Jack Thursday - The Drama of Scrapping the Internet for Accurate Pricing (LA 1552)

Transcript:

Steven J Butala:

Steve and Jill here.

Jill DeWit:

Hello.

Steven J Butala:

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

Jill DeWit:

Is it entertaining?

Steven J Butala:

Maybe.

Jill DeWit:

Okay.

Steven J Butala:

For certain people it might be.

Jill DeWit:

Okay.

Steven J Butala:

I'm entertained.

Jill DeWit:

Oh good. I'm glad. That's what matters. And I'm Jill DeWit. We are broadcasting from awesome Phoenix, Arizona. I'll come up with a good name.

Steven J Butala:

Today is Jack Thursday and the topic is the drama of scraping the internet for accurate pricing.

Jill DeWit:

There's so much drama. Why is there so much drama?

Steven J Butala:

I'll explain it all. Because you know why? Because it's probably not ethical. In some cases, it might not be legal. Now, there's all kinds of potential lawsuits. There's a huge multi-billion dollar, not just a lawsuit, but it's almost now a criminal thing. So I'm not sure if it's a civil lawsuit or a criminal. Nobody knows the rules. That's why. It's brand new.

Jill DeWit:

It's not real clear.

Steven J Butala:

Nobody knows who exactly owns what data. So we'll talk all about that.

Jill DeWit:

Yeah, because it's MLS data. I can look at it freely on Zillow. Why can't I look at it this way and not that way?

Steven J Butala:

That's one of the seriously compelling arguments, in my opinion. I have access to all the data anyway.

Jill DeWit:

I could be writing it all down.

Steven J Butala:

Right. That's right. I could be screenshotting it. Is that okay? There's a lot of questions and not a lot of answers 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. And if you're a Land Academy member, please join us on the discord.

Jill DeWit:

Kyler wrote, "Data tree question. I just pulled some data and set my parameters on all the improvement fields to zero and zero, to weed out the properties with structures. I even tried setting the living area and other fields to zero and zero, but those took my search results down to zero. Once I'd pull the data, I had almost 900 lines with some type of Homer structure on them. Is there something I'm missing to weed out the properties with structures? I tried everything I thought would work, but either they don't weed them out or it takes my search results down to zero. Or do you think it varies by county? Thanks for any help."

Steven J Butala:

This is a very common question. And it's a very good question. And I have trouble with this. Everyone does. The fact is this will never go away. And here's why, here's a short answer. And then I'll give a longer one. The fields that matter to you in DataTree, don't matter to that assessor.

Jill DeWit:

Good point.

Steven J Butala:

But some fields do matter to that assessor. So, here's the long answer and it's very workable. I'll get you there. DataTree is a data aggregator. They have an agreement with 3,144 counties to access their assessor data. And as you can imagine, some are very urban counties. Let's use San Francisco as an example, because that's where Silicon Valley is, extremely sophisticated computerized assessor in tax role. What your accessing is this tax roll. So if you did this in San Francisco, it would probably be a breeze, but we don't buy property in San Francisco. And probably nobody in our group does because we're rural vacant land people.

Steven J Butala:

So let's just pick an Arkansas. Arkansas probably doesn't use half the fields that are in DataTree. They just don't care. They might check a box. Does it have a house on it? Check. They don't care about how many bedrooms it is or whatever their methodology is. And I'm not judging anybody, whatever makes sense to them, it's their county. And so you have to manipulate the heck out of getting those structures off out of you...

Career Path Mindset and How Different This Group is After Three Weeks (LA 1551)

Transcript:

Steven J Butala:

Steve and Jill here.

Jill DeWit:

Hello.

Steven J 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 Phoenix area, Arizona. I don't know what to call it anymore.

Steven J Butala:

Paradise Valley.

Jill DeWit:

I know. I don't like that.

Steven J Butala:

Why?

Jill DeWit:

Because it's just, you know. It's a little personal.

Steven J Butala:

Oh, I see.

Jill DeWit:

If you really want to know. Thanks.

Steven J Butala:

Well, I guess the cat's out.

Jill DeWit:

Yeah, I don't think that's cool. I'm like, just say it like we'd say southern California.

