rest of the conversation went.

Steven Jack Butala:

Before we get into it, let's take a question posted by one of our members. I can't wait by the way.

Jill K DeWit:

Thank you.

Steven Jack Butala:

I love this kind of stuff. It's so funny to see people in social media spouting off all this stuff that they know nothing about-

Jill K DeWit:

It was good though.

Steven Jack Butala:

By one of our members on the LandInvestors.com online community, it's free and don't forget to subscribe on the Land Academy YouTube channel and comment on the shows you like.

Jill K DeWit:

Steven wrote, "Thank you at." Do you want me to say that?

Steven Jack Butala:

No, just thank you investor.

Jill K DeWit:

Thank you.

Steven Jack Butala:

Thank you investor.

Jill K DeWit:

"Thank you other investor for working with me on my first funded deal." That's awesome. "You were very cool and collected and helpful. You really did make this happen. This is a great way to start the year. This was a double lot like an infill lot with a double close. I had assigned a property to this buyer in the past and knew what his criteria was."

Jill K DeWit:

"The deal came from my first mailer and I had written off the seller as a tire kicker, but a checked back with them every five weeks to see if they were interested. They wanted a more formal looking purchase agreement. That was all it was. So when you provided me one and told me about the availability on some site," who knows what that is?

Steven Jack Butala:

Jill, you're really interested in the site. Let me start it.

Jill K DeWit:

I'm not sure what I'm supposed to share and not share.

Steven Jack Butala:

Steven says, "Thank you, funder, for working with me on my first funded deal. You were very cool and collected and helpful. You really did make this happen for me. This is a great way to start my year. This was a double lot infill with a double close. I had assigned a property to this buyer in the past and I knew what his criteria was and that he was capable of closing."

Steven Jack Butala:

"The deal came from my first mailer and I had written off the seller as a tire kicker, but checked back with them every five weeks," which is something Joe would do, "To see if they were interested. They wanted a more formal looking purchase agreement. So thank you, funder, again for providing me one and it made them obviously feel comfortable to the point where they closed. I followed up with them."

Steven Jack Butala:

"I had to followup with them repeatedly every step of the way, signing the purchase agreement,

Truth about Taking on New Employees (LA 1673)

Transcript:

Steven Jack Butala:

Steve and Jill here.

Jill K DeWit:

Good day.

Steven Jack Butala:

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

Jill K DeWit:

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

Steven Jack Butala:

Today, Jill and I talk about the truth about taking on new employees.

Jill K DeWit:

I'm excited.

Steven Jack Butala:

This is a requested topic by one of our really active members. And it's very timely because we just took on a new employee and it's actually going really well. That's not always how it goes.

Jill K DeWit:

It's true.

Steven 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. And don't forget to subscribe on the Land Academy YouTube channel and comment on the shows you like.

Jill K DeWit:

Okay. Luke wrote, "Do you pull out any recently bought properties from your list?" So in the mailer I'm about to send, I noticed some I've just sold in the past three years and the buyer paid at least three times what we're offering. And this is good because you have a couple comments that you added in here. So one of them is... Is it just one comment or more than one?

Steven Jack Butala:

Yeah, just one.

Jill K DeWit:

Okay. So another person chimed in and said, "Oh, here's what I think." So Aaron comments, "Results will vary. But a few months ago I bought five acres from a guy who bought only two years ago with his now ex-wife. They just wanted out and to split the proceeds and go separate ways. They got back almost what they paid for it. And that was a buy for 12,000 and sell for $39,000 for me. I wouldn't scrub too hard." I believe that too.

Steven Jack Butala:

Don't scrub too hard. Here's the math on scrubbing too hard. You're going to sit down and do a mailer, or you're going to have Concierge Data do it. You're going to spend the money and the time and the energy, you're going to do the red, green, yellow test and all of that. And then at the very end or very close to the end, right before you price it, are you going to go in and take out 25% of the mailer, which is just a tiny little cost when you look at the actual cost and the time. It's hundreds of dollars on a multi thousand unit mailer. Hundreds of dollars that you're trying to save for what? That could be the diamond in the whole mailer, just like just what happened here. So I've been saying this for years, years and years, don't scrub the data too hard. Just send it.

