What Name to Use on Your Mailer (LA 1571)

Transcript:

Jack Butala:

Steve and Jill here.

Jill DeWit:

Hello.

Jack Butala:

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

Jill DeWit:

And I am Jill DeWit, broadcasting from cool southern Arizona. Not cool at all, though. It's hot. Sorry.

Jack Butala:

It's been kind of cool the last few days actually.

Jill DeWit:

This is true.

Jack Butala:

Today, Jill and I talk about what name to use on your mailer. This all came about because we had a huge discussion in Career Path, which is kind of our advanced Land Academy group. Should I put my name on there, or should I use a different last name? Should I put my assistant's name on there? Should I create a name? Should I be anonymous?

Jill DeWit:

You know, I have a question. You have a pretty solid name.

Jack Butala:

I think I have a confusing as heck name.

Jill DeWit:

This leads into my question. What name do you wish you had? If you were born with a different name or you could change your name, what ... Have you ever ... This is a girl thing because we think about this stuff.

Jack Butala:

Jill and I have ... Our tip-top holding company is called BuWit, B-U-W-I-T. It's a combination of my last name and Jill's last name, Butala and DeWit, and I think that would be a great name, Buwit, two syllables. Or Dewit's fine, but Butala is all confusing. I have to spell it every time. Everybody spells it wrong. Spellcheck-

Jill DeWit:

I can't say it. I say Butala because it's looks like that.

Jack Butala:

And you know what? You're probably right. Spellcheck thinks it's Brutal every time I type my name in.

Jill DeWit:

That's a cool name, Steven Brutal.

Jack Butala:

I think that's a great name for a 70s punk singer.

Jill DeWit:

Or WWF. Oh, there we go.

Jack Butala:

Jack Brutal.

Jill DeWit:

That's awesome. That's cool. I like that.

Jack Butala:

I don't have any complaints about my name. It's fine. The real positive to my name is that there's only two out there that I know of in the entire country that have the same name, and we know each other. We get each other's stuff. This is a funny anecdote. The Steven Butala that I know has a PhD in chemistry, I think, or maybe physics, and he is a professor. Last I heard was at University of Utah, totally respected in his field, and I'm not respected in my field at all. It's very ... We get each other's stuff, and we laugh about it. I get somebody's dissertation in the email, and I have to send it to him, and we really laugh about it. He gets all kinds of weird stuff that are supposed to go to me.

Jill DeWit:

That's hilarious.

Jack Butala:

Are you happy with your name?

Jill DeWit:

I always wanted to be the name ... It was a Charlie's Angel thing for me. I wanted to be Chris, but fortunately, that's kind of in my middle name, so I would kind of do that for a while. My other thing I used to do ... This is kind of silly, but every babysitter I had, I would adopt their name. I always thought that was a cool name. I don't know why. My mom would come home, and I'd say now my name is this.

Jack Butala:

That makes sense because they're older, right?

Jill DeWit:

Yeah. That's true.

Jack Butala:

Jill, I'll call you anything you want, for the record.

Jill DeWit:

Really? Princess? Is Princess on there?

Jack Butala:

I call you that all the time.

Jill DeWit:

I know. It's usually not out of love. It's like, listen princess. That's not how it should be used in a sentence. Okay.

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. If you're already a Land Academy member, join us on the Discord.

Jill DeWit:

P wrote, I have a signed purchase agreement for a lot, with an interesting situation. The current owner is an attorney who acquired the property via quitclaim deed from a client as payment for certain legal fees. It seems the property was divided in 2015 from a larger ...

On Site Land Improvements Never Pencil (LA 1570)

Transcript:

Jack Butala:

Steve and Jill here.

Jill DeWit:

Hello.

Jack Butala:

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

Jill DeWit:

And I'm Jill Dewitt broadcasting from pretty Phoenix, Arizona.

Jack Butala:

Today, Jill and I talk about how on-site land improvements never pencil.

Jill DeWit:

Okay, explain this again. Please.

Jack Butala:

Land improvements are stuff that you buy a piece of land, and there's always this question, especially with our super new Land Academy members, "Well, I should probably clear it, and make sure you can see it, and then maybe I should put a well in." Yet, there's all kinds of stuff, and we'll talk about all the possible things that you can do. And I'll tell you the vast majority of the time it doesn't pencil. It doesn't make sense financially.

