How to Execute an Offer Campaign for Commercial Property (LA 1366)

Transcript:

Steven J Butala:

Steve and Jill here.

Jill K DeWit:

Hello.

Steven J 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 sunny Southern California.

Steven J Butala:

Today, Jill and I talk about how to execute an offer campaign for commercial property. This came from a very robust and detailed request from one of our members. They asked Jill actually, and she shared it with me about, Hey, there's a commercial real estate crisis out there right now. How can we make some money off that? How do we send offers to, let's say, office building owners who haven't been paying their mortgage [inaudible 00:00:38] or not? To which I will explain.

Jill K DeWit:

This is for you, Dan.

Steven J Butala:

There's a dataset for all of this stuff. And the data just keeps getting better and better and better, and the opportunities are getting better and better. It's funny when you're reading the headlines, all this tragedy, my first reaction is, where there's tragedy, there's a lot of opportunity in real estate.

Jill K DeWit:

That's true.

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.

Jill K DeWit:

I was going to say, I just paused to think about that. It's probably stock market, too.

Steven J Butala:

Yeah.

Jill K DeWit:

People don't realize you can make money on the way down and the way up. Sometimes more money on the way down than you can make on the way up.

Steven J Butala:

Yeah.

Jill K DeWit:

It's very interesting. So yep. Okay. Larry wrote, "Good afternoon, all. What tool or tools do you use for looking at days on market? Any insights and tips for someone new to this would be greatly appreciated."

Steven J Butala:

You know, Jill, I saw that you actually personally responded to this question on land investors.

Jill K DeWit:

I did.

Steven J Butala:

So, tell us where you get DOM.

Jill K DeWit:

I copied you.

Steven J Butala:

No. No, you didn't.

Jill K DeWit:

From the Redfin, Redfin data center. And I think I put the link in there for him, so he can go look. And I did say spend some time in here. You could pick large MSA. You can drill down by zip code. There's many ways you can do it. You can track it. I know that. that's the thing too. You want to know the days on market are good in an area, but you also want to see that they're getting better in that area. You want to see them going lower and lower and lower, not higher and higher and higher kind of thing so ...

Steven J Butala:

For years and years and centuries and centuries and decades, we've all been working, or I have at least, under the guise of real estate speculation, which just cracked me up because about 10 years ago, let's say 2009, 2010-ish, all this data started coming out, these websites like realtor.com and redfin.com. And then about 10 years earlier, not necessarily for the real estate industry, but for oil and gas and insurance and stuff, companies like CoreLogic started popping up, where they were aggregating all this data that was out there that was public. CoreLogic started as a way to aggregate the assessor's tax rolls, the treasurer and assessor's tax rules for each County. And it was real valuable for insurance companies. And eventually, it found its way to people like us, who are real estate investors. And it took the speculation out of this.

Well, because it's been around for so long, there are many, many people. And because of channels like HGTV, speculation is still out there as, yeah, well, yeah, if you're going to buy and sell real estate, you're going to have to go take this big risk and take this chance. Let's go buy this house, see if we can renovate it, see what's behind those walls. Let's break into the walls and find the mold and solve it. And, Oh,

New Weekly Live Informational Webinar (LA 1365)

Transcript:

Steven J Butala:

Steve and Jill here.

Jill K DeWit:

Hello.

Steven J Butala:

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

Jill K DeWit:

And Jill DeWit, broadcasting from sunny, southern California.

Steven J Butala:

Today, Jill and I talk about Jill's new weekly live informational webinar. I described it a little bit yesterday, a week or so ago. Jill did kind of a live free Facebook, YouTube, hour-long talk about one specific topic. In that case, it was how to adjust your purchase price, adjust it down after you send an offer out based on looking at the property saying hey, it doesn't have access or there's some issue with it. How to successfully deal with that and accomplish it with a seller without having the seller's mind blown.

And so it got a massive positive response. And so everybody was kind of typing in what else Jill could provide, what other types of little, maybe 30 minute, free, little tiny components of buying and selling land successfully. And it caught on. It caught on because Jill responded to it.

Jill K DeWit:

Yeah. The month before, it was due diligence. I'm trying to think what I did before that too. I've been doing it every month. And then we realized that there's just such a demand that people are saying can we do more? And so I was already thinking about it. And we'll talk more at some other time.

