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In episode 2033, Steven Jack Butala and Jill DeWit explore the power of partnership funding for land and house-flipping deals. We’ll recap why using a money partner, rather than taking on debt, can be a game-changer and share key insights from this week’s episodes. You’ll also learn the step-by-step process from purchase to sale, the differences between land and house funding, and how partnership deals can boost your profits. Plus, we answer a listener question about buying property through an LLC, offering tips to avoid legal pitfalls. Tune in for practical advice and strategies to succeed in real estate!

Listen to the podcast hereUsing Partnership Funding For Your Land Flip And House Flip DealsThis is episode number 2033. We will overview and talk about the highlights of using partnership funding for you, your land, and your house-flipping deals. We spent the last several days talking on air about how we do it and how it works for us. We will recap that and tell you why it has played out and why it works for us well.

Partnership Funding Vs. DebtMonday was why it’s better to use a money partner than take on debt. On Tuesday, we talked about how much money you can make. I already gave you some real math. We went step by step through the whole process of everything and how it works from purchase to sale. Not just now we own it. Now, we sell it and we each get paid out. We covered all that. Jack talked mostly about the difference between land and house funding, and the things there, why they’re different, how much money each takes, and how fast houses can go. On this episode, we’re recapping. This is excellent.

Each day on the show, we answer a question from our Land Academy member Discord forum, then we take a deep dive into land-related topics at your request. Jill, we have a question.

Buying Property Vs. Buying the LLCRoy wrote, “I have a seller who owns a large property via an LLC. The LLC had multiple members and are all willing to sell. The property is a mix of vacant land, and farmland, and has current leases, an old home, and some barns. The sellers are offering to let me buy the LLC directly to avoid transfer tax and triggering a re-elevation of the property taxes, plus a couple of other benefits. This sounds good, but buying the LLC sounds like I’m opening myself up to potential legal issues unless I have amazing corporate due diligence. Does anyone have any experience in determining whether to buy the LLC or to buy the property directly?”

I have a lot of experience in this. In one way or the other, I’ve spent my entire career in acquisitions of some sort. Now, it’s manifesting itself into buying and selling land and has for a lot of years. What you’re talking about, and I’ll translate very simply, is buying the assets or the stock of a corporation. When you buy the stock, you buy the assets, the liabilities, and every single thing that’s associated with it. If there are strange assets that a company might own, you get them. Whatever is listed on the financial statement or the balance sheet, you buy, including the debt.

We all know what asset acquisitions are because that’s what we do here. We just buy the piece of land. It’s not in a company. We buy directly from a person. It’s like buying a piece of personal property, like a broom out of the garage for $15. It’s that simple. I would be very leery and we’ve had multiple opportunities like this. Jill and I have elected to never purchase the stock of a company. There are too many things that could not come up through the change of ownership.

It also opens you up to a lot of questionable ethics. Great. Form over substance, it’s changing ownership, but we’re not going to get a tax re-evaluation because it’s not hitting the radar of the taxing authority of the county. Is that ethical? No. Is it great from a tax standpoint? Yes. When you start to buy the stock of a company, you travel into gray areas, which has never made me comfortable.

For me, the biggest point that you brought up that I agree with is, how many of the properties they bought and sold under that LLC the stuff that could come back. Maybe it wasn’t done right. I don’t know. I don’t want to be responsible for that.

In some extreme cases, you would transfer the bank accounts into somebody else’s name. Whether or not there’s a tech solution for that in this day and age, probably. You would be transferring domain names. You don’t want that. You don’t even want the headache. You would buy the EIM, all that Tax Identification Number.

What if they had an employee years ago and they didn’t something went wrong. I don’t want to deal with that.

What if three years ago, the LLC filed a fraudulent tax return? You’re going to inherit that problem.

There you go too.

You don’t want to do this. Plus, if the assets are great and the price is great, just buy the assets.

Thanks, but no thanks.

Using Partnership FundingThis episode’s topic is highlights of using partnership funding, the stuff we’ve been talking about all week for your land and house flip deals. I want you to retain this one concept. This is the original no-money-down real estate deal. Jill and I, for a decade, have avoided saying this. It sounds schlocky. It sounds like you’re trying to sell somebody something.

How many times have you seen this on the internet or if you’re old like me, on late night TV, “No money down. You don’t need to bring your own money. You can make tons. You too can be a multimillionaire with doesn’t require any money.” I can’t stand that stuff. You should not put up with it in this day and age because you have many options on the Internet to choose where you get quality education.

I’d like to think that Jill and I are one of those sources. This is not a no-money-down thing by any stretch. You have to purchase the education, put your time in, energy, and all that, but if you find a great real estate deal within our group, people will be pounding your door down to buy it with you and be your partner. You don’t need money to buy real estate. A good attractive real estate transactions, you just need to be in the right group.

I would like to point out something big that I’m surprised that it didn’t come up this week earlier and I know you’re thinking of it because it’s what a lot of other people do. Remember the whole process we talked about? I’m partnering with you. We’re buying the deal. You heard me open an escrow. There’s a deed there.

People’s names, probably mine, if I’m going to be funding the whole deal 100%, my name is going on the deed. One of the things we didn’t talk about is sometimes, I do partnerships too. Where you’ll say, “Jill, I have half of it. Could we do 50-50 and both of our names go on the deed?” Absolutely. I love those deals too, because then I feel great because you have real skin in the game. It’s not just my money.

I think you’re even taking it even more seriously when you and I both put up. We each put in $30,000 to buy it for $60,000 and to sell it for $150,000. I think these are great. One of the things that we don’t do and don’t advocate is shopping. Keep this in mind. You just talked about the no-money-down thing. This is how some people I’ve heard in the land space actively promote, “Don’t even buy it. Nobody buys it. Get it under contract and we’ll have an equitable title and we run around and try to sell it, and then it’ll all work out in escrow.”

My goodness. There are a lot of things. We aren’t those people. If you don’t believe in it and you don’t trust in the deal much, don’t do the deal. I won’t do the deal if I don’t believe in it, but if I believe in the deal and you come to me and say, “We got to buy this thing. Look at it. How great is it?” I’ll say, “Yes.” I’m buying it. My name is on the deed. In a perfect world, it’s only on the deed for 90 days. You’ve sold it for us and then we move on. You are my partner in this.

If you do not believe in it and do not trust the deal very much, do not make the deal.
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I said this earlier on the Monday episode, “All you need to do is find and put under contract very attractive real estate transactions.” If you do one more thing with the rest of your life professionally, it’s that. You are going to do amazingly well financially and professionally.

Under contract till we buy it, we own it, and we sell it. For the other people now, the term is “Wholesaling.” It’s misused and overused now and we don’t do that.

No. I was trying to leave them with one. All you need to do is locate and put under contract great real estate and if you’re within a group like this, we’ll get funding. You’ll get all the advice you need and we won’t let you make bad decisions.

I think we covered it.

Join us next week for another interesting episode. You are not alone in your real estate ambition. We are Jack and Jill. Information and inspiration to buy undervalued property.

The post Using Partnership Funding For Your Land Flip And House Flip Deals appeared first on Land Academy.

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When it comes to funding flip deals, the choice between land and houses can significantly impact your investment journey. In episode 2032, Steven Jack Butala and Jill DeWit break down the key differences between funding land and house flip deals. Discover which strategy aligns better with your financial goals and risk tolerance. From the cash-intensive nature of house flips to the potential for big bucks with land deals, this episode offers practical advice for making smart investment choices. Join them for an informative dive into successful funding strategies for your next flip deal!

Listen to the podcast hereFunding Flip Deals: Land Or House?IntroductionThis is episode number 2032. In this episode, I will talk about the difference between funding a land flip deal and a house flip deal. This is one of my favorite topics because there are pros and cons to each, but they’re very simple pros and cons. You probably will choose which one is right for you based on this conversation if you’re new.

We do both.

We do both on both sides. That’s why we’re here.

What does that mean, both sides?

Real Estate Analysis & InvestmentSometimes, we’re the funder. Sometimes, we are the person who finds a deal and seeks funding. The theme this week is everything you need to know about funding your land flip or your house flip transaction. Each day on the show, we answer a question from our Land Academy Member Discord forum. We take a deep dive into a land-related topic at your request. Jill, we have a question.

James wrote, “A particular ZIP code in the county that I’m studying has a ratio of 36 properties sold to 25 active or listed. I’m not running any filters other than viewing lot/land over the last twelve months. In 12 months, 36 sold and 25 active. This ZIP code passes the Red Yellow Green Test. My adjacent ZIP code has 48 sold and 24 listed/active and also passed my Red Yellow Green Test with flying colors. All other factors aside, do these numbers seem too light when testing for a reason on a particular ZIP code?”

These numbers seem amazing to me.

Two to one is like, “Ooh.” He said, “This is my first time getting this far in our analysis process. I would appreciate any feedback from anyone on our channel. Thank you in advance for the pointers.”

James, you understand the Red Green Yellow Test. What you’re looking for is 1 to 1. In case number 1, you have 25 over 36. If it were 1 to 1, you would have 25 over 25. Your situation is better. Case number two is 2 to 1. This is a good thing. If you had to choose between the 2, you would choose number 2. In real life, what happens, and Jill and I always agree on this, is to mail them both and knock yourself out. I would go so far as to say if these two adjacent ZIP codes are like this, then what are the other ZIP codes that are around it? If they’re as good or close to performing like that, mail them all. You found yourself a little gem. This is great work. I can tell if you understand this and you’re asking this level of question and wording it well like this, you’re going to do fantastic in this business.

You got this.

Funding Land Flip Deals Vs. House Flip DealsThis episode’s topic is the difference between funding land flip deals and house flip deals. Here’s the deal. For a week, Jill and I have been saying, “Let’s say we buy a piece of property or a piece of land for $10,000 or $20,000 and sell it for $60,000. We make $50,000 and we split it. I get $25,000 as the funder. You earn your $25,000. You found the deal, bought it, and sold it.” Houses are way more cash-intensive. You’re going to buy for $300,000 and sell for $400,000. That’s a typical deal for us on both sides, funding and seeking funding.

It’s very easy, in my opinion, to value and price houses. You know if every house in the whole subdivision sold for $425,000 and you’re buying this $300,000 house, which you’re going to do nothing. You’re not going to renovate it, paint it, and carpet it in almost all situations. You’re just going to resell it to somebody who’s going to go do that. You sell it to somebody who’s going to clean it all up. The renovator, we call them. Your buy time and your sales time are typically very quick in that situation. It’s usually you put it up for sale, it’s under contract in a week, and all cash in and cash out in 30 days. It’s simple and very low-risk.

You have a home inspection. You have real estate agents who are pounding your door down because they sold houses across the street or down the block. Buying and selling a house like that is simple. We have funders that understand houses and they line up. They will line up to make a certain percentage even if it’s 10%. Wouldn’t you get 10%? That’s the peaches and cream house example. With land, you can make as much money. It’s way less cash-intensive, but the deals are a little bit more risky because people don’t run around buying and selling land all the time. They do run around buying and selling houses.

With land, you can make as much money. It's way less cash-intensive, but the deals are slightly riskier.
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It’s easy for everyone to say, “Every 3-bedroom, 2-bath in this ZIP code with a carport and no pool or whatever it is and built between 1985 and 1995 in this subdivision all go under contract within 24 hours of being listed.” You have those real numbers, which is great. It’s very easy for people to sign off on and jump into.

These are some of the things I love about houses. One of the other things I love about houses is that I’m often skipping the realtor phase. These acquisitions, when you’re in a market like that that’s so hot, you could drive it yourself or ask somebody to drive it and count the ten dumpsters in the area. Get those guys’ phone numbers and you text them. I wouldn’t give it to them ahead of time in this situation, but the day I close though, you better believe I’m texting all ten of them the address, and watch how fast they text me back and say, “I’ll take it.”

There’s a real perceived and real different risk scenario. When you’re buying and selling houses, there’s no real risk in my opinion. It’s fast. They’re very much more difficult to locate. By tuning in to this, you might say, “Why don’t you guys buy and sell houses all the time?” The fact is we do. We do buy and sell houses all the time. We don’t talk about it a lot. It’s very mechanical and pretty easy. Also, when you’re buying and selling houses, you’re removing your opportunity to hit a home run.

With land, once or twice a year, Jill and I buy a property for less than $50,000 and sell it for $200,000, $3000,000, or $400,000. We get huge profit margins pretty quickly. They’re different animals from a risk standpoint. One is cash-intensive in buying houses. It keeps a lot of people out of the business. Both are good. They’re just different.

Submit your deals to us at LandFunding.com. I would encourage you if you are part of the Land Academy community or in this business at all to add buying and selling houses to what you’re already doing with your land business, especially at this time because the market is a little bit down, so to speak.

Join us in the next episode where we discuss highlights of using partnership funding for your land and your house flip deals. We’re going to recap what we talked about here. You are not alone in your real estate ambition. We are Jack and Jill. Information and inspiration to buy undervalued property.

Important Link* Land Funding The post Funding Flip Deals: Land Or House? appeared first on Land Academy.

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Steven Jack Butala and Jill DeWit have handled hundreds of land funding deals. Now, they are ready to reveal their secrets. In this episode, they offer a step-by-step guide on how they do these deals, providing an easy-to-emulate roadmap to huge real estate investing wins.

Listen to the podcast hereA Step-By-Step Guide On Land Funding DealsThis is episode 2031. We’re going to talk about how we have funded hundreds of land deals. We’re going to take a look at how these land funding deals actually work in real life. This is reality.

I’m going to give you the whole process you can really understand and grasp.

Before we start, I have to tell you. This is the reason Jill and I started Land Academy years ago. We didn’t start Land Academy to give away our business model or to actually make money. Believe me, this is not a good way to make money. Buying and selling real estate is a fantastic way to make a lot of money. We started this to get funders because we were constantly and still do run out of our acquisition capital. We created this Land Academy group in an attempt to, and it really worked, educate people and find people who want to fund our real estate deals and be our partners. To this day, we have a lot of partners because of it.

Buying and selling real estate is a fantastic way to make a lot of money.
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I look at it like my personal thing was funding other people’s deals, educating people, and being frank.

It is now.

That was what got my attention early on. Sharing our whole secret sauce may not have been our best idea. Ask me after a couple of drinks when we’re not on camera, but it’s all worked out fine. We have helped many people make millions in many different ways. How can you be unhappy about that? That’s the reality. We’re going to talk about the step-by-step process of what really goes on when we do these deals.

Sewage And SepticFor our entire week, the theme is everything you need to know about funding your land flip or your house flip transaction. Each day on the show, we answer a question from our Land Academy member Discord forum and take a deep dive into land and house-related topics at your request. Jill, there’s a question.

Joseph wrote, “I just talked to a seller about a piece of land. They want to sell for my offer price of $11,752. It’s 2.65 acres with a house, chicken coop, and a workshop but no septic or sewage.” Where does that go? Do they have one of those things that go behind the RV and they just wheel it away once a day?

That could be.

I’ve seen some weird things, by the way, on the road like that. It’s like their tiny house and they have one of those things on wheels where you can dump it and then go dump it. Joseph, this is not nuts. I’ve seen this stuff. “Basically, in the area, I think you can get $20,000 per acre and it’s right off a main road. I asked why they were selling and they said they just can’t keep it anymore. The kids don’t want it. They need to cash fast. He sounded emotional. No back taxes.”

“Of course, I’m sending someone out there to take a good look at it and lots of pictures, but I’m also pinching myself a little bit and wondering what I could be missing. I flipped derelict houses before, but they said this is in livable condition.” This is interesting. “At this price, I don’t see how I can go wrong. Is just the model working? My question in the group would be, what could go wrong? How could I lose? We’re doing everything right.”

I would do exactly what you’re doing. Let’s get some eyes on it. Get a signed purchase agreement so we have that locked in. Maybe even open escrow because you can change your mind later. You haven’t done anything yet. I might even open escrow, get an escrow number so I feel a little bit like I can breathe and get other people involved here, and then send someone out to take pictures of it. You have good eyes on it. Get some drone shots. That’s a thing maybe at this point, too, because it really is a house and you have it in escrow. I feel good about it.

I would then even bring in a local real estate professional and have them go walk in it. Never tell them what you’re spending. That’s my thing. Let them go in, take a look, say, “I don’t know what to do with this. I’m just about to close. Can you please go take a look at it? Tell me what you think. What could you sell it for inside of 60, 90 days? Whatever you think.” That’s my go-to. I don’t want to sell it really fast. I always tell them it’s not a fire sale, but I’m not going to be here for a year to reset the market and mark it up and wait. I’m not doing that too, but I want to know what’s a good price.

When you say a sentence to yourself about a transaction, “How can this go wrong,” you are absolutely on the right track. This happens. There are a lot of different reactions you can have when you first review a transaction when it comes back. The vast majority of where we have a lot of success, maybe all of them have some component of, “What am I missing? This is an amazing deal. Is it 100% foolproof?” No, but I love that you said it twice in here.

I have one little point I wanted to add that I picked up on, too. It’s a house with all these things there. We don’t know what’s up with the septic in the sewage. I do have to ask. My only red flag is to find out what’s the problem there.

You’re going to get an inspection. We cover all this in House Academy. It’ll come up at the inspection, and then you can adjust the price or deal with it at that time.

The price is so good. I just want to know what the story is there. Is it on the side of a cliff and it’s all on stilts and no one could afford to do things? I don’t know. Forget you had that. That would be it and you’ll find out. These emotional things, this is real. I get it.

Land Funding DealsThis episode’s topic, we’ve funded hundreds of land deals. Let’s look at how land funding deals actually work in real life. Jill, go ahead.

You join Land Academy, you learn the education, you follow the steps, you send out mail, you do everything right, you pictured amazing acquisition criteria where you’re only buying things where you’re going to make at least $50,000 because then you’re going to get somebody else. You can get a funder that will get involved in it. What am I talking about? If I send out a bunch of offers, I’m only going to make $5,000. The chances of getting somebody involved and excited about splitting $5,000 with you is slim.

If you send out a land of investing offers about making 5 grand, the chances of getting somebody excited are slim. When you are talking about making 50 grand, you will get people’s attention.
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When you’re talking you’re going to make $50,000, now you got people’s attention like, “What’s going on? Let’s look at this deal.” It could be buy for $30,000 sell for $80,000, something like that. Very reasonable and really easy. How does it work then? The purchase, it could even be like the question for this episode. “It came back, it’s signed and I’m ready to go. What do I do?” My first thing would be to go ahead and open escrow because it’s that good. That would be my first step. Open escrow and get that locked in and then come to me with the deal.

You present it. Where do you do this? Go to LandFunding.com and fill in state, county, APN, the details you have, the cell information, and a copy of the purchase agreement so that I know that that’s a real deal and then it gets to me. I’m going to look at it and go, “This is great, Joseph. Holy cow. We’ve got to do this. It looks like you’re all ready to go. Awesome.” Done. I approve it. It’s either going to be, “I love it as it is,” or, “Don’t forget to check this. Let’s make sure we get maybe the septic thing. Did you get the right person out there?”

“Can I see the report back just so we know?” If it doesn’t work at all, I’ll tell you, “You’re spending too much money,” or, “I don’t see the access. Do we know about the access,” or something like that, so you know. Let’s just say I green-light the whole thing, it’s this deal that we’re talking about that you wrote in. Let’s go. My team then gets involved. Here’s one of the beautiful things I didn’t mention. My team is phenomenal. My team were former escrow agents who now understand our side of the business.

They will get deals done that sometimes other people can’t get done. Any help you need with that scenario, they’ll jump in and take over and do work side by side with you and get the deals closed, often, faster than you think we can get closed. I approve the deal. I send you a quick little 1, 2-page partnership agreement. It’s just saying you’re in charge of this. I’m in charge of the money. That is usually how it goes, and what our percentage is going to be when we split. That’s it.

That document is between us. It’s not like it’s sent to the county. We don’t share with the escrow people. As Jack said before, we’re not opening an LLC together. It’s a simple little partnership agreement, telling us what the steps are. Our responsibilities are split. With our split, too, it says in there, we’re going to each get paid out of escrow. The costs that I’m covering, that’s in there too. Typically, I’m covering the whole purchase price and the closing costs. If we’re closing on the 30th, whatever money needs to go to the escrow company to get closed on the 30th, that’s coming out of my pocket. You’re done.

Now we’ve closed it. Part of the normal responsibilities at this point, too, is I ask you, you’re the manager, I call you the manager of the deal, either you’re going to be in charge of selling it or you’re going to find an agent and manage the agent to sell it. That’s part of your things. Usually, we will remind you, getting close to closing time, get that agent lined up. We don’t want to wait until, “We own it today,” and then wait until the 5th to find an agent and get it posted and marketed and for sale.

Even the guy that you used a couple of weeks ago, let’s get his opinion too that we talked about. We may have a guy already picked out. We close on the 30th. Hopefully, that’s the day of the 30th or the 31st, our agent or you is ready to go and list that property and get it sold. Now my money’s in there. I just sit back and let you manage them. You talk to them. You make sure the posting looks good. I’m here if you need another pair of eyes for my expertise, but you just run with it. I’m your bank. I’m not in your way. That’s how I am. I’m not going to sit here and nitpick. I’m not going to call you every day and say, “Is it sold yet?”

That’s the value of bringing in someone who’s experienced like me, too. I understand where these deals go. I’m going to sit back and wait for you to call me when you’ve got something great and you’re ready to go on the sell side. That’s it. You call me up and go, “Jill, we’re ready to go. Remember, you and I talked about we’re not going to take anything below $80,000? Guess what? I just got a full-price cash offer for $82,000 and I opened escrow. I told your team we’re done.” I say, “Congratulations, Joseph. I will be watching for when it closes thing and that’s it.

You with my team, they’ll help you manage it to the close and then at that point, whatever percentage you and I agreed upon. Jack talked about it that I’m open to all kinds of variances, but let’s just say we bought it for $30,000, we’re selling it for $82,000, we got costs in there, we had an agent working with us. Now, our $82,000 is $72,000, let’s just say, whatever it is. That’s really realistic. That’s a $42,000 profit, right? Divided by 2, that is $21,000 each.

At the close of escrow, what you’re going to do is you’re going to submit before escrow closes, when we get the HUD 1 or the closing statement saying how much money is coming back, we’re going to take the total profit, the $42,000, cut it in half, and you’re going to submit an invoice, if you will, to escrow that you’re going to get your management fee of $21,000 at escrow to your account, wherever you want it wired or whatever or check, whatever you prefer. That’s what happens the day it closes.

I get my investment back, my half of the profit, and you get your half of the profit at the same time. I’m not writing you any checks or anything. It’s right out of escrow. It’s really easy and simple and clean. Hopefully, while this was all happening too, you’ve submitted two more to me at that time, and we’re doing it again because now we got a team, by the way. My team knows your team. You and I got this figured out, how we roll. You’re like, “This is great, Jill. You don’t bug me. I love it and you’re there if I need you.” Now we have this agent that we love and this escrow is so fast and let’s do it again.

As I said before, that’s great, guys, but if it’s so easy, why doesn’t everybody do it this way? The reason is stuff goes sideways in deals. That’s one of the reasons you want to fund with somebody like Jill, too, because she’s going to step in within reason. She’s not going to do the deal for you, but she’s going to step in within reason and either save it or not. This really is a no-lose situation for you. I’m not trying to sit here and sell anything. You’re not going to lose. You’re not putting any money up.

Episode Wrap-UpIf something goes sideways, Jill’s going to end up with the deal, which makes her very choosy about the deals that she gets involved in the first place. She chooses deals that basically can close themselves. They’re a great deal and the numbers work. Join us next time where we discuss the difference between funding land flip deals and house flip deals. You are not alone in your real estate ambition. We are Jack and Jill. Information and inspiration to buy undervalued property.

The post A Step-By-Step Guide On Land Funding Deals appeared first on Land Academy.

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How can land deal funding help you make money without spending a single penny? In this episode, Steven Jack Butala and Jill K DeWit reveal how to build wealth by leveraging other people’s money (OPM). Learn the top strategies for funding land and house flips without using your own capital, avoid common pitfalls, and maximize your profits through smart partnerships. Whether you’re new to real estate or an experienced investor, this episode walks you through the exact steps to scale your business, grow your bank account, and achieve financial freedom through effective land deal funding.

Listen to the podcast hereBuild Wealth With Land Deal Funding: Using OPM For Maximum ProfitsThis is episode number 2,030. Our topic is we’re going to go through land deal funding by the numbers. We’ll ultimately show you how much money you can make without starting with the penny. My favorite part of this exercise is your bank balance. You start with zero. You do a deal, and you split it. You make $25,000, you split it and do another one. You make $50,000 and after a few months of doing this successfully, you’re going to be staring at a few hundred thousand dollars in the bank.

This has happened to me. Multiple times. It continues to happen to us without putting a dollar in. That’s the beautiful ending to the story. We’ll talk about some of the things that can go right and go wrong, where the challenges are and all of that. The theme is everything you need to know about funding your land or your house flip transaction. It’s something Jill and I know a little bit.

I didn’t put it in there. I should point out, though, I look at land and houses if you go to LandFunding.com. Put it in there whether it’s land or house. You’re like, “I got one now. That’s why I’m reading. I waited till Tuesday for you to tell me this.”

“My old partner sucks and I want a new one.”

That, too. There you go, or let’s try one deal and see how it goes. Put it in there. I’ll give you the feedback or we’ll do the deal.

Purchase AgreementEach day on the show, we answer a question from our Land Academy member Discord forum and take a deep dive into land-related topics per your suggestion. Jill, let’s take a question.

Jenny wrote, “Hello, all. I have a newbie question. I have a signed purchase agreement for a property that looks promising, but my offer was too high. The purchase price is $16,000. What I like to buy it for is somewhere between $8,000 and $11,000. Is that possible to negotiate a lower price when the sellers already signed the purchase agreement? How do you approach that?”

Part two is, “The person who signed this identified themselves as executor. It appears the owner has passed.” I’m going to jump in here. The first thing I would do, Jenny, is part two. Before you even go down the path of talking to them, looking at it, getting all excited, working on a price and having that locked in. Let’s first make sure that the person you’re communicating with does have the power to transfer the property.

Let’s assume for this exercise that they do. Probate was done or it’s in a trust. All the documents are in order and they are the right person because that’s important. Now, what do I do about that purchase price? What are the reasons? You have reasons. You didn’t put them in here, but why are the reasons that you’re saying it’s too high? Is its accesses not as great as it could be? Does the property have some issues, like it’s 10 acres, but I can only use 4 acres because of the hill on the back?

The first thing I look at is why are you rethinking your price other than I just came into high. Other than I goofed it up. There was some stuff in there with the county that made it go funky. I would use those things as the facts as to why and there’s nothing wrong with that. Here’s how the conversation would go. Let’s just assume I offered $16,000. They signed it. They’re all excited. They sent it back and I look at it.

I go, “Shoot. It’s not as close to this town. I can only use 4 acres of the 10 acres. There’s not much out there.” I still like it and I’m looking at the math. I could sell it for somewhere between $16,000 and $20,000, so I can’t pay $16,000 to buy it. I need to get it at $8,000. This is where you call the seller back and go, “We got to talk.”

Often, in some situations, if they know the property, they’re ready for it. They go, “I thought this was going to happen.” It’s funny how often that comes up and you go, “Look.” You give them those three things. Not 30. You give them 2 to 3 things. That’s it like, “I thought it was closer to the town. After I looked at it and saw the flood zone, I don’t know if you’re aware of that or not, but 6 of the acres are underwater half the year. I can’t use those. It’s only four. The third thing is,” fill in blank.

I go, “I do still like the property, but now the best I can do and I hate to do this to you. I hate to be that guy, but it doesn’t command that $16,000 purchase price. It does command $8,000. If that works for you, I am ready to go. I have Susie at ABC title all set up. I can get this done in ten days. I’m still going to honor everything that I said in my letter. I’ll pay the closing costs and all that. How about I open escrow? I’ll just send you everything over and get your new purchase agreement in your email in two minutes?” That’s how you do it.

To answer your question directly.

I thought that was directly.

Renegotiating a price happens very often. This is not an unusual situation. There’s no such thing as a perfectly priced mailer. People think that a lot. People think that if you spend a ton of time and months pricing on your mailer, They’re going to get a better response and it’s all going to be beautiful pictures and cream. The fact is, I price a mailer. I send it out probably at least half, maybe more or probably more than half. She’ll have to go in and make some type of adjusting based on their personal situation. In this case, it’s an executor scenario. Hopefully, there’s a trust. There’s a bunch of things going on here. That’s good for price reduction. It’s what Jill said, the deals are unique.

Land Deal AgreementOur topic is land deal funding by the numbers. How much money can you make? I used the example of buy for $10,000 and sell for $60,000. I think there’s $50,000 of profit in a deal. I went through the education. Buy an academy education. I got myself signed at a Discord. Asked a bunch of questions and in months later, I got a mailer out and a deal. It’s buy for $10,000 and sell for $60,000 with $50,000 of profit and I don’t have any money. I knew that going in and I don’t feel bad about it.

I need a funder, so I told Jill or I go to LandFunding.com and put the deal in there. Jill likes the deal. I generated $50,000 or do the deal. She gets $25,000. I take $25,000 and I put it in the banks and another mailer. I do the same thing and I have $50,000 in the bank again, $75,000. Now I have $100,000 in the bank and it’s a year later. This is very realistic and accomplishable.

That’s going slow.

That’s going very slow.

This usually be one of a month.

At the end of the year, I have $200,000 in the bank. Do I need Jill anymore? No. I can continue to do deals with her. I chose to continue to deal with her. You can do that. You can continue to have a lifelong funding partner that way. In fact, in that case, we can even adjust the percentage, instead of splitting the deal 50/50. We would probably bring it down to some other percentage because you know what you’re doing now. You’ve got some experience.

You don’t need me.

Everybody knows what to expect from the other partner. There’s probably not a lot of talking by now. Let’s do another one. Shortly, we’re going to, but my point is, that’s what’s possible. People get hung up on, “I’m not giving away 50% of the profit margin of this deal.” If I went to Bank of America and got along, I’m not getting an expertise. When something goes sideways, I call the bank. They’re going to say, “What are you talking about? We don’t even have your deal once sideways.” That’s too bad.

They wouldn’t even take the call. There’s a lot more involved than that. What could you expect if you are good at executing the education of Land Academy and turning it into money for yourself? You can expect to make hundreds of thousands of dollars systemically with a funding partner until you believe you don’t need that person anymore. Land Academy is packed. It’s full of people that we heard a lot from in the beginning when they joined. They ask a lot of questions. They were very vocal on our Thursday webinars and are still in the group years and years later making tons of money.

Quietly.

How do we know that?

They’re the bank now.

How do we know that? It’s because we owned a printing company called Offers 2 Owners. We see that they’re sending out tens of thousands of offers every single month.

That’s a normal progression. People come in, and you have just painted that beautiful picture. $25,000 at a time, and they come up front and they, “Now I have $250,000. I can either keep going like I’m doing it. Don’t borrow anybody’s. Don’t use any partners and keep it all to myself or I could do a little bit of both. A lot of people do that. I’ll do mine and run out of dough. I’ll do some of these with Jill. Whatever it is.”

The other thing they often do is, “Now I can be the bank for somebody else. I can be on that end of it. I’ll fund somebody’s deal. I’ll put in the $10,000 or $15,000. Whatever it is, split the profit with some new person.” That’s common. I know there are people in Land Academy, and that’s the only reason they’re here. They don’t even want to send out mail. They just know how smart our group is and want to be the bank and be the funding partner for our people because these deals are that good.

People are in Land Academy because they know how smart our group is and want to be the bank and be the funding partner for our people because these deals are that good.
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Dynamic Personality“That’s great, Jack. It sounds easy and peaches and cream. Why doesn’t everybody do it?” Here’s why. This only works if you have a dynamic personality and can create a real estate transaction below its current value. How does that happen? By having a personality like Jill. By having some type of skillset. You might be brand new and you don’t even know you have the skill set yet. You might be a real estate agent who’s been helping people buy and sell houses for many years and you know you have a dynamic personality. You’ve been on the phone for ten hours a day for many years.

If you have that type of personality where you can bring people together when things go sideways, make them straighten out again and make things go your way. You’re going to do great at this. If you sit in a dark hole like I do and I’m crunching numbers all day and are happy with that. It’s going to be very difficult for you to accomplish this to do well for yourself financially in this business without having a partner like Jill.

Everybody says, “What’s the catch? Why does everybody do this? You guys describe it so easy. You have to have a dynamic personality and some experience on the phone or that type of personality.

Thank you.

Tons of money can be made here. Jill and I do millions of dollars a year buying and selling real estate. It tied up and she gets a deal done and we have staff.

It’s funny, the right partner when you someday tell them, “I’m good now.” Trust me, it’s hard for them because I’ve been on both ends of it. I’ve had to tell people like, “I don’t need your money now,” and let them down a little bit. On the other side, they said, “I don’t need your money anymore.” I’m like, “I was waiting for that to happen.” When I’m telling them, “Go get two more of those. Can you please or ten more of those?” I’m like, “I got this. Thank you,” but it’s good.

That’s why we always say it’s a great point. Think about it. When you retain a partner, do not, under any circumstance, form an LLC with them. You’re 50% and they’re 50%. Don’t ever do any of that stuff because you need to go on a date first to see if you’re going to get married. You want to do one deal first and split it. Another deal and split it. You could happily do that for the rest of your life, but co-mingling and all of that is where everybody gets debit cards and there’s money in a bank account. What a disaster. We’ve done that. Jill and I have done that with each other and with other people. I’ve done it with other people. I don’t think you have many years ago. We won’t make that mistake twice.

We’re going to talk about it because our topic is we’ve done so many land deals that we’ve funded that we’re going to talk to you about how they go step by step. You’re like, “You don’t mingle your money.” We’ll explain it all.

You are not alone in your real estate ambition. We are Jack and Jill. Information.

You are not alone in your real estate ambition.
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Also, inspiration.

To buy undervalued property.

Important Links* Land Funding * Offers 2 Owners The post Build Wealth With Land Deal Funding: Using OPM For Maximum Profits appeared first on Land Academy.

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Why take on debt when you can partner up and fund your next big land deal? In this episode, Steven Jack Butala and Jill K DeWit dive into the critical choice between using a partner to fund your land or house flips versus taking on debt. With their decades of experience, they break down the benefits of partnering for fast, hassle-free funding and explain why debt may not be the best route in the world of real estate. Whether you’re a seasoned investor or just getting started, learn how the right partnership can propel your deals and profits forward.

Listen to the podcast herePartnership Vs. Debt: Funding Your Real Estate Deals The Right WayThis is episode number 2029 and we’re going to talk about why it’s better to use a partner to fund land or house flip deals versus taking on debt. Point two, wildly different things but they’re often very confusing. We’re going to take this entire week and talk about how to fund your acquisition deals. Your job in life is to find great real estate deals and not to worry about how they’re going to get structured financially or any of that. That’s why you’re in a group like Land Academy.

The last time I checked, if you have a great deal, the money will be there, whether it’s mine or somebody else’s. If it’s that great of a deal you’re staring at and you’re going, “I’m going to sell my car” or “I’m going to come up with somebody to fund this,” I’m sure someone will jump in and help you.

Jill and I have been doing this for almost ten years. I’ve said this over the years. You have one simple job in this business. That is to find undervalued real estate and get it under contract. If you do that right and correctly and do it with your soul, everything else will fall into place very well if you’re in a group like Land Academy.

It’s Land Academy for ten years. We’ve been in the business together for fifteen years, and then you’re doing deals for 30 years. Sorry, I had to say that.

No, I don’t care.

I don’t want you to feel bad, but you’ve been doing it that long. It’s a positive thing.

I’ve never met a guy in my entire life, I’m trying to think if there are any exceptions, who has been upset about getting older.

Women don’t feel that way. We feel the exact opposite.

It’s got to be biology. This is the happiest I’ve ever been. Our kids are out of the house. They’re all doing well. You and I are having a blast.

Most days.

The money thing is done. Being older has massive advantages.

I don’t I don’t disagree. I enjoy being older. I hate getting old.

What is it that you hate? Is it waking up with aches and pains?

No. I don’t have any of that.

Is your skin not tight enough?

Yes.

Your skin is tight enough.

I don’t like it, but anyway. This is not what this is about.

This about money.

Our theme, I’m going to read them off here. It’s everything you need to know about funding your land or house flip deal. We’re talking about whether to use a partner and the differences between that, a partner versus debt like a loan. On Tuesday, we’re going to talk about land funding by the numbers.

What’s possible. How much money can you make.

On Wednesday, we’re going to talked about all the hundreds of land deals that we have done and how it works in real life. It’s a step-by-step process. Thursday, we’re going to talk about the difference between land and house flip deals because there are variances when you get into it. On Friday, we’re just going to do some highlights about some of the partners, maybe the partnerships we’ve done, and some great stories

Pricing OffersHighlights of what we talked about the entire week. Each day on the show, we answer a question from a Land Academy member on our Discord forum and take a deep dive into land related topics by your request. Let’s take a look at a question.

Mike wrote, “Hi, guys. I hope you are all well. I started Land Academy mid-year of 2023, but at the end of the year, I had to put the business aside due to the demand of my other business. I have since sold my previous business and will be focusing fully on land. I am refamiliarizing myself again with the processes. I know since 2023, a few things are different. Forgive me if I ask a silly or redundant question, but this is a way to get them answered. In the modules, Jack is at 25% as an average to send out offers. Are we still at 25%? Is there a different better method to scrub other than WebHarvey?”

What he means is we price our offer campaigns by default at 20% now. We brought it on a little bit to adjust for among other things with the economy. He’s asking, is it still the average? Is that still the number? Do we still use WebHarvey to scrape for sold and active listings, like time listing’s comparison values, to determine what the price breaker is? The answer is yes to all of that.

However, we have been trying to drive this point home since 2023, and probably in the future. You have to run. It’s imperative that you run a test for reason at the end. You are going to find there are variances and types of property and a zip code. If you think about where you live right now and what’s going on a block over, the pricing is different in two blocks over and three blocks over. You must test for reason.

I spend hours and hours before our offers go out, testing for reason to make sure we’re not wasting time and money. This environment is too difficult to talk about testing for reason, but you pick and choose several random offers that you’re sending out. You test them for reason as if they came back signed and you’re ready to do the deal.

Partner Vs. DebtIf you’re jumping up and down because you’re test for reason work, then that’s mission accomplished. If you’re saying, “That price is too high,” then you’re going to have to start to adjust. I go through it all in the modules. Today’s topic is why it is better to use a partner to fund a land or a house deal versus taking on debt. Let’s look at a brief example of each of those things.

I’m going to go buy a piece of property for $10,000 and I’m going to sell it for $50,000. I don’t have any money. That’s perfectly okay. I used to feel bad about that. I wish I had all the money that I could do this. Forget it. No one is expecting you especially if you’re new in this business to have money or access some money. That’s not what you’re here for.

I’m going to buy it for $10,000 and sell for $50,000, a common spread for Land Academy transaction. There’s about $40,000 worth of profit in there theoretically if you did everything right. I have a couple of choices. I can call my business partner Jill and I can say, “Buy for $10,000 and sell for $50,000. Please take a look.” She calls me back and says, “We should do this deal quickly and fast.”

Tell me where to wire it.

In fact, she might even say, “$50,000 is light. Maybe let’s buy for $10,000 and sell for $70,000.” What we do is we travel down the path together as partners. She’s the funder. I don’t have $10,000, so she spends all of it. She spends not only $10,000 but all the costs and everything that gets the deal done. I don’t have any money.

You do the mail.

I can’t fund for it.

Everything up into that point, you paid for and now you’re staring at the deal. I come in and I’m paying for the acquisition price, everything that needs to get it closed.

At the bitter end, we’d agree on a percentage. If I’m new, it’s usually 50/50 of the profits. Buy for $10,000 and sell for $50,000 or $60,000. Let’s say there’s $50,000 worth of profit. At the end of the deal, I get $25,000 because I found the deal. She gets $25,000 because she funded it and applied her expertise and help and all that stuff. That’s it. That’s what a partnership agreement is like.

Now, I am $25,000 richer for spending nothing at all. In a debt scenario, I would have to go get probably a hard money lender situation. Possibly go to a bank and explain an inch-thick worth of paperwork and explain to somebody who has no idea the difference between a land acquisition and buying an apartment building because they’re young people out of bank and they’re not experience. It’s been a ton of time and energy. Probably, in the end, I fail getting a mortgage because they don’t understand it.

What percentage am I looking at to do this too?

Let’s say it’s between 6% and 10% annually. The reality is I’m doing that so I could exercise. You’re never going to get funding like that.

They don’t get because they don’t get it.

There are no boxes on a computer screen for them to click.

Its unimproved and I’m not going to do anything to it. It is hard.

You might find a hard money lender who’s going to charge it 10% upfront. They’re going to take an application for you. Probably a fixed price of around $1,500 just to apply.

What if I sign a personal guarantee, would somebody do that?

It wouldn’t matter. In fact, anything. You would sign a personal guarantee. That’s a great point. Any of the debt products that we’re talking about will come with at a personal guarantee meaning if you default on a loan, you are still on the hook. You’re credit score and all that. With a funder, none of that happens. If Jill and I do a deal and it goes sideways. She paid for it. She’s stuck with her property and I go about my way.

She has to deal with that. There’s no credit score exchange or any of that. It’s a one-page document that we say. We are all agreeing that we’re going to split the profit and you’re going to make your buy. I’m going to make my best effort to sell the property. If within certain amount of time, usually six months or a year, it’s not sold then Jill will probably take the whole thing over. This happens once in a while. It’s a no-lose situation for you to do partnerships when you buy and sell land.

There’s a couple things that are immediate win. That’s one of them. You have an expertise like when people come to me with deals. I know part of it is, they’re like, “I’ve been doing them so long.” They love having an extra pair of eyes on it and making sure we’re making a good decision because now I’m putting my money down. I’m making sure it’s a good decision. You’re like, “Good. I picked a good one.” If it’s not a good decision, I tell you, there’s plenty that I reject. I tell why. “Here’s what’s going on. Did you see this? Call on this. What about this? It’s too much.”

All those things. I let you know. I give you solid feedback. If I don’t do the right deal and its current condition, why? What you touched on I forgot about which is the upfront speed. When you have somebody who’s ready to sign off on a $10,000 sale that is worth more and they’re just happy to get their $10,000 and be done with it, you don’t want to give anybody any chance to change their mind. You want to open escrow and lock it in and go. People can call me and in minutes, I can look at it on the phone and go, “Let’s do it.” They can call the person right back and say we’re opening escrow.

Financial AcademicsFinancial academics will criticize this all day. Financial academics are my word for they haven’t done anything. They just have a Finance degree and they all know about the theories. One of the theories in finance, not to bore you, is what’s your cost to capital? Everybody is hung up on that, especially right out of college.

The cost of capital in doing a partnership scenario is 50%. It costs 50%. For a regular cost of capital if you went to a bank would cost 10%. Every academic will say, “Why would you ever chose 50% over 10%?” It’s because we live in the real world. You want to buy the property soon as you can, especially if Jill signed off on it because she’s done thousands of deals. She likes it and knows how it’s going to act. If something goes sideways, she’s going to help you within reason.

There’s all kinds of things that don’t have to do with the cost of capital. I’ve been doing this for 30-plus years. I’ve never taken on debt to do a deal or for any other reason ever in my entire life. I have taken on many partners. Jill and I still have many partners, especially with houses. A typical house deal for us would be buy for $300,000 and sell for $375,000 or $400,000 quickly. Do I want to go get a mortgage? That’s going to take 30 to 60 days to get that done. The seller is going to say, “Buzz off.” They’re not going to wait around for me to go get some mortgage, but I can go to our Land Academy group and say, “I need $300,000 and I’ll you pay a 10% within 60 days on that.” They say yes.

Think about this one. How many people out there want to sell their homes? We all know there’s a lot of inventory out as we’re doing this in the middle of September. In the buyer’s market, when you come to the table all cash because you have a partner that’s all cash. You could get this deal closed up fast for these people that want to sell their homes now and be like, “Done. Let’s go.” I’m getting more deals because of that too.

There's a lot of inventory out there. It's kind of a buyers’ market. When you come to the table all cash because you have a partner that's all cash, you could get this deal closed up fast.
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Raising CapitalTurn to raise capital is the easiest part of this entire business. I thought it was the hardest many decades ago. It’s not. I didn’t have anybody saying it thousand times in my ear. All you got to do is find a great deal. It’s very clear. If you’re brand new at this, your takeaway should be this. You don’t need any money to do this. Find some great deals. If you are midway through your career and you’re saying, “If I did those last deals with equity financing, I am not sure that would have been,” but think about how fast. If you are great at doing deals, think about how fast it is. If you’ve been in this for a long time, you already know that having funding partners and all types of operational partners is why you survive. Partnerships are the reason that Jill and I are still here.

Thank you.

We’ll continue.

I thought it was love.

Love does not enter my financial acquisition decisions. Does it for you?

Doesn’t love keep you warm at night?

Where does that come from? Is that a real thing?

I don’t know. I just made that up.

Please don’t let love or emotion enter your decision-making process while purchasing it on a real estate.

Please don't let love or emotion enter your decision-making process while purchasing real estate.
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That’ll be a Saturday show which will never air.

Join us on Saturday.

Where we talk about put all the emotions you got into it. Let’s talk about deals.

Your emotional real estate transaction by Jill DeWit.

That’s great. How to win emotionally in real estate? How to do that?

Join us again where we’re going to do land deal funding by the numbers. How much money can you make? You are not alone in your real estate ambition. We are Jack and Jill. Information and inspiration to buy undervalued property.

Also, entertainment.

Important Link* WebHarvey The post Partnership Vs. Debt: Funding Your Real Estate Deals The Right Way appeared first on Land Academy.

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In this episode, Steven Jack Butala and Jill K DeWit dive into the crucial steps of getting a land deal under contract in just two days. If you’re navigating land investments, time is of the essence, and this episode walks you through the process of securing deals quickly and efficiently. Jack and Jill discuss the psychology behind closing deals, key strategies for success, and common pitfalls to avoid. Whether you’re new to land investing or experienced in the field, this episode offers practical advice to help you stay ahead in the competitive real estate market.

Listen to the podcast hereHow To Get A Land Deal Under Contract In Just Two DaysIntroduction And The Importance Of TimersThis is episode number 2028, and the topic is getting the land deal under contract to be purchased within two days.

Before we start, I would like to share a little thing. Jack, here’s what I thought, and I’m going to ask you this question here. Dear Jack has a little timer next to him. I don’t know why we need a little timer because I’m staring at a timer on the screen. However, there’s an additional timer that he has going, and it’s a rather annoying sound when it goes off. If we go too long here, you’ll hear it. So I asked, “Why do you need that?” Jack said, “Because I like to be under the gun.” My question is, I like this da-da-da, my question to you, Jack, is.

Moving forward, I like it.

He’s just like, “I need it. It helps me keep going.” I’m like, “Does this work for all things in your life? For example, can I set a little timer here that says, If you’re not in the bedroom, mister, in the next five minutes, the door, the window is closing? Would that work?”

Yes.

Noted.

That would work for most readers, I bet.

Most men?

Just anybody. We need to get this done.

That would work for me, too. If you said, “Jill, we got 3 minutes, and we got 20 minutes, let’s just say, we got to be out the door. If you want to do this this morning, let’s make it happen.”

It took us 45 seconds to get off real estate and onto.

Other good things.

Bedroom stuff.

Back to where we were here.

Really quickly, along the lines of these timers, I watched an early morning news show where they take polls. They ask you to do that. I didn’t participate in it. I just laughed, though, because you don’t want to. “Do you like vanilla ice cream or chocolate?” That poll. This one said, “How many timers do you set a day? 0 or 9? All the numbers in between.” My first and immediate thought was nine timers. I set like 30 timers a day.

That’s what I was going to say, 30.

That’s why I get a bunch of stuff done.

It’s so fun to be around. I got to tell you, I’m going to start doing it. I was just going to do random timers for no reason. I just wanted to know what three minutes felt like because I forgot. That’s what I want to do.

This is what I live with. Just being laughed at all day.

I’m going to do a two-day timer. Let’s see what that goes like. Here’s my question, too. How much time has to pass before you forget you set a timer? Does that happen?

It doesn’t work that way.

You always know. You’re like focused on it.

What may happen is that a timer will go off and I got something done. A 45-minute timer might go off, and I got it done in five minutes, and then I forgot.

There we go.

It goes off and I pat myself on the back and say, “Next time, I’ll set it for three minutes.”

Do you know what I do? I don’t know if you do this. I don’t think, but looking at your phone, I don’t think you do. I set timers and I put what they’re for.

I never do that.

I have to get up. I have to admit, I usually do two timers in a day. Do you want to know what they are?

Waking up and going to bed.

One is waking up. I can’t remember. I have something hokey. I have a hokey little saying like, “You deserve your day,” or something. I totally have a little hokey thing.

I don’t have that.

I do. I have to admit.

Hang in there.

I do two timers, and then the second one is get butt in shower.

Really?

Yeah. I always make it so I can get up and just have at least an hour to have coffee with you, watch TV, whatever. Just read, lay around, look outside, and then I have to get going.

Jill and I lived in our RV this summer, and you would think there’s nothing new.

That we don’t know about each other.

About the other person. You just know it all. Just not the case. I didn’t know this.

Good. I learned something new, too.

Getting The Land Deal Under Contract QuicklyLittle hokey sayings. It’s Friday, and we’re wrapping up this entire week where the theme was rules to live by in your land investment business. We’re talking about getting the land deal under contract to be purchased within two days. Go back and read the other four. It’s interesting. We had fun doing it. I like this new format. Each day on the show, we answer a question from our Land Academy member Discord forum. We take a deep dive into a land-related topic by your request.

By the way, I think that’s going to be open at some point. Didn’t I hear that? The Land Academy Discord forum is closed just for members. I think I heard we’re going to have an open public area.

I thought there was a public area. We go back and forth on that.

Don’t quote me. It may or may not be there yet. If you’re interested in the Land Academy version of Discord that’s open to the public, send a note to my team, and if enough of you do, they’ll do it. There you go. It’s support at LandAcademy.com.

Maybe just send them a note and say, “You guys need to change the show.”

“Jill said in episode number 2028 to send a note.” Would that be funny? They’ll crack up at that. Martin wrote, “When sellers call in, what are your responses?” That was from Thursday. Am I looking at the wrong one? Am I not on Friday? Number five. Our question got in here. Isn’t this in here twice?

No, it’s taking a deeper dive into the actual topic.

Sorry. I’m just speeding and moving quickly.

Everyone, take a break while Jill figures this out.

I did answer this question Thursday morning and all that stuff. We did. Let’s just go into this topic. Do you want me to show you where I did? I’m sorry. I did. Maybe I didn’t. There it is. Speeding and quickly. There it is. I did it on Monday. No problem.

Let’s go.

Thank you for bearing with us.

Straight to the topic, and the person who edits this will take all this out.

No problemo. You’re right, the topic is important. How do we get these contracts purchased so quickly? It’s not really, I’m going to say, not really purchased. I’m going to say, what did you mean when you wrote this topic? I could get a purchase in two days if I had to, or do you mean open escrow?

Getting the land deal under contract to be purchased within two days.

To be purchased. Thank you.

The whole key here is time kills deals.

The whole key here is time kills deals. Move fast, or lose the opportunity.
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True.

It’s very realistic if you are. This whole thing came about because we had a question earlier about when you have a seller and they want to sell the property and you’ve got the price done, the steps that follow that and what can go on. There are certain people that have a personality type where they get into the process. I am not one of these people, and neither is Jill. Let’s explore and digest the journey together.

In real estate, you’ve got to be about getting to the end and converting it back into cash. Stay focused, stay quick!
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I’m about getting to the end and converting it back into cash. You need to, this is my opinion, especially if you’re new, target two days to get the deal purchased, to get the deal under contract with the escrow open where the seller’s expecting and realizes when they’re going to get paid and you realize when you’re going to actually buy the property for and then try to immediately resell it. Does that make sense?

Target two days to get the deal under contract. The faster you move, the better your chance of success.
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Yeah, or as fast as possible. Let me paint the picture.

I really think you need to go into it saying we’ve got to get this done and under contract, and I’ll stop talking to the seller within two days so you can move on. That taps in strangely into that whole timer silliness in the beginning.

I know the question you were talking about because someone had asked me in Discord about, we take two days from PatLive to respond. We take 4 days to do this, and we try to do it within 2 weeks. I’m like, “What the heck?” If you wait two weeks, you’re going to change your mind, not just the seller, and you give them all the time in the world to rethink this and overthink this and call everybody on the planet and find a family member who says, well, for $2,000, I’ll buy it kind of thing. That’s what you don’t want to do. The whole point is to move quickly.

There’s no time to waste in real estate. If you take too long, you give sellers time to rethink the deal. Move fast!
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My rule is that when the call comes in for our companies and myself, if I or a live person can’t answer it at that moment, it’s usually because I’m on the phone. What do I do then? Do I wait two days? I immediately call them back, period. So, that could be, so that’s myself or PatLive. They need to get a live person as fast as you can, and that live person is collecting the details. You do want to sell, how much. If it’s me, I start the whole process, but let’s just paint, this is what’s going on for most people.

Handling Seller Responses QuicklyYou’ve got a day job. You’re using a service like PatLive. The calls come in. PatLive knows your schedule. You have pre-told PatLive, if calls come in from Friday to Monday morning, tell them they’ll get a call back on Tuesday. If the calls come in from Monday afternoon to whatever, tell them they’ll get a call back on this day, whatever, but it can’t be any more than, I like to say, the next day or two days.

You should be doing your deal review a couple of times a week, especially starting out. Three times a week is great. Monday, Wednesday, Friday, maybe it’s your lunch break that you spend looking at all the deals that came in over the weekend. Wednesday, you do the Monday, Tuesday deals. You can see how fast this needs to go. It’s critical to lock these deals in with the seller and open escrow, and then you can breathe.

It’s critical.

Very critical. You’re only giving yourself just enough time to do whatever level two due diligence you need. Level one due diligence, you can do in an hour sitting at your computer when you’re looking at all ten deals that came in. Access, yes. Attribute, yes. Affordable, yes. Alive, no. Whatever it is, you can sit and go through all that stuff and you know your things.

Due diligence doesn’t have to be a slow process. An hour at your computer can reveal most of what you need to know!
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Balancing Level Two Due Diligence And SpeedLevel two is like, I got to call the county and find out this. I’m not sure this grade might inhibit it from being buildable. I don’t know about these setbacks. Fill in the blank. I need to find out. I see physical access, I need to confirm legal access and anything like that. You only need a day or two to do that, and you tell the seller, this is where I’m at, too. While you’re doing your level two due diligence, the call came in on Monday morning, let’s just say to PatLive. Monday afternoon at lunch, you’re looking through all the things, and you call back Monday afternoon or Tuesday morning, whatever works out for your timing, or Monday evening. Everybody knows what’s going on.

You always let the seller know what’s going to happen. “Hi, this is Jill. I got your details on your property. Thank you so much. I have a call into the county. I just wanted to confirm a couple of things, but I think we’re going to be ready to go. I should hear back with them by later today. Where can I get you tomorrow? What are you going to be around? What’s the best number? Make sure I have your email.” Get all that stuff, too. Keep them moving forward. Let them think you’re buying it. “By the way, I don’t have your email and I need to double-check on the deed. It shows such as such.”

Hold on. We got it.

I don’t know.

This is an interesting episode.

I could talk a lot about this, obviously. This is important, and you have to lock it in.

Concluding Thoughts And Advice For Real Estate InvestorsThe point is there is a psychology behind completing a real estate transaction, and please think about this when considering yourself. You want to buy this piece of property absolutely as fast as possible. You do not want time to get in the way of analyzing the deal on your part, your personal life, or any of that. In fact, we have done it in one day. If you don’t go through escrow, the entire deal in one day we have done in the past. That’s a different topic. Take a look at yourself and whether or not you want to drag things out for 2 or 3 weeks because there are people that that’s their personality.

You’re not going to get the deal.

I know. It’s just too fast. Everything’s going too fast for me. I don’t want to go this fast. Let’s slow down. Chew your food.

This is not the business for you, then.

Yes, this is not. That’s correct. It’s natural, as you just saw. “We’ve got $5,800. I just opened escrow while we were talking on the phone in the last 30 seconds. They will contact you tomorrow, and my transaction coordinator, Jan, is going to take over the position. She’ll probably be contacting you in an hour. Does that work for you?”

You just need to think about how you want to spend the money.

I think that this delay in the deep dark back of why people choose to spend a lot of time doing a real estate deal is because they’re not sure they want to do it. The due diligence part of our business model is a pain point for them, and they truly never know whether or not it’s a good deal. If that’s the case for you, and it’s very natural, due diligence is a pain point for many people. More people, that is probably the biggest pain point. Please align yourself with someone in our group if you’re in Land Academy. It’s not a pain point. This is every Thursday, Jill and I hold a closed webinar where we review transactions that people are doing, and we call it “Would You Do This Deal?”

They post all the information. We talk about, “Hey, oh my god, you got to go do this deal right now. You got to get off the phone and go do this deal. That’s how good it is,” or, “Ah, it’s a good deal. I know your seller’s talking at $22,000, but I really think it’s worth $12,000 on the buy side. You can go sell it for $22,000.” If this is a pain point for a lot of people, and we try to alleviate that pain that way. If you’re extra crazy about it and don’t know whether or not the deal is good, align yourself personally in the group.

That is not a pain point. Somebody’s got more years of experience. You can’t function successfully in this business if you wait two weeks to make a deal. It’s just too many things happen on both sides. It’s that age-old universal sales concept, strike while the iron’s hot. If the seller wants to sell, then give it to them.

Exactly. That’s beautiful. Thank you. Join us next time for other interesting episodes. We’re back to five days a week.

You are not alone in your real estate ambition. We are Jack and Jill. Information and inspiration to buy undervalued property.

The post How To Get A Land Deal Under Contract In Just Two Days appeared first on Land Academy.

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How often does land purchase price renegotiation happen? Steven Jack Butala and Jill DeWit answer this question by sharing their own negotiation tactics, especially some they have conceptualized and developed themselves.

Listen to the podcast hereLand Purchase Price Renegotiation: How Often Does It Happen?I’m Steven Jack Butala.

I’m Jill DeWit, and this is the Land Academy Show.

This is episode number 2027, and the topic is, how often does land purchase price renegotiation happen? You send out all these offers, they have prices on them, and you spend all this time pricing. How often do you have to renegotiate the price that’s on that purchase agreement you send out, and how often do they sign it and send it back in?

Book ClubHere’s what’s funny about this. People dig in deep to prepare themselves to be good at this. I’m going to say that you don’t need to. We’re going to talk about this. What’s interesting is my Land Academy ladies, the Land Gals, have developed their own book club. You may or may not know this.

I do know this.

They have a book club. I’m a guest by the way. I have my Land Gals. We meet every month and do a formal thing and all get together. This book club is a little bit separately run by some other people in the group. They started it, which is great. I get to be a guest at that.

There’s no male equivalent of this.

No. This month, the Land Gals book club is reading Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It. I have the book. I downloaded it. I have it on my tablet. I have not read page one. I will get to it.

Will you ever?

I will because I want to see what they have to say. It’s funny because at the end of last month, in September or October, they asked me to do a talk on how I get these deals done. I’m going to do more of a deeper dive for our team about getting the price and locking it in. Everybody thinks there’s a lot of negotiation that goes on, and I’m here to tell you that I don’t play that game. It’s quick and fast. I’ll go through the steps here in a few minutes. I thought it was funny that they’re all into this book.

They all want to make sure that they negotiate right and have their thoughts together. It’s good. I’m not saying there’s anything wrong there. I don’t think there’s any such thing as too much education. I always want to get other people’s viewpoints. I will read this book, and I’m sure there’s going to be some nuggets in there that I look forward to, but I haven’t dove in yet. I think what I should do is I’m going to probably write my content separately before I even crack this book to see what comes of it.

There is no such thing as too much education.
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I’m a big fan of reading the cover of a book.

The back page or the back cover?

No, just the cover.

Just the front cover or the back cover?

“Never split the difference,” then I don’t have to read the book.

What about reading the back? I read the back.

No.

You read the title.

“Never split the difference in negotiation.” That’s what I need to know. It’s a prelude to how I feel about negotiating anything.

This week is all about our theme of rules to live by in your land business. We’re talking on Friday about getting the land deal under contract to be purchased within two days. That’ll be tomorrow, which will be good.

Renegotiating With SellersWe did a podcast this week. Go back and check out our other episodes. Each day on the show, we answer a question from our Land Academy member Discord forum, and we take a deep dive into land-related topics at your request. Jill, we have a question.

The question from Heidi is “When you have to renegotiate with sellers, is that a one-call conversation, or do you do that over a couple of calls or even more?”

This ties into the topic too.

It does. Do you want me to go right into the topic because it is?

Sure.

The meat of the show is how often these land purchase renegotiations happen. It’s a lot fewer than you think. Let me paint the picture. We do these direct mail offers. You know how we roll, and people get them in the mail. They either like them or they don’t like them, or it’s N/A, not applicable, because they’re going to die there. Those go in the trash. We don’t care about those. That’s good.

They like the price. They don’t like the price. If they like the price, they’re going to call and say, “Thank goodness. I lost my job yesterday. You’re offering me $10,223. How fast can I do that?” They sign it and send it in, they email it in, or whatever it is, and they’re ready to go. That’s easy. As you can see, no negotiations are needed. The only thing you’re going to do at that point is make sure, “Let me make sure they still want it at that price,” and confirm all that. Assuming you did everything great, you move forward and live happily ever after.

You buy it for $10,000, whatever, and sell it for $40,000. Check. We have all the rest of the stuff, and there are multiple reasons why prices are different. 1) Maybe you over-offered. It should be lower. There’s going to need to be a little change there. 2) They flip and don’t like it. They think it’s worth something, and maybe it is. Maybe there are some reasons why. You missed the creek and Amazon moving in down the street. It’s zoned commercially, not this. You could do all these things with it. There might be some reasoning there. 3) They might need different prices. They have a number in their head, and often the number in their head is something that they need.

We’ve had this. There was a sweet woman. The mom had cancer and she wanted to take her on a trip, “This is how much the trip costs.” I’ve had, “My dog needs surgery.” I’ve had that one many years ago. There was a dog surgery, and the price she wanted to get out of the property was exactly what she needed to pay for the dog surgery. I said, “I can make that work.”

There are some numbers there. What I’m not going to do and I don’t want you to do is go, “We offer $10,200,” and they go, “No, not good enough. Needs to be higher.” “$12,000?” “No, not good enough. Needs to be higher.” “$14,000?” “Nope,” and then back and forth, justifying it. “How about this, or how about that? Here are all these comps, and here are all those comps.” That’s where you don’t want to play that game. Do you want to jump in yet?

I’ll wait till you’re done.

What happens for me is the call comes in. You heard me earlier this week talk about how I answered the call and started asking questions about the property. I ask questions about the situation. I get to know what’s going on. If they don’t like my price for any reason, the last thing I do is give them another price. What I do is I make them stay on the phone with me till I get a price, whatever it is. I want to know what they’re thinking. They’re like, “This isn’t good enough.” “Okay. I made you an offer. Now it’s your turn.” I literally say that. No problem. What do you think it’s worth and why?

Keep in mind, my name is Jill. I’m a sweet little land company owner. Whatever you and I agree on, that’s going to be a thing, “I’m going to pay for this, I’m going to pay for that.” There are no negotiations. I’m going to make this so easy. Here I am explaining the convenience to them, “I can get you paid out in fourteen days because I did a deal nearby there, and I did it that fast. I can make this happen.” “Okay, Jill. I’ll tell you what. Make it $15,000 and it’s yours.” Now I have a number. That’s how I roll.

I devised this system a lot of years ago in the mid-’90s. Many people have copied it and touted it as their own. Almost all of those are former Land Academy members. I decided to devise this system in the mid-’90s out of frustration with the inefficiency of cold calling. I realized many years later that it accomplishes a lot more than that. It accomplishes more than solving inefficiency.

You do a bunch of research. You send out a mailer that’s priced correctly. It’s individually priced based on the property. What ends up happening is you’re utilizing that tool as leverage just like you’re leveraging physical leverage. You send these mailers out and you let the mailer do its job. You send out 10,000 mailers. The people who want to respond to your mailer are going to respond at about 1% to 1.5% as we learned earlier this week.

A certain percentage of those people are going to say the price is fine and they want to do the deal. You’re going to look at the deal and make sure you want to do it and adjust the price accordingly. A certain percentage are going to say, “There’s no way I’m going to sell this for anywhere near that price,” and then what Jill talked about is those last percentages of negotiation. I believe, and this is my opinion, that most people who negotiate are doing it because they like negotiating.

There’s some of that. That’s true.

There’s negotiation for negotiation’s sake. It’s because they’re banging their chest, “I was offered $5,800 and I got it to $9,000, and he bought it anyway. I did great.” There’s so much of that that goes on. I’m not a big fan of negotiation. One of the things that these mailers do is remove a lot of that. It naturally weeds out the people who just want to sell the property. They don’t care about the price, much like in a garage sale, “I just want to sell that old broom over there. I don’t care if I get $5 or $0.25. I want it out of the garage.” That’s what you’re looking for, and that’s what happens here.

Be very leery of people who want to sit on the phone for an hour and negotiate a price. Can you imagine doing 10,000 phone calls? You can’t do it, but sending out a 10,000-unit mailer if you’re brand new is a day’s work. If you don’t want to negotiate, send out twice as much mail or three times as much mail. Let the mailer work for you, and a certain percentage of those mailers will come back. I would not recommend doing this very early in your career. I would recommend doing it after you go through what Jill goes through naturally, talking to these people, understanding the negotiation process, and meeting them from where they come.

If you want to negotiate, send out twice or thrice as much mail and let the mailer work for you. A certain percentage of those mailers will come back.
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The whole point here is ending on a number that you’re both happy with. That’s it. No one is beating anybody up. No one is talking anybody into anything, you or them. We’re just trying to see what number makes sense and then move on. That’s the biggest thing too. I’m not sending out three offers. We’re sending out 30,000 in a month, and I have a lot to work with. If I don’t like it, I move on.

The best part is so often, I always tell everybody to leave the door open. Often, I’ll go, “You know what, I get you. My offer was $10,253. You want $50,000. Sorry. There’s no way that will work for me. I tried. I gave it a day. I looked all over. I tried to figure out if I missed something. I didn’t. If your $50,000 ever someday becomes $10,000, hang on to my letter. Let me know, and watch what happens.”

It’s the psychology behind the negotiation process that gets under my skin. I’ve spent decades devising a system where you can get a real estate deal done, get it under contract, and purchase it in a week. That’s very unusual. A lot of that happens because there’s no contact or very minimal contact. It works this way. The psychology behind negotiation is not to get to a better price. For us, it might be, but for the regular seller, it’s a beating-your-chest situation. It’s emotional and inefficient.

The psychology behind negotiation is not to get a better price. It is a beating-your-chest situation that’s all emotions and inefficient.
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I loved your example because there are times when people do this. I often find that when they come back with a number, “Okay, make it whatever,” they round up to the nearest number that makes sense. I always let them think that it’s hurting me a little bit.

That’s in the book that you’re not going to read.

I don’t think so. I don’t know. You can say the book that I’m going to write. That’s coming, but I always let them go if it’s $10,00 and they want $15,000. I’m buying it for $10,000 and selling it for $40,000. Maybe that’s what I went out with. When they say, “Make it $15,000,” I have to go.

I’m not patting myself on the back but I’ve been in acquisitions my entire life, and I have done probably 17,000 real estate deals combined. I did a bunch of healthcare transactions, and mergers and acquisitions transactions before that. With serious experience, negotiation is a chest-beating exercise for the vast majority of the time.

I bought a post-acute hospital in California on behalf of our company one time. It was $3.2 million, and they wanted $3.5 million. It’s $300,000 more. It had nothing to do with their debt structure, nothing to do with anything. We couldn’t make it work for a lot of reasons, mostly lender-driven, and it killed the deal. We could have made up for that in all kinds of different ways. We could have purchased their inventory and booked it. Nope, they wanted a $$3.5 million price in it. That’s one small example of how it usually goes.

We send out a lot of mail and price it well so that when it comes back, you will accept that price and move forward. In a few cases, I’m lucky to have Jill because she doesn’t have that attitude. She wants to get the deal done. She’ll shove her pride aside, as long as the deal works financially. If you have to negotiate, don’t make it about you. Make it about getting the deal done quickly.

Episode Wrap-upThat’s good. You’re right. It’s not about me. It’s about the deal. Join us tomorrow where we’ll discuss getting the land deal under contract to be purchased in two days.

You are not alone in your real estate ambition. We are Jack and Jill. Information and inspiration to buy undervalued property.

Important Link Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It* The post Land Purchase Price Renegotiation: How Often Does It Happen? appeared first on Land Academy.

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In this episode, hosts Steven Jack Butala and Jill K DeWit dive into the powerful red green yellow test, a method they developed for determining the best places to send direct mail for real estate deals. This technique has become a key part of Land Academy’s success and has been widely adopted by others in the industry. Learn how the red green yellow test works, why it’s so effective, and how you can use it to make smarter, data-driven decisions when sending out your next batch of mail.

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Listen to the podcast hereMastering Real Estate Direct Mail: The Red Green Yellow TestIntroduction To The EpisodeThis is episode number 2,026. We’re going to talk about how to locate places to send mail using the Land Academy red-green-yellow test, something I came up with a lot of years ago. It’s widely copied by all the other people who think they can teach this on the internet, and we’re going to describe it and let you know why we think it works and why it works for us and many Land Academy members.

Can I ask a question? Why do you choose the colors in that order? I think of a stoplight.

It’s one of those things, like the same reason that Google is spelled wrong because somebody spelled it wrong.

How should Google be spelled?

I don’t know exactly the correct spelling because they spelled it wrong.

Is it G and U with two dots over it?

No, it’s nothing like that. Everybody’s looking up, “How do you really spell Google?”

You didn’t just make that up?

No. You’re all right.

No, you don’t have to do that. I totally believe you, but I didn’t know we were saying it wrong. Google? How should we be pronouncing it? What was it supposed to be?

Google is something in science. I don’t want to restart the episode, but the fact is, I don’t know exactly what it is, and I don’t know how to spell it.

Does Google mean something?

Yeah, like Tesla. Tesla is not a car. It’s the last name of a person who created a scientific process. Google is something.

You and I read very different articles.

That’s right. To answer your question.

For those of you who are going, “What?” I, too, am in the same boat with you. I learned some new things. Thank you, Jack.

You can do the Google Tesla research yourself. You can choose whether or not to listen to the rest of the science.

I thought it was red-yellow-green, the way the stoplight goes. That’s how I describe it.

I started saying red-green-yellow, and here we are.

It throws me. Every time you say it, maybe that was the point, to mess with me.

We’re talking about rules to live by in your land business. We’ve listened to Monday and Tuesday already. We’re talking about how to locate places to send mail using my ill-named process, the red-green-yellow test. We’ll talk about how often do you have to renegotiate the price in a land deal?

Friday, it is getting land deals under contract to be purchased in two days.

Each day, and you’ll find out in a second here on the show, we answer a question from our Land Academy member Discord Forum and take a deep dive into land-related topics by your request.

Mark wrote, “What parts of the red-yellow-green test.”

She’s right, too.

Just saying, are you seeing fail more predominantly in the current environment? We talked about this just yesterday.

Isn’t that a great question?

Go for it.

The way that I do the red-green-yellow test doesn’t fail. The way that we’re seeing, when we talked about, in the module where we talk about this test, what the red-green-yellow test is, is this, if you can picture in your mind on a map between 3 and 10 ZIP codes that are all adjacent to each other in an area, they’re all squiggly lines, like pieces of a puzzle.

Explaining The Red Green Yellow TestThe whole point of the red-green-yellow test is to analyze each one of those ZIP codes from a data standpoint and find out which ones are very viable to buy and sell real estate in and which ones are not. They’re all relative to each other, which is why we and I teach and test them for ourselves when they’re adjacent. If you have three ZIP codes, one of them is going to shine, and we’re going to look at days on market.

Key Indicators In The Red Green Yellow TestWhen property gets listed for sale in each of these three ZIP codes, which ZIP code does the property sell the fastest? Another statistic we look at is how many properties are for sale in that ZIP code, divided by how many properties are in the universe of that entire ZIP code. What percentage of property in ZIP code number one is for sale? Let’s say it’s 1%. In one ZIP code, in another ZIP code, it’s half a percent. In another ZIP code, it’s 0.1%. Very few properties for sale. I’d choose number three. We’ve got one that’s got the fastest-moving property, one that’s got the least amount for sale, and then we look at a couple more statistics, like pending property. It’s all about, if I get a property in this ZIP code, will it sell fast and what type of property do they want that people are buying?