Jill DeWit:

Who came up with that? Who came up with the whole pencil thing?

Jack Butala:

I have an accounting background and I'm from the '80s.

Jill DeWit:

I know, but who came up with it? I was ready to say I have a kind of background from the '80s, and I still don't know who came up with that saying.

Jack Butala:

Well, you're from California too, so that there's a lot probably involved in that too. Penciling is just a way of saying, "Hey, let's make it-"

Jill DeWit:

You heard that.

Jack Butala:

"... Let's pencil this thing out before we actually go do it."

Jill DeWit:

Okay.

Jack Butala:

"Before we spend any money on it."

Jill DeWit:

Thank you, got it. Listen, soup to nuts, I'll give you soup to nuts.

Jack Butala:

Jill's constantly making fun of the sayings that I think are normal and everybody understands.

Jill DeWit:

No one in the planet says soup to nuts, or bajillion.

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 if you're already a Land Academy member, please join us on Discord.

Jill DeWit:

Michael wrote, "Hi, I've a signed purchase agreement from a recent mailer for a 10 acre parcel in Northern Arizona. Initially I felt that I over offered in the price, but then I talked to the seller who stated there's a shared well on the property. I reviewed the docs and feel comfortable with this being a great deal, that was until I visited the property and saw two derelict abandoned trailers with no wheels and a vehicle on the property, as well as two generators, and a heap of put trash and debris. Apparently this belongs to the uncle who willed the property to the current owners before he died. Otherwise this could be a great deal, which I think I could sell for three times our purchase price. Just not sure how to deal with the abandoned trailers and vehicles, any ideas would be greatly appreciated." Ready? Go.

Jack Butala:

If there's stuff on the property already 99% of the time it's better than just having big vacant land, unless, and there's only really one exception that I can think of, where the EPA might have an opinion about it, like an old storage tank, fuel tank, or tanks underground.

Jill DeWit:

Or, Refrigerator.

Jack Butala:

Or, 500 refrigerators leaking Freon. Doesn't sound like that's the case here at all. Sounds like you've got a couple of generators, which might be great. You know, the vast majority of the people that are going to want really rural property are really interested in all the things you described. They don't want... It's not like buying a house where it's you want to walk in and there's music playing and you move your stuff in, and it's beautiful. It's just not, it's a completely different mindset.

Jill DeWit:

This is...

Jack Butala:

People, they want a rural piece of land to get away from everybody and put their own trailer, and fix a trailer up. There's generators out there, I'm telling you, if there's two generators out there...

Jill DeWit:

That's worth something.

Jack Butala:

Bank Financing on Land 101 (LA 1569)

Transcript:

Jack Butala:

Steve and Jill here.

Jill DeWit:

Hello.

Jack Butala:

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

Jill DeWit:

And I'm Jill DeWit, broadcasting from sweet Scottsdale, Arizona.

Jack Butala:

Today, Jill and I talk about bank financing on land 101. You have a great deal, you don't have enough money. Or you already bought a piece of property with your own money or any way else, and you're going to want to sell it to somebody who's going to go to a bank and get financing. We're seeing that a lot now.

Jill DeWit:

I would like to pause for a moment and just talk about, for those of you who are not watching, I just got stopped with the funniest comment which was, Jill, where's the bottom of your blouse? You can't tell, it looks like it goes way down on the screen. It's there, it exists.

Jack Butala:

Then I said, is that okay? And then I corrected myself and said-

Jill DeWit:

Might improve our numbers.

Jack Butala:

Yeah, that's where [inaudible 00:01:01].

Jill DeWit:

Let's see what Jill's wearing today.

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 if you're already a Land Academy member, please join us on Discord.

Jill DeWit:

Vic wrote, "I have a closing next week and there is physical access, but it's via a private road. The title company [inaudible 00:01:27] the following in the exception sections, that would be called schedule B, and I wanted to see if that clause is normal and if it would be a problem for me when I'm selling the property."

Jack Butala:

Like always-

Jill DeWit:

I was looking for the comment.