Steven J Butala:

Oh, I see.

Jill DeWit:

See, I don't have a southern Arizona. I don't know what to call it.

Steven J Butala:

Central Arizona.

Jill DeWit:

Oh, okay. See, then that sounds kind of weird too. We'll get there. Okay.

Steven J Butala:

Today, Jill and I talk about the Land Academy Career Path mindset and how different the entire group is after the three weeks we've been through together. It's kind of a continuation of yesterday.

Jill DeWit:

Yeah. And good, because I have some notes of things that I forgot to say yesterday.

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

Jill DeWit:

If I didn't know us any better, I would say we're hungover or something really bad, and we're not.

Steven J Butala:

No.

Jill DeWit:

We're kind of just out of sorts. So I apologize.

Steven J Butala:

Overworked is what we are.

Jill DeWit:

Thank you for your patience. I really appreciate that. Chuck wrote, "Good evening. Day one as a Land Academy member, many days as a lurker. Going through my video chapters. Question came to mind. I was listening to the website chapter. Seems to me that building a website targeted to sellers is very different objective than a website targeted to buyers, psychology and such. Would it make sense, given that the digital side of things is so cheap, just to create one presence for buyers and one for sellers? Anybody think this makes sense?" I like this question. I know this comes up often when people join in, and I have an answer if you want me to go first or you want to go first.

Steven J Butala:

You can solo answer this question.

Jill DeWit:

I can. We did that in the past. Totally thought that made sense. We no longer feel that way because the purpose of the website is A, sell property, and B, just show you're a real person and who you are and you are selling land. So if you go out right now and make a brand new landing page, just a here I am, I'm just a buyer kind of thing, that's great. And then have the second, I don't know. I think it just leads more credibility showing your full business. And we only have one website. Go ahead.

Steven J Butala:

Yeah. It's more of a landing page. All it is, is this, and this question comes up so often that I don't address it clearly or it's not-

Jill DeWit:

We're not doing anything clearly this week.

Steven J Butala:

How we are addressing this in the formal education has changed. Here's what I think. You need a landing page that shows just some basic information because when the property owners get your letters, they need to look you up.

Jill DeWit:

And one website will do it.

Steven J Butala:

Yeah, one landing page with maybe a contact us.

Jill DeWit:

Okay. You're saying the opposite.

Steven J Butala:

But that's it. No, one landing page with maybe a contact us, and that's it. You do not need two websites, I don't think.

Jill DeWit:

So the landing page is going to be like land.com/content. Where would you direct them? Because if they're going to go to your website, they're going to the website.

Steven J Butala:

Yeah.

Getting Ahead of Yourself in the Land Academy Education Process (LA 1550)

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:

Are you sure?

Steven J Butala:

Yeah.

Jill DeWit:

Okay, and I'm Jill Dewitt, broadcasting from awesome Phoenix, Arizona.

Steven J Butala:

I'm hot.

Jill DeWit:

How you doing there? What's going on, babe?

Steven J Butala:

Well, I'm hot. I'm distracted.

Jill DeWit:

Yeah.

Steven J Butala:

We are recording [crosstalk 00:00:24] right now, this moment, in the middle of a construction site [crosstalk 00:00:28] we call our house.

Jill DeWit:

Yes. Our house is literally at a job site.

Steven J Butala:

Our sort of house. We live in the living room.

Jill DeWit:

Yeah, there is that, too. All true. We're running around helping landscapers and pool people and flooring people and all that stuff, but ...

Steven J Butala:

And we're still here to do the show.

Jill DeWit:

I know.

Steven J Butala:

The show must go on.

Jill DeWit:

I'm happy to be the general contractor of our own project.

Steven J Butala:

Today, Jill and I ... Wow. And I can't talk. Today, Jill and I are talking about getting ahead of yourself in the land academy education process.

Jill DeWit:

One thing, I'm not getting ahead of myself with this project. You know what? This is a good example. I could be running around asking for things [inaudible 00:01:08] alone. No, I ask people, what's the process? For example, our wood flooring. How's this going to go? How long does that take? What's the next step? And then I wait. I put it on the calendar and I wait. So this ties into our topic.