Steven J Butala:

You notice when people... People say thank you to us all the time, but when they say, "Hey, you know, that was awesome, but I would love to know about acts." And they start giving us topic ideas. As crazy as it sounds, it's hard to come up... It's time-consuming to come up with topic ideas that people respond to well. There's all kinds of stuff I'd love to talk about, but no one's going to listen to it all.

But when they tell you what they want to hear, when you tell us what you want to hear, we'll produce it. So please tell us. 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 K DeWit:

Carly wrote, "Hi, other than looking at lot lines. How do I find out if a piece of land can be parceled out? Is this a hard process? Does it depend on the state/county? I'm looking in blank county, blank state, 50 acres." You're welcome.

Steven J Butala:

Subdividing, or she says parcel out, is complicated as hell. And it's so intriguing, I'll tell ya. You know, all of us, at some point in the land business, me included, take a look at a 50 or 40 acre property. And you say, you know what, I can buy this 40 acre property for 25,000 bucks. I can create 40 one acre properties, selling for $10,000 each, and retire.

Jill K DeWit:

Sounds great.

Steven J Butala:

Let me tell ya.

Jill K DeWit:

Sounds easy. No problem.

Steven J Butala:

I'll tell ya, that happened in the forties and fifties and sixties out west a lot. But there were no regulations at all. And it was very, in some cases, very irresponsibly completed or executed. And so a lot of laws were created and rules were created to stop people with good intentions... Two of them are in front of you right now, from parceling out... We're going to call it parceling out property. The correct way to describe... There's two ways to split property; parcel split and subdivision. And subdivisions are probably where most of you are listening or watching right now, where it's a subdivided property. You can sort of see it from a top-down. It's tiny little properties made out of... And there's a big, huge two year process that goes on with that.

Parcel split is a different story, where you've got properties that are way, way, very rural, and you can take one property and maybe cut it in half. Those are all based on old farm or agricultural rules where your daughter gets married and you ice out 40 acres in the back for your daughter and her new husband to farm it.

Jills All Female Land Investment Group (LA 1364)

Transcript:

Steven J Butala:

Steve and Jill here.

Jill K DeWit:

Hi.

Steven J Butala:

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

Jill K DeWit:

And I'm Jill Dewitt. We're back broadcasting in sunny, southern California.

Steven J Butala:

Today Jill and I talk about Jill's all female land investment group. It's something that I've been hearing a lot about for the last month in every square inch of my house and office.

Jill K DeWit:

Oh, really? You think so?

Steven J Butala:

It's time the public needs to hear about it, I guess.

Jill K DeWit:

Really? Okay.

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.

Jill K DeWit:

Raye wrote, "I'm new to Land Academy, but definitely a fan of Jill and Steve. I started out listening to several in this space, but Jill and Steve's." I like to point out, I like how my name comes first here. So thank you Ray. "Jill and Steve's methodologies just made sense to me. I'm currently working on my first mailer. Excited to share and grow with all of you. Question, if you could go back to when you first started out and give yourself one simple piece of advice, what would it be?" Raye B. I love this and you have some answers. Can I are these for me to read or?

Steven J Butala:

Yeah. Because some people piped in on the forum just to help out.

Jill K DeWit:

They already wrote some answers. So Daniel wrote patience. That was it.

Steven J Butala:

One word. Patience.

Jill K DeWit:

Exactly. Austin wrote, "Ray, I added in some bonus tidbits. Number one, perform actionable steps that move things forward. Two, don't get bogged down by perfection, such as having the perfect logo, perfect website, et cetera. Three, mistakes or crises will happen. Resolve the problems. Move on, learn from experience."

Steven J Butala:

What's the plural of crisis?

Jill K DeWit:

I thought it was crises, I don't know.

Steven J Butala:

I don't know either.

Jill K DeWit:

I may have just made up a word.

Steven J Butala:

No, I think you're probably right. I know there's been multiple crisis in my life. That can't be right. There has to be some plural.

Jill K DeWit:

Yeah. Fortunately it doesn't happen often. So that's good that we don't know the multiple-

Steven J Butala:

I've had four of them says the camera turned on just now.