Jack Butala:

Like I said, there's a lot of comments on this.

Jack Butala:

Here's my take on it. The vast majority of schedule B exceptions on title policies say we don't ensure the fact that this property has access.

Jill DeWit:

Good, bad, or otherwise.

Jack Butala:

Yeah. That's just-

Jill DeWit:

We're not going to promise anything.

Jack Butala:

They don't even check it. It's just a sentence that they include in there among several other things that the title policy doesn't-

Jill DeWit:

Cover.

Jack Butala:

Yeah, it doesn't cover. So, no, I wouldn't. This doesn't concern me at all. I would check out the physical details of the private road. Is there a gate? That might cause some problems. That may change your mind. If the private road is maintained by a neighbor and the access to your property is through that private road, if this is actually the truth and it's not just template language in the schedule B title exception for the title policy, that could pretty dramatically affect how people get there to see the property to see if they want to buy it. And/or if they do buy it and somebody puts up a gate because it is their private road, that's a problem.

Jill DeWit:

I think there's two kinds of private. There's your neighbor's private road, and then there's the public utility. There's APS, the power service private road. So you have to do some digging.

Jill DeWit:

I was going to add, I had this come up yesterday, and people say things, too. You have to really do your own homework. Don't believe everything that one person says. Someone said, "Oh, that's a private road," and now you're believing it. It might not be true.

Jill DeWit:

An agent came up, we have a property that we're selling ourselves, and we got a phone call from an agent in the area who said, "I'd love to help you guys sell this property." We put a sign in the ground and she obviously saw it and called the sign. She told my transaction coordinator, "By the way, because it's only a half acre, you need an acre to build in this area." But she's all excited to list and sell the property. I'm like, I'm not sure I believe her. And so my transaction coordinator passed that on and I said, that's nice.

Jill DeWit:

How to Choose a Market to Send Blind Offers (LA 1568)

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 market to send blind offers. Oh my God. Both of you.

Jill DeWit:

Haven't we talked about this before?

Steven Butala:

How many times can you talk about the same topic in five years of a daily show? Well it turns out, I agree with you,

Jill DeWit:

But it comes up.

Steven Butala:

That's why we're responding to demand.

Jill DeWit:

It still comes up, people are like wait, can we run through that again?

Steven Butala:

Yeah.

Jill DeWit:

Has anything changed? What am I missing?

Steven Butala:

And you know what? It turns out some stuff has changed.

Jill DeWit:

How do I do this? I got a good one. We can help.

Steven Butala:

Technology has changed. There's a lot of new available tools out there and we'll talk all about it. What hasn't changed is there's no easy button, which is why there's a few of us getting crazy wealthy at this, and then the rest of the people don't even know about Land Academy in the world. That's why you're listening. 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:

Charlie asked, so I had a buyer pay the down payment on our website, fill out a form for the deed info, and then they disappeared. We talked through texts one time and I sent the contract and the deed because it was sold over [inaudible 00:01:26] with contract for deed, excuse me, it was sold on terms. And now I can't get ahold of them. She never signed, never returned the contract back to me. What do I do now? The contract lays out default clearly, but technically she never signed it. I think I'm going to keep trying until Friday to reach them and make sure I have everything documented and then re-list the property with the expectation that I'll just refund them if they ever return my calls. Any thoughts? That's kind of what I would do.

Steven Butala:

Well, I'll tell you, you're kind of stumping me here because this has never happened to us, not. This happens all the time. Jill and I over the last year, maybe two years actually now, maybe two and a half or three, have gone a hundred percent to cash sales. So, selling property on terms, we buy a piece of property for cash and you sell it on terms, $500 sound, $200 a month for five years and then you own it. Like a car. It's very popular among other groups in the land education environment out there. Or maybe it's not, I don't know. I don't keep up with them.

Steven Butala:

But it takes a whole different skillset than what I believe, Jill and I are really good at. We're good at data. We're good at sending out blind offers, buying property real cheap and reselling it very quickly for cash for more. This business of the customer service and the maintenance of servicing alone and the stuff that goes on with it, we learned pretty early in our operation together that we don't want to do that.