It’s funny about that. You and I, as we’re recording this, it’s September and we’re sitting in Montana. I was actually studying the Montana market with you this morning, and I went. It was like 300 properties for sale. This is all types, not just land, in this particular market, and it was a small market. Basically, it made up a third of the market. It was like a third or fourth, maybe a fourth, of the market. That was 20%. That’s a lot.

Something like that, 25%, even 10%, if 10% of a market, the whole market, is listed for sale, do you want to swim in that pool? Do you want to be one more thrown in there for sale? That’s the stuff that’s smoked out by this test.

All of that, she’s exactly right. The key is, invariably, people will ask, “Okay, well, what’s the threshold then? Is it 1% of the entire market?” My answer is this. it is all relative to the ZIP codes that are adjacent, and that’s it. If you’re looking at 3 to 10 ZIP codes in a market where you’re lucky enough to have that much data, the red-green-yellow test will tell you where to send mail and, if it’s priced correctly, how fast it’ll sell. The title of this is “How to Locate Places to Send Mail Using the Land Academy Test.” It tells you where to send mail.

Let’s call it. Let’s say this is the meat of the show.

This is the meat of the show. That is a good question.

We haven’t even got there.

The topic’s exactly the same. Invariably, what I get asked is, how much is enough? My answer always is, it’s relative, and I know that that sounds nebulous, but it’s really not. In a group of ZIP codes that you’ve identified that you’re testing, 2 or 3 of the ZIP codes are going to do great, and this is the way it happens in real life. Two or three are great. We send out all the mail there, and one, possibly two, smashes you in the face that you should not be buying property there, like what Jill just said. If 33% of the entire market is for sale, run the other way.

In land investing, 33% of the market being for sale is a red flag. Don’t swim in that pool!
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That’s the thing. If you think, “I’m going to go in, and I’m going to be the cheapest one. No big deal. I don’t care.” That doesn’t always work that way. You’re not going to stand out, and then sometimes, if you have the cheapest property, you’ve got people. It could be a phenomenal property that you bought so well in a perfect world. You bought it great. It’s beautiful. Everything’s awesome. You are 70% of everything else that’s out there, and everybody looks at it like, “What’s wrong with it?” I’ve had that. You can’t do that. It just doesn’t make any sense.

The numbers are really off on the red-green-yellow test. It’s indicating something. You can spend a lot of time, which is what I actually do. I’m not saying you should do this, and you probably shouldn’t. I want to know why when there’s some weird stuff going on. Here are some popular reasons why things are really off with the red-green-yellow test, the average price per property is way too high. Jill and I have spent this entire summer driving around the western part of the country in these mountain towns where everything is, in my opinion, grossly overpriced, and a lot of the properties are vacant, they’re second homes, and people don’t care.

They buy a property for $500,000 and they put it up on the market after they’ve used it for a couple of seasons for $2.5 million, and it sits there for years on the market. They don’t care, and that’s fine. That’s actually not a bad business model. They’ll wait for the market to catch up or contribute to dragging the market up to those prices. That’s not the kind of market where you want to buy and sell a piece of property in two weeks, unless it’s really cheap. You can spend a lot of time figuring out why, or you can just look at the data and say, “I’m not sending it to these three ZIP codes, but I am going to send it to these five ZIP codes.”

It’s very clear why. There are not a lot of properties for sale. The properties that do go up for sale sell very quickly, and the average prices are very low and affordable for the area. I could have sent it to that ZIP code. It’s automatic. You will automatically get deal flow if you do this correctly and often in a system.

Setting Acquisition Criteria For SuccessWhat’s great about this whole test, too, is it starts with trolling. Let me just back up and paint the picture, and then we can wrap it up on this. What we show you to do is first pick acquisition criteria. Do you really start with that? How much money do I want to spend? How much am I going to try to make? What do I want to do this year? How much do I want to do this month?

Success in real estate starts with setting your acquisition criteria. Define your goals and let data guide your decisions.
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How many deals do I want to do? It really starts with that first. Having that goal in your head, “I want to make a million dollars this year. I want to do four deals or so a month,” and back into it that way, and you can see all of that, then we have a whole spreadsheet. I say we when it’s Jack’s, a whole spreadsheet that you plop in these numbers, and it backs into it going, “This is what you need to buy.” You need to buy properties within this price range, or you’re going to buy them at this price, sell them at this price, and this is probably how much mail you need to send.

That starts there with your criteria. You’re going, “Okay, I learned to troll and go find the areas that these numbers make sense.” Look at all these people over here in X, Y, Z state and X, Y, Z county. These numbers and these properties all fit exactly what I’m trying to do, but don’t stop there. Let’s all triple-check and make sure we’re doing the right thing, too. That’s where this red-green-yellow test comes in, and we’re so data-nutty to make sure that we’re making really smart decisions.

My entire career, I’ve been in some version of acquisitions, corporate acquisitions, real estate acquisitions, and many more for nonprofits, for-profits, healthcare systems, investment banks, and finally, for myself. Whoever you’re learning this from is listening to what we are saying here, and 2 or 3 weeks later, you’ll hear it from some of the other people.

That happens often.

What they happen to be is very good at SEO. Jill and I are the originals in this, the original educators in this space. In fact, I created this mailer system, and everybody else copied it, and that’s fine. My point here is I’ve been in acquisitions for decades, and I can tell you that the system works. It all starts with one thing. You turn your computers off, you turn everything off, you sit down, and you decide how much money you want to make, how many deals you want to do, and what your career looks like with a piece of paper and a pencil, with a big eraser on it because it’s going to change all the time. Once you decide that, Jill just said it perfectly, “I want to make $1 million a year. I want to do 1, 2, 3, or 4 deals a month.”

This is what the deals look like, and this is how much mail I have to send out and the process that I have to go through to get to that end. The red-green-yellow test takes all the guesswork out of it. It says, “This ZIP code will fulfill what you’re trying to do, your criteria, and this ZIP code will not.”

The Red Green Yellow Test removes all guesswork in land deals. It shows you exactly which ZIP code will fulfill your goals and which won't.
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That’s it. If this sings to you, we can help you. You’ve got to be data-nutty. If you’re data-nutty, we’ll show you the way.

Of all the people who are existing Land Academy members and who have gone through Land Academy and are on their way now and executing, half of them are like me, and half are like Jill. If you have had a lot of experience in sales or you’re a born salesperson, find a Jack, and the reverse is true. If you’re lucky enough to be a small percentage of a person with both, then you probably have bigger problems than us.

Join us again as we discuss how often land purchase price renegotiation happens.

Final Thoughts From Jack And JillYou are not alone in your real estate ambition. We are Jack and Jill. Information and inspiration to buy undervalued property.

The post Mastering Real Estate Direct Mail: The Red Green Yellow Test appeared first on Land Academy.

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Experience the power of consistent land deal flow with the Land Academy system. In episode 2025, Steven Jack Butala and Jill DeWit dive into the Land Academy system and reveal how it can automate your land investing success. Learn how the Land Academy system can streamline your investing process, from identifying promising properties to closing deals with ease. Discover the power of direct mail campaigns, negotiation strategies, and the Land Academy’s exclusive red, green, and yellow system. Tune in to learn how to simplify your land investment journey and maximize your opportunities!

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Listen to the podcast hereLand Deal Flow Automation: The Land Academy WayIntroductionThis is episode number 2025 and our topic is how great land deal flow is automatic if you follow the Land Academy system. I love this question. It takes all forms. A lot of questions usually come in the form of this. If I send out 5,000 mailers, how many deals am I going to get? How many pieces of property am I going to buy? How much money am I going to make? Which is a very natural and normal, “I don’t want to get it.” “What is all this land business?” “I just want to know how much money I’m going to make.” This topic answers that question and also describing how the process works. It’s one of those things where it’s automatic if you just do it, not like having a relationship with a woman.

That’s good to say.

That’s not automatic.

How many proposals do I have to make? How many dates do I have to go on? How many whatever’s? How many online dating services do I have to use until I get X?

Is that how you see it?

You brought it there. Not me.

How many do you need, Jill? How many dates do you need to go on?

I need two more.

More than I have now.

Exactly. I always need more.

Jill, are you satisfied with your personal life?

Yes.

Are you satisfied living 300 square feet with me?

I am. Ask me tomorrow.

In Northern Montana.

Yes, that’s true. It is funny when you think about it. You can see out the window, there’s fires. Not where we are but West of us. They’re making their way past where we are sitting in Montana. It’s wreaking havoc on this little town.

A lot of them are South in this country, but there are still a ton of Canadian fires at the end of the season here.

It looks like it’s going to rain and it’s fire smoke. It’s pretty crazy. They’re all saying, “We’re not going to do outdoor seeding and all that.” I’m like, “Okay.”

In this episode, we have a theme. The theme is rules to live by in your land investment business. As we mentioned, the topic is great land deal flow is automatic if you follow the land academy system. Next, we’re going to talk about how to locate places to send mail using the Land Academy’s red, green, and yellow test.

Great land deal flow becomes automatic if you follow the Land Academy system.
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Direct Mail CampaignOn Thursday, we’re going to talk about how often the land purchase price renegotiation has to happen. You send out all these mailers. How often do you have to negotiate the price? On Friday, we’re talking about getting your land deal under contract to be purchased in two days. Each day on the show, we answer a question from our Land Academy Member Discord forum and we take a deep dive into the land-related topics by your request. Let’s take a question.

Carol wrote, “We see about 1% callbacks on each mailer. That would be all coals into pat live, but it doesn’t include any regular mail, whether to return to sender or hate. It also doesn’t include any email responses. At most, the total response rate would be no higher than 1.5%. Is this good or a bad response rate? If it’s a bad response rate, how do I improve it?”

I would like to start first. I wrote back and answered. I’m going to add here and we can talk about it. More mail definitely solves the response rate. It always does. I hate to say it, but there’s a reason why all the advanced folks and career path alumni call it reckless emailing and don’t care about the cost. The real critical part after that is who is speaking to the sellers and creating a deal. This is assuming you are all picking great areas.

More mail definitely solves the deal flow. It always does.
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This is a direct mail campaign. That’s what the advertising/marketing industry would call a direct mail campaign. When you receive a 1% response to any type of direct mail, that’s extraordinarily positive. I agree with your numbers. I think that we get about one to 1% to 1.5% response rate in total. Regardless of the quality or the type of response, people are responding at 1% to 1.5. If you send out a 10,000-unit mailer, 10% response would be 1,000 and a 1% response would be about 100 to 150 people. That means Jill has a per mailer. Let’s just say that’s one month. She has 100 to 150 responses or touches to convert 1 to 3 transactions.

If you’ve got 100 acquisition opportunities, that’s great.

I love this question. This is more on my side than your side. We’ve already established that. As we said, put your best foot forward. Create your Disney character when you get on the telephone, making that an amazing experience for the seller. We’ve already established that. This is more about numbers. Should I be trying to improve my 1% and 1.5% rate? The answer is no, and we’ll talk about this because we’ll talk about the red, green, and yellow test. My job and all this is to make sure that those 100 responses are real. If the numbers that Jill comes up with in those 100 to 150 responses, the three deals that she needs to come up with is one. She needs to do it from 100. Now, it needs to do a 1% conversion rate. That’s crazy numbers, easy.

I know, but we do more. That’s the reality. More trickle in over the years. It’s funny. I just got one from a mailer years ago. I can remember doing deals Cal Pines. Do you remember that years ago?

That’s in Modoc County.

We have a thing that came in. That was probably from a mailer many years ago and I just got a call and the guys bought it in 2003. That’s how long he’s had it. He got our letter, and it was in his file. Now, he’s calling. That’s sweet.

Here’s what no longer happens because this is the root of this question. I didn’t get any signed purchase agreements back.

She’s not including those. That’s saying that it separate, so the percentage is higher without those things. It doesn’t include regular mail or returns to the sender, hate mail, or even email responses because all those things happen, too.

When I read it, that puts her at 1.5%, 150 responses. You should not try to improve on this. I think that’s her question. One and a half percent is fantastic because you’re going to get 1.5% again next month.

Don’t worry about it. Send more mail.

Also, the month after that. What you answered here, more mail solves the response rates. I have to disagree with you, Jill.

Not the rate. It means your deal flow. That’s it. Thank you.

If you want 1.5% on 20,000 units, then you’re going to have 300 chances to close two deals.

Thank you.

Automatic Great Land Deal FlowOur topic is great land deal flow can be automatic if you follow the Land Academy system. What’s the Land Academy system? You take a look around the internet by what I call trolling. Not to be confused with the negative people on the internet, but you troll around the internet. I think 2 or 3 episodes ago, we talked all about this, how to find places to send in mail. Once you think there are clusters of properties that look like to you, they might be a good place to send mail. You go through what we call the red, green, and yellow test, which we’ll talk all about.

You test the ZIP codes against each other to see which ones if you do buy property at the prices that you want. Which ones will sell quickly and fit within your theory about who wants what in that little local area? It’s not hard at all once you do it a few times. It’s not hard to do the data part and say, “If I get 40 acres in this one area, that sells like hotcakes.”

If you go through that process, price the mail properly and get it in the mail effectively in a system, then it’s up to the person who’s answering your phone. Hopefully, you can convert those into real estate deals. Deal flow isn’t something. This gets confusing for brand-new people. Deal flow is automatic. If you do the things that I just described and I know I brushed over them quickly because these are short episodes, we don’t do it quickly in the program or as a member. You can have an opportunity to ask all these questions weekly to get all the details that you need.

You will get the question that she asked, and you’ll get at least 100 deals to look at every single month. Ask anybody if you’re in this world, in the acquisition world, in any way, private equity, or publicly traded company. How many deals do they look at in a month? If they say 150, I’ll eat my hat. They’ll say three.

That’s amazing. That’s true. I forget that sometimes, when you take a step back. Not just the deal flow but also our return on investment. What we make on properties compared to any other business is astronomical. It’s so different. That’s why we’re talking about Jack saying, “At the end of the day, send out 10,000 units, which costs you about $8,000 in mail, postage, and data, to make one deal.” You’re like, “What? Hold on a moment, everyone. I’m doing that to make one deal or I make $150,000 on the deal.” Now, you’re like, “Oh.” I don’t care about $8,000 in mail if I make $150,000. That’s what we’re talking about.

If you own a house or the house you grew up in, your family members, or anybody who wants our house, ask them this question. This is a fun game that I play. I haven’t played it in a while, but how did you come to buy the house that you’re at? Several will say, “It was the house I grew up. I inherited it.” Maybe they’ll say, “My sister lives down the street. That’s how we chose the neighborhood.” “How many did you look at before you chose that one?” “No, we didn’t look at any. We just bought that one. That was the one for sale when we decided we wanted to live in that area.”

Maybe, “I wanted my son to go to the same middle school that I went to.” They don’t know one. This is how special you are. This is my point. People don’t apply this type of funnel logic to things in their life. We’ve all heard a million times, “It’s the biggest financial decision to make in your life where you buy a house and how much money you make or don’t make on it. Whether you buy it and you’re in a place that appreciates or doesn’t.”

None of this logic ever gets applied. What you should do is send out a mailer. Send out a 5,000-unit mailer after you’ve determined that this is where you want to live and this could be the same reasons, “I want the middle of my son to go to the same middle school. My sister lives down the street.” Take a 500-unit mailer in that area that’s acceptable and watch what type of transaction opportunity you have. You’ll get 10 or 20 amazing possibilities that are way better than the deal that you’re living in now.

Ask me why I think most women choose a house. “I fell in love with the kitchen.”

Is that it?

Sometimes.

Not the price?

No.

Ask them why they bought a house and let’s say I fell in love with the price.

“No, because I didn’t want to lose my woman.” That was good. Join us next time, where we talk about how to locate places to send mail using JAX, AKA the Land Academy red, yellow, and green test.

You are not alone in your real estate ambition. We are Jack and Jill. Information and inspiration to buy undervalued property.

The post Land Deal Flow Automation: The Land Academy Way appeared first on Land Academy.

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In today’s fast-paced world, having a strong phone presence is essential for building relationships, conveying confidence, and achieving your goals. In Episode 2024, Steven Jack Butala and Jill DeWit dive deep into the art of phone presence in real estate negotiations. They discuss why how you communicate over the phone can significantly influence negotiations and client relationships. Through role-playing and answering listener questions, they demonstrate the impact of effective phone communication on closing deals and building lasting relationships. Tune in to discover how mastering this skill can transform your real estate transactions and skyrocket your success.

Listen to the podcast hereThe Art Of Strong Phone Presence In Real Estate NegotiationsIntroductionThis is episode number 2,024. The topic is, Why Your Highest Quality Phone Presence Is Imperative When You’re Negotiating or Buying and Selling Real Estate. This is one of those things where I thought this was automatic.

It’s funny. This has come up many times throughout the years. I can tell right away and you can ask who should be answering their phones and who shouldn’t. It’s funny that people don’t get it sometimes. They talk monotone. Maybe they’re too soft. They’re never excited.

Here’s a spoiler alert. My personality on this show is not my real personality. Her personality, this is really Jill.

This is true. We’ll get into this and we’ll do a pretend, “I’ll answer the phone how I do it and you answer the phone how you do it.”

That’s good. We’re doing something different this week. Maybe it’ll stick, maybe it won’t. Only our readers will be the judge of that. We’re running one episode per day this week, starting Monday and with a theme. This episode’s theme is Rules To Live By In Your Land Investment Business. Now, we’ve already mentioned it. We’re talking about why your highest-quality phone presence is imperative on Tuesday, Jill. Go ahead.

We’re going to talk about great land deal flow is automatic following the Land Academy system.

Wednesday, how to locate places to send mail using The Land Academy red, green, and yellow test.

Thursday, how often does land purchase price renegotiation happen?

Response TimesFriday, getting the land deal under contract to be purchased within just two days. Each day on the show, we answer a question from our land academy member discord forum and we take a deep dive into the land-related topics at your request. This episode’s question.

Tara wrote, “When sellers call in, what are your response times? Do you have a specified response time to call a seller back initially? Do you have a time limit to process the deal? Whether you decide to pass the deal or go to purchase. We’re currently using a maximum of two days to respond to PatLive messages and then two weeks to move to a decision. We tighten those, and if so, by how much?”

This was a question for me. We do one-on-one coaching now. Surprise. For many years, people have asked us, “Can we just do this one-on-one coaching?” We tested a little beginning. We did group stuff. Anyway, we offer that again. This is a person in my coaching program that I’m doing personally. I answered her. I’ll read my question, and then we can talk about it because this is a hot topic,
Especially right now.

The whole point is speed. You have to move quickly and close on these deals. That’s what I wrote. PatLive should be letting every caller know when to hear back from you, such as the owner reviews deals every Tuesday and Thursday, whatever it is, they know the schedule. Today’s Monday and the owner is going to look at the deal tomorrow on Tuesday, or where can she reach you on Tuesday afternoon? What is your best contact number? That should happen.

The whole point is speed. You have to move quickly and close on these deals.
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The seller knows and you follow through. I would make every decision I said within four business days max. That gives you plenty of time to check with the county, confirm the zoning, do all your due diligence, make a decision, and open escrow. I always want the sellers to have a next step. They should always be moving forward.

It’s imperative to set up a system that you’re managing each one of these transactions the same way every single time. It’s not imperative, it’s not important in my opinion at all to get it right the first time, the second time, the eighth time, or the tenth time, but the more you do it, you’re going to develop a system where it will be developed on its own.

At some point, you’ll say, “I think I got this. I think every single call I’m dealing with is the same way or within parameters. Systems are absolutely important and very personality-driven. I’m a systems person, and luckily for me, Jill is too. Even though she has the phone personality and the sales personality, I have the technical one. She still wants to put systems in place because, at the bottom of Jill’s soul, she wants to spend less time at work, not more.

True.

At the beginning of our career or the beginning of our career together, that just wasn’t the case. We just wanted to get deals done, which is probably where you are but please just keep in the back of your mind that systems will save you once you’re getting 30 calls a day.

Exactly. Thank you.

Phone PresenceOur topic, Why Your Highest Quality Phone Presence is Imperative.

Let’s role-play.

This is the meat of the show.

I would like to call you. I got your mailer. I’m going to call you. This is a good example. This is not meant to throw you or anybody under the bus.

It happens anyway.

That’s true. I want everyone to hear. Let’s just hear the difference, shall we? Answer the phone however you would answer the phone.

This is not how I would do it, because, by the way, for a lot of years, a lot of decades, I had Jill’s job successfully. This is not how I would do it, but this is the opposite.

Let’s just give an example of what you should not do. How’s that? Jack’s going to play the what you should not do.

“Hello.”

“Hi. I got a mailer. I don’t know if I got the right number.”

“Yes. Do you have a price that you want to pay? I would like to buy your property. Did that price work in the mailer?”

Hold on a moment. Hell no.

You want to have a routine. Jill’s going to show us how to do it. You want to put your Disney-like personality on that phone so that you have about 15 to 30 seconds of first impression to feel them out and they’re judging you whether or not they want to sell their property. They wouldn’t have called you back if they didn’t want to sell their property.

You want to have a routine and put your Disney-like personality on that phone so that you have about 15 to 30 seconds of first impression to feel them out.
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I believe there’s always a deal there. That’s the whole point. People say, “No, they called me to yell at me.” I’m like, “Hold on a moment. Dig a little bit.” I think that in the end, they would have thrown it in the trash and laughed if they hadn’t had any interest at all because most people are busy. Most people have stuff going on. They don’t want to take the time to do this. That’s the thing but give them a chance. We could stop right there. You could see how the first impression just goes right away, “Woo.”

You don’t want to say, “Hello.” as if you’re answering your home phone. They probably have looked you up on your landing page already. They have a visual of what you look like and whether or not they identify with you, whether it’s conscious or subconscious. In The Land Academy methodology, what we teach is to set yourself up before you send out the mail. Put a website or landing page up so that they know what you look like and that you’re a regular person. If they think they’re calling Bill Gates, it’s probably not going to work.

Perhaps another country. That’s not going to work.

You want to present yourself like you’re just a good old boy, a good old person or however you describe it.

My turn? Ready? I do this every time you guys laugh at me, “No, you don’t.” I do. When the phone rings, whatever’s going on, I could be having it out with the TV remote, but I pause, throw the remote, and then change my personality, focus, whatever that is, my mentality here, and get right into it. You’ll never know. It could be a seller, it could be a buyer, it could be an agent saying, “We’ve got the best offer on the planet. Where are you? I’m sending over the stuff.” You’ll never know. I always answer feeling great about that call. “Landstay, this is Jill.”

“I received a mailer or I received your interest in buying my land and you offered me $5,800 for my 25-acre property. I’m sorry, that’s not going to work.“

“Hold on. What did I miss? Can you tell me about the property?”

“I have never been there. My wife inherited it about 25 years ago. We had plans to build our retirement house on it. It’s just not going to work out that way.”

“I’m sorry.”

“I’m tired of paying those real estate taxes, but I’m sure it’s not worth $5,800.”

“Let’s figure it out. Can you give me some of the information? What’s the state? what’s the county?” Blah, blah, blah. Now, I got you talking.

“Ely County, Nevada.”

We can stop there. Home phone presence. We could keep going all day on this. I do. In Land Academy, I have recorded calls that I share with everybody. We could do that again here on the show, too, if we want to. My point is it’s that first impression. Get them talking and find out about the property, whatever the price is. Let them vent, and let them come to you. Let them and let them unload. You started to tell me information about, “I’ve never been there.” Got it. “My wife inherited.” Got it. “Taxes are getting to me.” Got it. “I think it’s worth it.”

At the end of the conversation too, my $5,800 might be the price that we all end with, but we need to talk it through because he doesn’t know. Don’t always assume that you’re wrong and that everybody wants $2 million. You just need to get through this and see where they’re coming from. One of my questions down the road would be, “What do you think it’s worth?” I bet you’d say, “I have no idea.” I said, “We’re at $5,800.”

It’s important to remember, and this is hard for me in the beginning, that you’re not just doing a real estate deal. What I want to do is get through the phone call as fast as I can so that I can get back to doing what I would call, “Real work.” For Jill, real work is what she’s doing on the phone. When she gets done with an eight-hour day. I know this from personal experience. She has been on the phone for six and a half of those eight hours, she is satisfied, and happy and feels she put in a solid day’s work.

I think I wasted six and a half hours. It’s important to know that when you get on the phone, getting off the phone is not the goal. Doing a real estate deal is not your goal. It is your ultimate goal, but I’ll tell you, if she identifies with that person who owns the property, the guy is going to eventually tell us the whole story about his wife, how they received the property, they didn’t know anything about it, they’re tired of the tax bills, and he’s going to end up selling the property to Jill if she wants it.

When you get on the phone, getting off the phone is not the goal.
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Jill has that much confidence, and that’s where if you’re not there in your career, you can find that Jill’s also a lifelong corporate salesperson. If you’re not there in your career, you will be if you have a real interest. The point of this episode is you must go through this. There are several things in life, believe it or not, in my opinion, that can’t be solved by the internet.

It has to be solved with human interaction or not face-to-face. In this case, but human interaction and that’s how we get deals done. One of the reasons that Jill and I are successful at buying and selling real estate is because she establishes a relationship with the seller or the buyer. They like her. They look forward to talking to her on the phone, and they want to sell to her or buy from her. That’s what this episode’s about.

Thank you. That’s perfect. Do you know that it’s sweet when I think back about it? There have been many times over the years where sellers have told me, “I’m going to miss talking to you.” I’m like, “You can check in. Let me know how you’re doing. It’s great.” I’ve been invited to dinners. We’ve been invited to all kinds of places. It’s sweet.

Join us next time where the topic is Great Land Deal Flow Is Automatic if you follow the Land Academy system. You are not alone in your real estate ambition. We are Jack and Jill, information and inspiration to buy undervalued property.

The post The Art Of Strong Phone Presence In Real Estate Negotiations appeared first on Land Academy.

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In this episode, Steven Jack Butala and Jill K. DeWit discuss the importance of choosing the right real estate markets for investment in 2024. They break down the steps they take when choosing where to buy, highlighting data-driven approaches to ensure profitable results. Whether you’re considering land, homes, or commercial properties, understanding the dynamics of real estate markets is key to success. Tune in to learn how they evaluate different areas and what factors matter most when making investment decisions. This episode is a must-listen for anyone looking to navigate the real estate landscape confidently.

Listen to the podcast hereChoosing Real Estate Markets In 2024 Introduction And Topic Of The EpisodeThis is episode number 2,023. Let’s walk through how we choose where we buy real estate this year in 2024. One of the top five questions we get. How do I know where to buy property? What’s the difference between Central Michigan, Central Wisconsin, Maine and Florida? What do I do? Where do I look?

We’re going to break that down and deconstruct it. Hopefully, have a little bit of fun with it. We’ll see what color Jill’s nails end up in by the end of this episode. In all reality, all kidding aside, where you choose to send mail in buy and sell property matters. You do not want to do it in a place where there’s just nothing going on.

Sometimes, it’s about too hot. I’m just going to say too, that’s my thoughts on it. There are places where you don’t want to buy any property. It doesn’t matter if it’s land, houses or commercial property. We do it all when it’s not moving. Then, the other side of it is, what if it’s hot? I’m going to pick that. It was Austin a while back. They’re on fire. I’m going to do that.

I don’t want to swim in that pool too. I’m not going to get into a bidding war when I’m buying property. That’s the last thing I’m going to do and I always say that too when I make those calls and I get people and they say, “You’re one of three offers.” I’ll say, “Now I’m 1 of 2. Call me if nobody pans out.” Sometimes it happens. When that happens, I’d say, “No. I’m not interested. Have a good day. You guys can all argue about it yourselves.” I’m not going to reset the market and whatever it is.

We’ve been doing this for 30 years, Jill and I have been doing it together for fifteen years, I guess and we’ve been teaching for almost ten. You hear me say all the time. You hear Jill say, “Just make my phone ring and I’ll put some stuff together.” I’ll tell you what. This episode is about the stuff that I do long before that seller picks up the phone to call Jill to see if she can put a deal together. There are a lot of things that happen in my dark, cold office before Jill’s magic happens. We talk a lot about Jill lately and how she creates these real estate deals, but this is a prelude so to speak, to what goes on.

It’s Oz. This is what goes on. This is Oz behind the curtain.

It’s a prequel. With movies recently, everything’s done in threes. They make three movies and one of them is a prequel and it’s a stuff that happened, a side story. That’s what this is.

Hopefully, they take off and do well. Kevin Costner is not doing so well. Just kidding.

Each week on the show, we answer a question from our Land Academy Discord forum and we take a deep dive into land-related topics by popular request from our Land Academy community. That’s you. Let’s take a question, Jill.

Zane and Tara wrote, “We are under contract for a lived-in, but not great shape old mobile home on a half-acre lot that also has a shop on it. The lots are being sold together but have two APNs and the total acreage is half an acre. It’s in town and has all the utilities hooked up. The owner is moving out this weekend and will not be returning. We have only bought raw rural vacant land. This is out of our wheelhouse. Can anyone advise me on the pitfalls, issues to be aware of, et cetera? I’m treating this as a land deal, but I feel I need to do more or different due diligence. Thanks for all the advice.” This is great.

Expanding Into Mobile Home DealsThis is fantastic, before before Jill answers the question, because we’ve done a ton of mobile home deals and we are always in some process of doing a mobile home deal. We love mobile home deals. I have to say congratulations. I know for a fact that as we move forward as real estate investors, all of us need to diversify in product type. Once you have the stuff down, which these two seem to have down, the mechanics of sending a mailer out, how to choose a place, how to send the mail and how to answer the phone and create your real estate deal.

Diversify your real estate investments for long-term success.
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That’s the time to take a look at your landline of business and create maybe a mobile home line of business and then create single-family residences, condos and all of that stuff. This we what Jill and I have spent a tremendous amount of time talking about. Where’s Land Academy going to go? You’re doing it. You’re taking the skills you’ve learned at practice in rural vacant land and now expanding.

Correct. What do we do differently? One of the good things I picked up on is we have utilities and the people living there. We know that it’s tenable. This is all great information. I’m wondering if you have pictures. The first thing I would do, too, right now, while I’m in escrow, which they are under contract, I would have eyes on it. I would have a local realtor going out there, taking a look at it, telling me what they think I can not tell them.

What they think they can sell it for. Let’s say a reasonable, 60 or 90-day period and the condition of it. Have them get some pictures. If I don’t like the pictures or they’re not that great, then I’ll send somebody else. I’ll send my photographer out just to get eyes on it. They do all this while it’s in escrow because I can change my mind. I don’t have it yet, but I want it locked in because it’s a good enough deal.

It’s going to take a couple of weeks and you could get all this done in one week and then decide if you want to move forward or not. You’re going to have a really good feeling for the pricing. By the time that’s done, you’ve got pictures of it, what the conditions are, you’ve seen it with the pictures and the video, the drone video and inside video, whatever you can get done and you have a good estimate, a broker’s opinion basically from an agent.

Did you talk about the inspection?

I didn’t get to that yet. That comes next. Once I even have that, I like to do this first before I even order an inspection because now I’m outlying even more money. Now I’m going to go and get an official inspection and the right agent will point you in the right direction of, “Yes, this is the guy to call we use him in town. It costs $275. He can get it done tomorrow afternoon. That’s what you’re going to do. You have all your answers. What do you want to add?

No. That’s all correct. There’s a separate checklist for purchasing mobile homes and one for houses that we talk about in Career Path. Jill and I teach an advanced class called Career Path. I think it’s coming up this October 2024. Go to LandAcademy.com for the details and we talk in very much detail about the order of things.

The order of due diligence is a little bit different than land but I’ll tell you, if you do everything correctly, it will sell very quickly. What you’re doing here for everybody, you and everybody is giving yourself a lot of options on the sell side. You’re going to find out as much as you can about this property without going to see it. It might be way worse than you think. You’re going to get pictures and all the stuff and an inspection Jill said.

You’re going to find out a bunch of stuff and possibly, you’re going to miss some things. That’s just how that’s how real estate is if you don’t go see it. You want to make sure that property is priced. You have lots of options and the best case scenario is that you just resell it as a piece of vacant land and still make money because it’s priced very well and the bonus is it’s got a used mobile home on it.

As well as a shop. What do you mean by shop? Is it a workshop or was he selling jewelry out of it?

It’s not a dress shop.

Now I feel a little bit better because it was in town. I was wondering, “Was the guy a potter, too? Was it a blacksmith shop in the front and he lived in the back? I don’t know.

Do you know what? It’s in town. I could be wrong.

That’s what I was assuming.

A mobile home and a dress shop.

There you go. It could be a barbershop. We’re going to say, barbershop. How great is this? I like what you said. Make sure the math works so well that you have a lot of options, it is a quarter and a third still to what it’s worth as a mobile home.

Make your real estate deals work for you. Price them so you have multiple exit options.
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Options For The Mobile Home DealWe talked about your options like this in your career path. You can buy it and rent it. Somebody’s living in it right now. It can’t be that bad. It could and you’ll find out with pictures and things like that, but I doubt it, especially if there’s a dress shop attached. You can rent it out. You could buy it from somebody who rents it and then sell it to somebody who does rent property out like that. If this is not a vacant piece of land, buying it and reselling it with land is one access strategy, one option.

This has multiple options. You’re setting yourself up to seriously succeed here. Plus, it’s got an extra APN. Hopefully, it’s been unused so that the property might be built on the center of the two APNs or hopefully, it’s just built on one and you can resell the APNs separately. Great work, guys. I chose this question on purpose because you should celebrate. Please do a 100 of these. As many as you can. I remember the first mobile home deal you and I did and I remember us looking at each other and saying, “We got to do 500 of these a year.”

Which one was it?

It was the one in Northern Arizona that we use as an example in the buy for $5,000, sell for $35,000. The tenant was a bull guy. There was a gun case in it.

Is that the one that we looked at that you could see from the freeway kind of thing? Not that one?

No. It was in Mohave County. Today’s topic let’s walk through how we choose where we buy real estate this year in 2024. I want you to clear your mind and I want you to think about how you have used Zillow or Realtor.com or Redfin.com in the past and maybe you haven’t. I’m going to start fresh. You’ve never used it.

Go to Zillow.com, login and type in a destination. It doesn’t matter. I always use Los Angeles as the starting place to look to review the entire country for acquisition possibilities because it might be the worst place to buy property in the city of Los Angeles. We start with the worst and it only gets better. I want you to start changing your parameters.

Good concept.

Don’t do this in marriage. Start with the best and just keep it that way. Now, you’re looking on Zillow for every single piece of property in Los Angeles that is for sale, thousands and thousands of properties.

There could be office buildings in there, there could be rural land in there or vacant land, houses, condos, all of it. We don’t want all that stuff. We only want to look at places where we can target property that we want to buy and resell.

What we’re looking for is places where property sells quickly in certain specific criteria. I want you to choose houses only, I want you to choose 3 bedrooms or more, 2 bedrooms or more and I would you, just for fun, to type in between $100,000 price and $600,000 price. The low end is $100,000, the top end is $600,000 and then the other parameters that I said.

Using Zillow To Find Potential MarketsWhat you’ll see is now you’ve gone from thousands and thousands of properties that are for sale to maybe 100 probably less than a thousand in the entire Los Angeles area. Make sure that you have removed any type of geography criteria. Now, it’ll say, Remove Boundary Lines. You’re looking at the whole part of Southern California and you’re going to start to move around.

Move your mouse around all over the country, start on the western part of the coast, go up and down maybe through Oregon, through Washington and you’re going to see clusters of property where there’s a lot. The beauty is that there are way more properties, let’s say, in Portland, Oregon, than there are maybe 4 or 5 inches to the right or the East.

You will see little clusters and you’ll start to see places where there are available properties. There are a lot of properties in some areas that fit your criteria and there are no properties in some areas that fit your criteria at all. Now, click Sold Properties. The for-sale properties are red, the sold properties are yellow.

In an ideal world, you want to see property about one to two times the number of properties that are yellow or sold properties versus red. You want to see more sold properties than active properties. Why? It is because that indicates an active market. One property goes up for sale and it gets sold. Two properties get sold for every one property that gets listed. That’s the market you want to be in. Does that make sense?

Yes, two to one. You want to say two to one double sold and there are active right now. Did you say sold in what time frame?

No. I didn’t and thank you for reminding me. I usually default, the time on Zillow to twelve months. Jill gets a little more aggressive as she should and she would like to see it maybe in 30 to 60 to 90 days.

I’ll play with all of them. I’ll toggle back and forth just to see.

At some point, you’re going to come to a place where you have a light bulb go off over your head and you find a market that’s 900 properties have been sold or 90 properties have been sold and 30 are active and they’re right within that acquisition criteria. For you, you might not want $600,000 topside. You might want only $300,000. If you like rural markets like we do and not super urban markets, then maybe it’s $100,000 to $300,000.

It’s fun, by the way, in a very small amount of time is that if you buy a property for $100,000 less than what you’re searching for in this exercise and it’s in okay shape, you’re going to sell it fast. We’re starting with our exit. I want to know if I’m going to go through all the trouble of creating a mailer, making Jill’s phone ring, and she will talk and create these real estate deals. That I can sell that freaking piece of property quickly.

Is it worth it?

I can predict, not even predict, but have an almost crystal ball intelligence on what the outcome’s going to be. That is how we pick markets.

It’s fun when you dig in and you look at them. You settle on an area and you spend a little time there. You’ll say, “This is a little bubble.” Now, I’m going to dig in. Now, I’m going to look at some of these listings. Let’s see what’s active. Let’s see how many days have been active. Have they done any price reductions? What’s going on? Toggle to the Sold.

Look at all these sold comps. Sort them maybe by the price. You sort by lowest to highest often. Sometimes I play with it and sort by the most recent. What just recently sold and start to look at those and think, look at all these. Everything is five to ten acres, listed in the last, six months sold within two months as long as they were this size and this price range.

What Jill’s saying is she’s adjusting her acquisition criteria to the reality of these markets.

What do the people want?

In Eastern Oregon, let’s say, there will be some sweet spot for what sells quickly and there will be some of a spot where what we’re trying to do is a round peg, square hole. I’m trying to fit my acquisition criteria into Eastern Oregon. It doesn’t fit, but there is a type of property to buy in Eastern Oregon in XYZ ZIP code that works.

Then, you’re now saying, I love this area, but this something’s not working, so you start playing with it. Maybe it’s got to be the price. Maybe it’s the size, maybe it’s the price, something that. It might change the outcome.

Maybe in these ZIP codes that you’re trying to make work, there’s just no activity. For whatever reason, there’s just no demand. Nobody wants to live there or for whatever reason.

You move on the page.

Assessing these markets is free. If you’re a Land Academy member or not, please go out and do this exercise.

We call this trolling. Can I say this?

This is what we call trolling.

This is Jack has called us trolling. Just sitting and looking and trying to figure out what might be a good area.

Yes. From there, we have an idea of a market that might work. Now, what we do is we take the data, we identify the market as, let’s say, 4, 5 or 8 usually contiguous ZIP codes and we take the data that’s available to confirm or deny our suspicion. We suspect that this market works for the criteria that we’ve chosen. Great. We dig up the data and look at each one of the ZIP codes. You can see that the days on the market for this ZIP code are 90. That’s not that exciting.

The days on the market for the other two ZIP codes that are adjacent surrounding it are 30. I like 30 better than the market. I want to sell it faster, not slower. Also, something’s wrong with one of these ZIP codes because not only are the days on the market very long, but there are too many properties for sale.

We go from the trolling to confirming with the red, green and yellow test whether or not these ZIP codes if we do mail it and get property for the prices that we’re pricing it, then, it’s a data confirmation of a suspicion or a theory. From there, we build mailers. We send out the mail and price it correctly. That’s how we find markets, where we know we’re very serious educated guess about what the outcome’s going to be and what the exit is.

That’s the best part of this. When I talk to people, they’re thinking about joining Land Academy. They’re asking questions and when they learn the data behind every single decision we make and how smart this group is under your direction, it starts with you, they’ll say, “This is a no-brainer.” I say, “Yes, that’s right.”

If it doesn’t pass all these tests, everything that he’s talking about, the trolling and he takes it to all these other levels to make sure we’re making some good decisions before we even just send out the mail. That’s huge. We’re not going to waste our money. Not going to waste our time. We’re going to make sure that it’s great and if it’s not, we pick another good area. They’re always changing. That’s the thing, too. You think, “I’m going to spend ten years doing Nashville.” Do you know what? It might cool down. I think it has cooled down.

It’s possible.

You have to be watching around and doing this all the time for new things that are going to pop up. It’s great.

The Red, Green, Yellow TestWe take a hardcore data-scientific approach to buying and selling real estate. This works with land. It works with houses. It works with condominiums, more urban markets and townhouses, certainly works for mobile homes in all markets, and works to some degree with commercial real estate.

This is great. What we don’t do is trust word-of-mouth, brother-in-law or psychic beings. We don’t drive for dollars. This is good. We don’t throw a dart. This is awesome. Let’s see all the ways that we don’t look for places to mail. I just gave five. Trust family members, reading the paper or the news. The news might say, “This is a new up-and-coming area, that’s where I’m going to send my mail.” No. You need to make these good, strategic, data-driven and check your stuff decisions.

There used to be all these crazy concepts out there when I started, like the, Buying The Path Of Growth. That was one of my favorites. Imagine the railroad. A handful of people in the country know where the railroad’s going to be developed because it’s 1882 and they start buying up all the land because they know the railroad’s going to be there. They have inside information and they’re buying in the path of growth. When I started this in the ‘80s and ‘90s, old-timers were Path of Growth, you know. I think their grandparents told them.

I’ve bought the property from people who bought it in the ‘60s who thought that it was coming to the path of growth and it wasn’t. They’re selling me their property 40 years later for real and more saying, “I guess it’s time to unload this. It’s not happening.” No. It’s not going to happen.

We don’t guess here. We don’t guess. We don’t estimate. We look at the data and make decisions. That’s Jill and I have been doing this for years. It’s no secret that if you go out on the Internet, all kinds of people claim that they can instruct you on how to do this and they won’t be around for long. I say this. Just please choose carefully about where you learn how to do this because these groups are largely regurgitating what we say mostly incorrectly and I don’t want you to learn the wrong way.

Choose your real estate mentors wisely. Not all advice is created equal.
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You and I have been doing this together full-time for fifteen years. Land Academy is going on ten years now and you were doing it for ten or fifteen years before me. We can truly say that with just you, three decades of a full-time investor. If we can make it for three decades, I think we can properly help you and show you how to do it, too.

We don’t have the cutest software. I’ll tell you that. We don’t and never will. That’s not why we’re here. We’re here to create business partners for ourselves and we’re here to teach and instruct the basic foundations of how to find undervalued real estate. Create a real estate deal for yourself and, in turn, create equity. We’ll get to the deal with you in certain cases or somebody else in Land Academy will. Please choose carefully.

Can I ask you this question? I’m going to ask you some questions. What if I’m not just doing land, I’m doing houses or apartments or something? Would I do the same thing?

The answer is, basically, yes. There are a lot of caveats in the question earlier about, “Great, I bought and sold land this way and thanks, it works, but I’m buying a mobile home now. What are what’s different about it?” The answer is there are due diligence steps that are different. The asset itself, when you think about buying and selling a piece of land, there’s not that much you have to look at. Isn’t it a good location? Is it priced?

Access.

Is it buildable? In some cases, not all. You don’t necessarily need to see it, which has been triggered largely because of almost all because of Jill and I and Land Academy. That’s what’s triggered such a universal interest in this from people who want to get into real estate but have never done this for beginners.

It is because they have the perception that it’s easy and you can sit at your desk and do it. For the most part, if you know what you’re doing and you learn correctly, that’s true. You can. With mobile homes, houses, condos and townhouses, there are a lot of other things that are involved and while they’re much easier to sell, you do not want to buy them incorrectly. You want to know exactly what you’re buying, was that asset has any flaws or anything else.

We’ll help you with all that.

That’s what Career Path teaches.

Our other programs, too.

Jill’s Pride In Her Coaching ClientsLand Academy is evolving into a full, well-rounded real estate investor. I love that because that’s what Jill and I have always been. We’ve been buying and selling houses, mobile homes and all this stuff together for a lot of years. We’ve just been talking about land, but we’ve decided that we’re getting older. It’s time to share it all. Jill, do you have something inspirational to share?

I was going to just take a moment and talk about how proud I am of the individuals that we have. We just launched. This will be posted in September 2024. It launched in August 2024. First time we’ve ever had a fully official, one-on-one personal coaching program. I have a handful of people. We’re just slowly getting it up and rolling and I’m personally handling the coaching right now while I can because I want to make sure everybody gets what they need going forward.

I want to just compliment and I want to just share with everyone that I have all different extremes. I have people who have done career paths, but they still need some things to get them going. I have right in the middle. They’ve done 40 and 50 deals. They’re working on taking it to the next level, and I have brand new right out of the gate. I’m proud of all of them because the main thing is they know who they are. They all voluntarily said I know I need help. I’m just that kind of a person.

It doesn’t matter if you’re doing all these deals, you’re in the middle or you’re just brand new. They were smart enough to know who they were, know their weaknesses and know that I wanted to do this right. I know that if I don’t have the attention that I need to get through these little hurdles, maybe it’s even motivational. Some of the stuff we talk about is motivational, like, “You have to do this. I’m going to help you make a calendar.” We did that.

That’s a good job.

Two, how to organize your time thing. “I need help setting up some of the technical things.” “What do you think about this?” Then, real high level like, I have a team. I’ve got a person who has a team of four people and making sure that the four people are doing what they should be working on and it’s the most efficient and then she’s doing what she should be working on, making it most efficient. My point is I’m very proud of them because they all took a step back to think about who they are and admitted to themselves, “I’m going to need coaching.”

“I’m going to need some hand-holding if I’m going to get this to the level where I want it to go.” I think it’s the greatest thing. Whatever you’re going to do, whatever you’re going to start, I hope that you take a moment to know who you are. I’m personally not that kind of a person. I love being on the other end of it, but for me, I’m like, “Out of my way.” I’m going to run through everything and figure it out. That’s just how I am and then maybe later I’ll ask, “How did I do?” but I don’t need to because I figured it out whatever it was.

Know who you are and if you’re the kind of person who wants help or needs help, it’s there. If you’re not, just put your head down and go. Nobody’s wrong. We all want you to get where you want to be. There are a lot of opportunities out there right now. There is. I love all that stuff. Interestingly, everything’s pivoted to online. What was that funny sticker you saw the other day?

Know your strengths and weaknesses. Seek help when you need it.
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It was a YouTube-certified mechanic.

Yes. I love that. It’s funny, but it’s true. There are silly things that I might be looking up. We have an issue with the blinds in our rig. I’m five minutes away now. We already did it, watching a video. How do we hang these things back up here with this little piece? It’s funny.

You could be a YouTube-certified land investor.

You could.

Steven’s Advice To The AudienceIt’s going to take you about four and a half years.

That would be a long way. That’s true. It’s better than the ten years it used to take everybody just not knowing anything and not having YouTube, it’s better. It used to be ten years, now it’s YouTube for four years or Land Academy for six months to a year, how’s that to get you going? Thank you. What about you? What do you want to share?

I would love for our readers to take away this. Please seriously consider buying and selling lots of different types of real estate. The mechanics are the same. If you understand the mail and follow-up with texting and email and all the stuff that we teach, then you will have a serious amount of success or triple the amount of success if you’re just using one real estate type. Please consider buying all those things and get educated on the small caveats and differences.

Now, for the 3 of you who have been with us for the whole 9 years, you’re going to say, “Jack and Jill, did you not tell me to pick an acquisition criteria and stay with it? It sounds like you’re telling me the opposite right now.” To which you say.

No. I’d stick with your acquisition criteria for land, stick with it for houses, create it and stick with it for mobile homes. No. Add a product line. I’m not saying if you want to go buy marinas or golf courses that’s great.

I’ve got some for you.

I don’t want you to be a scatterbrain and say, “I’ll buy it all.” “Whatever comes my way, I’ll look at it.” That’s a waste of time. Go through the motions, the Land Academy way of establishing acquisition criteria, sending the mail out, receiving the calls, choosing the ones you want and buying them. You have an acquisition criteria, then add another acquisition criteria and stick to it. I hope that’s clear.

Thank you.

Join us next time for another interesting episode. You are not alone in your real estate ambition. We are Jack and Jill. Information and inspiration to buy undervalued property.

Important Links* Realtor * Redfin * Zillow The post Choosing Real Estate Markets In 2024 appeared first on Land Academy.

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From proof of concept to building a legacy, every land investor’s journey is unique. In this episode, Steven Jack Butala and Jill K DeWit walk us through the stages of being a Land Academy member, filled with humorous banter and practical insights. Whether you’re just getting started or scaling to advanced deals, they break down the life cycle of land investing—from sending your first mailers to creating a system that sustains your real estate lifestyle. With questions from listeners about data pulling and mailing strategies, this episode is packed with tips to help you succeed at any phase of your land investment career. Tune in for an entertaining and informative ride!

Listen to the podcast hereFrom Beginner To Legacy: The Life Cycle Of A Land Academy MemberThis is Episode 2022, and we are going to talk about the lifecycle of a Land Academy member. Jill, where did this come from?

The last time I checked, we had a very lengthy, for lack of better terms, discussion about what we’re going to talk about, and this isn’t it at all, which is fine. I’m a professional at something. I’m not sure what. I’m a professional seller. I’m definitely a professional shopper.

This is good. What else are you?

I am an amateur at picking men. I’m a professional man picker, shopper, and salesperson. What are you very professional at?

I’m a data geek and a mediocre accountant.

You are professional at perfecting our water situation, no matter where we are. Whether it’s our home or on the road, you have watered down pat. I don’t think about that at all. Now the other things, you’re professional at picking mountain wear. We’ve been together all day. We went out to breakfast. I ran some errands, came back, and sat down to record.

We look like dingbats.

It’s the first time I’m looking at what he’s wearing and what I’m wearing. We’re a little too matchy. It’s comical. I’m clearly not professional at details on this kind of thing.

Jill has an outfit for everything. If I said we’re going horseback riding, She would come back, go in the bedroom, and come back out 35 or 45 seconds later with the whole outfit. I don’t know where it comes from because we’re in an RV right now.

We’re going skeet shooting with a chic and I’d say, “I got this.”

This is all true.

I have an outfit for that.

If you tuned in to this episode to learn about how to buy and sell land, I guess you’re not going to learn that.

Sorry, but we will get to that. This is good. Did you say what we’re talking about?

The life cycle of a Land Academy member. I thought when people join Land Academy, they learn how to, in six months, start to buy and sell some land, get a 1st deal done, get a 2nd deal done, get 10 deals done. They say, “Land Academy’s awesome, and I’m going to be here forever. Thank you.”

That’s what everybody says.

“I’ll stop doing this when I make $6 million a month.” That’s the lifecycle of a Land Academy member. They join, they’re happy, and they never leave.

They’re making $6 million a month, working 2 hours a week. We’re going to go into more details. How about that? I broke it out into speed gears. When you relate to things, I can understand 1st gear and 2nd gear. I was thinking of it in that sense. That’ll be good for us to talk about. My car happens to go up to sixth, so that’ll be fun.

Each week on the show, we answer a question from our Land Academy member Discord forum and take a deep dive into land-related topics through popular requests from our Land Academy community. Jill, let’s take a question.

Pulling Data SetDalton wrote, “I’ve been following this community for about seven years. I am in the position to finally jump in and take action.”

Good for you.

That’s cool. Isn’t that funny? We’re going on year ten. This is crazy, “I’m happy to take part in the community. I’m happy to be a part of the community. I sent out my first mailer to a specific ZIP code, but I have a question in the trolling, and the red, yellow, and green phase. In the training, it shows to pit ZIP codes against each other to find the best ZIP, but when I’m pulling the data from DataTree, you always say, ‘Pull and mail the entire county.’ Why is that? When I’m only picking those ZIP codes maybe only one of those passes has the best results from the red, yellow, and green tests. Why should we not just pull that one ZIP code from DataTree since it was the best on the regular green test?

Dalton, this is an incredibly intelligent question. I’m glad that you asked it. I’m going to answer it here in a second. I can tell if you’re into this far after seven years of putting up with whatever Jill talked about how she’s dressed and ski shooting with the shake, that you’re going to do well here. The level of this question is excellent. It’s a Master’s degree-level question. Here’s the deal. When you pull a dataset out of a DataTree, it is missing situs data. Situs data and mailer data in each line of DataTree, each line represents one piece of property is often very different there. The situs address is where the heck is the thing located. The situs address for your house is 123 Main Street, and whatever.

A vacant piece of land has not yet been assigned a situs address because nobody gets mail there. That’s the post office assigned rural locations or property locations that are not in a master plan community upon request. The vast majority of the rural vacant land that we buy has no address. It’s in the data that way and it doesn’t have a ZIP code. What we do is we go through a conversion process where we take, for whatever reason, DataTree has assigned it, GPS codes, but not ZIP codes. We translate that GPS data and assign it a ZIP code. The reason that we pull the entire county is so that once you get in there and you then put in all of those ZIP codes, you can vary effectively, pit those ZIP codes against each other, and 3, 4, or 5 ZIP codes per county always rise to the top.

It’s how the data says, “These 8, 9, or 10 ZIP codes are fantastic,” or they pass the red green yellow test. What’s the red green yellow test? How many days on the market does ZIP code X have versus ZIP code Y? You could have a ZIP code that has a real load days on the market, let’s say below 30, and you can have the ZIP code bright adjacent to it that has days on market of 120. Why? We don’t know, but that’s what it is. You always want to lower days on the market because when you buy it, it’s a shorter time to sell it. Without getting into a credible amount of detail, which is probably too late for that, that’s why I pulled the whole county.

You sit and test it. Dalton, you’re in the club. Remember you can sit and play with DataTree all day long and you’re not going to get charged anything until you download any records, then don’t forget the first however many, I can’t remember what it is, or on the first 1,000 every month or me. Play around with it. You’ll notice when you pull the whole county, look how many records there are. Let’s say there are ten ZIP codes in this one county. You pull the whole county and it says 30,000 records, but if you go pull ZIP and add it all up, and it says 23,000 records. That’s because there are 7,000 that don’t have a ZIP or situs as he said. You have to go in. That’s part of what Jack does. He goes in and uses GPS coordinates to put the ZIP code in there because we know what it would be.

If you go into DataTree and type in a zip code this is the state, this is the county, but I only want the properties in this one ZIP code, you’ll be missing a substantial number of properties because it’s blank or null. That field is null in that data set. Data is cheap. We want you to spend a lot of money on data and a very small amount on mail. Mail’s very expensive. If you send out a very large mailer that has not been thought through correctly, then a lot of people are going to call you back.

Spend a lot of money on data and a very small amount on mail.
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You’re going to spend a lot of money on Path Live when they answer the phone the mailer’s going to be expensive. You don’t need to spend a ton of money to learn how to do this that way, which is what you’re doing here, ask a lot of questions and follow what we do and it works. I love this question. It comes up in Career Path all the time, this exact question because we go through it in a nauseating amount of detail, but everybody in Career Path loves it. I wish I could do it for you on the screen right now.

Land Academy Member Life CycleThis episode’s topic is The Lifecycle Of A Land Academy Member. Here’s how I look at this. There’s a beginner, intermediate, advanced, and you could look at it like that. I was thinking it would be fun to break it down into even 5 or 6 gears. I put them all together. It’s going to be easier today. I like to talk A, B, C, beginner, intermediate, and advanced. This is fun because this is how it typically goes. Typically, people don’t spend as much time as Dalton is doing their research, like seven years to make a decision, but I get it. I understand.

Let’s say they spend an average of 6 months to 1 year. I think that’s a good time. That’s time to get your life together, wrap your head around, “I want to do this,” and read our blogs for 6 months to 1 year. Not only am I getting it, I’m connecting with these people. I can learn from them because I understand what they’re saying. I’m sure the first couple shows of you have been reading to us for a while, probably the first couple shows didn’t make a whole lot of sense like, “What the heck are they talking about? You send out mail, they call you, you buy something, you sell it for double, hold on. This is crazy,” but after 3 or 6 months, it starts to sink in, then you realize after that point, you’re like, “Not only is it sinking in,” now you’re thinking of, “Now I’m getting these new things that they’re tapping into.”

You’re thinking ahead and putting yourself in that position. First gear is you dive in and you’re here for, let’s say 1 year to 2 because, for some people, it takes them that long to get rolling. Some people go bananas and they watch everything three times in one weekend. That’s all they do and they go in a dark room. Some people take a little bit of time, but part of even the prep before you get to first gear, I say first gear is when you join. The warmup period is, is what I was talking about first, making sure that you’re ready for this and it’s what you want to do. You have the finances, your family’s on board, all that good stuff. I’m happy to keep going unless you want to comment on the intro here because I want to go on the rest.

Proof Of ConceptI have some other names for it, Phase A or Step A for Jill. I would call this research and development or proof of concept to yourself. Proof of concept was our biggest challenge when we started Land Academy to get members so that we could do deals with other people, “This doesn’t work. What are you talking about?” They would do it and it worked great. We’ve passed proof of concept for buying land and reselling it. We were the leaders in that and introduced the entire internet to this concept since there are a lot of people that are involved in it.

I had to go through proof of concept when I started this to send out the first mailer and see if anybody responded or if it happened, if negative or positive. Sending out a mailer back then for me doesn’t look anything like what it looks like now. It was way different there’s a huge learning curve, but I got a huge response and I bought some property. That was proof of concept enough for me then I was feeling my way through it. I would call that step one, wouldn’t you? Step A, nobody’s doing any deals yet.

Beginner PhaseThat’s the car in Idol. You’re warming up your engine and then you put it in first gear and you’re like a beginner. You’re moving and you’re rolling. That’s the beginning of it. I like how you said that. That’s true. For me, that’s 1 to 2 years. You have a couple of mailers under your belt. You have to do several mailers. When we have a weekly Thursday member call somebody and say, “I’m on my eighth first mailer.” I’m like, “I love that,” because no matter what, you’re going to make some changes. You’re going to goof some things up and sometimes you don’t goof them up. I was talking to somebody the other day, like, “You will send out an offer, priced for five acres when it’s 0.5. Guess what? It wasn’t you. Someone in the county did a typo.”

That’s going to happen. We help you know how to recover from that. You got some mailers going. You are making some money and you’re starting to see the need for systems. That’s what I think. You’re doing everything wrong. You’re running around like shuffling papers everywhere, like the phone rings and it’s a title company, that needs another document and you’re still learning this like, “I got this. I’ll get it to you. Give me an hour,” click and then the phone rings again and now it’s a seller you got to put that hat on. This is all part of the beginning phase where you feel like you know nothing, but you’re doing it.

You’re doing deals. If you do it right, you come up for air at 18 months, in 2 years. You did what we said. You are like, “I’m like drinking from the fire hose, but I kept the mailers going.” This is what a lot of people have done. You come up for air and you’re like, “Where does that $250,000 come from in my bank account?” You go, “This is working. Now I can start to make some different decisions.” For me, that’s when you start going into third gear roughly.

Intermediate PhaseLet’s take a step back for a second. I’m going to be frank with readers. Imagine a pyramid or better yet a funnel where you put oil in your car. The mouth of the funnel is very large. It aggregates everything down to a finer point. This career that Joe and I have chosen, or maybe it chose us. I still can’t tell, is a lifestyle. Now we’re out driving around in the RV. We have been for months now and wherever we go, the first thing I do is probably look up property values, see what’s for sale, get on a motorcycle, and go look at it. In fact, I would say I have reached this far, please correct, correct me if you think I’m incorrect here at all. We probably spend together either on something real estate-related more than half of our time. Probably closer to 70% or 75%.

It’s unhealthy. If Dr. Filler or someone’s falling around, he would say there’s something wrong with you two.

He would say, “Get a hobby.” We would say, “This is our hobby.” “You need another hobby.”

He would say, “You are going to crash and burn any day now.” We’d say, “That’s happened.” We’re at the bottom of that funnel. We’ve been doing this for many years. Land Academy has been accused of, “You make this sound so easy.” It’s easy for us. It’s our lifestyle. It’s our life. I don’t know how we found each other or if somebody was a bad influence on the other person. It doesn’t matter. Probably, some version of all that is correct. That’s phase two that you’re talking about that two years. There are people on the other side of the camera here is saying, “Two years, it’s going to take before I’m in out of second gear.” I don’t know if we’ve messed around with the gear analogy to which I say if you’re serious about it, yeah. You won’t realize whatever financial goal you have.

How many hours do you need to perfect something?

It’s 10,000 hours.

It’s five years. That ties into what I’m saying, 18 months to 2 years to get your footing here is not nuts. This is what you do in the evenings and what you do on the weekends if you’re working a day job like most people are, which I would argue is the right way to do this, by the way. I want you to keep your job and do all this stuff. Now you came up for air. Two years has passed. You’re in Land Academy. You made friends.

You know who’s working in that area and who’s working in this area. You’ve leaned on some people. You needed a photographer or a Jerome pilot. You have money in your bank account that you’re not even sure how it got there because you weren’t paying attention. You were just head down like a machine answering the phone and closing deals on the buy side and the sell side now you’re like, “Now I can make some different decisions. For me, this is the best part. I love this part of all,” and maybe you use other people’s money. That probably helped you get there too. You did some deal funding because you ran out of dough because you’re doing everything right.

Now you can go, “Maybe I do some funding for other people now. Maybe I look into different properties. Maybe I even look into bigger property dollar amounts.” All kinds of things are your possibility. Some people can do this naturally and I applaud them. That’s no problem for them, but other people do need help. This is not a plug for Career Path, but this is how Career Path came to be. The reason we even developed Career Pathway before the coaching, which started the personal coaching because you guys have been begging for it I apologize it took us so long, but the way Career Path came to be because we had enough people that are like, “This is my life level. I have three years of my income in the bank right now. I’m going to quit my job.”

Bottom of the funnel.

“I need you guys to help me get these systems now in place. I’ve been running around doing it all by myself and I did it. Now I want to source some things out and take this bigger.” That to me is the intermediate. That’s the middle phase where you’re 2 to 4 years into this for a lot of people. You do Career Path. You’ve started a company, you’ve done your own company. How’s that? you know what to do at this point. You know how to make your own procedures. You already know who you are, what you’re good at and you know what you need to source out, where to do it, and all of that.

If you don’t, either way, we will help you because that’s where we shine. We’re good at clearly getting people from 0 to 100 because we’ve done it. Where we are the best is like, “Let’s make this an empire.” I think a lot of people come to us already knowing land and learning from it from other people, which I love and applaud and they were successful, but then they hit this point where they’re like, “No, I want to make it an empire. I’m not messing around now. This is what I love. I want to make $3 million-plus a year when they come to us, I’m like, this is where we shine. now that’s the intermediate level, which is, “Let’s do that.”

We're good at getting people from 0 to 100 because we've done it.
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That’s fun. You got money in different areas and stuff you’re not even working on. My favorite is deal funding. When you fund somebody else’s deals, you might be a sounding board once in a while, but for the most part, they’re doing the work. They just needed your dough because they’re in our group, and we’re all helping them too. They have resources and they know what to do. They needed the dough. that’s the intermediate. Before I get to the advance, do you have some thoughts on that?

Are they four in total?

Idling, beginner, intermediate, then I’ll get to advanced. This is number three.

Advanced PhaseNumber three is you’re two-plus years into this. You’re comfortable doing deals. You worked all the kinks out. You may have some employees, or you may not depending on who you are and you do a bunch of deals a year. What’s next?

You look around. Next is, “I’m making so much flipping money now. It’s getting stupid.” You start looking around. You’re thinking about your kids. The final phase for me, the way advanced is you can take a step back. You’re not doing very many deals at all, but boy do they count. There are 1 or 2 deals a month because you’re involved with the top people. The numbers are staggering. You don’t care how long it takes. It takes six months or a year, whatever it is because it does at that level. That’s okay. You’re involved in that stuff and you’re sitting there. For me, the advanced is, “If I keep making more money, I’m going to ruin my kids.” You don’t want your kids to be trust fund kids.

You’re creating a legacy. Yes. That’s too robust.

Creating a legacy is great/however, careful. How do you describe this?

At the full cycle of this, the life cycle of the Land Academy from, to get from 3 to 4, and 4 is the final stage was very, challenging for me here’s why. I never believed until I was doing it for several years in phase four that it was a consistent business model. I’m a curmudgeon in general. I’m a pessimist. Not an optimist. I don’t think the next deal’s going to come. We sent out a bunch of mail. The mailer went great. Jill created three real estate deals. We made a couple hundred thousand dollars. I guess that’s it. I have always had that issue. I’ve gotten past it now.

This is true. I’m like, “Hold on. The phone just rang. Knock it off.”

You know when you’re in stage four, both feet are firmly planted in the fourth stage, the final part of the lifecycle that the deal keeps happening. You keep sending out mail. You may change where you send mail and the product type you might alter. Jill and I are heavily into buying houses and selling houses right now in addition to land. It’s not so much the dollars that you’re making, but it’s the system, the system’s in place, the people are in place. Jill and I know each other’s roles.

I mean to the point where we literally had a conversation about going to a specific part of the country when we’re done here based on the red, green, and yellow test that I’ve been performing in the entire area. The area spans more than one state, not the entire state, but certain portions of the state of multiple states in the same area. That’s the fourth stage where you realize it’s happening. It’s not a dollar amount anymore.

You hit financial goals too. That’s one of the first things we do in Career Path and I want to encourage you because especially members, you guys have that equity planner on your member dashboard, go down to the bottom of the resources, the equity planner, there’s all these little tabs in there. One’s a red, yellow, and green test. There are all kinds of great things. It’s not just for planning out this year and next year. It’s for planning out your life and working it backward. You’ve hit some financial goals. I was starting to think about that because we always start Career Path with, “What do you want to hit this year? What do you want to hit next year? When will you be done?”

I want to know what is your number. For some people, it’s $10 million, $20 million, or $1 million. There’s no wrong answer. When you’re at that level, you either hit that number or you can see it there in the distance. It’s not just an elusive thing. You’re like, “I see it. It’s right there. It’s coming up here in however many months. I’m going to hit that number.” What’s funny is you could stop. I know people in the Land Academy that literally, and I celebrated it. I’m like, “You hit your goal.” He’s like, “Yes, I’m done.” Some people stop. We again have this problem.

This thing right now is a bigger problem for Jill than for me.

I have a problem with stopping because I want to keep my mind sharp then. This is the whole thing. Now you’re at the top level. You have different concerns. It’s not money. Got it. The kids are going to be fine. Got it. I want to maybe give some away because they don’t need that much. Got it. I want to keep my mind sharp. Got it. I truly love it. It depends on how into it you were. Over the years, I have talked to investors, who’ve gotten our letters and said, “I know exactly what you’re doing. I did this two decades ago in a different way but when the phone rings and there’s a deal, I’m still going to do it.” I’m like, “That’s going to be me.” That is me.

TransitionsHere’s the thing. Jill Lay laid out four stages of the lifecycle of a Land Academy member. Let’s say a land investor in general. I’ve watched people now for almost a decade do this. It’s transitioning from 1 to 2, or A to B, B to C. It’s transitions that are tough. When you start this career, everybody’s euphoric. We’re all happy. Jack and Jill did it. We’ve got all these, “I’m going to go to all their calls. I’m going to do all this stuff. Now we got to do a mailer.” There’s hard work involved in you, “What if I do it wrong?” Now we’re beginning that difficult transition between 1 and 2. Once you get past it, you’ve done a mailer. Maybe you screwed up part of a mailer, which is going to happen. You’ve accepted all that and you’ve done your first deal and you’re on your way to doing a few deals a year, which I think is step two.

As an intermediate, yes. That’s three. I went 0, 1, 2, 3.

That transition is difficult for some people. It was difficult for me. Why? Because you’re comfortable. I’ve got this thing over here. I’m paying my mortgage. Everything is great. I’m doing 4 or 5 deals a year. I believe in the concept. My wife finally stopped bugging me about it. because she thought it was stupid in the beginning.

“I bought her a car.”

To ramp that up, you’re going to need more resources, more time to get more mail out, and you’re going to have to explore new markets because the ones that you’re using currently are, you’re probably hitting them pretty well. Changing those gears and getting into that higher gear, where you’re making more money and being rewarded more is hard. It takes a mindset change.

What’s interesting to me is when you go from you as a one-man show to that next phase, people are of afraid hiring. Hiring and taking on staff and giving up some of the control is hard for people also. I like what you said. In each of these transitions, there’s a little bit of a, “Ooh.” When you change gears and then it kicks in, they’re like, “Now I got it.”

This is my opinion. At the very beginning of anything, it’s exciting. I don’t care. Whatever you’re doing, it’s always new and fun. In the end, it’s incredibly rewarding and fun. You look back and say, “I got 500 stories about why I didn’t think this was going to work.” It’s the middle that sucks. There’s a tremendous amount of work. There’s a huge learning curve. There are all kinds of obstacles. There are failures, successes, and self-doubt. There are all kinds of stuff in the middle. That’s why the funnel’s small at the end because it weeds out the funnel’s big at the beginning and small at the bottom. In the middle, that’s where it weeds everybody out. There are several things in my life that I’ve started and I will never finish them.

The reason I won’t finish them is because it wasn’t that important to me. Making a ton of money and having a blast with Jill in our silver years has always been my first priority even over raising children that was part of it back then. It was the part of the middle. We’ve gotten through that and successfully gotten through that. It’s becoming more rewarding as the kids get older, but that was always my goal. My number one goal in life was to hit the silver years and have a blast.

If I have it my way, you’ll never see me silver. These are the silver, the little beginning. These are the salt and pepper years.

Salt and pepper decades. At the bottom of this lifecycle, and this is the whole point of this episode, is that it doesn’t stop. That’s what this career is about. You can do this till you’re in your 80s. You can stop when you hit your financial goal. We make it to the fourth year. You have a lot. You’ve given yourself choices. You do not have a lot of choices in our first gear at all. In the middle gears, you have a choice. You can go from 2nd to 3rd and 3rd to 4th if you want to the tool. We have all the resources and the tools to do that.

Land investing doesn't stop. That's what this career is. You can do this until you're in your 80s.
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When you hit that top advance, you hit your goals, you’re like, “I could be done,” but then a lot of people, it’s very cool in Land Academy especially, they’re like, “Why would I? I don’t even have to send out any mail. I have to hang out in Discord. I can answer people’s questions and then pick up a deal now and then I’ll be the bank for somebody. I can sit back and easily make $100,000 or so a month doing nothing. Just being the bank and sitting there anyway.”

You are a lender.

“Why wouldn’t I do that?” You could deal with funds, which is funny. There are several people that are in Land Academy just for that. People came to Land Academy just for that. This group is so smart.

There’s a real specific conversation with a young employee that we have about how tough it is to be in one of the younger generations right now because you’re expected to have whatever it’s called, whatever the cool new phrase is called, side gig or passive income or whatever. You’re expected to have a couple of W2 jobs and work from home which you can’t do all this stuff all at once. You got to choose and then if you don’t do it, you feel like crap about yourself and it all stops. It’s not fair. You yourself are going to have to figure out if you’re younger, what’s important. Here’s the truth. It’s a lot of hard work. A lot of people out on the internet have taken our, business model or a concept and they made it their own and then talked about it on the internet pretty loudly, as an instructor, as a credible instructor.

the message that I see when I watch some of this stuff from these people is that they are painting a picture of how easy this is and how fast it’s going to happen and how great it is to buy a piece of land. You never have to go there. You buy plop down $5,000. You get $10,000 back a couple of weeks later. Why doesn’t everybody do it? That’s not how this is. It’s the truth of it. They come and go quickly. Instructors come and go unfortunately, and this is what upsets me the most, would be future Jack and Jill are turned off by the whole process because you got caught up and it’s not your fault. You got caught up, by the first person on the top of Google when you type in land investing.

You’re like, “This didn’t work.” You didn’t have the support and everything that you needed the tools to do it right. That breaks my heart.

Jill laid out a whole lifecycle. This is a lifestyle and a lifecycle. She laid it out pretty clearly. That’s very possible and feasible, especially for Dalton, who’s after seven years, going to get the mail out, which is awesome. That makes me think he’s going to do great.

It took him that long to make sure he got his life in order. Who knows what else is going on? Maybe finish college, maybe get this out of the way, and save up enough dough to do it or whatever it is. I love it when people do their homework. I used to way back at the beginning of all of the calls. We were a small little operation and we’re still not that big, but by design. I took all the sales calls where people wanted to learn about Land Academy, and what we’re doing, and the more people listened and watched you, you know their questions versus, “I just clicked on this thing and I heard I can make this money. I want to do this.” “What do you know about it?” “Nothing.” This is not going to work.”

“What country are you in, New Zealand?”

The first thing I would do is say, “Let’s do this. Here’s our podcast, here’s our eBook. Please go spend some time on this stuff. See if it makes sense. Then call me back and we’ll talk.”

InspirationalDo you have something inspirational to share?