Jill K DeWit:

Oh did you?

Steven J Butala:

Yeah.

Jill K DeWit:

I'm sorry.

Steven J Butala:

They're all inside me.

Jill K DeWit:

Oh, okay. I'm sorry. I don't have that.

Steven J Butala:

I know you don't. It's a little Disneyland inside the Jill's head all the time.

Jill K DeWit:

Thank you. "Four, have an acquisition criteria and stick to it. Avoid shot." This so good I love Austin. You're been listening. You catch on quickly. I'm glad. "Avoid shiny objects in buying property that doesn't check all your boxes. Five, utilize land investors, aka this forum for questions. If you're feeling really lost at do a consultation with Kevin or Jack or Jill."

Steven J Butala:

Thank you, Kevin. Can't thank you enough. Our moderator on the site here. Yep.

Jill K DeWit:

Consultation is much cheaper than sending a bust mailer or buying bad property. Austin, that's really good. Are there any more?

Steven J Butala:

Nope. So how about you answer the question? If you had to go back right from the beginning, what advice would you tell yourself? What would you do differently?

Jill K DeWit:

Oh differently?

Steven J Butala:

What he's asking or I think it's she, R-A-Y-E, she's asking, what would you change if you had to go back to the start?

Jill K DeWit:

You know the main thing, honestly, what I see people do all the time, and it's easy to go down that rabbit hole, is get distracted by other properties than really sticking to your thing. So the best advice I could give is whatever you're setting out to buy,

Why Municipalities' Rules are Preventative (LA 1363)

Transcript:

Steven Jack Butala:

Steve and Jill here.

Jill DeWit:

Howdy.

Steven 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 pretty Park City, Utah. Had to think about that for a... I almost said Park Lake City, I don't know where I got that. Park City.

Steven Jack Butala:

Salt Lake City and Park City.

Jill DeWit:

I know.

Steven Jack Butala:

It's like a combined.

Jill DeWit:

Well, that true. I'm all confused.

Steven Jack Butala:

Today Jill and I talk about why municipalities rules, their rules, are preventative. I've never talked to anyone in my life that said, "You know, that municipality, the city of Park City or the county of Summit County, they're doing a good job."

Jill DeWit:

They are. They're helpful.

Steven Jack Butala:

Yeah. They help us.

Jill DeWit:

They want me to prosper.

Steven Jack Butala:

I wanted to split that property. They let me split it.

Jill DeWit:

Yeah, no problem. I just had to do these forms. What the heck?

Steven Jack Butala:

It's not just... We'll get to it in a second.

Jill DeWit:

Okay.

Steven Jack Butala:

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

Jill DeWit:

Eric wrote... Is that the title?

Steven Jack Butala:

Yeah.

Jill DeWit:

Okay. It says, "impulse bought data."

Steven Jack Butala:

"I impulse bought data from Leelanau County, Michigan." How's the water? Just joking.

Jill DeWit:

Okay. And it goes on to say, "I usually let the data tell me where to mail. But after a recent trip to Leelanau County, Michigan, I found myself poking around the data on RealQuest. Next thing you know, at the accept button, I started looking a lot like a Snickers bar at the grocery checkout. Hello everyone. I'm now the proud owner of a 1000 ownership records. The County indicators looked reasonable when plugged into Steve's red, green, yellow test for rural vacant land, slightly high, active, two total properties at 1.23%, but still within reason. I don't have any experience in that area. It's surprisingly expensive at 10 to $20,000 an acre for low acreage property, low acreage properties, lots of beautiful lakes around there. Ideally I'd find a funding partner, but I don't want to scare them off with the high dollar, low acreage properties in a lesser known market. Also anyone else who has impulse bought data? I blame Steve and Jill for making it so easy."

Steven Jack Butala:

If I had a nickel for every time I impulse bought data. Some people buy impulse jewelry, some people have gambling issues, drinking issues, I have data issues. And I have bought, impulse bought data in this state. Leelanau County is Traverse City. And if you're a data person or a Michigan person or you're into this at all, there's a lot of cities, municipalities, a lot like Traverse City, where the county split. Traverse City is made up of two counties, Leelanau is to the North that runs just a ton of waterfront property everywhere, which is why it's so expensive. And then there's a different county. I think it's Grand Traverse County to the South. So, if you drove through there and didn't buy data, this isn't for you. I bought all kinds of data on this trip. We've been in Park City for almost two weeks. There's lots of data that I purchased and we will send mail out just based on driving around. So don't worry about it.