Jill DeWit:

It's a lot of work. Lot of people package this up like, oh, it's passive income, is what they. Because you set it up once-

Steven Butala:

There's nothing passive about it.

Jill DeWit:

You get them on auto pay, and it's all beautiful and sunny and everybody pays and they don't have to do anything. And that's the whole point. It's not passive. It's just like the situation, there's a little bit of work sometimes. And this person managing, this situation is actually easy. So let me cover real quick. What you're doing Charlie's exactly what I would do. They went dark. I leave them voicemails. I text mail. I email. I cover all the bases. I tried. And then I put the money aside knowing if they come back, I'm going to say you went dark,

How to use Free Data to Price Your Mailer (LA 1567)

Transcript:

Jack Butala:

Steve and Jill here.

Jill DeWit:

Cheers.

Jack Butala:

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

Jill DeWit:

And I'm Jill DeWitt. No, I'm not drinking. And we are broadcasting from sunny, Southern California.

Jack Butala:

Today Jill and I talk about how to use free data to price your mailer.

Jill DeWit:

Can't get you to laugh.

Jack Butala:

I can try.

Jill DeWit:

Oh, none of this makes you happy?

Jack Butala:

I love free data.

Jill DeWit:

Okay. Thank you. There we go.

Jack Butala:

Yeah, I love free data.

Jill DeWit:

I'm trying to get some good response or just happy fun.

Jack Butala:

Here it is.

Jill DeWit:

What?

Jack Butala:

This is a serious time.

Jill DeWit:

Okay.

Jack Butala:

I mean, this is like, there are people that are out of work and I think that they need some help.

Jill DeWit:

Okay. Let me back up. Let me just say one thing, for everyone here. People grieve in different ways. Some people are serious. Some people cry. Some people tell funny stories. Some people go silent. Maybe we're grieving in different ways. No way is right or wrong.

Jack Butala:

Yeah. I couldn't agree more.

Jill DeWit:

Okay.

Jack Butala:

Jill, I'm not criticizing you at all. I'm just saying, "Yeah, can I laugh yet?" I can laugh, not right now.

Jill DeWit:

You don't have to. Okay, then you are allowed ... Well, obviously, you want to be very serious, I still choose not to be serious. That's how I prefer things.

Jack Butala:

There's a great way to price mailers. I'm digging deeply, deeply digging into how to more accurately price mailers faster.

Jill DeWit:

Yah.

Jack Butala:

And we're going to share it, and probably have a couple of laughs at the same time. But this is not ... I don't think that the vast majority, maybe few months ago, I think everybody was laughing and saying, "Yeah, this is a great. Those guys are entertaining." And I would love someone to email me and say, "Oh no, you're, you're totally wronged, Jack, we just want to laugh. That's why we listen to your show."

Jill DeWit:

Okay.

Jack Butala:

We can do two shows.

Jill DeWit:

Would you call it entertaining real estate investment talk?

Jack Butala:

Right. I actually think this is entertaining, watching us bicker. For some people.

Jill DeWit:

That's hilarious.

Jack Butala:

When I've watch other couples bicker, I'm like, "Wow, finally, somebody else too."

Jill DeWit:

Okay.

Jack Butala:

I'm want to tell you my Vince Vaughn story along those lines. Joe and I are sitting in Manhattan Beach, right outside of Los Angeles, a couple of years ago at this Mexican place, having the greatest street Mexican food there ever was. And Vince Vaughn's three tables down and his kids are crawling on his head, and it's just ... And so he and I make contact, eye contact, and he's, he just looks at me dad to dad, not ... And I'm like, "Yeah, I got it." And his wife's yelling in his ear about something and, you know.

Jill DeWit:

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Jack Butala:

And I felt great about myself.

Jill DeWit:

It's your turn.

Jack Butala:

I felt completely entertained.

Jill DeWit:

Exactly.

Jack Butala:

If a guy like Vince Vaughn could have the same family stuff that goes on, I might be okay.

Jill DeWit:

Okay.

Jack Butala:

So there's a lot of guys listening to this going, "You know what? Those guys are talking to each other like I talk to my wife sometimes." I might be okay.

Jill DeWit:

Okay.

Jack Butala:

How's that for entertainment? It's not that funny, is it?