I was thinking about what you said and I liked that, about in between sections where you’re pivoting from a crazy person in the beginning, especially that one going from the beginner to the intermediate. I think I see most people struggle right there because they’re like, “You have sticky notes everywhere, but it works. You have a CRM, but it works. Money comes in, money comes out. It’s not managed, not budgeted and things like that, but it works.” Now you’re going, “Now I can afford to make some different decisions. I need to reel this back in now and be more strategic.” How do you do that?

When you start to see this is working for you and you like it, I always like having people, “Create your own systems. Create your own SOP, your own operational procedures, how you do things, how you like them done so you could be ready to replace yourself because you will.” One of the first things that I love and people do is get a transaction coordinator. That’s one of the things that changes your life, especially if you’re the deal maker. I’m best on the phone then when I hang up the phone, “We’re buying this for this. We’re selling this for this. I need to find out about this property and I need this.” That’s my best place.

Everybody goes and does what they’re going to do. She picks the phone back up and does another deal. She’s not really working.

Open escrow and get that done. That’s the best, but I can’t just expect people to know that. In the beginning, I had to do it by myself and make a procedure until I could then find the right person. That’s a whole other thing. That’s a whole other week of shows hiring, but when you find the right person or as you’re training too, they need to be learning your steps, your procedure, your ways of things like that. What I’m trying to talk about is an example of and a way to overcome and transition into that next phase. It is scary.

One of the things I know people get hung up on is hiring. I’ve had people, I’m like, “What’s the deal? What’s the problem?” They’re like, “It’s one thing.” I’ve had one person, in particular, sit me down and say, “It was one thing for me to take a handle on being responsible, solely responsible, not W-2 responsible for my family and keeping food on the table, paying for all the bills, making sure school and college.” That’s one thing, but then to take on an employee and to have the stress of being a little worried about their livelihood for their family, that’s scary. I get it. That’s why we’re here. We will help you. I don’t know if that was inspirational but I wanted to share a little bit about that. Your struggles are real.

Don’t worry because mine is less inspirational.

I think mine was a freakout moment, “Thanks, Jill. Now I’m scared.” How about this? I’ve been there. I’ve done that. I will help you.

Look to move through the four stages. You’re going to have to go through that stuff. That’s my point and there are a lot of things that should be speed bumps, but end up being brick walls. One of them is perfect. You described it. Somebody talking to themselves, “I can’t make the transition from, having this amazing W-2 job, even though I’ve made four times as much money as my W2 salary last year. Inland, I just can’t make that transition.” I understand. You don’t have to kick yourself around for that. That’s how it is. That’s your fourth lifecycle. Here’s my inspiration. It’s probably not inspirational at all.

My recommendation to you is whoever you are and wherever you are in your life or life cycle or in your career, at the beginning or the end, or in the middle, sit down with yourself, not with your therapist or your spouse or your drinking buddy. Not just in one sitting, but maybe every time in the morning when you’re brushing your teeth, look at yourself in the mirror and ask yourself what you want, what’s important to you, if you’re on track, getting it. If you’re not, make some changes.

Whoever you are and wherever you are in your life or career, sit down with yourself and ask yourself what's really important to you.
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For me, it was having a life with Jill, raising our kids right, and making a lot of money. We’ve passed that goal. I’ve always had a financial goal that I’ve had. We’re still doing it. None of that would’ve happened at all unless I was in tune with what I wanted, from a career goal standpoint. Join us next time for another interesting episode. You are not alone in your real estate ambition. Information and inspiration to buy undervalued property.

The post From Beginner To Legacy: The Life Cycle Of A Land Academy Member appeared first on Land Academy.

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In this episode, Steven Jack Butala and Jill DeWit dive into the concept of the real estate breakpoint—an essential strategy for finding the sweet spot in pricing within any market. Discover how understanding the pricing breakpoint can help you make smarter investment decisions, whether you’re dealing with houses, land, or other property types. This episode offers insights and tips to help you navigate the complexities of real estate pricing and leverage this knowledge to your advantage. Tune in as Steven and Jill share their expertise on how to identify and capitalize on breakpoints in your target markets.

Listen to the podcast hereIdentifying Pricing Breakpoints In Real EstateIntroduction To The Land Academy ShowThis is episode number 2021. Jill and I are talking about how to find the pricing break point in any real estate market. This is a popular topic on The Land Academy Discord. It’s something that I’ve been doing, I guess, not consciously or I’ve been doing it for Jill and me before I send out a mailer or price a mailer for years. I want to share it.

Do you mind giving like three sentences of what the breakpoint is? Take a little bit of the suspense of what it is and then we’ll tell you how to find it.

Understanding The Pricing BreakpointEvery market has a breakpoint for real property assets. In its simplest definition, a pricing breakpoint is that point in pricing, a ZIP code, let’s say, where people are very interested South of the price in buying an asset, not as interested slightly North of the price, and then way North of the price, not interested at all. It’s too expensive.

Every market has a pricing breakpoint. Understanding it can mean the difference between a quick sale and a property that lingers.
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I see it as sometimes it’s a point of what they can afford or this is interesting. I’m going to ask you these questions when we get into it. There are things you have to weigh, like what they can afford in that ZIP code or in that area and then where do they see the value because that’s a whole another thing? Maybe they look at what’s possible. All those things that I’m sure way into if it were me, and I know what you’re going to explain more about this too.

I’m giving you the Jill version because I think it helps at least for people who are reading who are like me. I’m explaining it to two people. You other 900, hold on a moment. I need to talk to these two. To me, it’s like not only what they can afford and where they see the value and all that stuff, but there’s a day on the market thing too, like everybody jumps on these below this point and then above this point, they either have to think about it, they can’t afford it, there’s something else going on.

If you’re in a housing market and everything above $300,000 is aging on the market, it’s sitting there, but everything below seems to sell pretty quickly. Everything at $250,000 sells as soon as it goes on in the market. Everything else is equal, which it’s not. We’ll get into that. This is not complicated, but it’s something that you should be conscious of, whoever you are and whatever type of real estate investor you are. I don’t care if it’s warehouses or skyscrapers in Manhattan. There’s a breakpoint for every market.

You’re so good at it now that it’s second nature. As we’ve been traveling the country, we are still sitting in our RV, we are in month three now of traveling, it’s very easy for me to ask Jack this question. We’ll drive through a town and go, “Look at this. This is on the market for this. This sold for that.” One of my next questions is, “What’s the breakpoint?”

All the time.

That’s what’s so funny. We didn’t even know we were doing it. Now it’s that one sentence that comes up all the time and you’re so quick and so good. You can go, “For $275,000. That’s a breakpoint.” “Got it. Thank you.”

You heard it here first because now, everybody else thinks they can teach this stuff.

As we’re recording this, it’s August 15th, 2024.

More importantly, Jill, how do you feel about your new hairstyle and haircut?

Does it look that much different?

No, it’s good.

I had to go six weeks because we’d been on the road. Here’s the other beautiful thing about life on the road. Good luck.

Mabel’s Beauty Box.

Betty’s Beauty Box.

She has a lot to say about this. All I’ve been hearing is Betty’s Beauty Box.

This is a Jill breakpoint. This is perfect timing for this. We’ve been traveling the country for three months. We’ve pretty much been all over anything South of Denver and West of the 25 is that about right? I don’t know. South of Denver and East of Colorado Springs or West of Colorado Springs, we’ve been there. I don’t care how small it is. I’ve probably seen it. I’ve crossed the continental divide about 25 times or more in a month. I know everything from Lake City to Salida, Canyon City, Telluride. Everything around Durango, Dolores, Ignacio. If you don’t know what Ignacio is, I can tell you what Ignacio is and every little thing. We’re going through these wonderful, amazing, beautiful towns.

Sometimes we stay there for a week.

That’s how we get in and get to know them. We do. Jack often says, “We could make this our home. his is great. Look at all the motorcycle trails for me. I saw three stores. Does that count for you, Jill?”

You buy a house on the river with 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, 2,500 square feet for $180,000.

To which I tell Jack, “I have a breakpoint. My breakpoint is this. When I’m stuck and my only option is Betty’s Beauty Box, it’s not going to work.”

That’s her gauge for whether or not a town is livable is the quality of the salon.

I need one. If I can get one good one, then I can make it work. Where we were a week ago, that did not exist.

There’s no data that I can find or data source that says Betty’s Beauty Box or the Four Seasons or whatever’s in between that satisfies you.

I could drive 30 minutes, but beyond that, I’m out. That’s a little much. Anyway, that’s my little breakpoint.

There goes that $180,000 acquisition.

Back to the hair. My bangs are getting long and it’s getting a little straggly, whatever, and I’m all fixed up. Thank you for noticing, Jack. I appreciate that.

Each week on the show, we answer a question from our Land Academy member Discord Forum and take a deep dive into land-related topics by popular request from our Land Academy community. Let’s take a question, Jill.

Jenny put this in the Land Academy Discord channel. Sorry, it’s closed for members. Within that, we have all kinds of sub-ones for Career Path people, my ladies’ group, my personal coaching thing we started. Everybody has their own little subgroup, depending on what’s going on. We can talk and share in another closed environment some stuff. We also have a channel called Funny Things. In there, this person wrote this. Here’s the seller. They sent out an offer. The seller got it, digested it, and wrote back to sweet Jenny and they said, “Here’s my seller’s response to an offer. I would buy properties all day long at 20% of their market value.”

This comes back to a story about Jill and me attempting to buy a house in Torrance, California, a Southwestern suburb, a profitable one or can be for people like us in Los Angeles County. Jill and I lived there for many years. If you look back on the show, you’ll see the Pacific Ocean behind us for several years. We found a property. It was listed. It was on the MLS, which is unusual for us. We befriended and still have a bunch of friends there. A couple of them are real estate agents and Jill went to one that she likes. Her name was Jenny also and said, “We’d like to offer this amount of money for this house.” Jill’s friend is a very successful real estate agent because she’s a type AAA personality, a crazy person.

She gets stuff done.

She said this sentence, “I would buy the property for that price.” This is years ago and it hit me like a ton of bricks. That’s what we do. We create real estate deals that are 20%, maybe 30%, or 40% in some cases of the actual retail value without changing the asset at all, without ever going to see it in the case of land. That’s what we do but people still say that this sentiment. I read this and I had to put it in here.

It was like a flashback. “I’ll do that with my own money.”

“I’ll buy properties all day long at 20% of the value.” I’m fact, I had somebody say this to me, “If I give you a dime, how about you give me a quarter back?”

That’s not how this works.

That’s what this is. You’re creating a real estate deal based on a seller’s circumstance, based on their willingness to sell, whatever that ends up being. When you extrapolate it like that, forget about land, forget about pricing a mailer, forget about Jill’s hair, all of it. You are buying an asset that’s worth, let’s say it’s worth $100,000 for $25,000. That’s extraordinary when you truly pull it out of that.

Finding The Breakpoint In Real EstateThe next topic is How To Find A Pricing Breakpoint In Any Real Estate Market. Here’s what you need to know. There’s a statistic in real estate called the pending ratio. If you ask a real estate agent what the pending ratio is, they’re going to look at you cross-eyed and say, “What does that have to do with how pretty this house is and do you want to buy it?”

The pending ratio is quite simply you’ve got active listings and you’ve got pending listings. In any given market, let’s say there are 200 pending listings. That means that they’re under contract and going to be sold. You have 200 active listings. That’s a snapshot. It’s not 30 days old or any of that. If those statistics, it’s 200 pending, 200 active, or 100 pending, 100 active, and then you have a 1.0 pending ratio.

If you have pending property that is less, so you have 100 pending properties and 200 active properties, your pending ratio is going to be smaller. It’s going to be 0.5 and obviously the reverse is true, 300 pending, 200 active. You’ve got a 1.5 pending ratio or 150% depending on how you look at it. That’s great. More properties are being sold than are actually on the market.

That’s the dream of going online and looking that up and seeing. I love that. What was it, like 100 active and 150 pending? Be like, “I need to throw one more in there.”

It needs to be a great asset and it needs to be cheap. Jenny’s complainer here. What if you could magically take all the ZIP codes in the country and you could sort for the highest pending ratio to the lowest? You can. If you go to Realiter.com, horse around on there, and look at their research, you can literally download 26,000 ZIP codes in this entire country and look at their pending ratios.

In fact, we’ve talked about that and I did a demonstration on it and it’s pretty amazing and it’s free. “Great, Jack. That’s the top 100 ZIP codes everyone’s going to send mail.” Maybe. Wouldn’t you like to be the first one to do that, though? There’s more to it than that. When you look at any data set and statistics in general, everybody knows that a larger data set is always better.

If you have a market like I’m real familiar with Arizona, so downtown, Old Town Scottsdale, which is 85251, at any given time, there’s a lot of assets for sale, 300, 400, 500 properties for sale and 200 or 300 that are pending. Great, I’ve got a market that I know the pending ratio is pretty attractive. I have a lot of data, so I know it’s real. How do I get involved and make that work for me? What’s different about me is that maybe somebody else might be manipulating the same information.

The answer is Jill. You need to get in there and get the data correct, price it correctly, send an offer out that’s not too low, not too high, has some respect. There are templates on Offers2Owners.com, the printing company that Jill and I have, if you want to take a look at an example. When the people call, they need to be received by you or whoever your partner is.

In my case, it’s Jill with enthusiasm and reality. That’s when you’re off to the races and you create that real estate deal that we were talking about earlier. It starts with finding out where that breakpoint is, this pending ratio will show you where that breakpoint is. It can get sensitive. It might be 3 bedrooms and 2 baths if it’s in a rural area with land and you have less data.

It becomes a use issue. Agricultural property is different than property that’s on the water, waterfront property. In general, infill lots are going to be very consistent, like houses. You have to find that breakpoint where you have enough data. In some cases, you’re going to have to educated guess because you don’t have enough data, especially with land but it exists.

Some of these breakpoints, like you mentioned, it’s not 100%. You brought up a good point that I didn’t even think about earlier, but we’ve noticed and you can explain more. It’s not always the price. It could be waterfront. Is the waterfront price below X blows everything else away?

Now you’ve got a sub-data set. That’s what you’ll see. Now you need all waterfront property. That’s three bedrooms and two baths or more. It gets a little bit more challenging, but it’s all there. The point is, buying an asset under the breakpoint, the established breakpoint, you feel very comfortable, and the breakpoint’s $300,000 for the asset that I want. I need to be buying assets in the $250,000 range if I want that $50,000 of equity in my pocket.

Congratulations. This is why you’re here and why you’re listening. People don’t know this stuff. People don’t know that you could dig in and check things so thoroughly, so you’re making a smart decision not what you’re mailing but what you’re buying here. I know that there are still people out there who wake up every morning and they look at the MLS. What got listed in the last 24 hours and what can I get it for? Does it make sense to buy it as it is a thing instead of taking a step back and making strategic offers?

Due diligence. This makes due diligence easy for Jill and I. In fact, it happens in a matter of seconds. Due diligence seems to be a real pain point for a lot of new people in the real estate market buying some land or houses or anything else. “I don’t know if I should be buying it or not.” If the breakpoint is $300,000 in a market, you’re buying it at $248,000, you’re buying it because somebody passed away and the kids don’t want to deal with it. That is your due diligence in most cases.

Due diligence made easy: Identify the breakpoint in your market and use it to make smart, strategic offers.
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We have the eight A’s for a reason. This is a good little side segue about due diligence. We have the eight A’s, things you need to always check to make sure you’re making good acquisition decisions. I’ll go through them real quick here. Access, Attribute, Acreage, Affordability, Alive, Adjacent, Afraid, and Abundance. There we go. We’ll talk about that more later, but now, at least, you have them. You want them to have all those, but it’s interesting because I reviewed a deal with some gals in a coaching session. We were all excited. I got all excited about it. It was the money part. That was the point where people weren’t even sure how to look at it. You have to develop that skill.

I’ll show you. You’re either going to learn, it’s going to take you a couple of years or I can show you in a couple of months. There are things you have to learn to look for and that’s how we have these groups, too, that we help people to speed up the learning curve and say, “We all signed off on this.” I even signed off on this but then we dug a little bit further and I went, “Red flag. Look at the days on the market. We have some problems here,” and we uncovered some stuff and I showed this individual. “I need you to go and do a deep dive into all these stats over here then you’re going to know if it’s good or not.”

If you’re sitting there saying, “Jack, can’t you make this simple?” This is complicated. If that’s the case, I want you to take this away. This is the takeaway from this episode. The lowest-priced property that is under contract and fits your acquisition criteria is probably very close to the breakpoint in that market.

What you’re going to see if you go on Zillow or Realtor.com or any of those, you’re going to type in XYZ ZIP code and you’re going to type in only houses, freestanding houses at more than 3 beds, more than 2 baths. You’re going to get a bunch of results and sort them by the lowest number. If that ZIP code has a lot of like kind assets, there’s no waterfront property, there’s no crazy high rises or any of that, it’s all a subdivision. The first property you see is probably very close, if not the breakpoint.

You’re going to do exactly what I said on Zillow and the first property that comes up in the ZIP code is $329,000, your breakpoint is probably around $300,000 in that market and it’s pending, especially if that property has not had a lot of days on market, and it hasn’t been out there for 120 days or anything, maybe a couple of weeks and it’s pending and someone’s going to buy it. The next one, you go to 342. The next one is 343, 344, 348, 350, 370. That’s your break point. You want to be buying properties at $250,000 in those markets.

Jack, this is Land Academy, we’re talking houses. Can you explain how this parlays into land?

Houses have snuck their way back into our lives because of the economic scenario out there. It’s getting harder and harder. There are tons of properties for sale on the market right now. Tons of inventory. However, you want to statistically look at it. There’s a lot of freaking property for sale. It’s going to continue that way. There’s a lot of property now being foreclosed on, I learned. It’s the 15th of August. They released a report that foreclosures are at 15% over last month. It’s not crazy yet.

When the market's tough, understanding where the breakpoint lies is your secret weapon to making profitable deals.
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These are crazy numbers. I mean, not crazy, but I was thinking about all this stuff that’s happening. This is interesting.

Just like we did in 2009, Jill and I together have added flipping houses, not renovating them, buying them and reselling them in their current condition into our lives because when there’s a lot of property on the market, then people can’t sell their properties especially not because mortgages are kicking in for a bunch of reasons I don’t want to complicate it. We’re talking about houses because we’re buying and selling them. We’ve rolled that into looking for smash-it-out-of-the-park amazing acquisition deals on land.

I’m a Land Academy member and I’m used to trolling how you thought where I’m trolling all kinds of properties. I usually start to troll for houses and then I use that information to help me make good decisions to buy land. Are you saying as me Land Academy member, I’m smart, I’ve been with you for three years now, I’m in it, as I’m trolling, as I’m picking up on this house data, don’t discount it, consider mailing that.

Trolling for houses is easier. When you look at a ZIP code and there are four houses for sale and two that have sold, you don’t want anything to do with that ZIP code. What you want is a market that’s, I don’t know, 30 or 40, maybe 50 properties that are for sale, and 30 or 40 or 50 properties that are pending. That’s a good medium one. The pending ratio is close to the number 1 or 100%. You’ve got to figure out what asset type they love. I can tell you right now, it’s 3 bedrooms and 2 baths with a certain amount of square footage, depending on the age of the scenario. Now, your job is to find out what that breakpoint is. Send some mail.

Interesting. It’s not hard when you take a step back. Can you even pick up on it? When you do it so quickly for me, you’re obviously in trolling mode on your phone. This is how it happens for us in real time. We’re driving through the town. That’s that. That’s I’m like, “What’s the break point around here?” You’ll give me a number that’s going to be a $500,000 house and a $200,000 house. I go, “What’s the break point? When is too much thing?” Are there things that you pick up on? Are you looking at a whole big map of all these properties? Can you remember the show numbers?

Yes.

At the beginning of the show, what was I going to say?

Not what 10% smart as those guys.

The show, the television show numbers where it’s like that guy, he’s so brainy. All he sees is all these numbers on the screen and then all of a sudden they come together and fit into something like that. “He sees it.” Does that happen to you when you’re looking at trolling? No, that’s what I’m kidding. I’m not kidding. I’m like, that’s what I’m asking. I can just, Jack, humor me here. I know how smart you are. I don’t even think that you’re doing it, but I think you’re doing it because you’re that smart. I see you looking at all these numbers and you’re going, “Ping, got it. Darn it, you’re right.”

If you find that thing attractive in a man, then yes, that’s exactly how it happens. For the rest of you, I’ll tell you the truth.

That’s at least how it looks from the outside in. How a lot of women think that men, when you’re in love with a girl, you don’t see flaws or you don’t see when they have lipstick on or when they don’t or whatever. A lot of women say that to each other. I’ve heard people say that to them my entire life. He’s in love with you. He doesn’t care that you’re 40. 40% of your PMI is you’re here. He doesn’t see that. He doesn’t see your morbid.

He doesn’t know that you’re wearing the same sweats for a week and you haven’t washed your hair. “He’s in love with you. Don’t worry about it, honey.” That’s good. I like that. Please explain all these doll ties together. I don’t feel that way.

I automatically, probably subconsciously, find every breakpoint in every market where I can get to my phone and look at it very quickly. The truth is if we’ve been doing this for so long, we can drive through it. I was honored. I can tell you generally what the breakpoint is.

I’m stuck on the other thing. To finish that thought.

It is finished.

I’m not done. To finish the dating analogy. He’s in love with you. I have to share it. You are sweet about it. You are nice that you wouldn’t do that. I don’t think so, but you would say as I’m walking out the door somewhere, if it’s summer that I want to impress somebody and you picked up on a problem, you would go, “Can we talk? Where did you get those shoes?”

Yes, that actually does happen.

It’s very nice.

She handles it well. I do.

A lot of women don’t handle it.

I’m like, “No, they’re out of here. Great. What else?” I still have a stack of clothes that you have. You vetoed in the last three months in the rig and that’s great. I’m going to donate them. It’s, “No skin off my nose. I’ll replace them.” Place something better.

There are way more comments and questions that don’t get answered by men than there are things that get talked about. Do these jeans make me look fat? Does this property make me look fat?

You can’t do that. Yes, I do remember that.

Just say nothing and say, “You look great today.”

I was thinking about earlier when you brought up the Jen question and I’d buy it for that price comment. It’s interesting how, over the years, that happens, it still happens every once in a while. We send out thousands of mailers a month and they’re calling in and occasionally, I’ll get on the phone, especially in a new market or what we’re doing. Maybe it’s a personal thing. I’m taking those calls or at least the first wave I get involved. It’s cool. We will hit other investors and they will call back and say a version of this, “Look, I don’t want to sell this asset. I’m digging in on this and this is why, whatever it is, but now that I know who you are and how you’re finding this stuff, how do I get on your buyer’s list?”

That happens all the time.

I love that. The smart investors go, “After you buy some of these at this price, will you please call me first? You buy it at 20%, 25%, I’ll buy it from you at 40%, 50%. Love it and then I’m going to do this to it.” I’m like, “Sure, no problem. I will happily pitch to my buyers.”

Happens with houses all the time. They don’t have the math, interest, or negotiation talent. They have some other way to create equity for themselves, which I’m not judging at all. It’s not the way I want to do it. I do not want to renovate a house, make it look beautiful, and create equity for myself by resetting the highest price per square foot on that block. That’s not the business that Jill and I are in. We don’t like it. We’ve done that successfully and it’s no fun. Neither one of us gets high off of it. We both get, literally, endorphin high off of acquiring a property that’s worth half of what we’re going to sell it for. In the case of houses, we know how we’re going to make $80,000 to $120,000 on it in the next three weeks.

That makes sense. It’s only the acquisition. That’s what I love about it because I know how it’s going to work out in the end. Everything that we’re talking about, Jack knows the break point. Jack knows how to pick the right market. Jack knows it’s hot, not too hot. All the things I figured out. It’s interesting too, some of the markets that we’re hitting. I don’t have a lot of competition. As I say that, you’re here listening, but people don’t all get to that point. You said it’s a lot of work. There’s a lot that goes into it. I have people who have been in Land Academy for over a year and they haven’t sent out mailers yet. There’s still some hesitation, but they want to do it. They will do it. I’m like, “Hurry up. We can’t miss it.”

Back to the point here, the pending ratio on these mountain towns doesn’t look attractive when you compare it to, let’s say, old town Scottsdale, Arizona, or some of the like Austin. I always check Austin, Texas, because it’s such a hot market. There’s so much activity there. It’s not anywhere that I’ve ever sent a mailer and probably never will. I check it against that because it’s a gauge on the other side of what I want to happen. There’s a lot of inventory on these mountain towns and there’s a lot of days on the market which all translates this to me, then I have to buy it cheaper, which is easier to do because the stuff’s been sitting around on it.

The listings go up and go down. They get a letter from us and say, for $100,000 less than the last listing price was, and they say, “I’m sick of this. We’ve been trying to sell this house for two years. I’m going to sell it to you.” That’s so far below the breakpoint that I’ve established in that market and they don’t know what breakpoint is and don’t care. They’re talking to sweet Jill. That’s all they know. She had her checkbooks open and she loved the house. That’s it. You don’t have to look up and find the best pending ratios in the entire country and that’s where this only works.

Advice For Real Estate InvestorsIt’s not the case. You have to read the market for what it is, understand what the pending ratio is and where the breakpoint is, and then go in hotter from a price standpoint because it’s going to take longer to sell. There’s a lot of low-hanging fruit with no competition all over this country. We drove through multiple markets like that this summer, and we’re going across, we’re going east here in a week and a half. As we go through, we’ll look at the breakpoints there. The breakpoints are going to be even better.

It’s going to be interesting. That’d be a fun game.

This works in every market where there’s enough data. If you look at think about a central South Dakota scenario, there are maybe three houses and some of the ZIP codes sell a year. That’s not enough data for me. That stuff where there’s no data and I’m flying blind, we avoid that. That’s probably what happens, too. For the most part, they probably have never received the mail or maybe so you can buy some property cheap. Starling works everywhere.

Here’s my final little tip. If you want to go somewhere with no competition, I’ll tell you.

Betty’s Beauty.

That’s it. It’s Betty’s Beauty Box. If you find a little town with Betty’s Beauty Box in it and no data, send them an offer. They’ve never got one.

You should do stupid stuff like this. I know you’re right.

They’re like, “What is this?” Every single one of them will sign them and send them back.

What’s the big deal with Betty’s Beauty Box? They have talent in there, don’t they?

No, they can’t support it. There’s not enough.

They could color your hair.

Hold on a minute. This ought to be good.

That’s what I’m asking you, seriously. Be careful here, Jill, because the audience is not that small.

I’m sorry. Sometimes there’s not enough volume. It’s hard. It’s a lot of work to open your own shop, run your own business, and do all that. I got my hair done in a town that’s somewhere between 30,000 to 50,000 pe,ople and even she’s having to make some business decis, rentrent s,pace and figure out other ways to bring in money because there’s a volume.

It’s not a lack of talent.

No. It’s the people.

2,000 is not going to support a real salon.

I think a lot of people either don’t care. They don’t care about it. They’re going natural or they can’t afford it or whatever other reason.

There are not enough people.

They’ve been doing it themselves for so long.

If one in a thousand people care, then there are three people in the market that care and it can’t support a business. It’s not a lack of talent, no I understand.

No, it is not the talent at all. That’s not it.

That’s with any business. It’s not big enough to have a grocery store or it’s not big enough to have a bowling alley or whatever. No, I understand.

It’s not enough to survive on. That’s the thing.

Jill, do you have anything inspirational to share?

I was thinking about this. As we’re talking about this and talking about, “Thank you, Jack. I thought I figured out this. Now I have to look at this now. I thought I figured out the trolling and the red, yellow, and green tests. Now you’re telling me I need to look at the break point. I have to roll this into my thing.”

I want you to be thinking about what you’re good at. I don’t want this to hold you up. There are people in Land Academy right now who I wish they’re trying to learn this on their own. There’s a breakpoint there. I’m worried about them. If they’re going to spend six months learning this on their own, they’d be better off bringing in somebody else and finding a partner. I guess that’s my inspirational thing.

Take a step back. Think about what you’re good at. Think about your Excel skills, let’s someone like this. Think about your time. How much time do you have to commit to this? How much this might slow you down? I’m trying to put this into an example. I’ll use myself. If I was starting this all over by myself right now, like I didn’t know you, I joined Land Academy. I don’t have a Jack. This is me. I know I’m going on the phone. I love all that but I’m sitting here trying to digest all this. I’m going to be looking, and I have a day job and I have a kid. I’m like, “Shoot.”

I would immediately ask you out to dinner and we could talk about it. You don’t have to worry.

There you go. I look good because I get my hair done and I maintain myself and I don’t wear the same sweats for a week.

I do. All those things, actually.

I have to be honest with myself. I need to brush up on my skill skills. That’s this weekend gone. Maybe next weekend, too, to get this. I got to sit and study trolling and watch the program a little bit. Now I’m two more weekends gone. Now I’m a month in. I mean, this is reality. I go, “Now I got to figure out the trolling and wrap my head around it. I got to figure out this regular green test.” If I was on it, I’m talking 90 days.

That’s good.

I’m trying to download data and learn to scrub it and get the mail out. That’s another 90 days. Now I’m six months in.

These are all good and very real numbers.

Let me think about this for a minute. What if I bring in some help and get a partner? Maybe even not a partner like we’re not splitting it, but maybe I can find someone who’s good at this and pay them. I want you to think about this stuff. It’s not nuts and every level of that exists in Land Academy. I promise you, there are people in Land Academy who are data nuts, but they can’t do what I do. There are a lot of partnerships, and even if you’re not in Land Academy, whatever you’re doing. This is all-encompassing. You shouldn’t be working on stuff you’re not good at.

If you want to get good at it, and you’re willing to dig in and put in the time, then stay with it because you’re like me. I suck at painting, I’ll tell you right now. Pretty much any art project, I’m not good. There’s one that I like. My latest one is I want to give pottery a try, but clearly not that much, but if I wanted to, I would dig in and I might spend a year on it. It’s going to I know it’s going to suck and hurt and it’s going to might still might not get there, but I’ll dig in. Are you going to dig in or get some help? This is for me. Pottery is a hobby. I’m not going to make money on it. If I was trying to make money on pottery, then I would still hire somebody that’s good at it. Does that make sense?

That’s a good parlay into mine. Math helps everything. If you don’t like math, real estate is not the right career for you. I don’t mean being a real estate agent because I’ve never met a real estate agent that can do any math. I mean a real real estate investor. Actually, real estate agents can multiply 6% of anything quickly because that’s their commission. Math helps everything. If you have to, it’s what I’m saying what Jill said, if you don’t like it, don’t do it. If you’re sitting there stopped reading already by now, but what breakpoint should make a point?

I know that $300,000 houses in my neighborhood are selling fast and $400,000 houses take six months to sell and I already know all that. You don’t need to tell me that. If that’s your deal, okay but maybe you want to know how to do it in Florida on your phone and while you’re looking at Zillow while your wife’s driving around.

It’s important and congratulations if you do know that. You probably don’t know it. You can’t apply it to every single ZIP code pretty quickly and that’s what you want. I used to call it an inferno. If you’ve got an inferno in your belly for what I said now, this is what this episode is about. You are going to smash it. If you want to know more, you’ve got it.

Knowing the pricing breakpoint in your market is your edge. It helps you price offers strategically and avoid overpaying.
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If you’re looking stuff up while we’re talking right now and realize how much of an edge you have as a person and a real estate investor in this market because you know this stuff, then man, don’t wait any longer, smash it. However that work, you see that working for you, go after it with all you have. If you’re being cynical or satirical about it because you don’t like math, this is not for you.

Brilliant. This was a good show. Thank you. Good topic.

Versus the first 2010.

Finally, this is a good show. I learned something.

Join us next time for another interesting episode. You’re not alone in your real estate ambition. We are Jack and Jill. Information and inspiration to buy undervalued property.

Important Links* Realtor.com * Offers 2 Owners The post Identifying Pricing Breakpoints In Real Estate appeared first on Land Academy.

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In today’s competitive real estate market, standing out requires more than just good pricing. In this episode of The Land Academy Show, Steven Jack Butala and Jill DeWit tackle the topic of creating irresistible real estate deals. They explore the essential components that make a real estate deal stand out, including strategic pricing, unique attributes, and the importance of location. They emphasize the importance of understanding the market, conducting thorough research, and having clear acquisition criteria to identify and acquire these lucrative deals. This episode provides valuable insights on how to generate and capitalize on profitable opportunities in the market.

Listen to the podcast hereCreate Irresistible Real Estate Deals That WowIntroductionThis is episode number 2020, and we’re talking about how to create an irresistible real estate deal. Who doesn’t want an irresistible real estate deal?

Who doesn’t want an irresistible partner or an irresistible piece of pie?

That’s what I mean.

You can take the most boring topic, I don’t care what it is. Would you like an irresistible keyboard? Does that make you think, “Are the keys squishy?”

That’s my point. I’m glad you brought this up. What is an irresistible real estate deal versus just a good real estate deal? That’s what we’re going to talk about. I’ve had and Jill has had many irresistible real estate deals. We didn’t call them that at the time, but I’m going to tell you what I think they were.

Maybe because I was involved, it was an irresistible real estate deal.

I knew it was going to come to this. I knew it was going to come to female attraction.

Hold on a moment. I’ve had irresistible brokers I worked with.

Did they stick around?

Yeah. There’s one with a cowboy hat that got sidetracked when he got a new girlfriend, but we won’t go there.

This is what I’m saying. You’re making my point. If we have nothing but irresistible real estate deals, then we will be selling those same irresistible real estate deals to people who find them amazing, and our lives are great. There are a bunch of ways to accomplish that. I will be saying the word HGTV too many times during this episode. If you’re a data person, the one thing that you like about this show is that it breaks everything down for price and data and all that. You’re going to be a little disappointed here.

Are you going to talk wallpaper?

Yes.

I’m ready for it.

Choosing The Right Real Estate AgentEach week on the show, we answer a question from our Land Academy member Discord forum and take a deep dive into land-related topics by popular request from our Land Academy community. Let’s take a question, Jill.

Jenny wrote, “Good morning, everyone. I have a newbie question. I’m getting ready to list my first property. I’m down to three realtors. There are pros and cons to each one. Would anyone who is a seasoned experienced land seller have a minute or two to look over my three choices and give me their take, please?”

Before Jill answers this, I will say this. Everyone goes through this. I don’t care how seasoned you are, we go through this. Unless it’s in a market where we already have somebody set up, we go through exactly what you’re going through. Go ahead, Jill.

I narrowed it down to three. I’m looking at their choices. I’m going to look at their listings. That’s the first thing I’m going to look at. I’m going to look at whether they have similar properties in the same area, the same size, or whatever it is. How fast did they sell? This is a you thing, but I’m going to look at the numbers. If they had one down the street that had just sold, and I can see it went under contract in 42 days, awesome. They probably still have some buyers hanging out who would want my property. Mine is going to be better and cheaper. I’m going to start there.

Number two, I’m going to look at the actual listing. How good is it? Do they have pictures? Is it more than one line? Do they tell the story? Do they pull me in going, “I want to buy that. I want to live there.” What the heck is this thing?” They answered all the questions. The posting is thorough. I read it and I don’t have any questions. It painted the picture and pulled me in. That’s number two. Number three is them. When I call them, do they answer the phone? Do they connect with me? Are they responsive? Do they do what they say? Do I connect with them? If they don’t answer the phone for me when I’m calling them to solicit their business, they’re not going to answer the call for my buyers.

This is not the place or time to get creative. There are lots of places in this business for creativity, where you send mail, and how you price it. Those are all appropriate places to apply some artistic versus numbers. Finding a real estate agent is something that everybody struggles with in a new market. When that happens, I have to come back to experience. If you go back to the previous episode, we had a comment from somebody in our group about what a difference a good real estate agent makes.

We had a listing for twelve months, but nothing happened. Not a single offer. I got a Mossy Oak guy in, got the listing done and we had an offer within a week and the property was sold in three weeks. If you don’t know Mossy Oak. they are a land-focused national real estate brokerage that deals with property that we buy and sell all the time.

Whitetail is a good one too.

Versus Coldwell Banker, Century 21, or your Aunt Tilly. If you’re giving Aunt Tilly the listing because your wife is pressuring you to do that, expect failure.

Aunt Tilly, who got her license, doesn’t know what she’s doing. When you call her, she’s out putting flyers on doors. That may not work.

Jill and I have experienced the whole gamut. The listings that we have and the property we own are very well-listed in some cases and very poorly listed in other cases. That all has to do with one direct thing, Jill’s involvement. She’s not often because we have people working in our land company who aren’t as good as Jill. It’s not their thing. Choosing a real estate agent is not in their wheelhouse. If you want to have success in this, it needs to be yours. This is a good and important question. We all go through this.

That is true. We don’t want you, Jenny, to sit like, “I’ll give you a pro tip.” We covered it again in the last show. That poor person who had that bummer agent had a year-long listing. They were stuck with them for a year. I would still try to find a way to get out of it with less of that. When you’re on the same page, everybody should agree. I want you to make those changes and if you don’t want to make those changes, the last time I checked, you worked for me. We’re either going to make my changes or we’re going to undo this. I’m not trying to be mean. It’s just the facts.

I’ll be mean then. Real estate agents are, in general, wired, taught, and motivated to get listings. If you forget about our perspective and look at their perspective, a real estate agent who has ten listings or who perpetually has 25 rolling listings is pretty interesting to them. They have a pretty good chance of making a good living. How about 100? A real estate agent who has so much talent for getting listings, 100 rolling listings all the time, they’re in the top upper echelon of their group financially. I don’t blame them. They are very motivated to get a lot of listings. Once you get the listing, we’ll see what the market does. It’s on the MLS, like the other 99 listings I have. If it doesn’t sell, something is wrong. It’s not me. It’s not what I’m doing.

No, it’s the price.

I sell 4 to 8 properties every month. If yours isn’t selling, it’s not my fault.

No. I put it out there. Let’s go.

Was that mean?

I don’t know. We could bitch for a while, and I don’t want to.

That’s not bitching. That’s telling the truth. My point, Jenny, is that 2 of the 3 real estate agents you’re probably talking to have that idea, but that’s not what they’re telling you. They’re not sitting in front of you saying, “We’ll see what happens with your listing.” They’re telling you beautiful peaches and cream stories about how properties get sold. You have to sift through that.

You do. That’s the reality. That’s why you don’t want to go with the very first one or the one that has the highest number. That doesn’t necessarily mean it’s right. Sometimes they are sadly trying to get your business. Very true.

Irresistible Real Estate Deals

Our topic is how to create an irresistible real estate deal. As I said earlier, let’s define and dream for a second what the perfect real estate deal is so that we can go and locate it, attempt to buy it, and resell it over and over again. I came up with three specific components of what an irresistible real estate deal is.

1) It’s got an amazing price. Everything else in the market is priced at $300,000. You’re going to buy this for $200,000 and sell it for $250,000. That’s a pretty amazing price. The lower the better. The allure of price doesn’t work if the property is a pile of crap. 2) It has to have some pretty severe uniqueness about it. Usually, that ends up being a location. I always come back to thinking of New York City and Manhattan and how unique those locations are worldwide.

Price doesn't work if the property is a pile of crap. So, it has to have something pretty severe that makes it unique, and usually that ends up being the location.
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It’s one property to an adjacent property to an adjacent property. Those three properties might be one block off of Broadway. It becomes a less and less unique location. That’s the same thing with ranch property, infill lots, and all of it, especially waterfront property. If you got waterfront property at an amazing price, it’s starting to sound irresistible. If you got an amazing price three blocks off the water, it’s not as irresistible.

Finally, if you want to hit it out of the park, you need to have a property that has some type of amazing or a set of amazing attributes. That’s what everybody thinks about when they think about real estate. Continue to half-dream with me. Think about all these shows on HGTV and why they’re so successful. They don’t talk about the numbers on HGTV. If they do, they’re almost always not real.

What they talk about is the before and after. Here’s a terrible property with a reasonable price. It’s not terrible. It’s just dated or used. It’s used and used. It’s not new and fresh. Irresistible properties evoke a fantastic feeling in the potential buyer. That’s easy to show on television when you’re walking through a house that has been completely renovated by a professional renovator. It’s got to be competitively priced, in a fantastic location, and something very attractive. You almost can’t quantify it or put it into a word. It has to have some type of allure.

Are you talking about land or houses or anything?

Anything.

I have different ones. As you were doing it, I wrote down my three. Two of my three are the same, and one is different. I agree with you on the money. That’s a duh. I agree with you on an attribute that invokes a feeling. When there’s a creek or something special about it, that pulls people in. My third one was multiple uses.

I love properties where it’s not just one thing. It could be subdivided. It could be built on. It could be this. It could be a mobile. It could be commercial or whatever. Some properties have more than one. It could be recreational, residential, or fill in the blank. That’s going to appeal to more people. To me, that’s irresistible.

My only job becomes getting it out there, blasting it out to the planet, which for me means picking the right broker who is going to do that, the right agent, and making sure that it looks stellar. When that pops up on everybody’s feed, they’re like, “What is that? How pretty is that photo? Look at that property.” Look at how well it’s described and conveyed. Every last little detail is in there. I don’t have any questions like I talked about earlier, down to what the annual taxes are. I know what that is too. People don’t do that. I wish they would.

You’ve created an irresistible real estate deal if somebody’s like, “Where do I send the money?”

There’s nothing left to talk about. It’s beautiful. When they stand on it, it’s that good. I made sure it was that good. I didn’t have the dump across the street. It’s not conveyed in the photos.

What we’re saying when we say, what’s the definition of an irresistible real estate deal? What we’re doing in professional real estate speak is defining an acquisition criteria. I want properties between 20 and 40 acres. They need to be in these three ZIP codes. They need to be at this price per acre. It should sell very quickly. With plus or minus and a few details. That’s the same thing that people do on HGTV. It’s not so much the location, three bedrooms, two baths or more, X amount of square footage, either on water or with a water view.

Amazing garage, boat dock, fill in the blank.

I’ve been in acquisitions my entire professional life in healthcare and long-term care. The facilities that we would only buy had to have two or fewer nursing stations for staffing reasons. They had to have no more than semi-occupied rooms. No 3, 4, and 5-bed wards. They had to have no less than 100 beds for the efficiency scale, contracts with certain insurance companies, and on and on.

You develop an acquisition criteria. Your entire job becomes to jam that pipeline full of opportunities. That’s it. You have a pipeline, and you’re searching for those irresistible deals. You have a jammed pipeline. If you’re a Land Academy member, you have people lining up to partner deals with you, so you don’t have to worry about money. You’re going to win.

We described what an irresistible real estate deal is. Got it. From the buyer’s perspective, what does it need to look like? We have covered that. What do we think are the 3 or 4 most important items? You’re saying, great. What you’re doing is you’re taking that to the acquisition level, which is what we all should be doing. You should know going into a market what you want to sell and for what price. When you back into what you’re willing to buy and what you’re willing to pay, it should be no problem and no question. There should be no guessing.

You should know going into a market what you want to sell and for what price. There should be no guessing.
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That’s great, guys. You make this sound so easy. Fantastic. You described this great situation.

Congratulations. You turn on the faucet and gold comes out. Great. That’s awesome. I don’t have that.

The last half of this episode is going to be about how to do this.

Thank you. I didn’t read ahead. I did not read that far. Enlighten me too.

This process is almost identical, if not identical, to the regular acquisition process that Jill and I have been doing for decades. What has changed are the tools that we use to do it and why it’s getting easier and easier, in my opinion, and not harder. Here’s how you create an irresistible real estate deal.

1) Identify the profile of what the property is. We just did that. We’ve said we want between 20 and 40 acres. It needs to be less than $2,000 an acre. It needs to be in a certain area because I know from what everybody has told me that if I can fill that order, then it’s going to sell quickly. Great. I know exactly what my acquisition profile is. 2) I need to know where those deals exist because ten people can come to you and say, “If I had the corner lot on Broadway and 5th and I got it for $0.13, I’d be all set.” It has to be realistic.

“Everything on this lake.” It could be something like that.

“Any one of these six properties that surround this lake would be great, and I need them for $500.” That’s not realistic. If you have too small of an area, you’re hurting yourself. You need to give yourself a lot of opportunity to fill that order of that acquisition criteria. 3) Now you know what you want to buy and where you want to buy it. You know where you want to buy it because you’re applying the red, green, and yellow test through the trolling methodology that we talk about seemingly endlessly in Land Academy.

It’s a system I’ve been devising and improving for a couple of decades. We know what we’re buying. We now know where because we tested it with the red, green, and yellow test, and there are opportunities to do that enough so that we can send 2,000, 3,000, 4,000, or 5,000 units out and potentially capture that.

We now want to identify through data who owns those properties. We now know what we want to buy, where we want to buy it, and who owns it. The last part is to contact them intelligently with a well-priced offer, with a blind offer campaign, and follow up with Jill-like accuracy to create a real estate deal.

That’s it right there. You’re creating a deal. People don’t realize that you’re creating a deal where one didn’t exist.

That’s the name of the show, how to create an irresistible real estate deal, not how to identify one, not how to price one correctly.

To create an irresistible real estate deal, first identify the profile of the property.
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Also, not what one looks like. You create the deal.

You’re creating the transaction. I create in our real-life jobs, not this, the opportunity. I present the opportunity for Jill to create a real estate deal by finding the right area. By the time it gets to her and the phone rings and the person is within the price of what I sent out, she knows because we’ve been doing this for how many years together. She knows it’s close.

I was doing a coaching call and I was talking about that with you. Their first mailer is going out. They’re asking some stuff like what to expect. I said, “Here’s the difference for me and why I’m very lucky. We’ll get you there.” I pretty much can assume when my phone rings, if they’re anywhere in the ballpark of what we offered, we’re going to buy it. I am very fortunate because you are so good that those offers are stellar. If they’re anywhere in there, I answer the phone, assuming it’s a deal. I always answer the phone, assuming there’s a deal. They’re calling because they agree with me. Now I’m trying to find something wrong with it. That’s it.

I don’t want to make this sound too easy because there’s a reason that I said this in some other venue. Jill came to me on our last mailer. I had her check the mailer at the very end of it. I think it was last week that we talked about this on the show. I asked her, “What do you think?” She looks at it and for less than an eighth of a second, she looks back at me and says, “Will this create potential transactions for us to look at?” I said, “No.” She said, “How about you let me know.” When it’s like that with the mailer, however you do that, and whatever the mailer is like, she waves her hand around and says, “Call me when you have this figured out.” I went back and did it.

This is a very specific thing too. We’re doing some very unique specific things too. It’s hard for me to do it if I don’t have the faucet coming at me.

She didn’t say this, but this is what she meant. What she meant is, “I don’t want to work this hard.” Sift it through and make deals work that I shouldn’t be working. I want it to be easy. I want so many deals in front of me that I’m going to pick that one because it’s so easy and I know that it’s going to work.

It’s a hell of a lot easier for me to respond to her requests like that and then go back in the darkroom for maybe an hour or two hours or more. For you, it might take a little longer because you’re new, but it’ll be the same experience for you. It’s easier for me to generate 10 deals versus 5. All the stuff that she has to go through to find the 1 or 2 deals that we want to do that month, we bang our heads against the wall trying to make them work versus looking at 25 deals and saying, “These two work. These two are going to work. I can see it right now.”

Do you mean you told me it took five hours and only took one? I’m just kidding. I know that goes on, by the way. I’m going, “I’ll be over here working on the mailer.” He’s been dabbling with that for a while.

I have never not been caught up with The Walking Dead.

You are caught up. That is what you’re saying. I don’t like double negatives. I hate that.

I’ve always been caught up with The Walking Dead, which has been on for as long as we’ve been doing this.

I’m well aware, but that’s okay. My phone rings.

That’s great. She’s got two great deals in front of her. She and her staff get them purchased, and that’s great. We’re all done. No, we’re not done at all. We have to resell it. I say this jokingly because that’s mentally when we’re done. When we bought an amazing piece of property, the high that both of us got for that was over. It’s just now numbers on a computer screen. We have full-time staff to do that. They can go and resell it and convert it to cash.

Maintaining Resilience In The Real Estate MarketYou got some cash or maybe you have no cash, but a partner with a bunch of cash. You buy the property. It’s cash, real estate, back to cash. A small amount of cash, a small price for real estate, more cash in the bank than when you started. Jill, if that wasn’t inspirational enough, do you have something inspirational to share?

I was going to make a joke about that earlier about inspiration. This is a tough time. I’m going to talk about this for a minute. I want everyone to know that I feel your pain. We feel your pain, and we are right there with you. Please remember that I’m doing deals right next to you and ahead of you. Hopefully, I’ve got stuff going on too. I’m learning things, figuring out areas, and solving problems to save you time.

There’s a lot of stuff going on right now. There’s a lot of uncertainty. This came up a couple of times this week. You and I have talked about it a lot. I’ve talked about it privately in some coaching sessions. I’ve talked about it on the Land Academy ladies’ call. Please don’t lose sight of the goal, lose your momentum, or lose your excitement. Of all the uncertainty coming at you, stay the course and buy things even better.

That’s the thing too that we are doing personally. I was picky before. I’m getting even more picky. It’s going to be fine. There are always opportunities. Whether things are up or they’re down, there are opportunities, depending on where you are and how you’re looking at this. I know you want to add to that.

If you’re brand new, you are at an advantage over people who have been in the real estate business for a while, including us. You don’t know what it was like the last 3 to 4 years at 3% interest rates. Anything that you would buy would almost immediately resell. That’s how the market was. That’s what happens with markets.

I came in professionally at a time in the early ’90s when there was a huge recession happening. I was at a huge advantage. Computers were just becoming commonplace in the office. I was at an advantage because I understood that, and everybody else in the industry didn’t. Everybody else was fat and happy, buying new Cadillacs. I was not.

You were hungry.

I was eating ramen noodles. I found a better way. It stuck because here we are.

It worked.

If you’ve been in this for a few years, it is imperative that you review your processes and make the changes to adjust to the market. I’ve made that mistake. I guess it doesn’t work anymore. The stuff we’ve been doing for five years from the back of the yacht that I bought no longer works. It’s over. Enter Jill. She’s like, “What are you talking about? It’s not over. We just have to change this, this, and this. Give me a list of all your buyers that have been buying from you consistently. I’ll call them and we’ll do some deals.” It was that simple.

If you've been in real estate for a while, you must review your processes and make the changes to adjust to the market.
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I wasn’t used to having to pick up the phone to do stuff. The properties that we were bringing into inventory would sell themselves within days. You have to review and make those changes, or you’ll die. My final point is this and I say this from a personal place. It’s also a time to make permanent changes. This is going to happen again 10 to 15 years from now. All of it. It happened fifteen years ago. I’m shocked that it came to this. I thought it was going to be about ten years.

These real estate cycles historically, if you look all the way back, are eleven years apart. We got 4 or 5 more years out of this one, which is great. In the last cycle, Jill and I made permanent changes in our financial life. We promised each other we’d never take on any debt of any kind, in any way, with the exception of a rationally priced conservative primary residence, first position mortgage, and that’s it, which I think is fine. That worked out great for us. It’s very important that you don’t beat yourself up or let anybody else in your life who’s close to you let you even think that you suck as a person because you made some decisions at the time that were good for you and your family. You made a mistake.

That’s good.

Nobody knows when these things are going to happen. The only reason that we’re not in any form of financial trouble at all is because we went through it fifteen years ago. We were in a serious, severe, and detrimental financial situation. Jill pulled us out of it, and we promised each other we’d never do it again. Ten or fifteen years from now, whoever you are, if you’re going through this, their goal is to never go through it again. It’s to solve it and never go through it again. It’s not to beat yourself up or listen to your stepmom tell you how stupid you are. That’s the worst thing ever.

Get together and make the changes. You’re going to be fine. If you’re tuning in and you’re paying attention, good for you. You’ll be fine.

That’s right, Jill. Join us next Wednesday for another interesting episode. You are not alone in your real estate ambition.

We are Jack and Jill. Information and inspiration to buy undervalued property.

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In this episode, Steven Jack Butala and Jill K DeWit delve into how to adjust your land business for the evolving real estate environment in 2024 and 2025. As seasoned experts who have weathered multiple economic downturns, they share key strategies for adapting to market shifts, ensuring your business remains profitable and resilient. Tune in to discover the adjustments you need to make now to thrive in a changing landscape.

Listen to the podcast here5 Key Adjustments For Your Land Business In 2024-2025 This is episode number 2,018, and we’re talking about the five ways Jill and I think your land business needs to be adjusted for the 2024 and 2025 real estate environment. Big changes are coming, and we’ll talk about how we have already adjusted our operation and the plans we have because this is our third time going through a real estate economic downturn.

Big changes are coming. Adjust your land business now to thrive in the 2024-2025 real estate environment.
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We’re here to help you and talk to you about this.

We’re seeing the same things happening in commercial real estate, the housing market, and the land market. We’re watching it happen now for the third time. The second time around, it seemed strange that it was so similar. There’s a small bit of uncertainty, but it is very controllable.

We’re here traveling the country and doing temperature checks across the country. By the way, I’m looking to see where you can’t.

Literal temperature checks.

There’s a fly fisherman working his way down the river behind us. We happen to be sitting outside of Creed, Colorado, right now. You can probably see the water. You can definitely see trees and lovely nests behind us. It couldn’t be more dreamy.

Jill, we’re going into this real estate recession. You seem calm, and you guys are traveling around the world. How can you be so calm when all this uncertainty and craziness is going to happen?

We got this. I’ll tell you why. We’ve been ready. Do I have cash and property? Yes.

Partners.

Do I have a ton of paid-for assets? Do I have an amazing partner who knows what he’s doing, listens, and is on the same page 99% of the time? Yes. Do I worry about deal flow? No. Do I want to spend some of my cash coming up? Yes. We’ll talk about that.

We’ve got five points each, five ways that your land business needs to be adjusted. It was not eliminated, not dramatically changed, not kicked to the curb, not abandoned, and adjusted.

That should have been the title of the topic.

I listed a few of them.

Don’t abandon your land business. That is the wrong thing to do. Many people do. That’s reality.

Abandoning your land business is the wrong move in a downturn. Adjust and keep pushing forward.
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By the time we get to the end of this, my goal is for you to have the same confidence that Jill does. Thank you. Each week on the show, we answer a question from our Land Academy member Discord forum and take a deep dive into land-related topics, usually by popular request from our Land Academy community. Single question.

What does it usually mean? It may not be by popular request. You just like it.

Sometimes.

By popular, meaning one person wanted it.

Once in a while, and this happens in Discord about once every quarter, maybe once every other month, some land-related topic just explodes. I create a question, and I will answer all of it.

Evan wrote, “I just want to share a quick reminder that the right agent changes everything. I bought a commercial property back in March of 2023 for $53,000. I hired a local agent that I thought was a good fit. She put together a good listing, appeared to promote the property, and communicated well. After listing it for a year, she never brought one offer.

I gave the listing to a Mossy Oak agent who did a great job selling a residential property for me. He listed the property for $150,000, the same price as when the listing expired with the first agent, and brought me a $135,000 cash offer in three weeks. We closed 30 days later. Lessons learned. Spend time researching and interviewing your agents, and no twelve-month agreements. That’s my land Bible. Six months tops.”

This question I put it in here specifically because it bleeds into our actual topic, if you don’t have the right partners, employees, or life partner, you can’t choose your kids. That’s a different topic. If you don’t have the right people in your life, get the right people or do it all yourself. You only have two options because, eventually, it’s going to catch up with you. I have to tell you on a personal note, and Jill’s going to kick me under the desk when I say this, the people and the experience that we have had from an employee and partnership standpoint on the land side of this business for two decades now, 15, 20 years almost, have been nothing short of amazing. It’s the reason that we make a ton of money.

Buying and selling land.

On the land side only. That is not the case with our other companies, specifically Land Academy. It’s incredibly difficult to staff that company for some reason. We have bought, sold, acquired, and started several companies during the ten years we’ve had Land Academy. Staffing is tough. This is just glaring, and I love this question. Thank you, Evan. I appreciate it. It says it in a really brief, concise way, very frustrating.

Every now and then, as we’re out traveling the country like we are now, we stumble across a really cool rock show, like the gem and mineral show here in Creed. I’m like, “Maybe that’s my new little side business.” You think I’m kidding? I’m telling everybody there’s something else we could do, too. We got this. This is going to be fun because you’re right. Some of the things we’re talking about right now are tripping into my five.

‘s topic is five ways your land business needs to be adjusted for the 2024 and 2025 real estate environment. Jill, go. What’s your number one? Before we actually get into the five, I’m going to briefly describe, please, let’s do this together, what’s going to change in the environment. If it hasn’t already, it’s going to change. Trust me.

People are freaked out about money and politics. People are freaked out about interest rates and staying in their homes. People are freaked out about their jobs. What else do you want to add in there?

Facing The Uncertainty With ConfidenceThat’s all true, and it’s going to get worse. I believe that the job scenario in the country is going to get worse. There will be fewer jobs and more unemployment, but in the real estate environment specifically, there will be more property inventory. There already is way more inventory than there was last year. We look at that on our closed Thursday webinar for all Land Academy members, and we study it in detail. There will be more willing sellers. In fact, there’ll be a lot more. Why? Because there’s so much property on the market. The stuff that Jill described, if you own several pieces of land or a couple of extra houses and stuff starts going sideways in your financial life, you start to sell things that you don’t need. Yes. That’s what we’re here for.

What do we always say? We are here to buy assets under their actual current value from people who no longer want them, who are usually experiencing some type of life event. This is about to be life event central. It will also be more difficult for you to sell the property you’re about to acquire. Why? There’s more property on the market. How do you rectify that? That’s what these five points are about. My number one is you will have to send more mail. You will, and you want to. This is not a negative thing. This is a positive thing. This is a time when you can buy some seriously undervalued real estate.

If you’re a person, and Jill and I have a lot of people in our lives socially, who loves to rent property, now is the time to buy rental property. My sister has 30 or 40 rentals. I don’t understand that. It’s not our thing. We’ve tried it. With very few exceptions, we have a bunch of rentals, but they’re all rented to people we know, and they just get paid.

Are they related to us?

Now is the time to buy rental property. They’re related to us.

That really stinks because the money’s not always consistent. Anyway, we’re not there to make money off of them. That’s our point. Our rentals are not there for real income-producing purposes.

Our rental properties are one of many nonprofit organizations that we have.

That’s it. That ties back into our companies.

We have a few that are nonprofit.

It’s about to be parcelfat.org, LandAcademy.org. We might still have that.

We do.

Good. We’ll bring that back.

It’s always been a .org, by the way.

We’ll bring that back.

Sending More Mail And Changing Your MessageYou have to not only, this is still my number one, send more mail. In addition to that, you need to consider changing your message.

Here’s the thing. This ties into mine.

This is so good. Here’s the thing. We have so much more information at our fingertips than we did during the last recession. The last recession was about 2009 for us. It technically went from about 2007 to 2011. It caught up with us in a material way around 2009. We didn’t even really know. We had RealQuest back then, which was a subpar data company that was just assessors’ databases. We know everything now. We know the credit score of the person who received our letter. We know who they’re married to.

All about the mortgage information. Exactly.

You can pick and choose very intelligently who gets your mail. We know what level of education they have. When you start to really look at the different messages that you can send somebody, we know when their mortgage is going to change, especially if they have an adjustable-rate mortgage. When the mortgage is going to go from 3% to 5%, let’s say we know what the value is going to be. If that person has any land or extra houses lying around, they’re going to be interested in selling. You can time it. They get your letter or your correspondence two weeks after their mortgage changes dramatically.

You can time it to hit then, is what you’re saying.

My final point to number one is the tools that we have available to us about selecting who gets mail are extraordinary now. You’ve probably heard that, if you’re in the real estate business, people focus on probate. When somebody dies and there’s an estate, there are usually people. I know this from personal experience. There are siblings involved who don’t want it. They think, “What are we going to do with Mom’s house? I don’t want it. Neither one of us lives in that state. Let’s just sell it.” If you start sending it, people have been working probate because it’s public information. It’s called “working probate.” Multiply that by 80. That’s the amount of information we have about people and their real estate now. Please dig around the internet and find new tools. We are.

Your number one is my number two. Mine was not only really taking a look at and adjusting or increasing, I should say, your mail volume but also being open to other ways of reaching sellers. You can use other touchpoints to further enhance how you’re doing it. I don’t want you to put all your eggs in one basket because we’ve watched it change over the years. We used to think email was the bomb, and then it wasn’t. Texting seemed like the bomb, and then it wasn’t. Even social media has been used for the last 5 to 10 years in Land Academy.

People would say, “I send a mailer out, then I make sure this pops up on their Facebook.” You could tie all this stuff together. You could get creative. I say don’t put all your eggs in one basket because the most efficient way, especially for some of the people we’re reaching who are old school, is still getting that letter. They hang on to them. That’s the thing, too. If you text, how many times have you had to scroll through and find a text? I was literally looking for a Durango RV wash person, and I had to scroll to find them. If I had a letter, they hang on to that stuff. It’ll be on the fridge or in their file. That’s why I say enhance it but don’t pivot 100% yet. If there is a pivot, you’re in Land Academy, and we’ll let you know.

A couple of weeks ago, we’re really saying you need to have more deal flow, during this downturn because it’s packed with people having life changes, and they’re more willing sellers than in an upturn. You need to have a bunch of deal flow. Every time I do a mailer, I get it all done, and then I bring Jill in and say, “Take a look at this before I push the button.” We just look at it together for, I don’t know, maybe 10 or 15 minutes. The last time, she looked at me and said, “Is this mailer going to generate ten deals a day? Ten opportunities a day. Not 10 deals, but 10 properties to look at?” I said, “No, are you kidding? No way.” She said, “Can you call me back in here when it does?” I added thousands and thousands more units. I said, “This is probably going to generate 10.” She said, “Cool, let’s send it.”

Of my top five things to change in how you adjust your business, consistent deal flow is my number five. You just hit two of mine, mail volume and consistent deal flow. We got that out of the way.

Maybe there’s 10, not 5. My number two is that sellers are going to be much more interested and open to receiving your letter and talking about selling their property, whether it’s a house or a piece of land than they would have been, let’s say, two years ago, when interest rates were at a sub-3%. There was nothing for sale because everything would get sold. That requires you to adjust to that. It’s going to be more intense, more emotional. Specifically, in the case of houses, there’s going to be some hand-holding.

You have to be cool about this. It’s a tough situation. I can think of one in particular right now, which is a house where the family’s a little cocky. They haven’t really done their homework. They think it’s worth way more. They don’t know the market. They haven’t looked to see what else is out there. Everything you’re saying is true, but they don’t know that. My point is you have to be careful how you let them know. There’s a nice way to say, “Hey, you’re one of ten on your block,” versus just saying it like that. They may not know. They might still have this dreamy idea from two years ago when they inherited the house, and now nobody uses it anymore.

They think it’s still worth [fill in the blank]. It’s tough. What I do in these situations is gently let them know the current market and the situation. I come back to them in a couple of days or maybe even weeks, depending on what you’re buying. Sometimes, you have to give them a little time to realize, “Shoot, she’s right. This is our chance.” I nicely let them know, “If you want to sell, I’m going to be your option. I’m probably going to be your only option. You can do it now, or we can do it in 90 days. Let me know what you think.”

I’m going to ask you a professional question about sellers. Where do you think sellers get their notion of what their property is worth?

From the coffee shop down the street, where they overheard a story of a story of a story that somebody got top dollar.

That’s exactly what I think.

They don’t know that it’s agricultural. They don’t know that it has been 100% remodeled, studs up, all that stuff. All they heard was, “He got a million dollars for that house.”

He got $1 million for that house. “I bought this thing 60 years ago. I only paid $300,000. We can get $1.2 million. My house is worth $1 million.”

It’s really worth $600,000, maybe on a good day.

In fact, the time that you’ve lived there has deteriorated more. It hasn’t improved.

That’s the reality.

It’s tough. My point is, during this downturn, you’re going to get a little bit less, probably substantially less, pushback on price if you do the mailer. Price it low. There will be more people calling you back, saying, “Let’s do this deal.”

I’m going to wait because one of mine ties into your next one. Go ahead. You just started to lean into the idea that they’re going to be less hesitant and more amenable, you think? I’m going to jump into my number four because it ties into this. My number four in this situation is that when you’re talking to these sellers, they see what’s going on, and you get them on the same page. My number four is faster closes on the buy side and the sell side.

You believe that.

That is so important to me, and I think it’s a good pivot. You need to be fast. Do it, get it in escrow, get it closed, done. Even when you sell it, don’t leave any chance for anybody to change their mind. Just get them done.

On the sell side, on that note, you need to make sure as a real estate investor that your property, stuff goes sideways in deals, time kills deals. That’s what Jill’s saying. If your property, stuff comes up in your property on the sell side that nobody knew about, not even you, if it’s priced so much lower than the regular average in that market of properties, then it’s still going to close. It is so important. Price is so important in a downturn like this. You have to buy it cheap.

Price it well and get the right agent. As with Evan, the situation we discussed earlier breaks my heart, he had to sit for twelve months with an agent who did nothing, and then he finally found the right person. That’s why I always go into these situations with a broker. Most of our properties are sold that way, and the conversation is always the same, “What do you think you could sell it for in, let’s just say 90 days?” That’s what we’re aiming for, not five days, but 90 days. I want to be aggressive, but I’m not trying to hold out for top dollar.

After we all agree on a price, I say, “Great, let’s do a six-month listing agreement.” If they ask why, I explain that we’re all agreeing on 90 days. If it doesn’t happen in six months, we’ll talk about it, figure out what we goofed on, and adjust it together. No one ever pushes back. These six-month agreements are no problem. You shouldn’t be stuck for a year.

Diversifying Your Property PortfolioNumber three is very important. Please seriously consider acquiring more diverse types of properties than you have in the past. If you just buy and sell land and do it successfully, congratulations, you’ve figured it out. Please consider adding houses, small properties in rural environments, small SFRs, single-family residences, mobile homes, and commercial real estate. Commercial real estate is the first to experience a downturn, and they’re going through a huge one now. I just reviewed a motel in Michigan as an acquisition candidate. Jill doesn’t even know this. I did it.

Consider acquiring diverse property types—houses, rural properties, and commercial real estate—to adapt to market shifts.
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No, true. I don’t know about it. Did you buy it?

No. It’s right on the lake or one of the lakes. It was a great piece of property.

A room for you and for me.

It was too expensive. Even if I shaved half a million off of it, I’d still be unsure if we could resell it. It’s such a specialty property. The point is, I looked at it as an acquisition candidate. So, I’m not saying go off and buy a golf course. What I’m saying is, please add these types of properties. As a Land Academy member, you have all the data and information you need. Why wouldn’t you just add it and then run through the differences between buying land and buying a house or a mobile home? There are a few caveats, but they’re not that different. The pricing and all that stuff is essentially the same.

Your number three is my number one. That’s exactly what I had down. Isn’t that weird? Truth time, of course. We always do this, and we don’t talk about it. I asked about the topic, then I went off and did my thing, and he did his. I sit down with my notes, and it’s funny how often we’re on the same page. My number one is trolling.

This is what Jill just said. It’s funny how often we’re on the same page. I’m going to remind you of that in a few minutes.

We’re not on the same page on everything, but we are on this. My number one for this whole thing is trolling and making constant adjustments, adjustments with the type of properties you’re buying, the money you’re spending, and where you’re doing it. My main point is to buy whatever people are looking for.

That’s it. How do you do that? By trolling. How do you know what they want?

Yeah, it’s pretty easy for me to pop in right now, move my mouse around the country, and see what closed in the last 30 days and where everything sold between $150,000 and $200,000. Ding, ding. Whatever it is, then you zero in on that.

Here’s how you know what everybody wants. It’s pending. Pick a ZIP code, go on Zillow or Realtor or anywhere, click on it, and say, “I want to look at property in this ZIP code,” then choose all the stuff that’s pending. If what’s pending in that environment is a 3-bedroom, 2-bath, built after 1970 but before 1990 SFR, that’s on an acre of property, and on and on, that’s a profile. You’ve profiled that, and it’s $350,000. Everything on the market above $400,000 is still for sale and aging. Everything below $400,000 seems to be pending. That’s what everybody wants.

This is drinking water for you. This is very true. You have it down. We’ll drive through different areas, and you’ve already done your research. Every time we’re going somewhere, he’s already researched the area thoroughly before we get there. While we’re there, cruising through town, you’re finessing, adding little tweaks to your analysis like, “That’s exactly what that property looked like,” or, “Hmm, I thought this looked a little bit better online, but now I’ve got a good feel for it.” It’s fun for me because I can go, “Where’s the sweet spot?”

There’s next week’s show. Buy what everybody wants. How to buy what everybody wants? Seriously, I’m going to write that down.

I love it. That’s part of how to buy what everybody wants. Jack and I talk about this all the time. There’s a breakpoint. I go, “What’s the breakpoint, babe?” He goes, “In this town, it’s $500,000. In this town, it might be $150,000. And in this town, it might be $800,000. In Jackson, Wyoming, it might be $4 million.” That’s the breakpoint. You have to know these markets.

I just think it’s brilliant that some of the most brilliant stuff is so obvious, yet no one says it. You need to buy what everybody wants.

What if they don’t see it?

Why would you buy a mobile home in a place where every single mobile home is aging on the market?

True, 150 days on the market.

The municipality is dying to get rid of all mobile homes in that environment. Why would you buy those and then wonder why they can’t sell? There’s so much common sense in that. Every single house in one ZIP code that has one bathroom, because it was built in 1890, is on the market. Every single one under $300,000 that has two bathrooms is pending. Send the mail out that reflects that.

I’m going to argue that people have been told to do something and didn’t take a step back to think, “That doesn’t make sense.” That’s why we’re here. That’s what we do. This is Land Academy. I’m not here to tell you, “Go mail here, do this area.” In six months, it’s going to be different. This is all Jack. Jack’s whole thing is he’s teaching you how to find this stuff, look for the triggers, and then pivot when you need to. Go here, go there, just like this whole discussion.

Buying Fewer Properties With Larger Profit MarginsEverything north of $400,000, in my example, is sitting on the market. Everything south of $390,000 with two bathrooms is pending. What do you do? You send out mail for about $325,000, and you’re going to find somebody, or multiple people, within that zip code who are experiencing a life event and just want to get out. That’s been our whole business model for decades. We’ve been doing that and teaching it. It works with some fundamental micro changes, which is what this show is about, adjusting. Now, my number four, if you’re ready, We have chosen to buy fewer properties and do fewer deals with larger profit margins. I’m guessing we will probably do 12 to 15 deals this year that make us $100,000 to $150,000 net each. You can do the math on that. It’s a pretty good year.

Maybe more.

With not a lot of work. Maybe more.

We’re only halfway through. Things change, stuff’s going to come up, and more opportunities are going to come up. I expect that to be more.

There are more opportunities. We just said the market produces more inventory in times like these, more willing sellers, better prices, and all of that. What that allows us to do, and this may or may not be true for you, is have a larger pipeline of property. It allows Jill, and I actually learned this from her probably three years ago, to really just look at the deal in thirteen seconds and say, “Yes,” and that’s it. It’s because it’s easy enough for her to do, it’s profitable enough, and when a bunch of stuff goes wrong, it still closes.

We bought it for $125,000 and sold it for $210,000. It’s not just that everybody’s alive. She’s got a good feeling from the seller, and whatever their circumstances, they’re buddies now. The deal’s going to get done. There’s more to it for her. If all that stuff’s going to go on, I’d rather do a bigger deal. I don’t want to do smaller deals.

This just came up in Discord. I responded to someone who asked, “What are you guys doing with these deals that are too small for your current acquisition criteria?” This person is looking to scoop them up, and I’m like, “Hold on a moment. Make sure the profit is worthy of your time.” Do you really want to do a $3,000 deal? Are you going to make $3,000, or do you want to make $30,000? My note to him was, “What if it even takes an extra couple of weeks, but you’re going to make $30,000 versus $3,000?” I’d rather you spend your time on the $30,000. For me, it does take less time on the ones where I’m making more money because I’ve got agents involved. This person is doing this, and that person is doing that, so I’m not doing any of the work. If I’m out there buying for $1,000 and selling for $4,000, I’m doing my own listing, I’m selling it, I’m taking my own calls. It’s not worth my time.

To cap my number four about doing fewer but bigger profit margin deals, in good times, you might review twenty acquisitions and buy one, maybe 20 to 30. It’s a big, round number. In times like these, you might review 100 deals. Believe me, if you review 100 deals, there’s one good one in there, probably ten good ones. My point is you can look at it that way. For every 20 deals in good times, I buy a property that we review. I buy one property. In bad times, like now, I don’t review 100 deals and buy five. That’s still 20 to 1. We don’t do that. We look at it like we’ve got such a huge choice here now. We’re going to make it count.

I still pick the best ones.

I’m going to do all of them from a bigger pool.

That’s a nice thing. I don’t have to worry about, “I can only afford five.” No, I’ve got other people’s money. In Land Academy, I can do 50 if I want to. It doesn’t matter. This is good.

Should I do my number four?

Yeah, because I have one more left. Your number five and my number five are so different. Go for it.