Jill K DeWit:

I agree. And you never know what happens. Like we talk about this often. It could have been a transfer. Maybe dad just passed on and the attorney put it in the kid's name. And three months later, your kid gets your letter. And you wouldn't have known what the situation when the kid is so ecstatic, that you reached out to buy it, because he was trying to figure out what to do with it. You can't assume.

Steven Jack Butala:

So please... Jill and I have been saying this for years, what you're buying is a situation. In this case, Aaron bought unfortunately a divorce liquidation situation and he bought for 12 and sold for 40. And so you can't tie that, in the data, you can't know what that is. You have to just blanket it out and see.

Jill K DeWit:

And it's so funny. It's like the whole back tax thing. If you're not sure about it, try it and watch. We've been doing this now for, golly, decades combined. You decades, me a decade, in this business and by taking stuff out, you never know what you're missing. That's the main thing. And like you said, just let it rip and see what happens.

Steven Jack Butala:

This whole business of decades thing makes me think.

Jill K DeWit:

Uh oh. Are you feeling old? I'm sorry.

Steven Jack Butala:

No, no, not at all. It's not that. I never feel old. That's not it. It depends on where you are in your life.

Jill Friday - Waking Up Tomorrow a Land Investor (LA 1672)

Transcript:

Steven Jack Butala:

Steve and Jill here.

Jill K DeWit:

Hello.

Steven Jack Butala:

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

Jill K DeWit:

And I'm Jill DeWit, broadcasting from the Valley of the Sun.

Steven Jack Butala:

Today is Jill Friday. And she's going to talk about waking up tomorrow, a land investor.

Jill K DeWit:

So this topic came up, we were talking about how many people... Well, first of all, it's very interesting when you think about all the people that we have in Land Academy and the professions that they come from.

Jill K DeWit:

And some are really established careers; pilots, engineers, finance positions. What were you going to add? But for some reason either they wanted to do this to supplement their income or pay for something else, or they just wanted to do something different.

Steven Jack Butala:

We've been doing this for how many years? People join Land Academy. It's not that hard to figure out. People join Land Academy primarily because they want to make a change.

Jill K DeWit:

True.

Steven Jack Butala:

And maybe they're looking at different types of ways to make money on the side, or different types of ways to make money from your desk, that are pretty low risk. But I'll tell you that we have a really good group of people. If you ask these pilots, corporate politics suck. And so I swear corporate politics is our greatest recruiting tool there ever was.

Jill K DeWit:

That's true.

Steven Jack Butala:

I don't care how smart you are, how great you are or what your job is, ask anyone; the number one thing they hate about it is their boss or the politics in the office, or the craft that they have, the paperwork they have to fill out. So it's really interesting if you have little kids, or even kids that are teenagers, when they're thinking about going to college and doing something as a career.

Steven Jack Butala:

It's just heartbreaking to have to break it to them that it's really probably 30 or 40% of what you're actually going to do. And the other 50% or so is dealing with people's crap at work.

Jill K DeWit:

I understand.

Steven Jack Butala:

On that positive note. All right. This is Jill Friday two, I'm wrecking the show already.

Jill K DeWit:

Talk about motivating. God, wait. Everybody right now is in their car going, "Ah, that just hurts." Just kidding.

Steven Jack Butala:

Before we get into it, let's take a question posted by one of our members on the landinvestors.commonlinecommunity. It's free. And don't forget to subscribe on the Land Academy YouTube channel and comment on the shows you like.

Jill K DeWit:

Johannes wrote, "Hi there, I'm looking for a partner, primarily a Jill, i.e, someone who calls back leads, et cetera, but also someone to strategize with. My philosophy; focusing on raw vacant land, but on the higher end, working together with a deal funding partner and on the sell side with agents.

Jill K DeWit:

I could invest a couple thousand per month in mailing. Looking forward to hearing from people who might be interested. If you're interested, please contact me at [blah 00:02:56], this is my email address. No day was this in Discord or...

Steven Jack Butala:

Yeah.