Jill DeWit:

I would argue though, it's still better. Buying data at 10 cents is better than sending it out at 55, or whatever it is.

Steven Jack Butala:

Oh, gosh, yeah.

Jill DeWit:

So you're okay.

Steven Jack Butala:

The real tragedy would be if you-

Jill DeWit:

Mailed them all.

Steven Jack Butala:

if you impulsively did a mailer and price it wrong.

Jill DeWit:

Right.

Steven Jack Butala:

You bought the dress in the window instead of walking in,

Fear of Success Defined by Jill (LA 1362)

Transcript:

Steven Jack Butala:

Steve and Jill here.

Jill:

Hi.

Steven Jack Butala:

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

Jill:

And I'm Jill Dewitt broadcasting from pretty Park City, Utah.

Steven Jack Butala:

Today, Jill and I talk about fear of success as defined by Jill. And I mentioned it yesterday. We were on a show, a podcast as a guest yesterday.

Jill:

It was Before the Millions with DeRay... I can never pronounce his last name correctly, but it was really interesting.

Steven Jack Butala:

It's all kinds of questions about what was it like before you guys made a go of it, buying and selling land separately and collectively, and I learned a bunch of stuff about Jill. One of the things I learned is that that's how this topic came up. He said, Well, why don't people do this? And Jill said, "Media said fear of success." And then she went on to explain herself and I'm like, "Wow," because we know we never talked about this and it actually makes a lot of sense. So 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:

John wrote, "Hi guys. I sent out my first mailer to my first county about a week and a half ago, 1800 units. Currently waiting for that to start hitting mailboxes so I can see what the response is. I've got another mailer for another county queued up for another 1800 units. Should I send it out this week? Or am I setting myself up to be completely overwhelmed by the responses?" Awesome. Do you want to go on?

Steven Jack Butala:

I can tell you what I think. What you're going to find out when these people start calling back is that the process that you put in place like that intake process for analyzing deals and accepting the ones that are good and rejecting the ones that aren't is flawed because everybody does it differently including myself in all this stuff. First time you try this stuff, it's just a disaster. So I would not send out another mailer. I would wait on this 1800. You're going to hone your skills on buying some property and do the whole thing. And then once you've got like maybe one acquisition or two acquisitions under contract, and you're getting set up to sell them or post them on the internet, that's when I would send the mailer out.

Jill:

There comes a few times a year, we are not exactly on the same page and this might be one of them. I would actually-

Steven Jack Butala:

A few times a week actually. A day sometimes.

Jill:

I was being really nice. Try to be nice. But this is one where I don't know if I would do it. I think if you're brand new, I think 1800 units a week out of the gate, if you're a one man show and you have a full-time job might be a little bit heavy, but if you don't have full-time job and you have all the time in the world, this is not nuts. I would say really I would do every other week because once you start the process going, you're going to get into a groove.

That's just me though. So again, this is all personal preference. Steven's theory is get it all the way through and there's nothing wrong with that concept. Figure out all these little mistakes. You're going to make a lot of mistakes and figure them all out, and then you can dive in at a different way. I'm kind of a, "Let's figure it out as I go," because I don't want you to be in the habit of stopping and starting because that's where some people drop the ball.

Steven Jack Butala:

If you're in the process of trying to find a permanent female, I would highly recommend finding one with Jill's attitude where you're not just fixing stuff as you go because stuff's going to go sideways. If you are looking for a spouse, male or female, who needs to preplan everything out and then all they're going to do is end up being disappointed no matter what happens. You got to find a go with the flow spouse.

Jill:

Zoom Cities are the Present and Future (LA 1361)

Transcript:

Steve Jack Butala:

Steve and Jill here.

Jill DeWitt:

Hello.

Steve Jack Butala:

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

Jill DeWitt:

And I'm Jill DeWitt, broadcasting from awesome Park City, Utah.