Jill DeWit:

No, it's not that funny.

Jack Butala:

You want ha-ha slapstick, silly.

Jill DeWit:

It's okay. It's okay. It's all right. Thank you.

Jack Butala:

Before we get into it, of course, Jill and I already have, let's take a question posted by one of our members on the landacademy.com online community. It's free.

Jill DeWit:

Blake wrote, "Hi, this is an Excel question.

Member Andy Barnhart Shares Land Academy Success Stories (LA 1566)

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 with member Andy Barnhart, who shares his Land Academy success stories. But, before we get into it I have a simple question. Andy, you're sitting right there in that seat. How did you get there? Tell us your story and tell us how you chose Land Academy, and if it's working for you.

Andy Barnhart:

Yeah, hello. I'll go way back to when I was a child and my dad was a farmer, a dairy farmer. He would try to grow his operation and buy more land, so he would show me plat maps when I was... So, I was looking at plat maps when I was eight years old. He's like, "Oh, we own this 80 acres, and I'm going to buy this 80, and I'd love to have-" he always wanted a section of land. That was his goal. I knew what a section was, and a quarter and a half section at a young age. After college, I got a job-

Steven Butala:

I have to explain to everybody what a section is. A section is a square mile, and it's 640 acres. A half section is 320, and a quarter section is half of that.

Jill DeWit:

160.

Steven Butala:

160, and on, and on, and on.

Andy Barnhart:

Yep.

Steven Butala:

Anyway, go ahead. So, you're in college.

Andy Barnhart:

So yeah, I got through college and I got my first job as an Auditor with the US Department of Agriculture with the Dairy Division. I went right in on my first day, and I had learned Excel and everything in college, and thought I was a whiz kid. Then I get into the government organization that I was hired with, and literally some older guys didn't even have a computer on their desk. They refused to work with a computer. All the programs were written in Lotus 123. So, it was like stepping back in time 30 years.

Andy Barnhart:

I was there 10 years, and we converted everything to Excel and all the reports and everything. So, I was very comfortable with... I had the agriculture background, I have Excel background, I have an auditing background. Then yeah, I bought the realtor courses and took all of the courses to become a realtor. I thought that's something I'm interested in, and then got to the end. I did all of the education and got to the end, and I think at that time is when I found your podcast. You guys were, as you are today, dealing with realtors and [inaudible 00:03:22].

Andy Barnhart:

You guys have never shied away from talking trash on realtors, so it made me think, "Well, do I really want to be a realtor?" So, I never went to take the test, and then that's when I bought the programs in 2016. Yeah, that's how I got here. I'm in my third year, and yeah still-

Steven Butala:

Is it working? Have you done a bunch of deals? I guess, you're on the show so hopefully some of it's working.

Andy Barnhart:

Yeah, yeah I didn't start out of the gate with a bang. I was skeptical, and I took it really slow. I wrote down my numbers. The first year, 2017, I did 19 deals, and I still had some other jobs going on, some part-time things. The revenue that year was $62,000.00-

Steven Butala:

Awesome.

Andy Barnhart:

And then so last year- and I was still doing this all on my own. I did last year 184 deals completed, and then the revenue was $343,000.00. Yeah, I was like, "Yeah, this is-"

Jill DeWit:

I'm in.

Andy Barnhart:

I'm in. I'm not a skeptic anymore.

Jill DeWit:

Yeah, I think that was your testing it.

Andy Barnhart:

Yeah.

Jill DeWit:

After $400,000.00, I said, all right. I guess this works.

Steven Butala:

He's an auditor. You know, I have an auditing background too and I just [crosstalk 00:04:59] naturally un-trusting of everything. Unless you're an auditor, you can't explain that. People don't understand that.

Andy Barnhart:

Right.

Steven Butala:

Why a Small Percentage of People Accomplish Their Goals (LA 1565)

Transcript:

Steven Butala:

Steve and Jill here.

Jill DeWit:

Happy new year.

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 why a small percentage of people accomplish their goals. And I thought this was appropriate because it's January, well, it's the first real show in January.

Jill DeWit:

Well, it's the fourth. This is one of those rare occasions where we're recording on the actual day.