Steven J Butala:

When I was a kid, I took a boating class. I had to take a class from coast guard to get my boating license, and I was a little. It's like with airplanes. It's not like you have to turn 16 to get your license. You can get a boating license really early on, and I think you can get certified as a pilot early on, too.

Jill DeWit:

You have to be 16 to solo.

Steven J Butala:

Okay, but I don't think that was the case a while ago, and I know it's not the case for boats. Maybe it's all changed recently. And the second I got into that class, boy, did I have a lot of questions. And I was really interested in getting out on the water that day. It was two weeks before we ever got on the water, and it was books and exams and all kinds of stuff. And I got so frustrated and ahead of myself and, by golly, that's what happens at Land Academy.

Jill DeWit:

By Golly. What am I going to do with you? Lickety split, by golly and bajillion.

Steven J 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:

All right. So Erin wrote, Hello, I'm preparing my second first mailer. Oh, that's hilarious. I like that with a happy face. It took me second. Should I scrub out properties that are labeled low income in the opportunity zone column? That's hilarious. I'm concerned that there'll be a price cap on how much I could sell it. Is that accurate?

Steven J Butala:

This is a very, very hidden PhD level question.

Jill DeWit:

That's funny.

Steven J Butala:

What he or she is asking is what do I scrub out of my mailer when it comes to use? Property types, commercial use, industrial use, residential, NEC, which is non-classified property and on and on. What do I exclude? And the answer is nothing. In the very early parts of Land Academy, I made a big deal about use and how you should check out all kinds of stuff, specifically industrial property because you don't want to deal with any type of [crosstalk 00:03:35] EPA cleanup. Yeah, exactly. Well, times have changed. And the more letters that you get out now ... and we've grown as a land investor,

Internet Trolling has Become Acceptable Here is What We Do (LA 1549)

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'm Jill DeWit, broadcasting from pretty Phoenix, Arizona.

Steven J Butala:

Today Jill and I talk about how internet trolling has become acceptable and this is what we do about it. Before we get into it, though, let's take a question.

Jill DeWit:

I was thinking [crosstalk 00:00:28].

Steven J Butala:

Oh sorry.

Jill DeWit:

It's okay.

Steven J Butala:

Go ahead.

Jill DeWit:

No, it's just it makes me a little bit mad and it's very interesting. And what does this have to do with us? We'll tell you in a minute. It does.

Steven J Butala:

We created Land Academy.

Jill DeWit:

Yeah.

Steven J Butala:

To really improve people's lives and to create business partners for ourselves. And things like ... you can't ever anticipate something like this, but-

Jill DeWit:

It still happens.

Steven J Butala:

Ut won't be prevalent in our group, let's put it that way.

Jill DeWit:

[crosstalk 00:00:54] funny.

Steven J 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 with us and you're not a troll, join us on Discord.

Jill DeWit:

Okay. So Vic wrote ... this is long. So I'm going to do first part, you do the second part [crosstalk 00:01:12]-

Steven J Butala:

Long but incredibly important. This is a great question, a great series of questions and comments about access.

Jill DeWit:

Okay. So Vic wrote this initial question. I am in escrow on a property in Florida. And I'm running into a bit of a confusing situation for me as far as the access goes. I can clearly see a road running through the property and it has a street name as well. However, the township said they do not maintain it and is likely a private road or easement. When I look at the vesting deed, I see nothing in there about an easement. But what I do see on the deed after legal description is something that says less road right of way. So what does that mean? And what does this mean about the access?

Steven J Butala:

Excellent question. Access, access, access is one of our [crosstalk 00:02:03]-

Jill DeWit:

One of our five As.

Steven J Butala:

One of the five As and it's incredibly important.

Jill DeWit:

It's important. That's why one of the As.