Steve Jack Butala:

Today Jill and I talk about how Zoom Cities are the present and the future. We'll define what they are, which should be pretty self-explanatory. And why after talking to a lot of people on other people's podcasts, and other real estate professionals, and credible sources, I think it's one of the positive things that's going to come out of this COVID thing.

Jill DeWitt:

I would argue that we're sitting in a Zoom City.

Steve Jack Butala:

I would- that's what this show's about, or to talk about Park City, Utah, and why this might be one of the ultimate Zoom Cities.

Jill DeWitt:

But don't come, you won't like it.

Steve Jack Butala:

You know I haven't gotten that from bartenders and stuff. I even- there's a- you know, in Phoenix, everybody used to say, it's terrible. You know, I got to Phoenix in 1994, in Scottsdale.

Jill DeWitt:

That's like Seattle. Seattle used to be that way. They used to say, everybody used to worry about the weather and they'd- everybody would say, oh, it's not that bad. And then you go, maybe we'll look at this for our retirement location. And then they follow up with, oh, you wouldn't like it.

Steve Jack Butala:

It's exact opposite here.

Jill DeWitt:

Yeah?

Steve Jack Butala:

I haven't heard anyone say [crosstalk 00:01:17] You're from Los Angeles? You should never please don't move here.

Jill DeWitt:

Yeah, right.

Steve Jack Butala:

Not a single person has said that. Have you heard that?

Jill DeWitt:

No, that's true.

Steve Jack Butala:

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

Jill DeWitt:

Joseph wrote, "Hi all, I'm looking at purchasing two properties in a state that starts with an M."

Steve Jack Butala:

I think you can say the name. I think you can say it, yeah.

Jill DeWitt:

I wasn't sure. Okay. Here's what's happened. I've gotten- a couple of times of like I've shared some stuff I'm like, huh? I wish I hadn't shared that. So I'm kind of-

Steve Jack Butala:

Oh really?

Jill DeWitt:

Yeah yeah, seriously. So I was just being cautious. All right, so we'll just say Maine.

Steve Jack Butala:

Well now you got to tell what you shared and regret [crosstalk 00:02:04] What are your regrets? Share with the show.

Jill DeWitt:

Oh and some counties. So, [inaudible 00:02:09] counties. Aw shucks. Anyway, the issue I'm having- but it's like to the planet, I'll share it with our people all day long.

Steve Jack Butala:

I agree.

Jill DeWitt:

That's why we have such a small community.

Steve Jack Butala:

I understand.

Jill DeWitt:

I mean, and that's timeout, truth time. In our community, I'm going to share everything. And I still share like big picture stuff, but some special stuff I'm going to keep for our people. Anyway, okay, so Joseph wrote on to say, "the issue I'm having is both properties have separate addresses, but are listed on the same deed. The two properties were purchased separately at a tax auction in 2009, with separate deeds and then sold to the current owner on one deed." All legit, this is nothing wrong here.

Steve Jack Butala:

So far, so good.

Jill DeWitt:

"I want to split the properties up and sell them separately on two different purchase agreements and deeds. I've heard of this being done before, but I'm unfamiliar with the process. Is this more of a hassle than it's worth or is it simply recording two properties instead of one with the County Recorder? Any advice or guidance given would be greatly appreciated." Would you like to go? Would you like me to go?

Steve Jack Butala:

I mean, I can really simplify this in one or two sentences. What you are purchasing,

Where to Get Days on Market and other Decision Making Data (LA 1360)

Transcript:

Steven Jack Butala:

Steve and Jill here.

Jill DeWit:

Hello.

Steven 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 sunny still Park City, Utah. Yes, we are still here.

Steven Jack Butala:

We decided to stay another week.

Jill DeWit:

Yep. And if you could see us, if you're watching on YouTube and you can see us, or if you're not watching on YouTube, you should zip over to YouTube and check this out, because you might hear popping and crackling in the background, because that really is a legitimate fire behind us. It is a cool day. And I just have to say, it's so funny, the way we're sitting, the way we're set up, I feel like I'm announcing at the Rose Parade. And the float coming along, now I want to say that all of the yellow were hand-picked sunflowers, and ... Just kidding.