Steven Butala:

The same day. Why? Because we just got off of, like everybody, having some fun during the holiday season.

Jill DeWit:

Well, here's what's funny too. Last week was supposed to be with my ladies, Land Academy ladies group on Tuesday, which is the 29th or something. We were going to talk about work-life balance. And because I respect work-life balance, I needed some more life balance and not work balance. So I canceled our thing. So tomorrow we're going to pick up where we left on work-life balance. So this is partially why we're recording today too. We needed that work-life balance.

Steven Butala:

Awesome. Today's topic. Oh no... 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:

You're out of your mojo, out of your groove. Aren't you?

Steven Butala:

We haven't recorded in quite some time.

Jill DeWit:

Yeah. It's a week and a half. It's nice. James wrote, "Hello and happy new year. Transitioning military member signing up and excited to get started. The member guide appears to focus on the tools first, but I assume we should review the videos, which are the same thing as reference, the YouTube courses also references DVDs."

Steven Butala:

Yes. That's how long we've been doing this.

Jill DeWit:

Yes. You're right.

Steven Butala:

Used to be in DVD form.

Jill DeWit:

We did. And they provide the basics. "I have some of my family working with me and my initial thoughts about how to organize to take care of the most important responsibilities would be useful. Like step one, build a list, tutorial, step two, sort the list, et cetera. Noted we need a name and a website but we didn't understand the purpose of the website upfront. Is the purpose of the website to list on the mailer so sellers have a website with all your information and documents? Question. Thank you."

Steven Butala:

So this is a very, very popular question that usually Jill and I don't answer it, but I think everybody can benefit from it. We have a pretty substantial number of new members that signed up over the last 90 days. So it's really important to watch the programs, Land Academy One and Land Academy Two. And the Cash Flow From Land, the original program from 2015. And if you follow it step by step, all this stuff will get answered. And you will, at the end of it, have a comprehensive plan and a calendar, or you should anyway, from which to start at that point. So you don't want to build lists or whatever you mentioned in this, I'm not even sure what that means. Because we use database driven data, not lists. So the best thing you can absolutely do is follow the programming in order.

Jill DeWit:

Well, that's great. That's great, Jack. Let me answer your question, James.

Steven Butala:

Really?

Jill DeWit:

Yes. What's the fucking point to the website? Yes. I do want you to go out and spend a couple hundred bucks. Even if you need to do it on... Pay $200 and get something on Fiverr to get your website, pick a name. And you could spend, don't spend a week on this, but spend a day on it and make sure you find a name you like.

Steven Butala:

Yeah, but it's [crosstalk 00:03:32]

Jill DeWit:

Short as possible-

Steven Butala:

It's addressed in the program.

Jill DeWit:

I know, but I'm helping the planet right now.

Filling in the Land Acquisition Education Gaps with Land Academy (LA 1564)

Transcript:

Steven Butala:

Steve and Jill here.

Jill DeWit:

Good day.

Steven Butala:

Welcome to the LandAcademy 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 filling in the land acquisition education gaps with LandAcademy. This is all about understanding that you can buy and sell land. A lot of it's unwanted land for a pretty substantial profit with not a tremendous of cash outlay.

Steven Butala:

But what are the tiny little nuances, or the things that tell us exactly how to do it? What's the trick? What are the key things that I missed in all this other education that I see out there? Great. I know you can make money. What's the real deal?

Jill DeWit:

You know what's funny? I didn't know this until it happened that so many people over the years, since LandAcademy, have said, "Oh, my gosh, you guys. I didn't know this. You filled in this piece. This was all of the questions that I had, that the little things, you covered them all." I think a lot of them... What's interesting, too? A lot of those people have said, "I did it with the podcast." They have said that they've learned a lot and filled in a lot of missing information free right here on the podcast.

Steven Butala:

And here's a great real-world example. There are other people that are pretty loud out on the internet about... First of all, all the people that are in this teaching land space, every single one, without exception, except Jack Bosch, were LandAcademy members at one point. So, they've taken our concept and made it into some funky little niche. In a lot of cases, they copied exactly what we're doing and put their own face on it.

Steven Butala:

But there's several things that I think everybody's missing, and they are tiny little nuances. For example, the vast majority of people still don't send out offers. They send out letters of interest.