This is not so much economics-tied but a sign of the times from an information technology and AI standpoint. Things are changing so rapidly with tech and the internet and all kinds of stuff. God knows what the real implications are. What the real unintended consequences of AI are, we’ll never know, but there are consequences. I don’t care what your age is, what your background is if you can’t stand the internet, or if you love it, or anything in between, you have to embrace the new technology, the new datasets, how to send mail, and where to send mail. You have to embrace that.

Embrace new technology and data. Use today's tools to make smarter real estate decisions.
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In a downturn, it’s a great time to look at all that stuff because there are people going out of business and new people who are amazing at data who are coming up and creating products for us to use to buy and sell real estate. All this gray hair on my head, I know how to do deals, but technology is not my thing.

These kids coming up with all these IT products, some of them are great. They don’t even know how great because it’s my job to interpret the data that I’m looking at, or the tool, or the AI version of whatever it ends up being, and make better real estate choices. That’s the gap. Embrace this. You have to embrace it, and you have to apply your wisdom. I have many examples of companies that we’ve all heard of, iBuyers.

That didn’t work because we have tech people from Palo Alto creating products like Zillow, believing that they can create a 3% margin real estate deal, and they can’t. They don’t know what they’re doing. They can’t close a deal like Jill can. Use that technology and your real estate experience. That’s my number five.

Thank you for not saying the gray hair was because of wives and children. I was waiting for that.

The kids are all out of the house, and I’m happy all of a sudden.

Good, thanks. Here’s my take, and I love that. I can’t tell you how much, like you said, the gray hair, and I have it too, is because we’ve lived and been around the block. You see things come and go. I’m already seeing less chatter about AI. There are so many things that were the bomb eight years ago, and now we don’t even talk about them. They’re like, “That didn’t work.” How many people do we know, including young people, who are backing off from many or all social media platforms?

I still believe in all that, but it’s not every single new platform that is the bomb, and I’m involved in every single one anymore. People pick and choose what they focus on. It’s so interesting, and it’s probably going to change. What we’re all into right now is going to be different in six months, probably even six years from now. By the way, we’ve had Land Academy for over six years, let alone our whole business model. You’re going to have to adapt to this, too.

I just saw an interview, not recently, with George Lucas, the guy from Star Wars, who said, “Think about what movies were like a hundred years ago in 1924. Now think about what they’re going to be like 100 years from now.” The technology changes.

I was even watching a movie that was 30 years old, thinking, “Look at how our backgrounds have changed.” The special effects have changed so much in the last 30 years, even in the last 10 years. It’s amazing and cool.

That’s how much your real estate business will change, by the way.

Lean And Mean Staffing In Your Land BusinessIf you’re not ready and don’t accept it and roll with it, you won’t make it. My number five, you need to think about a lean and mean staffing situation. You might need to go back to some basics just to save money and allocate your resources where they should be spent. Think about answering your phones. Do you really want to overdo it on your PatLive bill or whatever you’re using? We’re going to get the best bang for our buck, which is pretty much buying properties.

It’s all in the acquisitions and choosing the right real estate agent, which is why I included Evan’s question here. It really was a statement.

If you’re lean and mean, and you’re doing a lot of the work yourself, and you have agents selling it for you, that takes that out of the picture for you. If you don’t have time to scrub your data, you can outsource that. It’s not a full-time employee. That’s my big thing. I’m buying an acquisitions manager. This comes up all the time. “I’m doing great. I’m hiring an acquisitions manager, Jill. Should I pay them a salary or commission?” I’m like, “Well, hold on a moment. Let’s stop for just a second. How much time do you need? How many deals are we talking about here?” You don’t really need to overpay someone 40 hours a week and then find stuff for them to do. A lot of people do that wrong.

Let’s break down what Jill’s saying from a numbers perspective. You do not need additional employees if you’re interested in making between $5,000 and $150,000 a month. You need to send out the right mail to the right people, and it has to be priced right. “Jack, I don’t know how to do that. I suck at Excel, and I don’t want to learn.” Fine, find somebody like me. You need to answer your phone correctly, create real estate deals, and get them purchased. “Jack, I’m a data person.” Find somebody like Jill. That doesn’t require any expense.

A partner. Who’s doing deals with you?

It doesn’t require any expense at all. It’s utilizing what you’re good at. Before you found Land Academy, it utilized what you’re good at. If you’re doing between one to two deals a month, whatever the profit margin is, all you need is what I just described. If you want to send it to the moon like we do, you need between 1 and 2 additional employees on the land side. We’ve had $10 million years.

It’s not complicated. I think people make it complicated. You don’t need a big staff. In a perfect world, those people that you have working for you are variable costs, not fixed costs, meaning you do a deal, they get paid. Not that they have a salary and are just sitting there. We have multiple companies, so we’ve chosen the salary route, and it works for the people who are there. They’re happy, and we’re happy. Let’s put it that way.

We have different kinds of companies, but not for our land companies. It’s very different. This has been great.

Do you have something inspirational to share?

I wanted to wrap up with this. When we watch people go away, what’s happened before is that people were not ready for it during tough times. They couldn’t weather the storm. They overspent, they had tons of seller financing, and maybe they even did terms. I haven’t heard much about that lately, but people used to say, “You can buy a property and then sell it on seller financing. Take the triage in the middle there.” I just want to make you aware, and I want to make sure you’re making smart decisions and you’re here listening. Hopefully, that’s why you’re here. I don’t want you to abandon your company. You should not have to abandon your land company. You can scale it up or scale it back however it needs to be, but you should not have to abandon it. If you do, it’s on you. That’s money.

Even if you have to shelve it, the stuff works.

Do a deal a month, or maybe we’re doing a deal a week. If you don’t do that, make it a deal a month and make it count. Get yourself out of that hole.

You don’t need any money. If there is a hole, it shouldn’t be. If you’re out there finding great deals, securing them, and creating great deals, that’s all you need. You don’t have to have any money. Just go on a Discord channel, Land Academy’s Discord channel, and 60 people will beg you to finance or partner on the deal.

Over the years, the only people I saw who didn’t make it were because of their financial decisions. It’s not deal flow. It’s not the deals. It’s not stuff like that. They just didn’t know how to position themselves and buy the assets.

That’s my talk.

I’m sorry.

Final Thoughts And InspirationNo, it’s good. It’s a perfect segment. My advice right now, or my inspirational portion here before we wrap up the episode, is if you’re young and this is your first time, this is a perfect time for you to look straight into the mirror and say, “Now I’m making different choices. I am making permanent financial changes in my life.” This is what happened to me the first time. I got rid of all the debt that I had, one way or the other. I got rid of it. It’s not a pretty thing to go through. Hopefully, you have to do it alone. I did it alone with Jill around, fortunately. We’re still together.

I got confused. Was it better alone or better not alone?

Way better alone. I don’t know. Maybe that’s a guy thing.

It’s better alone, but that does not mean file for divorce, babe. “I got to get through this financial pickle and then I’ll call you in a year.”

Maybe the person you’re married to is the reason that you have all these problems. Maybe some permanent change needs to happen there.

That doesn’t mean kick people to the curb. We could get on the same page.

My point is get rid of all your debt. All of it. That’s true. Permanently. “Jack, leverage is the way you make money.” Yes, you’re absolutely right. Leverage is for a certain personality type, someone who sleeps, eats, and breathes capitalization and how things are capitalized and utilize leverage. Those people do use debt correctly. For the rest of us, and I include myself in this, it’s not a good idea. It’s very difficult.

Think of our friend who owns a bar. Jill and I know them well. Their parents started this bar in the 1940s. It’s on a very popular corner in Scottsdale, in Old Town Scottsdale. They own the building and all the land around it. They only take cash, and they do not serve food. They print money because even in the worst of times, they don’t have any expenses. They pay property taxes, and they don’t even pay labor because, in a downturn, labor is a variable cost for them.

You want your business to be like that. You want your life to be like that. In the worst of times, you don’t have any bills. You can sell assets, even if they’re below cost. Jill and I have been through this just to eat because you don’t have any debt. Debt will kill you, including mortgage debt, as we’re seeing now with these adjustable-rate mortgages again.

I’m not worried. Are you worried?

No.

Same thing.

I’m not worried 1%.

I’m looking at all the assets. You have us really well-diversified, especially in property. I’m not worried about the things we have for sale right now. I just wrote a note to Jan. I’m like, “We missed the boat on this one property with this agent. I can’t put a mobile on it. It’s got the few things we love.” It could be for personal use. We’re still not sure. I said, “So I just wrote her a note back in Airtable, and I said, ‘You know what? It’s expired. It’s not going to be what we want it to be. Let’s revisit it in the spring and maybe relist it then with a good agent, a different agent.'” I don’t have to worry about it. Nobody cares. I don’t care.

That’s the way it should be. I’m sure that’s the right decision too. It’s a calm, no-pressure decision, and it’s not like you need to make payroll next month or anything.

It’s not going anywhere. Exactly.

That’s a great example. Join us next time for another interesting episode. You are not alone in your real estate ambition. We are Jack and Jill, providing information and inspiration to buy undervalued property.

The post 5 Key Adjustments For Your Land Business In 2024-2025 appeared first on Land Academy.

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Sending the right blind offer to the right landowner can be the game-changer that unlocks incredible opportunities. In this episode, Steven Jack Butala and Jill K DeWit dive into the strategies behind crafting blind offers that deliver results. They break down the three different types, share insights from their extensive experience, and discuss what really works in today’s competitive market. Whether you’re new to the business or a seasoned pro, this episode is packed with actionable advice on how to refine your mailer tactics and close more deals. Tune in to discover the subtle art of making offers that land.

Listen to the podcast here3 Types Of Blind Offers That Landowners Can't Refuse!In this episode 2017, Jill and I are going to talk about the three types of blind offers you can send to landowners that get results. We have tried them all, and I can tell you without a spoiler alert, that one works. As long as you are sending them to the correct property and owner type, you will have some degree of success that you’re pleased with. Each week on the show, we answer a question from our Land Academy member Discord forum, and we take a deep dive into our land-related topics by popular request from our Land Academy community.

Ivan and Randy wrote, “TGIM, everyone. I’m going along with the Land Academy courses and had a few questions regarding mailer results. Per Jack’s equity planner, for the land category, it looks like, every 2,500 mailer units should result in at least one deal, correct? Understandable results may vary, but in your experience, has this been your result? Of the 2,500 mailer units, approximately how many responses, not deals, have you received as responses?”

Aaron wrote back. One of our members had already piped in, so we added that here. “In June, we sent out an 11,000-unit mailer to one state and a 5,000-unit mailer to another. So far, zero deals from the first one and three from the second. The three deals will take $100,000 in total acquisitions to buy, and we should sell combined for around $240,000. I almost had a deal on the first mailer, but somebody outbid me. Sometimes these deals come back, and lots of flaky others are out there in this business.”

“These mailers are only a little over a month old, so I’m still thinking another deal or two could happen. Last I checked, our long-term average was something like 2,000 to 3,000 units per deal. I think when we look back on 2024, that will have gone up some, partially due to competition, so we’re targeting higher dollar amounts, aka larger deals. Yes, it’s possible to send out a 10,000-unit mailer and then get nothing, maybe even 15,000 to 20,000, but if that happens, you need to start looking at what you’re doing, like other things in the process.” I agree with all of that.

I do too. I think both people are correct. Aaron has some experience here and reading between the lines, he sent out a 16,000-unit mailer, which is going to cost him about $10,000, and he’s going to make about $140,000. By anybody’s calculation, that’s an amazing return on investment. If I flip a coin and I get heads, and I flip a coin again and I get tails, I have a 50% response. If I flip the same coin 50,000 times, I’m going to get a 50-50 response.

That’s just statistics, all things being the way that they should. I’m flipping it the correct way, and there’s no wind or other crazy variables like that. It’s the same thing with these mailers. It’s possible for you to send out 15,000 units and get nothing. It’s extremely unlikely. Send out more mail, do more deals, and the return on investment is amazing.

It's possible for you to send out 15,000 units and get nothing, so send out more mail, do more deals, and the return on investment is amazing.
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Other variables are whether a live person is answering the phone or how good the person is.

Jill’s piece.

Are they getting a number out of them? That’s the hard stuff that I can’t line up with myself. Mark Smith who’s new to this hates talking on the phone. We’re going to have different results. Mark Smith is going, “Now what?” I’m like, “Hi, this is Jill, what do you get? I want to buy it.” Could you imagine? I should answer the phone like that. That would be funny.

For reference, this is not to make you feel bad, but anybody tuning in to this. We sent out I think a 230-unit mailer, really strategic, and since we’re talking about mailer types today, Jill received five total phone calls back, and we will be doing one deal out of that and it will make more than $100,000. There are a lot of variables. One huge variable is who’s answering the phone and can you make a deal work?

Can you create a deal?

Blind Offers That Get ResultsJill shaved off $400,000 or $500,000 off of the purchase price in this first conversation, and then it kept going down from there because they liked her. Today’s topic is three types of blind offers you can send to landowners to get results.

We’re backing up what are we doing to have this conversation with these sellers. We are sending out very strategic, very well-priced offers to very well-planned, thought-out, calculated, data-driven areas that we’ve identified as good to buy and sell land. What’s interesting is, over the years, we’ve tested them too. There are lots of ways to do this. Jack is going to talk more about it, but there are three main ways to get your sentiment into a seller’s hands that you’re interested in their property. Some work and some don’t, and they have very different results.

Every time I do a mailer, I sit down, close my eyes for a second, and picture this scene like it’s in a sitcom from the 1970s. A mail comes, and the husband or wife is sitting in the kitchen, maybe having coffee, and one of them opens the mail and sees the offer we sent. They open it up because it’s blank on the front and they don’t know what it is. The wife opens it up and says, “That property we bought in Florida twelve years ago, or Nevada, it sounds like somebody wants to buy it for $5,200.”

1: PostcardsHow does that conversation go? Does the person who opens the mail even get that far after they read it, or do they throw it away? Picture that scene, and there are three types of mailers that they’re receiving, all from the same person. One of them is a postcard, and they have 14 or 15 other postcards in there for coupons for their dry cleaning, pizza, and carpet cleaning.

New windows. Renewals by Anderson windows.

Pork chops are $5.99 a pound.

At Albertson’s.

Your postcard is in a stack of stuff that they don’t care about. Maybe they’re looking for pork chops that week, and score. They don’t ever read a postcard. The reason that postcards are so attractive as a potential mailer is that they’re cheap. They’re way cheaper than sending a number ten envelope, which is what we send. You don’t have to price it.

The reason that postcards are so attractive as a potential mailer is because they're cheap.
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Less postage.

That’s what I mean.

It’s easy to implement.

They also yield almost nothing. We’ve tried it.

Could you imagine? What is the psychology behind postcards? Because I don’t even look either. When I go through the stack of mail that we all get, I pull the mail out of the thing, and anything resembling newsprint, grocery store ads, those clear things, or a postcard that could be a thing, I don’t even look at them. I don’t give them the time of day. I toss postcards.

They’re attractive because they’re much cheaper per unit. You don’t have to price anything. You can get a list and send it to any printer. They’ll do it and get them out in the mail. They yield nothing. Now you’re spending thousands of dollars on something that yields nothing, and you’ll probably give up on the business. Not good.

2: Blank Number 10 EnvelopeThe second two types of mailers that you can send out, and they’re both packaged the same way. Keep picturing that couple in the kitchen in the morning. It’s a number 10 envelope that’s blank with their name on it. It doesn’t say, “Offer for your property inside,” or “Open this, you’ll find a dollar,” or any other gimmick. There’s no gimmick. It’s just a letter that’s correctly addressed to one or both of them, or the company they own, or the trust. You have to open something that you don’t know what it is. It could be important, but it might not be. It could be a credit card that you ordered.

Could be my PIN to the credit card I didn’t know I ordered. I open those.

Everybody does. We got their attention. Inside, if you do it the way that we’re doing it, there are two pieces of paper. Number one, “Dear John and Sally Smith. We would like to purchase your property in XYZ County or on 123 Main Street for $13,322.31.” Of course, you have to read on. “What do you mean $13,000? John, do we still even own that property in Nevada?” “Yeah, I’ve been paying the taxes every year that they come.”

They read on. Somewhere at some point, they find our dot-com, a phone number, and our contact information. They look us up. They see that we’re legit. They potentially will call us back. They may agree with the price. They may not agree with the price. If they have no interest in selling, they throw it away. We get a very positive response this way. Jill takes it from there.

3: Range Or No Dollar AmountIf Sally Smith calls and Jill gets on the phone with her, they talk about the price, how to get the deal done, and whether or not it works and all the details. A very predictable and consistent percentage for us, which is pretty close to 2,500, works. The third type of letter, same packaging, same scenario, They open it and start to read it. It says, “We’re interested in buying your property in XYZ County. Give me a call.” What do they do?

They go, “Ka-ching, this is great.”

This is that property we bought, and we knew it was going to be worth a million dollars.

“I got somebody who wants to buy it. I can’t wait. I know the farmer down the road. He sold his ag land for $3 million. Here we come.” That’s all they think about.

They have an amazing time thinking that it’s the same mental process as, “What would I do with the money if I won the lottery?” Until they call Jill. She says, “I think it’s worth $13,322.” Do you want 300 or 400 people calling you back thinking they won the lottery, or do you want four people calling you back that say, “This sounds good? We were thinking about selling it anyway.”

I’ve talked to people in these situations who have done the last one you talked about, in which either there is no dollar amount in there or there’s a range. You put a range from here to here. Your range is the bottom number. Yours is the $13,000. “I want to buy your property. I think it’s worth between $13,000 and $30,000.” You see $13,000, they see $30,000. I’m going to tell you right now, that’s all they see.

It’s like when you apply for a job. It’s the same thing. If you see a salary range between $150,000 and $200,000, you’re like, “I’m the $200,000 person.” No, they meant $150,000. The reality is these offers that go out with either a range or no dollar amount, I’ve coached a lot of these people. Everyone is very uncomfortable talking about money. They save it till the end. They have these lovely, wonderful, beautiful, rapport-building conversations that last 15, 20, and 30 minutes thinking, “This is our ticket, we got this.”

At the very end, they find out that it was a wasted half hour because nobody is on the same page with the money. That’s sadly what happens. The beauty of ours is I love not wasting any time. I spend five minutes, and I know if we’re on the same page or not. They’re calling to find out if I’m real. They’re calling to find out, “Is this you on the website I just looked up?” Yep, that’s me, to which I say, “Since we got that out of the way, does this price work for you?” If we need to have a conversation about that, then we continue. They all know where I’m coming from. They are already warmed up.

Pricing A MailerPricing a mailer, the first way to do it is by leaps and bounds the easiest on you, and the easiest on your staff, and you’re going to get some deals out of it by correctly pricing a mailer. It’s also the most difficult. It’s a huge pain point for a lot of people to price a mailer, which is why Jill and I devised Concierge Data.

Pricing a mailer correctly is going to get you some deals; it’s also the most difficult.
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It’s a product. If you go to Offers2Owners.com, that’s our commercial printing company, the same one that we use to send offers out. The people who work there are in the business of figuring out exactly what the range is and what the retail price per acre is so you can price very intelligently, price your mailer, and get the response that you want. That’s why it’s the least used.

It’s of these three, the people who try to get offers to send out to owners to buy real estate. A full-priced mailer, like the one that we use, is the least used. Pricing a mailer is challenging.

That doesn’t make any sense because it’s the one that makes sense.

I agree. We’ve been doing this for a lot of years, and I don’t want to complicate it. This is the way to do this. It is also the least used way, not by Land Academy members, but by the universe out there. Please price your mailer one way or the other whether you do it yourself or use some tool. Make sure you send out a mailer that’s correctly priced, and you’re going to be happy with the results.

Here’s the bottom line. We may or may not have been in this business but this one doubles me. I’ve been doing this for 15 years full-time, and he’s been doing it for 30. I think we have a good handle on it. We’re still testing everything.

No, we’re not.

I know. I’m making a joke of it, but I’m telling you the truth. If you’re not sure, do your own test. This would be a good thing. If you’re like, “I don’t know about this whole putting a number on it.” You send out a couple and see what your results are and see how much time and energy, sadly wasted, goes into sending out something like, “I want to buy your house.”

That’s what I want. If you send me a letter saying you want to buy my house, I’m going to be like, “Let’s talk, baby because I’ve got a number,” and my number is a make-a-move number. That’s the reality. Most of these people have a make-a-move number and they’re excited. They think that’s what they’ll get. It’s hard to reel them back in. As I said, you’re just wasting so much time, energy, and money going through these people. That’s what does happen.

We live in a land of increasing competition. When it comes to sending out or contacting owners, make sure that you have fully researched how to answer the phone and the key points about communicating with your seller. Jill does an absolute career-shattering job at dealing with these sellers. It’s partially the reason that we’re so successful.

Thank you.

InspirationalIt’s imperative. It used to be optional. You’ve got to answer the phone correctly and engage the potential sellers. Jill, do you have anything inspirational to share with us today?

Yeah, and it ties into today. How do you get your motivation up, your spirit up, and your attitude up, and ready for these people when the call comes in? When the phone rings, let’s just say it’s you answering the phone. Sometimes it’s me, depending on the mailer and what’s going on with our company. It’s me or my staff. I’m involved in answering the phone.

You have to assume at the very next call that the reason they’re calling you is because they got your offer. They love your offer. The property is dreamy, and you’re going to be looking to find stuff wrong with it. That is the attitude you have to have every single time. If you’re approaching these phone calls like, “I hope it’s not like the last guy. He chewed me out,” you’re going to automatically not be in the right frame of mind. You’re not going to answer the phone the same. You’re going to be in a bit of a bad mood, and it’s going to come across.

Sometimes you don’t realize how you go into it affects the outcome so easily. If you go into it with a positive mindset, “This is it, this is the one, I know it,” maybe even put a sticky note that says, “This phone call is going to be the home run.” I would seriously put that sticky note on your computer so you’re staring at it every time. You’re going to go into it assuming the best and watch what happens. That’s my inspiration for today. What about you, Jack?

Sometimes, you don't realize how you go into the call affects the outcome so easily.
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It’s very important to align yourself with somebody or a group who is successfully doing what you’re attempting to accomplish. I don’t care if you’re trying to learn how to play the guitar or if you’re trying to become a wealthy or amazing salesperson for used cars. If you’re trying to do what we do very successfully, align yourself with people like us in the Land Academy group so that you can ask them questions and learn with them.

They’ll tell you flat out, “I sent a bunch of postcards out. I wasted $10,000 sending postcards out until I did fill in the blank,” or “Florida didn’t work out for me, but Tennessee worked out great,” or “Northern Wisconsin, I do a deal a month there, and here’s why.” They’ll help you. They were right where you are at some point in their career. Please try to get yourself involved in a group that is already accomplishing what you want to accomplish.

Try to get yourself involved in a group that is already accomplishing what you want to accomplish.
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That’s excellent.

Join us next Wednesday for another interesting episode. You are not alone in your real estate ambition. We’re Jack and Jill, information and inspiration to buy undervalued property.

Important Link* Offers 2 Owners The post 3 Types Of Blind Offers That Landowners Can’t Refuse! appeared first on Land Academy.

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In this episode of “The Land Academy Show,” hosts Steven Jack Butala and Jill DeWit reveal their proven strategies for surviving a recession in the real estate market. They share their personal experiences of navigating tough economic times without a property acquisition pipeline, offering practical advice and key takeaways to prepare you and your land flipping business for economic downturns. Don’t miss these valuable insights that can guide you in making informed decisions during challenging times. Tune in now to learn how to thrive in any market condition!

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Listen to the podcast hereSurviving A Real Estate Recession Without An Acquisition Pipeline (LA 2017)This is episode number 2,016. We are talking about when Jill and I were poor. This is our story of getting caught in the real estate recession without a property acquisition pipeline and a lot more. This was not that long ago.

Do you know what’s interesting? I never worried. I don’t know if that’s nature or nurture. I don’t think you have that same feeling.

I really want to cover that topic because it’s important for people. The recession is here, and it’s going to get much worse from a real estate standpoint way before it gets better. In the next three years, we’re going to go through this.

It’s going to be interesting.

There are a lot of things you can do before it gets bad. I want you to learn from my mistakes. That’s my point.

Surviving a recession isn't just about having money; it's about strategic thinking and making the right moves before it gets worse.
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That’s why you’re here.

Answering A Land Academy Community QuestionEach week on the show, we answer a question from our Land Academy Member Discord forum. We take a deep dive into a land-related topic by popular request from our Land Academy community. Let’s take one question.

Jenny wrote, “I talked to a seller about a piece of land that I want to sell from my offer price of $11,752. It’s 2.65 acres with a house, a chicken coop, and a workshop on it. There’s no septic, though or any kind of sewage. In the area, it’s about $20,000 per acre without anything on it in the state of Pennsylvania. It’s right off of a main road.

I asked why they were selling it, and they said they couldn’t keep it anymore and that the kids didn’t want it. They need the cash fast. They sounded emotional. No back taxes, etc., so I’m sending someone out there to take a look at it and take a lot of pictures. I’m also pinching myself a little bit. I’m wondering what I’m missing. I flipped derelict houses before, but they said this is in livable condition. At this price, I don’t see how I can go wrong. Is this the model working? My question to the group is, what could go wrong here? How can I lose?”

Nothing.

That’s it.

Land Academy is working for you or you’re making it work for you. It’s interesting. Let’s tap into a topic. I have the same kind of doom and gloom reaction, “What am I missing here? Everything worked. I followed what I was supposed to do in Land Academy. I worked through the education. I reached out to people in Discord as you’re doing, and it worked. I must be missing something.” Jill would be jumping up and down, saying, “Let’s get this thing closed.”

That’s right. I’d be like, “Done deal. Let’s go.”

She’d be like, “Let’s get on to the next one.” That’s my advice to you here. You’re not missing a thing. It’s all the regular stuff. Make sure you get an inspection before you close. It sounds like you’ve done flipped house deals before. Make sure it meets with your approval. There’s going to be some stuff in there. I’m sure you’re not going to renegotiate the price. You’re probably going to sell this for $50,000, $60,000, $80,000, or $100,000.

Challenges With Imperfect PropertiesDo you know what’s interesting about this? This taps into people seeing a less-than-perfect structure, whether it’s a falling down mobile home or a house that’s old or it’s not hooked up to anything. It’s like, “We have running water, but we don’t have this.” Sometimes, people see those as problems. That could be what’s going on in the seller’s mind. It’s not a perfectly beautiful model tree piece of land. It’s got the structure on it.

In reality, we both know that it’s all positive. If it was rural, vacant, stupid, with nothing on it, not even mode, it’s worth $20,000 an acre, and you’re getting a two-and-a-half acres kind of thing with a structure on it. The big picture is when you get to these situations and you’re concerned about what condition this is in, you’re doing everything right, Jenny. Sit back and say, “If it was vacant land, would I still buy it for $11,000?” If the answer is yes, you power through. No matter what, anything on it is a little asset. I don’t care if it’s a falling down shed or a couple of rusty parked cars there. Somebody’s going to want them.

I agree.

Were you going to add a little something to this? Is that what you’re doing?

What I’m doing is looking up the name of the person who wrote this because I’m not sure it was Jenny.

I’m sorry.

My bad. I apologize.

We’re calling you Jenny. We’re sorry we didn’t have time to find the exact name. It’s all good.

Here’s the thing. What Jill and I are famous for in our personal lives is complicating things and overtalking things with each other. It doesn’t happen in business for some reason because we’re like, “Let’s buy it or not,” and, “Let’s get it done.” Don’t overthink it. I would personally get this thing under contract. Go through the motions of buying the piece of property and reselling it, which sounds like it’s going to happen fast. Especially in this economic environment, this is cheap housing. This is affordable housing. I would sit down with myself, figure out what I did right, and try to duplicate it. You did it right. Maybe you seek out properties with structures on them instead of faking land.

What was the percentage? Was there a percentage of improvement that snuck into your mailer that you didn’t know about? Look how you won.

I’d take a look around Pennsylvania, the Midwest, or whatever and see if there are a lot of properties like this. Maybe the assessor knows that there are improvements or they don’t know. Maybe it’s showing up in the data, but it’s not. Dig in and duplicate it. This topic is about when Jill and I were poor. It’s our story of getting caught in a real estate recession without a property acquisition pipeline.

I’m going to say two things. Number one, this is not cool.

This topic?

Yeah. The topic is not cool, but it’s real. I want to make a point, too. That’s one of the things about us and about Land Academy and why you’re here. We are not brand new. I’ve not done my first 100 deals, but I’ve been at it for a year and a half, and I’m the best. You’ve been at this for 30 years and me 15. When we’re talking about when we were poor, we’re talking about the darkest one because we have both been through recessions. I’ve been through a major one in this recession. You have more under your belt. That’s the whole point. I hope this is why you’re tuning in. You want to be ready. You don’t want to be stuck in a pickle. We’re going to talk about all the different things. I know you have a whole speech here. To be stuck with a bunch of property that you’re financing is the last thing you want. Go right ahead.

In the beginning, in the early ‘90s, I casually bought and sold real estate in different types of forms, whether it be houses or commercial property. I started selling land a little bit later in the ‘90s and realized, “This is it.” We made tens of millions of dollars from the late ‘90s to around 2007 and 2008. This was before I met Jill.

Everything was going great. We were the lead seller on eBay. It was about the only place that we sold property because it was so efficient. We would post a 30-day auction. It would sell. We would double or triple our money. My whole life was focused on being a land acquisition expert for that decade, and we were great at it. In fact, I’m sure we were the best in the business. We were invited to meet the executives of eBay on more than one occasion in Washington, DC.

You were making them rich. You had auctions closing hourly. Back then, I don’t think it was a percentage. It was a flat fee back then in closing costs. You were helping make them rich, which is nothing to sneeze at you. I want to brag for a second.

The name of this episode is not We Were Cool. It’s We Were Poor.

I want to talk about the peak and the valley. You’re getting to the valley. The peak was pretty high. You had auctions closing. You were doubling and tripling more of your money on these things. It was a machine. We didn’t have eBay issues back then. Everybody was all excited, I’m sure. Go ahead.

Single Point Of Failure In Sales ChannelsI lived on a yacht in San Diego. I was very successful financially. It was a machine. We had no real competition. What we had was a serious single point of failure, and that single point of failure was our sales channel, which was eBay. This recession started to happen in 2007. The same things that were happening were happening in early 2007. Houses started to foreclose based on what we’ll call irresponsible lending. We’ll leave it at that.

All kinds of things happened. Ultimately, banks started foreclosing. It was serious based on those irresponsible mortgages they were lending on and backing. It didn’t affect us. I had the greatest false sense of security ever. We sailed through 2007. 2006 was our best year. 2007 was almost our best year.

2008 rolled around and I was beating my chest sometimes and saying, “From all the terrible things that are happening in the real estate industry, we’re immune. I figured it out. Nobody else has ever purchased land, sold it on eBay, and auctioned it off like that at breakneck speed. I’m going to go through this.” That’s not what happened.

What happened is the recession got so bad that people didn’t have any extra money to purchase what I realize are unnecessary assets. When you buy a piece of land, it’s not necessary. It’s a luxury. It’s some kind of thing. You’re buying it to build a house in the future, as an investment to resell, or leasing. It caught up, people stopped bidding and buying real estate altogether. For whatever reason, Jill and I met each other around this time. I don’t know why. I still think about this.

It is funny.

I was defeated. I had no commercial debt. I had no debt associated with the business and a ton of land with no debt.

Those were all paid for.

I had multiple houses, a yacht, and two office buildings. All of those had responsible-type loans, but we couldn’t service them anymore. We had a huge payroll. We had a lot of people working for us managing these auctions. It imploded on itself and I had to manage all of that. There were a couple of times when I thought I might have to file personal bankruptcy. We were poor. That was it.

It was dark.

Enters Jill and says, “Look at all these assets that you have.” I couldn’t see the forest through the trees there. I thought my life was over. We sat down after we got to know each other for a while. It was probably a year or maybe it was close to it. Either way, it doesn’t matter. We worked out how to liquidate these assets through Jill’s sales talent.

She got out my Rolodex or my whole contact list of people who were in the business and were still trying to make it on eBay. None of them were doing it well. She started negotiating deals to sell this property that we had so that we could breathe and live and it worked. What we ended up doing was changing the process of how we sold property, not how we bought it. That has always worked.

Buying real estate the way that we buy it works in the worst of times and the best of times. You have to change how you’re selling property and the types of real estate you’re buying and selling based on the economy. I’ll get to that in a second. Together, we looked at these lists of asset types that we had and she liquidated them. Some of them were at a loss. I didn’t care.

Can I jump in here and give my recollection?

Sure. You tell yours.

Let me tell my recollection here first. You were not happy. Let’s say that. You were busy with other things and keeping personal wheels on the bus. My recollection is you had this whole extra computer that you sat me down and logged me into. You built this whole system of acquisition, engineering, and sales into this computer system. It was beautiful what you designed. You said what was almost a, “Knock yourself out.” It was like, “Here’s what I did in the past. Here’s what worked. This is what good photos look like.” You gave me all the framework and the instructions and then walked away because you were mad, and I don’t blame you.

It was certainly not at you.

It was like, “Let’s see if anything happens.” There were hundreds of properties in there that you had written off. You were like, “That’s over. That ship has sailed. The county is going to get them back. Who cares?” I was off-putting things together, figuring it out, making postings, and selling things. I was calling people, talking to them, and working out deals.

I remember you coming to me after a month or two or something. We had a separate little bank account. I was putting all the money in a separate little bank account under your direction. I’m sure you thought there’d be $100 in there, but you came along and you were like, “How’s it going?” There was a lot more than $100 in there. You were like, “What happened?”

I remember this.

Learning To Follow A Proven SystemI remember saying, “I did exactly what you told me to do.” That’s all that I did. That’s one of the things that still stands the test of time, too, with Land Academy. Forget what you think. Forget what you know. Forget what your gut is telling you. Put your head down. Follow his steps. I did, and guess what? It paid off. It worked. It was great. I was really good.

For whatever reason, in life, I don’t necessarily always follow all your directions. I will follow all your directions and still do the things you are an expert on. This is one of the things that you know very well, how to buy and sell land. I did what you said and it worked out great. Maybe you bought something you wanted to sell for $10,000 and we were selling it for $6,000. It wasn’t a big deal. We were still keeping food on the table.

That’s a great example.

We were moving things forward. That’s what happened. I don’t remember having any big losses. I remember not making as much money as we hoped we did, but who cared? They were all paid for a few years ago. It didn’t matter. We sold them, and we never had to go through some of the drastic measures that you were preparing for.

Here’s what happened. That was the low point. Jill has described the low point. She helped us crawl out of the cash crunch hole. What was happening in the economic environment back then is very similar, if not almost exact, to what’s happening now in 2024. Back then, people were encouraged to sign what were called subprime mortgages. It was a variable-rate mortgage that had a low introductory rate. It was below prime. Thus, the subprime name. It pretty quickly caught up to whatever the prime rate was. It was variable.

It never planned out, so it was easy to sign these loans. It was easy to get people to sign these loans because their payments were so low. They were below regular interest rates. Guess what? They’re called adjustable-rate mortgages. 3:1 and 5:1. They are fixed. All the laws changed because of what they called predatory lending back then. It doesn’t matter what it was. What it’s called is variable rate mortgages, which are 3:1 and 5:1. You have a locked-in rate.

We have had amazing interest rates over the last several years. For 3 years, you have a 3% mortgage, and then it catches up to the rate of 7% or 8%. 3:1 and 5:1. That happens in 3 years or 5 years. If you signed a mortgage back a few years, your mortgage is going to double. This is going to happen again. Do I think there’s going to be massive foreclosures across the board? No. That’s what there was back then.

What we did is she got our cash balance up to where it should be. We bought and sold a few houses. We renovated them and made some dough. The last one that we did, we moved into it, so then we didn’t have any debt. We had no debt personally at all. I renegotiated everything and liquidated the assets with the lenders. I was working on that and she was working on generating cash.

At the point where she generated the cash and I got rid of these other loans, the office building loans and things like that, we started to buy foreclosed houses for $40,000 and $60,000 and sold them for $60,000 to $80,000 to $100,000. Those houses are worth $300,000 now. They were worth $200,000 or $300,000 before we started this. We knew these assets. This is the exact same thing that’s about to happen over the next 2 to 3 years. We made very good money doing this, and we will again.

Jill and I wrote House Academy. Go to HouseAcademy.com. It’s about how to buy these houses using data. You can go there and check it all out. The land is last. It’s not the first. The land is the last in line to see the horror. We bought tons of land way below. People were foreclosing on houses. They didn’t care if they had land. If you send them an offer and say, “I’d like to buy your land for $5,000,” and it’s worth $180,000, they’re going to sign it.

They’re like, “Get it out of here.”

They might be filing personal bankruptcy at that time, signing the offer, and saying, “Can you pay in cash?” We were poor and we dug ourselves out of it. Fortunately for me, I met Jill. She brought something to the table that nobody in my life had, including me.

I want to talk about the big takeaways here on how you can really prepare yourself. Number one, pay cash for stuff. What are the things that we did that saved us? One, they were all paid for assets. We had no loans on anything. It’s certainly not personal.

You don’t want debt. You don’t want institutional debt. If you have institutional debt, you have about 12 to 24 months to get rid of it. If you don’t have a fixed-rate mortgage, attempt to solve that somehow. Take a look at your mortgage, read it, and see if it’s going to change. Plan for that day. There’s a day. In one month, your mortgage will be a couple grand and the next month, it’s going to be $4,000. Please find out when that is. You can do all kinds of stuff with your bank or with a different lender by refinancing interest-only refinancing or whatever. What else are the big takeaways?

I’m trying to think here. You wrote an email. This is something to think about. I’m going to end it on this one about that email title that you had. We paid cash. You have to be flexible and roll with things. If I had to pick 3 things, 1 is everything was paid for. Two, we cut our expenses down to be very reasonable. I don’t care if you’re living in a townhouse or whatever it is.

In tough times, remember: Pay cash, cut expenses, and stockpile. Flexibility and preparation are key.
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Have everything paid for. Knock it off with what you think you need to have. You don’t. The third thing is to get your cash together and be ready to buy some stuff. That’s what we were doing, too. We weren’t taking this money and putting it into something stupid. We’re slowly and methodically building up more inventory to be in a better position for the next time.

Impact Of Layoffs And W-2 Job SecurityTest yourself. Test the things in your life for a single point of failure. If you have a lot of customer concentration in any business, make those changes. Assume that you’re going to lose that customer. As much as I hate to say this, another great example of a single point of failure is a W-2 job.

That’s true.

You get laid off.

What are you going to do?

You need to plan for that. You need to not be shocked like the rest of the world when they get laid off. The economic outlook for W-2 positions is dire.

Do you remember the number of people who were in Land Academy pre-COVID? There were a number of people I could think of. I could rattle off their names too. They were people who did really well and came to Land Academy for whatever reason. It was probably because they didn’t want the W-2. It was pr-COVID. They were in Land Academy learning how to do this. They were like, “This is great. I have all these options. I have more options now.” COVID came and they got laid off. They were saying, “Thank goodness I had this. You guys taught me how to keep food on the table.” The same thing still applies.

A single point of failure can sink your business. Diversify your sales channels and customer base.
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Think about who’s in your life and whether or not they can handle that professionally and socially. I had people in my life when everything hit the fan that we were not compatible. It’s not in their makeup to manage negative cashflow and tragedy. For whatever reason, Jill’s hardwired to change gears at any given time and repair stuff or completely be like, “Let’s try something new.”

Thank you. I want to give you some credit too, because one of the things about you, and this will help everybody too, is you come up with amazing ideas. You’re really good at building out a business plan and putting in really good, solid numbers to see if it would work. We then do it and implement it. You were great at that.

For basic numbers purposes, we had to entirely and completely restart our lives, Jill and I together, in 2010. We did all these deals. All those statistics are true, but the fact is we had nothing in 2010.

We have a big staff to manage all the Land Academy parts, but there was a time when we were the staff. We were a staff of two.

I say to our staff all the time, “I’ve had every single one of these jobs and I failed at every single one of them. That’s why you guys are here because you do it better than I do.” That’s true.

This is good. This has been a great conversation. My ending on this was about what you have to look forward to. You’ve heard what we’ve been through. We’ve given you our experience, tips, and things that we learned along the way so that you can watch, prepare, and make these changes. There’s a silver lining when this happens. You titled an email to some investors that we work with. What was the exact title?

Fortunes are made during economic downturns. Some of the greatest fortunes ever were made out of necessity. You need to eat. It’s like, “That thing I’ve been thinking about doing for fifteen years, this is the time I’m going to do it and I have to make it work.” We had to make that work, and we did.

Great fortunes are made during economic downturns. Be ready to seize opportunities when they arise.
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Be thinking about what you can do. Think ahead. What other property type or what else is on the horizon? What partner could you bring in? Bring in that money guy.

That’s why you’re part of the Land Academy. There are tons of people in this group, Jill and I included, that have a lot of money.

I want to place it.

We are waiting for this to start to really tank where there are amazing real estate deals out there. Our checkbook is way open for that stuff. Please incorporate buying and selling other property types, specifically freestanding houses and predetermined markets, and add them to buying and selling land when you go through this. That wasn’t inspirational enough. Do you have something other than that that’s inspirational enough?

Importance Of Partner CommunicationI was thinking about how important it is to be a united front. That’s it. This happens in the good times and the bad times. You have to be a united front. It’s so important. You need to pause and have those discussions. As you’re heading into stuff, you need to have temperature checks while you’re in the middle of it.

On the way out of it, make sure you’re coming back out of it and you have some positive stuff happening that you’re on the same page with what you’re going to do going forward and how you’re going to spend it or reinvest whatever’s going to happen. Not being on the same page will sink the ship right there, too, because one of you is rowing one way and one is rowing the other. It’s never going to work. That was a critical thing for us.

We still have regular partner meetings. We still call them that. We make sure what we’re doing and our goals are the same. He’s never going to send out a mailer and I’m going to be surprised by it. I know what’s going on. If we’re pivoting to a new property type, a new acquisition type, or something, I’m going to know because I’m going to be ready for it and vice versa. When things come in and I’m dumping a lot of money on something, I’m not going to surprise him. There are going to be meetings. We will talk about it. That’s my inspirational thing. Do whatever you have to do to make that other person feel comfortable and understood, and they will rally with you.

It's crucial to have regular partner meetings to ensure you're on the same page and united in your goals.
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We got cut down to our knees in 2009 and ‘10. The result of that for me personally was I told myself several times during that time while that was happening, “If I ever get out of this, I’m going to do stuff differently.” It’s 14 or 15 years later and we have seen the result of me making those changes. One of the things is to stockpile cash and never have any debt ever unless it really makes sense from a locked-in perspective. You’re spending 20% down on a $10 million asset. You write a $2 million check and the $10 million asset’s worth $20 million because you knew it was.

I put this question in here for a reason. It’s because it’s very pertinent to this topic. This guy sent out a bunch of mail. He got somebody to sign it, sent it back, and said, “We don’t want the asset anymore. Neither does my family. We’ll take $11,000,” for what’ll probably end up being maybe $60,000 to $80,000. Those are the kinds of deals that Jill and I do.

If we did all the deals that we knew we could make a 20% return on, we would have way more money than we have, but that’s not what we do. We only do surefire deals. That’s one of the results of going through that recession. We were stockpiling on every deal. A certain percentage of the money that we make goes away. This is happening. We’ve stockpiled a bunch of money because of that. We are actively, because of this recession, buying and selling houses, mobile homes, and things like that.

All the stuff we talk about in Land Academy, and we will in a little while on our member call. It’s not that that wasn’t informational enough, but do you have any of the little nuggets that you want to share with us?

This was a ton of nuggets. What other nuggets?

I didn’t know if you had any other little informational things you wanted to share.

That was it. Stockpile cash. That’s my inspiration for this episode.

My informational thing is don’t spend it.

Stockpiling Cash And Minimizing DebtDon’t take on any debt. Do you need a yacht? No. I don’t need a yacht, so we don’t have a yacht. We have a souped-up van. Join us again for another interesting episode. You are not alone in your real estate ambition. We are information.

Also, inspiration.

To buy undervalued property.

Important Links House Academy* The post Surviving A Real Estate Recession Without An Acquisition Pipeline (LA 2017) appeared first on Land Academy.

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In this insightful episode, “How to Get Your First Land Flipping Deal in 30 Days,” they offer a deep dive into the competitive landscape of the land industry with an in-depth analysis of the numbers and break down a realistic timeline for closing your first deal flipping land. Don’t miss these actionable tips and essential information to jumpstart your land investing journey.

Steven Jack Butala and Jill DeWit have been teaching their land flipping methodologies since 2015 when they founded Land Academy. Having completed over 16,000 transactions (and counting!) since the 90s, they bring a wealth of experience to their educational land investing platform and share that knowledge each week on “The Land Academy Show” podcast.

Transcript: N/A

Thanks for listening, and finally, don’t forget to subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts.

The post How To Get Your First Land Flipping Deal in 30 Days (LA 2016) appeared first on Land Academy.

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In today’s episode, Market Changes Demand We Expand Our Land Business To Flipping Houses, Jack and Jill discuss why the current housing market trends make it the perfect time to expand their land business into buying and reselling houses. They emphasize the importance of using data to identify areas with excess demand for houses and a supply that has caught up with it. They also address questions from their Land Academy community, including whether to do a self-close or a title escrow close for a land purchase, and the importance of using a separate mailing address and phone line for business purposes. Tune in to get valuable insights and tips on ensuring your land investments are successful.

Transcript:

Steven Jack Butala:
Steven Jack Butala here.

Jill Dewitt:
And I’m Jill Dewitt, and this is the Land Academy show.

Steven Jack Butala:
It’s sort of the House Academy show today.

Jill Dewitt:
Oh really, why?

Steven Jack Butala:
If you don’t know this, we have a website just like Land Academy, a company just like Land Academy, called House Academy.

Jill Dewitt:
I knew that.

Steven Jack Butala:
For years it has not been feasible to buy and sell houses. Well, that’s what it’s all about today.

Jill Dewitt:
It has been feasible, but now, because there’s people that have been successfully doing it in our groups, so I don’t want to pooh-pooh anybody that’s doing it. They’re like, what are you talking about? What they’re probably saying is, “Stop sharing this.”

Steven Jack Butala:
It hasn’t been feasible enough.

Jill Dewitt:
There we go.

Steven Jack Butala:
To meet Jill and I’s standards where you can get rich off of it.

Jill Dewitt:
That’s it.

Steven Jack Butala:
We probably could do a deal here and there.

Jill Dewitt:
Right, exactly.

Steven Jack Butala:
That’s not how we roll. This is episode number 2015, and today we are talking about why the housing market demands that we expand our land businesses into buying and reselling houses. I didn’t just wake up today and think, we should start buying and selling houses.

Jill Dewitt:
I’m bored.

Steven Jack Butala:
I don’t have thoughts like that.

Jill Dewitt:
This just seems like a good idea.

Steven Jack Butala:
I’m looking at the data, as I do every single week, and share it with the Land Academy community, and the data is now for sure telling us that there’s excess, there’s an incredible demand for houses still, and there’s now a supply that has caught up with it and it’s time to start buying houses again for us.

Jill Dewitt:
What’s interesting is, well, I’ll save my questions for the show because I actually have some questions on this topic for you. Go ahead.

Steven Jack Butala:
Each week on the show we answer a question from our Land Academy member Discord forum, and we take a deep dive into land related topics by popular request from our Land Academy community. Let’s take a couple of questions today.

Jill Dewitt:
Cool. Jenny … Oh, by the way, in case you couldn’t notice, we are still coming to you from the RV, so on the road for quite a few months actually this summer. So the background may change. Right there over my shoulder, that little window, that view’s going to change, but this shouldn’t change.

Steven Jack Butala:
And our attitude will change for sure.

Jill Dewitt:
Oh, definitely.

Steven Jack Butala:
Jill’s will.

Jill Dewitt:
Yeah, exactly. I’ll get angrier.

Steven Jack Butala:
That’s usually my job.

Jill Dewitt:
Oh, that’s true. Your job is angrier. I just get loopy, like what, I’m supposed to do what? Okay, so back to the questions. Jenny in our group wrote, “I have a newbie question for everyone. I have a purchase agreement in place to buy my first parcel of land this weekend. Yay. My sellers are in a situation where they need the cash as quickly as I can make it happen. It’s a vacant land parcel that an end user will most likely put a mobile home on. Power’s at the street. Well, septic of course will need to get done. All normal stuff. Given all these details, and if there’s anything else I need to consider, will it be okay for me to do a self close following the steps from Jill, or would there be a reason to make this a title escrow close instead? Buying for 18K.”

Jill Dewitt:
Do you want to go first or-

Steven Jack Butala:
Yes. A lot of people had comments, and I believe in the general consensus of those comments and they are as follows. Having a baby’s not really a cash crunch situation. This is not my words. These are the words of other Land Academy members.

Jill Dewitt:
Did they say that?

Steven Jack Butala:
In Discord. Oh, yeah.

Jill Dewitt:
Where’s there a baby involved?

Steven Jack Butala:
Oh, somebody’s having a baby.

Jill Dewitt:
Oh, is that why it’s in there?

Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah. Oh, this is why they need the money.

Jill Dewitt:
That got cut out of the question.

Steven Jack Butala:
It’s not them. They’re having their first grandchild, so they’re probably freaking out. Yeah, it did get cut off.

Jill Dewitt:
Oh, okay.

Steven Jack Butala:
And number two, you know somebody’s going to put a mobile home on this. They’re going to need title insurance. So I would close with title insurance, like we do with most transactions, a vast, vast, vast majority of transactions, and I would try to find a residential or an escrow agent that can do it quickly and effectively.

Jill Dewitt:
My turn now. I’m with Jenny, you do have options. You could buy it really fast and get title insurance on the sell side. There’s nothing wrong with that. Make sure you have those people in the loop because they may be needing to sign some documents, blah, blah, blah, when you do the title insurance on the sell side. Have we done this? Heck yeah.

Jill Dewitt:
And then on the flip side is, too, the big picture is it shouldn’t take that long anyway because we’re not in COVID. There’s actually an abundance of agents. There’s so much of abundance and time right now with title agents, speaking from experience, that they have all the time in the world to analyze your deal and even try to save you from some things. So I’m kind of like just close it like we talked about kind of thing. So that’s another show. But you should be very capable and able to make five phone calls and find a good agent in your area that can do this inside of two weeks-

Steven Jack Butala:
Oh, geez.

Jill Dewitt:
… period-

Steven Jack Butala:
A week.

Jill Dewitt:
Because you’re all cash with title insurance.

Steven Jack Butala:
And there’s probably not a loan. There’s no loan on the property, so that takes out a lot of time and energy.

Jill Dewitt:
They’re probably worried because they’re thinking, you know what, they’re thinking of their house experience where, gosh, it was 30 and 45 days to close because I had to provide all these documents. I had to provide letters that I paid off that credit card. I had to provide this. That’s kind of a normal situation for people. So to them, when you say, “I can get it done a week from Friday,” they’re going to be like, “Oh, okay, that’s perfect.”

Steven Jack Butala:
So for the rest of you, if you’re brand new, or for any of you who are saying what the heck are these two talking about now, there’s two ways to close a real estate deal. The one that everybody knows about, Sally Smith, the residential real estate agent, gets a listing. You sell the property, you sign your name 3000 times. Sally Smith, who does not actually know how to close a real estate deal, sends it to escrow agent John Smith, and John Smith does all the work.

Steven Jack Butala:
And from there, again, a bunch of stuff to sign, disclosures, all kinds of things, and they manage the money for you. So if you were to buy this for cash, you would be buying it for $18,000. You would put it in escrow. The escrow agent would set up a closing statement where the money goes and the whole thing, and that’s how Jill and I sell property and that’s how we buy it 99% of the time.

Steven Jack Butala:
If you go way back into our podcast, that’s not how we did it in the beginning. A lot of years ago, 10, 15 years ago, that was exactly not what we did. So that’s way number one, the way that everybody knows.

Steven Jack Butala:
Number two is just like selling a car without a dealer. You have a title in your hand and the buyer of your car has a fistful of money. He gives you the money, you sign over the title to the car. Some states you need a notary, some you don’t. I take the money, I give you the title, and the title gets recorded and it’s done. Same thing with real estate, and that’s what a self close is. I’m oversimplifying, but it’s really important to know. Everybody needs to know you don’t need a real estate agent to close a real estate deal.

Jill Dewitt:
Thank you. All right, next question. Steven wrote, “Any issues with using my home address for mail? Should I pick up a post box office instead? I do not plan on moving in the foreseeable future. Also, is it recommended to get a second phone line? Any option on using a virtual phone line like RingCentral versus a second dedicated phone line?”

Jill Dewitt:
I have a lot to say about this and I’m sure you do, too.

Steven Jack Butala:
I do. You go first. You’ll probably cover all of it actually.

Jill Dewitt:
That would be nice. Thank you.

Steven Jack Butala:
I think you and I are-

Jill Dewitt:
You don’t need mom and dad weighing in on this, so that’s why I held back on the last one. I let dad take that one. We’re going to let mom take this one. So you know what, Steven? What if you hit it big, or just who knows? Life happens. You might move. You never know.

Jill Dewitt:
So one reason is I want you to get a post office box or some kind of a virtual mailbox, something like that, that will never change, because 10 years from now, 15 years from now, hey, this one, I’ve been doing this for 15 years, he’s been doing it for 30. Thank goodness we still have the same mailbox address because people do write letters and still reach out to us from now I can say decades ago. It’s crazy, but it’s true, and I want to get those letters because I might want that property now, whatever it is. So I do want you to do that. The flip side of that, too, is like I don’t really want anybody showing up on your door. Not that they would.

Steven Jack Butala:
Sure they will. Eventually they will.

Jill Dewitt:
But what if somebody’s not happy about something? I don’t know. They have something to say about it. You definitely don’t want your own personal stuff. You don’t want a package on fire on your doorstep.

Steven Jack Butala:
Mom’s softening this topic. Do not use your home address.

Jill Dewitt:
Well, that’s what I’m saying.

Jill Dewitt:
Okay, then number two on the phone number, same thing. I can’t be sure I’m going to have my same phone number forever, but I can keep my phone and I want to keep it separate too. There’s a couple different reasons. A, I don’t want people to have my own cell number. I need to be able to differentiate if it’s a work call or it’s my friends calling me. B, I need to flip this number around sometimes. I need a phone number that I purchase and I own. I might buy it from [inaudible 00:09:43] or something like that and then port the number into my phone system, and that’s the best way because what if I’m not taking the calls this week? I’m doing so great, I’m so busy. I have Pat Live take the phone calls and I can just route the phone number to Pat Live. I can route the phone number to my new assistant five years from now.

Jill Dewitt:
And again, the main point is they might reach out to you six months or six years after that mailer goes out and there’s a good chance you’re going to want that property. At least you want the option to look at it and go, “You know what? I did so well in that area and boy, I wouldn’t mind doing a couple more. I’ve got the whole team in place.” You need to get those calls. So that’s why you want to do that.

Steven Jack Butala:
The relative cost for all this stuff is so small.

Jill Dewitt:
Cheap.

Steven Jack Butala:
And geez, maybe 30 minutes.

Jill Dewitt:
A hundred bucks a month, if that.

Steven Jack Butala:
Both of these things set up. In 1995, I got a mailbox in midtown Scottsdale and we still to this day have that same mailbox. We have moved, we’ve lived in three different states. We’ve probably moved 12 to 15 times, and that mailbox is the same.

Steven Jack Butala:
I had a home phone number and a fax number. That’s how long ago this was. That is still in use within our companies today, that we still use it for certain stuff because I was fortunate enough because we owned it and then we forward it and the whole thing. So you want to leave open a lot of options. Millions and millions of letters, hopefully if your career goes well, you’re going to send out millions of letters like Jill and I do, and you’re going to get calls 10 years later.

Jill Dewitt:
Here’s your nomad tip of the day. If you want to have a lifestyle like us, doing deals from wherever you choose to be, whether it’s in this country, in an RV, whether it’s on the back of a boat, whether you’re in the Caribbean, wherever you are dreaming up, spending a month in Paris, I don’t care, you could even do mailbox place to mailbox place.

Steven Jack Butala:
That’s what we do.

Jill Dewitt:
That’s an interesting thought. Exactly. So we have, like Jack just said, from 1995, our same whatever address, guess what they do? Bundle it up, send it to us wherever we are. It’s the greatest thing.

Steven Jack Butala:
We have our home mailbox and our professional company’s mailbox in the same place and we don’t get mail anywhere else.

Jill Dewitt:
We don’t get mail at home. Everything at the mail at home is all the junk mail that I feel bad that people are wasting money on because it gets stacked up and then I recycle it all.

Steven Jack Butala:
And the people that run the mailbox place, I think we’ve been through three owners there, pack up our stuff and send it to us probably once a month, whatever’s in there.

Jill Dewitt:
Yep. Okay. Today-

Steven Jack Butala:
The bigger, deeper question is, Steven, we address all this stuff in the program, and I have to ask myself, I guess I have to ask it out loud myself, why would you veer from what we teach?

Jill Dewitt:
Well, maybe he hasn’t got to that part of the program yet. That happens a lot. I’ve noticed that. I had some dear sweet woman recently and I went back and I looked and I’m like, tell me how much, she’s like, and she stopped watching at that crucial point. I’m like, “You turned off the thing.”

Steven Jack Butala:
What happened? What’s the story there? Tell us the story. I want to hear this story.

Jill Dewitt:
It’s all right. She turned it off at that crucial moment where you go on to talk about, “And here’s what could happen and here’s why you test this and here’s how you do this,” and stuff. It was data related, and I’m like, “You’ve got to watch this stuff.” Not only do you have to watch it, watch it a couple times because every time you’re going to pick up on something different.

Steven Jack Butala:
When are you guys going to get to the topic?

Jill Dewitt:
I know. Can we talk about it?

Steven Jack Butala:
Today’s topic, why the housing market demands that we expand our land business into buying and reselling houses. Jill and I have a lot of experience buying and selling houses. We’ve done many deals. That saved us around 2009, 2010, long before we had Land Academy, where we just, if you’re old enough to remember, we had the largest real estate recession in the history of our country, with the exception of 1929. So it was a tough time. We had a ton of real estate. Jill and I owned a bunch of land free and clear, as we always do, and we couldn’t sell it. Nobody was buying land.

Steven Jack Butala:
And certainly nothing like that’s going to happen this time, but it is showing the sign. And back then we saved ourselves by buying houses and selling them. We were buying houses from banks for 40 to $60,000 that are now three and $400,000. And we were reselling them back then for 80 to 120 really successfully. And that was only because the market was conducive to that situation. That’s it.

Steven Jack Butala:
And so yeah, we bought and sold houses after that, and all throughout my career, I’ve always been buying and selling houses and so was Jill. She cut her teeth on that actually. I cut my teeth on land and we got together and did a bunch of house deals, and at that time it wasn’t our favorite thing because we were cleaning them up too much, but they were always profitable.

Steven Jack Butala:
So there’s some circumstances that are lending themselves in the market that are starting down that path of repeating what happened in 2009, only a lot less acute. And so I’ll go through what those circumstances are and why we’re going to start and already have started out. We’ve got a house [inaudible 00:15:06] hitting here in about less than a week. All right, here’s number one.

Jill Dewitt:
To my phone.

Steven Jack Butala:
If you remember-

Jill Dewitt:
I’m taking those calls right myself, at least the first wave.

Steven Jack Butala:
If you remember back then, what caused that financial breakdown that trickled up and down into the housing and real estate community was credit. It was lack of credit, which was really catalyzed in my opinion by predatory lending. We have weird, weird crazy lending practices with reverse mortgages and all kinds of stuff.

Steven Jack Butala:
And fortunately, and I don’t say this too often, but fortunately, and I think it was required back then, the federal government stepped in and made some changes for the better I think. Now what we’re experiencing is COVID. So COVID happened and we all thought that it was going to destroy the economy and it didn’t. It had the opposite, direct opposite effect to real estate. So if you look at any graph, you can see COVID happened, the world shut down, and nobody was buying or selling property at all.

Steven Jack Butala:
And the next January came, I guess it was around 2021, everybody started buying property. It was time to buy mountain houses and second homes and all of that, and it was mixed up with the three percent. We were having two and three percent mortgage rates. There was a massive house buying binge that was happening. Well, little did I even know back then most of the deals that were happening for residential properties were adjustable rate mortgages. So you were locked in for a certain amount of time and then after time passes, it adjusts to actual interest rates.

Steven Jack Butala:
So from a lender’s perspective, you have to say or think, well, how can you lose actually? They’re kind of betting on the fact that they’ll go up, and they are. Interest rates have gone up. They were two to three percent back then. They’re around seven percent now. Six to seven, maybe seven plus. So all those interest rate mortgages that were locked in at three percent, two and three percent, are going to go up two or three percent. They’re literally going to double. That was 2021. This is 2024. Three years later.

Steven Jack Butala:
If you had a 3/1 adjustable rate mortgage, an ARM, it’s adjusting right now. And the direct result of that is a lot more houses are going on the market. And here’s why. If your mortgage is 12 to $1,500, which is the national average a month, and it goes from three to six percent or seven percent, that $1,200 mortgage is now $2,500. A very substantial number of people can’t handle that financially, and understandably so. Your mortgage is doubling and your salary and the revenue that you have in your household is the same. So significant. Way more than half of the people that are experiencing this can’t handle it.

Steven Jack Butala:
What’s the first thing they do? They call their sister-in-law real estate agent and put the house on the market. And that is why we’re seeing tons of inventory on the market. And people are celebrating. I read an article today that was published by the National Association of Realtors. Jill and I are going to talk about it on the call, on our Thursday webinar, a closed call for Land Academy members and House Academy members, and they said there’s reason for celebration. And I stopped before I even, I stopped right after I’d read the title. I didn’t even get into the article. Why are we celebrating? There’s more inventory on the market.

Steven Jack Butala:
Well, that industry sees that, number one, real estate agents, now they have more stuff to sell. That’s really what they mean. And I’m not even going to tell you what I really think about that. The real positive in it is that people who could not get into the housing market as an owner are now having a better shot at that. There’s more inventory. It’s driving the prices down, very slightly and slowly, but it is driving the prices down because it’s bringing supply and demand in sync again, instead of just having all this crazy demand and not enough supply. So that’s what’s happening and it will continue. And then 5/1 mortgages are going to kick in, too, between now and two years from now. So that rate from 50 to 60% who can’t handle it, it’s going to go even higher.

Steven Jack Butala:
Demand in the real world, in a regular situation, it would be great because that regular amount of demand would kind of equal out, like I said. But geez, this generation is the largest generation in the world. There are two generations at work here, the Generation X, and I’m sorry, the millennials and then the next one after that, I think it’s called Generation A or something like that. I don’t know. I don’t remember. Together they are 140 million people. The baby boomers are only 70 million. It’s twice as large as the baby boomer generation, which is our parents, Jill and I’s parents. If you’re about our age, that’s the case also.

Jill Dewitt:
What is our age?

Steven Jack Butala:
I’m not going to say that.

Jill Dewitt:
Thank you.

Steven Jack Butala:
That was a trick.

Jill Dewitt:
Yeah, thank you. Good one.

Steven Jack Butala:
If there’s a woman in your life, don’t answer stuff like that.

Jill Dewitt:
You’re on your toes.

Steven Jack Butala:
Please know not to answer anything like that.

Jill Dewitt:
There you go. How much do I weigh? Good one.

Steven Jack Butala:
That’s how interested Jill is in this topic.

Jill Dewitt:
You got this.

Steven Jack Butala:
So now you’ve got this massive demand. You’ve got real high interest rates because the feds are trying to keep us in check from an inflation standpoint. And you’ve got all these mortgages coming due. So you’ve got tons of property on the market and tons of demand. All right, so how do we make money on this? What you have is a heck of a lot of activity, tons of activity happening.

Steven Jack Butala:
What you need to do is start trolling around on realtor.com or Redfin or Zillow, like we teach in Land Academy and House Academy, and find the markets where properties, lots and lots and lots of properties are being listed and lots of properties are being purchased. And then within that market you are going to find the break point. I talk about all this stuff in House Academy in great detail.

Steven Jack Butala:
And you’ll find that at about the top of the bell curve-ish, let’s just say there’s tons and tons of properties listed for between 325,000 and 375,000. There’s very few properties between 100 and 200, 250, and very few properties in the five to $600,000 range. The break point is somewhere at the top of the bell curve, and it smacks you in the face because when you click on pending properties, properties that are under contract, and you click on sold properties, the values will smack you in the face. They will be somewhere around that 350 mark.

Steven Jack Butala:
So you send out a mailer, you figure out how to buy property below that break point. When you have all this activity and tons of properties are hitting the market, some people get your offer, they get your letter, they get your offer in the mail, and they say to themselves, “There’s 14 houses for sale on my block right now. Every time I drive to work, I see the signs. I’m going to call this guy back. He wants to buy for 250. I think I’m going to sell it to him if he wants it that bad.”

Steven Jack Butala:
If this works, Jill and I have done it in two market downturns. So I would urge you, if you’re listening to this because you’re buying and selling land, or you want to, I would urge you to expand into this space or at least explore it.

Jill Dewitt:
Do you want to share anything at all about, and you can say no.

Steven Jack Butala:
Oh, good. No.

Jill Dewitt:
Okay. No, I was just going to say we all understand and agree and appreciate your insight and your research. That was wonderful. Beautiful presentation about why it all makes sense and what numbers and where you should be looking at and trolling and that kind of thing. There’s a couple questions that I’d just like to throw in there and see if you want to talk about, am I cash or am I financing these?

Steven Jack Butala:
Oh, geez. So that’s a great question. Boy, nothing will make you run out of money faster than buying a house and reselling it. If you’re buying for 300 and selling for 400, two or three deals and you’re a million bucks extended. For most of us, that’s a lot of money.

Steven Jack Butala:
It’s the same situation. The people in our group, the people in the Land Academy group, are dying to apply money to what you’re about to do. Your job is to find properties that are below that break point in that market. That’s the money. And one message on Discord as a Land Academy or House Academy member, you will find the money you need. Jill and I will give you the money.

Jill Dewitt:
What about it needs a carpet, and the roof kind of stinks, and boy, that carport should be a garage. What do I do about that stuff?

Steven Jack Butala:
So it’s obviously that I left out all the HGTV topics that apply to buying and reselling a house. And the fact is, I could care less about that stuff. I only care about it if it will dramatically stop you from reselling the house. And so nobody wants to buy a super huge piece of garbage. Nobody. And it doesn’t show well and it stinks and it doesn’t pass code and the whole thing.

Jill Dewitt:
Except for a flipper.

Steven Jack Butala:
Yes.

Jill Dewitt:
They do want that. If you do too much to it, you’re going to scare all the flippers.

Steven Jack Butala:
It’s got to make financial sense. You need to walk in, you need to be the kind of person that can apply common sense and say, “I know I can easily sell a property like this for $350,000. The guy accepted my offer at 250. There’s a lot of stuff wrong with it. I think I’m going to go back and probably re-offer 210 just because I think there’s a lot of [inaudible 00:25:24].” You’re going to get an inspection anyway. The inspection’s going to tell you what’s wrong.

Jill Dewitt:
The point I’m trying to make here is in its current condition, the whole goal is you’re trying to find an asset where, what were your numbers? Anywhere from 20 to a hundred. There we go. You’re trying to find a sweet spot, I’m going to argue even more than $20,000. I’m going to say 50 to a hundred thousand. You’re trying to find an asset that’s marked, that’s priced 50 to a hundred thousand dollars below what it’s worth in its current position. And because it’s convenience, you’re finding it before there’s an agent involved, there’s no commissions, all that good stuff. It’s convenience between you and the seller. They can walk away and have a check, and it’s going to be cash and no one’s going to make them redo the roof or clean out the garage. Those kind of things.

Jill Dewitt:
And then the point of it is, too, you’re selling it in its current condition. And well, I know we’ll talk more about that because that’s the whole Land Academy, House Academy model. I’m not going in there and making it beautiful. Again, buying it for 250, let’s just say buying it for 250. In its current condition, it’s worth 310, 320. But some flipper can come along and make it beautiful and now it’s worth 400. That’s the goal.

Steven Jack Butala:
Or 450. That’s what those outliers are.

Jill Dewitt:
That’s what you’re doing. You’re selling to them and let them do that work. You don’t have a construction company.

Steven Jack Butala:
Listen, you do not want to become a contractor here.

Jill Dewitt:
True.

Steven Jack Butala:
You do not. This is not, it’s called House Academy. It’s not called House Renovations.

Jill Dewitt:
True. Or HGTV.

Steven Jack Butala:
We do not renovate houses. The most we’ve ever done with any level of success is paint and carpet, and maybe light fixtures in certain cases, if they really need to be replaced.

Jill Dewitt:
That was only because I was doing the end user. You know what it was? We bought one that was a little too nice and that’s all it needed. And none of the investors wanted to touch it. I’m like, well, I guess we’re going to sell it then, we’re going to sell it to the end user. Guess what happened? Then we made even more money. So that’s the worst thing that can happen if it’s in that good of shape. So good stuff.

Steven Jack Butala:
This is all math.

Jill Dewitt:
Thank you.

Steven Jack Butala:
It’s all buying properties that are like kind, analyzing sold values, active values, reducing it down to a price per square foot, and doing the math. It’s not about window treatments. If you are really interested in buying and selling houses so that you can express yourself artistically, this is absolutely the wrong show for you and the wrong program.

Jill Dewitt:
We’re here to make money.

Steven Jack Butala:
Through data, through the use of data.

Jill Dewitt:
Exactly.

Steven Jack Butala:
That’s it.

Jill Dewitt:
Thank you.

Steven Jack Butala:
So yeah, something to share today.

Jill Dewitt:
I was thinking about, in light of this environment, I’m talking to my team and talking about people coming into Land Academy, and it’s so interesting the shift that we’re seeing of the very accomplished corporate people coming to us right now due to little, I don’t know if little or big, I don’t know what the right word is, but shifts in the job market. And I just want to talk about it for a minute and make everybody feel really good about this.

Jill Dewitt:
Again, our group is small, and when you really think about the number of people out there doing what we do, it may sound like a lot of noise, but the number of people really actually doing it and doing it well and actually getting mail in out there to people, it’s not that big. So I want you to feel good.

Jill Dewitt:
And then to make you feel even better, what I wanted you to know is you could have some very conservative goals in Land Academy, screw it all up, and still have no trouble putting food on the table. So let me just, that’s my whole thing.

Steven Jack Butala:
Good point.

Jill Dewitt:
We talk big numbers all the time. That’s just who we are. We’re wired to do that, and it’s fun. But realistically, if you can’t live on $10,000 a month, we could, then we’ve got some problems. Think about it. If the world all goes sideways and you had $10,000 a month, could you live on that? Yeah, you could.

Steven Jack Butala:
Oh, geez.

Jill Dewitt:
And you know what? If you can’t, we need to talk because then you’re paying too much. You bought your house for too much, you need to reel it back in. You shouldn’t be driving that car and you shouldn’t be going to Hawaii right now.

Jill Dewitt:
So you can do it. Those are not crazy numbers. And then within Land Academy, boy, if you just did a couple deals a month, like I said, your goal is to do three, four deals a month and you want to make 10 grand a deal, super small, conservative numbers, you screw them all up. Guess what? Now you make 10 to $20,000 a month and you’re going to be just fine. That’s my point today.

Steven Jack Butala:
Use this how you’d like to use it. That’s the whole point here. You can scale it.

Jill Dewitt:
That’s true.

Steven Jack Butala:
Scale it how you want.

Jill Dewitt:
Well, because I talked to people recently, just in this last, you know, a couple of weeks ago we did this big workshop. It was five days, ended up being six. We went over the next week because we did a whole big Q&A day, workshop, really helping people understand what we are, what we do. And I broke it out into five days. Jack joined me. It was a whole lot of fun.

Jill Dewitt:
And I talked to people, and there was an interesting gentleman who was very successful. He said, “You guys scared me with sending out this much mail.” I said, “Well, hold on a moment.” Because you know what’s funny? He’s like, “I don’t want to do that much. I don’t need that much money. I don’t want to do that much.”

Steven Jack Butala:
Really?

Jill Dewitt:
Yeah, it was really kind of funny. And I’m like, “I can’t remember hearing that before, but okay.” It was really interesting and it made me take a step back and just realize, we’re not going to push you to send out a hundred thousand units of mail a month, uh-uh, but I am going to push you or at least help you and show you.

Steven Jack Butala:
Guide you.

Jill Dewitt:
Guide you with how much mail you need to send to hit whatever your personal goals are. That’s it.

Steven Jack Butala:
I don’t want that much money, Jill. I’m good.

Jill Dewitt:
It was so funny. He’s like, “Yeah, you guys turned me off on sending that much mail.” I’m like, “I don’t think anyone’s ever said that to me.” I’m like, “This is the funniest thing, but I get it. Okay.”