Jill K DeWit:

Okay, land investors. I wasn't sure where you polled. Sometimes we poll things and there's a lot of communication in landinvestors.com and then there's within, which is the plan A. And then within our Land Academy community, both places, there and Discord. So this is great. I'm sure they got some feedback.

Steven Jack Butala:

Oh, yeah, tons.

Jill K DeWit:

I'm sure they got [inaudible 00:03:19] that said, 'Yeah, I don't really..." Because there's people that come to us saying... scraping together the mailer parts a little bit right now. And they like to do the talking part and they strategize. So I'm sure [inaudible 00:03:30]-

Steven Jack Butala:

It's like,

Jack Thursday - 2022 Land Budgeting and Goals Made Simple (LA 1671)

Transcript:

Steven Jack Butala:

Steve and Jill here.

Jill K DeWit:

Hello.

Steven Jack Butala:

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

Jill K DeWit:

And I'm Jill DeWit, broadcasting from the Valley of the Sun.

Steven Jack Butala:

Today's Jack Thursday. And I'm going to talk about 2022 land budgeting and goals made simple.

Jill K DeWit:

Did you see my nail polish? Because I put it right around here. I figure this is the perfect opportunity to touch up my nails, and I don't know where I left it. Sorry.

Steven Jack Butala:

It really is simple, and it's not as boring as you think.

Jill K DeWit:

Oh, good. Oh, good.

Steven Jack Butala:

But it's necessary.

Jill K DeWit:

Yeah.

Steven Jack Butala:

What were you just saying on... We were recording another show, and you said, "People just do this stuff, they put flooring in the garage."

Jill K DeWit:

Oh, because it's on sale.

Steven Jack Butala:

There's no real plan.

Jill K DeWit:

Oh, yeah. No, I'm like, "This is the paint. We should buy extra of this, or extra of that." Hold on, everyone.

Steven Jack Butala:

Yeah. Just buy what you're going to use.

Jill K DeWit:

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Steven 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. And don't forget to subscribe on the Land Academy YouTube channel, comment on the shows you like.

Jill K DeWit:

Before I forget, I have to say this little... I didn't want to interrupt you, because you launched into that, which is beautiful. But I wanted to say this one little thing, because you'll love this, why don't you let the stores be your storage area? That's it.

Steven Jack Butala:

Well, I think if you do all the math, and I'm sure there's been studies. If you only buy what you're going to use, even if it's more expensive, you end up saving a ton of money.

Jill K DeWit:

Mm-hmm (affirmative). Love it. Okay. So Jessica wrote, "Happy New Year, everyone. I'm currently thinking about my goals for 2022. I would love to hear what kinds of goals you set, like your deal count, profit for deal, et cetera. And then what specific goals you hope to hit?" That's-

Steven Jack Butala:

Excellent.

Jill K DeWit:

... awesome. What did everybody say?

Steven Jack Butala:

Well-

Jill K DeWit:

Was it all over the place?

Steven Jack Butala:

Sure. No, it wasn't all over the place.

Jill K DeWit:

Oh.

Steven Jack Butala:

There was some really good... [inaudible 00:01:55] got involved. There's some really good, really direct answers to this. And I'm going to try to be real direct today too about it.

Jill K DeWit:

That's cool.

Steven Jack Butala:

Because I think people get flustered about this, and I don't think that's necessary at all. It really just takes finding some quiet time, a pad of paper and a pen, and giving yourself about a half hour to an hour, and you're going to find out how your 2022 is going to go. I really believe it's that simple. So I'll tell you how I do it.

Steven Jack Butala:

Today's Jack Thursday, 2022 land budgeting and goals made simple. This is why you're listening. For me, it starts with a plan. So a lot of you have decided to join Land Academy because you want to buy and sell land. That's the beginning of your plan. I don't budget anything unless I have a basic plan first.

Steven Jack Butala:

And for me, and this is like a truth time deal, I'll take a blank spreadsheet, a blank Excel sheet, and I'll start taking notes. "I want to buy and sell land because I know it's profitable. I'm going to find a group, get some education, get a bunch of free education. And then if I think it's a good idea, maybe try to buy and sell some property myself. Realize that it works." So this is my me jotting down my thoughts, kind of stream of consciousness thoughts in a spreadsheet to see if it works or if it's something viabl...