Jill DeWit:

Right.

Steven Butala:

Or they just send letters to people who are in a back tech situation.

Jill DeWit:

Mm-hmm (affirmative). Or I think they're not effectively pricing as well as they could.

Steven Butala:

Or they don't have the integrity that you should have as a acquisition or an investor and the compassion when you're talking to a seller and finding out why they're doing this, and what's going on.

Jill DeWit:

This is good stuff to talk about.

Steven Butala:

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

Jill DeWit:

Chris wrote, "I'm new to the land business and looking for others to join an accountability group. Whether you just joined LandAcademy as I did a few days ago, or are otherwise somewhat new to the business, it's all good. I anticipate we'll be running into a lot of the same questions and hurdles around the same time as we do our research, get out our first mailers. Mine will go out next week, field our first phone calls, et cetera. More answers and knowledge than we could ever ask for are here in the forums, education, podcasts, weekly calls, et cetera." Right, it's a lot.

Jill DeWit:

"So, we are covered there, but what we can provide each other some accountability and encouragement as we rack up our first success stories. Not to mention learning from whatever unique talents/experience we each bring to the table, and that landed us in this business. I, myself," it says, "experienced software developer/business owner. Perhaps a biweekly networking call over Zoom, and a free Slack channel to stay in touch in the meantime? Anyone interested, please reply to this thread or send me a private message. Thanks."

Steven Butala:

This is all you.

Jill DeWit:

This is something that we are actually working on. I'm so happy.

Steven Butala:

Me, too.

Jill DeWit:

Jill Friday - How to Turn a Dead Deal into a Successfully Completed One (LA 1563)

Transcript:

Steven J Butala:

Steve and Jill here.

Jill DeWit:

Howdy.

Steven J Butala:

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

Jill DeWit:

I'm Jill DeWit, broadcasting from amazing Phoenix, Arizona.

Steven J Butala:

Today, Jill and I talk about how it's Jill Friday. Well, she's going to talk and she's going to let us know how to turn a deal, a dead deal, into a successfully completed one.

Jill DeWit:

That'd be funny. We should each ... Share how you would do it and how I would do it.

Steven J Butala:

Perfect. 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 join us on Discord if you're already a Land Academy member,

Jill DeWit:

Sandy wrote, "I've listened to the podcast this morning about how Jill talks to sellers in order to find common ground. I loved her examples. Does anyone know where I can get more info like this? I would love to have a number of things to practice that would help me connect with the seller." Oh. I have a few things right now. Number one, out of the gate ask how they are? People don't do that. How are you today? Every time I'm calling somewhere whether it's a title company, a bank, internet provider, I'm totally serious on this, I try to get them right on my team by being nice to them, by offering up a little something like, "How are you? How's your day going? Wow, that was a long hold time." And I'm not being sarcastic.

Jill DeWit:

I'm saying, "You guys are slammed, how are you hanging in there?" And I'll even say, "Take a second, catch a breath. Do you have coffee there? Take a drink." They'll be like, "Thank you." No one cares enough to even say that. So automatically I'm being nice and helpful, and I have them on my team, and now we can ... And then they're ready to go, "Well, how can I help you?" And then I say, "My cable doesn't work," or whatever it is. There you go.

Steven J Butala:

Some of the best advice I've ever gotten ever was from a bartender many years ago, 20 plus years ago. And he said, "Meet people from where they're coming." That's it. And he said, "Specifically, children. You're not going to meet a two-year-old ... You're not going to treat a two-year-old the way that you're going to treat a six-year-old or a 16-year-old. They're completely different people. And you need to meet everybody from where they're coming and it's going to go a lot better."

Jill DeWit:

You have to take a step back and think about where they ... Exactly where they're coming from. People in New York just live differently, talk differently, communicate differently, different speeds, different volumes than somebody from the Deep South. And you have to do your best to mirror them without not belittling and not condescending. But if you're talking to a sweet little lady from somewhere in a dreamy part of Georgia, I don't know. You need to ... You're going to take a step back, and calm down, and think she's sitting right now drinking her tea, opening her mail, and calling me. I need to be that person she wants to talk to, and answer all her questions, and get this deal done, and make it easy and understandable for her.