Steven J Butala:

[crosstalk 00:02:08] you or the person you sell it to, to get to your property, within reason, without a helicopter. Kevin responds, Vic, the road is most likely a private road, i.e. not maintained by the county. Exactly. This is something that will affect your ability to sell the property quickly. When you get the preliminary title report, they should have the easements called out on the property. The road right of way thing sounds like the county has an easement for a possible future road in that area. You need to know about that and how much it takes out of this parcel. Meaning it's going to make it smaller. There's already an easement in the deed of this property to another property or a set of properties. If you get the information from the title report and you don't like the deal, you can renegotiate or decline to purchase. Jill and I just did this. You may have some fees to pay the title company if you need to do that. But that's very unusual.

Jill DeWit:

Exactly. Laurie went on to add, hey, I've had this situation play out in different ways. Some of them based on county records and others based on state law. But a title company should be the ones provide you the information. Here's what I've seen. Number one, the private road and ownership marked on a survey for one of the bordering properties. Sorry.

Steven J Butala:

That's awesome. [inaudible 00:03:31]. If you're listening to this, we have-

Jill DeWit:

Our landscaper's here.

Jill Friday - Why My Heart Felt Land Business Model Has Worked for Decades (LA 1548)

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:

And I'm Jill DeWit, broadcasting from sweet, sizzling, Scottsdale, Arizona. I got to ask you something. Why did you pause there for a second, like, "What show am I doing?"

Steven J Butala:

That's why.

Jill DeWit:

Have you not done enough?

Steven J Butala:

That's exactly why.

Jill DeWit:

"Welcome to the, what show is this today?" The same one you've done for 1,547 times before this.

Steven J Butala:

I've been writing the Showing Up for Life show, and we did a House Academy show for a long time.

Jill DeWit:

That's no excuse.

Steven J Butala:

And it's Friday. And it's your show. In fact, it's called Jill Friday: Why My Heartfelt Land Business Model Has Worked for Decades. Before we get into it, let's take a question posted by one of our members on landinvestors.com online community. It's free. Please have patience with me, unlike Jill, about reading lines. If you're already a Land Academy member, join us on Discord.

Jill DeWit:

And as you saw, you are witness to, he just skipped right over my comments. It's Friday. He's done. That's what that is. Okay, Sam Amalita wrote, "Love the honesty. We had a similar call. Was the daughter." So this is obviously down in the conversation.

Steven J Butala:

Yep. But it's really worth.

Jill DeWit:

"It was the daughter of the owner. She said, 'You're absolutely sure you want to buy this?' 'It used to be farmland and the land my father grew up on. The state took most of it and flooded it to expand the lake. Now we don't even know where the parcel is, but it's only what was leftover after the flooding. We tried to get there by foot and we couldn't. We had to cross other people's land, and we could never find it. We're guessing you have to go by boat.' I asked her why in the world her dad is paying on that, and she said, well, she's been asking him that for 15 years."

Steven J Butala:

They went on to buy the property. This person Sam Amalita, I believe, it was down a string, said they got it for such a good price from these people who inherited it, that they bought it.

Jill DeWit:

Definitely almost gave it away.

Steven J Butala:

So my point is not trying to get cheap property, because we all know how to do that. They're having a back and forth conversation, an honest conversation about the property. They clearly, as a seller, doesn't want the stuff anymore, or doesn't see the value in it. I will tell you, we have bought boat access only property and made a killing on it. People love that stuff.

Jill DeWit:

It was unique. You had to find the right buyer, but it worked. I want to say this, about asking that for 15 years. This is something I come across often. People don't know you can stop paying the taxes. There's a lot of people out there that think all unwanted land is in a back tax situation. No, it's not. There's a ton of unwanted land in a back tax situation like this one. People didn't know they could not pay the taxes. They think the IRS is going to come after them and garnish their wages or do something like that, which they don't.

Steven J Butala:

Let me make a comment on that. Jill is exactly right. When you stop paying your mortgage, you're in a lot of trouble.

Jill DeWit:

Correct.

Steven J Butala:

It's going to really affect your credit score, depending on what state you're in, they're going to come after you, and all kinds of stuff is going to happen. The IRS may or may not get involved. Typically, not now, they don't. And because you unknowingly signed a personal guarantee in a document that's tied to that real estate, usually it's a primary residence, or an office building, or all kinds of stuff, with freely owned real estate, the taxing authority,

Jack Thursday - Should Agricultural Land be Included in Your Mailer (LA 1547)

Transcript:

Steven J Butala:

Steve and Jill here.