Steven Jack Butala:
Somebody else said that to me. One other person in my entire career said that, “That’s too much. I don’t want to do that.”

Jill Dewitt:
I’m like, “Well, you don’t want to make that much money.” “I don’t want to do that.” I’m like-

Steven Jack Butala:
By the way, we don’t physically stuff envelopes here.

Jill Dewitt:
No, that’s true too. So I guess that’s all I wanted to make sure you know. Whatever your goals are, well, we just introduced personal coaching, by the way. It’s starting this summer. I’m so excited. And that’s one of the main things that I’m really going to get with all the coaches, and we’re going to really sit with you to help you. You may not even know what your goals are. We’ll help you set your goals if you don’t know.

Jill Dewitt:
We’ll go through the equity planner with you step by step by step until you feel so good about like, yeah, I can do that. All right, 20 hours a week and that much mail a month. Okay, yeah. To hit those numbers so you feel good about whatever it is for you, and whatever number is magic to you, we’re going to help you hit it. So that’s my point today. Thank you. What do you have to share?

Steven Jack Butala:
If this stuff’s intriguing, by the way, I failed to mention, go to either landacademy.com or houseacademy.com. I think if you want to become a guest on our Thursday call-

Jill Dewitt:
You could do that.

Steven Jack Butala:
I think you go to service at Land Academy.

Jill Dewitt:
Support.

Steven Jack Butala:
Or support.

Jill Dewitt:
Support@landacademy.com. Send them an email if you want to be a guest on our Thursday member call and see and hear more about some of the deals that we’re all doing.

Steven Jack Butala:
That’s your opportunity as a member or not to ask any questions you want.

Jill Dewitt:
Totally. All right. What do you have to share with us today, Jack?

Steven Jack Butala:
My inspiration slash information segment is a direct segue from the actual topic. You have to adjust to the market. It’s imperative. We have had people in the past who’ve now since, I’m happy to report, gotten over this, but they are one track minded people in the distant past that say, “I’ve been mailing urban Dallas and I’ve been buying infill lots for two years straight. And this most recent time, it doesn’t seem to be working as well. And I guess it’s over.” It’s never over, never, ever over in real estate. You just have to adjust to it.

Jill Dewitt:
Could you imagine? Well, Texas is done. Mark that off the list. Everything’s bought and nobody’s moving. No, everybody’s settled. Yeah, that’s it. Texas is over. That would be really funny.

Steven Jack Butala:
If our government one day wakes up and says, “Yeah, it turns out we own everything. We’re the government and we own it all, and you’re just our guests here,” which could happen, that would probably end it. But short of that, I think-

Jill Dewitt:
Hello.

Steven Jack Butala:
Join us next Wednesday for another interesting episode. You are not alone in your real estate ambition.

Jill Dewitt:
We are Jack and Jill.

Steven Jack Butala:
Information.

Jill Dewitt:
And inspiration.

Steven Jack Butala:
To buy undervalued property.

Thanks for listening, and finally, don’t forget to subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts.

The post Market Changes Demand We Expand Our Land Business To Flipping Houses (LA 2015) appeared first on Land Academy.

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In this episode, 3 Reasons Why Lack of Access Kills Land Deals, Jack Butala and Jill DeWit from Land Academy dive into the critical issue of property access and its impact on land deals. Discover the top 3 reasons why lack of access can make or break a deal, and learn from their decades of experience in the land business. Tune in to get valuable insights and tips on ensuring your land investments are successful.

Transcript:

Steven Jack Butala:
Steven Jack Butala here.

Jill Dewitt:
And I’m Jill Dewitt, and this is the Land Academy show.

Steven Jack Butala:
It’s sort of the House Academy show today.

Jill Dewitt:
Oh really, why?

Steven Jack Butala:
If you don’t know this, we have a website just like Land Academy, a company just like Land Academy, called House Academy.

Jill Dewitt:
I knew that.

Steven Jack Butala:
For years it has not been feasible to buy and sell houses. Well, that’s what it’s all about today.

Jill Dewitt:
It has been feasible, but now, because there’s people that have been successfully doing it in our groups, so I don’t want to pooh-pooh anybody that’s doing it. They’re like, what are you talking about? What they’re probably saying is, “Stop sharing this.”

Steven Jack Butala:
It hasn’t been feasible enough.

Jill Dewitt:
There we go.

Steven Jack Butala:
To meet Jill and I’s standards where you can get rich off of it.

Jill Dewitt:
That’s it.

Steven Jack Butala:
We probably could do a deal here and there.

Jill Dewitt:
Right, exactly.

Steven Jack Butala:
That’s not how we roll. This is episode number 2015, and today we are talking about why the housing market demands that we expand our land businesses into buying and reselling houses. I didn’t just wake up today and think, we should start buying and selling houses.

Jill Dewitt:
I’m bored.

Steven Jack Butala:
I don’t have thoughts like that.

Jill Dewitt:
This just seems like a good idea.

Steven Jack Butala:
I’m looking at the data, as I do every single week, and share it with the Land Academy community, and the data is now for sure telling us that there’s excess, there’s an incredible demand for houses still, and there’s now a supply that has caught up with it and it’s time to start buying houses again for us.

Jill Dewitt:
What’s interesting is, well, I’ll save my questions for the show because I actually have some questions on this topic for you. Go ahead.

Steven Jack Butala:
Each week on the show we answer a question from our Land Academy member Discord forum, and we take a deep dive into land related topics by popular request from our Land Academy community. Let’s take a couple of questions today.

Jill Dewitt:
Cool. Jenny … Oh, by the way, in case you couldn’t notice, we are still coming to you from the RV, so on the road for quite a few months actually this summer. So the background may change. Right there over my shoulder, that little window, that view’s going to change, but this shouldn’t change.

Steven Jack Butala:
And our attitude will change for sure.

Jill Dewitt:
Oh, definitely.

Steven Jack Butala:
Jill’s will.

Jill Dewitt:
Yeah, exactly. I’ll get angrier.

Steven Jack Butala:
That’s usually my job.

Jill Dewitt:
Oh, that’s true. Your job is angrier. I just get loopy, like what, I’m supposed to do what? Okay, so back to the questions. Jenny in our group wrote, “I have a newbie question for everyone. I have a purchase agreement in place to buy my first parcel of land this weekend. Yay. My sellers are in a situation where they need the cash as quickly as I can make it happen. It’s a vacant land parcel that an end user will most likely put a mobile home on. Power’s at the street. Well, septic of course will need to get done. All normal stuff. Given all these details, and if there’s anything else I need to consider, will it be okay for me to do a self close following the steps from Jill, or would there be a reason to make this a title escrow close instead? Buying for 18K.”
Do you want to go first or-

Steven Jack Butala:
Yes. A lot of people had comments, and I believe in the general consensus of those comments and they are as follows. Having a baby’s not really a cash crunch situation. This is not my words. These are the words of other Land Academy members.

Jill Dewitt:
Did they say that?

Steven Jack Butala:
In Discord. Oh, yeah.

Jill Dewitt:
Where’s there a baby involved?

Steven Jack Butala:
Oh, somebody’s having a baby.

Jill Dewitt:
Oh, is that why it’s in there?

Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah. Oh, this is why they need the money.

Jill Dewitt:
That got cut out of the question.

Steven Jack Butala:
It’s not them. They’re having their first grandchild, so they’re probably freaking out. Yeah, it did get cut off.

Jill Dewitt:
Oh, okay.

Steven Jack Butala:
And number two, you know somebody’s going to put a mobile home on this. They’re going to need title insurance. So I would close with title insurance, like we do with most transactions, a vast, vast, vast majority of transactions, and I would try to find a residential or an escrow agent that can do it quickly and effectively.

Jill Dewitt:
My turn now. I’m with Jenny, you do have options. You could buy it really fast and get title insurance on the sell side. There’s nothing wrong with that. Make sure you have those people in the loop because they may be needing to sign some documents, blah, blah, blah, when you do the title insurance on the sell side. Have we done this? Heck yeah.
And then on the flip side is, too, the big picture is it shouldn’t take that long anyway because we’re not in COVID. There’s actually an abundance of agents. There’s so much of abundance and time right now with title agents, speaking from experience, that they have all the time in the world to analyze your deal and even try to save you from some things. So I’m kind of like just close it like we talked about kind of thing. So that’s another show. But you should be very capable and able to make five phone calls and find a good agent in your area that can do this inside of two weeks-

Steven Jack Butala:
Oh, geez.

Jill Dewitt:
… period-

Steven Jack Butala:
A week.

Jill Dewitt:
Because you’re all cash with title insurance.

Steven Jack Butala:
And there’s probably not a loan. There’s no loan on the property, so that takes out a lot of time and energy.

Jill Dewitt:
They’re probably worried because they’re thinking, you know what, they’re thinking of their house experience where, gosh, it was 30 and 45 days to close because I had to provide all these documents. I had to provide letters that I paid off that credit card. I had to provide this. That’s kind of a normal situation for people. So to them, when you say, “I can get it done a week from Friday,” they’re going to be like, “Oh, okay, that’s perfect.”

Steven Jack Butala:
So for the rest of you, if you’re brand new, or for any of you who are saying what the heck are these two talking about now, there’s two ways to close a real estate deal. The one that everybody knows about, Sally Smith, the residential real estate agent, gets a listing. You sell the property, you sign your name 3000 times. Sally Smith, who does not actually know how to close a real estate deal, sends it to escrow agent John Smith, and John Smith does all the work.
And from there, again, a bunch of stuff to sign, disclosures, all kinds of things, and they manage the money for you. So if you were to buy this for cash, you would be buying it for $18,000. You would put it in escrow. The escrow agent would set up a closing statement where the money goes and the whole thing, and that’s how Jill and I sell property and that’s how we buy it 99% of the time.
If you go way back into our podcast, that’s not how we did it in the beginning. A lot of years ago, 10, 15 years ago, that was exactly not what we did. So that’s way number one, the way that everybody knows.
Number two is just like selling a car without a dealer. You have a title in your hand and the buyer of your car has a fistful of money. He gives you the money, you sign over the title to the car. Some states you need a notary, some you don’t. I take the money, I give you the title, and the title gets recorded and it’s done. Same thing with real estate, and that’s what a self close is. I’m oversimplifying, but it’s really important to know. Everybody needs to know you don’t need a real estate agent to close a real estate deal.

Jill Dewitt:
Thank you. All right, next question. Steven wrote, “Any issues with using my home address for mail? Should I pick up a post box office instead? I do not plan on moving in the foreseeable future. Also, is it recommended to get a second phone line? Any option on using a virtual phone line like RingCentral versus a second dedicated phone line?”
I have a lot to say about this and I’m sure you do, too.

Steven Jack Butala:
I do. You go first. You’ll probably cover all of it actually.

Jill Dewitt:
That would be nice. Thank you.

Steven Jack Butala:
I think you and I are-

Jill Dewitt:
You don’t need mom and dad weighing in on this, so that’s why I held back on the last one. I let dad take that one. We’re going to let mom take this one. So you know what, Steven? What if you hit it big, or just who knows? Life happens. You might move. You never know.
So one reason is I want you to get a post office box or some kind of a virtual mailbox, something like that, that will never change, because 10 years from now, 15 years from now, hey, this one, I’ve been doing this for 15 years, he’s been doing it for 30. Thank goodness we still have the same mailbox address because people do write letters and still reach out to us from now I can say decades ago. It’s crazy, but it’s true, and I want to get those letters because I might want that property now, whatever it is. So I do want you to do that. The flip side of that, too, is like I don’t really want anybody showing up on your door. Not that they would.

Steven Jack Butala:
Sure they will. Eventually they will.

Jill Dewitt:
But what if somebody’s not happy about something? I don’t know. They have something to say about it. You definitely don’t want your own personal stuff. You don’t want a package on fire on your doorstep.

Steven Jack Butala:
Mom’s softening this topic. Do not use your home address.

Jill Dewitt:
Well, that’s what I’m saying.
Okay, then number two on the phone number, same thing. I can’t be sure I’m going to have my same phone number forever, but I can keep my phone and I want to keep it separate too. There’s a couple different reasons. A, I don’t want people to have my own cell number. I need to be able to differentiate if it’s a work call or it’s my friends calling me. B, I need to flip this number around sometimes. I need a phone number that I purchase and I own. I might buy it from [inaudible 00:09:43] or something like that and then port the number into my phone system, and that’s the best way because what if I’m not taking the calls this week? I’m doing so great, I’m so busy. I have Pat Live take the phone calls and I can just route the phone number to Pat Live. I can route the phone number to my new assistant five years from now.
And again, the main point is they might reach out to you six months or six years after that mailer goes out and there’s a good chance you’re going to want that property. At least you want the option to look at it and go, “You know what? I did so well in that area and boy, I wouldn’t mind doing a couple more. I’ve got the whole team in place.” You need to get those calls. So that’s why you want to do that.

Steven Jack Butala:
The relative cost for all this stuff is so small.

Jill Dewitt:
Cheap.

Steven Jack Butala:
And geez, maybe 30 minutes.

Jill Dewitt:
A hundred bucks a month, if that.

Steven Jack Butala:
Both of these things set up. In 1995, I got a mailbox in midtown Scottsdale and we still to this day have that same mailbox. We have moved, we’ve lived in three different states. We’ve probably moved 12 to 15 times, and that mailbox is the same.
I had a home phone number and a fax number. That’s how long ago this was. That is still in use within our companies today, that we still use it for certain stuff because I was fortunate enough because we owned it and then we forward it and the whole thing. So you want to leave open a lot of options. Millions and millions of letters, hopefully if your career goes well, you’re going to send out millions of letters like Jill and I do, and you’re going to get calls 10 years later.

Jill Dewitt:
Here’s your nomad tip of the day. If you want to have a lifestyle like us, doing deals from wherever you choose to be, whether it’s in this country, in an RV, whether it’s on the back of a boat, whether you’re in the Caribbean, wherever you are dreaming up, spending a month in Paris, I don’t care, you could even do mailbox place to mailbox place.

Steven Jack Butala:
That’s what we do.

Jill Dewitt:
That’s an interesting thought. Exactly. So we have, like Jack just said, from 1995, our same whatever address, guess what they do? Bundle it up, send it to us wherever we are. It’s the greatest thing.

Steven Jack Butala:
We have our home mailbox and our professional company’s mailbox in the same place and we don’t get mail anywhere else.

Jill Dewitt:
We don’t get mail at home. Everything at the mail at home is all the junk mail that I feel bad that people are wasting money on because it gets stacked up and then I recycle it all.

Steven Jack Butala:
And the people that run the mailbox place, I think we’ve been through three owners there, pack up our stuff and send it to us probably once a month, whatever’s in there.

Jill Dewitt:
Yep. Okay. Today-

Steven Jack Butala:
The bigger, deeper question is, Steven, we address all this stuff in the program, and I have to ask myself, I guess I have to ask it out loud myself, why would you veer from what we teach?

Jill Dewitt:
Well, maybe he hasn’t got to that part of the program yet. That happens a lot. I’ve noticed that. I had some dear sweet woman recently and I went back and I looked and I’m like, tell me how much, she’s like, and she stopped watching at that crucial point. I’m like, “You turned off the thing.”

Steven Jack Butala:
What happened? What’s the story there? Tell us the story. I want to hear this story.

Jill Dewitt:
It’s all right. She turned it off at that crucial moment where you go on to talk about, “And here’s what could happen and here’s why you test this and here’s how you do this,” and stuff. It was data related, and I’m like, “You’ve got to watch this stuff.” Not only do you have to watch it, watch it a couple times because every time you’re going to pick up on something different.

Steven Jack Butala:
When are you guys going to get to the topic?

Jill Dewitt:
I know. Can we talk about it?

Steven Jack Butala:
Today’s topic, why the housing market demands that we expand our land business into buying and reselling houses. Jill and I have a lot of experience buying and selling houses. We’ve done many deals. That saved us around 2009, 2010, long before we had Land Academy, where we just, if you’re old enough to remember, we had the largest real estate recession in the history of our country, with the exception of 1929. So it was a tough time. We had a ton of real estate. Jill and I owned a bunch of land free and clear, as we always do, and we couldn’t sell it. Nobody was buying land.
And certainly nothing like that’s going to happen this time, but it is showing the sign. And back then we saved ourselves by buying houses and selling them. We were buying houses from banks for 40 to $60,000 that are now three and $400,000. And we were reselling them back then for 80 to 120 really successfully. And that was only because the market was conducive to that situation. That’s it.
And so yeah, we bought and sold houses after that, and all throughout my career, I’ve always been buying and selling houses and so was Jill. She cut her teeth on that actually. I cut my teeth on land and we got together and did a bunch of house deals, and at that time it wasn’t our favorite thing because we were cleaning them up too much, but they were always profitable.
So there’s some circumstances that are lending themselves in the market that are starting down that path of repeating what happened in 2009, only a lot less acute. And so I’ll go through what those circumstances are and why we’re going to start and already have started out. We’ve got a house [inaudible 00:15:06] hitting here in about less than a week. All right, here’s number one.

Jill Dewitt:
To my phone.

Steven Jack Butala:
If you remember-

Jill Dewitt:
I’m taking those calls right myself, at least the first wave.

Steven Jack Butala:
If you remember back then, what caused that financial breakdown that trickled up and down into the housing and real estate community was credit. It was lack of credit, which was really catalyzed in my opinion by predatory lending. We have weird, weird crazy lending practices with reverse mortgages and all kinds of stuff.
And fortunately, and I don’t say this too often, but fortunately, and I think it was required back then, the federal government stepped in and made some changes for the better I think. Now what we’re experiencing is COVID. So COVID happened and we all thought that it was going to destroy the economy and it didn’t. It had the opposite, direct opposite effect to real estate. So if you look at any graph, you can see COVID happened, the world shut down, and nobody was buying or selling property at all.
And the next January came, I guess it was around 2021, everybody started buying property. It was time to buy mountain houses and second homes and all of that, and it was mixed up with the three percent. We were having two and three percent mortgage rates. There was a massive house buying binge that was happening. Well, little did I even know back then most of the deals that were happening for residential properties were adjustable rate mortgages. So you were locked in for a certain amount of time and then after time passes, it adjusts to actual interest rates.
So from a lender’s perspective, you have to say or think, well, how can you lose actually? They’re kind of betting on the fact that they’ll go up, and they are. Interest rates have gone up. They were two to three percent back then. They’re around seven percent now. Six to seven, maybe seven plus. So all those interest rate mortgages that were locked in at three percent, two and three percent, are going to go up two or three percent. They’re literally going to double. That was 2021. This is 2024. Three years later.
If you had a 3/1 adjustable rate mortgage, an ARM, it’s adjusting right now. And the direct result of that is a lot more houses are going on the market. And here’s why. If your mortgage is 12 to $1,500, which is the national average a month, and it goes from three to six percent or seven percent, that $1,200 mortgage is now $2,500. A very substantial number of people can’t handle that financially, and understandably so. Your mortgage is doubling and your salary and the revenue that you have in your household is the same. So significant. Way more than half of the people that are experiencing this can’t handle it.
What’s the first thing they do? They call their sister-in-law real estate agent and put the house on the market. And that is why we’re seeing tons of inventory on the market. And people are celebrating. I read an article today that was published by the National Association of Realtors. Jill and I are going to talk about it on the call, on our Thursday webinar, a closed call for Land Academy members and House Academy members, and they said there’s reason for celebration. And I stopped before I even, I stopped right after I’d read the title. I didn’t even get into the article. Why are we celebrating? There’s more inventory on the market.
Well, that industry sees that, number one, real estate agents, now they have more stuff to sell. That’s really what they mean. And I’m not even going to tell you what I really think about that. The real positive in it is that people who could not get into the housing market as an owner are now having a better shot at that. There’s more inventory. It’s driving the prices down, very slightly and slowly, but it is driving the prices down because it’s bringing supply and demand in sync again, instead of just having all this crazy demand and not enough supply. So that’s what’s happening and it will continue. And then 5/1 mortgages are going to kick in, too, between now and two years from now. So that rate from 50 to 60% who can’t handle it, it’s going to go even higher.
Demand in the real world, in a regular situation, it would be great because that regular amount of demand would kind of equal out, like I said. But geez, this generation is the largest generation in the world. There are two generations at work here, the Generation X, and I’m sorry, the millennials and then the next one after that, I think it’s called Generation A or something like that. I don’t know. I don’t remember. Together they are 140 million people. The baby boomers are only 70 million. It’s twice as large as the baby boomer generation, which is our parents, Jill and I’s parents. If you’re about our age, that’s the case also.

Jill Dewitt:
What is our age?

Steven Jack Butala:
I’m not going to say that.

Jill Dewitt:
Thank you.

Steven Jack Butala:
That was a trick.

Jill Dewitt:
Yeah, thank you. Good one.

Steven Jack Butala:
If there’s a woman in your life, don’t answer stuff like that.

Jill Dewitt:
You’re on your toes.

Steven Jack Butala:
Please know not to answer anything like that.

Jill Dewitt:
There you go. How much do I weigh? Good one.

Steven Jack Butala:
That’s how interested Jill is in this topic.

Jill Dewitt:
You got this.

Steven Jack Butala:
So now you’ve got this massive demand. You’ve got real high interest rates because the feds are trying to keep us in check from an inflation standpoint. And you’ve got all these mortgages coming due. So you’ve got tons of property on the market and tons of demand. All right, so how do we make money on this? What you have is a heck of a lot of activity, tons of activity happening.
What you need to do is start trolling around on realtor.com or Redfin or Zillow, like we teach in Land Academy and House Academy, and find the markets where properties, lots and lots and lots of properties are being listed and lots of properties are being purchased. And then within that market you are going to find the break point. I talk about all this stuff in House Academy in great detail.
And you’ll find that at about the top of the bell curve-ish, let’s just say there’s tons and tons of properties listed for between 325,000 and 375,000. There’s very few properties between 100 and 200, 250, and very few properties in the five to $600,000 range. The break point is somewhere at the top of the bell curve, and it smacks you in the face because when you click on pending properties, properties that are under contract, and you click on sold properties, the values will smack you in the face. They will be somewhere around that 350 mark.
So you send out a mailer, you figure out how to buy property below that break point. When you have all this activity and tons of properties are hitting the market, some people get your offer, they get your letter, they get your offer in the mail, and they say to themselves, “There’s 14 houses for sale on my block right now. Every time I drive to work, I see the signs. I’m going to call this guy back. He wants to buy for 250. I think I’m going to sell it to him if he wants it that bad.”
If this works, Jill and I have done it in two market downturns. So I would urge you, if you’re listening to this because you’re buying and selling land, or you want to, I would urge you to expand into this space or at least explore it.

Jill Dewitt:
Do you want to share anything at all about, and you can say no.

Steven Jack Butala:
Oh, good. No.

Jill Dewitt:
Okay. No, I was just going to say we all understand and agree and appreciate your insight and your research. That was wonderful. Beautiful presentation about why it all makes sense and what numbers and where you should be looking at and trolling and that kind of thing. There’s a couple questions that I’d just like to throw in there and see if you want to talk about, am I cash or am I financing these?

Steven Jack Butala:
Oh, geez. So that’s a great question. Boy, nothing will make you run out of money faster than buying a house and reselling it. If you’re buying for 300 and selling for 400, two or three deals and you’re a million bucks extended. For most of us, that’s a lot of money.
It’s the same situation. The people in our group, the people in the Land Academy group, are dying to apply money to what you’re about to do. Your job is to find properties that are below that break point in that market. That’s the money. And one message on Discord as a Land Academy or House Academy member, you will find the money you need. Jill and I will give you the money.

Jill Dewitt:
What about it needs a carpet, and the roof kind of stinks, and boy, that carport should be a garage. What do I do about that stuff?

Steven Jack Butala:
So it’s obviously that I left out all the HGTV topics that apply to buying and reselling a house. And the fact is, I could care less about that stuff. I only care about it if it will dramatically stop you from reselling the house. And so nobody wants to buy a super huge piece of garbage. Nobody. And it doesn’t show well and it stinks and it doesn’t pass code and the whole thing.

Jill Dewitt:
Except for a flipper.

Steven Jack Butala:
Yes.

Jill Dewitt:
They do want that. If you do too much to it, you’re going to scare all the flippers.

Steven Jack Butala:
It’s got to make financial sense. You need to walk in, you need to be the kind of person that can apply common sense and say, “I know I can easily sell a property like this for $350,000. The guy accepted my offer at 250. There’s a lot of stuff wrong with it. I think I’m going to go back and probably re-offer 210 just because I think there’s a lot of [inaudible 00:25:24].” You’re going to get an inspection anyway. The inspection’s going to tell you what’s wrong.

Jill Dewitt:
The point I’m trying to make here is in its current condition, the whole goal is you’re trying to find an asset where, what were your numbers? Anywhere from 20 to a hundred. There we go. You’re trying to find a sweet spot, I’m going to argue even more than $20,000. I’m going to say 50 to a hundred thousand. You’re trying to find an asset that’s marked, that’s priced 50 to a hundred thousand dollars below what it’s worth in its current position. And because it’s convenience, you’re finding it before there’s an agent involved, there’s no commissions, all that good stuff. It’s convenience between you and the seller. They can walk away and have a check, and it’s going to be cash and no one’s going to make them redo the roof or clean out the garage. Those kind of things.
And then the point of it is, too, you’re selling it in its current condition. And well, I know we’ll talk more about that because that’s the whole Land Academy, House Academy model. I’m not going in there and making it beautiful. Again, buying it for 250, let’s just say buying it for 250. In its current condition, it’s worth 310, 320. But some flipper can come along and make it beautiful and now it’s worth 400. That’s the goal.

Steven Jack Butala:
Or 450. That’s what those outliers are.

Jill Dewitt:
That’s what you’re doing. You’re selling to them and let them do that work. You don’t have a construction company.

Steven Jack Butala:
Listen, you do not want to become a contractor here.

Jill Dewitt:
True.

Steven Jack Butala:
You do not. This is not, it’s called House Academy. It’s not called House Renovations.

Jill Dewitt:
True. Or HGTV.

Steven Jack Butala:
We do not renovate houses. The most we’ve ever done with any level of success is paint and carpet, and maybe light fixtures in certain cases, if they really need to be replaced.

Jill Dewitt:
That was only because I was doing the end user. You know what it was? We bought one that was a little too nice and that’s all it needed. And none of the investors wanted to touch it. I’m like, well, I guess we’re going to sell it then, we’re going to sell it to the end user. Guess what happened? Then we made even more money. So that’s the worst thing that can happen if it’s in that good of shape. So good stuff.

Steven Jack Butala:
This is all math.

Jill Dewitt:
Thank you.

Steven Jack Butala:
It’s all buying properties that are like kind, analyzing sold values, active values, reducing it down to a price per square foot, and doing the math. It’s not about window treatments. If you are really interested in buying and selling houses so that you can express yourself artistically, this is absolutely the wrong show for you and the wrong program.

Jill Dewitt:
We’re here to make money.

Steven Jack Butala:
Through data, through the use of data.

Jill Dewitt:
Exactly.

Steven Jack Butala:
That’s it.

Jill Dewitt:
Thank you.

Steven Jack Butala:
So yeah, something to share today.

Jill Dewitt:
I was thinking about, in light of this environment, I’m talking to my team and talking about people coming into Land Academy, and it’s so interesting the shift that we’re seeing of the very accomplished corporate people coming to us right now due to little, I don’t know if little or big, I don’t know what the right word is, but shifts in the job market. And I just want to talk about it for a minute and make everybody feel really good about this.
Again, our group is small, and when you really think about the number of people out there doing what we do, it may sound like a lot of noise, but the number of people really actually doing it and doing it well and actually getting mail in out there to people, it’s not that big. So I want you to feel good.
And then to make you feel even better, what I wanted you to know is you could have some very conservative goals in Land Academy, screw it all up, and still have no trouble putting food on the table. So let me just, that’s my whole thing.

Steven Jack Butala:
Good point.

Jill Dewitt:
We talk big numbers all the time. That’s just who we are. We’re wired to do that, and it’s fun. But realistically, if you can’t live on $10,000 a month, we could, then we’ve got some problems. Think about it. If the world all goes sideways and you had $10,000 a month, could you live on that? Yeah, you could.

Steven Jack Butala:
Oh, geez.

Jill Dewitt:
And you know what? If you can’t, we need to talk because then you’re paying too much. You bought your house for too much, you need to reel it back in. You shouldn’t be driving that car and you shouldn’t be going to Hawaii right now.
So you can do it. Those are not crazy numbers. And then within Land Academy, boy, if you just did a couple deals a month, like I said, your goal is to do three, four deals a month and you want to make 10 grand a deal, super small, conservative numbers, you screw them all up. Guess what? Now you make 10 to $20,000 a month and you’re going to be just fine. That’s my point today.

Steven Jack Butala:
Use this how you’d like to use it. That’s the whole point here. You can scale it.

Jill Dewitt:
That’s true.

Steven Jack Butala:
Scale it how you want.

Jill Dewitt:
Well, because I talked to people recently, just in this last, you know, a couple of weeks ago we did this big workshop. It was five days, ended up being six. We went over the next week because we did a whole big Q&A day, workshop, really helping people understand what we are, what we do. And I broke it out into five days. Jack joined me. It was a whole lot of fun.
And I talked to people, and there was an interesting gentleman who was very successful. He said, “You guys scared me with sending out this much mail.” I said, “Well, hold on a moment.” Because you know what’s funny? He’s like, “I don’t want to do that much. I don’t need that much money. I don’t want to do that much.”

Steven Jack Butala:
Really?

Jill Dewitt:
Yeah, it was really kind of funny. And I’m like, “I can’t remember hearing that before, but okay.” It was really interesting and it made me take a step back and just realize, we’re not going to push you to send out a hundred thousand units of mail a month, uh-uh, but I am going to push you or at least help you and show you.

Steven Jack Butala:
Guide you.

Jill Dewitt:
Guide you with how much mail you need to send to hit whatever your personal goals are. That’s it.

Steven Jack Butala:
I don’t want that much money, Jill. I’m good.

Jill Dewitt:
It was so funny. He’s like, “Yeah, you guys turned me off on sending that much mail.” I’m like, “I don’t think anyone’s ever said that to me.” I’m like, “This is the funniest thing, but I get it. Okay.”

Steven Jack Butala:
Somebody else said that to me. One other person in my entire career said that, “That’s too much. I don’t want to do that.”

Jill Dewitt:
I’m like, “Well, you don’t want to make that much money.” “I don’t want to do that.” I’m like-

Steven Jack Butala:
By the way, we don’t physically stuff envelopes here.

Jill Dewitt:
No, that’s true too. So I guess that’s all I wanted to make sure you know. Whatever your goals are, well, we just introduced personal coaching, by the way. It’s starting this summer. I’m so excited. And that’s one of the main things that I’m really going to get with all the coaches, and we’re going to really sit with you to help you. You may not even know what your goals are. We’ll help you set your goals if you don’t know.
We’ll go through the equity planner with you step by step by step until you feel so good about like, yeah, I can do that. All right, 20 hours a week and that much mail a month. Okay, yeah. To hit those numbers so you feel good about whatever it is for you, and whatever number is magic to you, we’re going to help you hit it. So that’s my point today. Thank you. What do you have to share?

Steven Jack Butala:
If this stuff’s intriguing, by the way, I failed to mention, go to either landacademy.com or houseacademy.com. I think if you want to become a guest on our Thursday call-

Jill Dewitt:
You could do that.

Steven Jack Butala:
I think you go to service at Land Academy.

Jill Dewitt:
Support.

Steven Jack Butala:
Or support.

Jill Dewitt:
Support@landacademy.com. Send them an email if you want to be a guest on our Thursday member call and see and hear more about some of the deals that we’re all doing.

Steven Jack Butala:
That’s your opportunity as a member or not to ask any questions you want.

Jill Dewitt:
Totally. All right. What do you have to share with us today, Jack?

Steven Jack Butala:
My inspiration slash information segment is a direct segue from the actual topic. You have to adjust to the market. It’s imperative. We have had people in the past who’ve now since, I’m happy to report, gotten over this, but they are one track minded people in the distant past that say, “I’ve been mailing urban Dallas and I’ve been buying infill lots for two years straight. And this most recent time, it doesn’t seem to be working as well. And I guess it’s over.” It’s never over, never, ever over in real estate. You just have to adjust to it.

Jill Dewitt:
Could you imagine? Well, Texas is done. Mark that off the list. Everything’s bought and nobody’s moving. No, everybody’s settled. Yeah, that’s it. Texas is over. That would be really funny.

Steven Jack Butala:
If our government one day wakes up and says, “Yeah, it turns out we own everything. We’re the government and we own it all, and you’re just our guests here,” which could happen, that would probably end it. But short of that, I think-

Jill Dewitt:
Hello.

Steven Jack Butala:
Join us next Wednesday for another interesting episode. You are not alone in your real estate ambition.

Jill Dewitt:
We are Jack and Jill.

Steven Jack Butala:
Information.

Jill Dewitt:
And inspiration.

Steven Jack Butala:
To buy undervalued property.

Jill Dewitt:
That was crazy.

Thanks for listening, and finally, don’t forget to subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts.

The post 3 Reasons Why Lack of Access Kills Land Deals (LA 2014) appeared first on Land Academy.

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Join us for an insightful interview with Josiah Ronco, $3 Million Dollars In 1 Year – Land Academy Success Story, an accomplished entrepreneur who achieved an impressive milestone last year. In this episode, Josiah shares his journey from overcoming early challenges to implementing effective strategies that drove his business to success.

Transcript: N/A

Thanks for listening, and finally, don’t forget to subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts.

The post Land Academy Success Story: $3 Million Dollars In 1 Year (LA 2013) appeared first on Land Academy.

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Welcome to the Land Academy Show with Jack Butala and Jill DeWit! In this episode, we dive into a hot topic that’s on everyone’s mind: 3 Ways to Deal with Competition in Your Land Business. Whether you’re new to the field or an experienced land investor, competition is a reality we all face. Today, we discuss three key strategies to help you stay ahead and thrive in a competitive market.

Transcript:

Steven Jack Butala:
Steven Jack Butala here.

Jill K DeWit:
And I’m Jill DeWit and this is the Land Academy Show.

Steven Jack Butala:
This is episode number 2,012, and today we’re talking about three ways to deal with competition in your land business. Oh my gosh, is this a hot topic, Jack? I-

Jill K DeWit:
What? Wait, wait, there’s competition?

Steven Jack Butala:
For three years straight-

Jill K DeWit:
What?

Steven Jack Butala:
All I did was mailed Metro Dallas for infill lots. I did 20 deals a month. I just did it again last month and it … I only got 10 deals. I only got two deals. It didn’t work at all. Why? I want it to go back the way that it was.

Jill K DeWit:
What do I do?

Steven Jack Butala:
You know what Land Academy member, so do I. I want to go back to 1994.

Jill K DeWit:
Oh my goodness. Okay, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Total timeout. Hold on a moment, let’s think about this for a second, we’re getting a little sidebar here. If you could go back to any year in your life what year would it be and why?

Steven Jack Butala:
You know what? From my soul.

Jill K DeWit:
I’m writing mine down.

Steven Jack Butala:
I would not go back.

Jill K DeWit:
Oh, that’s too bad. Hold on a minute.

Steven Jack Butala:
What’s your year? She’s going to say 1985.

Jill K DeWit:
No, 1990.

Steven Jack Butala:
Really? 1990? What would you do different?

Jill K DeWit:
I didn’t have a care in the world.

Steven Jack Butala:
You know what? Neither did I. 1990-

Jill K DeWit:
1990.

Steven Jack Butala:
I was absolutely freaked out about … This is what ManPlan’s about. If you don’t know about ManPlan please go to manplan.com. I’m filming it and writing it right now. You’re a man you need a plan. Men make plans. I think women want to have not a care in the world.

Jill K DeWit:
Let me tell you where I was in 1990. Let me paint this picture. I moved in to a three-bedroom apartment on the beach with four flight attendants. We had the best parties. People would fly in to come to our parties. It was awesome. I loved it. I miss those days.

Steven Jack Butala:
And there’s no period in my life starting from when I was about 14 years old that I’ve suffered from a lack of a good time. I’m not talking about that.

Jill K DeWit:
Well true.

Steven Jack Butala:
Including yesterday.

Jill K DeWit:
But I didn’t have care in the world. I made great money, I had no problem paying my bills, everything, and I could go to any concert I wanted-

Steven Jack Butala:
So what happened?

Jill K DeWit:
And that was it.

Steven Jack Butala:
What happened? What changed?

Jill K DeWit:
I got transferred.

Steven Jack Butala:
This is way more fun than talking about land.

Jill K DeWit:
This is very good actually. Well, it was American Airlines and they closed the LA office and they moved me to Arizona. And so I-

Steven Jack Butala:
And that triggered-

Jill K DeWit:
And then I thought, well, why not do something different? Why not leave California? This could be a good thing. Changes is good, right? Go where the job is. And they’re like “Okay, let’s go to a new state.” And Arizona was always and still is very, very good to us. Now fast-forward. Then what happened? Then I got to Arizona and I got bored and that’s a whole nother story.

Steven Jack Butala:
Keep going.

Jill K DeWit:
And then I made some bad decisions.

Steven Jack Butala:
Okay. Now we get to the bottom of it. The stage was set for bad, boring, boring …

Jill K DeWit:
Bored.

Steven Jack Butala:
Boredom driven bad decisions.

Jill K DeWit:
That’s it.

Steven Jack Butala:
That’s a show.

Jill K DeWit:
That’s it. So anyway.

Steven Jack Butala:
Kind of bored maybe I should get married. I’m bored maybe I should have a baby.

Jill K DeWit:
Maybe we should buy a house.

Steven Jack Butala:
Nope, nope, nope. Let’s get some debt.

Jill K DeWit:
Yeah, that’s a great idea.

Steven Jack Butala:
Sprinkle some debt.

Jill K DeWit:
Yeah, let’s get-

Steven Jack Butala:
Sprinkle some debt on a bad relationship-

Jill K DeWit:
Let’s get a great car-

Steven Jack Butala:
And a couple-

Jill K DeWit:
That holds a couple car seats.

Steven Jack Butala:
A couple of babies.

Jill K DeWit:
That’s a good idea.

Steven Jack Butala:
A minivan. Get a white minivan.

Jill K DeWit:
It was not white. I’ve never had a white-

Steven Jack Butala:
Sprinkle some debt on a bad marriage and a couple of babies in a white minivan and she said … She picks out, well, it wasn’t white.

Jill K DeWit:
There you go. Now you know. I have not nor will I ever have a white car. Go ahead.

Steven Jack Butala:
Two periods like that in my life and I got out of them really fast.

Jill K DeWit:
Got it.

Steven Jack Butala:
I’m glad I did.

Jill K DeWit:
Yeah, all right.

Steven Jack Butala:
And you did too.

Jill K DeWit:
I got out of it.

Steven Jack Butala:
You got out of that.

Jill K DeWit:
I wouldn’t say fast.

Steven Jack Butala:
Your fate.

Jill K DeWit:
You know what’s funny? There’s times in my life like right now where I’m like “Oh.” Our staff is like “What happened?” Let’s rip the band-aid off we’re running around crazy people getting stuff done. It’s because I get to the end. I’m like okay, we’re trying to be calm and trying to do this right. And then I’m like nope, over. All right, back to the show. Sorry.

Steven Jack Butala:
Each week on the show we answer a question, in this case, two questions, from our Land Academy member Discord forum. And we take a deep dive into land-related topics by popular request from our Land Academy community. And today’s topic is three ways to deal with competition because it is the topic, not only within our group but all over the internet. What are we going to do?

Jill K DeWit:
Right.

Steven Jack Butala:
I’m not the only one sending a mailer to Dallas right now, there’s two other people doing it. What do I do?

Jill K DeWit:
I’m just looking ahead. Are they two separate questions?

Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah.

Jill K DeWit:
Do you want me to pause in between?

Steven Jack Butala:
Very separate, yeah.

Jill K DeWit:
Okay. So Jen wrote, “When evaluating a property that has come back from a mailer as a possible acquisition, do you send a realtor out to look at the property to give a listing price opinion while still negotiation with the seller or wait until it’s under contract? I have a property that’s anomaly in its area and hard to comp. The seller counted my offer so I was hoping to get an opinion from a local realtor. I thought about contacting Whitetail because I found a Whitetail guy with other similar properties” … This is great.

Steven Jack Butala:
Good. This is great.

Jill K DeWit:
“In the area.”

Steven Jack Butala:
You’re on point. Good job, Jen.

Jill K DeWit:
“But I don’t know if I should contact him before I’ve assigned PA with the seller. Please advise, thank you.” Can I go first?

Steven Jack Butala:
Oh, yeah. First and final on this.

Jill K DeWit:
Oh, okay. I would not have any trouble with this. It’s when you send out an offer and the person says, “No, I’m not good enough,” and now you just have no number. You’re just nebulous trying to go well, I don’t even know what to come back with, I need to bring in-

Steven Jack Butala:
It’s not a deal yet.

Jill K DeWit:
I need to bring in some help. That I wouldn’t do yet. You need to get a number. But this said you have the seller that countered a number so now you have a number. So let’s just pretend, Jen, you sent it out for $15,000, right, and you were feeling good about that. You’re like anything can go anyway. I know at 15,000 this is just going to be great, and they counted at 25. And now you’re going okay, now I really got to think about it. I’m having trouble. I knew at 15 I could make it work no matter what, but at 25 now I’m not so sure my number’s going to work, maybe I need to bring in somebody else. I would have no trouble doing all of this. This kind of a verbal thing with a seller I personally feel … I feel good with.
I’m not going to say, “Will you sign it, send it to me, and then I’ll really get serious about it.” No, they gave you a serious number back and I would be fine. It sounds like you found somebody good, you found a … I’ve worked with several agents from Whitetail Properties and I think they’re great. I would have no trouble calling them. Don’t give him all those details. Don’t say, “I just got a verbal” or anything like that. But calling him and letting him go look at it and giving you an opinion, I would be totally fine with that at this point

Steven Jack Butala:
I would say, “I’ve got a property under contract,” don’t say for how much. “This is it, what do you think you can sell it for?”

Jill K DeWit:
I don’t even say that. I don’t even say under contract. I’m just like “Hey, I just got this in and I’m trying to figure out what to do with it, what would you sell it for?” Be real vague. Hello Blake. Okay. Then Blake wrote, “Has anyone who is on a consistent mail schedule noticed a dip in calls the past few weeks? I’m wondering if I messed up by mailer or if it’s a seasonal lull with people traveling for the summer.”

Steven Jack Butala:
This is my friend is why we wrote this topic. Not your question specifically, but many, many, many others with the same sentiment. What’s going on? I sent a mailer out and it doesn’t … It’s not performing the way that I want to. To which I answer, and my short answer is … And Jill and I are going to get into the topic here in one second. Welcome to the business. Welcome to any business. There’s ups, there’s downs, there’s great months, there’s bad months, there’s mediocre months, and when you average it all out, hopefully, there’s a little bit of money left over.

Jill K DeWit:
Right.

Steven Jack Butala:
That’s what this is.

Jill K DeWit:
I have to say, sometimes though I do have to agree, there are weird things … Think about you, Blake. I mean, just to be honest, Blake, you’re a Land Academy member because I know you got … This came out of Discord so I know that you’re in there. Just to back up a minute. Let me think for a second. There’s weeks that you are busy. I watch it with our … With Land Academy members. The week the kids are out of school or a holiday, sometimes there’s a lull on people that show up for the activities, and the group calls, and things like that. Sometimes there is a little bit of a dip like that. If it lasts for six weeks then we got to look at it. But if it’s a week here and there and you can go yeah, kids just got out of school, I … They’re going to call me. There’s an expiration date on it. But there are other things going on that you’re going to talk about today too I know.

Steven Jack Butala:
Let’s do this real quick.

Jill K DeWit:
Okay.

Steven Jack Butala:
Today’s topic, three ways to deal with competition in your land business. When I was a kid and a young professional … I grew up in an industrial environment. My friend’s parents were somehow … Well, it was in Detroit so it was almost always tied to, in some way, the automotive industry including my own parents. My dad had a small accounting practice and my mom had her own psychology clinic-type business. And then my friend’s parents had metal stamping plants and all … But anyway. Everybody was tied to the automotive industry. And I remember hanging out with these older people, at the time, and some of them would pour themselves a Scotch on the weekend and kick their feet up on the desk or wherever we were and they would just have a big smile on their face. Kind of had this aura of it’s just over, I make a bunch of money now. I’ve got this house and my family and I’m happy and I’ve got a big smile on my face and a Scotch in my hand.
And I took that very incorrectly to mean yeah, this guy’s arrived. He’s done it, it’s all good, nothing to worry about. That doesn’t exist. Your business is a messy but somewhat controllable disaster just like my business is and it will always be that way. That guy was kicking up his feet, I realize now, because he’s trying to get drunk to forget about what happened that week in his own business, and putting a smile on his face. There is no arrival. There’s no point where you say, “Nan, I’ve arrived.”

Jill K DeWit:
I don’t have to do anything now.

Steven Jack Butala:
I’ve got the right vice president, the right CEO, I don’t have to do anything now. I don’t know I just-

Jill K DeWit:
I’m just going to go off and watch the bank balance, watch the money roll in.

Steven Jack Butala:
Here’s a new address, this is where you send all their money.

Jill K DeWit:
Yeah, exactly. Oh, and by the way, I expect that same year-over-year 5% growth. Thanks-

Steven Jack Butala:
No, a month over month-

Jill K DeWit:
See you later.

Steven Jack Butala:
5% growth.

Jill K DeWit:
There you go.

Steven Jack Butala:
That’s 50 or 60% a year.

Jill K DeWit:
There we go. I expect that to continue without me.

Steven Jack Butala:
That’s just not how this works.

Jill K DeWit:
You guys got this, right?

Steven Jack Butala:
It doesn’t work like that, not because of you and something wrong that you’re doing. What ends up happening is, invariably somebody younger, and faster, and smarter is going to come up behind you, take a look at what you’re doing, and figure out a better way to do it. That is a given, number one.

Jill K DeWit:
True.

Steven Jack Butala:
Number one and the three deals away with … Three ways to deal with competition is this. Except that everything is constantly changing. Change is constant. Your supplier is going to cut you off, there’s … Orders are going to go down for some specific part because it’s cheaper to get in China. In our case-

Jill K DeWit:
Good point.

Steven Jack Butala:
You passed the red-green-yellow test, you’ve been smashing urban Dallas for infill lots for two years straight. Somebody figured it out, not maybe because they were following you around like they follow us around, but just because there’s just … People found out. The red-green-yellow test got out there. Or there’s other people in this environment, which is really serious actually … Other people in this environment that are way less qualified than Jill that are instructing people to send mail like that overpriced. Without getting into-

Jill K DeWit:
Noise.

Steven Jack Butala:
A lot of the details, you have to accept and embrace that everything’s constantly going to change.

Jill K DeWit:
True.

Steven Jack Butala:
That’s it. Or you will not survive. You got to get new customers sell side, you have to find new sellers in a different way, you have to reach them in a more creative way.

Jill K DeWit:
[inaudible 00:13:16].

Steven Jack Butala:
Jill and I just recorded, I don’t know when it’ll air, an interview with a four-year long member, his name’s Josiah Rocco, and he has … He doesn’t know this but he has completely and totally accepted change. He has chosen to deal with that change by ruling his market which is one of the number threes here. And so he’s just the best person in the market to sell your land to for a bunch of reasons and it … Not just price.

Jill K DeWit:
This is good stuff.

Steven Jack Butala:
Number two is what I just said, get to know between one and four areas like the back of your hand so you can start to brand yourself there. Jill has done that in the markets that we’re in. We’re in about four consistent markets. We’re always trying to get new markets, but we always go back to those original four. Jill’s starting to brand herself as a person that buys land in the area and is great to deal with and work with with real estate agents, and escrow agents, and everything.

Jill K DeWit:
They’ll give you properties-

Steven Jack Butala:
It might be in-

Jill K DeWit:
They’ll send me properties. I’m like “Why don’t you do this?” So they’re like, “Nah, it’s not my thing.” I’m like “Okay.”

Steven Jack Butala:
What ends up happening there too is it makes your … It builds your confidence. At some point, and it’ll probably take at least two years of consistently mailing maybe 10,000 units a month, what’ll end up happening is you’ll get some property back, you’ll review it, and you will within seconds say, “I would love to buy this property but not at this price. I love this block but not this block.” It goes down to the block sometimes.

Jill K DeWit:
You’ll know it that well. And not only that you have your team, it just makes it so easy. Susie at ABC title is on speed dial with you and you just … Now maybe you just text her and say, “Here it comes, here’s the information. Open escrow let’s” … It’s just so fast she doesn’t need to ask you everything over again. It goes faster, and it might even be cheaper by the way.

Steven Jack Butala:
Build this critical mass too because you’re … Now you’ve got all tens and tens of thousands of mailers out in circulation all over the place. Let’s call it a state, one state. You could do it state-wise, you could do it county, or zip code. There’s one guy we had in our group for a long time and he was just in one subdivision in Texas and that’s it. And he was buying and selling properties, that was his whole career.

Jill K DeWit:
Isn’t that funny? Well, think about that. Let’s just back up. Everybody goes like “Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.” Well, what if you do one deal a month, and you make sure that one deal a month nets you 25 grand? I’m good with that. So you’re doing 12 a year. Now you can see like oh, okay, I can see, especially in some metro big city, how you could do one deal a month in a pretty consolidated area and do just great.

Steven Jack Butala:
It’s $300,000 of net. It doesn’t take a calculator. You just have to consistently send out mail and deal with it.

Jill K DeWit:
No, I have you, I don’t need a calculator.

Steven Jack Butala:
When you say that-

Jill K DeWit:
Thanks to doing the math.

Steven Jack Butala:
I think that’s a compliment but it’s okay.

Jill K DeWit:
Some days it is some days it isn’t, you decide.

Steven Jack Butala:
Number three.

Jill K DeWit:
Just kidding, haha.

Steven Jack Butala:
Number three, and this is imperative this is ManPlan stuff. Number three is imperative. You need to remove your emotion based on your bank balance or whether or not you had a good month or a bad month. You need to buy into this business and enjoy it. You need to enjoy land, and looking at land, and analyzing it. If you are joining Land Academy, or any group for that matter, or going into anything and you’re testing the concept … I hate this business of testing. I’m going to send out a test mailer of 200 and see what happens.

Jill K DeWit:
Wait, wait, are we on number three? I’m still trying to slow down. I’m trying to slow this down. Can we circle back around or should I slow it down?

Steven Jack Butala:
There’s not only three, that’s the kicker. There’s going to be a few more.

Jill K DeWit:
All right. I want to just make sure that we’re really talking about these so I’m going to ask you to come back around in a minute. So sorry to interrupt you, please continue on your number three.

Steven Jack Butala:
You need to remove your emotion. If you’ve got some type of figurative gun to your head about getting a deal done this month because you need to make payroll. In the long run, that type of stressed environment’s not going to work. That’s not what this is for. You need to make sure that you have no bills or that your bills are so … You have a W-2 job that … Where you can find time in your life to start a company which is what this is. This is not what everybody else on the internet calls it, geez, passive income, and a side gig, and there’s all these cute little names for it. The fact is you are starting an empire and it needs capital, it needs your attention and time, and it needs you to be … Believe in it. You are the leader, you’re the CEO of it. You need to really grab the thing by the horns and give it what it deserves. Feed it so that it becomes something that you can … That you want and you’re hitting your goals.
Being emotional about having a bad month, you got to barrel through that because you believe in the product, you believe in the concept and the business, and you believe in the group that you’re in, hopefully it’s Land Academy because other people are doing it, they’ve already proven it for you. And you believe in yourself. I think this is the biggest one. The biggest issue with competition is not the competition itself it’s your ability to roll with the changes and your belief in yourself that you can do that and come out of it okay. God, how many times have you and I said, “Wow, the market changed. Geez, what are we going to do?”

Jill K DeWit:
We don’t, isn’t that funny?

Steven Jack Butala:
How are we going to do that? I can’t count the number of times.

Jill K DeWit:
This is perfect because I want to circle back through since we have lots of time. I want to circle back through. I love your list of three here, and I want to talk about them a little bit more with my thoughts on it. So your first one is … Okay, again, we’re dealing with competition, three ways to deal with it. One is you just have to accept it. Totally get it. Like you said, “How many times did we go well, it’s changed, it’s over, it’s done.” We don’t give up, we don’t we just find a new place kind of thing. And that’s part of it for me. You have to stay on track, and stay committed, and pivot.
You brought up some really, really good points in the beginning here about, no matter what business you have someone’s going to get it cheaper. You could have been the widget king of fill-in-the-blank for two decades and now all of a sudden here comes the new guy. It’s going to happen. Think about Coca‑Cola, Pepsi, think about all the energy drinks, think about everything, there’s always a first guy and then there’s 10 after him, always. And then the question is who stays the course? Who lasts? Who rolls with the punches?
That’s the thing too about change, you have to change and adapt. If you say, “Well, it’s always worked this way why would I change it? If it ain’t broke don’t fix it” whatever your mindset is. If you don’t change and listen to your customers and what they want you’re going to … They’re going to move on without you. I really like that. Change and accepting that is huge. I was thinking too, how many times we’ve pivoted and changed? How many credit card companies that we’ve gone through back in the day? They didn’t understand our business and they would shut us down. I’m like “I got to be able to accept money.” That was one of the hardest things. People are trying give me money and I can’t take their money, I got to figure something out here. And we got creative.
There were many times that we just did weird stuff too. It hasn’t happened in probably a decade now, but people would send me checks. I’d have money orders and things like that we had to do just to … Because people really wanted the property and we got creative with them. Then I love your, gosh, dig into an area that you know that … Better than anybody else. And building your team. That’s so huge. Like you mentioned, a lot of it is how fast you can make decisions now because how well you know the area and what’s coming. You know where the Walmart’s going in and you know where this is … And you know the good side of the tracks and the not good side of the tracks. That’s still a thing.
And it does build confidence because you really know what you’re doing. And also for me it’s ease, it’s money. My life is easier. I’m getting cheaper things done with my same escrow agent. They cut me all these deals because I have three I’m throwing in escrow a month. And we don’t have to talk that much. I know how she rolls she knows how I roll. We get these things done kind of thing. And then your third one, this is good, just taking yourself I guess out of this. You call it remove your emotion or your bank balance.

Steven Jack Butala:
That’s great, take yourself out of it.

Jill K DeWit:
This is bigger than you.

Steven Jack Butala:
Well said.

Jill K DeWit:
This is bigger than you and it is not personal.

Steven Jack Butala:
That’s right.

Jill K DeWit:
Being co-founder of a sweet little land company for going on … We’re nine years now and we’re going to be 10 next summer. Boy, if I thought everybody was out to get me I wouldn’t be here right now. I know that we’ve helped a lot of careers in a lot of different ways get off the ground. And I can’t take it personal, and I have to just trust that we’re doing the right thing. And I know we are, I know we are because we’re all doing great. I have one last little thing I’d like to add to this is … We talked about it a little bit on the career path alumni call with the noise out there. And you know what we all agreed on? No one’s listening to the noise, we’re ignoring it. Well, especially Jack has weathered three real estate storms-

Steven Jack Butala:
Three.

Jill K DeWit:
We’ll just say-

Steven Jack Butala:
One was a depression, yeah.

Jill K DeWit:
In his career.

Steven Jack Butala:
But a lot of little ones that I somewhat caused.

Jill K DeWit:
Guess what? It works out. If you can stick with it like we’re talking about, don’t take it personal, find your niche, accept the change, and roll with it … Don’t have a big ego and expect to do the same numbers you did last month, so what? Add up the year, divide it by 12 you know you did fine. And you stay the course, it’s going to work itself out. I hate seeing people not make it-

Steven Jack Butala:
Me too.

Jill K DeWit:
But there’s a lot of people that won’t make it. There’s a lot of people right now that are … That’s part of what’s going on I think too, there’s a lot of noise out there. People are like “Oh, this is a” … “This land thing.” We’ve talked about this too. I can’t remember the last time I had to explain that you could make money selling land. But when we started Land Academy I was constantly … No one believed me. Not one person would believe that you could make money on land.

Steven Jack Butala:
That’s right.

Jill K DeWit:
They’re like “You’re stupid.”

Steven Jack Butala:
For five years.

Jill K DeWit:
“Jill, you’re wrong.”

Steven Jack Butala:
For the five years it was like that.

Jill K DeWit:
“Oh, you must do something to it, you’re not telling me the truth.” I’m like “No, really, I’m not doing anything to it.” They didn’t believe me. Now that’s over, everybody understands that. But there’s people that are still … What’s the word I’m looking for?

Steven Jack Butala:
Let me paraphrase.

Jill K DeWit:
Education, and knowledge, and experience or tenacity to hang with it.

Steven Jack Butala:
Jill and I have never said this is easy. If you go out on the internet and look at-

Jill K DeWit:
Oh, that’s great.

Steven Jack Butala:
Anybody who thinks they can teach this are … And is teaching it and offering some type of product, the underlying message that they’re sending is that this is an easy, fast way to make money.

Jill K DeWit:
There’s a lot of moving parts.

Steven Jack Butala:
This is a business and you can build an empire. We just talked to Josiah, again, I don’t know when that’s going to air. This is his fourth year in the business. Last year top lined three million and this year expects to do seven or eight million, and he’s very humble about it. And he said, “Yep, we did everything wrong. I made a mistake over here, this happened over here.” And then he revealed really what motivates him and why he’s got to that level. So it’s really worth listening to. He’s in this. He’s in it full-time, he’s got full-time people, and he’s managing cash flow and has the same concerns that all of us do and he addresses them one by one and overcomes them. And how he overcomes them and addresses them this month will be different next month.

Jill K DeWit:
Oh, there’s going to be a whole new set of issues.

Steven Jack Butala:
And it’ll be different the month after that.

Jill K DeWit:
What we’re dealing with this year in 2024 is going to be so different in 2025.

Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah, for sure.

Jill K DeWit:
And think about what we got through since 2020. There’s many of you in Land Academy, you’ve been with us way before COVID, we all got through it. If anything, it was a woo. We all thought it was going to sink the ship and then it turned out the opposite effect. That’s a thing too, you don’t know what you think is going to happen the outcome might be the opposite. So stay the course and learn to roll with it.

Steven Jack Butala:
Here’s what you have that we never had, and most people don’t have, camaraderie.

Jill K DeWit:
I was going to say us.

Steven Jack Butala:
You have a group. You have a group of people. When you have one of those days or one of those months, you can reach out on Discord or reach out to the people that maybe you went through Career Path with and say, “Are you having this situation?”

Jill K DeWit:
That’s good.

Steven Jack Butala:
And there’s a very good chance that they’re going to say, “Oh, yeah, I had that last year. Last year in July the same thing happened to me, this is what I did.”

Jill K DeWit:
Or how about last week?

Steven Jack Butala:
Oh, no. I’ll give you a great example. Early on in this business around two … Around January 15th … I mean, December 15th, everything just stopped. Every single time for years I said, “Well, I guess my career’s over. My career in buying and selling land’s over, I wonder what I’m going to do next year over because it’s over. The phone’s not ringing, I can’t send any mail out.” Until I met Jill and she said, “What the hell is wrong with you? It’s Christmas, the kids are out of school.” I didn’t ever think to think in terms of school and children going to school. Kids are out of school, everybody’s off the internet, nobody cares about their land. And January-

Jill K DeWit:
Give it a minute.

Steven Jack Butala:
January 15th all this pent-up oh my God stuff’s going to happen-

Jill K DeWit:
And the bills come in.

Steven Jack Butala:
Where everybody’s life returns. And that’s exactly what happened. When I look back on it that’s what happened every single year. That’s my camaraderie. My first person to really vent and throw … Bounce stuff off of was Jill. Now we have Land Academy. Jill and I are doing a product right now, personally, where we’re sending out a bunch of mail and we are seeking funding. We’re not the funders, we’re usually the funders. Seeking funding so we can do more deals and have what I call … I call it the Limitless capital plan where we could do 50 deals instead of 10 because we’re using some other … A partner.

Jill K DeWit:
It sounds like a commercial. It feels like Capital One, limitless capital. We could have a Land Academy credit card. Oh.

Steven Jack Butala:
I thought about that. Stuff’s going to happen. I thought about that a while ago.

Jill K DeWit:
That would be really cool. I love that. Good stuff, thank you.

Steven Jack Butala:
Jill, you have something to share.

Jill K DeWit:
I do. Jack’s toggling for me. Here’s what’s really cool within our group, we’re just talking about the community. This is a perfect little segue to what goes on in Land Academy. Talk about a niche within a niche within a niche. We have a Land Academy Ladies group. And then to take it even smaller of a niche. Some of the sweet gals in the Land Academy Ladies group decided to start their own book club. They held their first book club in June. I, unfortunately, was tied up with you trying to take down a real estate deal on a Sunday, of course, Sunday afternoon. This is all true, I wasn’t playing hooky. And I wasn’t there at the book club meeting. They held it.
And I went back later and looked at their notes from the presentation and I … It was all about a book that I grew up with. Well, I don’t know if I should say a book. It was all around my life growing up. If you’ve been listening to us for a while you know that my dad was a coach at Dale Carnegie. Boy Jack just has … When he met me he just embraced that with open arms, not. And he gets a little tired of it but that’s just how I roll around. But you know what? I actually have veered away, right? I have veered away a little bit from some of the original Dale Carnegie things.
My point in bringing all this up is, this not about the group, and the ladies, and how awesome they are and that they did this, but it was just thinking about … I went back and looked at the notes from the call and it made me go back and reintroduce myself to some of the thinkings there. And gosh, it’s so powerful. And at the end of the day, this is really a lot of the way I get deals done. The way that you talk to people, the way you approach things, the way you don’t complain about things. The way you try to give honest and sincere appreciation. And the way you try to inspire people by being genuinely interested in what they have to say. I do this all the time with sellers, that’s how I get them, smiling.
I haven’t talked about this in a while, but a couple years ago we did these intensive workshops. It was right after COVID and I did a whole thing about winning over these sellers. That was one of my thing. Gosh, before you pick up that phone you better have a smile on your face. If you don’t think that matters I’m telling you it does. They know if you’re smiling or not on the other end of the phone. Gosh. Using their name. Really listening and taking in what they have to say, making them feel important. Does all this make sense? Well, yeah duh. Boy, if I was talking to a seller and I had this attitude, yeah, Jill, it probably would work. That’s why I’m bringing it up. This is a lot of where it comes from. Be friendly. Try to get them saying yes. Those are little things that I’m trying to pick out. Be sympathetic. Whatever’s going on in their life … I’ll end it on that. These sellers are calling you because of a situation.

Steven Jack Butala:
This is my takeaway is-

Jill K DeWit:
And you need to be sympathetic about whatever it is they’re dealing with. Whoever passed on, who … Whatever financial situation’s going on, being sympathetic is great.

Steven Jack Butala:
What Jill’s saying is, get yourself prepped and in the mood quickly when the phone rings to provide the best type of meet them from where they’re coming as a seller so you can do a deal.

Jill K DeWit:
That works. What do you have to share with us today? I know you have something good that you wanted to talk about.

Steven Jack Butala:
Like most of the topics here, I’ve made this mistake in the past and really learned from it, learned that I was wrong. You can’t cynical your way into wealth. You can’t sit around … And especially this day and age where there’s just so many … So much negative stuff out there, politics and bifurcation. I don’t know if it’s me or … But I’ve met more people recently in the last couple of years that … Especially young people that just say, “My way’s better and I’m not going to learn anything. I don’t have any questions for you, I don’t know.” And these are people that truly have done nothing with their lives. That’s not coming from, look at this over here what I created. You should be asking me questions. It’s not that. So you can’t cynical your way into wealth. You’re alienating people, you’re making yourself angry. It’s the exact opposite of what Jill was saying. Get yourself in a happy place before you talk to a seller and they’re going … It’ll come off that way.
What you can do is you can camaraderie your way into wealth. That’s what Land Academy is, that’s why we created it. To create an environment for people that … Where we can do partnership deals with, whether it’s fund them money or have other people fund us money. If we had a couple of deals come in Northern New York, let’s say, there’s several people in our group that I would call and … I’m not a specialist, specialist in Northern New York at all. And if they came back, “The deals look pretty good, what did I miss?” I would utilize the people in our group. I would camaraderie my way into doing a deal and not sitting there saying-

Jill K DeWit:
Helping each other.

Steven Jack Butala:
“Oh, New York, who wants to live in New York?” Remember that? People used to say that all the time. Who wants to live way out there? Why would you ever buy land out there? Cynicism is just not appropriate in this environment-

Jill K DeWit:
No, it’s funny.

Steven Jack Butala:
It’s not going to get you wealthy.

Jill K DeWit:
That’s a good one. You know what’s another phrase … Saying that I haven’t heard in a long time? What was it? A junk lot.

Steven Jack Butala:
Junk land.

Jill K DeWit:
Junk land. Oh, junk land way out there. I haven’t heard that in a long time. That’s kind of funny. That used to be a thing, yeah.

Steven Jack Butala:
Join us next Wednesday for another interesting episode, you are not alone in your real estate ambition. We are Jack and Jill, information-

Jill K DeWit:
And inspiration-

Steven Jack Butala:
To buy undervalued property. See you next week.

Thanks for listening, and finally, don’t forget to subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts.

The post 3 Ways to Deal with Competition in Your Land Business (LA 2012) appeared first on Land Academy.

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Join Steven Jack Butala and Jill K DeWit on this week’s episode of “The Land Academy Show” as they dive into the realities of working with your spouse in the land business. They share personal anecdotes, practical tips, and the highs and lows of their journey together. From managing multi-property deals to balancing strengths and weaknesses, Jack and Jill offer valuable insights for any couple considering a business partnership. They highlight the importance of clear communication, mutual support, and the ability to navigate challenges together. Whether you’re already in business with your partner or just thinking about it, this episode provides a candid look at what it takes to succeed as a team in the land business.

Transcript:

Steven Jack Butala:
I’m Steven Jack Butala.

Jill K DeWit:
And I’m Jill DeWit, and this is the Land Academy Show.

Steven Jack Butala:
This is episode number 2,011, and today Jill and I are talking about the truth about working with your spouse in the land business. In case you don’t know, it’s not all peaches and cream.

Jill K DeWit:
Oh, there may be something-

Steven Jack Butala:
Just like this show.

Jill K DeWit:
I got to write one more thing down. Excuse me, I have another note now, just kidding.

Steven Jack Butala:
On a personal note, I love this topic. I think it’s going to be a blast. I think there’s probably a lot of stuff that Jill’s got to say. There’s a few things I need to say.

Jill K DeWit:
And in the safety of this environment with you on the other end, we can’t get in trouble.

Steven Jack Butala:
That’s exactly right. Well, we can only get in a certain amount of trouble.

Jill K DeWit:
True.

Steven Jack Butala:
We can’t get in any nasty [inaudible 00:00:56]-

Jill K DeWit:
Major trouble, because when the camera’s off, so are the gloves.

Steven Jack Butala:
Hey, it’s hockey season by the way, I’m taking those gloves off.

Jill K DeWit:
Yes, all right. Hey, before we get started, I have a big announcement. For the first time ever, we’ve never done anything like this. We are going to do a live, open to the public workshop the week of June 17th. I’m looking for the exact dates here. So, June 17th through the 21st, and it’s not like the same thing is going to be repeated. It’s going to be building on each other every day. So, we’re going to start with equity planner and goal setting and all that stuff.
It’s kind of everything we do in Land Academy, but I wanted to really take a step back and have an open workshop for anyone. So, if you’re really thinking about doing this, you do not want to miss it. So watch your email, if you’re not in my email loop, you should be. Download our free eBook, that’ll get you in there. Or just send a note to my team like, “Hey, what’s going on June 17th? I need to be involved,” to support@landacademy.com. So, what’s going to happen is it’s going to be one hour a day, Monday through Friday that week, sometimes with Jack, and sometimes just me, and it’s going to be 9:00 AM Pacific time to 12:00 PM Eastern Time, and again, just for an hour each day and it’s really going to give you-

Steven Jack Butala:
You will learn tons.

Jill K DeWit:
Oh my gosh, a really good insight to what’s going on more than just reading the eBook and getting on the Thursday call.

Steven Jack Butala:
How to buy and sell land.

Jill K DeWit:
Totally. We’re going to really do as much as a deep dive as we can in an hour, but you’re going to walk away knowing whether this is a good fit for you or not. I guarantee it.

Steven Jack Butala:
I’ve been doing this for 30 years. We’ve done more than 16,000 deals, Jill’s been doing it for more than 15 years, so we know what we’re talking about, and we’re not at this age afraid to share the actual real story.

Jill K DeWit:
True.

Steven Jack Butala:
Not the fluff, not just what’s possible, but here’s how to do it.

Jill K DeWit:
We have nine years of Land Academy. We got people that have been with us nine years, so we have a lot to share.

Steven Jack Butala:
Each week on the show, we answer a question from our Land Academy member Discord forum, and we take a deep dive into land related topics by popular request from our Land Academy community. I read a couple of reviews of our show recently and one reviewer said, it just made me out loud crack up, “Yeah, this show is fine. The highlights are actually just the questions. So, if you can just listen to the question and not really listen to the other stuff that they said…”

Jill K DeWit:
Oh, that’s hilarious. Just tune in for the first five, 10 minutes, and then you’re done?

Steven Jack Butala:
By the way, it was the most meaningful comment. There’s all kinds of comments about everything on the internet, but that was like… I just want to hear the questions. We’re going to do two questions today.

Jill K DeWit:
All right, so I’m going to read one, and you’re going to answer, and then there’s a second one. We’re going to flip-flop. So all right, here’s our first question. Greg wrote, “Good morning. For infill lots, when we’re doing the red, yellow, green test for houses, are we only looking at new construction or all houses? Also, should we use the red, yellow, green test for lots once we determine our favorable zip codes from houses? How much do both lots and houses are they test for a reason or is it doing too much work?” I’m sorry, “Would doing both lots and houses be a test for a reason or is that just too much work?”

Steven Jack Butala:
So, I’m going to simplify Greg’s question, because I’m pretty sure I know what he’s asking.

Jill K DeWit:
Cool.

Steven Jack Butala:
Do you test lots or do you test houses or do you test both? This is what you do. You test for everything that is reported and make sure it’s apples to apples. So, you have a zip code, you test, just like we teach in the program, there’s three or four or it could be as many as eight statistics that you judge a zip code on whether or not it’s viable for you to send out mail. You’re using data to make a decision about sending out offers. He’s asking, what do you include in that data? And the answer is you include in that data apples to apples for every single zip code, the stuff that’s provided by the data source.
So, now it doesn’t really matter if it’s just land, if houses are thrown in there, as long as each of the zip codes are apples to apples comparison, you’re going to know whether or not there’s enough activity, the right kind of activity in that zip code to warrant you sending mail, and that’s the answer. For houses, it’s the same. For land, it’s the same. A lot of people don’t know that we have a program called House Academy, and I go over this in great detail in the House Academy program. In fact, if you go to houseacademy.com, check it all out. It’s very pertinent to what’s happening now from a demographic standpoint or from a… Geez, from a… Help me here.

Jill K DeWit:
I’ll let you flounder.

Steven Jack Butala:
Why?

Jill K DeWit:
It’s kind of funny. No, I’m just joking. You know what’s funny about that? I recorded earlier today a podcast that’s going to air in a couple weeks with a longtime, eight-year member, her name is Bei Zhang, and she’s like, “Oh, we are still happily doing houses, too.” She’s like, “We just closed on one on Monday.” I said, “what are you doing? Are you going to keep it or rent it?” She goes, I think I might keep this one.” Keep it or flip it, it’s all done the Land Academy way, which is we don’t remodel, just buy it, right? “Are you going to keep it? Are you going to sell it?” She’s like, “I think we’re going to keep this one.” I’m like, “Good for you.” She’s like, “I’m putting more things in more buckets.”

Steven Jack Butala:
We’re doing a house mailer right now, too. Anyway, in these current economic times, it’s very valuable to start to consider buying and selling houses. Most of the members that we have, have had or have for a long time, nine-plus years like Bei, they do both and so do we.

Jill K DeWit:
Exactly.

Steven Jack Butala:
Chris asks, this is question number two, “I’ve been working with a seller who wants to do a deal in a very strange manner. I think she’s pretty old. We are communicating via email only. At first, it seemed like she didn’t want to use a title company at all. However, now she’s saying that she’s okay closing with the title company, but she wants an earnest money deposit to be sent to her directly, rather than through the title company, so she can hold the properties for me.” I don’t know what that means.
“I’m concerned that there’s a bunch of title work necessary to close the deal, as at least one of the properties was transferred on a quitclaim deed. By the way, this is a package of six properties. The margins are likely decent. I am not completely sure as three or four of the properties are not mapped and the county does not have a survey on file, so I would have to get a survey done to determine where the properties are. One of the properties should be able to sell for like 40 to 45,000, and the other one for about between seven and 10,000. One is an odd-shaped parcel that doesn’t have much use. The unmapped parcels are a toss up. I think they’re worth a couple of thousand dollars each at least if they have decent attributes, maybe more, like 10 to $15,000 each. She wants 32,000.” If I do real quick math on my head, it’s 45 plus 10, that’s 55, plus 30.