Steven Jack Butala:

I got up early today and rearranged the entire place that we're staying in, this condo.

Jill DeWit:

Yeah, you did.

Steven Jack Butala:

And I'll put it back when we're done, I guess.

Jill DeWit:

We have a week to put it back. It looks great.

Steven Jack Butala:

Today's topic, today Jill and I actually talk about where to go to get days on market and other decision-making data. And here's a hint, this is where not to go, your local real estate agent. Jill and I recorded a few podcasts since we've been here, and I keep saying Salt Lake, Park City. And we were the guests on other people's shows. One guy informed us that that's where he gets his information from, his real estate agent.

Jill DeWit:

It's amazing.

Steven Jack Butala:

He's got a show.

Jill DeWit:

It's amazing.

Steven Jack Butala:

And he's out there telling everybody bad information.

Jill DeWit:

Some people just don't know that there's reliable sources of data, not just what you hear and talk about.

Steven Jack Butala:

We'll clear it up today about where to get data, if you don't already know. But 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:

Okay. Paula wrote, "Hi there, I hope everyone is doing well. I'm here to gain as much education as I can about land investing. Currently, I'm watching all of Steven and Jill's YouTube videos and have almost finished reading the Stevenson System, a unit which we [inaudible 00:02:16] that book. Wish me luck. Take care. See you around."

Steven Jack Butala:

My point here is twofold. Jill's going to tell us, if you're brand new or thinking about being brand new, Jill's going to tell us what she thinks about that. But I want to talk about-

Jill DeWit:

About being brand new?

Steven Jack Butala:

The Stevenson System is a book that this guy, I think his name's James Stevenson or Jim Stevenson, he and his wife wrote, I think in the early '70s or mid-70s'. And he gets this cockamamie idea to send his wife to the assessor's office and asks her to look up with a pad and pencil the people who own all the pieces of land in a certain area that he thought was a good place to buy land, so he could resell it. And so she did. She went and got the names and the mailing addresses of all these people in the property, and some details about the property, wrote it all down. And he sent them offers, or he sent the notes in the mail, I think. And my point is, if you can get a copy of the Stevenson System... We have a copy. A member let me know about this a couple years ago.

Jill DeWit:

A lender sent it to us, on my birthday said, "I'm going to send you this book."

Steven Jack Butala:

So if you can find an old copy, it's out of print, I've contacted the publisher, it's actually the son of the author, multiple times to try to buy the rights entirely, because I think it's something really good that we could teach and republish.

Interview with Land Academy Million Dollar Member Christine McManus (LA 1359)

Transcript:

Steven Jack Butala:

Steve and Jill here.

Jill DeWit:

Hello.

Steven Jack Butala:

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

Jill DeWit:

I'm Jill DeWit, broadcasting from sunny Southern California.

Steven Jack Butala:

Today, Jill and I talk with Land Academy member Christine McManus. Christine, how are you?

Christine McManus:

Hi, there. I'm doing well.

Steven Jack Butala:

We were having our Thursday webinar last week, and Christine casually and quietly reported in the chat that she's about to make a million and a half bucks on a deal.

Christine McManus:

Unheard of.

Steven Jack Butala:

A week later, you're on the show.

Christine McManus:

Yeah, I appreciate it. I'm really delighted to be visiting with you today.

Jill DeWit:

She just lobbed that in there at the end. It was like, "Oh, yeah, by the way." I'm sure people at the end of the call were like, "What, what, what? What just happened? What are you talking about?" We do want to hear more about that.

Christine McManus:

Very exciting times for us.

Jill DeWit:

Yeah.

Steven Jack Butala:

That's great.

Jill DeWit:

Are you house shopping yet?

Christine McManus:

No. In fact, it's funny because we were talking just yesterday, even before this deal, which doesn't close until December. We've made decent money buying and selling land, believe me.

Steven Jack Butala:

This isn't new to you. It's not. You just added a couple of zeros.

Christine McManus:

Right, right. Yeah, we have not purchased anything. Part of it is because I want to maintain a big chunk of money so we can buy more land. The other part is ... I don't know how to say this without sounding a little arrogant, and I hope it doesn't come across that way ... I've never had this much money. I mean, we've had successful careers and made very decent incomes, but yeah, this is unfathomable to us. It really is. It's crazy exciting.