Jill DeWit:

Hello.

Steven J 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 sizzling Scottsdale, Arizona.

Steven J Butala:

That's for sure.

Jill DeWit:

Yep.

Steven J Butala:

Today Jill and I talk about ... Well, it's Jack Thursday, and I talk about should agricultural land be included in your mailer.

Steven J 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. Or if you're already a Land Academy Member, join us on Discord.

Jill DeWit:

"My name is Michelle. I live in Missouri and I am new to land investing. I have done some investing, but still consider myself new to the world of real estate. I have one rental property, and I just bought a property I'm doing some cosmetic fixes on for a nightly rental."

Jill DeWit:

"I have been interested in land investing and purchasing for a long time, and I'm excited to learn the process and add it to my portfolio. I'm planning on concentrating on land and note investing extensively going forward at this time. I look forward to learning from you all and we'll hopefully be able to contribute to others in the future. Blessings." Aww.

Steven J Butala:

I put this in here because this is very frequent, and welcome Michelle. But there's lots of people that are joining us that have somewhat of a light existing real estate investing background. In her case, she's got a couple of rentals and she's seen the light.

Steven J Butala:

If you've seen the light in real ... Here's my point. If you've seen the light, and I sound like a company here.

Jill DeWit:

Aah. This is it, it's just sounds a little weird, by the way I was going to ... I'm like ...

Steven J Butala:

Here's what I ... Let me try it the other way. If you love the idea of making a lot of money but you haven't seen the light in real estate and [inaudible 00:01:54] just kind of an afterthought, this is not for you.

Jill DeWit:

And we'll say in general, or our kind?

Steven J Butala:

If you've seen the light in real estate-

Jill DeWit:

Okay.

Steven J Butala:

... and maybe you have a rental. Maybe you redid a few houses and you know that's not for you.

Jill DeWit:

Right.

Steven J Butala:

Or inherited some land and sold it and made some money, and it just, it is now in your soul and won't go away, Land Academy is for you.

Jill DeWit:

Right.

Steven J Butala:

If that hasn't happened to you ... Or let's say you're a data person and you want to capitalize on your understanding of data. And real estate is just the thing that you think might be able to ... you want to be able to do that, this is for you.

Jill DeWit:

You know what my favorite is? My favorite is the people that come to us and they're like, "Oh, that's boring." And they go off and do something else. And I'm like, "No, I think I'd like boring." You know what I mean?

Steven J Butala:

Yeah, and they come back.

Jill DeWit:

You're like, "How'd that renovation go?" Oh my goodness. They're like, "I could do with a lot less excitement." "Yeah, I bet it was exciting when you opened the walls and found that wasn't it." They're like, "I am not set up for that." So yeah.

Steven J Butala:

Michelle, welcome to the group. You are a perfect candidate to take this all the way to the end.

Jill DeWit:

Yeah.

Steven J Butala:

Today's topic. Should agricultural land be included in your mailer? This is the meat of the show.

Steven J Butala:

Here's the deal with agricultural property. Agricultural property is quite possibly the best zoned or used code that you can get in nearly every environment.

Jill DeWit:

Why?

Steven J Butala:

Because the taxes, there's huge incentives and have been ... This whole country was built on agriculture.

When is it Appropriate to Survey Land (LA 1546)

Transcript:

Steven J Butala:

Steve and Jill here.

Jill DeWit:

Hello.

Steven J 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 Scottsdale, Arizona.

Steven J Butala:

Today Jill and I talk about when is it appropriate to survey land?

Jill DeWit:

There are times it is, and there are times it is not. So does everybody hear that? There are times it is not appropriate, like most of the time. Don't give it away.

Steven J Butala:

I'm going to interview Jill, and I'm going to ask her when it's appropriate and when it's not.

Jill DeWit:

I can tell you, because some people think you do it on every time, and that is not the case, unless you want to give away a lot of money. Thank you.

Steven J 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, please join us on Discord.

Jill DeWit:

Okie-dokie. Chuck wrote, which is this the Chuck that I'm thinking of or is this a different Chuck?

