We Now Site Visit on Our Own Properties (LA 1648)

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 DeWitt, broadcasting from the Valley of the Sun.

Steven Jack Butala:

Today, Jill and I talk about, we now visit all of our properties.

Jill DeWit:

The ones we can get to. Wait, wait, I want to call this AK... What'd you call this week?

Steven Jack Butala:

I called it breaking our own rules.

Jill DeWit:

I call it eating our words week.

Steven Jack Butala:

This week we're going to talk all about how really, what we're talking about is how our business model has evolved.

Jill DeWit:

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Steven Jack Butala:

But yeah, I mean, stuff that we talked about on the show like a thousand episodes ago. Yeah.

Jill DeWit:

I know.

Steven Jack Butala:

Don't listen to that. This is better.

Jill DeWit:

It's funny. We started land academy seven years ago now. I don't even... Going on seven years, I think, ago. But you started this business model in the nineties.

Steven Jack Butala:

Yeah.

Jill DeWit:

So, there's been several changes over the decades-

Steven Jack Butala:

Lot of changes last week.

Jill DeWit:

... that we've been in this business. Exactly. Just like parenting, I got used to saying, "Not my kid," and then of course, it's my kid. I'm now saying that to you. "Oh, we don't do that," and I'm saying, "Yeah, now we do."

Steven Jack Butala:

Yep.

Steven Jack Butala:

Our staff is famous for saying, "Three weeks of ago you guys said we were supposed to do this, this, this and this."

Jill DeWit:

Yes.

Steven Jack Butala:

Yeah, that was three weeks ago.

Jill DeWit:

That's true. That changed.

Steven Jack Butala:

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

Jill DeWit:

[Yuri 00:01:42] wrote, "Got an accepted offer for a really weird parcel. It's 4.5 acres. It's a 4.5 acre island in the middle of a river. I was wondering if anyone had any experience dealing with properties like this." These are great. I have. Yeah. We have. Go for it.

Steven Jack Butala:

A lot of people, including me, had a lot to say on discord about this. And I said, "I love these types of properties," but here's the thing. They're almost never buildable.

Jill DeWit:

Sure.

Steven Jack Butala:

They have no access. All the things that we say... Again, this falls under all the stuff we... We say, "Never buy property that doesn't have access," and all of that. Yeah. This is never buildable. It's not going to be buildable, that it doesn't have access, but it's so unique that people love these types of-

Jill DeWit:

Yeah.

Steven Jack Butala:

I love to fish, and for five grand, I'd pick up a property like this just to say, "I own it." As long as the taxes aren't too small.

Jill DeWit:

Yeah.

Steven Jack Butala:

Maybe I use it two or three times-

Jill DeWit:

A year.

Steven Jack Butala:

... a year. And maybe I print the plat map up, frame it, put it in my office, and say, "I own an island."

Jill DeWit:

Exactly.

Steven Jack Butala:

Here's the thing with these properties. They have to be crazy cheap, and you need to really disclose that, as my research shows, no access, super cool property, no access or boat access only, you're never going to develop on it.

Jill DeWit:

And half of it floods-

Steven Jack Butala:

Yeah.

Jill DeWit:

... twice a year.

Steven Jack Butala:

Yeah.

Jill DeWit:

You know, something like that.

Steven Jack Butala:

Completely. All the way over. Right?

Jill DeWit:

Yeah.

Steven Jack Butala:

This case, this property was in Missouri, and it freezes.

Jill DeWit:

Oh. There you go.

Steven Jack Butala:

Honestly, if the river freezes over, it's one of those situations,