Steven Jack Butala:

Boy, I hope you times-10 it next year.

Christine McManus:

Right, right.

Jill DeWit:

"Is this my bank balance? Am I looking at this right? I've got to call. There's something wrong."

Christine McManus:

Right, right. My business partner actually quit her job three months ago. We did not anticipate that happening until this time next year, but we blew our goals out of the water and here we are.

Steven Jack Butala:

Barring this large transaction, what were your goals, if you don't mind me asking, for 2020? You obviously exceeded them. Can you share some numbers?

Christine McManus:

Sure, absolutely. If you don't mind, I'll back up just a little bit. I was a Land Academy lawyer for about a year before we sent the first mailer. I'm very diligent about my own research on the internet, followed you guys diligently, followed another land person, and finally just bit the bullet, one month before I was laid off from my job.

Steven Jack Butala:

Oh, man.

Christine McManus:

Yeah. You guys literally saved our lives, with respect to roof over the head, food on the table. I did get a decent severance pay, which increased our acquisition funds a little bit, so it became really fun in 2018. From August 2018 to August 2019, our goal was to make $20,000 a month, and we've surpassed that. Very exciting.

Steven Jack Butala:

I always say, if you can't live on 20 grand a month, something's wrong. Your priorities are wrong in life.

Christine McManus:

Indeed.

Jill DeWit:

If you can't live on five grand a month, I would say.

Christine McManus:

Right, right, and we were, and quite comfortably. Yeah, we just have not had any big purchase or splurge. We are enjoying writing larger checks to folks we want to donate to, so that's fun.

Steven Jack Butala:

Oh, that's great. Excellent.

Jill DeWit:

I love it. Now, coming into this, did you have any prior real estate experience at all?

Christine McManus:

I did not, Jill.

Real Estate Data Dash Board for Land Investment (LA 1358)

Transcript:

Steven Jack Butala:

Steve and Jill here.

Jill DeWit:

Hi.

Steven 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 extraordinary, beautiful Park City, Utah.

Steven Jack Butala:

Today, Jill and I talk about the real estate dashboard for land investment that I'm developing. 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 just excited to get right to the show.

Steven Jack Butala:

Yeah. I am, actually.

Jill DeWit:

You just jumped right in. You're like, we're just going to get to it. Okay. I'll get there. All right. So it looks like I have a question. And then I have, one response? Or do I have more than one response?

Steven Jack Butala:

Just one response, and then-

Jill DeWit:

Okay, cool.

Steven Jack Butala:

I wouldn't put it in there if it wasn't super pertinent.

Jill DeWit:

All right. I trust you with everything.

Steven Jack Butala:

Wow. That's good to know.

Jill DeWit:

And Jesse wrote-

Steven Jack Butala:

I don't believe you, but it's good to know. It's good to hear, at least in front of the camera.

Jill DeWit:

That's good. I was kind of being sarcastic. You took it seriously. I'm going to let you run with it. All right. Jesse wrote, in Land Academy. 1.0, video number three, thank you, Jesse. This is so cool. There's an explanation of equity planner. Love it. However, there are holes in explaining the spreadsheet and where to find the data in Redfin. The columns do not match up with realtor.com either. Has there been an update to this video? Because I'm a beginner, I'm trying to get my first mailer out and I'm stuck in a major way.

Well, Dear Joseph wrote, Hello, Jesse. Not sure if you've already figured this out. I was having the same issue recently. The video was filmed in January, 2019. I found that there were several additional columns in that data, in realtor data in its current form. If you erase the medium listing per square foot, total, YY/MM columns and the median square foot total, year over year, month over month.

Those are those. What that is. It will match up with a spreadsheet. Also, there are two additional columns in the equity spreadsheet that are not on the realtor.com spreadsheet, the Nielsen rank, and footnote that you will need to erase before the numbers match up. Thank you, Joseph. This is kind of like our question the other day too. Could you imagine, I'm trying to think, I mean, think of college and high school, any textbook, you can't, you couldn't think of a textbook written about the earth and all of the global warming changes that are happening, right? I'm sorry. Am I stepping on your toes?