Steven J Butala:

I don't know. There's two.

Jill DeWit:

All right. "I've run into a weird problem with DataTree. In the last two batches of records that I purchased, between one-third and one-half of each list did not have a situs zip code. The zip codes for the mailing addresses were there, but the situs was missing. This is a problem because in both counties, my intention is to make offers based on the zip code values, which I've computed. The price per acre varies greatly between zip codes in these counties. It looks like the missing zip codes are for properties that do not have a street address, which is a lot of them, by the way. In all cases, the parcel numbers are there, as are the long/lat numbers. And the county CAD shows the situs zip codes. I would think there would be enough info for DataTree to be able to produce a zip code. Has anyone run into this with DataTree? I'm thinking of just mailing those with zip codes so I can price them reasonably. That would eliminate though almost half the properties. Thanks."

Steven J Butala:

This is an incredibly intelligent question, and luckily I have the solution. It's something I've been working on for a while. You take the data set that you have, and it sounds like you've taken it all the way to the point where you're stuck with this. So, I'll directly answer your question. DataTree was nice enough to include longitude and latitude numbers, and it's pretty easy for a computer to convert long/lat to zip codes in America. We use a website called geocod.io. It's G-I-O-C-O-D, without an E, dot io. For a very nominal price, and I mean like $2 or $3, you can take a massive dataset, drop the long/lat numbers in, and it's going to convert the long/lat to an American zip code. And as a bonus, it tells you how accurate that is.

Steven J Butala:

So they'll tell you it's 100% accurate. We know exactly where this property is or-

Jill DeWit:

Because of the long/lat.

Steven J Butala:

Yeah, because, well their database is limited. So it's still a work in progress. But what you do is then copy and paste the results of that into the back end of the zip code area, and you can then be on your merry way. Concierge pricing, which is a product that Jill and I launched very recently, does all this for you. And in Land Academy 3.0, which I'm filming right now, in this actual module that addresses this will be released before, because it's such a popular topic, will be released long before ... It will be really soon, very soon, within days I'm told, or at least this month. It's in post production. I recorded it and they're just trying to make it perfect, my team is.

Jill DeWit:

This is for Land Academy members, have access.

Steven J Butala:

Yeah. This is what makes DataTree so superior, in my opinion, to RealQuest and to Black Knight.

Fixed Price MLS listing vs Listing with an Actual Real Estate Agent (LA 1545)

Transcript:

Steven J Butala:

Steve and Jill here.

Jill DeWit:

Hello?

Steven J Butala:

Wow. Welcome to Land Academy.

Jill DeWit:

Puberty just strikes at crazy times, doesn't it?

Steven J Butala:

Mid fifties.

Jill DeWit:

Exactly.

Steven J Butala:

I'm just now getting my adult voice.

Jill DeWit:

There you go. That's right.

Steven J Butala:

Figuratively and literally.

Jill DeWit:

You used to sound like your mom when you were 12 and now you sound like your mom again. Just kidding.

Steven J Butala:

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

Jill DeWit:

And, I'm Jill DeWit.

Steven J Butala:

[inaudible 00:00:36].

Jill DeWit:

I mean, hilarious. If my voice dropped four octaves.

Steven J Butala:

Know what else would be hilarious? If you were the data person for a week and I was the salesperson for a week.

Jill DeWit:

Oh my Goodness. That would be a disaster. Anyway, we are broadcasting from sizzling, Scottsdale, Arizona. But it's cool.

Steven J Butala:

Today, Jill and I talk about fixed price MLS listings versus listing the property with an actual real estate agent.

Jill DeWit:

Not like a fake real estate engine, a real one. Actual.

Steven J Butala:

Most of them are fake actually.

Jill DeWit:

That's why you put that there. You should say one that shows up. Just kidding.

Steven J 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:

Jeanette wrote, Hi Jeannette.

Jill DeWit:

"What flat fee MLS listing service is best for land? I hear a lot of people using Zillow, but if you use a different flat fee MLS service, it gets listed there anyway. Also, is the flat fee MLS fee per property, or does it allow for multiple property listings or switching properties for the listing period? Help, please."