Steven J Butala:

You're trying to get a deal done here. This is the topic. Let's get into the topic.

Jill DeWit:

Okay.

Steven J Butala:

Today is Jill Friday. How to turn a deal, a dead deal, into a successfully completed one. This is the meat of the show.

Jill DeWit:

So by dead deal, we don't necessarily mean that you kicked it to the curb or they told you whatever and you're calling them back talking them into anything, which you could do some ... I mean, it does happens but-

Steven J Butala:

A lot of scenarios here.

Jill DeWit:

You're not talking anybody into anything.

Steven J Butala:

Back to what the question was today. People ...

Jack Thursday - Life Math (LA 1562)

Transcript:

Steven J Butala:

Steve and Jill here.

Jill DeWit:

Hi.

Steven J Butala:

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

Jill DeWit:

And I am Jill DeWit, broadcasting from amazing Phoenix Arizona.

Steven J Butala:

Today is Jack Thursday. And I'm going to talk about life math, which completely confuses Jill.

Jill DeWit:

Yes. Hold on a moment.

Steven J Butala:

Not life math the topic, just what the hell is he going to talk about now?

Jill DeWit:

Oh, that does. Yeah. I don't know where you're going with that, but I was going to pause and say, I'm actually good at math.

Steven J Butala:

Oh, I know.

Jill DeWit:

I did really well in school at math.

Steven J Butala:

And physics.

Jill DeWit:

And physics, that was one of my favorite subjects. I liked physics. That was really fun for me. So flying and old school when you're learning to fly and you have to map out where you're going and how many minutes to get somewhere and degrees and that kind of thing, oh, I love that stuff. I kill it on all that. So don't think I can't do math. But that's not what this is about today.

Steven J Butala:

Right. Before we get into it though, let's take a question posted by one of our members on the landinvestors.com online community. It's free. If you're already a member of Land Academy.

Jill DeWit:

Of Land Academy.

Steven J Butala:

Join us on Discord.

Jill DeWit:

Thanks. Leah wrote, "Hello. I have a property under contract and the owner's relative has a neighboring parcel. The relative has agreed to give the owner an easement so her property can be accessed by the road. This is in" should I say the state or no?

Steven J Butala:

Sure.

Jill DeWit:

Okay, "This is in California. Where do I find the paperwork to get this done? What is the process?"

Steven J Butala:

This is not something you can do yourself. It's not something I could do myself after how many years of doing this. You need to call a lawyer, preferably a real estate lawyer that understands easements and preferably in that county, potentially even in that city. And that's really the only way that it's going to get done. Here's the great news, this almost never happens. The fact that these people are related and that they're cooperating and that-.

Jill DeWit:

That's true.

Steven J Butala:

What's you're now doing is every land person's dream. You're taking a property that until you do this, its use is very limited. If anything, it's only limited to the people that actually have access around it.

Jill DeWit:

Right.

Steven J Butala:

And fortunately, one of this is a relative. And you're creating equity. And that's what this is all about. We create equity here. We buy property cheap and we sell it for more, and create some equity for ourselves and the persons we sell it to. And so this is good. I put this in here for a reason. This is a dream situation. So anybody who's looking at property that doesn't have physical or legal access, and that's a lot of us all the time. The remedy is to talk to the neighbors and see, "Hey, can I get some access to this property over here? It's on the edge of your property. It doesn't look like you live there anyway. It looks like you live in Nevada, the properties in Texas. What do you say, I blade a road in, get some physical and legal access. I'll pay for it all, I just need you to sign some stuff." It doesn't happen enough.

Jill DeWit:

Beautiful. Thank you.

Steven J Butala:

Today's topic, its Jack Thursday. This is why you're listening.

Jill DeWit:

Life math.

Steven J Butala:

It's Jack Thursday about life math.

Jill DeWit:

What is life math?

Steven J Butala:

When I was a kid, I was confused like every kid.

Jill DeWit:

And now you've got it all down. Especially, understanding women.

Steven J Butala:

Like everything, not only was I confused, I wanted to grow up really fast. I was tired of being a kid. I was tired of being a kid.