Steven Jack Butala:

We live in this world right now, this YouTube like world where if you do not know how to change a light bulb and you go onto YouTube, there will be videos for you to choose from on how to change the light bulb, how to change the 30 watt light bulb, 60 watt light bulb, how to change a incandescent lamp, how to change a headlamp on a Lexus, and the year of the Lexus. And it gives you step-by-step instructions. And so we, but that's not learning anything. That's just repeating what somebody else has did, and getting it done. If you ever went to high school or college and you learned math back then, or anything else it's changed since you've learned it.

Jill DeWit:

That's what I was trying to say.

Steven Jack Butala:

So this has become a real topic for my staff. And I'm trying to drive this point home. This is not, this business that we're in is incredibly profitable. Jill and I live in a mansion on the beach in California because of this because of buying and selling land. And it didn't happen because I looked up a few of YouTube videos or signed up for a place that something like this,

Land Academy Continuing Education Explained (LA 1357)

Transcript:

Steven Jack Butala:

Steve and Jill here.

Jill DeWit:

Hello.

Steven 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 gorgeous Park City, Utah.

Steven Jack Butala:

Today Jill and I talk about The Land Academy Continuing Education Program Explained.

Jill DeWit:

What? What did you say?

Steven Jack Butala:

We spent six months asking Land Academy members, and just everybody, what more they want. How can they be more successful? We know a substantial number of you are doing great, what can we do better? Do you need to be more educated? Do you need another program? What do you need? They all said, or the vast majority of people said, "We need some form of continuing education in the form of we need to stay motivated."

Jill DeWit:

Keeping us on track.

Steven Jack Butala:

"We need to know how to utilize the MLS better," and on and on and on.

Jill DeWit:

Where I should be right now today.

Steven Jack Butala:

Yeah, we need a consistent, long-term module after module. "Hey Steve, you're always talking about these new ways to look at data. Can we have a class on it? Or can we get together in a small group, ask questions and get your attention. Maybe six or eight of us or 10 of us?" So, Jill and I will talk about that in a second. I can't wait, because I didn't realize it, but I'd like to teach.

Jill DeWit:

I know you do.

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.

Jill DeWit:

And you're great at it.

Steven Jack Butala:

Thank you, Jill.

Jill DeWit:

Kathy wrote-

Steven Jack Butala:

Jill's in vacation mode.

Jill DeWit:

I am.

Steven Jack Butala:

She's happy.

Jill DeWit:

This is fun. Kathy wrote, "Hi. We are considering buying a nine acre property that has a narrow frontage on a curve. Because of the curve, there's a guardrail." I hope that's not right in front of the property, this is interesting. "Not sure how this would be addressed for road access." That answers my question. "Will the County take down some of the guardrail or would we have to request access from a neighbor? The County office is hard to get ahold of, but wondering if anyone else has had this issue. Thanks, Kathy."

Steven Jack Butala:

May I?

Jill DeWit:

Go right ahead.

Steven Jack Butala:

What?

Jill DeWit:

I'm sorry. Guardrail, curve, slope. Uh oh, that's my train of thought there.

Steven Jack Butala:

Jill and I late last year purchased a commercial piece of property in Ohio for 10% of what it was listed. It was listed for a while. It came off the market, we gave them an outrageous offer. It was a [inaudible 00:02:38] deal that came in from another member. They accepted our offer because of life circumstances, it had every single thing you're talking about. We made $250,000 on it, here's why. We checked with, and it was a commercial piece of real estate that was zoned for-

Jill DeWit:

Hotel.

Steven Jack Butala:

Hotel. Hotel, motel hospitality. So it had all these things and I had the same exact concerns, almost in this order that you have. We found out through talking to the right people and talking to the person who eventually bought it from us that that's how they've gotten over it in the past. So none of this scares me, none of it.

Jill DeWit:

Can I share?

Steven Jack Butala:

Yeah.

Jill DeWit:

One of the things that we did that was really perfect for you, Kathy, right now, you do want to find out for sure from the County what the end result is. Then call number two and three and four are to three different brokers getting opinions, because that's what helped us in that transaction too. Once we figured out what was possible, then we had to talk to a couple of brokers and go, "Do you have people for this type of a thing?" We all know now what they need to do while they do...