Jill K DeWit:
Buy for 32, sell for 70?

Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah.

Jill K DeWit:
I know what I think.

Steven Jack Butala:
Go ahead.

Jill K DeWit:
Well, here’s my first thoughts on this one. Here’s an interesting side note, based on this information and what I know about the seller, and hard to find them, and the survey work and stuff, I kind of think I know what state it is.

Steven Jack Butala:
I think it’s Oklahoma.

Jill K DeWit:
I know you do that. That’s what I wrote down right there. All right, well, how scary is that? That’s why you’re here.

Steven Jack Butala:
That’s why you work with your spouse sometimes.

Jill K DeWit:
Holy Moly. Boy, those Landing Academy people know their stuff. We just read this question, they know what state it is. Yep, okay. That’s how long we’ve been doing this and how spread out we are in the country. So, that’s a side note, but you know what? I’m not going to play those games. I got to tell you right now, if it was buy for 10 and sell for 70, now I’ll jump through hoops for her, but I’m worried that the time this is going to take, and the cost, and the energy, and I’m very sorry, but I personally would not wire or send somebody money for them to hold it for me…
That’s what I think he means. “Well, if you give me $5,000 right now, son, I won’t sell them to anybody else, too, and I promise when you’re ready to close, we’ll all be here.” Mm-mm, I wouldn’t do that. So, that’s not how… It goes into I do it the normal way, because no one’s going to play those games, too, kind of thing. She either wants to sell or she doesn’t. So, I think there’s two things going on here. She probably wants to sell, I do believe that, but I do think that there’s some hesitation in her and trusting you. I hate to say it, but that’s what I suspect, because I don’t have these issues. Maybe there’s more phone calls, maybe there’s something else, and I really wanted you to make sure, gosh, before you go down this path, is it worth your time?

Steven Jack Butala:
So, I’m filming ManPlan right now, manplan.com, which I’ll be releasing in September as an informal… It doesn’t matter, and one of the things that I really preach about in gaining wealth, I don’t care if it’s through land or houses, or metal stamping, or convenience stores, whatever you are doing, you have to do it within reason, within your acquisition criteria. So I can tell you right now, this does not fit our acquisition criteria.
And that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t fit yours, it doesn’t fit it from a how much money you can potentially make, which I think is really best case, maybe 40,000 bucks or B, how much a pain in the ass it is, and so we’re just past it. Jill and I have done 16,000 deals. We’re past these kinds of deals. I’m not saying if you’re new to this, because I actually think you are, or newer, Chris, that you shouldn’t consider it, but this is just a lot of time and energy and I believe it’s easier to send out more mail, pick the best ones that come back from the actual mail that you’re sending out, and just do the deal.

Jill K DeWit:
And you know where they are.

Steven Jack Butala:
Makes sure it fits your criteria.

Jill K DeWit:
The numbers, there’s no guessing.

Steven Jack Butala:
You have all the answers.

Jill K DeWit:
You know what’s funny? You can’t even get a real opinion on this, because you don’t know where they are.

Steven Jack Butala:
That’s right.

Jill K DeWit:
That’s the thing. It’s not like you can call like, “Okay, I’m going to go to a local expert and get their opinion.” Nobody knows where they are. I used to entertain that. We used to entertain that. Only when I would buy a big bundle, say we’re buying 30 or 50 properties for somebody in this state, in this situation, and there were just a couple, two or three that we couldn’t find them, that I entertained because those were gravy anyway. If I could find them, great. If I couldn’t, I didn’t care. All the other 27 properties that I’d bought from this person, I knew where they were, paid for the whole thing, so that’s how I rolled.

Steven Jack Butala:
Any time Jill and I have ever done a multi-APN deal, 20, 30, 40, 50 properties, I’ve done them as high as, geez, 1,000. We made millions of dollars on it, and there were always amazing properties in that group, and properties that we just let them go back to the taxing authority, because maybe we couldn’t find them, maybe we don’t care.

Jill K DeWit:
Maybe it was a cemetery, maybe because-

Steven Jack Butala:
True story.

Jill K DeWit:
When people are offloading bundles of property, there’s going to be some junk in there that they’re like, “Just get it out of here. Clean out my garage, I want to put my car here.”

Steven Jack Butala:
So, my answer to this and he goes on. The question gets really long, but he’s like, “What should I do? What’s the worst thing that can happen? I pay the 3,000 bucks and I lose it, because she just goes dark?” Yeah, I guess that is the worst thing that could happen, or it could all go as planned and you get stuck with some property that you don’t know where it is. Now, you’ve got to do surveys to find it. My big fear with this deal is that the taxing authority, either the county has some crazy hoops for you to jump through, because now you own properties that weren’t… Why doesn’t she know where they are?

Jill K DeWit:
I know.

Steven Jack Butala:
They weren’t subdivided correctly, that’s why.

Jill K DeWit:
And there’s a quitclaim deed did he say on this one?

Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah, somebody isolated, they created an APN at the taxing authority several years ago probably, created an APN for a property based on a legal description, and it’s not on their books. So, it’s not the end of the world. You can work through this. Wouldn’t it be easier to do another 30,000 unit mailer, pick four properties out of there that you’re going to make 100 grand on? I think so.

Jill K DeWit:
Chris, don’t date this seller. I have six red flags right now.

Steven Jack Butala:
Oh my God, Jill, you’re right.

Jill K DeWit:
She wants money up front. She’s like, “I don’t even know where they are.” Some of them were transferred funky with a quitclaim deed. Mm-mm, Chris, if I were your sister, I’d say move on. Call another seller. Call another girl.

Steven Jack Butala:
There’s more fish the sea.

Jill K DeWit:
Yep.

Steven Jack Butala:
Today’s topic, the truth about working with your spouse in the land business or any business. Jill, give us the highlights of working with me.

Jill K DeWit:
Where do I start? Well, here’s a beautiful thought… I actually don’t know where to start.

Steven Jack Butala:
I do.

Jill K DeWit:
You want real highlights?

Steven Jack Butala:
No, I’ll start if you want.

Jill K DeWit:
Okay, please go ahead. You have a plan.

Steven Jack Butala:
Jill is amazing on the phone.

Jill K DeWit:
Well, yeah, you’re great at data. All right, okay, I can jump in then, too.

Steven Jack Butala:
Well, do you want me to start or not, because-

Jill K DeWit:
No.

Steven Jack Butala:
… I saved it right there.

Jill K DeWit:
You did save me. Now I want to take it back over.

Steven Jack Butala:
Okay.

Jill K DeWit:
All right, the highlights of working with you-

Steven Jack Butala:
See that flexibility with working with your spouse-

Jill K DeWit:
There you go.

Steven Jack Butala:
… In front of a camera?

Jill K DeWit:
That’s what we’re talking about. Highlights of working with you, you definitely fill in the gaps on the things that I’m not good at, and part of it is luck and… No, I’m serious. No, part of it is that luck that we got together that I to have a different talent. I have different talents and you have different talents.

Steven Jack Butala:
Oh yeah, that’s for sure. Pure luck actually.

Jill K DeWit:
So, that’s what I mean. So, that’s really great. I don’t have to explain what I’m doing every day. You understand what’s going on. My team is your team. Now, I’m ready to hand the torch back.

Steven Jack Butala:
I’ll save you as we go here. I know how this is going to go.

Jill K DeWit:
Oh, great.

Steven Jack Butala:
Jill’s amazing on the phone. We have very separate talents, but here’s the thing that if you want to know in less than 30 seconds whether or not you’re supposed to be working with your spouse or maybe supposed to be with her at all, ask her this, what is your long-term goal? And this is not gender-specific. If you’re a woman listening to this, ask your man, or vice versa, what is your long-term goal? When you look out as far as you can see, based on your age or whether you have kids or not, or everything that’s going on, what your jobs are, what’s that look like way out there?
What’s your house look like? Where do you live? How much money do you have in the bank? Where are the kids going to school? And on and on and on, and then sit quietly and listen to the answer. Don’t steer them. If they answer the same way that you… Because answer the question first for yourself before you answer it, if they basically have the same answer, then you have hope that you can work together. So, Jill and I have very different talents. I’m a data person and all the decisions I make are data-driven. She’s all social, social on the phone, she’s got innate corporate sales in her fiber. That’s what she is.

Jill K DeWit:
That’s what I did for years.

Steven Jack Butala:
She didn’t make that up. I didn’t make this data thing up. We both got stuck with it, I think at birth, for better or for worse, and it’s not an opposites attract thing, because I think Jill and I are very similar. We are very technical, both of us, when it comes to just approaching anything.

Jill K DeWit:
True.

Steven Jack Butala:
But I did ask her that a long time ago, and she described to me almost to my vision what I wanted. In fact, she improved my long-term vision on it in a bunch of areas, not so much with accumulated equity, but how we got there, and how we got there through real estate, believe it or not. I was doing this 15 years before she and I met. So, I thought I had it licked really successfully, crazy successfully. Then, we joined forces and it was times 10. So, ask your partner that stuff, and this next part, in my opinion, is not just spouse specific, but with any business partner. Two people who are salespeople are not going to be good business partners. One accountant and one salesperson are probably going to do really well together.

Jill K DeWit:
Yin and yang is the best.

Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah.

Jill K DeWit:
So, I actually have four points.

Steven Jack Butala:
Oh, good. You had some time to write some stuff down?

Jill K DeWit:
I did, while you were talking, I tuned you out, and I thought of my own things.

Steven Jack Butala:
Tuning your partner out is an incredible attribute.

Jill K DeWit:
Actually, that is an attribute. I need to write that down. So, you just covered the first one. I’m giving you credit for the first one, which is sitting down and making sure you have the same goals. Like, “Okay, we’re going to start this land company together. Is everybody all in?” If someone’s like, “I don’t know, land is kind of stupid,” you shouldn’t convince your spouse/partner about this business, because that’s number one will sink the ship right there. So, once you have the goals out of the way, then the second part is you got to divide up your day-to-day operation, your day-to-day responsibility. Who’s on the phone? Who’s doing the data? Who’s doing the trolling? And our recommendation is more division the better. You should not be sitting down together to troll. Could you imagine if we did that?

Steven Jack Butala:
Oh my God.

Jill K DeWit:
How about, “Hey, Jack, I noticed you’re running the red, yellow, green test for those zip codes. Do you mind if I sit down and weigh in?” I’m going to tell you-

Steven Jack Butala:
That would be so bad.

Jill K DeWit:
And every time you mark something as green, I’m going to go, “No, I think that’s yellow.”

Steven Jack Butala:
Could you imagine if you got off the phone with a seller and I said, “I don’t think you handled that too well.”

Jill K DeWit:
You could have got more.

Steven Jack Butala:
In fact, I listened to your whole conversation and I made notes and I would… Let’s sit down.

Jill K DeWit:
Here’s what I think you should do?

Steven Jack Butala:
It’s going to take a couple hours to go over these notes and I want to critique your performance. That would be it.

Jill K DeWit:
Exactly, and even if, okay, we both help with this, we’ve gone down that path. So in the beginning when I stepped in, there were times in Jack’s career, he did every role, every single last one. So, he would just sometimes just jump in like, “I know how to do this, I can talk to these people,” and he would undo some of the work that I did. So, you have to divide it up, stay out of that person’s lane, and what if we divide it up? Does that mean rock, paper, scissors? We don’t want to stick one with all the crappy jobs. You want to first, I would say sit down and write down all the 20 things that are part of your world, your day-to-day operations. Together, pick and choose what A, you know each person’s good at, each individual’s good at and they want to do. Let’s start with that. Can I finish?

Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah.

Jill K DeWit:
What they’re good at? And then there’s going to be some stuff at the bottom. I promise you there’s going to be three or five things that nobody wants to do, but you work out some agreement like, “All right, I’ll take this, because I know I’m better at it, if you take these two things,” done. That’s how you get everything done. And then like I said, you stay out of each person’s lane. You’ve committed… Write it down, we have had so many contracts over the years. You know what’s funny? I can’t remember the last time we’ve had a contract.

Steven Jack Butala:
No, that’s right.

Jill K DeWit:
It’s been a couple years now.

Steven Jack Butala:
Things go sideways and we read a contract.

Jill K DeWit:
I’m telling you though, the first 15 years, or the first five years I should say of us doing-

Steven Jack Butala:
We didn’t know any of this.

Jill K DeWit:
… Deals together, we wrote so many contracts and signed them and taped them everywhere just to remind the other person, “You’re in my lane,” kind of thing. Like, “Oh, you’re right, got it.” So, that’s not wrong, that’s okay. My third thing is, so we got the goals was one, two was… Gosh, dividing the day-to-day responsibilities, and C is now you got to support each other. What if one day’s harder? What if he’s really… God, he’s struggling on something and I pivoted all my sales, I’m not doing any sales myself. I’m just managing a bunch of brokers, so my day’s easier, but boy, his part’s still harder. And wow, I’m seeing him… Whatever area we’re going into is having a hard time getting the data and getting enough data and maybe there’s just some extra things he’s got to do, something like that.
Support the other person, and I don’t mean sit down with him and go, “Gee, show me what you’re doing. Let me help you.” Mm-mm, support him another way, it’s like, “What’s going on and how can I help you?” Well, you know what? I’m hungry. I could use a sandwich.

Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah, it’s as simple as that.

Jill K DeWit:
I use that a lot, because it’s really real and we do that for each other all the time. You made me a salad today.

Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah.

Jill K DeWit:
Honestly, you did this exact thing for me today. We are here in the RV and I’m working on household things, seriously, around the RV, while I recorded a podcast by myself today. You’re working on a presentation for today, and at that moment you were done and I was still knee-deep in a bunch of things. And you’re like, “How about if I make you a salad?” I’m like, “God, that’s great. I appreciate that.” So, little things like that, supporting the person, maybe it’s with the kids, running errands. Who knows? Ask them or surprise them, depending on the person, but that’s really important. My final point is… Do you want to talk more about the positives, and I’ll leave my final one?

Steven Jack Butala:
Here, I’m going to take this back to the original point and we ask that person, what does it look like when you look way out there? Because I’ve asked people this in the past where I’ve had relationships with them and they will say something like, “What the hell are you talking about? Are you kidding me? What does our house look like? We’re going to live here forever.” I don’t want anything to change there. As far as work goes, oh, I’m just going to have this job that I have right now. I like it. I like my boss and I like the people that I work with, and I hope that it just… And then at the end of it, what they have said in the past is, “Why are you thinking that far ahead anyway?” This only works, these things that Jill’s telling you works between Jill and I, because we have real estate and our soul.
When we got here, we’ve been here for a week. We’re going to be here for several more weeks. She said while we were driving here in the RV, “What do you want to do when we get there first?” Because we’re in a place where there’s a lot of stuff to do. It’s a hiking mecca, hiking, biking, we have a motorcycle with us. There’s a lot of fun stuff I want to do. And I said, “Well, there’s these 14 pieces of property that I’ve been tracking on the internet that I would love to go look at.” And she said, “Me too.” So, you have a lot of hope when… And the person that Jill interviewed for the podcast that she’s talking about today works with her husband and it’s the same situation. They just have real estate in their soul, and so that’s pretty unusual and the odds are stacked against you that you can work with your spouse.
The odds are stacked against you that you’re going to be with your spouse forever. I’m not joking about this. This is tough. These are tough odds to beat. You got to have a lot of stuff going for you before anybody even opens their mouth in the first sentence, “Should we do this together?” So, I’m not trying to be negative. I’m just saying avoid a lot of problems and really just be honest with everybody. You want to buy and sell some land? Yeah, not really. I’d rather just be in this job.

Jill K DeWit:
Makes sense.

Steven Jack Butala:
“I’m just doing it for you.” That’s the last thing you want your spouse to ever say to you. “Yeah, for the last two months I’ve just been doing this for you. I’m not interested in doing this at all.” Maybe you could have told me that day one.

Jill K DeWit:
That’s funny, I can think of a handful of Land Academy members that are here, because they bought this for their wives like, “Yeah, that’d be something for my wife to do on the side and now I’m doing it.” Well, yeah, because they weren’t interested. They didn’t come up with it, it wasn’t their idea, and they may never get interested about it, and that’s okay. As long as they’re interested that you’re interested, that’s what counts. Since you started to talk about it, I have a couple things I want to [inaudible 00:26:07] and we’re doing the truth, because we don’t know how not to.

Steven Jack Butala:
That’s true.

Jill K DeWit:
Poor Greg’s like, “Thanks, you guys kind of…” Was it Greg or Chris? No, Chris.

Steven Jack Butala:
Chris.

Jill K DeWit:
Poor Chris like, “Thanks, she kind of chewed me up and spit me out on my idea.”

Steven Jack Butala:
You really didn’t.

Jill K DeWit:
I didn’t mean to, no.

Steven Jack Butala:
We have a Land Academy Pro member who eats these kinds of deals up. This is her specialty. It’s take these wonky… No ones ever going to do this deal unless you do it.

Jill K DeWit:
True.

Steven Jack Butala:
And so, she’ll go talk to the person and convince her that we’re going to do this and sit everybody down, and she unravels deals and does really well financially.

Jill K DeWit:
True.

Steven Jack Butala:
Anyway, Jill.

Jill K DeWit:
So, I want to talk a little bit about the truth and what could go wrong. What should I be watching for? Well, number one is you’re going to drive your friends nuts. Think about this, and you got to be really careful about this, because you’re going to be out to dinner, this is all you guys have to talk about.
Your friends are going to be like, “Oh gosh, do we have to go out with those two again?” That Jack and Jill, all they talk about are deals and even though it’s home run deals, I’m so sick of hearing about their land business. And if I hear one more time about how their transaction coordinator did fill in the blank…” So that’s the thing. It’s easy to slip into this weird world where this is all that you talk about and it spills into other things. And even for us, we have to… I’ll tell you right now, I get in the car and we’re going to dinner and we have rules about it. We’re like, “It’s very natural and very easy to go, “Now that I have you alone, I need to run this by you and this by you.” And so, we have very nicely said, “All right, I’ll give you this, but boy, when we pull into the parking lot, that’s it.” I’m like, “You are right.”

Steven Jack Butala:
We do that all the time, actually.

Jill K DeWit:
We do.

Steven Jack Butala:
Now that I’m thinking about it.

Jill K DeWit:
That’s a natural thing for us. I try not to. I try to get it done before we leave the door, but there is some time that… And we very nicely will say, “Can I talk to you about this?” We’ve learned you can’t just launch into the other person. You can say, “This is really in my mind. I’m having a struggle making a decision on this property, here’s why. I think access stinks. I know you looked at it. Can we talk about it for a minute and have a plan?” Sure, but like I said, we’re parking. Doors open, work stops.
So, you have to be mindful of that for yourselves and every single person around you or you will drive them bananas. The second thing is it’s going to get heated. You are 100% going to not agree on something and when you’re starting out, it might be something every day, at least every week. I can pretty much guarantee once a week when you’re starting a land company and you’re bringing in some family member, even if it’s not your spouse, oh, it’s going to get heated. You’re not going to agree and you’re going to both be finding yourselves digging in and you cannot let this break you up.

Steven Jack Butala:
So, what’s the point to getting in an argument of any kind? I can answer that. It’s to get out of the argument and to set up some parameters that everybody agrees to, not reluctantly. Everybody willingly agrees that this is what caused this, and this is what we need to do in the future to make sure that the percentages are higher that we won’t have this confrontation at all. The point is not to ever have confrontation. That’s not realistic. Everything’s to explode at some point if that happens. There’s going to be confrontation with any business partner that you have. The point is to say, “All right, what we’re arguing about is seller wants to do this. This is going to happen, this has to happen, and this has to happen.” And to which I say, whose responsibility is that? Is it your responsibility or mine? And I don’t care which one.

Jill K DeWit:
That’s where the trouble starts.

Steven Jack Butala:
That’s where the trouble ends, because that’s on your side of the sheet.

Jill K DeWit:
True. It’s true.

Steven Jack Butala:
Here’s some fast and simple, one-sentence things that Jill and I live by, and believe me, it did not start off this way. I know about this, because we’ve been working together for almost 15 years. Number one, do not work in the same space. Do not connect your desk. I don’t care, do not connect your zip code, quite honestly.

Jill K DeWit:
That’s good.

Steven Jack Butala:
Jill and I, when we’re not here, work in different zip codes, and what we just did yesterday-

Jill K DeWit:
Meaning back at home.

Steven Jack Butala:
Yesterday, Jill and I literally just went and got some office space, this office space sublease, and we got library cards, amazing, brand new library where we are right now with little rooms and stuff, and it doesn’t cost anything. It’s beautiful piece of real estate and a beautiful building, because we can’t work together. After a while-

Jill K DeWit:
Nor should we, it’s not bad. It’s not a bad thing.

Steven Jack Butala:
No, it’s not bad. After ton of time, you forget about this stuff, because at home we work separately and now we’re in a small space and she’s on the phone all day and I can’t stand it. So, I went and did something about it. Don’t work in the same place. Do not work on the same stuff. You have to have completely and totally separate responsibilities and the more separate, the better. I do data, she does sales, and anything to talk that has to do with a customer or talking of any kind, she handles. We don’t even talk about that anymore. And anything to do with data or accounting or finance or legal stuff or any of that, I handle, and she blindly trusts me. And the same here, I blindly trust her. And so, you see what I’m saying about how important this is that first point? Do you guys want to do this anyway? What kind of house do you want to live in?

Jill K DeWit:
There’s a lot to it.

Steven Jack Butala:
If you really… Jill and I now wake up in the morning wanting to accomplish stuff.

Jill K DeWit:
You know what’s funny about this? It sounds all dreamy. Here’s the thing, everybody’s like, “Oh, we want to be like you guys?” And I get it. I believe that and thank you. We’ve heard that often over the years. It does sound very dreamy when we started this like, “Wow, we could work together and share this bond and share the highs and share the lows.”

Steven Jack Butala:
Men have never had that thought.

Jill K DeWit:
I wasn’t referring to you.

Steven Jack Butala:
I don’t want to share highs and lows with you.

Jill K DeWit:
But you do share the, hey, the schedule and the flexibility like, “Hey…” Because come on, let’s be honest, you start this and what if you’re at some point you can leave your W-2… One of you leaves your W-2, but one of them stay at the W-2. You’re still tied to a W-2, so that’s going to slow you guys down. So that’s where it gets dreamy like, “Oh, wait a minute. If we’ve been successfully being able to make this work with one of us working full-time on the land business and replacing their income, what if both of us work full-time at the land business and replace the other income? Now, we are free.” So, that’s where I’m saying it sounds romantic and exciting, but you do need to really go into this with your eyes open and test it. And I do agree with there’s something to be said for being land people.
We both have the bug, and so we are so lucky. If one of us didn’t, if you were dragging me along all the time saying, “Did you call these people back? I’m waiting for these answers from the county,” because it involves talking. What if there’s something he’s waiting for me? He needs to know something from the county about some zoning or something like that, and it’s kind of my side of the sheet because it involves this and, “I’ll get to it, I’ll get to it.” Now, he’s nagging me. It just won’t work, because I don’t have the bug. But on the flip side, what I do have, which is really lucky that I can’t wait, we do really seriously drive around, look at property all the flipping time. It is so weird. I know it’s weird.

Steven Jack Butala:
It’s not right. It’s not healthy.

Jill K DeWit:
It’s not normal.

Steven Jack Butala:
It’s beyond a healthy level of real estate looking.

Jill K DeWit:
But you know, it’s who we are. I did the podcast today with Bei, and Bei and I talked about that. This is my life. She loves it. She’s so happy and that makes her so good at it, and that’s because she’s like, “I’ll handle anything.” I can’t remember what the term was, closing the circle she was using. You got to start this and keep closing the circle. You got to keep it going, always going. You can’t just start and stop. And I said, “Bei, that’s beautiful. You’re right.”

Steven Jack Butala:
You have to finish stuff.

Jill K DeWit:
And she’s like, “And you can’t let…” She said, “Just like anything you’re going to do, any business you’re going to start, you’re going to have obstacles, and struggles and there’s going to be things you have to overcome and you have to do it, period.”

Steven Jack Butala:
I’m trying to get through a list of simple stuff.

Jill K DeWit:
Sorry.

Steven Jack Butala:
Have you ever… You’re fixing the dishwasher or something like that, and your wife is standing over you and telling you how to do it better? “Well, if you crank that…” Because you’re struggling with it. I can’t get the nut off the pipe. “Well, if you do it this way and hold it that way,” and she’s standing over you for a half hour critiquing what you’re doing, that only ends one way. Everybody’s angry.

Jill K DeWit:
True.

Steven Jack Butala:
What your wife needs to do is walk out of the room, maybe out of the house until it’s done. It might take you a half hour, it might take you three hours, and then it’s done, and she never knew. We referred to that as the transmissions out of the car. We say that sentence to each other every couple of months. “This doesn’t look right at all.” Yeah, because the transmission’s out of the car. It’s not done yet.

Jill K DeWit:
Walk away.

Steven Jack Butala:
Yep, get out of there.

Jill K DeWit:
I’m like, “I’m walking away now.”

Steven Jack Butala:
Not gender-specific [inaudible 00:35:44]-

Jill K DeWit:
And I usually walk away like this, like I don’t want to know… Why, what? It’s true.

Steven Jack Butala:
Here’s another thing, I believe that all talking will eventually lead to an argument. So, what do you do? You talk as little as possible. So, all the deals that Jill and I do and all the tasks and stuff that we have to get done, and believe me, it’s not a lot now, because we have staff and all that, but it used to not be that way. We put an Airtable, so we don’t talk about it.
She’ll say, “@Jack, I need to know about this, this, and this. I know you’ve done 62 deals in this area. Should we be doing this deal at 32,000 bucks or whatever the numbers end up being?” I get a little notification, I go in there, I look at the deal. No one’s talked about anything yet. There’s no verbal exchange. “Oh my God, yes, we should absolutely do this deal. In fact, I think we probably could pay 50 to $60,000 and still make 120 grand on it. Please purchase it within these parameters,” and then we never talk again. It’s the most beautiful thing ever. No talking within a professional relationship, in my opinion, is the best thing ever, unless there’s some really quirky, weird stuff. Most of the world believes that more communication is better, more clarification is better. Absolutely not for what we do here. I disagree with that.

Jill K DeWit:
Please tell me how we got to be on a podcast together based on your whole… I hate your whole speech-

Steven Jack Butala:
We’re not talking to each other.

Jill K DeWit:
Oh, okay. Oh, that’s it.

Steven Jack Butala:
We’re talking to them.

Jill K DeWit:
Oh, thank you. Okay, that’s it. Well, that’s great, babe. And the truth is, I wasn’t supposed to be sitting here, but here I am.

Steven Jack Butala:
It’s the truth. People that I had lined up several years ago, almost 10 years ago to be on the show, just kept not showing up.

Jill K DeWit:
Or they weren’t good.

Steven Jack Butala:
They would come downstairs. I’m like, “We got to do it again,” or they weren’t any good.

Jill K DeWit:
Or they really stunk.

Steven Jack Butala:
So then eventually, Jill, we went back to just once a week with Jill and the whole community said, “Hasn’t Jill with you?”

Jill K DeWit:
Oh, yeah.

Steven Jack Butala:
Then, it became the Jack and Jill Show-

Jill K DeWit:
That was sweet.

Steven Jack Butala:
… For a long time.

Jill K DeWit:
That’s really good. Hey, my last point is just make sure you don’t let this break you up. This beautiful thing, this path that you’re trying to do, going down, working together in your land business, you can’t let it sink the ship.

Steven Jack Butala:
Unless you think that you’re just saving a bunch of time, unless you just cut to the chase long before it ever got to be a point where you’d have to break up then 15 years later.

Jill K DeWit:
What are you talking about?

Steven Jack Butala:
Maybe working together with your spouse sped everything up and you found out what you were going to find out anyway 15 years later.

Jill K DeWit:
Holy Moly.

Steven Jack Butala:
Then, pat yourself on the back. Nice work.

Jill K DeWit:
Those of you watching my face right now are probably like, “Yeah,” at my face. Like, “What the heck?”

Steven Jack Butala:
We can wrap the topic up like this, it works for Jill and I. It took a lot of patience, a lot of practice, and a lot of screwing up.

Jill K DeWit:
And tears.

Steven Jack Butala:
And a lot of tears, and we figured it out. Is it for you? You’re going to decide, but I’ll tell you, you really need to be on the same page about where it’s all going eventually and when to stop, when to start, when to stop, what kind of deals you want to do if you’re really into it.

Jill K DeWit:
True.

Steven Jack Butala:
Those are indicators of a relationship anyway, not just a professional relationship. It can work. We have multiple examples in our group of where it works. We have more examples where it didn’t work.

Jill K DeWit:
True.

Steven Jack Butala:
Jill, you have something to share?

Jill K DeWit:
I was thinking about the podcast I did with Bei earlier today, and, God, she’s such a sweetheart. You know what’s so great about Bei? Bei’s been with us so long. Every live event, Bei’s there. Bei’s been just every time we’re like, “Here’s what we’re pivoting to and why, and here’s what we’re working on now,” Bei’s like, “I’m on it. I’m following you. Okay, and now we’re doing this,” doing it, and she kills at everything she does. And so I was thinking, so today was more than a podcast. Today, it was me sitting down and getting to visit with my friend, which was so nice, and we were talking about just being an entrepreneur, and then it went to that next level. I’m like, “You know what, Bei? Hold on a moment. We need to pay attention to this, not just that we’re both entrepreneurs, but being a female entrepreneur is a whole nother level.”
And so, we really dug deep into that and I hope you listen to that. I don’t know when it’s going to air. It’s coming sometime in the next couple weeks, but watch for Bei Zhang, Z-H-A-N-G, B-E-I is her first name, and with me, and we were talking about, “Wow, you’re right,” because as a female, we are naturally tasked with other things, making sure the family’s taken care of it. We rattled off things like there’s work, there’s family, there’s our family’s health, there’s all these things, and often at the end of this, the very bottom of the list is our wellbeing, and we both talked about how important that is. So, it’s just so much that goes wrapped up into being female entrepreneur by nature. We can’t help but focus on all of those things, and I shared with Bei how I know that I’m guilty of saying yes too much. I still do that. I know I do that, I’ve given up.

Steven Jack Butala:
You mean taking on too much?

Jill K DeWit:
Yeah, that’s just who I am. I have a very hard time saying no, so that ship sailed, so I just deal with it. It’s clearly my happy spot.

Steven Jack Butala:
It’s a good thing you can’t get pregnant anymore.

Jill K DeWit:
Right? Oh, yes.

Steven Jack Butala:
You can’t say no.

Jill K DeWit:
Thanks. Yeah, it was my Indian name that he gave me a while back. Anyway, that’s another story, but we were just talking about the complexity of… And that layer-

Steven Jack Butala:
She can say that because she’s Cherokee, I don’t want all these angry emails coming to me.

Jill K DeWit:
True, I am allowed to say that. My card’s coming. So anyway, it was about that. Did you want to ask me anything about that?

Steven Jack Butala:
I think Bei, it goes without saying, you are and have been just a model investor. Forget about being a female investor, so I know that there’s a layer complexity on top of that, but that just makes you shine more. I think the tougher the road, the more the spoils. I don’t think that… If it comes easy, it’s just not as valuable. It’s just how it is. It’s everywhere in nature. There’s always a hunt.

Jill K DeWit:
Boy, that’s true. What about you? What do you want to share with us today?

Steven Jack Butala:
I am formally announcing through here and other places that Land Academy will be launched this fall.

Jill K DeWit:
You said-

Steven Jack Butala:
I’m sorry, Land Academy, ManPlan will be launched, manplan.com. You’re a man, you need a plan. I did a lot of research. I’ve written a lot. I’m in writing and filming right now on it, and there is no group that I can find on the internet that helps men or anybody who’s really interested in having a plan and being successful. It’s not just for men. Taking a step-by-step approach to accumulating a bunch of money, accumulating let’s say $10 million and how many real estate deals does it take, what do you have to do?
What are the things that you have to line up in your life? It’s not just about sending a mailer out like Land Academy is. There’s a huge component that’s behind the mindset of being wealthy and getting wealthy and-

Jill K DeWit:
That’s good.

Steven Jack Butala:
… And having an amazing life. You only get one turn around on this thing and that’s what it’s all about. I will actually be filming it on a motorcycle… It’s going to be very, very interesting. We will launch it in the fall. If you’re interested, go to manplan.com. It’s all set up now. Put your email address in there and you’ll get notifications about how it’s going and actual dates of when everything’s going to get released.

Jill K DeWit:
Awesome, I’m excited.

Steven Jack Butala:
Join us next Wednesday for another interesting episode, You Are Not Alone in Your Real Estate Ambition. We are Jack and Jill.

Jill K DeWit:
We are Jack and Jill.

Steven Jack Butala:
Information.

Jill K DeWit:
And inspiration.

Steven Jack Butala:
So, buy undervalued property.

Thanks for listening, and finally, don’t forget to subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts.

The post The Truth about Working with Your Spouse in the Land Business (LA 2011) appeared first on Land Academy.

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In this episode of “The Land Academy Show,” host Jill DeWit interviews Michelle Bridger, a successful female member of Land Academy. Michelle discusses her initial success with over 160 properties sold on terms, the challenges of scaling her business, and how joining Land Academy provided the solutions she needed. She highlights the impact of detailed training and expert advice from Land Academy, which helped her transition to larger, more profitable deals. Michelle also shares insights into being a female land investor, building rapport with clients, and strategies for evaluating properties.

Transcript: N/A

Thanks for listening, and finally, don’t forget to subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts.

The post Land Academy Success: Michelle Bridger’s High-Dollar Deal Profits Revealed (LA 2010) appeared first on Land Academy.

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Join hosts Jack Butala and Jill DeWit on this week’s episode of “The Land Academy Show” as they dive deep into the common challenge of dealing with land sellers who have unrealistic price expectations. From understanding the reasons behind inflated prices to strategic responses and effective negotiation techniques, this episode provides invaluable insights for anyone in the land investment business. Tune in as they share: real-world experiences, practical tips, and answers to questions from the Land Academy community.

Transcript: N/A

Thanks for listening, and finally, don’t forget to subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts.

The post How To Manage Land Sellers Who Have Unrealistic Expectations (LA 2009) appeared first on Land Academy.

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Join Jill DeWit and Land Academy Member Bei Zhang, as they share their real estate journey. They cover everything from their shared experiences, to Bei’s inspiring career transition. Explore their philosophy of living like you’re retired, while still working, with insights into business operations, goals, strategies and more. Hear personal stories, tips on balancing work with personal health, and reflections on their journey. Don’t miss this engaging conversation packed with valuable insights for real estate enthusiasts and entrepreneurs!

Transcript: N/A

Thanks for listening, and finally, don’t forget to subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts.

The post Bei Zhang’s Land Business Journey: Insights from a Land Academy Member (LA 2008) appeared first on Land Academy.

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In this episode of The Land Academy Show, hosts Steven Jack Butala and Jill DeWit discuss the time it takes to make a million dollars with land compared to the stock market. They emphasize the importance of consistent and controlled growth in the land business, where doubling or tripling your money on each deal is more realistic and achievable.

Steven and Jill compare the potential returns of investing in the stock market versus investing in land, highlighting how land can provide a much higher return on investment in a shorter period of time. They also stress the value of continued education and staying involved in the land business to maximize success.

Tune in now and discover how to fast-track your financial goals!

Transcript:

Steven Jack Butala:
I’m Steven Jack Butala.

Jill DeWit:
And I’m Jill DeWit, and this is the Land Academy Show.

Steven Jack Butala:
This is episode number 2,009 and we’re talking about how long it takes to make a million bucks with land versus the stock market. Here’s why? The Dow hit 40,000 today, this is when Jill and I were recording it, it’s I guess May 16th. That just shocks me.

Jill DeWit:
Right.

Steven Jack Butala:
Everybody’s celebrating.

Jill DeWit:
What’s limit up and limit down? I can’t remember any of it. You know what I’m talking about?

Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah, there’s daily limits.

Jill DeWit:
Well, then they stop it. It can’t go so high. Did they even bring that up today like we’re pushing it or everything?

Steven Jack Butala:
No.

Jill DeWit:
Okay. I didn’t even know.

Steven Jack Butala:
Because it wasn’t-

Jill DeWit:
It wasn’t-

Steven Jack Butala:
It wasn’t a huge jump from the previous day.

Jill DeWit:
Astronomical.

Steven Jack Butala:
And my philosophical question to you Jill is … There’s a lot of celebration today. When in real estate do you celebrate when things are at the top of the market? Do you celebrate and jump around? Are you happy when the land is selling for the most it’s ever sold for ever?

Jill DeWit:
Not really, no.

Steven Jack Butala:
How about houses? Do you love to go into a market and see people just hitting the top of the market with their remodel?

Jill DeWit:
Nope. No. I see where you’re going with this and I understand your point. Okay. So everybody’s high-fiving each other because it’s the most expensive that it’s ever been, yay. It’s only good for one person who sold that stock at that time. Everybody else is going, “Oh, I blew it” kind of thing. That’s it. So you’re talking about our world and what really makes sense to us. What you can do consistently which is a lot of getting to second base I guess. First base, second base, I’m happy with that all day long. You know what? To me-

Steven Jack Butala:
I like getting to second base too.

Jill DeWit:
I know you also like a home run but we won’t go there. Home runs happen once or twice a year for us, let’s just say that. What happens more often than not, second and third base which is doubling my money and then a little bit more than doubling my money. There’s just like oh my gosh, I can’t believe I bought this for 20,000, sold it for 120. That’s a home run. First base is I bought it for 20, sold it for 30, 35. It didn’t go that great but who can complain about making 10 or 15 grand? This is all very consistent. And then second base to me is I bought it for 20 and I sold it for 40, 45. This is great. Third base is I sold it for 60 to 70. And then you know what home run is. I’m more happy with that. You never want to be the most expensive house on the block, I’ve always believed that.

Steven Jack Butala:
Here’s some things-

Jill DeWit:
And you don’t want to reset the market-

Steven Jack Butala:
Here’s here some stuff-

Jill DeWit:
I don’t believe in that.

Steven Jack Butala:
We’re going to talk about today in a big picture. We’re going to talk about the stock market versus land investing, and we’re going to dabble a little bit in comparing those two. Also with owning a different business like a convenience store or a manufacturing facility. They’re all not apples to apples. There’s a different amount of energy that you can put in. This is super important for Jill and I. Control that you have over what you’re trying to accomplish financially. I mean, here’s a little prelude to that, and then we’re going to take a couple of questions. When you go out and buy a piece of … A share of stock or a block of stock, you’re paying retail for it. You’re paying retail for whatever it’s worth that day. When you buy a piece of real estate you’re paying, if you do it our way, 20 or 30% of what it’s worth that day.

Jill DeWit:
I would like to point out one thing before we get into the big topic which is I want you to pay attention as we’re talking today about start-up costs.

Steven Jack Butala:
I love that.

Jill DeWit:
Thank you.

Steven Jack Butala:
That’s an integral part of actually when we get into the real in-depth in this. And we will answer the question. How long does it take to make a million bucks in land versus the stock market? There’s a bunch of variables. The percentages never change in these things. What changes is your activity and your personality type. I will tell you it’s 10 to 30 times longer to make it in the stock market versus land.

Jill DeWit:
That’s true.

Steven Jack Butala:
And I’ll give you all the numbers.

Jill DeWit:
Cool.

Steven Jack Butala:
Each week on the show we answer a question from the Land Academy member Discord forum and we take a deep dive into land-related topics by popular request from our Land Academy community. Today we have two questions. Go ahead, Jill.

Jill DeWit:
Okay. So the first question today is from Jamay. Jamay’s a sweetheart. Been with the Land gals for quite some time now. So she wrote, “Good morning, guys, quick question. How long is too long to troll for new markets? Over one hour, over two hours? I’m finalizing my weekly schedule.”

Steven Jack Butala:
Good.

Jill DeWit:
“Awesome video that Jack and Jill dropped yesterday has me looking more into scheduling my time more efficiently and to have an actual schedule. So I’m thinking to start one hour to troll, two hours for the red, yellow, green test. Test for reason, not sure how long to spend on that, and so on. So how do you guys schedule your time? Thanks.”

Steven Jack Butala:
So Jill and I are very, very, very fortunate that I do the front 30%, maybe 40% of the work which is what you’re asking about here. And then unfortunate because she takes over. Once the mail goes out she takes over. She just counts on me to find good places to send mail, spend the right time analyzing whether or not they’re actually real good places from a data perspective, and then getting a mailer out that’s priced correctly. I hate to answer questions like this but it really depends on you. I spend a tremendous amount of time trolling, it’s actually crossed over into a hobby of mine.

Jill DeWit:
It’s an unhealth, Jamay. It’s an unhealthy amount let’s just say.

Steven Jack Butala:
I can’t tell you what-

Jill DeWit:
“What are you doing over there?” “Nothing. Looking at a real estate.”

Steven Jack Butala:
I can tell you what houses. Here’s an example, here’s a great example. I mean, I can tell you what houses in Juneau, Alaska are worth, I just can. We sat down during the college basketball tryouts at a little neighborhood bar, and these two people sat down next to us and we started talking to them. They’re in town from way out of town. In town for watching college basketball.

Jill DeWit:
It was the Final Four tryouts. I’m sorry.

Steven Jack Butala:
We just got to talking, they’re real interesting people. This guy renovated old buildings and condos and he was, I guess, sort of retired but not really. They had a place in Florida. We had a lot to talk about and a lot in common. They were from Michigan, so am I. And they described where they’re from and I said, “Oh, you mean Sturgis, Michigan?” And they both just like, what the heck are you talking about? That’s a direct result of my unhealthy trolling all over the market, and looking at all these little areas, and trying to find the best places to send mail. And when we do we send mail there. One hour to troll for a normal person, I think that’s a little bit light. I think I would spend … I don’t want to put a time limit on it because when you’re done trolling you’re … The data’s going to tell you-

Jill DeWit:
Well, can I ask a different question?

Steven Jack Butala:
“I’m done trolling.” Yeah.

Jill DeWit:
Okay. Let me ask it this way then. How many zip codes or counties should I have identified to sit down and run a good red, yellow, green test?

Steven Jack Butala:
I would look at no less than five separate markets.

Jill DeWit:
There we go, there we go.

Steven Jack Butala:
If you like Wisconsin, for whatever reason, and there’s three markets there and they’re very different markets … Maybe one’s outside of, geez, Milwaukee, one’s in … Way north close to Canada, and on and on. Those are three separate markets. I would look at no less than five. Maybe they have five to 10 zip codes in each.

Jill DeWit:
There we go. All right. I’m going to argue that that’s a day. Have you spent a day on that?

Steven Jack Butala:
That’s what everybody’s answer was in here.

Jill DeWit:
Yeah, I’d spent a day on it.

Steven Jack Butala:
And I was going to try to avoid that-

Jill DeWit:
That’d be my Sunday.

Steven Jack Butala:
But the truth is I really think that it’s going to take you a day.

Jill DeWit:
This might be your Sunday. Today’s trolling Sunday, that’s fine.

Steven Jack Butala:
And then the next time you go do it’s going to-

Jill DeWit:
Trolling Tuesday.

Steven Jack Butala:
It’ll take less time. And the next time less and the next time less. And I include the red, green, yellow test in that.

Jill DeWit:
That’s good.

Steven Jack Butala:
A whole day.

Jill DeWit:
Okay. And so that’s a separate day or the same day?

Steven Jack Butala:
The same day.

Jill DeWit:
Okay. All right, so there’s your answer. Plan on blocking out a whole day, at least, to troll and test for reason. Troll and the red, yellow, green test, not the test for reason part that’s separate. Okay, got it. And then test for reason which is … This is after you run the numbers. You download, scrub the data, you priced it, you pulled down some comps. I’m guessing right now that the way Jemay’s asking this is she’s using Concierge in the middle there.

Steven Jack Butala:
I hope so.

Jill DeWit:
Or her kid. Her data, nutty kid who she said “Do this.” I don’t know. I’m guessing Concierge in the middle there. Because then they would take the zip codes that Jemay gave them, download the data, scrub the data, pulled comps, took out the outliers, gave her a graph, gave her the comps that they pulled, gave her the numbers she came up with, and then came back with “Here’s what 20% looks like.” Now is time to test for reason, and that’s where she’s at here. And then what are you thinking about that?

Steven Jack Butala:
I can’t get past second base.

Jill DeWit:
Okay. There’s days-

Steven Jack Butala:
Can I tell you … Can I tell you-

Jill DeWit:
There’s days I don’t let you get past second base, that’s true.

Steven Jack Butala:
Can I tell you about second base?

Jill DeWit:
Okay, go ahead. Sidetracked.

Steven Jack Butala:
Second base is just a stop off for most … For young men. I don’t know how it works for girls, I don’t want to know actually. For young men at second base is just to stop off on the way to hitting a triple or whatever ends up happening. You get older, and I just think you got to take the bases slowly. Enjoy the bases.

Jill DeWit:
Enjoy the bases. That’s hilarious.

Steven Jack Butala:
Tell me I’m wrong.

Jill DeWit:
I don’t even know how to answer that. And there might be kids in the back seat.

Steven Jack Butala:
They don’t know. We’re talking about baseball.

Jill DeWit:
That’s true, they are little kids.

Steven Jack Butala:
It’s baseball season.

Jill DeWit:
This is baseball. That’s true, it is baseball season. Okay, you’re right. All right.

Steven Jack Butala:
So you’ve got a day’s worth of trolling and red, green, yellow tests. You count-

Jill DeWit:
Concierge.

Steven Jack Butala:
You’ve used Concierge, that’s going to take-

Jill DeWit:
Now it’s back.

Steven Jack Butala:
You’re going to allocate, depending on how busy they are. Offers to owners.com, how busy they are. It might take two days to turn it around, two working days. Maybe it’s one if it’s real light. There’s another day. You’re going to get that back and you’re going to have probably a lot to say about it. They will input probably 20% for you. I just went through this with one of our-

Jill DeWit:
Arbitrary number.

Steven Jack Butala:
One of our children I just went through this because he’s smashing it, he’s sending out all kinds of mail. It’s a new rekindled interest and I hope he keeps up with it. We went in and adjusted pricing all over the place. Some of it was 20%. In some cases for large properties that were really rural, we were down as low as 3%.

Jill DeWit:
Wow.

Steven Jack Butala:
Let me take a second and explain this. We’re not mailing out price … Property. We’re not sending mail out at 3% of the retail price of properties, there’s all kinds of other things to consider. If you solve for retail price per acre, or Concierge did, and it’s $10,000 an acre, that’s not going to apply to a 150-acre property, that’s way in the north end of the zip code. You just have to test that for a reason. You have to look it up as if the things came back signed. The purchase came back agreement signed. We did this many, many, many times and he said, “Oh my God, this is $180,000 for a $25,000 piece of property.” He’s coming up with that stuff, not me. You know how to price. When you’re having these independent thoughts, regardless of who you’re sharing this with, it just doesn’t make sense to me. That’s why it’s called test for reason. That’s going to take you a whole day.

Jill DeWit:
Perfect.

Steven Jack Butala:
The longer the better.

Jill DeWit:
That’s it. And there you go. And I would say Jamay, the last little piece I would add to this question before we move to the next one is, give yourself … Do enough of this that you’re covered for a couple weeks. I would do this once a month. Because you can’t do this every week. If you spend all this much time every week you’re not going to have time to do your due diligence, close deals, all that good stuff. Find a broker to sell these deals. So if you’re doing this every other week, or most preferably once a month, you’re doing this so now you have your next four weeks of mail done. That’s going to be I think what makes the most sense.

Steven Jack Butala:
The calendar that … Or the schedule that you come up with this week might change, will change next week, and then on and on, and then stuff’s going to happen. Maybe you have a funeral to go to, unfortunately. The calendar’s just not that’s it, it’s not finished ever.

Jill DeWit:
Exactly.

Steven Jack Butala:
I’m going to read this one because it’s for you.

Jill DeWit:
Oh, okay.

Steven Jack Butala:
Evan says, “I just wanted to share a quick reminder that the right agent, real estate agent changes everything. I bought a commercial property back in March of ’23 for 53,000 bucks. I hired a local,” and he means real estate agent, “That I thought was a good fit. She put together a good listing, appeared to promote the property, and communicated well. After listing it for a year she never brought one offer. I gave a listing to a Mossy Oak agent” … Mossy Oak is a nationwide land brokerage that we use often. “That did a great job selling a residential parcel for me. He listed the property for 150,000 bucks, same as when the listing expired with the first agent, and brought me $135,000 cash offer in three weeks. We closed 30 days later. Lessons learned colon. Really spend time researching and interviewing your agents and no 12-month agreements.”

Jill DeWit:
I never do a 12-month agreement because here’s why. Here’s my conversation when I’m looking for an agent to sell a property for me. “What price do you think you could sell this for in, let’s just say, 90 days? There’s no fire, I don’t need it gone next week. And I’m not trying to reset the market here. I’m not looking for top dollar, I’m going to sit on it for a year and a half.” They’re like “Okay. 90 days I think we could sell it for X.” “Great.” And we all connect, we move forward.
So when we do the listing agreement, it comes back, I go, “Nope.” Cross that off right at six months. And if they ask, “well, what” … “I usually do 12 months.” “Well, you know what? We all agreed we’re going to sell it in 90 days. So we’re going to do six months, and if we need to, something weird happens, we will totally look at it, revisit this again at the end of six months.” And I’ve never had anybody say no. That’s the answer. Because if you don’t have a good one then at least you can get out of it after six months. You were stuck for a year. That’s painful. $53,000 is nothing to sneeze at. That’s not in your account that you could be using for other things right now.

Steven Jack Butala:
I have to tell you-

Jill DeWit:
Glad you brought that up, Evan.

Steven Jack Butala:
Me too. Our responsibilities and what we do here, I feel like I have mine licked. I think doing a mailer hasn’t changed that much. The data we use has changed and the methodology of trolling changes but the basic stuff … If you said-

Jill DeWit:
The concept.

Steven Jack Butala:
“Please go do 150,000 unit mailer,” I would come back probably in-

Jill DeWit:
A couple days.

Steven Jack Butala:
Two working days with a pretty real good solid let’s send it out. The stuff that changes on Jill’s side it changes all the time. And it doesn’t seem to disrupt you. You don’t even have a thought about it, you just adjust that … For it and move forward.

Jill DeWit:
No, I think it’s nature. I don’t know. Or is it nurture? I don’t know. I’ve learned, especially with you, to roll with the punches.

Steven Jack Butala:
Isn’t that bad, Jill? Is it?

Jill DeWit:
I had to say that. No. No, not at all, it’s not that bad.

Steven Jack Butala:
Finding the right real estate agent. We’ve had great real estate agents and then they just go dark. We do a couple of deals with them, they get a girlfriend, and it’s over.

Jill DeWit:
Oh, yeah. Oh, these are all real stories. It’s true.

Steven Jack Butala:
Or they change brokerages, or they move to a different state, or all kinds of stuff happens and then you got to start the process over of looking at who’s got great listings. It’s very inconsistent finding a great land broker. We have a lot of land brokers that are in our group as … And they’re buying and selling their own land and they’re real distracted.

Jill DeWit:
Oh, yeah.

Steven Jack Butala:
And rightfully so. They’re distracted with doing their own deals or raising capital to … Or whatever, as they should be.

Jill DeWit:
Right.

Steven Jack Butala:
So stuff changes. How Jill answers the phone changes all the time based on how … Where we’re sending mail, and who’s calling back, and how-

Jill DeWit:
Savvy they are or what’s going on.

Steven Jack Butala:
Whether or their property tax bills just came out.

Jill DeWit:
Yeah, time of year.

Steven Jack Butala:
On and on and on.

Jill DeWit:
Thank you.

Steven Jack Butala:
A lot of variables.

Jill DeWit:
Thanks.

Steven Jack Butala:
Today’s topic, how long does it take to make a million dollars in land versus the stock market? So let’s just think about this for a second philosophically. You’ve got 30 or 60,000 bucks to spend … And we’ll get to that in a second because you don’t need 30 or $60,000 to spend on … In real estate because we’ll fund you. But let’s just assume, We’ll try to be as apples to apples as possible, that you got $60,000 to spend and you dump it into the stock market.

Jill DeWit:
I wish you all could see this, this is cool.

Steven Jack Butala:
Oh, they can, here.

Jill DeWit:
Oh, can they? Oh. You don’t mind doing that?

Steven Jack Butala:
No, not at all. They see it.

Jill DeWit:
Give us a second, we’re going to add screen share here.

Steven Jack Butala:
You’ve got $60,000 to spend. There’s three stock markets: the Standard & Poor’s, the New York Stock Exchange, and the NASDAQ which is in an acronym for something. They all have indexes to indicate how well they’re doing without looking at the entire exchange. The S&P has the S&P 500, the New York Exchange has the Dow Jones Industrial Average, and the Nasdaq, I think they have the NASDAQ 500, I’m not exactly sure.

Jill DeWit:
The National Association Stock … I don’t know.

Steven Jack Butala:
You’re just guessing.

Jill DeWit:
I totally am. I bet I’m right.

Steven Jack Butala:
Historically-

Jill DeWit:
I don’t know.

Steven Jack Butala:
This is a 10 years trailing because all the statistics came out because again, the Dow hit 40,000 today. If you put a dollar in the S&P 10 years ago it would be worth 13% more. In our case here we put $60,000 in, it’s worth 60,000, $7,000 10 years later. The Dow Jones, a much better performance, it went up 131% so $60,000 would yield 138,000.

Jill DeWit:
Interesting.

Steven Jack Butala:
NASDAQ 260% because of the tech stocks and the tech presence there would yield $200,000. Tripling your money in 10 years is amazing by anybody’s standards. That’s not what happens every 10 years. And I will tell you that if you look at it year over year, there were years where I had lost money and then made up for it and then lost again and made up for it. When’s the last time you had a losing year in-

Jill DeWit:
Isn’t that what this is right here? It’s showing-

Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah, that’s the Dow.

Jill DeWit:
Okay, got it. It’s a screenshot of what happens year over year.

Steven Jack Butala:
Well, I’m mindful of the fact that not everybody can see this. Most people are listening to it, not seeing it.

Jill DeWit:
Well, hopefully, they’re on YouTube right now going … Or they paused and they went over to YouTube so they can see it. You’re good.

Steven Jack Butala:
With land, it’s tied to inflation. So you would pay retail price for a piece of land and it’s … You do it the Land Academy way, you don’t buy a piece of junk. But you pay 100% of what it’s worth the day you buy it which we never do. It’s tied to inflation. Inflation went up over the last 10 years, if you combine it all, about 25%. So $60,000 would yield $75,000.

Jill DeWit:
Wait, back that up again a minute. You’re saying retail is $60,000 for the property?

Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah. I don’t do it the Land Academy way. I go out on the MLS, I choose a piece of property, I buy it for $60,000, and I let inflation do its thing.

Jill DeWit:
This is what not to do.

Steven Jack Butala:
You should never do this.

Jill DeWit:
Okay, got it. I’m like where are you going with this?

Steven Jack Butala:
You should never do any of these four things.

Jill DeWit:
This is true. Now I understand where we’re going here. Because I’m like why would I buy something for 60 and hang on it for 10 years for 75? I’m not doing that.

Steven Jack Butala:
Here’s what’s great about putting money into the stock market. Depending on how you look at it, you have to do nothing, especially if you put it into an index like this like the Dow Jones, or the Nasdaq, or the S&P 500. You put the $60,000 in, you turn the computer off, 10 years later you turn the computer back on and you see what it’s worth. Does anybody do that? Hell no. Does anybody put $200 on the roulette wheel and then come back 10 years later and see what it’s worth? Yeah, it’s worth zero. With land, no, you get up every morning and you do some stuff. Not a lot but you do some stuff. So here’s the deal. Those are the basic numbers. I wasn’t prepared for this.

Jill DeWit:
Thank you for doing that though.

Steven Jack Butala:
Hopefully my guys will edit this out. If not, we probably just lost you.

Jill DeWit:
No. A good guy, you’re good.

Steven Jack Butala:
There’s a lot of variables. Here’s the most important variables, in my opinion. The first one is time. So you are doing nothing in these stock investments annually. If it were a regular year-over-year annual return you’d get about 1% on the S&P, 10% on New York, and Nasdaq would generate 20% return a year. Again, some years you lose money some years you make a lot of money. These last two years have been huge earners for all three so they’re skewing the hell out of these numbers. What I prefer is control over my money, control over my time. I want control over everything except Jill, that’s about it.

Jill DeWit:
We want the same thing.

Steven Jack Butala:
If you buy a piece of property and you sell it for twice what it’s worth … You buy it for 60 sell for 120, buy for 30 sell for 60, you just … You make twice as much money which is our … If I look back at 16,000 transactions that Jill and I have done, I see what we bought it for, and I see what we sold it for, and it’s like 52%. We’ve doubled our money if you look at all the average deals. Buy for 30 sell for 60. And you buy one piece of property every year, one piece of land every year and you make $30,000 on it, you will have had, at the end of the 10 years, turned that $30,000 into 330,000. That’s 1100% return. Now we’re-

Jill DeWit:
It’s just one a year.

Steven Jack Butala:
One deal a year.

Jill DeWit:
A year.

Steven Jack Butala:
Now we’re talking about comparing the Dow Jones at 130% return over these 10 years versus an 1100% return. I would argue that doing one deal a year would take oh-

Jill DeWit:
An hour an month.

Steven Jack Butala:
I mean, you could just do the deal in January and then you never work again. That’s not taking into consideration, well, I got to have a mortgage. I’m not saying drop your life I’m saying, you have a little land business on the side, go to college, continue to be a real estate agent, raise your children. Do what you’re going to do, just do a deal a year. Get into the land business, learn how to do this. Buy one freaking piece of land a year, 1100% return if you double your money. You could buy for 20 and sell for 40, buy for 30 sell for 60, buy for 50 sell for 100. All of those work.
This is a lot harder to do, full disclosure if you’re … You’ll see in a second … If you’re buying for 100 and selling for 200, that’s tougher. It’s totally possible, Jill and I do it all the time. If you’re new at this it’s just … There’s a lot less people to sell a property to for 200,000 bucks than 80,000 let’s say. Moving on to what really happens. These are all screenshots. Now Jill’s yelling at me to go back into the camera. Go ahead, Jill, say what you need to say now that the camera’s on.

Jill DeWit:
Funny how you were looking at the camera and making your point but nobody could see it. You’re good. I think they got the gist of it now.

Steven Jack Butala:
No, it gets better.

Jill DeWit:
Oh, it gets better. You want to show this again? Okay, cool.

Steven Jack Butala:
They got the gist of it now means Jill’s bored.

Jill DeWit:
No, it’s all good.

Steven Jack Butala:
We’ve burned it. Burned through her attention span.

Jill DeWit:
You’re good.

Steven Jack Butala:
What really happens, and what we teach, is you take that same 30,000 that you’re … And you turn it into 60,000. It might take you that January. It might take you January through the first quarter. You take that $60,000 and you turn it into two or three deals, or you use our money to do it. So what you often hear us talk about is do a deal a month, do a deal every three months. Or, as fast as you can, or your time allows, to buy and sell land pretty consistently and double your money as successful as you will be. Now I’m going to answer the question, how long does it take to make a million bucks? It takes about three years, probably less. I did a whole talk on 24 Month Millionaire and how to accomplish that. It’s very, very realistic if you work at this and understand it versus 30 years in the stock market based on the performance of the last 10 years.

Jill DeWit:
That’s a point, I get that. I talked about this a little bit. I brought notes.

Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah, I’d love to hear it.

Jill DeWit:
Are you finished?

Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah, totally.

Jill DeWit:
This is what I talked about last week in our Land gals. We meet the first … Or two weeks ago. Anyway, we meet the first Tuesday of every month, we get together for a couple hours. And my whole presentation was, the most important things you’ve got to be doing right now today to be successful. And it was really cool, I acted like a crazy person. I talked about this recently on a podcast too. I gave them some math. I’m like, why would I do it? Why would I push so hard? Whatever. I’m like “Hold on everybody, let’s just do some” … “This is Jill math.” I love your beautiful spreadsheet, I just have one equation here and I’ll hold it up. It’s great because we’re both thinking on $30,000.

Steven Jack Butala:
Okay.

Jill DeWit:
And here’s why. Making $30,000 per deal is so flipping easy it’s not even funny. It a great sweet spot. You’re selling things for sub $100,000. You bought it for sub $50,000, right? You bought it somewhere below 50 you’re selling below 100. Your only goal is to make 30,000. And I want you to make 30,000 after commission, after your mail costs, and that … And your data and your … Whatever it is. This is not nuts. My goal was a little … Because I was really trying to push people, my goal was a little more than one a month, mine was three a month. I was speaking to a group that they either are or aspire to be full-time at this, we’re not messing around. Here’s your carrot.
If you come at this like a crazy person like this is all I’m going to do, I’m going to say no to everybody, I’m not going to take these trips, I’m not going to do this stuff … Yeah, I’m going to put my head down. I’m like big deal. You spend two years of your life, you put your head down, and you go like a crazy person. You try for three a month … Excuse me, try for four a month, you try to do one a week. But you’re like “I did three a week. What would that look like Jill?” So three deals a week for 24 months and you’re making $30,000 a deal period. You know what that is? That’s $2.16 million. Okay, wait a minute, say that again. This is how it went on the call. On our thing. Two years so 24 months, three deals a month making $30,000 a deal is $2.16 million. Come on. Okay. Jill, I can’t do that.

Steven Jack Butala:
What if you do half of that?

Jill DeWit:
That’s my point. Okay, you screw it all up. I averaged a deal and a half a month, okay? I went at it like a nutcase and I did a deal half a month. I did all this stuff, said no. Family was on board, they all understood. So what did I make? Over a million bucks. So it’s 1,500,000 whatever. Not even that. But anyway, you make a million bucks. So what. For me, that’s the whole point here.
My other point I wanted make today, that’s really important, since we’re talking big picture and comparing … Right now just stock market. I can’t think of any other avenue in real estate. We’re all [inaudible 00:30:41] money be made in real estate, right, we all know that check. So many people are still coming at this like I need to take out loans, I’ve got to get someone to back me because I want to do a flip. Well, these homes are getting more and more … I’m just comparing it to doing a $30,000 … Say you want to clear $30,000 on a house flip. For a lot of people that’s just fine, especially if they’re doing a house flip a month, they’re happy with those numbers. You can’t get started with the same cash we need, you need a couple hundred thousand dollars to come at that.

Steven Jack Butala:
Oh, way more than that.

Jill DeWit:
You probably need $300,000.

Steven Jack Butala:
Oh, no, about 500.

Jill DeWit:
Minimum three to five, okay? Three to $500,000 to come at this to try to make 30,000, maybe 50,000 a deal on a house flip. You can’t. And most people, that knocks them out of real estate right there. And I feel bad, there’s some smart people out there. Not to mention, I’m not even comparing the time, and the energy, and the costs. Cut this in half. I’m doing my one-and-a-half deals a month to make a million dollars in two years. Well, shucks, I can do it … That from anywhere. I’m not tied to this project. I don’t care what storm rolled through town and ruined the roof with hail damage or whatever it is, fill in the blank, it’s land.

Steven Jack Butala:
We’re not philosophically talking to you about what’s possible here, we’re telling you what happens to us every single year. Every year Jill and I make about … These are gross numbers without expenses and stuff. This is the difference between the prices that we pay for real estate and then what we sell it for. Between 2.5 And $3 million. If you average everything out for the most recent years it’s about $2.5. And so if you divide $2.5 million, we try to make a 100 grand. We don’t always but we try to. That’s 25 deals. That’s a couple deals a month. That’s two-

Jill DeWit:
That’s not all the we have going on but that’s a good thing.

Steven Jack Butala:
That’s what we do. We’re not holding anything back from you. We’re not doing something special that oh, well, let’s not tell them about that. Nothing like that happens. We tell you exactly what we do. We send out a ton of mail. I do my homework with pricing and trolling, and all of that, and Jill smashes it on the phone. A couple of weeks ago we were talking … There’s a huge issue with the perception of saturation out there in competition. I don’t know why this industry is … Well, I’m sure it’s because other groups that are popping up are saying that they’re having trouble with saturation. Well, I asked Jill several times, “Are you concerned about saturation?” And she said no over and over and over again. And neither am I.

Jill DeWit:
It’s like saying I’m sad … Worried about too many houses.

Steven Jack Butala:
I think in the back of a lot of people’s heads they just say, “Well, I don’t have” … They’re trying to get out of it. I heard a sentence a … A couple days ago, because I’m taking a different course on a completely unrelated scenario, and she said, “I mean, are you more comfortable doing something or nothing?” Because she’s very more comfortable doing something.

Jill DeWit:
That’s very sweet.

Steven Jack Butala:
And so if it’s easier for you to do nothing then this is not the podcast for you, it isn’t.

Jill DeWit:
But you know what? Put your head down for two years you can do nothing.

Steven Jack Butala:
You can put 30,000 bucks into the stock market and do nothing-

Jill DeWit:
True.

Steven Jack Butala:
And get a return.

Jill DeWit:
True. I’m more happy doing something.

Steven Jack Butala:
I am too.

Jill DeWit:
What are you most happy doing? Let’s have a sidebar conversation.

Steven Jack Butala:
I like to diversify my activity.

Jill DeWit:
Are we back to second base?

Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah, I love second base.

Jill DeWit:
That’s really good.

Steven Jack Butala:
I like being on a motorcycle these days.

Jill DeWit:
That’s good.

Steven Jack Butala:
I love that, actually. Jill and I are about to embark on a three-month, maybe four-month RV trip-

Jill DeWit:
I’m planning for five.

Steven Jack Butala:
I’m very excited for that. Are you really?

Jill DeWit:
Because you know what? I did the math, we’re … I think potentially we could be gone for five months is what I was looking at.

Steven Jack Butala:
Are you excited?

Jill DeWit:
And I’m craving that. Oh my gosh, yes.

Steven Jack Butala:
So am I.

Jill DeWit:
Oh, yeah. That’s so fun.

Steven Jack Butala:
We’re leaving it in three days. We’ll do the show from the road, you’ll see.

Jill DeWit:
Oh, it’ll be fun.

Steven Jack Butala:
Oh, we’ve got a bunch of interviews coming up but-

Jill DeWit:
It’ll be good, you’ll see us.

Steven Jack Butala:
You’ll see it sooner than later.

Jill DeWit:
It’ll be great.

Steven Jack Butala:
Jill, you have something inspirational to share with us.

Jill DeWit:
Yeah. You know what I want to talk about? It ties into what you just said about, are you more happy doing something or doing nothing. I’m more happy always doing something, obviously, I can’t sit still. What was I going to say? So for me, it ties into what I do in my free time which is, I’m always learning something. And I want to remind everyone the value of continued education. There’s this sweet couple that have been a part of Land Academy not that long and they’re like “Oh, we got this.” And they stopped showing up, they stopped being involved. I’m hearing little snippets of their struggling. And I’m like you know what? Because they’re not staying involved.
There’s always things that come, up even within our group. For me, I personally pick up and read all kinds of books on all kinds of topics but it all ties to building a business or being an entrepreneur or being better at something that we do. I love sales, that’s been my whole life, right? I will still pick up sales books, I will still go to sales things. I might pick up a little nugget, I don’t know. Doing things a little bit differently. I’m never going to stop. I’m always going to stop learning … I’m always going to stop … I’m always going to keep learning, that’s what I’m trying to say. I’m getting tripped on my own words here.
Even in Land Academy, this was a discussion recently. Even though you come into Land Academy, you watched it your first year, went off and did some mail, go back and rewatch it six months later, watch it a year later. Not even just our updated versions but the same version that we have. As someone very nicely said on our member call, you’re a different person now that you’re watching it. What you knew when you first watched this one year ago, and you’re watching now, you are so different. And what you’re going to pick up on is going to be different because of that too. I’m just reminding everyone, don’t let off the gas, don’t get too comfortable, and keep pushing and you’ll get better, and more efficient, and it’s just all going to get better.

Steven Jack Butala:
Here’s my inspiration and it was … I bled into it on the regular topic. Continuing education is imperative. I am much more comfortable doing something versus nothing. I used to race motorcycle, superbikes, back in the day, drag your knee on the ground but I’m much more into the dirt thing now. And so I’m going back into continuing education, like Jill is saying, just watching videos, and taking classes, and everything. And it occurred to me, and I didn’t even realize that I was doing this but … One of the courses that I’m taking said that if you get on your bike … It looks like there’s nothing going on when you watch somebody ride a motorcycle. But for me, what’s happening, especially in the dirt is every single turn that I’m taking, I … The next one I try to make it better somehow. I try to lose … Choose my line better, implement the gleaning techniques, and all that stuff so there’s a lot of mental things that are going on that I don’t think are apparent when you watch somebody else do it.
That’s continuing education, and I’ve been doing that since I started riding. Just try to become a better rider, trying to improve track time or dirt time, or get out there more, and all of that. You learn all about yourself, and what you’re capable of, and where your limits are. And this is no different. I’ve been watching CNBC for hours now because of this 40 … Because I’m just fascinated at the reactions of people and this 40,000-point milestone.

Jill DeWit:
Have we ever hit this before?

Steven Jack Butala:
Never.

Jill DeWit:
Oh.

Steven Jack Butala:
It is the first time ever.

Jill DeWit:
That’s it.

Steven Jack Butala:
Ever. And I don’t think it’s something to celebrate about, price-to-earnings.

Jill DeWit:
What do they to tie it to?

Steven Jack Butala:
So they spend a lot of time talking about that. And price-to-earnings ratios have never been higher also. So price-to-earnings means the price of the stock divided by the actual earnings for the same period or the period, however they defines it.

Jill DeWit:
Meaning the profit the person made, the profits.

Steven Jack Butala:
The profit that the company’s making. So Microsoft has a PE ratio and the price of the stock should be within a reasonable gap, within an acceptable earnings place. Theoretically can’t just have an amazingly high stock price with absolutely no income or no earnings, especially if it’s in a … In the point in its lifecycle. A company’s in its lifecycle where it should be throwing off some earnings like Apple or Microsoft or Ford or any of those companies. When you have a higher and higher and higher price-to-earnings ratio, it’s way more dangerous in my point … In my opinion, then having just a high stock price. It becomes a perception. The value of a stock becomes perceptional or with … More than it does reflecting the reality of the value of the stock. And that’s been going on for as long as I can remember. I remember when it hit 10,000 and everybody thought the world was going to end. People were talking about watching it hit 1,000 in the 80s … I think in the 70s when we were really young kids-

Jill DeWit:
Wow.

Steven Jack Butala:
And they thought then the world … And all kinds of stuff happened after that. We went off the gold standard, all kinds of crazy stuff. I don’t think this is a good thing but everybody seems to be really happy about it. I don’t know if it’s just clickbait or what. Probably some of that.

Jill DeWit:
You’ve been watching Jack and Jill on Money Matters. I’m just kidding.

Steven Jack Butala:
My big point, picture point is here … If you have control over how much money you buy a piece of real estate for, buy a piece of dirt and it’s way less than you’re going to turn around and sell it for two weeks later, where’s the risk in that?

Jill DeWit:
I know. This is why I hate the stock market, I have no control. I hate it. This is why I hate … I’m trying to think of so many other things. Well, I won’t do a terms … What am I trying to say? A wholesale deal. Those of you who know know what I’m talking about. I’m not going to take it into contract, try to go sell it, trust my buyer’s still going to … Or my seller’s still going to be there. Trust it’s all going to go okay. Trust the state will let me post the property for sale because I don’t own it, I just have an equitable title. I’m not going to mess around with that I’m going to buy the dumb thing.

Steven Jack Butala:
We’re here to reduce risk and reduce variables just like in a motorcycle seat. You don’t want to go into a turn all risky and with a ton of variables where you’re doing all kinds of stuff instead of just trusting your soul and utilizing the years and decades of experience that you have. That’s what you want.

Jill DeWit:
Totally.

Steven Jack Butala:
I don’t not know of any way to improve guessing at what stocks and what indexes to buy the way that we do now, the way that we do here.

Jill DeWit:
That’s good.

Steven Jack Butala:
Join us next Wednesday for another interesting episode, you’re not alone in your real estate ambition. We are Jack and Jill. Information-

Jill DeWit:
And inspiration-

Steven Jack Butala:
To buy undervalued property.

Thanks for listening, and finally, don’t forget to subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts.

The post How Long Does it Take to Make a Million Dollars with Land vs. the Stock Market (LA 2007) appeared first on Land Academy.

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Join Steven Jack Butala in episode 2006 as he interviews seasoned entrepreneur and Land Academy member, Steve Hodgdon. Steve shares his blueprint for land flipping success, spanning from early technology experiences to building a successful real estate lending business. He delves deep into the 2008 crash, digitization in real estate, advanced tools in the land business, and the “Loan to Own” strategy. The discussion also covers market trends, inflation, property management challenges, and risk management. Learn from real-life examples and gain valuable insights into sustaining a profitable land flipping business.