Jill DeWit:

I can answer this.

Steven J Butala:

Oh, yes.

Jill DeWit:

Okay. I was waiting. So, it's per property and listing. You don't just... It's not like a turn it on, turn it off thing at six months to do like LandWatch or land and farm for your signature things. You have 10 that you could have running or five you can have running depending on whatever your deal is with them. Or you could put one up, it sells, take it down, put another one in its place. As long as you don't go over the five or the 10 or 20, whatever you have. So, this is a whole different thing it's per property.

Jill DeWit:

So, what does it cost? Anywhere from... I've seen deals down to man $39 for six months up to $400, 395 for six months, depending on the location. Because I think, I know that their contracts vary what each individual MLS and stuff, regions in the country charge these services. That's where the money difference comes in.

Jill DeWit:

So, do we want to jump into, I kind of answered her questions. Can we jump into the show because I'm going to talk even more about this.

Steven J Butala:

Today's topic fixed price, MLS versus listing with an actual real estate agent. This is the meat of the show.

Jill DeWit:

So, what the heck are we talking about?

Steven J Butala:

Well, let's define what the MLS is really quickly.

Jill DeWit:

That's... Okay. You define MLS.

Steven J Butala:

You took a lot of notes in this.

Jill DeWit:

I kind of did.

Steven J Butala:

This is right up your alley because we saw the vast majority or maybe all of our property with real estate agents now, so Jill's qualified.

Jill DeWit:

Do people not know what the MLS is?

Steven J Butala:

Yeah. People don't know.

Jill DeWit:

Okay. You define the MLS, then I'll define the different ways to get things right on the MLS.

Steven J Butala:

The MLS is an acronym for a Multiple Listing Service. There are approximately 344 ish of them in the country.

How Much Time Do I Really Need to Spend on Pricing (LA 1544)

Transcript:

Steven J Butala:

Steven, Jill here.

Jill DeWit:

Good day.

Steven J 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.

Steven J Butala:

Today, jill and I talk about how much time do I really need to spend on pricing?

Jill DeWit:

Oh, What do you think?

Steven J Butala:

No, I think you should take a whole year.

Jill DeWit:

Oh that's true. I have a few people that are saying, "Yeah, I'm pushing a month." Oops. Yeah, we'll talk about that.

Steven J Butala:

We'll talk all about it and we're joking around, but I understand. We both understand it, how caught up you can get in this.

Jill DeWit:

You can accidentally spend a month on this.

Steven J Butala:

Yeah. 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 with us, please join us on discord.

Jill DeWit:

Anthony wrote, "I joined an auto pricing service just to see the product. I checked how they price counties and that I have previously mailed. In general, they price way too high. I've been mailing counties with a lot of waterfront properties. I find it difficult to come up with good prices, given that a parcel just a few blocks away can go for double and vice versa. Their prices were way too high there also. I don't think there's an easy way out for pricing. You have to put in the work, even if it means drilling down past zip codes to map sections. On the other hand, you can get sucked in and go too granular. I sometimes forget that perfect is the enemy of good enough." That was great Anthony.

Steven J Butala:

Anthony, tell me where to send the check.

Jill DeWit:

Was this in Land Investors or was this in discord?

Steven J Butala:

It was in discord.

Jill DeWit:

Wow.

Steven J Butala:

I responded and a lot of people did too. I actually responded to him and thanked him.

Jill DeWit:

So if you're in discord, you're a member. If you're in Land Investors, you might be both, by the way, you can be either. Sorry. Yeah, this is perfect. This ties right into it.

Steven J Butala:

Well, this was the inspiration for the actual topic.

Jill DeWit:

Yeah.

Steven J Butala:

So we're right in the pricing module right now, Jill and I, or about to be for career path.

Jill DeWit:

Number two.

Steven J Butala:

And it, for some reason, and I believe this is great, the Land Academy itself attracts technical people or intelligent people, or it's generally attracts, it seems to me now, technical people with a technical background, but are very comfortable in a sales role too.

Jill DeWit:

Because that's who we are.

Steven J Butala:

Yeah.

Jill DeWit:

Last time I checked.

