Offers2Owners Removes Acquisition Risk

Jack Butala: Offers2Owners Removes Acquisition Risk. Leave us your feedback for this podcast on iTunes and get the free ebook at landacademy.com, you don't even have to read it. Thanks for listening.

Jack Butala:                         Jack Butala with Jill DeWit.

Jill DeWit:                            Happy Wednesday.

Jack Butala:                         Welcome to our show today. In this episode, Jill and I talk about Offers to Owners and how it removes acquisition risk, no matter who you are, if you're buying apartment buildings, skyscrapers, rural land like we do or house flips. Before we get into it, Jill, let's take a question posted by one of our members on the LandAcademy.com online community. It's free.

Jill DeWit:                            Okay. Mike asked, "I have an opportunity to purchase a five acre parcel in Colorado that shows power lines going across the back of the property. I know in general, having electric nearby is good, but what about power lines running across part of the property/having an electrical tower nearby? More desirable or less desirable?"

Jack Butala:                         Well, as always, this brings up a past deal that I've done. I had this exact same question. In fact, you phrased it a lot better than I used to, the exact same question about a deal that I did in southern California about four or five years ago. It was not just power lines going over it, it was the property under the large power lines that go from the plant and bring power into the city. I'm from Michigan and in Michigan, that's all dead real estate. There's nothing under it. It's underutilized. It's not utilized. I don't even know who owns it, actually. Probably the city. I'm not sure who maintains it. It might even be the power company.

In Colorado or west of the Mississippi I found out, specifically recently when we moved halfway to California, they use every square inch of property, so where we live, there's a property just like what I described under the power lines and they use it as a nursery to grow plants and stuff. I bought a piece of property about four years ago, not knowing any of this, because it was so inexpensive and it ended up selling for a ton of money at an auction. I mean a ton.

My gut tells me yes. It's way better to have electricity around than not, so in general, if I see any power lines, and if you're seeing power lines on Google Earth, chances are they're pretty big ones, it's good. Are there exceptions? Absolutely, but I really think that you should look at that as a positive attribute as long as you can get to it and the whole thing. The thing with power lines is that they have to be maintained, so there's probably roads being maintained. It's not bad. It's a real positive thing, Mike. Unless there's something clearly wrong with it, I'd go forward.

Jill DeWit:                            Mm-hmm (affirmative). I look at, too, most improvements can be considered an attribute in a lot of ways. There's something special, something different. We joke about even if it's a beat up shed or something out there, there's something on it. It's a little bit different, and that's not a bad thing.

Jack Butala:                         Yes. Raw sewage, no.

Jill DeWit:                            Yes.

Jack Butala:                         We were talking about the EPA recently. Oh, it was you. Jill and I, the holidays were over, we were up in the top of the mountain and she's like, "I can't believe ... When I was a kid ... I can't believe how far you can see in Los Angeles, but when I was a kid, you couldn't see anything."

Jill DeWit:                            True.

Jack Butala:                         Before the EPA really kicked in in the seventies and before catalytic converters kicked in, so I can't even imagine. There's four times more people in this town than back then.

Jill DeWit:                            It was so inte...