Transcript: N/A

Thanks for listening, and finally, don’t forget to subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts.

The post Land Academy Member Reveals 30 Years of Success: Steve Hodgdon Interview (LA 2006) appeared first on Land Academy.

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Discover the inner workings of a successful land investor’s week on The Land Academy Show! Join hosts Steven Jack Butala and Jill DeWit as they unpack the essentials of organization, self-discipline, and daily routines crucial for thriving in the land investing world. With decades of combined experience, they share practical insights applicable to both full-time investors and those with limited availability, offering actionable strategies to enhance productivity and achieve investment goals. Tune in now for expert advice and real-life examples that will elevate your land investment journey.

Transcript:

Steven Jack Butala:
I am Steven Jack Butala.

Jill K DeWit:
And I’m Jill DeWit and this is The Land Academy Show.

Steven Jack Butala:
This is episode number 2005 and today we are talking about a week in the life of a successful land investor.

Jill K DeWit:
This is going to be good.

Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah.

Steven Jack Butala:
So important.

Jill K DeWit:
It really is. This is going to be touched upon today, but further explained in the future in some things that we’re preparing for.

Steven Jack Butala:
So I would argue that what we’re going to talk about today, which is really organization and self-discipline and being an entrepreneur and a bunch of stuff like that … And we’ll get into a pretty good amount of detail. I think this is equally as important, probably more important than knowing how to buy and sell land.

Jill K DeWit:
Having a plan.

Steven Jack Butala:
Well and just executing your … We’re going to talk about a week in the life. So you can sit down and be the greatest planner in the world Monday through Friday, and if you don’t execute it and have self-discipline about it’s just not going to be as effective as you want.

Jill K DeWit:
Well, today for me is really about what should I be doing every day? What do I focus on? And here’s the reality. The reason we’re talking about this is a successful full-time land investor, and we’re going to talk about it that way because so many people in Land Academy have come to us, started out with W2 jobs, left W2 jobs, and now they’re in it and this is how to organize your life basically and organize your week. But everything we’re talking about today can be applied even if you’re like Jill and Jack, I only have maybe two to three hours a day to throw out this and that’s okay. So you can shorten it. The process and the steps are the same and how you think about your day-to-day stuff is the same. You’re going to have to get a little more efficient at it.

Steven Jack Butala:
Well, it’s like everything. We can tell you how we do it very successfully. We can give you now, after 10 years of doing this, almost 10 years real core examples with people’s first names on how they did it. In some cases more successful than us. But in the end you’re going to apply it to your life.

Jill K DeWit:
Isn’t that interesting? You just said 10 years of Land Academy. But gosh, 25 something years-

Steven Jack Butala:
30 for me.

Jill K DeWit:
There you go.

Steven Jack Butala:
It’s 30 this year.

Jill K DeWit:
Oh my gosh. It’s 15 almost for me. That’s a lot.

Steven Jack Butala:
So we may or may not be qualified to talk about this stuff.

Jill K DeWit:
Yeah. There we go.

Steven Jack Butala:
You decide.

Jill K DeWit:
That’s perfect.

Steven Jack Butala:
Each week on the show we answer a question from our Land Academy member Discord Forum, and take a deep dive into a land related topic by popular request from our Land Academy community. Let’s take a question, Jill.

Jill K DeWit:
Okay. Cooper wrote, hi everyone. I am new to Land Academy and looking forward to getting to know this group. I started on my own several months ago learning from every free resource I could find.

Steven Jack Butala:
Excellent. This is a great way to start off your career. There’s so much free content out there, including this.

Jill K DeWit:
Yeah. Yeah. Go back and listen to the years of this. I am a very motivated self-learner via books, podcasts and websites.

Steven Jack Butala:
So am I.

Jill K DeWit:
IE established my LLC, my website, my email accounts, my phone number, my company bank account. I don’t know what that is. Oh, that’s for CRM account. And have sent out a few thousand letters. Oh’s he’s already been working on this. However, I learned a hard lesson with neutral letters and all the many phone calls with those landowners wanting full price. I wish I would’ve heard the pros and cons of neutral range and blind offer letters before hitting send on my first letters, but I’m sure it’s one of my many lessons that I’ll learn in this business. Good attitude.

Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah.

Jill K DeWit:
I’m employed full-time with over 25 years as a civil and environmental engineer, so I’m fortunate to have some experience with parts of this business. I live in Colorado, married with two kids. After listening to many Land Academy podcasts and alumni success stories as well as the Jack and Jill philosophy, I decide to join Land Academy to hopefully shorten my learning curve and become one of the success stories. First life goal is to retire my wife, a special education teacher for 25 years. Next life goal would be to retire myself for my W2 job and have more time with my family and kids as well as travel more often. My near term goals include completing all of the Land Academy videos in the next two weeks. Great. And get another batch of offer letters out in week one. Next step to include establishing a set of schedule for mailers, focus on responsiveness closing deals to match my monthly goals and joining career path in fall of 2024. This is great. I’m half jack, half Jill and engineering background, but I moved into more client service and development. This is awesome.

Steven Jack Butala:
Well put.

Jill K DeWit:
Is like a good member background and goals.

Steven Jack Butala:
Cooper, you’re our new avatar Land Academy customer. If this person … If you’re listening or watching this and this person sounds like you, you will do extremely well here. And maybe I’ll have our team contact you. I would love to interview you and I would love to know what your thought process is or has been with choosing us in choosing this business model.

Jill K DeWit:
Yeah.

Steven Jack Butala:
Because you’re just a perfect fit for it. If you’ve got a technical background, you’ve got a little bit of Jill in you, which for the record I do too. I did so really well during W2 years because I could sell.

Jill K DeWit:
And make people laugh. And get clients.

Steven Jack Butala:
So congratulations. You’re welcome, if you need anything, please reach out to us.

Jill K DeWit:
Yeah.

Steven Jack Butala:
I’m sure you’ll doing well. Today’s topic, a week in the life of a successful land investor. I have to tell you, I am a little bit excited about talking about this. This is something I have a bunch of anecdotes and some personal stories about points in my life and points in Jill’s life where we applied this and had great success with it and didn’t apply it and laughed about it and made some changes to make sure that it could work out for us. But first I’m going to tell a slight throw Jill under the bus story.
When we first joined forces professionally and we started making enough money or we were both comfortable enough so that she could quit her job, she did. She quit her job and we started working together and about the second week I realized that I thought correctly or incorrectly that we were not moving in a path that was the best for us financially and professionally. Like always we sat down and talked about it and I said, “This is what’s going on.” She listened and I said, “Every day we’re not doing the same thing. We’re not working on this, we’re not working on this, we’re not working on this.” And she says some version of this to me. “Yeah, but that’s what I did when I had a job. That’s not what I want to do now. I want to do whatever I want to do because I own part of the business.” And so I had a real good chuckle and we both had a chuckle about this on the air several times since then. Geez, this was 2009, probably. Maybe before that.
So as ironic as this sounds, if you’re going to be a very successful business owner, you are going to work harder. You’re going to work on the right stuff and you’re going to be a slave to your calendar way more than you ever were in your W2 job. And I mean this in a positive way because for me, that creates a sense of freedom. As you’re going to find out here, our Fridays … You know what’s in the calendar on a Friday? It’s called a goof off. And this is all Jill’s idea and she’s totally right. And so that’s just where we are in our career. I’m not saying you should do that yet, but schedule your fun.
And then when you do, when it goes from nine to 9:30 or whatever the time change is, turn all your stuff off and go have some fun and forget it. Because you know what’s going to have to happen next and when you’re going to have to do it. Might be Monday morning, might be Saturday night, I don’t know. Whatever works in your schedule. But when that clock ticks over for the next period of stuff that you have scheduled for yourself, then you take it seriously, but not until then.
The goal here is daily or weekly repetition and structure and execution. This is super, super important. This is my definition of self-discipline. Well think about this show. We have a structure to it. There’s an introduction. We laugh a little bit. We tell some stories. We answer a question and then we talk about … Right now we’re talking about the meat of this whole thing and then we’ll wrap it up with something hopefully funny about Jill and I. It usually ends up being Jill and I working together and that’s the structure of it and that’s what you consciously or subconsciously expect. If you’re old enough to know what a sitcom is, geez, that is the recipe for sitcoms all the way back to The Honeymooners. It’s five or eight things that happen to a set of characters on a set that you are very familiar with and the only Variable is the content or the jokes or whatever.

Jill K DeWit:
We were watching a movie a couple of weeks ago. Remember that one with a Shake Shack or something? I said going great, going great, okay, hang on a moment it. It’s movie outline time. There’s conflict coming. Don’t you remember that? And then sure enough-

Steven Jack Butala:
It’s Snack Shack.

Jill K DeWit:
There we go. I’m like, here it is. Here’s our conflict. Now they’re going to resolve it. It’s true.

Steven Jack Butala:
If you’re an entrepreneur in your soul, you should watch snatch Snack Shack. It’s two 14-year-old boys in 1991 who during the summertime, get a hold of a snack shack and make it something that … If adolescents doing illegal stuff offends you, it’s not your movie. I saw myself in those two characters the entire movie. I’ve actually seen it three times.

Jill K DeWit:
It’s still you. Some things never changed. That’s still who you are in your soul. I can get away with this.

Steven Jack Butala:
You need structure. You just need it. Unless you’re a very, very special person. And there are self-help business related books. There are probably thousands about what your week should look like. This is our entry into that universe. What you never want to do is wake up and do what you feel is appropriate for that day. Or worse … I’ve done all these things. Use your inbox as your to-do lists. So your phone inbox, your phone messages and your email list. And the vast majority of the professional people that I know to this day, that’s what they do. I know almost all of our employees do this. Oh, they asked me to do something, I better do it. They haven’t asked me to do anything today, so I’m not going to do anything. You will fail. And if you have a job, think about it. Think about your job. Depending on where you are up or down the food chain, the lower you on the food chain, the more you are being told what to do. So think about this. You’re in high school, you wake up, pretty much do the same thing. Go to school. You have, depending on what year it is, four, five, six or seven classes that day. How many classes did you have?

Jill K DeWit:
Six.

Steven Jack Butala:
We had six too.

Jill K DeWit:
Yeah. Usually four and then lunch and then two.

Steven Jack Butala:
Same thing. And after school, you could choose an extra correct curricular activity or you could choose to go home and watch cartoons or whatever, and then you’re going to do some homework maybe. Maybe you’re going to do homework, maybe you’re not. Depending on how old you are would dictate that. I’ll tell you, I did very, very little homework ever. You probably did a lot.

Jill K DeWit:
What are we talking? Back in high school or college?

Steven Jack Butala:
Well, I’ll get to college in a minute.

Jill K DeWit:
Either way I didn’t. Well, let me get some truth time here. Truth timer. In high school I didn’t have to do a lot and I didn’t need to do a lot. It totally clicked with me. I breezed through high school. College, I kept that same philosophy and I failed miserably.

Steven Jack Butala:
Oh yeah, same thing. I’ll get to that in a second. Jill’s a way better student than I ever was by the way.

Jill K DeWit:
Yeah. Now I’m a study nut. If I’m taking a test, I’m taking it once. And I did it with my real estate, which I never did that thing, but I passed the test. Flying a plane, bring it up.

Steven Jack Butala:
So in high school you’re told what to do and where to stand and where to sit and what to say and what not to say and then they give you a little bit of free time at the end, which you can choose what to do. I have no basis to say this, but I believe that it was this country’s way of prepping all of us either for the military or to go to join the workforce. And the people that really thought about whether or not they wanted to do one of those two things went to college. That’s how it used to be. And so it’s all structured. And if you have a job right now, very similar. Stack these boxes over there. When we get a purchase order, drive the forklift back over there, drive it back up here. If the box is green, put it over here. If it’s blue, do this, that, and that’s it. And you’re probably very successful at that. It’s so clear. Instruction’s so clear
In college you enter college and you have a few classes and you show up for those classes. Now I don’t think you even have to do that at all. You can just take it all online for the most part. And then the vast majority of your success depends on what you do outside of those classes academically. Studying, research projects, whatever they’re asking you to do and then you’re going to get judged on that. And so that’s a step toward owning your own stuff and being really totally responsible for your time and the actual outcomes, which is way closer to what happens here at Land Academy and owning any business. Are you laughing

Jill K DeWit:
Because you said judge and I’m like, that’s called graded.

Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah. Grades are judging.

Jill K DeWit:
Okay. I don’t see it like that.

Steven Jack Butala:
How do you see it?

Jill K DeWit:
Grading. You’re like judging.

Steven Jack Butala:
Well, because geez, if you do a research project or write a paper in college and the teacher or the professor doesn’t like you, you’re going to get a C. If they like you, you’re going to get an A. You are being judged. Not just for the quality of your work, but your good or bad personality. Tell me I’m wrong about any of this.

Jill K DeWit:
I don’t know.

Steven Jack Butala:
I don’t see the humor in it at all.

Jill K DeWit:
I’m just like, I don’t know. You’re probably right. I just don’t look at it like that.

Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah. Because they always loved you.

Jill K DeWit:
Oh, there is that.

Steven Jack Butala:
That didn’t necessarily happened to me. You’ve never experienced the bad part of it.

Jill K DeWit:
Yeah. They gave me an F with a smile

Steven Jack Butala:
When I was in my core accounting classes I would show up for the last class, I had the best grade in the class. This is true. Most of the time, not all the time. And they were all upset about it. But you don’t write papers in accounting, you just take tests and they can’t, there’s nothing they can say. That doesn’t work in English at all. All right. So we’re going to talk about your week. What your week looks like. Really we’re going to talk about what our week looks like. You are going to take that structure or those concepts and build it around your life. You might have 18 kids or you might be retired, and so those are going to look like very different work weeks, but this basic stuff has to get done. There are five basic stages to buying and selling land. I don’t care how you slice it.

Jill K DeWit:
That’s good.

Steven Jack Butala:
Number one, you have to research places to send offers and then choose them. Choose the ones that you think are going to yield the best result for you. Customized financial you. Number two, you’re going to send correctly priced emails, excuse me, offers to those places that you’ve chosen.

Jill K DeWit:
In the mail.

Steven Jack Butala:
In the mail. Exactly. I don’t mean email at all. Number three, some of those sellers are going to respond. You need to manage the responses from those sellers and ultimately choose the best ones that work for you. All kinds of people are going to call you back or send you notes back somehow. Some of them are going to own property that they want to sell to you for the price that you want. This is number three is to figure that all out. Some people call that due diligence, but it’s a little bit more complicated than that. Number four, you’re going to buy that undervalued land. Number five, you’re going to resell it for more, Five things. Research places to send mail and then choose them. Number two is send mailers to those places that you’ve chosen. Number three is to manage the responses and do all the sales and stuff. That’s the magic here. That’s the magic that Jill brings. Number four, buy it. Number five, sell it.

Jill K DeWit:
It sounds so easy when you put it like that.

Steven Jack Butala:
Thank you for bringing that up because every person I’ve ever known, including me, gets hung up on one of these things and so-

Jill K DeWit:
Is a good point. You want to know what I think? Can I pick one where I think people get hung up on?

Steven Jack Butala:
I would love that. Please. Yeah.

Jill K DeWit:
Number three.

Steven Jack Butala:
That’s what I think. I think number three puts people out of business.

Jill K DeWit:
I can pick a place, I can send the mail, but oh boy, now when I’m actually putting money down and I’m really acting on it, then they freak out.

Steven Jack Butala:
I think it’s by far number three. I think there’s certain personality types that can’t get there.

Jill K DeWit:
Get stuck there.

Steven Jack Butala:
They get stuck sending mail also. That’s my number two choice. But by far. Number three is what I call … When Jill and I have a cocktail in our hand and people ask us what we do, I say we buy land and we sell it for more and everybody stops what they’re doing because that causes a jaw-dropping response. Well, how do you know what to buy? These are people who own office buildings. These aren’t people that were co-mingling with that are unfamiliar with making money in real estate. Well, how do you do the research to find out what you’re going to buy? Well, we just send everybody an offer and we see which ones want to sell. Isn’t that illegal? It takes us down this sometimes not so fun path. You can’t do this in the wrong crowd because just ends poorly.

Jill K DeWit:
True.

Steven Jack Butala:
So then I try to expand it like this to end all the questions. We create the real estate deal. Oh, you don’t have a broker? No. Oh, you don’t go out on the MLS and do all the analysis and see which one is priced right? No. Never. We create the deal. That usually stops a lot of it. So how do you implement all this? Because Jill just said you make it sound so easy. Well, it can be easy.

Jill K DeWit:
The big picture is easy, but then you have to back into it. We’re going to talk about here and really what’s involved in this and really talk about, all right, what does it look like in a week? And that’s what today’s show’s about.

Steven Jack Butala:
So this one through five business.

Jill K DeWit:
It took 20 minutes, but this is what today’s show’s about.

Steven Jack Butala:
This one through five business, I’m going to refer to it when we talk about your week.

Jill K DeWit:
Yep.

Steven Jack Butala:
Here’s your Monday. We’ll get to Saturday and Sunday at the end you have an answering service. We have an answering service called PATLive. They answer our phones 24/7. They’re constantly answering because you’ve sent a ton of mail out, they’re answering your phone. Not if you’re brand new. This is a successful land investor’s life. This is what you’re shooting for. So you have PATLive set up or we do where they’re answering the calls from sellers 24/7.

Jill K DeWit:
As we talk about this, I’m going to compare both sides too. The point is, even if you’re a professional full-time land investor like we are in this, you’re still not going to answer your own phone. And then if you’re brand new, you may not have time to answer your own phone. So I want to just point out this applies for both situations if you will.

Steven Jack Butala:
I will. Thank you.

Jill K DeWit:
So that’s where that comes in. All right. And so that’s just ongoing. Go for it.

Steven Jack Butala:
I call Monday mailer Monday. So these are where you research and implement phases one and two and we have for years and years now successfully been able to do this in one day every Monday. You troll. So this is you … This is what you do.

Jill K DeWit:
This is high level.

Steven Jack Butala:
We have week-long courses in this stuff. This is all just what you do, not how you do it. We have what’s called trolling where you go and find and do research on properties, places that where you believe, where you send mail are going to work for a bunch of reasons. Data-based reasons, not emotion. And implement what we call a red, green, yellow test to test those places that you’ve trolled and test them against each other and then ultimately choose two or three or three or eight or 10 or whatever you think that work. And then you get the mailer rolling and you price it. It’s everything that has to do with Monday. What’s important is that there’s a deliverable at the end of Monday.

Jill K DeWit:
Mail’s going out.

Steven Jack Butala:
You’re getting it to Offers 2 Owners, which is our mailing company one way or the other. We have a lot of different products based on where you are in your career with mailer comfort.

Jill K DeWit:
True.

Steven Jack Butala:
They were not created overnight. They were created over years of Jill and I doing this and watching people struggle and then saying, okay, we’ll do this part of this for you. Mailer Monday. That’s one and two. So now we’ve knocked out … Monday’s done. We’ve knocked out the first two things of the five.

Jill K DeWit:
And this should be every Monday by the way.

Steven Jack Butala:
Right. Tuesday and Thursday, in my opinion look identical. Tuesday is you’re now doing due diligence or in our case, Jill’s doing due diligence. She’s checking to see … This is all number three.

Jill K DeWit:
What do I want to buy?

Steven Jack Butala:
Do I want to buy this freaking property or not?

Jill K DeWit:
And what do I need to find out about it? What more do I need to know to pull the trigger?

Steven Jack Butala:
It might involve you talking to an investor that you have. It might be you going out on the Land Academy discord channel asking people their opinions about these deals. You might be calling a local broker. You might be doing all kinds of stuff that makes sense to you or mimicking what we do in all of our educational products to see if you want to buy it and might have to call the sellers back.

Jill K DeWit:
Can I back up here? One thing I want to point out is why this is so important. You need to block off time each week to devote to it. If you sit and like Jack just described, you’re a slave to your email and you plan your day based on your email. How you about that is like an investor. If you’re a slave to the deals and the calls that come in. If the minute they come in, you’re looking that one up and you’re looking that one up, you’re looking that one up, you’re going to be a scattered mess. It’s so much better to batch them all together and at one time sit down and go, all right, in the last three days … Because remember you only do this on Tuesdays and Thursdays. So I’ve got Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. So four days for this part. Tuesday I sit down and look at all the people that reach back out, all the ones that want to sell and I’m lining up all those … I don’t know. 10, 15 offers and looking at them at one time. You’re going to be so much more efficient and you’re going to make the best decisions.

Steven Jack Butala:
Exactly. Wednesday is number four and five. It’s buying and selling day. Everything to do with buying and selling. Finding a broker, talking to escrow agents, maybe potentially talking with sellers or buyers. But it’s in generally that batch for buying and selling. Now let’s be realistic. Stuff happens. Urgent things happen in real estate transactions. Oh, this is an escrow agent calling. This is on Monday afternoon. This deal’s going to go sideways. I know we’re supposed to close today, but we need these three more signatures and the stuffs got to happen and the sellers got a contingency in here that’s got to be closed by Tuesday. So you need to block out … This is not looking at all kinds of … Jill’s exactly right. Block out an hour at the end of your day. It might be 3:00 P.M. to deal with cuckoo stuff that needs immediate attention.

Jill K DeWit:
That’s good.

Steven Jack Butala:
So this is maybe the shortest episode ever. You have to have a schedule like this. You have to stick to it and you have to have a reasonable contingency plan when stuff just goes over. What you do not want to do is on … Mailer Monday is my responsibility, so I know more about it than … Jill does a lot of this other stuff. What you don’t want to do is spend way, way … You have a clock on your desk, you have a clock on the bottom right of your computer. You start at 9:00 it’s 2:00 PM and you’re not done trolling. That’s not good self-discipline. You know have to test what you’ve trolled. You got to run the red green yellow test and run all the data for that. You know you have to price mailer from last Monday because you didn’t get it done. And you have to test for reason on that mailer and you know how long that takes. So you have two choices. Manage those increments all throughout Monday to get that deliverable out by 5:00 or work until midnight.

Jill K DeWit:
And sometimes both happen.

Steven Jack Butala:
Yep.

Jill K DeWit:
Sometimes that happens. Big deal.

Steven Jack Butala:
What I don’t ever let happen is I’ll do it tomorrow.

Jill K DeWit:
Yeah.

Steven Jack Butala:
So Tuesday at 9:00 when I’m supposed to be doing due diligence and calling people back, I’m pricing my mailer. And then Wednesday, I didn’t get to all that stuff. I was supposed to call that broker back. I didn’t do all that. The escrow agent’s calling me. Well, Jack said on Tuesday … And I didn’t price the mailer. Oh my God, I got to do all this stuff. You can’t let these things bleed into each other. If I don’t get the stuff done on Monday for mailer Monday, I’ll tell you what I do, it gets done on the next Monday. But I start earlier and work later. It does get out. Or … And this is like truth time. If I’m trying to do a 4,000 unit mailer on Monday or every Monday, let’s say I will do an 8,000 unit mailer the next Monday if it doesn’t get done right.

Jill K DeWit:
How about working ahead? You do that too sometimes. I like that.

Steven Jack Butala:
I’ve done a hundred thousand unit mailers in one Monday and I’m not saying you should do that. And I’m not bragging. I’m just saying I’ve been doing this for 30 years. So that’s-

Jill K DeWit:
You’re that good.

Steven Jack Butala:
The spoils of all that. And I’m not going to say that Jill hasn’t said this is a seller I’ve been wanting to talk to in the middle of dinner walks outside and a half hour later she comes back and I’ve had 92 drinks. So those things happen. You can’t beat yourself up about it.

Jill K DeWit:
That’s true. All right. So we got Monday, Tuesday, we talked about that. Did we cover everything we need to on Tuesday?

Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah. You zoned out. I covered all of them except Friday. I saved it for you.

Jill K DeWit:
Okay. Well you did Tuesday, Thursday, Wednesday. I’m just recapping. I want to recap. Because I don’t know if we talked about … Did we include that?

Steven Jack Butala:
So how do you deal with Jill in this scheme of things, returning sellers calls because it’s imperative. It’s real imperative.

Jill K DeWit:
Depending on where you are … Well you know what? It doesn’t matter if you’re brand new or if you’re seasoned at this. You have set times that you do things. And what you would do ahead of time is let everyone know that’s when I do them. Whether it’s your staff, your family, yourself or PATLive. This is when that’s going to happen and when you can expect a callback. So returning sellers calls usually happens after due diligence. I have to make sure, get my questions answered, do my own little recon, double check the back taxes, whatever it is, fill in the blank and then I can act on it. So that usually happens after that. And I do that on Tuesday and Thursday. So those usually happen at Tuesday and Thursdays and everybody knows and has expectations. We take this even a step further. Right now I’m doing less deals because they’re bigger deals. But for a while when I was doing so many deals a week, it was a lot. It was just I couldn’t handle having deeds coming at me multiple times, even a day. So I said, “Stop it, everyone. Deed signing is Thursday.”
That was the day for a long time. I don’t care what it is, it has to happen on Thursday. I’ll do it ahead of time for closing the next week and whatever. But we have to do it on Thursday. And when you put that out there like that and you’re whole … You know it and your staff knows it and then it’s like they just plan for it. It’s perfect. So that’s when the seller calls happen. This is awesome.

Steven Jack Butala:
Well here’s the good news about our business model. There’s a lot of this stuff runs in the background. So PATLive’s running 24/7. You’ve sent all this mail out. The initial phone call when they get it to send it back, you’ve got people answering that live. We haven’t had that in our entire career. Not even close. That takes a huge load off once you’re … Again, this is a season. We also have brokers on the sell side. Every property that Jill and I buy now, we list it with a real estate agent after we qualify them to deal with the sales piece. Deal with the inbound calls there. Hey, I’d like to buy that. How do I submit an offer? We don’t deal with any of that. They put all that stuff together and send it to us.
We also outsource escrow agents. In our case we have a transaction coordinator or if you’re an LA Pro member, you use our transaction coordinator to just deal with the deal. Once we buy the property, that’s it. It gets purchased by our staff or the escrow agents in the past that we’ve assigned. Once we actually buy it, we give it to the real estate agent to list it and manage it. So there’s a lot of the heavy lifting gets outsourced once you know how to buy and sell these properties. The issues are mailer Monday and Jill’s number three, which is managing the PATLive pre-qualified sellers. We work very hard two days a week. Jill and I do.

Jill K DeWit:
Mm-hmm. That’s good. You’re right. Can we talk about Friday now?

Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah.

Jill K DeWit:
Okay. Go ahead.

Steven Jack Butala:
Well Jill called Friday long ago, goof off Friday and that’s what it is.

Jill K DeWit:
Yeah. Well-

Steven Jack Butala:
And it’s in the schedule.

Jill K DeWit:
Well, here’s the reality too. Everybody does it. Whether you have a W2 job or you’re doing this for yourself, we all know good luck reaching people Friday afternoon. They are mentally checked out so why not take advantage of that? That’s what I do. I’m like, I’m not going to reach them anyway. So Thursdays are great days. If you’re a salesperson like I am for over 30 years, you know the flow, you know when people are most agreeable. Thursdays. When to meet, hit them, all that good stuff. That’s just normal sales stuff. And you all know that Friday afternoon is not happening. And even for posting and things like that, don’t expect to get a lot of views with that. Anyway, so that’s why we take advantage of that. And the other thing is you need some catch your breath time. That’s the big picture too. You need to take some breaks.
If you go at this a hundred miles an hour for a hundred days straight, you run the risk of burning out and I don’t want that to happen. So if you bake in a little bit of break in downtime … Not to mention your family will disown you. So if you don’t have a little bit of time with them … Everybody knows that you’re working hard on this and they know that you’re doing this for a reason for your family, mortgage college bills, just get ahead, have a different life. Whatever your reasoning is, you should have your family on board and on the same page as why you’re really focused on this and going to be saying no to a lot of stuff, but you need to have some time with them too. So plan for that.

Steven Jack Butala:
If you’re in a part of your career land investing or just any type of real estate career, this is a season. So what you need to do … This is what I would heavily recommend if you’re new or thinking about joining or any of that is block out two weeks to learn. And so like Cooper here said earlier, I’ve looked at all this stuff, we did all the research and I finally decided to join. And so he said his goal right in there. In the next … Fill in the blank. I don’t remember exactly what he said. I’m going to watch all these videos, I’m going to learn all this stuff to the point where I feel like I understand what to do.
And so continuing education for anyone has to be part of your life. I don’t have it in my calendar and here’s why. Continuing education is just really a natural thing for me. If I’m on the internet, I’m learning something. If I’m on the internet looking at markets I’m subconsciously analyzing a real estate market for us, whether it’s us personally or as an investment market and testing it and retesting it. And so depending on where you are in your career, you may or may not want to put in continuing education and do it for an hour. If there’s anything that I will run over on, which is probably why it’s not on my calendar … I’m guilty of doing four hours straight of research over researching markets.

Jill K DeWit:
It’s so funny you bring that up because that’s something that we have in common. It’s very hard for me.

Steven Jack Butala:
Is that all we have in common?

Jill K DeWit:
That’s the only thing. Today. No. So it’s very hard for me to pick up something non-educational meaning like a book.

Steven Jack Butala:
Me too.

Jill K DeWit:
I have a hard time. I truly enjoy in my free time learning about something new or learning about something that’s going to enhance everything that I do and make it better and easier and more efficient. Right now I’m reading this whole thing about investing and just understanding money outside of what we do. And looking at stuff a different way.

Steven Jack Butala:
That’s great.

Jill K DeWit:
I know. And I love it.

Steven Jack Butala:
What do they say?

Jill K DeWit:
And it’s tailored for women.

Steven Jack Butala:
This is all I obsess on.

Jill K DeWit:
I know. It’s just beginning to scratch the surface right now. So far in the book that I’m reading, it’s talking about all the reasons why and I’m like, well, it’s funny because I picked up this book laughing going this is a joke. It’s a book aimed at teaching money for women high level and it’s written by a man. I’m like, what does he know? Right out of the gate I’m like, yeah, whatever. I’m like, this is a joke. So I got this book and now I’m like, oh man, the guy’s right. But right now he’s still explaining all the reasons why that we need to do this. And I’m just starting to get into some of the how and the understanding and everything so I will have more to share in a couple of weeks.

Steven Jack Butala:
I’m going to steal that off your shelf when you’re-

Jill K DeWit:
So yeah, it’s really good. I’m trying to think where … But you and I … What did I say? You and I agree on the continuing education part. That’s the whole thing too. If you think that you’re going to come in and watch Land Academy and one time in 2019 and you’re like, I got this. I’m never going to change anything. I’m never going to change how I look at stuff. I’m never going to change my product type. I’m never going to change any of my mindset. I’m not going to show up for a single call. I’m not going to be involved in anything. You will fail.

Steven Jack Butala:
Or I’m never going to change my calendar. Maybe the type of real estate that you buy is changing. So everybody’s available on Thursday in Wisconsin. I don’t know. Stuff changes.

Jill K DeWit:
Oh, I’m never going to change my market. No. I sat down in 2019. I picked some areas and it worked in 2019. I’m not going to change it. That’s not going to-

Steven Jack Butala:
There’s a lot of moving parts to this and it really keeps a lot of people out of this business. Many, many, many people right now enter this business because of the prevalence of Land Academy type education which out there on the internet, which I believe is substandard and many, many, many people leave. Yesterday I saw somebody said, you will be sending out … This is a former Land Academy member. On Saturday. Join us in this group. You’ll be sending out mail in four hours.

Jill K DeWit:
Oh yeah, I saw that.

Steven Jack Butala:
Did you see that?

Jill K DeWit:
Yeah. He’s an Land Academy member. You’re right. Former Land Academy member. That is really funny.

Steven Jack Butala:
Let me tell you.

Jill K DeWit:
And it costs $7. I’m like, what?

Steven Jack Butala:
$7.

Jill K DeWit:
He’s charging $7 for this. I’m like, well what’s the point of the $7?

Steven Jack Butala:
Let me tell something. You will not be sending a good mailer out in four hours on Saturday.

Jill K DeWit:
It is funny.

Steven Jack Butala:
Here’s another one I just saw. This is not ripping other people day, but it’s just funny. Another one I saw was about entitlements. Entitlements are when you take a big piece of real estate and you cut it all up … You take one AP on one assessor’s parcel number. Let’s say it’s 40 acres. Cut it all up into let’s say just for numbers, 41 acre properties. First of all, there’s not a municipality in the land. There is not a single municipality in this entire country that’s not going to allow you to do that. It’s going to take two years, even if they do, and they will not allow you to do it unless you put in infrastructure and have a plan. In Arizona it’s called public report compliance and it’s very unrealistic to do that. So this guy has been advertising for a while and I go immediately to the comments and everybody … I don’t comment on this stuff at all, but everybody like me is in there is just saying, whatever you are smoking, please send somebody some my way because this is not possible.

Jill K DeWit:
Not this easy.

Steven Jack Butala:
And then there’s 90 people in there that says, “I want to know more. I want to do it.” Because it’s not hard to do the math.

Jill K DeWit:
That’s true. That’s very, very good. All right. We got to through our goof-off day back to … Yeah. We covered continuing education.

Steven Jack Butala:
What do we do with Saturday And Sunday?

Jill K DeWit:
You know what, Saturday and Sunday. Yes. I’m always doing continuing education and there’s half goof-off and half catch-up.

Steven Jack Butala:
Yep.

Jill K DeWit:
Sometimes I can’t reach people. I’ve had sellers that they are busy during the week and they said, “Call me Saturday morning and we’ll get this all done.” And I’m doing that. I will block it off and I schedule it by the way. It’s not like, “Yeah, I just reached out to you.” It’s like, “All right. What time Saturday and what phone number?” And it’s on everybody’s calendar. That’s how you get deals done, by the way.

Steven Jack Butala:
So let’s go back full circle now because everybody can identify with high school and college.

Jill K DeWit:
Okay.

Steven Jack Butala:
You come back full circle and you look at this schedule that we put together that just the framework of it anyway. And it’s very similar to high school. I got to get up, I got to be in homeroom by X amount of time. I got 45 minutes to an hour there and on and on and on. But they’re telling you what to do. And there’s a five-minute bell and a real bell and there’s severe consequences or that used to be when I went to school for not complying with that. The military is set up that way. And W2 jobs are set up like that with clock. I don’t know. We used to have a punch clock. I don’t think it’s that way anymore.

Jill K DeWit:
That used to be that way.

Steven Jack Butala:
I think it might be electronic when you walked to the door.

Jill K DeWit:
Your card key.

Steven Jack Butala:
Your card key. Yeah. Probably card key. So that’s it. But to implement … Think about this. Okay, you don’t have to comply with high school anymore, but I expect you to pass the exams at the end. But you don’t have to come to class. You don’t have to do anything. Make your own schedule. Here’s a textbook. Pick them up on Tuesday and then we’ll see you in a month.

Jill K DeWit:
See at the finals.

Steven Jack Butala:
We’ll see you in three months. Who the hell would pass high school? No one. Five people in my entire high school, not including me, would’ve passed. That’s how you need to look at this. If you can do this or if you’ve done it in the past, you are going to do great. The vast majority of the people in the country can’t do this.

Jill K DeWit:
Right.

Steven Jack Butala:
That’s why the attrition rate in college is ridiculously high. It is huge. It’s like 70 or 80% of the people that start college don’t finish because they can’t manage a schedule. It’s not smart enough. It’s because they can’t say, this is what I’m going to do on Monday at 8:00 in the morning, then I’m going to stop partying in college at 2:00 P.M. and I’m going to be there at 7:00 PM with my desk lamp on studying. I’m not saying I did this. I’m just saying that’s what it takes.

Jill K DeWit:
I agree. This was good. Glad we covered all this. All right.

Steven Jack Butala:
Do you have anything inspirational, Jill this week? What’s been going on in your week with the ladies? The Land Academy ladies?

Jill K DeWit:
Oh, we had a great week. It was really cool. We have new people, which I love. I got to tell you, I’m seeing more and more female investors come into our group, dragging their men behind them. Honest. It’s true. It’s great. And the guys are like, bring it kind of thing. This is awesome. So this week we talked about … What was my topic? I’m trying to think how I worded it here. My topic was the number one thing to be successful. Because we talked about it on this before too. To be successful as an investor right now. And it was really about going at this like a crazy person. I watch people. If you don’t come in with the right mindset that you’re just not going to let this fail and you’re going to do everything it takes and you’re just nutty and you give up Sundays and you don’t care and you see the writing, you have real goals that you want to attain, financial goals and you’re going to hit those one way or another, then you’ll be successful and that was what we talked about this week. It was really good.
It did inspire some great conversations. It’s funny, in our ladies group, most other calls that we have from our Thursday member call to our LA Pro calls to our career path alumni calls they always divert. At the very end it goes back to reviewing deals. There’s always someone that says, “Can we go back and just look at some deals?” Every week on our ladies … We don’t talk about that.

Steven Jack Butala:
I figured that.

Jill K DeWit:
Isn’t that funny?

Steven Jack Butala:
That makes sense to me.

Jill K DeWit:
We’re more mindset … Not that it’s not on our mind. And it’s not that we’re not doing deals and not that we don’t … It’s just that when we get together, it’s kind of like if we’re talking about bigger stuff, bigger than just this one deal. It’s really about how am I going to get all these 10 done this week? How am I going to structure this? How am I going to relook at my goals because I want to make a million dollars this year? And that’s not happening fast enough. Or it is happening just fine as planned and I’ve got extra money now. How do I allocate that? How do I start deal funding for other people? I have all of that too. So we go into all kinds of different things.

Steven Jack Butala:
That tells me that’s the right group because you’re past the mechanics of it all and you’ve gotten past that. You’ve gotten past the learning curve. People that want to hang out with like kind people that have questions about … Because in a group like that, some people are crazy at the top of it like you and some people have done a few deals and they’ve proven it to themselves and now they’re intentionally putting themselves … Women I suspect are better at this than men. In a group of people where they’re all going to rise up.

Jill K DeWit:
Do you know what I just thought about? You’ve just brought up a perfect example. I think a lot of it is because the women in Land Academy are a lot like me, which is this. You were asking me something the other day about a car that we were in. We were in a certain vehicle and you asked me does it have this? And I said no. And you asked me how I know. Because I read the whole manual. So when I buy a car … I am not kidding. If it’s my car, not just every car, but if it’s my special sought out, this is my vehicle, I get to know everything about it. I read the whole flipping manual on the vehicle.

Steven Jack Butala:
I do with motorcycles but not cars. I don’t know why.

Jill K DeWit:
But what’s funny is I was thinking about-

Steven Jack Butala:
Tire pressure. Everything.

Jill K DeWit:
I think that relates to Land Academy. Which I would too. If I was not me joining Land Academy, I would’ve read everything four times to make sure I got it. And if I didn’t, then the parts I didn’t understand, I would’ve asked on the Thursday call or in Discord and got to the bottom of it. I’m not sure that men do that. I have to say just today, I may or may not have been snooping around in just some of the customer service stuff coming into our staff. So I wrote a little note to my staff. I’m like, “Well shucks, the guy just needs to go back to chapter three.” Hello. He was asking some questions and he put, “Can someone call me about this?” I’m like, “No. Well, you have it in your hand. You just skipped over it or you didn’t even open it.” That’s probably more likely. But anyway, it’s just funny. Is that a man? Is that a normal guy thing?

Steven Jack Butala:
No. That’s not gender.

Jill K DeWit:
Okay.

Steven Jack Butala:
In any way. That’s a personality type. I do not learn anything sitting and talking to somebody on the phone. I will tune out. I don’t learn anything from a guy standing in front of a class with a chalkboard.

Jill K DeWit:
You need to watch it and figure it out yourself.

Steven Jack Butala:
I need to watch it, stop it. I need to study. I am a self-study … Don’t talk to me for four hours and then when I come out of this thing, let’s go at it. Let’s get it. And that’s what those discussions that you’re having, which bleeds into my inspirational scenario is that … All right, here’s a story and you tell me because this is a personality type.

Jill K DeWit:
Okay.

Steven Jack Butala:
Jill and I have some distant friends, some good friends that we’ve known for a few years. We have a lot in common with them. We just don’t see them very often. But every once in a while we run into them. They live in the same place in California that we did. They still have a house there. And it turns out they live like two blocks from us here and they own a printing company and so do we. So I ran into them recently. The woman’s driving the whole thing, the entire thing.

Jill K DeWit:
It’s true.

Steven Jack Butala:
I started asking her questions finally. We’ve never talked about work ever with them. We both had a beer in hand so I’m like, why not? She started as a very successful salesperson for the commercial printing industry and decided one day, “Why am I selling all this? There’s all this profit margin. I’m making everybody else rich. I’m going to start my own printing company with a warehouse and printing presses and all of that.” And she said, “What’s your story?” So these are high level discussions now.

Jill K DeWit:
This is good.

Steven Jack Butala:
Now one of us talked about which machine we would buy, what the mechanics are. The costs of any of that. We just talked about what happened and why are you so successful enough to live in these neighborhoods? So she said, “What happened to you?” And I said, “We got a lot of customers. We only do this one thing. We help our constituencies economically and intensity wise, mental intensity wise, help people send offers to owners, which is a core of our real estate business.” And she said, “All right. So you get these orders in and this happens and this happens.” I said, “No, no. For this section, this is how we process it. I know you guys process it differently.” And she’s looking at me. And then we started talking about how you’re increasing revenue. We never sat and talked about … And this is true with many, many, many successful people. The actual process. This is like live event stuff.

Jill K DeWit:
It’s true.

Steven Jack Butala:
The actual process of stuff is in our programs. The mechanics of all of this, all the answers to all the mechanical stuff are either in career path or in our educational programs. The real motivation doesn’t happen in there. It happens on this podcast and in environments like that.

Jill K DeWit:
Yep. That’s good. Thank you.

Steven Jack Butala:
Join us next Wednesday for another interesting episode. You are not alone in your real estate ambition. We are Jack and Jill. Information …

Jill K DeWit:
And inspiration …

Steven Jack Butala:
To buy undervalued property.

Thanks for listening, and finally, don’t forget to subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts.

The post A Week In The Life Of A Successful Land Investor (LA 2005) appeared first on Land Academy.

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Join Steven Jack Butala and Jill K DeWit on episode 2,004 of the Land Academy Show as they delve into the five most frequently asked questions by new Land Academy members. From dispelling myths about land flipping to sharing real success stories, they tackle it all. Plus, get an exclusive look at a member’s journey to half a million in revenue within their first year. Don’t miss out on this insightful discussion packed with valuable insights for aspiring land investors!

Transcript:

Steven Jack Butala:
I’m Steven Jack Butala.

Jill K DeWit:
I’m Jill DeWit and this is the Land Academy Show.

Steven Jack Butala:
This is episode number 2,004, and today Jill and I are talking about the five most-asked questions by new Land-Academy members.

Jill K DeWit:
Is this your version, my version, or the team put them up? I’m just curious.

Steven Jack Butala:
What we’ll do is reread-

Jill K DeWit:
I’ve got different questions like, “Are you guys married?” That’s what I’ve just got to start with. This is why I’m asking.

Steven Jack Butala:
How do you answer that?

Jill K DeWit:
See, this is why I want to know. Let me tell you my top-five questions, and then you tell me yours.

Steven Jack Butala:
All right. Go ahead. We’ll get to that, we will. Jill and I asked our staff to answer these questions and we’ll be serious about it in a second, but I’d like to know your five.

Jill K DeWit:
Okay. “Are you guys married? Where the heck do you live? What do you mean you don’t go see your property?”

Steven Jack Butala:
This is pretty accurate.

Jill K DeWit:
You like this? Exactly. “You made how much last year?”

Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah. Is this for real?

Jill K DeWit:
And, “Is this for real?” There we go, that’s my five. What are your five?

Steven Jack Butala:
Jeez, my five are, “Is this for real?” Is number one. “What is all this? Can you please just tell me, let’s cut to all the stuff. Stop horsing around on the show. What’s the deal? Can you really buy land and resell it for more?”

Jill K DeWit:
That’s your number one.

Steven Jack Butala:
That’s at a cocktail party or from people that have been in the real-estate industry forever. I don’t have five of them.

Jill K DeWit:
Oh, that was it.

Steven Jack Butala:
That’s the main one like, “What’s the deal? Is this for real?”

Jill K DeWit:
Yeah, it’s so funny. From that cocktail party, it quickly goes to two things. It splits into, “Well, can I just give you some money?” “Yeah, thanks. No, I don’t need that.” Or, “Well, it’s obviously easy if you idiots can do it.”

Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah. I mean, here’s a great example. Jill and I, we’re doing our estate. We’re finishing our estate planning, we’re amending it, let’s say, and we met with the lawyer that does it. He’s like, “I looked you guys up before you got here, and I love land.” This is probably a 70-plus-year-old guy who’s probably got thousands and thousands of estates under his belt, and all he wants to do is talk about land. He doesn’t care about our estate.

Jill K DeWit:
Exactly. Yeah, it’s almost like it’s like, “Eyes up here.”

Steven Jack Butala:
That’s a regular-

Jill K DeWit:
“Eyes off the plat map. My eyes are up here.” That’s a new thing. That’s good. I’m more than just a plat map.

Steven Jack Butala:
I attribute that too and I was thinking about it. We are somewhat guilty of, Jill, making this sound easy.

Jill K DeWit:
Yeah, it’s true. It happens all the time.

Steven Jack Butala:
You know what? It is easy for us and here’s why. This is a little off-topic, because Jill’s amazing on the phone. Doing a mailer and pricing a mailer is like drinking a glass of water for me. That didn’t happen the first time. I mean, I can’t describe to you the number of mistakes I made.
I don’t know about you, but the number of mistakes I made from the data perspective on my side of the sheet to get us to where we are now doing mailers, we don’t hold anything back. I tell you exactly how I do a mailer. That’s exactly what we instruct, but it doesn’t take long for me to do a 150,000-unit mailer. I think that, what did you say recently, if you have the right mindset and you kick some serious butt, you’re going to do great at this.
Each week on the show, we answer a question from our Land-Academy member Discord forum, and take a deep dive into a land-related topic by popular request from our Land-Academy community. Let’s take a question, Jill.

Jill K DeWit:
Okay. Oh, an LA-Pro member wrote this. Cool. M. “Hi, Jack. This is a note.” I was wondering where this person was at, because I’m going to have this person on a podcast.

Steven Jack Butala:
I know.

Jill K DeWit:
Okay, “This is a note to say thank you at my one-year mark in Land Academy. Below are my numbers.” Did they email this to you?

Steven Jack Butala:
Mm-hmm. She sent it to me directly because…

Jill K DeWit:
Oh, will you share it with me too, please?

Steven Jack Butala:
Sure. Sure.

Jill K DeWit:
Okay, good.

Steven Jack Butala:
Grab the mouse, Jill.

Jill K DeWit:
Okay. “Below are my numbers. I’m so grateful that all I’ve learned from you. Jill, Carl and Sam are our ambassadors. I joined Land Academy in early April, 2023 and then did Career Path 6. I mailed 10,000 units right before Career Path 6 started. 2023, April 1 to December 31, I mailed 94,896 letters. In 2023 I averaged 10,500 mailers a month, that’s what that came to. 2024 so far I have mailed 49,371 letters, so there I’ve averaged 9,900 mailers a month.”

Steven Jack Butala:
That’s four. We’re at four months into ’24.

Jill K DeWit:
Mm-hmm. “Then from all total like May 2023 to end of April 2024, revenue is $567,623. That was first year at Land Academy made half a million dollars, period.”

Steven Jack Butala:
When she says, “Revenue.” She means purchase price.

Jill K DeWit:
Yeah. Profit on the parcels is $268,046. This does not take into account all of the expenses.

Steven Jack Butala:
This is buy side, sell side?

Jill K DeWit:
“Since January 1st, 2024, my revenue has been 250,761.61.” She’s this good. “December through mid-March, I hit a really dry spell in getting properties into escrow. Since starting Land Academy, average profit per property average has been $24,337. When I first started, I bought five properties that were smaller, lower value that I would definitely walk from now. I also had four sales that had 49 to $50,000 profit each suite onward.” What a great thing.

Steven Jack Butala:
I’m going to bring up, I’m going to read between the lines and the numbers here and translate what I read out of this. Then, can you comment on the social piece, which is probably more important. She doubled her money and we’ve been saying this forever, buy For 60, sell for 120. Buy for 30, sell for 60.
That’s what Jill and I have attempted to do our entire career until about 18 to 24 months ago, where now we’re pretty much requiring that we make a 100 grand per deal, cash. It may or may not be twice the profit, but we want to make more per deal and do less deals, which we’ve been doing.
She has increased. She did almost a 100,000 mailers in calendar ’23, which costs about $60,000. There’s an upfront cost to this, that I don’t think people fully digest before getting into it. She’s not afraid of that. She has other businesses.
We know this person extremely well. She’s in a weekly meeting with us for LA-Pro members. Four months ended in ’24. She sent out 50,000 mailers so far. She’s way ahead. She’s increased the number of mailers that she’s sending out over last year. She’s doing everything right numbers-wise. She’s averaging 10,000 mailers a month. I think that’s a little light. I would take that to 15,000.

Jill K DeWit:
If she can handle it.

Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah, easily. And so, what she’s doing is looking at the numbers, part of this, increasing everything constantly, and then her dry spell did not knock her off the rails. If I had a nickel for every dry spell we’ve had.

Jill K DeWit:
I agree.

Steven Jack Butala:
Dry spells don’t-

Jill K DeWit:
It’s not real thing.

Steven Jack Butala:
…it doesn’t knock me off the rails, ever. I think it’s funny. I really do actually think it’s humorous when stuff happens.

Jill K DeWit:
What’s funny is too, when she says, “Dry spell.” That means I only did 6 deals instead of 10 this month or something like that, when I thought I was going to do 12. Everybody’s version of that is different. It’s not like everything’s shut down for three months, so yeah.

Steven Jack Butala:
That’s the numbers part of it, and she’s obviously got it licked and she’s micromanaging it. Now, what’s the magic sauce with her?

Jill K DeWit:
The magic sauce with her is what I’m going to talk about actually next week on my lady’s call. This ties right in. You have to go with this like a crazy person, put your head down. What’s interesting is about this individual, she came to us from another environment where she was wildly successful but they weren’t yielding the profits. It was really, really low numbers and stuff.
I’m so happy that she found us and she’s here and she’s a really good, successful member in LA Pro, so she uses our staff. My transaction coordinator is her transaction coordinator, and I know that she loves that, and that’s really helped taken a lot off her plate too.

Steven Jack Butala:
That wasn’t always the case. She did everything by herself. She’s a great addition to this whole operation and she’s really vocal. She’s constantly sharing positives and negatives with us within the group.

Jill K DeWit:
You know what else this is a thing about? This is a perfect example of my push, and to let you guys know, about this is one of the many successful Land-Academy ladies in our community and they are killing it. I can’t wait for something coming that will help inspire and push forward even more-

Steven Jack Butala:
What’s coming, Jill?

Jill K DeWit:
…females. I’m saving it. Just give it a minute. It’s coming.

Steven Jack Butala:
How many other female land-investing groups are there out there?

Jill K DeWit:
Let me think. Give me a minute, I’m going to think a little more. I can’t think of any.

Steven Jack Butala:
There’s zero.

Jill K DeWit:
There you go.

Steven Jack Butala:
Today’s topic, the five most asked questions by new Land-Academy members. All right, I took notes. These are the direct five and we’ll talk about it. This is what our intake people, when people call or send an email asking us about, “What, is this for real?” These are the five biggest questions and not in necessarily any order that we get. Number one, “How do I price a mailer?” If I had a nickel. Number two-

Jill K DeWit:
Well, come to Land Academy, that’s what we teach you. Next.

Steven Jack Butala:
Number two, “How many mailers does it take to get a purchase agreement?” Number three, “Is there an orientation group coming up?” Number four, “How long does it take to get a purchase agreement?” That’s twice now. Number five, “Can my partner share my membership?”
Number one, “How do I price a mailer?” Well, I’ll happily answer that in about 30 seconds. Pricing a mailer is what is about 30% of what you need to be learning before you do this successfully. The other 70% lies in what Jill does. There’s no such thing as a perfectly-priced mailer, it just doesn’t exist. Pricing a mailer that’s the most amazingly-priced mailer that could ever happen, will do you absolutely no good if you’re not taking the calls. You send a mailer out and receiving the calls from the potential sellers and converting them into real-estate deals, but nobody asks that.
I have to take some personal responsibility, but here’s a question that I think you should call our people and ask them. “How do I take a call from somebody, that wants to sell their real estate and convert it into a real-estate deal?”

Jill K DeWit:
That’s Land Academy.

Steven Jack Butala:
That’s not on the list.

Jill K DeWit:
I know.

Steven Jack Butala:
Jill has all the answers to this stuff.

Jill K DeWit:
Exactly. You tell me what you want me to share or not share here.

Steven Jack Butala:
Here’s what I’m going to extract from these five questions. “How do I price a mailer? How many mailers do I get? How many mailers does it take to get a purchase agreement? Is there an orientation group, and can I share it with my partner?”

Jill K DeWit:
See, some of these are for people coming into Land Academy, and some of these are questions that clearly looks like they may be in Land Academy. Do you want me to one by one, knock these out?

Steven Jack Butala:
Well, just one second. When I read between the lines, what I hear is the profile of a potential member that’s asking these questions is I want to do it fast, I want to do a great mailer, and I want to collect some money. That’s a day-trader mentality. I want to beat the system. I want to buy the cheapest stuff that I can, sell it as fast as I can, and enjoy the money, and enjoy the profit and that’s just not what this is.
It’s not fast and easy. It’s what M, in the question earlier, that’s how you do this. It’s methodical. There’s several parts to it, and you have to answer the phone and you have to have a dynamic personality that just doesn’t know when to quit. Yeah, go ahead.

Jill K DeWit:
Okay, I will go through them. This is my version. Well, how do I price them? We covered that. This is all stuff. Well, let me first pause and notate that these are very different questions than we used to get when we launched Land Academy in 2015. Isn’t that funny? When we launched Land Academy back in 2015, nine years ago, it was like, “Who the heck are you guys? What are you talking about? How can you possibly make money on land and you’re not doing anything to it, and you must be subdividing or doing something like that.” It was all kinds of those.

Steven Jack Butala:
It’s like, what’s the trick?

Jill K DeWit:
It was those questions. It was so funny and they’re like, “What’s direct mail?” All kinds of things like that. It was so funny. I just think this is really cool that the word’s gotten out. If you’re here and you’ve been listening to us for a while, I mean, you know. You understand. You get it. Now it’s more like some of the nuances that are coming up and all the things that we talk about, you need to know that.
Coming to Land Academy, you’re going to be so coached and so taught and so comfortable. Hey, we have nine years of helping people now, not 90 months, whatever it was. Because even before we launched Land Academy, we were helping people along the way. We talked about that before. Just helping our peers, helping our customers, helping other wholesalers because it was like, I’m happy to share. There’s enough property to go around. You’re obviously mailing whatever region in the country and I’m in this region of the country. Why would I not share with you? There’s no reason not to, kind of thing.
That’s the big-picture thing. I guess, for me that’s the takeaway here. But to blip through these, if these are on your mind, I’m happy to help. And so, pricing mailer, we got that. I mean, like Jack just said, “That’s one of the biggest components to Land Academy.” How many millers does it take to get a purchase agreement? Well, you know what? For me, not as many as someone brand new, I’ll be honest with you. For me, not as many as someone that cannot speak on the phone and they’re a Debbie Downer kind of thing.
That’s again, things that we help you with in Land Academy. I have solutions for all these, but is there a secret sauce to that? Yeah, kind of is. There’s depending where you’re mailing, depending how you’re pricing, depending even on the property type, there’s a lot of nuances to this. All things we discuss heavily, like to the point of nausea in Land Academy, I promise.
Even in our Discord forum, you could come in right now to Discord and really talk about, you could probably search for a certain region or property type and acreage even. I bet you’re going to find someone that’s already had a discussion on this and you’re going to go like, “Ding, ding, now I know what to prepare myself as I’m doing this mailer right now today.”

Steven Jack Butala:
Wait, let’s start. How many mailers does it take to get to a PA?

Jill K DeWit:
Land, [inaudible 00:16:41], houses.

Steven Jack Butala:
I would not ask that question. I would say, “What do I have to do to make sure that my mailer yields purchase agreements?” Because you’re not going to do a mailer. You’re not going to sign up for Land Academy, learn how to do all this and learn how to price a mailer, send the mail out and then look at your watch. That’s not what you do.
All the calls, you’re going to take the calls and you’re going to convert. If you’re amazing like Jill is, your conversion rate from mailer to purchase agreement, and that’s the real juice of this. Converting that when the mailer goes out and converting it to deals, whatever that looks like for you. We know what it looks like for us. Your mailer does not yield a purchase agreement, you do.

Jill K DeWit:
I just had this conversation. We have a couple of new people on our staff, and I was talking to a new person, helping out with people wanting to join Land Academy and ask questions. I said, “Look everyone, when you’re talking to people and they’re asking some of these questions about how we do this,” and then also within Land Academy I share this, “I fully believe every darn, single person that is picking up the phone to call you wants to do business with you, hands down.”
You know what? How many mailers does it take to get a purchase agreement? I’m going to say one. You think I’m kidding? I’m going to say one because I won’t let them off the phone. If we’re not on the same page, we’re going to figure out if we can get on the same page. One of us doesn’t budge, if the only reason that’s what happened, so it takes me one mailer to get a purchase agreement.
You know what? I mean, that’s the thing. That’s the reality. Maybe it’s not their price or not my price, but I can get a purchase agreement. I can say, “Cross it off, write whatever number makes sense to you and send it to me, and I’ll see if I can make that work.”

Steven Jack Butala:
One.

Jill K DeWit:
One. That’s good. That’s going to be funny.

Steven Jack Butala:
We’re going to get 600 emails on this.

Jill K DeWit:
I know. They’re going to be like, “What?” That’s it. This is what I coached you and teach too, and I want to get you there or as close as I can to get you there.

Steven Jack Butala:
Drew brings up 2014 for a really good reason because back then… Or ’15, I guess, when we started instructing, when Land Academy, when we released it. There was very few people teaching this and there was nobody teaching this on the internet correctly. The nature of these questions have changed so much from what Jill described. Because there’s a lot of fly-by-night groups out there teaching about how to buy and sell land, largely because there’s other groups preaching this. “You’ve got to start an education company. You’ve got to start a membership company.”
And so, there are people that join our group, take our information and regurgitate it and then expect results. And so, the root of these questions is the reading between the lines. The core of it is, I’ve got to do these five things and I’m going to make a bunch of money. I’ve got to do a mailer, I’ve got to price it right. I’m going to get some purchase agreements and I’m going to buy it and then resell it and make money. That’s it. That’s just not this.

Jill K DeWit:
Well, I mean loosely those are the steps, but there’s 80 other steps of going in there.

Steven Jack Butala:
There’s an incredible amount of dynamic personality in between this that’s required.

Jill K DeWit:
If you don’t have it, we’ll help you with that. You can get it. All right, let’s move on. “Is there an orientation group coming up?” You know what’s interesting about this? I’m pivoting. I’ll tell you right now, I’m going to pivot.
We have a really good onboarding system and really good help and a really good support system, amazing within Land Academy. Showing you what to do and videos where you can step by step watch here, click here kind of stuff. I’m pivoting this to personal coaching because everyone’s asking for it.

Steven Jack Butala:
I agree. I’m glad to hear that.

Jill K DeWit:
Yeah. I’m just waiting for our new team to tell me when I can launch it. They’re like, “Not yet. Not yet. I’m not ready.” we’re going to get even better and it’s optional. If you want personal coaching, it’s there for you. If you don’t, you don’t, but so many people have asked for it, so we’re going to make that happen.
“How long does it take to get a PA?” Well, you know what? It could be hours. It could be minutes. I’ve been on the phone with people. They’re like, “What are you talking about, purchase agreement? What is this whole question about?” We sent out the mail and the seller calls me, the owner. They don’t know they’re a seller yet. The property owner calls me. We have a wonderful conversation. We agree on a price and maybe before I hang up, they sign it and scan it while we’re on the phone and they send it to me.

Steven Jack Butala:
Or take a picture.

Jill K DeWit:
Yeah. Yeah, exactly. It pops up on my cell phone and I say, “Great, I’m opening escrow right now. Susie at ABC Title will be calling you tomorrow morning.” “Great, thanks Jill.” It could be like that. Is it always like that? No, but it could be like that. You know what, and then honestly I think it should be like that.
This is part of my things that I’m talking about a lot this week with the land ladies and other things. We have the advanced call next week too, that I want to talk about. I’m seeing too many people take their time and get to it when they can. You know what? You’re not going to get a deal done if that’s your kind of term.

Steven Jack Butala:
You’re not going to get anything done in life if you do that.

Jill K DeWit:
You need to hang up the phone, have a next step with that person. How long is it to get a purchase agreement? Minutes and then it should be another maybe hour, if you don’t have a title company lined up, that you’ve got it over to them and the process has started.

Steven Jack Butala:
Here’s what we’re talking about, both of us. Here’s an actual example. The phone rings. “Ring. Ring.” You are on the other end, answer the phone. This-

Jill K DeWit:
I’m ready to role play. You do, “Ring. Ring.” I just-

Steven Jack Butala:
I’m going to do the wrong way, you do the right way.

Jill K DeWit:
I answer.

Steven Jack Butala:
Here’s how a data person would answer the phone. “Ring. Ring.” “Hello?” “I’m sorry, is somebody there?” “Yeah.” “I think you sent me a letter because you want to buy my property and you have a [inaudible 00:22:52].” “Yeah.” Silence. Silence. Silence.

Jill K DeWit:
Paper’s moving.

Steven Jack Butala:
“Well, do you want to buy it?” “Maybe. What does it say? How much did I offer?” You’re never going to get a real-estate deal done ever in your life if you answer the phone that way. In fact, you’re probably not going to get anything you want in life if you have that personality and talk like that. Hold on a second.

Jill K DeWit:
I have a whole thing now.

Steven Jack Butala:
All right, go ahead. Yours is going to be more positive than mine.

Jill K DeWit:
Turn that into a marriage proposal. I want to hear how does this individual function in life?

Steven Jack Butala:
I pictured myself getting married, not to you. This is you sitting at Applebee’s with a ring in your pocket. I pictured marrying a girl.

Jill K DeWit:
You just bought her the Oreo-cookie thing.

Steven Jack Butala:
It’s not what I want as much as I thought, but I pictured a girl that looks a lot different than you. But what do you say, how about will you marry me?

Jill K DeWit:
Is that what this is? You know what? This is your version of that. Well, I’m 30. Number four on my list of things to do in life is get married, and then below that is start a family. I guess I’m on number four-

Steven Jack Butala:
That’s a girl’s dream.

Jill K DeWit:
…and you’re sitting there, so you’re up, baby.

Steven Jack Butala:
I asked three girls earlier this week and they all said, “No.” So you’re my fourth choice.

Jill K DeWit:
What do you say? Every woman’s dream. Oh, and by the way, it’s my mom’s ring or my grandma’s ring. Yeah, I didn’t do anything.

Steven Jack Butala:
How do you answer the phone?

Jill K DeWit:
My mom made me do this because I’m 30. Maybe I’m 40.

Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah, 40. Boys don’t have a 30 thing.

Jill K DeWit:
Okay, now 30. You’re 40, mom’s really getting anxious now.

Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah, she wants me to move out.

Jill K DeWit:
That’s the best.

Steven Jack Butala:
I tell you what-

Jill K DeWit:
That’s so good.

Steven Jack Butala:
…we joke about this. Both of our sons are in somewhat committed relationships, and I swear, they went from boys to men about two weeks after they met these girls. Will they end with these girls? Probably not, but it doesn’t matter, they’re just better. They’re men.

Jill K DeWit:
The girls are making them better men. They’re on their own, they’re self-sufficient. It’s great. One’s 25 and one’s 20. It’s awesome. Okay. Back to, do you want me to do a role play the right way or we got that covered?

Steven Jack Butala:
Sure. Ring. Ring.

Jill K DeWit:
Okay. This is Jill.

Steven Jack Butala:
Hi. I think you sent me a letter to purchase one of my properties in Apache County?

Jill K DeWit:
I did. Well, what can you tell me about it?

Steven Jack Butala:
I inherited it from my father and I think he inherited it. I’m not sure how he got it. Obviously, we’re not going to use it, but the offer that you sent, I do want to sell it but the offer that you sent, it’s not going to work for us.

Jill K DeWit:
All right, well let me look it up. Do you have some of the information on it? Blah. Blah. Blah. Blah, blah.

Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah, it’s AB and X, Y, Z.

Jill K DeWit:
Exactly. All right, so here I’m looking at it right now. I have a question about access. I can’t tell if the road’s on it. Have you ever been there?

Steven Jack Butala:
No. No. I don’t think my dad was ever there.

Jill K DeWit:
Okay. Tell you what I’m going to do. I’m going to put some time into this and I want to look this up and see what we can do here. Now given what you know about me, I’m a sweet… By the way, this is Jill, I’m the owner, so whatever deal you and I make, this is a deal. What’s going to be on your check?

Steven Jack Butala:
Well listen, I don’t have to sell this and I’m not interested in a low-ball offer, but we’re not going to use it.

Jill K DeWit:
I understand. All right. Well, let me just ask you this then. You got my offer and you just made it clear to me that that doesn’t work.

Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah, $2,800 is not going to work.

Jill K DeWit:
All right. Well what is the number? Again, keeping in mind who I am and I’ve already explained how the transaction’s going to go. Blah. Blah. Blah. What is the number that is your rock bottom, hey, for this, I’m happy to walk away number and I’ll see if I can make it work. Keep in mind I’m cash, fast, blah, blah. I’m going to pay for all this stuff. Blah. Blah. Blah.

Steven Jack Butala:
How long would the whole thing take?

Jill K DeWit:
Oh my gosh, I’m doing so many deals. I shouldn’t say that. I have Suzie at ABC Title ready to go. I can get this done in 10 days.

Steven Jack Butala:
Well, what can you really pay us then?

Jill K DeWit:
I gave you a number. My number’s $2,800. What is a number that really makes sense to you and I’ll see if I can make it work.

Steven Jack Butala:
I have to check with my wife. $2,800 is not completely out of the question, if you can do it quickly, and Christmas is coming.

Jill K DeWit:
Exactly.

Steven Jack Butala:
My wife’s, by the way, has been bothering me about this for two years. I don’t think it’s the land that bothers her. I just think it’s a thing on a list of things that we should be doing at our age that we have to take off the list.

Jill K DeWit:
Oh boy, do I understand. You should see our garage. My poor husband has his own version of this going on, so I can totally relate to you, Mr. Jones. All right. I’m going to make this so easy and so painless. You know what? I’m going to go look at this $2,800. Now we’re on the same page about that number.
Give me 24 hours, I’m going to check a couple of things with the county and double-check this access and fill in the blank and I’m going to call you tomorrow. What’s the best time for you and what’s the best number for me to reach you at?

Steven Jack Butala:
I have to tell you that we get three or four of these letters every quarter, let’s say, maybe one or two a month. “You’re the only person that has ever answered the phone.”

Jill K DeWit:
That’s too bad. I understand. I’m going to do this for you and we’re going to make this easy. By the way, have you thought about what you want to do with the dough besides just get your wife off your back about it?

Steven Jack Butala:
How’s tomorrow at noon?

Jill K DeWit:
Okay. You got it. I will call you then. Thank you, Mr. Jones.

Steven Jack Butala:
Thanks very much.

Jill K DeWit:
Okay, bye.

Steven Jack Butala:
That’s how I convert a real estate deal.

Jill K DeWit:
By the way, you don’t have to talk for 20 minutes. There’s times to ask closed-ended questions because now we’re getting into sales. We need to go there. We could have a whole other podcast on this. There’s closed-ended questions that you should ask, and then there’s open-ended questions you should ask.
When you ask a few of those quick, open-ended questions about, “What do you know about the property?” Watch this flood of information. Sometimes they share information that you’re like, “I don’t think I want to share that.” I already got paid out because dad let a telephone, whatever company, put a cell tower on the back area and it’s not blocking anything, so dad already got 80 grand for it.” I’m like, “ka-ching, now I know that.” There’s lots of stuff.

Steven Jack Butala:
Here’s a world that we live in right now, according to me. Everybody has got their guard up as soon as they leave the front door. And so, whether you run into somebody when you’re running into the gas station to pay, everybody’s first reaction including that the store clerk or me even and probably you is, “Is this the person that just cut me off on the road? How am I going to be disappointed today? What’s going to go wrong?”
And so, when these people call back, they need to be disarmed. Jill completely disarmed me in that call, and within just a few minutes was starting down the path of establishing trust. Two more phone calls like that, so now I’m ready to take her phone call back because she’s not one of those people that I have to be worried about.
She’s not the person that cut me off on the way to the grocery store. She’s not the real angry store clerk. If I was a store clerk, I’d be angry too, by the way. She’s just not a bad person. Step by step by step, that 2,800 bucks that we offered, she’s going to get it for that, or maybe it’s 3,000 just to get the deal done.

Jill K DeWit:
Maybe. I’m happy with that.

Steven Jack Butala:
She disarmed the whole scenario and started down the path of trust. In two more phone calls, they’re going to be talking about grandchildren and what the weather is and the mechanics of the deal, if that. That’s how you do it, not my way.

Jill K DeWit:
The last one, ‘Can my partner share my membership?” Yeah, we have partnership opportunities. You just need to call and talk to my staff. There’s a way that we can work that out. We have husband, wife. We have siblings. We have partners in the same state, partners in different states. Whatever your situation is, we have a solution for all that. No problem.

Steven Jack Butala:
Excellent. I started down this rabbit hole then, about these five things that people ask. I asked the guy who runs our mailing company, same thing. Offers2Owners is the name of our mailing company, about what potential members ask. What are the top five questions?
Number one, “How many mailers does it take to yield a deal?” Same question. One of the same questions for Land Academy. Number two, “Is a land-investing community over-saturated?” I’ll answer that in a second. Number three, “How much money do I need to start?” Number four, “How do I pick a county to send mail?” Number five, “Do I need a membership to actually send land mailers through Offers2Owners?”

Jill K DeWit:
These are great. This is Q&A jumble today of all kinds of different things, so I love it.

Steven Jack Butala:
We’re going to be redundant here. How many mailers does it take to yield a deal? That depends on you. I’m going to give you some real numbers. When I started this, it was about 500 to 1. When we started Land Academy it was about 800 to 1, but these are deals that were with a property that was entirely and completely unusable. We didn’t have data the way that we have now. We had no mapping systems. This was before Google Earth, so we had no idea where it was and neither did the seller, by the way.
People that were getting my mailers, this is back in real early 2000s, they didn’t know where the property was. All they knew back then is that they were sick and tired of paying the real-estate taxes twice a year. Our yield was great, but the quality of properties that we were getting because we couldn’t research them, we would just buy anything. We would buy anything at all. They came back and would sign, and we would do the deal.
Then, we’d resell it and they would buy anything because they couldn’t resell it. These are not the good, old days. The good old days are right now. Everybody’s got an incredible amount of information. Everything is transparent.
There’s no more dart boards. I wonder what’s going to happen with this real estate deal? Now you know What’s going to happen. And so, those are the bottom-yield numbers right when we started. The yield for us now under our criteria, just you and I, is probably to make a 100,000 is maybe 10, 15,000 mailers. For M it was what? What did she say?

Jill K DeWit:
10 a month.

Steven Jack Butala:
10,000 a month to do a deal.

Jill K DeWit:
I think ours are lower than that, but I’ll let you go with that number.

Steven Jack Butala:
Do you know how many deals we turned down?

Jill K DeWit:
That’s the thing.

Steven Jack Butala:
How many transactions that are viable transactions?

Jill K DeWit:
I can’t accurately ask this question because I don’t buy them all that come at me. I don’t.

Steven Jack Butala:
I just talked to somebody who’s pretty active in the group and they said, “All we want to do is make $5,000 a transaction.” If that’s you and you have a personality like you just heard Jill on that theoretical phone call, you are going to kill it in this environment. You are going to knock it out of the park. If you want to make an extra $60,000 doing 10 or 12 deals a year, you’re going to smash it. Yield is all relative. It depends on your personality. It depends on your threshold.

Jill K DeWit:
If you pick a good area, by the way.

Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah, you pick a good area, which we go through all the stuff-

Jill K DeWit:
We teach you.

Steven Jack Butala:
…and your threshold. If you want to make 5 or $10,000 more a month, you’re going to do extremely well. Notice I didn’t say how well you price your mailer because that’s going to happen anyway. For whatever reason, it has been since we started this, the number one question. It’s, I think, one of the things you should worry about the least. Is the land investing community oversaturated, Jill?