Steven J Butala:

I mean, that's exactly who you and I are so...

Jill DeWit:

That's what I mean.

Steven J Butala:

Individually and collectively. And so because of that technical background, it's you can just spend way too much time on pricing. Hey, wait, today's topic, how much time do you really need to spend on pricing? This is the meat of the show. I can directly answer that question. And it's a one-to-one association with how new you are at land investing and how much experience you have with Excel and data in general. And if this is brand new and you are not a data person at all, I think a month. Jill was joking about it earlier, might be appropriate or better yet, use a product like Concierge Pricing that we created for people like you.

Jill DeWit:

To speed the process up.

Steven J Butala:

You can go to Offers 2 Owners and check that out there or get somebody like me to do your mailers for you. And if you go through discord, there's all kinds of people in there that are willing to do it.

Jill DeWit:

Here's the point. So when you're new, you need to spend the time, you need to put the time in.

Jill Friday - When to Get a Transaction Coordinator and Why (LA 1543)

Transcript:

Steven Butala:

Steve and Jill here-

Jill DeWit:

Howdy.

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 sizzling Scottsdale, Arizona.

Steven Butala:

Today Jill and I talk ... Well, it's Jill Friday, and she's going to talk about when it's appropriate to get a transaction coordinator and why you need one. 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, and if you're a Land Academy member, please join us on Discord.

Jill DeWit:

Miles wrote, "On my first mailer, almost all of the potential deals I got were for other parcels or land in other counties that were not on my mailer. So I'm having to make new offers and I'm unsure how to price it because there are no comps. Would you contact an agent in this case? And before you make your new offers, do you get a broker's opinion? It sounds like you don't do that, right? Thank you."

Jill DeWit:

Okay, so let me back up. So here's what Miles is talking about. I sent my mailer, a guy calls back and says, "I don't want to sell that one, but I've got two over here if you want one. My brother has this, my mom has that, we want to sell whatever." That kind of a thing. And you're like, "Oh, why did this come up?" Because I've taught you well, hopefully.

Steven Butala:

Because you sent some mail out.

Jill DeWit:

Yeah, and one, I have it on my checklist. I always say when my inbound seller checklist, one of the questions your asking everybody is, "By the way, what else do you have?" Because they may have something great and you don't know it. They may say, "Oh, I have this other agricultural parcel two lots over, I didn't think you wanted that one." I'm like, "Yeah, I absolutely want that. That one's even better." Because that comes up.

Jill DeWit:

So in this situation Miles is going, "All right, now I need to go back and make new offers." Hold on a moment, Miles. Let me make it easier for you, what I would do instead is say, "Great, you have what? 10 acres where? Happy to go look for it. How much are you asking? Let's talk a for a second. You know who I am, I know who you are. I own this sweet little company, it's mine. I pay cash, I close fast. You're staring at my letter for a different property. So with that in mind, how much would you accept and I could just cash you out of that one, too, or instead of, or whatever?" Get a number from them.

Jill DeWit:

Last thing I want you to is get all excited and go and start spending a day and a half doing research, calling around, getting excited about this other area, this other potential property, and what's possible. Calling agents, calling brokers, and everything, and then coming back and going, "Okay, here's my number." And the guy says, "Oh, no, no, no. I wouldn't let it go for less than a million." You needed to know that before you even did anything. So that's what I want you to do.

Jill DeWit:

So let's say now you do this, so you go, "Okay, what's this?" I said, "You know what, all right, Miles, I get it. I know how you roll. I know it's worth maybe more than this, but you know what? I just one to get rid of this one-

Steven Butala:

"And I like you."

Jill DeWit:

... because I'm never over there. My wife never wanted it. So you know what? I'd let it go for 30,000." You go, "Okay, give me date. Let' see, today's Friday, can I get back to you on Tuesday? Because I know it's getting late, the county's probably closing soon. I got to make some calls. Can I call you on Tuesday?" And where's the best time and what's the best number? "Yep, here you go, you can reach me here." "Awesome." Now Miles, now I want you to go look at this.

Jill DeWit:

And what do I want you to do? You're like, "Okay, how do I get the comps?" Well, look at all the normal places,