Jill K DeWit:
You know what I think? I feel bad. I think it’s thinning out a little bit. Sadly, I don’t. I know there’s a lot of people that want to be and they think they are, but they’re not sending mail.

Steven Jack Butala:
Or they’re not answering the phone.

Jill K DeWit:
That’s the bigger one.

Steven Jack Butala:
That’s what I think’s really happening.

Jill K DeWit:
Answering the phone, that’s a lot of it. We have so much property out there, I forget about it, it’s the funniest thing on the planet. I have a thing right now where this guy sent me a letter. I’m like, “You know what? He can have it.” It was one of the first people that actually followed through. By the way, ask me how many phone conversations we had.

Steven Jack Butala:
Two. How many? Zero? You haven’t even talked to this person?

Jill K DeWit:
No.

Steven Jack Butala:
Oh my God, Jill, you get a trophy for that.

Jill K DeWit:
Nope, it’s been emailed. I signed it and sent it right back and then they emailed me. They emailed me and we talked about a couple of questions. We talked about this in another podcast, so you’ve got to hear where we are right now. They emailed me stupid questions.
I lightly answered a couple and said, “Knock it off. Do your homework.” They emailed me back with some more stupid questions. I said, “You really need to knock it off and call me when you’re done because I’m not answering these stupid questions. This is your job to do this. If you want it for this price, you’re doing the homework, which that’s what I do, I’m expected. Knock it off.”
And so then they said, “We’re sending you an overnight envelope with a check in it.” Indeed. I said, “All right.” Right now I’m just waiting for the check to clear. Actually, I didn’t even tell my transaction coordinator, “Hey, their check showed up. I’m ready to send it back as soon as the check clears.” Isn’t that funny?

Steven Jack Butala:
I researched which property this is.

Jill K DeWit:
Oh, gee, I didn’t know.

Steven Jack Butala:
They’re getting a pretty good deal.

Jill K DeWit:
I know, I forgot about it. You know what? It’s too small for me anymore.

Steven Jack Butala:
I understand.

Jill K DeWit:
I feel bad.

Steven Jack Butala:
No, I’m not criticizing you at all you. You’re getting the deal done.

Jill K DeWit:
Well, just like M said before, earlier on the question, she’s like, ‘There’s some deals that now I wouldn’t even do anymore.”

Steven Jack Butala:
That’s what this is.

Jill K DeWit:
I know. That’s the thing, it’s like it’s too little money for me. Thank you, but no. Yeah, and you know what? This person is actually, I’ll be truthful too, they’re not even a member of Land Academy. I just like, “Oh, I just feel like doing a good thing. Here you go.”

Steven Jack Butala:
Is the land-investing community oversaturated? Well, let me put it to you this way. I’m going to estimate, and this directly preludes to the next question, the next five, number three. There are probably about a 1,000 people that are actively sending mail in this entire investment-land community.

Jill K DeWit:
I bet you that it’s a good number.

Steven Jack Butala:
I don’t mean Land Academy, I mean everyone that ever all-

Jill K DeWit:
Consistently.

Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah, I don’t even think consistently. I just think there’s active people that come in and out and all of that. Maybe a 1,000. There’s probably 2 or 300 that do it real consistently like Jill and I do. There are 1.6 million licensed real-estate agents in this country waking up in the morning and running around trying to get listings on houses.
Let that sink in. Is that over-saturated? It doesn’t seem to be because every real-estate agent I talk to is either making money hand over fist or almost out of business. The land-invested community is the same way, only the pot is a lot smaller. If you have the type of personality where you would do great as a real-estate agent or if you are a real estate agent and you’re doing great, you’re going to kill it here. It’s the same thought process and it’s the same, I’ve got to get up in the morning and schedule myself and have small, little goals, so it’s all the same thing. Number three.

Jill K DeWit:
Well, I just was going to add a little something to that too. It’s sweet. I have a sweet, little, mousy girl that does my nails and she’s a real estate agent and she does this on this side. I said, “How many listings do you have right now?” She said, “Four.”

Steven Jack Butala:
Good for her.

Jill K DeWit:
Isn’t that sweet? I’m like, “Good for you.” I thought that’s-

Steven Jack Butala:
Did you asked her why they’re not sold?

Jill K DeWit:
We did. We had a long talk about it, and actually they’re doing great.

Steven Jack Butala:
This fascinates me.

Jill K DeWit:
Yeah, it’s really fast.

Steven Jack Butala:
We have enough time though, huh?

Jill K DeWit:
Well, I don’t remember all the exact details on all of them. One of them, they’re just getting ready to stage it. She’s talking to the person to stage it. Yeah. She’s actually moving them through the system. She’s actually doing a good job. I don’t remember all the details, but yeah, it’s good. I’m proud of her.

Steven Jack Butala:
Number three is how much money do I need to start? This is directly, again, associated with number two. For whatever reason, and I think this happens with everything on every type of business, people think that it should cost nothing and you should reap huge rewards, and so that’s just not the case. There’s risk reward.
To me, this business is really, really low risk. If you don’t want to put any money in, you like real estate and you just want to make 2 to 3 to $5,000 a month, that’s what being a real estate agent is. Go get your license. Don’t put any money in except for your association dues or whatever that costs. Hump, hump, hump as hard as you can. Work as hard as you can get a bunch of listings like Jill’s nail tech and make some money. Make 3 to 5 to $10,000 per deal and have a great life.
That’s not what this is. It costs money to do the mail. It costs money for education, if that’s the route that you choose, but it doesn’t cost money to do a real-estate deal. That’s what partners are for, and that’s one of the huge benefits of Land Academy.
Your job at Land Academy is to find an amazing real-estate deal by doing what Jill does on the phone. If you can get a signed purchase agreement and you’ve got $13 in your checking account, you’re going to go into the Land-Academy community and find somebody who funds deals. Hopefully it’s us. We’re going to buy the deal, pay a hundred percent of it and we’re going to split it with you, some percentage, split it with you so you can get on your way. You could do 10 or 15 deals under your belt and then you just don’t need us anymore. How much money do I need to start?

Jill K DeWit:
Need our money anymore.

Steven Jack Butala:
How much money do I need to start is you need money for mail. You need money to pay your rent or your mortgage just like you do anyway, and you need money if you choose for education and data and stuff. It’s not a hard-dollar amount. I don’t know, do you ever answer this question directly?

Jill K DeWit:
Absolutely.

Steven Jack Butala:
Go ahead.

Jill K DeWit:
If you have 5 to 10 grand, you could get started, preferably 10, but where else can you do anything for 10 grand, seriously. That’s my number, the tens, because then you could afford the education. You’ve got a couple of months of membership, which is basically to get you access to data, and you can afford to send out some mail.

Steven Jack Butala:
By the way, if it costs 5 to $10,000 to start this, number two question was, “Is it saturated?” That’s the reason this isn’t saturated because it costs some money to get into it.

Jill K DeWit:
True. Oh, that’s true.

Steven Jack Butala:
The reason that the real-estate-agent environment is grossly oversaturated is because it doesn’t cost any money to really get into it. You just have to take a $300 class, pass the test and spend 2 or $3,000 in association dues, so you can get access to the MLS.

Jill K DeWit:
That’s a light-bulb moment, actually. Good. I’m glad that it costs some money to get into this because you need to be serious about it.

Steven Jack Butala:
That’s what I think.

Jill K DeWit:
It’s going to weed out a lot of people because they can’t afford to send mail. That’s fine.

Steven Jack Butala:
If you were doing 10 or 12 deals a year and you want to do 3 or 400, this is great news for you. The fact that this costs some money is keeping a lot of people out of it.

Jill K DeWit:
True. Very true.

Steven Jack Butala:
Number four, “How do I pick a county to send mail? Where should I send mail?” We spend two chapters on this and to the point, I have what’s called a red-green-yellow test. There’s a process of trolling around on the internet using Zillow and realtor.com. And then going through the red-green-yellow test I explain it in great detail.
Then in Career Path, which is our mastermind group, we do it all together. We do it to the point where everybody in the group is satisfied that they can do it on their own. Number five, “Do I need a membership to send land mailers, Jill?”

Jill K DeWit:
No, but it’s cheaper if you do.

Steven Jack Butala:
I haven’t done the math recently.

Jill K DeWit:
Well, can I go back and just cover this? This comes up a lot. Seriously, here’s the bottom line. You’re nuts if you’re going to invest a whole lot of money in mailers and you don’t know what you’re doing. I wouldn’t do that. It’s like I’m going to start fill in the blank. I can figure it out. I’m going to watch some YouTube videos. I’m going to wing it.
I don’t care what it is, I’m not even talking about what we do, don’t start anything unless you’re going to really give it a good go. Then if you’re going to give it a good go, do it right. Get some education because here what happens. You could spend, I don’t know, 5 to 10 years doing the school of hard knocks to get where we are. Or you could spend, I don’t know, 5 to 10 days and catch up by joining and watching education and going, “Wow, now I know what I’m doing.” That’s the difference, 5 to 10 days or 5 to 10 years. That’s my new slogan.

Steven Jack Butala:
Then I asked, this is an added bonus, the guy that runs Offers2Owners, our company, the mailing company. “If you’re an active member, are the questions any different?” If you’re a member of Land Academy, you’ve been around for who knows, a few months or maybe even a year, you’re about to do a mailer and here’s your five questions.
“How much does it cost?” Great question. You’ve got to be real conscious about mail costs. Number two, “What do successful investors do?” This is a question I would ask, so I’m going to translate this to this concept. I’m asking you, Jill, what are the five questions you would ask when you’re joining a new group? The first one that I would ask any new group is this exact question. “Give me the profile and give me as much detail, Jack and Jill, of the type of person who’s in the top 10% of the performers in your group.”

Jill K DeWit:
Agreed. What separates the men from the boys?

Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah, and do I have it? That’s really what I’m asking. What do successful investors do? Number one, they are people.

Jill K DeWit:
Well, wait a minute, are we answering the questions or you want to go through all five? Go through all five-

Steven Jack Butala:
I’ll come back to it, yeah.

Jill K DeWit:
…and then we’ll come back.

Steven Jack Butala:
Okay, good. Number three, “How often should I be sending mail?” Great question. Very good season question. Number four, “How long does it take to obtain and close my first deal?” Pretty good question. “How long does it take to get the ball rolling and started now that I’m a member?” Four and five are the same question.

Jill K DeWit:
Cool. All right. Is it the question, “How much does this cost?” That’s number one about mail.

Steven Jack Butala:
How much does a mailer cost?

Jill K DeWit:
Oh, that’s easy. Go to offers2owners.com and it’s right on the page.

Steven Jack Butala:
There’s two products. Number one, you’re doing stuff yourself, and number two, we do it for you and they’re priced differently. They’re between 65 cents and 98 cents per unit.

Jill K DeWit:
Something like that. Yeah.

Steven Jack Butala:
Now, if you’re listening to this in 2026, which is going to happen, the numbers are real different.

Jill K DeWit:
Or 2,036. Where are we going to be? Oh, 2036, this is going to rock. What if we’re still in these seats in 2036?

Steven Jack Butala:
You have a good sense of humor and you want to feel great about yourself, go back and look at what Jill and I looked like nine ago.

Jill K DeWit:
2016. 2015.. Exactly. Oh my gosh. My team, we were having a whole joke about that. I said, “You know what? You’ll not hurt my feelings if you want to do a whole collage of Jill’s hairstyles over the years. Go for it.” Bangs. No bangs. Light. Dark.

Steven Jack Butala:
“What do successful investors do? What’s the profile of somebody who really succeeds at this?” Number one, whatever they’ve done in life, they’ve already succeeded at it.

Jill K DeWit:
Mine’s two words, but go ahead.

Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah, go ahead.

Jill K DeWit:
You know what’s the thing about successful investors? No fear.

Steven Jack Butala:
That’s true.

Jill K DeWit:
That’s it. That’s all I got.

Steven Jack Butala:
If you had a chain of restaurants and you just sold them and you did well, you’re like, “Oh, thank God. Thank God I got out of that and I got a bunch of money.” You’re going to smash this out the park. If you just retired as a mechanical engineer and endured that, or an accountant or something technical, or a corporate sales. Or you’re halfway through that environment and you do well at it, and you’ve got an extra bunch of money. And your bills are taken care of and you need to do something on the side to make a bunch of money and have some fun, you’re going to smash this. If you are a successful parent you’re going to do well at this.
On the flip side of this, here’s a profile of somebody if you’re brand-spanking new at this and you answer the phone the way that I did earlier in the program, you’re not going to do well. You need education about sales and personality. Successful investors also, and here’s another component, it’s essential. I don’t care if you have been successful or not, you need to create a calendar for yourself, which we talk all about in the program, and stick to it.
We have what’s called Mailer Monday, and so you should spend a whole week working on a mailer or learning or whatever else. You give yourself a deadline by the end of the day on Monday to have it done and reviewed and submitted to Offers2Owners.

Jill K DeWit:
Look, our most successful Land-Academy people come at this like crazy people.

Steven Jack Butala:
Reckless mailing, that’s what I call it.

Jill K DeWit:
That’s it. By the time they join on Friday, they consume it all Saturday and Sunday, and on Monday they’re sending something to Offers2Owners to get in the mail. That’s it. I just got it. That’s a flat-out fact. If you came at this like that, then there’s no stopping you.

Steven Jack Butala:
Do you have that personality?

Jill K DeWit:
Oh my gosh, yes.

Steven Jack Butala:
So do I.

Jill K DeWit:
Yeah. “How often should I be sending mail?” I like this. This is a good question too.

Steven Jack Butala:
You should be doing a mailer a month, and in the very beginning, you should ask Offers2Owners to cut it up somehow. So that you’ve got 10 or 15,000 units of data that is submitted, priced, and done. And you can ask them to cut it up into week by week or biweekly, bimonthly, twice a month. You won’t have to do that in the future. If you want to hone your phone skills, once a month is the answer.

Jill K DeWit:
Excellent. “How long does it take to obtain and close my first deal?” Well, shucks, as fast as you want it. I mean, I’ve had deals come in that first day. Not kidding. Every person in Land Academy that’s been here more than a year will say the same thing. They’re like, “Yeah, the call came in. I knew the area. I loved it. We made the deal. I’m up in escrow the next day.”

Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah. What you’re shooting for is cash. 30 days, cash in, cash out. 30 days, buy for 50, sell for 90. That’s the budget.

Jill K DeWit:
For 50?

Steven Jack Butala:
For 40 or 50, sell for 90 with some number.

Jill K DeWit:
Okay, but yeah, I’m still going to try to double my money. I like to buy for 30 and sell for 90.

Steven Jack Butala:
I know you do, Jill.

Jill K DeWit:
I’m a nut about that. Isn’t that hilarious? He says, “This is fine. We can do it like that.” I’m like, “Mm-mmm, I want more wiggle room.” And I get it. “How long does it take to get the ball rolling and started now that I’m a member?” Well, what are you doing today?

Steven Jack Butala:
It’s the same question.

Jill K DeWit:
It’s like, yeah, what are you doing today?

Steven Jack Butala:
It takes as long as you allow it.

Jill K DeWit:
What was our sweet gal the other day? It was a woman, it was very sweet. I want to say it was Jennifer. I can’t remember now. Please don’t shoot me if I say it wrong, but on our last week’s member call she said, “Well, here goes another lost Sunday.” To which we said, “Cheers to many lost Sundays because you have a few lost Sundays and you’re going to be rich.”

Steven Jack Butala:
There’s a long, long list of multimillionaires that have lost a lot of Sundays, let’s put it that way. If it’s not apparent enough, we have a full-blown mailing company called Offers2Owners.com, where we will do your mailer for you. Or we will process the documents that you create as instructed at Land Academy, and get your mailer out and get it done right. Millions and millions and millions of mailers we send out every year. We have a lot of experience at this. We’re the most experienced in the country at doing this. This is the only thing that-

Jill K DeWit:
Because this one started it. We’re all of them.

Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah, because we got frustrated with regular, commercial printers. We don’t do catalogs. We don’t do four-color bleed. We don’t do any of that stuff. We send Offers2Owners, that’s all we do, so check us out on the internet.

Jill K DeWit:
Don’t forget too, go to LandAcademy.com if you want to find out more. Learn more about us, learn more about the program, or schedule a call and talk to my team.

Steven Jack Butala:
Join us next Wednesday for another interesting episode. You are not alone in the real-estate ambition.

Jill K DeWit:
Oh, sorry. I’m all confused because I was expecting another thing and I had my notes out. Sorry.

Steven Jack Butala:
Oh, go ahead. I’m sorry, Jill.

Jill K DeWit:
No. I thought we were going to do this last little part.

Steven Jack Butala:
Oh, yeah, go ahead. You have some inspiration to share.

Jill K DeWit:
Hey, we’re going to back up a minute here because I actually brought notes today.

Steven Jack Butala:
It’s the first time in 2,000 episodes.

Jill K DeWit:
Oh, hilarious. That’s so funny. Oh, gosh. No. I was preparing for the show today, and I’m just going to talk for just a minute about this. My last, little nugget because it’s really high on my list, and I’m really noticing a trend of people not doing this.

Steven Jack Butala:
Oh, it’s probably me.

Jill K DeWit:
Not kidding. This is the one thing that’s separating the men from the boys.

Steven Jack Butala:
I’m afraid.

Jill K DeWit:
No, they’re not crazy people. You need to go at this like a crazy person. I have three little things to say about that. Number one, you’ve got to prepare yourself. How do I be a crazy person? What are you talking about, Jill? How do I make this work and come at it like that?
Well, you know what you do, you prepare yourself and preparing yourself is getting everything, all your ducks in a row. Clearing your calendar. Clearing your plate. Clearing your mind. Surrounding yourself with the right people and having a checklist of steps that you need to do to go from zero to deal close, and that we have all that in Land Academy for you. Number two, you need to prepare your family and friends. I’m not kidding.

Steven Jack Butala:
This is good, Jill.

Jill K DeWit:
Thank you.

Steven Jack Butala:
This is good stuff.

Jill K DeWit:
Your wife, your spouse, your partner, whoever’s in world, they need to be on the same page. They need to be prepared to know that we’re not going to take a trip this month or maybe this year. This is all stuff that we’ve done.

Steven Jack Butala:
I love this stuff.

Jill K DeWit:
This is how I know this.

Steven Jack Butala:
This is our life.

Jill K DeWit:
This is our life. We’re not doing this this year. We’re not doing this this month. We’re not doing this this summer. Whatever it is, this weekend, daddy’s going to be… The family too. It’s your whole circle and your friends. Look, we’re not going dark on you because we don’t like you. We’re going dark on you because we’re working on something really important for our family.

Steven Jack Butala:
Well, some of you are. We are.

Jill K DeWit:
Well, that’s true. You could use this for an excuse for that too. Anyone you don’t like, tell them this is why. No, but the truth is you need to prepare people and we’ve done that. I had a conversation with somebody about this on the phone just the last couple of days. I said, “Look, do you know what happened while we were doing Land Academy?” I was on a different level in our home at the time. You were downstairs doing the bulk of the writing and the recording and the editing for the original Land Academy. What was I doing? I was upstairs buying and selling land, putting food on the table, keeping food on the table.
You know what else my other job was? Because what he was doing was so important, mine I had down. His was new and important. There’s a big learning curve. I’m bringing him a sandwich now and then and making sure he had everything you need. I’d come down and check the thermostat. “Are you sweating? Can I get you water, tea? What do you want?”

Steven Jack Butala:
This is not gender-specific. I just cut up an apple for you because we’re recording during lunchtime.

Jill K DeWit:
Very true. Well, this is where this came up because there’s a member in Land Academy whose wife is really the rock star in their environment. I’m like, “She needs to hit because she’s the person that’s the best on the phones.” That’s the whole thing. Their whole company is dependent on her getting these deals done.
I just had to rip the Band-aid off and say, “She needs to do this.” How can we do this for her because she’s also the primary breadwinner right now. I said, “You need to meet her at the door and rub her feet and hand her a drink. And get her ready tomorrow morning to get up and call back some people and make these deals happen before she goes to her other job.”

Steven Jack Butala:
That’s great advice.

Jill K DeWit:
That’s the thing, so that’s preparing everybody. Then my number three is flip the switch and don’t look back. Now we can end the show.

Steven Jack Butala:
I have something inspirational to share. I would like you, if you’re a movie buff, to go watch the movie, Snack Shack. It is on Amazon. I don’t know, it might be in the theater too, but it’s new. It’s about two 14-year-old boys from the Midwest. I think they’re from Nebraska.
I’ve watched it twice now, and all I see is myself in both of those boys. It’s all in the spirit of these kids are born entrepreneurs and they have a snack shack during the summer. There’s a 1,000 things that happen to them, most of them they cause themselves because they’re 14, that almost ensure they’re not going to be successful and they smash it.

Jill K DeWit:
I love it. That’s a great movie. You made number three watch that. I saw that, it’s so good.

Steven Jack Butala:
Join us next Wednesday for another interesting episode, You’re Not Alone In Your Real Estate Ambition.

Jill K DeWit:
We are Jack and Jill.

Steven Jack Butala:
We are Jack and Jill. Information-

Jill K DeWit:
And inspiration.

Steven Jack Butala:
…to buy undervalued property.

Thanks for listening, and finally, don’t forget to subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts.

The post 5 Most Asked Questions by New Land Academy Members (LA 2004) appeared first on Land Academy.

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Join Steven Jack Butala and Jill K DeWit on The Land Academy Show for episode number 2003, where they delve into Four Land Flipping Business Changes essential for thriving in the 2024 Economic Downturn. As experienced real estate professionals, Steven and Jill share invaluable insights and strategies to ensure your success amidst economic challenges. Don’t miss out on this essential guide to navigating the changing real estate landscape!

Transcript:

Steven Jack Butala:
I am Steven Jack Butala.

Jill K DeWit.:
And I’m Jill DeWit, and this is The Land Academy Show.

Steven Jack Butala:
This is episode number 2003. We are calling it Four Land Flipping Business Changes to Capitalize on the 2024 Economic Downturn.

Jill K DeWit.:
That’s a mouthful.

Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah.

Jill K DeWit.:
Can you say that five times fast?

Steven Jack Butala:
Well, here’s the gist. There’s economic downturn. We’re in it and it’s going to affect real estate. It’s already pretty dramatically affecting commercial real estate. And we want to make sure that when you, you’re buying and selling land, capitalize on this and you’re not victim to it. And that’s what the show is really about.

Jill K DeWit.:
We lost a lot of people… Not a lot of people. I shouldn’t say that. We watched some of our friends/competitors back in the day not recover. And that’s what I am watching already start to happen. I’m watching people leave. They’re not getting it. They’re not making adjustments. They’re not ready for it. And since you have done this a couple of times, I’ve done this more than one time with you or one time with you. So, this is really why you’re here. You’re listening to this because we’re not new to this. We’re not brand new. And yes, it’s really our real gray hair.

Steven Jack Butala:
This is my third real estate recession or real recession in my professional life, my fourth in my actual life. And I’ve learned a lot and I love to share it with you because you can avoid a lot of pain.

Jill K DeWit.:
True.

Steven Jack Butala:
So, before we start, you have some news.

Jill K DeWit.:
I do. Well, so here’s the deal-

Steven Jack Butala:
And it’s fascinating to me.

Jill K DeWit.:
All right, so instead of doing a question today, I wanted to take a few minutes and talk about something different. So, I was reading our local little newspaper. And you’re going to love this as I hold this up. You’re like, “What? Jill, why are you holding a piece of paper in your hands? Do you get the paper?” No, I do not. But I have to tell you, I don’t order the paper. I don’t think it’s fufu. I like the paper, but I don’t get the newspaper. But because where we happen to live and because I think the median age in our area is about 80 or 90.

Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah, I think 87.

Jill K DeWit.:
Yeah, 86. There is still a sweet little pretty in-depth local newspaper that we get for free every week in our mailbox. And I read the paper, because again, there’s some good information in there. So, I’m reading this article done by a local resident, and he is in houses, in real estate doing houses. And he got connected with a guy in England and he wrote a neat article with a top performer in England, an agent over there. And he was sharing the differences on how real estate is done in England versus the United States, and I just loved it. And this comes right at a perfect time because we all are all watching and hearing about the NAR and this big fine and, oh my gosh, are they going to take away sellers agents or buyer agents? Are they going to change the commissions? What’s going to happen and how’s this going to go? And I wanted to shed some light on this too because it’s so interesting to me how they do things versus how we do things. And I’m going to argue, I like theirs better.

Steven Jack Butala:
Me too.

Jill K DeWit.:
And let me tell you why. There’s 20 things, I’m not going to read all 20, but I’ll get close to 20 because they’re so interesting. So, number one, the commissions in England… Think about our commissions, 3% and 6%, right? That’s what we’re all used to. Hey, we do land deals.

Steven Jack Butala:
10%.

Jill K DeWit.:
Exactly. I was just going to say, sometimes it’s 10%. So, commissions there are typically 1% to 1.5%. I love it. And it’s payable by the seller to the estate agent who advertises the property. And by the way, the better the agent, of course the higher commission, generally speaking. I think that’s brilliant. I love it. The buyer is usually unrepresented, but there are a few special buying agents. Sometimes there are people who have buying agents, and it’s really only when they’re very rich and they need to find a certain property. Totally understand that. That makes sense. I can’t go out and see it myself. It’s optional if I want to get my own agent-

Steven Jack Butala:
Or I live in Monaco.

Jill K DeWit.:
Yeah, I do my own thing. This is one of the things I love too. Caveat emptor applies here. Sellers in England, unlike here, they’re under no obligation-

Steven Jack Butala:
By the way, we’ll get to this recession thing at some point.

Jill K DeWit.:
We will. To reveal defects in the property. How interesting that most of them are honest, like how we do it, I’m really honest. If I know it, I share it, but there’s no law against that. There’s no title companies, no title insurance. How amazing is that? There’s no MLS. That’s amazing too. That’s a lot of what these fees go for. What pays for MLS, the ads? Real estate fees?

Steven Jack Butala:
No, the National Association of Realtors Estate. It’s all-

Jill K DeWit.:
I had to think about that for a second.

Steven Jack Butala:
It’s their association dues.

Jill K DeWit.:
They pay for all the MLS?

Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah.

Jill K DeWit.:
Okay. Yeah, parties can back out at anytime until they exchange the actual contracts, which are really usually done about a week before they close. I thought that was really interesting. Prices change… Both the buyer and the seller come to the table with their own attorneys to close a deal. Remember, because there’s no title agents and no escrow agents, they do it all. And each one has their own solicitor. They represent each person individually, and I love it. Of course, each solicitor has a fiduciary’s responsibility and duty to each individual client. I think that’s the greatest thing. It’s really interesting when you think about how we do deals here where you might have one agent who is representing the seller and then also representing a buyer. How can they have a duty to each one? They can’t. It’s really not possible.
So, this is a huge one for me. Estate agents in England have no required education and are not licensed. Anyone can wake up and decide they’re estate agent just by calling themselves one. I think that’s awesome. No formal contracts required. Often, these offers are made by phone calls. This is a huge one for us because we do deals so flipping fast. Deals over there typically take three to five months, and a lot of things fall apart because of that in that time. And they find out things and they get out of it. Like, yep, I get it. They have no fixed-rate mortgages for more than five years. Most of their mortgages are variable rates, which is really wild. So, they might have a fixed-rate for a short period of five years, that’s it. Remember, we have 30 year fixed? That’s not a thing over there. There’s no government guarantees on these loans and nothing like FHA, VA, Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. Down payments are high, they usually pay 10% to 25%. So, that’s kind of it. But I just thought that was so-

Steven Jack Butala:
My take away from this whole thing is that you have a lot more choices as a buyer and a seller of real estate in England than you do here. And I have to ask myself in general in life, when are less choices better? We always want more choices and more freedom.

Jill K DeWit.:
Of course.

Steven Jack Butala:
This whole country was founded on that. For whatever reason, over the years, probably since the 1950s, the National Association of Realtors realized, correctly, that there’s a lot of money in real estate and they want a piece of it. And the contracts have grown to a point now where you’re interested in buying a piece of real estate and you start signing your names to things. The more signatures you sign, the more pieces of paper you sign, the further down that tunnel you go into making a commitment to buy it regardless of the outcome. And I can’t think of another business where that happens.

Jill K DeWit.:
Isn’t that awful? I changed my mind. What do you mean?

Steven Jack Butala:
[inaudible 00:08:18].

Jill K DeWit.:
It’s like I picked up something in the store and I put it back down, “Mm-mm. It’s yours.”

Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah, you touched it.

Jill K DeWit.:
Yeah. What the heck? I changed my mind.

Steven Jack Butala:
I can’t think of another business where that’s appropriate, and so-

Jill K DeWit.:
I agree.

Steven Jack Butala:
Now, what we’re seeing if you’re up on the news is some landmark rulings from the Supreme Court saying, “We’re going to undo this.”

Jill K DeWit.:
Yeah, you’re right.

Steven Jack Butala:
“We’re going to start down the path of undoing this because people need to be individually represented, buyers and sellers and real estate agents make too much money.”

Jill K DeWit.:
Well, it’s just not fair that I have to do all this stuff. I don’t want to. So, I could go on and on.

Steven Jack Butala:
So, the name of the show today is Four Land Flipping Business Changes To Capitalize on the 2024 Economic Downturn. We want to share with you today, Jill and I, our pretty in-depth experience being experts at buying and selling land for, geez, 30 years now, how we have dealt with and what I think you should do to deal with the economic downturn that’s actually here now and probably going to affect real estate more probably for the next three years.
Here’s the good news. Your business, this business model that Jill and I have put together over the last 10 years, really 30 years, is all set up to thrive in a downturn market anyway. Our regular business model during the good or bad times is buy a piece of property, a piece of land for 20% of its retail value, 20% to 25%, and sell it between 40% to 50% of its retail value. So, that’s the goal. You got $100,000 piece of property, the person just doesn’t want it anymore. You send a ton of offers out, you buy it for 20,000, 25,000 bucks, sell it for 50,000 to 60,000. And the person that buys it from you walks away shaking their head about how great of a deal it was. And so, it’s a garage sale model.You’re buying a piece of property or you’re buying a bunch of stuff that’s way undervalued, just out of convenience for the seller. And it happens very consistently. Jill and I do a ton of deals, and so do the Land Academy. Our Land Academy members do also. So, you’re set up for this. That’s the good news.
I can tell you this from experience that all recessions have one thing in common, they all end. And as a younger person, the second recession around 2009, I was convinced it was just over. And I hear younger people in our group and our children actually say, “Well, I guess we missed it. The market’s gone. The properties, they all rose in value and-“

Jill K DeWit.:
I can never afford to buy a house.

Steven Jack Butala:
“I couldn’t do it, so it’s over.” And that’s just not the case. This is all going to happen again. Interest rates are going to go back down. A lot of people will drop out of the market because of these recessions. These recessions are cleansing, so to speak.

Jill K DeWit.:
That’s good.

Steven Jack Butala:
And they’re cleansing for people that are set up to stick around and weather the storm. So, they will end. This will end. The key is what do you do while it’s happening to capitalize on it, which is what the show is about.
So, very quickly, here’s the four points on how to survive this thing and then Jill and I will go into detail on it. Number one, batten down the hatches to weather the storm. So, I’m going to tell you what’s going to happen here within reason or in general and what we do to change our life and our businesses, so that we can manage this, we can weather the storm, and ultimately, thrive during it. Number two, you need to change the type of land that you buy and what you’re willing to pay. We’ll cover that. Number three is the message you are delivering to potential buyers.
It’s not just about location and quality right now. You have to really seriously deliver a message that my loss is your gain, even though that’s not the case. And then number four, and perhaps the most important in my opinion is you need to have somebody in your corner, professionally or personally, like I have Jill-

Jill K DeWit.:
Very sweet.

Steven Jack Butala:
… that is standing shoulder-to-shoulder through this thing and you’re not banging heads with that person because it’s going to get tough. You’re on the bow of a boat during a storm. That’s no time to argue with the person that’s trying to hold on for life, just like you are.

Jill K DeWit.:
Tack.

Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah, tack. Here’s what’s happening. Why is this recession happening? Why do recessions happen? Well, all kinds of stuff is going on. Inflation went nuts. If you haven’t been to the grocery store lately, inflation went nuts. Inflation in general in my opinion-

Jill K DeWit.:
Eggs.

Steven Jack Butala:
… happens because governments print a ton of money to hedge off inflation, and then it catches up. So, that’s what happened. The last two administrations printed a ton of money, and it made the value of the dollar less. And so, other stuff now increased in value because that purchasing power of that same dollar is less. That’s my summary of what happens, inflation. That happened. We’re in an election year and I don’t care which side you’re on.

Jill K DeWit.:
That’s always fun.

Steven Jack Butala:
Nobody likes it. Nobody likes to get all involved in that and the polarization of it and all. That’s not good for business, period.

Jill K DeWit.:
It’s not fun.

Steven Jack Butala:
Very specifically, and this is unique to this recession and imperative in my opinion, we had a long, long stretch of 3% mortgage rates, three-ish percent mortgage rates. Many people bought real estate and they bought it because of COVID. COVID just threw this incredible demand for real estate that was coupled with 3% mortgages, so people were buying second homes, buying land when they can finance it, moving because they didn’t have to go to work anymore. So, there’s a strange perfect storm of three or four things that happened. So-

Jill K DeWit.:
This is good.

Steven Jack Butala:
… a lot of lenders were leery of, and rightfully so, doing 15-year and 30-year fixed mortgages. So, instead, they did three and five-year adjustable-rate mortgages, which simply means your interest rate on your mortgage is three or five years. At the end of that period, it becomes a variable rate mortgage and then it will adjust to, she just alluded to this in England, adjust to the actual rate. So, you have a 3% mortgage for three years and now it’s 7% or 6% or whatever the terms of the agreement are. So, here’s the math on that. On a $300,000 mortgage, every month you’re paying at 3%, $750 of your payment goes to interest. When your mortgage moves from 3% to 6%, that $1,700 becomes $1,500. So, in the simplest terms, your payment might be $1,200 in the beginning because you’ve got insurance in there and real estate taxes, PMI, PITI. Principal interest, taxes, insurance. So, that $1,200 payment, that interest portion of that’s going to double, so $1,200 becomes $1,900.
That’s a lot to chew. So, you’re going along in life and you’re paying $1,200 one month because people don’t read their mortgages. They don’t know this stuff’s going to happen. Nobody gets a phone call and says, “Your mortgage is going up.” It happens that month. Your salary didn’t change, your life didn’t change at all. In fact, during these down times, you’re wondering if your job’s secure anyway. So, that’s enough to push a lot of people over to say, “You know what? I’m going to sell,” or, “We’re going to go move back into our parents’ house,” or whatever ends up happening. In those life events, which we preach at Land Academy, life events trigger people to choose to sell their real estate. And so, huge life events are going to happen for the next 24 to 36 months. This is one of the big ones. And so, that’s why this recession is happening. It’s causing people to choose to sell. Interest rates are real high, which are not making new buyers real excited about buying property. All of this turmoil spells thriving for us.

Jill K DeWit.:
We were also looking today, we did our weekly member call. We were looking at some statistics about how sellers, they are accepting less money probably on their home sales too, to account for these interest rates. That’s kind of a bummer too.

Steven Jack Butala:
Banks have been through this too. The last thing a bank wants to do, strangely enough, is take back a house for lack of payment.

Jill K DeWit.:
Yeah, I’m going to sell my house up-

Steven Jack Butala:
They’re not set up for it. They want to-

Jill K DeWit.:
Because you imagine they can’t qualify at this, so I rock it to this so they can qualify, and with their interest rates, now they can afford to live there. And that was the only way I could sell my house. You know that’s happening

Steven Jack Butala:
Now, we know why we’re here in general, why recessions in general happen. It’s four or five things that all happened at once. Plus, we just had, geez, 14 years of amazing thriving economy. It’s the longest that I’ve ever experienced and I don’t know what the stats are in that, but it’s huge. It’s usually not that long. To survive an economic change like this, cash management is the absolute whole key to winning. This is in your personal life and in your professional life.
And a little anecdote. I walked into a class during undergrad, this is a million years ago, a finance class, and on the board when they had chalkboards and when they had classes, on the board, this sentence was written, “Cash kills companies,” three words. I never forgot it. Obviously, I’m talking about it now. Cash kills everything. Lack of cash is a real huge problem. And then, lack of access to cash causes even bigger problems. So, you have to take a look at what your current cash position is. And that leads me to number one. You need to batten down the hatches to weather this storm. This is the first of four landflipping business changes to capitalize on this economic downturn. So, before we get into the real estate part of it, let’s talk about you and your life and your company.
Take a look at how much cash you have in the bank, and then take a look at what your equity position is in all of your assets. If you were like us and during this last recession, we had a lot of land. We had a lot of paid-for land that we paid for. We didn’t have any debt associated with it, and Jill and I were lucky enough to have a paid-for townhouse that we lived in. And it wasn’t our primary residence. The primary residence we had to end up short selling because of lack of cash flow, but we were lucky we had a place to live that was paid for and actually ended up being a lot of fun.

Jill K DeWit.:
Yeah, we still have it.

Steven Jack Butala:
I look back on those times-

Jill K DeWit.:
We love it.

Steven Jack Butala:
I look back on those times and I think those are some of the happiest times ever.

Jill K DeWit.:
I know. Exactly.

Steven Jack Butala:
So, take a look at how much cash you have and tighten your belt on, how much money, where you’re spending it. Not everybody is as fortunate to be in a situation where you can just move yourself around or move jobs and all of that. But look at your cash position and look at the equity you have in land or in any type of real estate that’s free and clear, so you can sell it for it maybe less than you paid if you have to. We’re in a world now where if you find a real estate deal, a good real estate deal, we have… In Land Academy, people just packed in the Land Academy that are ready to fund your deal. We didn’t have access to capital back then like that. We were forced to sell assets for not what we wanted to sell them.

Jill K DeWit.:
Well, it wasn’t even so much that… It wasn’t a hit. It was more like, “Hey, I bought it for 25. I thought I’d sell it for 80. Now I’m selling it for 60. Big deal. Maybe even 50.”

Steven Jack Butala:
Or 40.

Jill K DeWit.:
Or 40. What if it went really crazy? It was still fine. That’s how we roll. That’s the whole point. That’s how we roll.

Steven Jack Butala:
And finally, review your debt position. We were very fortunate. All the debt that we had, and it wasn’t a lot, it was directly tied to assets that we underpaid for. And then, in a couple of cases, we had to renegotiate with the lender to deal with that. On one specific was an office building that Jill had nothing to do with. I would’ve never done that deal if she was around, but we got out of it okay. And then, you need to review for a single point of failure. And I hate to say this, I don’t like to say this out loud, but a W-2 job is a single point of failure. And so recessions are when-

Jill K DeWit.:
That’s true.

Steven Jack Butala:
… I learn the most about the stuff that I’m screwing up in a really good way, and it’s a hard lesson to learn. But you need to have multiple streams of income and you need to really manage your cash position and your equity and debt position. Hopefully, there’s no debt. The perfect scenario is you have a ton of assets, they generate a bunch of money, you have no debt at all, and you’re standing next to somebody like Jill who everybody’s patting themselves on the back saying, “Wow, we finally learned something from the last time.” If this is your first recession and you’re getting pounded, please don’t beat yourself up over it. Learn. It’s going to happen again 12 years from now. We’re going to come out of this. There’s a bunch of real estate you can buy, which we’re going to talk about in a second. Just learn from it. Don’t look in the mirror and call yourself an idiot because you’re not. There’s no class at any level of education called surviving a downturn that I’m aware of.

Jill K DeWit.:
There should be.

Steven Jack Butala:
There really should be.

Jill K DeWit.:
Yeah.

Steven Jack Butala:
Batten the hatches down because you can weather this. That’s number one. Number two, I’m sorry, do you have anything to add?

Jill K DeWit.:
No, no. This is a Jack show, and I’m actually having fun over here. This is nice. Thank you.

Steven Jack Butala:
There’s probably another newspaper you can read during this.

Jill K DeWit.:
Yeah. Maybe I will. I’m just drinking my juice. I got other things to do. I didn’t bring my nail polish, but I’ll do that next time. You’re good.

Steven Jack Butala:
So, number two, change the type of land you buy and what you’re willing to pay. And this is for number two and three, I want you to put yourself in the shoes of people who buy assets during a recession. What do you think the profile’s of somebody who’s scrounging around to buy undervalued stock, undervalued dirt?

Jill K DeWit.:
Pick me. Pick me. They’re loaded and they have a lot of cash.

Steven Jack Butala:
And they’re not smart. They have the perception, not the reality, the perception that there are amazing bargains to be had during a recession.

Jill K DeWit.:
Sometimes there are.

Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah, but they’re not on the MLS in general. So, you need to change the type of land that you buy and what you’re willing to pay based on who you’re going to sell it to. So, we love rural vacant land here. We love out-of-the-way properties that are really, really, really cheap that we can buy 50 acres, 40 acres for 20,000, 30,000, 40,000 bucks and sell for 80,000. I don’t want you to focus on those types of properties right now. They’re not easily resellable during a recession. What I want you to focus on are properties that are urban and really valuable properties that are maybe commercial properties that maybe are zoned agricultural right now, but during the next uptick, might be a developer’s dream.
And look at what that buyer’s perception is of the dirt that you have. I’m not saying stop your rural vacant land effort. If you want to buy those and you just love it and that’s your specialization, that’s great. It’s one of our specializations. You just got to buy them way cheaper than 20% of retail. If you’re deep into the Land Academy scenario, you’re staring at 10 properties that are rural vacant land and you were ready to buy them, just call the seller back and say, “It needs to be cheaper.” We do that all the time.

Jill K DeWit.:
There’s nothing wrong with that. Things changed. I thought I could pull it off, but I can’t. This is what I can pay now. If it works, great. If it doesn’t, I understand. It works for me so often.

Steven Jack Butala:
How many times you gone to a, I don’t know, garage sale or looked on Facebook Marketplace, and you’ve seen a posting of something that… You have this thought and then you execute on it. “I will never be able to buy,” fill in the blank, “like this ever again. This is an amazing opportunity. It’s probably 20% or 30% or 40% of what I would actually pay during a regular time, and I’ve always wanted it.” That’s what you want someone to say about your real estate listing. It needs to be-

Jill K DeWit.:
That’s good.

Steven Jack Butala:
… “Holy heck, I got to buy this right now.” So, whatever type of land that translates to where you’re buying and selling land, adjust what you’re willing to pay. So, that the outcome is when you go to sell it, that person’s thinking that. By the way, this applies to a classic car, a boat, all kinds of stuff like the nuttos that have a bunch of money that have always wanted a yacht.

Jill K DeWit.:
Oh, am I a nutto? You’re pointing to me like I’m one of the nuttos.

Steven Jack Butala:
No, you described what kind of person buys this stuff. It’s a nutto that wanted to buy a yacht and can buy it now for half the price.

Jill K DeWit.:
Exactly.

Steven Jack Butala:
Number three, change the message you’re delivering to potential buyers. And I alluded to this in the previous one. My loss is your gain. Jill and I have had a lot of success having that be the title of a land posting. My loss is your gain 40 acres for $60,000. Two years ago, this would’ve been 320 grand. Huge success rate on things like that in working with the real estate agents that list our stuff. My loss is your gain. We are in liquidation mode. Now, is the time to sell on price. Every financial class I’ve ever had about building a business or an entrepreneurial classes, people who sell on price get in a price war scenario, like grocery stores do, never win. And that’s true, except in a recession like this where price just matters so much, both on the buy side and the sell side, and be loud about it. Now’s not the time to be coy. You need to jump up and down in your real estate listing or wherever you’re selling property and say, “Here’s the message. I’m going to lose money on this,” and you’re not. You just bought it cheaper.

Jill K DeWit.:
Which is what we do, but now we’re even doing it even better. That’s normally what we do. Like look, we talk about this… I’m not here to reset the market now. I’m really not here to reset the market. You want your buyers to be jumping up and down for this great deal, and that’s what you’re going to tell them. It’s our same narrative, but we’re just more vocal about it right now is the big thing. We all know this is worth way more than I’m selling it for.

Steven Jack Butala:
Jill and I used to teach a college-level entrepreneurial class. And one of the things that I taught specifically is nothing lasts forever. There’s ups and downs in everything. And this can be an up or down for you depending on how you deal with it and how you’re managing everything. When things go sideways, they always do, in every relationship and every financial scenario that you’re involved in, stuff always goes sideways. And the first thing that you need to do is get back to grassroots. Whatever your business is about, buy a piece of property for cheap, sell it for more. That is our most grassroots scenario. “Oh, that’s great, Jack. How do you do that?” So Jill and I have spent 10 years explaining that.
One of the things that has to happen or will happen and is happening in an environment like this is it’s hard to sell land. Your buyer pool is a lot smaller. You got to go out there and get your customers just like the old days.

Jill K DeWit.:
This is good.

Steven Jack Butala:
And extreme examples of that are, jeez, it doesn’t happen anymore. But when we were kids, you could get a summer job selling encyclopedias by knocking on people’s doors. That whole cliche about going down a block and knocking on people’s doors because the wife is at home and the husband’s at work. We’re not that young. And selling vacuum cleaners, you could do well if you could sell. I’m not saying do that, and I can’t stand that kind of sales and I don’t condone that then or and I don’t condone it now. But the people who are going to buy your real estate, especially if it’s priced correctly, already own real estate in the immediate area. And they need to be directly contacted by you. Maybe you text them. We really advocate sending neighbor letters. Every time you buy a piece of property, send a letter that says, “My loss is your gain.”

Jill K DeWit.:
If you’re like me, you have a good agent who knows this stuff and is doing it. One of the things that’s happening now too, we talk about this a lot within our Land Academy community, is that we’re already seeing agents leave. And I feel bad for them, but I’ll tell you what happens. The good ones survive. The good agents are still out there and they’re doing okay, and they are hustling. I’ve got some great ones that are really hustling. That’s what it takes.

Steven Jack Butala:
So, change the message that you’re delivering to potential buyers, that’s number three, and I think we covered that pretty well. And change how you’re looking at getting buyers. Try a little harder is what I’m saying. Have that grassroots thought. How did I sell the first 20 properties that I sold… What’s a real basic business model here? It’s buy for this, sell for that. Who’s going to buy my property? If you look back at who buys your real estate, I bet you a dollar, a lot of it your dirt got sold to people in the immediate area.
Number four, and this is, I would love your input on this, Jill, because it’s important. Have somebody in your corner. You don’t want to go through this alone. You don’t want to go through happy times alone or bad times alone if you’re most people. But like I said earlier, you’re weathering a storm here. If you’re on the bow of the boat hanging on for life, you don’t want to do that alone. You want to do it with somebody. And you don’t need somebody in your life that’s criticizing you every step of the way you go.

Jill K DeWit.:
This is something we talk about too. I talk to people when they’re coming into Land Academy. It doesn’t mean you have to have a partner like we do and be all in it like each other. I would not recommend that, actually. But one of the things that I say when I talk to people and they wanted to come down, I’m like, “What does your significant other think about this? Because you’re about to start a new business. You’re about to spend all day on the computer. You’re about to go into the cave of your office doing data all day. If they’re not on board, this isn’t going to work. You need someone who understands it, gets it. They’re supportive of you. They’re going to take care of the kids today and they’re going to bring you a sandwich when you need to because they know what you’re doing is hard work, and you’re really trying to make it better for your family.” So, that’s when I think of being on the same page.

Steven Jack Butala:
I’m paraphrasing, but Jill and I joined forces during the tail end, or let’s say the middle of the last recession. And you don’t know what the middle of a recession is. You don’t know when that’s going to end.

Jill K DeWit.:
True.

Steven Jack Butala:
But she got frustrated with how I was selling. And she said, and I’m paraphrasing, “Just give me the phone.”

Jill K DeWit.:
Yep. No, I pretty much said that. “Stop it.”

Steven Jack Butala:
“Give me the phone.” And so, she went out there. She just got tough. I’m tough about a lot of other stuff, data and all kinds of things. But when it comes to just saying, “We’re selling these properties this week,” and then Jill gets it done. You need somebody in your life like that. You don’t need somebody saying, “I told you this land thing wouldn’t work.” You just don’t need that.

Jill K DeWit.:
Exactly. It made me think of the support. We were joking on our member call today, and I can’t remember, I think it was Jennifer, I don’t remember who said it, but something about, “I just lost a whole Sunday.” She was lovingly joking about losing a whole Sunday testing her mailer for a reason before it goes out. We’re like, “That’s a good way to spend a Sunday.” And she said, “You’re right.” And you made a funny-

Steven Jack Butala:
I said, “In the lists of extremely wealthy people, there’s a lot of lost Sundays.” Until you get wealthy and you pull up in a nice sports car and everybody’s like, “That guy’s really, really lucky. I wish I was that lucky.”

Jill K DeWit.:
Nope.

Steven Jack Butala:
How many Sundays of luck does it take?

Jill K DeWit.:
Correct. I love that. Oh, my gosh. Even looking at Land Academy, oh man. When we think back, because here we’re in episode 2004, I think, thinking about how many days and nights we were up early at our computers, at our desks, creating content, doing our own this, doing our own, that. This is broke, we had to fix it. Here we are.

Steven Jack Butala:
Jill and I have been shoulder-to-shoulder for 15 years and whatever comes, it comes.

Jill K DeWit.:
Thanks.

Steven Jack Butala:
We don’t blame each other. I’m not saying it’s peaches and cream because it’s hot. And in fact, I would say never work with your spouse, ever. But she doesn’t blame me for stuff and I don’t blame her. So, the infrastructure should be there or everything’s a lot harder. Most of you know exactly what we’re talking about here. It’s got to be a team effort.

Jill K DeWit.:
Such good advice. Thank you.

Steven Jack Butala:
Four things.

Jill K DeWit.:
Yeah.

Steven Jack Butala:
Take in what your cash position is. Cash management is absolutely key to surviving this and thriving it. The same is true with cash where if you go ahead and find it… If you’re short on cash now, continue to find great real estate deals. Send out mail, do what you’re doing and get into our Land Academy Discord and find yourself a great land funder.

Jill K DeWit.:
Go to landfunding.com.

Steven Jack Butala:
Or landfunding.com too. Put the deal in there.

Jill K DeWit.:
Hey, go to landacademy.com, by the way. Check it out.

Steven Jack Butala:
We’re all looking… We’re included. We’re at the top of the list. I know it’s going to happen here and we have money allocated for all of this.

Jill K DeWit.:
I’m ready. I hate to say it, I don’t want to look. We’re as ready as we can be, how’s that? I never want to assume, but we’ve been through enough. You’ve been through enough, and you are smart enough to make sure we are in a great position. I know it. This is not our first one. And I know there’s a lot of in Land Academy because of this reason, because we’ve weathered the storm. We’ve done more than 100 deals. I’m more than a year into this, fill in the blank. Even though some other people have done really well, but we really have. And if you can put your head down, give up a Sunday, do all these things we talked about, put yourself in that position and stay focused, stay on track, and try not to get discouraged by little things, because they’re going to happen, just stay the course, you will pop up for air and be right there with us. And sadly, there’ll probably be a lot less people, but we’ll all still be here.

Steven Jack Butala:
Join us next Wednesday for another interesting episode. You are not alone in your real estate ambition. We are Jack and Jill.

Jill K DeWit.:
We are Jack and Jill.

Steven Jack Butala:
Information.

Jill K DeWit.:
And inspiration.

Steven Jack Butala:
To buy undervalued property.

Jill K DeWit.:
That was great. Thank you.

Steven Jack Butala:
Good. Good.

Thanks for listening, and finally, don’t forget to subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts.

The post 4 Land Flipping Business Changes To Capitalize During A 2024 Economic Decline (LA 2003) appeared first on Land Academy.

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In this episode of the Land Academy Show, hosts Jill DeWit and Steven Jack Butala dive into the topic of pricing land-flipping mailers with their five pro tips. With over 30 years of combined experience in the industry, Jill and Steven share invaluable insights gained from their own successes and failures. They emphasize the importance of sending legitimate blind offers with specific pricing, highlighting how this approach leads to more meaningful conversations with sellers. By sharing real-life examples and anecdotes from their own experiences, Jill and Steven offer practical advice for land investors looking to optimize their pricing strategy and maximize deal success. Tune in to learn from the experts and take your land-flipping game to the next level!

Transcript:

Steven Jack Butala:
I’m Steven Jack Butala.

Jill K DeWit:
And I’m Jill DeWit and this is the Land Academy Show. Today’s episode number 2,002. Isn’t that crazy?

Steven Jack Butala:
That’s nuts.

Jill K DeWit:
I know.

Steven Jack Butala:
Today, we’re going to talk about the five pro tips that Jill and I have lived by for pricing your land-flipping mailer. This is a real hot topic on the Internet and in our-

Jill K DeWit:
In our group.

Steven Jack Butala:
… Land Academy Discord channel among our group, exactly. It’s real interesting because we have some new people right now that … pricing’s just always a hot topic and we’re getting a lot of orders at Offers 2 Owners, I’m hearing, from our guys, the mailing company that Jill and I own, and there’s a pretty wide variance between how offers are getting priced by people who are within Land Academy and people who are not. My guys are ending up having to have a pretty detailed conversation about how pricing should go, so I figured we’ll just lop it into the podcast.

Jill K DeWit:
I love it.

Steven Jack Butala:
Each week on the show, we answer a question from our Land Academy member Discord forum and take a deep dive into a land-related topic by popular request from our Land Academy community. Let’s take a question, Jill.

Jill K DeWit:
Sid wrote, “Blind offers work! I just had a great conversation with a seller because, one,” this is interesting, “I was the fifth offer in six months, but all were neutral letters with no price.”

Steven Jack Butala:
That tells me … I’m going to take these as I go here. It tells me that he’s getting a lot of offers, or his seller now has gotten a lot of offers from people who are not in our Land Academy group. There’s other groups out there who are, I think, incorrectly instructing people on how to buy land.

Jill K DeWit:
Then, what they went on to say is any phone calls she made were not returned and, since I was the only blind offer of X price, she decided to call.” Isn’t that great? Then, number two, “She was amazed that I answered the phone and was the same guy that sent the letter. After I explained who we are, our procedures, et cetera, we agreed to a price. Still need boots on the ground to confirm, but should be another one in title by the end of the week.” The moral is keep mailing legitimate blind offers and answer the phone. That’s so true.

Steven Jack Butala:
Jill and I, we say this stuff … what, we’ve been doing this now 10 years, right? Almost 10 years.

Jill K DeWit:
Nine years of Land Academy, shoot, 15 years of deals together and then you have 10 or 15 before me.

Steven Jack Butala:
This experience is one that we experience in our land office every week but, when your father says something or when your spouse says something, you’re like, “Eh, whatever. He’s just talking again.”

Jill K DeWit:
What?

Steven Jack Butala:
But if somebody else says it, like Sid, one of our members, you start to listen.

Jill K DeWit:
Can we just explain it real quick for a minute?

Steven Jack Butala:
Sure.

Jill K DeWit:
For people … just to make sure everyone knows what we’re talking about. When we’re sending … what we’re doing, Land Academy … everything that we’re doing here, land flipping, in case you’re new and you’re just catching up here, we create deals. We are acquisition machines and we know how to create a deal. How do we do that? We are reaching out to the seller before it’s on the MLS, before anything, when it’s just a little thought in the back of their mind, they’re getting an offer in the mail from us to buy their property.
Are they getting a pretend yellow letter like, “Hey, call me.”? Nope, “I want to buy your house.” They’re not getting that. That’s a neutral letter. Are they getting a, “Oh, I love your property. I’d love to buy it between 4,000 and 14,000.” I’m not doing that. It doesn’t make any sense. They’re getting a real specific, and we’re going to talk more about that today, well thought out, planned … the area was planned, the APN scheme was planned, the pricing was planned, exactly who we’re hitting was planned. The right people are getting these offers for a dollar amount and they’re picking up the phone and they’re calling back saying, “Okay, I just got your offer. You want to buy my property for $8,995.61. I had no idea it was worth that much,” or, “How did you get that number?” or “Hey, how can we do this now? I forgot about it. I didn’t even know so-and-so had it,” kind of thing. That’s what it is. I just want to just remind everyone, too what … well, I have time. I can slow this down.

Steven Jack Butala:
Sure.

Jill K DeWit:
Here’s how this is important, too. Again, like I mentioned before, Jack’s been doing this for going on 30 years now. It’s not by accident. We’ve tested, tried and done all kinds of things over the years. We’re here to save you and that’s what Land Academy’s about. All that happens if you send a neutral letter, “Hey, I want to buy your house, call me,” or, “Hey, I want to buy your land, call me,” especially those of us … you own your house, you get these letters. You’re going to get a million calls from the wrong people. They’re going to want to talk to you and everybody has a number in their head. I call it their make me move number. That’s the last thing you want is to spend weeks of your time talking to people that you have no interest in buying their land at whatever price they dreamt up because they just think it should be worth four times what they paid for it a year ago or something. That’s not real kind of thing.
The second thing is I see people or I still hear people talking about doing a range. Well, here’s what happens when you send a person a letter with a range on it. You see the lower number. “I want to buy your property. I want to buy your land somewhere between $4,000 and $10,000,” let’s just say, “an acre.” Well, first of all, they’re not going to do the math. They can’t do the math and, if they do do the math, all they’re going to do is take the higher number. “Well, I see 10,000 an acre and I got three acres, so we’re talking 30,000.” What you really see is the bottom number, “3,000 times nine or 4,000 times nine, that’s 12 grand. That’s what I’m going to spend.” Huge gap between 12,000 and 30,000. What you’re probably trying to do is buy for 12 and sell for 30. That makes sense.
We got that out of the way. The main thing is here, as Sid just pointed out, there’s a whole other layer of why this is good and important. These people are sending neutral letters, no price. This person’s like, “Yeah, whatever. You’re wasting my time. I’m not going to call you. You’re not even giving me me any information about it, what you’re thinking.” Then, she picks up the phone, calls and gosh, Sid answers the phone, he’s a real person, this is his own company and he’s ready to go. He has his checkbook out. That’s how we do deals and that’s what we’re going to help you do.

Steven Jack Butala:
We have a 10-step process to buy a piece of real estate and resell it as fast as possible without altering the asset in any way. I didn’t pull that out of a hat, it’s because of 30 years of experience of making mistakes.

Jill K DeWit:
True.

Steven Jack Butala:
Well, let’s just call it refining the process, but part of that’s making mistakes and failing. Whoever’s sending out these offers that are neutral have clearly … it’s 1998 for them. I tried sending out neutral letters without an acceptable response and that’s the truth of it. That’s great. It’s great when a successful member like Sid sends us in and really tells the truth, tells a personal experience. This happens to us all the time. People call us back and say, “I couldn’t get anybody to call me back.”

Jill K DeWit:
You’re right.

Steven Jack Butala:
Today, we’re going to talk about pricing and within that, we’re going to talk about answering your phone.

Jill K DeWit:
I love it.

Steven Jack Butala:
Today’s topic, Five Pro Tips for Pricing Your Land-Flipping Mailer. I’m not going to reel down the five, but I will tell you number one is this and Jill, I would love your comment on this: it will never be perfect. Pricing and your analysis of pricing is not going to … it’ll never … you won’t reach a point where you say, “That’s it. I’m wiping my hands. It’s where I wanted to be.”
Believe it or not, I took an art class in college, which was far from my favorite class, but one of the things that I took away from that forever obviously is a true artist is never done, they only just run out of time. Throughout the years, I’ve heard a lot of people say in a lot of different businesses, “I’m not done with this, but I hit my deadline and I’m turning it in.” Well, that’s never been more true in my current life than doing a mailer. Even to this day, I don’t sit and say, “I’m done with this mailer. Now, it works for me and I think we’re going to get the most yield. This is going to be the best-performing mailer we’ve ever had.” It just doesn’t happen that way.

Jill K DeWit:
Doesn’t every sporting event say, “Well, no, we didn’t win, we just ran out of time.”? That’s the same thing.

Steven Jack Butala:
That’s just like that. I saw an interview with Sting, the creator and the former lead singer of Police. He said he was working on one of his non-Police records after his Police career as an independent artist. He said, “It’s been a year and a half and I’m staring at the same 12 songs, so I had to give myself a deadline.” Then, he turned it in the record sucked, but that’s not the point.

Jill K DeWit:
Don’t share which one it was.

Steven Jack Butala:
I saw an interview with George Lucas, the creator of … this is a lot of years ago, the creator of Star Wars and Electric Light and Magic. He said, “We’re never done, we just have to turn this stuff into whoever ordered it. We’re never done with making this clip perfect in animation or anything.” I think he created that animation company, too, Pixar. It’s never going to be done. It’s truly … and when it is done, I usually crack a beer and it’s just like, “Oh, it’s going out in the mail. Let’s see what happens.”

Jill K DeWit:
This is good.

Steven Jack Butala:
Number two, huge mail volume. If you’re new at this-

Jill K DeWit:
This is good.

Steven Jack Butala:
… this is the first time you’ve ever listened to a land-related or real estate-related podcast, these are golden tips here. Huge mail volume is required for your success. We call it internally reckless mailing, after a guy that joined Career Path, which is a class that Jill and I take, a mastermind class that Jill and I teach once or twice a year. This is several Career Paths ago. He said, “I just … ” because he had a very profitable operation, he was making actually more money-

Jill K DeWit:
A couple million.

Steven Jack Butala:
… than us. It was six, actually, a year. All of us in the whole group, including Jill and I, were like, “All right, hold on. Maybe my process is not perfected yet,” which is true. I’m always trying to improve it. “What’s your secret?” He said, “Reckless mailing. Sometimes, I’ll send out 19,000 letters and not get a deal, then I’ll send out a 1,200-unit mailer and I’ll get six deals out of it,” which is exactly what happens to Jill and what has happened to us in my entire career. Huge mail volume is required. Relentless mailing. I’m oversimplifying because this is the podcast. I’m not saying send out neutral letters, just skip over pricing or don’t go through the steps in Land Academy, I’m not saying that at all, I’m just saying do all that stuff and do it correctly but, if you send out a lot of mail, you’re going to get a bunch of deals.

Jill K DeWit:
Totally.

Steven Jack Butala:
It might not be in the order you want. I’m re-hearing now people saying rumblings of, “I’m going to test this. I sent out 200 mailers. I just want to see what’s going to happen.”

Jill K DeWit:
Let’s just explain, too, 1,000 units is not huge mail. Some people might be confused on that. That’s not enough. Make it count. Do five. I say, “What’s your minimum?”

Steven Jack Butala:
Five is my rock bottom minimum, 5,000.

Jill K DeWit:
That’s what I think, 5,000.

Steven Jack Butala:
I’d rather see-

Jill K DeWit:
How many areas-

Steven Jack Butala:
… 25,000.

Jill K DeWit:
… Let’s help people listening. In a perfect world, I’m starting out, I’m doing 5,000 units a month, that’s what I budgeted and that’s what I think I can handle volume-wise. I split it into two different … I do it the first of the month and the middle of the month, 2,500 and 2,500 [inaudible 00:13:14] … and that’s my schedule I’ve planned out for myself. Now, in those 5,000 units, how many areas should I be hitting?

Steven Jack Butala:
If you’re new, three.

Jill K DeWit:
[inaudible 00:13:24]

Steven Jack Butala:
Three to five, but three.

Jill K DeWit:
Three’s good.

Steven Jack Butala:
But still bear in mind, though, that now, you’re sending out a small mailer in three separate places. There’s no replacement for fire for effect. Tens of thousands of units in the mail will make you wealthy, if it’s done correctly, I’m telling you.

Jill K DeWit:
Thank you.

Steven Jack Butala:
If you skip a big … like I said earlier, there’s a ten-step process to … I like to think about it as you’ve got some cash, you do all this stuff, you get your offers in the mail, you spend that cash on a piece of real estate, or you use our money or somebody’s money in our group deal funding. 30 days later, you get cash back, only more. If you send out tens of thousands of offers, you are dramatically increasing your chance of having that happen. All kinds of things can happen in between, good and bad. If you’re just doing a lot of deals, sending out a lot of mail, the chances of some really good things happening are just … it’s not quite exponential but they really dramatically increase. From experience, I can tell you.

Jill K DeWit:
Totally.

Steven Jack Butala:
Which leads everybody to this question: “Well, okay, Jack, what’s the yield? If I send out 7,000, am I going to get a deal where I make $30,000, $50,000, $80,000?” I don’t know. Maybe.

Jill K DeWit:
I was serious.

Steven Jack Butala:
“Well then, is it 10,000?” Maybe. It might be-

Jill K DeWit:
Make it count.

Steven Jack Butala:
… 200.

Jill K DeWit:
You know what I always say? Make it count. You know what it is? Here’s what I think. I’ve been talking about this too, a lot. I’ve been doing a lot of calls recently helping new people coming in and answering questions about this. I’m like, “Look, let’s just assume you do it all wrong. Assume the worst is going to happen. Assume you’re going to send 10,000 out and you’re only going to get one deal.” I will get more than that the way we do, I know, but let’s just say it took you 10,000 to get one. “Wow, that’s a lot. It cost me $7,500 a mail. Hoo.” Okay, follow me on this one here. Let’s just say, though, the one thing you did right was you made sure that you were only going to buy property where it’s a buy for 30,000 to try to sell for like 80,000 or 90,000. Buy for 30, sell for 80, 90, right? I got one deal out of it. I screw it all up and I only sell it for $72,000 or whatever it is. Hold [inaudible 00:15:50] … I buy it for 30, I sold for 72.

Steven Jack Butala:
Or 60.

Jill K DeWit:
Right? Do I care that I spent $7,500 on it? Not really. I did it all wrong, by the way. I screwed up. So what? Look how much money you made, look how much you learned and by the way, there’s probably going to be some more juice coming from that mailer once you get rolling, too. It’s not just the first wave. When you see how many people call you back after your expiration date or the day before your expiration date or, heck, like we’ve had, 10 years after your expiration date, you can’t go back and redo your yield, you just forget about it. If you did nothing but made sure that, “Well, I’m going to make sure if I get one deal, it’s going to pay for everything,” then you’re okay and you move on.

Steven Jack Butala:
Yield … I calculate our yield in the most basic sense at the end of the year and honestly, it’s not even then, because we still get offers. We’ve been sending mail forever, millions, millions and millions of offers. We get calls all over the place. Mailer yield is … apply that concept to any other business that you could buy or start.

Jill K DeWit:
That’s the best.

Steven Jack Butala:
Apply it from an ROI standpoint.

Jill K DeWit:
True.

Steven Jack Butala:
I like to use a convenience store. You open a convenience store or you buy a convenience store that’s breaking even. If you’re opening it, you’re not breaking even for quite some time. What’s your yield on that? What’s your ROI? It doesn’t compare to this. People ask about yield and volume requirements for one reason, one reason only in my 10 years of instructing with Jill: they don’t have enough money to get into this business.

Jill K DeWit:
You should save up and wait, then.

Steven Jack Butala:
Yep.

Jill K DeWit:
There’s nothing wrong with that.

Steven Jack Butala:
Or get a money partner.

Jill K DeWit:
Or that.

Steven Jack Butala:
Because done correctly … I’m 30 years into this and Jill and I are … Land Academy is 10 years old this year.

Jill K DeWit:
Nine. Close enough, sorry.

Steven Jack Butala:
Thanks for correcting me, Jill. Thank you.

Jill K DeWit:
Sorry.

Steven Jack Butala:
I appreciate getting corrected, especially when the camera’s on.

Jill K DeWit:
Sorry. [inaudible 00:17:55]

Steven Jack Butala:
Jill and I started Land Academy in 2014. It was launched in 2015.

Jill K DeWit:
That’s where I go by, sorry.

Steven Jack Butala:
You decide how old it is, listener.

Jill K DeWit:
Sorry about that.

Steven Jack Butala:
Number three … I forgot what I was going to say. Number three, all of this pricing and implementing a mailer in general won’t be effective if the person who’s answering the phone doesn’t follow through. That’s as nice as I can say that, which is why I chose Sid’s question earlier. Let me give you an example. If you’re a chef, a trained chef, and you, right out of a movie, go to real early morning, you get up and you go to a market, it’s all farmer ingredients and it’s the greatest stuff ever, you bring it back, it’s now 6:00 in the morning, you create a menu for that day and it’s a fantastic, fabulous world-class menu, but you don’t put those ingredients together and you use a ton of salt, oversalt everything so it just tastes like salt, that was all wasted. Going to the market, getting those perfect ingredients and spending time on the perfect lettuce or whatever it ends up being, I’m not a food person. Jill is. Actually, you probably have a lot to say about this.

Jill K DeWit:
No, I have nothing to say anymore.

Steven Jack Butala:
Feel correct … feel-

Jill K DeWit:
No, no, no. Actually, I was looking at the timing. Do I tell my team to edit that? I won’t do that, but no, I’m just going to sit on my hands over here.

Steven Jack Butala:
I think this should be called the Correct Jack episode.

Jill K DeWit:
No, I’m just sitting on my hands. I like food if you say I like food.

Steven Jack Butala:
Wow, I might utilize this. This never happens.

Jill K DeWit:
There we go.

Steven Jack Butala:
Look, if you got the greatest ingredients in anything … it goes for manufacturing, too. You can buy the greatest high-grade whatever you’re manufacturing, put it all together and, if you put it together wrong, the best ingredients in the world aren’t going to matter. It’s the same thing with a mailer and the same thing with this business. You do the perfect mailer, which doesn’t exist, but you do an amazing mailer, you do everything you’re supposed to do, you run the red/green/yellow test, you find a great place to send mail, you diversify it, three to five locations, zip codes and counties, and your price the mailer really well, get a second set of eyes on it, because that’s what your peer group here Land Academy is for, you get it out in the mail and you don’t return the calls, you’re not going to do a deal.
I know this is about pricing, but I can’t talk about this without saying you need somebody like Jill, hopefully, it’s you, or you need a business partner like Jill that’s going to take that raw data that you spent so much time putting together in pricing and turn that into a real estate deal. That’s the real magic here.

Jill K DeWit:
In a perfect world, they’re answering the phone right then. That’s my thing. You need a live body on the end of the minute the first [inaudible 00:20:48] … they ring, they call in.

Steven Jack Butala:
This is me kissing and making up now.

Jill K DeWit:
Oh, okay. Thank you.

Steven Jack Butala:
That’s how you have a marital argument on a podcast, by the way,

Jill K DeWit:
There you go.

Steven Jack Butala:
Should be about 60 seconds.

Jill K DeWit:
Thank you.

Steven Jack Butala:
We talk about all of this in Land Academy. You talk about it on our Thursday member webinar for our members. Please make sure that you’re not just doing a great mailer and it’s going out into the universe and never coming back.

Jill K DeWit:
And no one’s there to receive them.

Steven Jack Butala:
Sid just said it. Whoever those people are, I’ll tell you what happened with Sid’s mailer. Not with Sid’s mailer, the question before this, and all those five or eight people that called or sent mail out: what happened is they sent a mailer out according to some other group on the Internet’s instruction and it was a neutral mailer, so it said, “Hey, I’m interested in buying your land, give me a call back,” and they did. The first wave of mail hit and everybody’s interested in selling their land, trust me. All pieces of land are for sale, with very few exceptions.

Jill K DeWit:
Pretty much everything’s for sale. Come on. I always look at this. I don’t care if it’s your childhood home and you just inherited and remodeled it, you probably have a make me move number. It might be a big number, but we all have a number, like, “You know what? If somebody paid me this, I’d move and start over.”

Steven Jack Butala:
They got excited, the person who did the neutral mailer got real excited. He’s got 10 messages waiting from their answering service or however it is and then message by message and call by call, that person got discouraged. “Oh, really, Mr. Smith? You want to sell your land? Well, tell me a little bit about it,” an hour goes by, and, “What’s your price?” “Oh, I’d love to sell that for $13.2 million,” when you think it’s worth about 13 grand. That’s an hour and a half wasted. Next call. The same thing happens. “Oh, no, you know what? I’m going to actually do what my instructor said. I’m going to make the call smaller and get to the price earlier in the conversation.” What ends up … you just end up being disappointed earlier in the call. Correct me if I’m wrong on any of this.

Jill K DeWit:
No, you’re good. Oh, again, I’m not correcting you today. You know what? This is your get out of jail free card today. You should. Save it up, by the way. You should just drop little nuggets in throughout the show about, “You know what? I’m not liking your hair color lately,” and I’ll say, “Okay.”

Steven Jack Butala:
Literally. This is a strange self-manifestation here. I really just looked at this Far Side comic on Facebook because I was looking for some stuff and it was two married people staring into the camera just like you’re looking at right now. He turns to you and says, “I’ve spent 19 years with you listening to you correct me and have comments about everything that I say,” and she said, “20 years.”

Jill K DeWit:
That’s cute. That’s good. I like that. Good.

Steven Jack Butala:
Silence.

Jill K DeWit:
Number one … Can I recap?

Steven Jack Butala:
Sure.

Jill K DeWit:
Number one, it’s not going to be perfect. You have to cut yourself off. You have to just get it out there and know you’re going to adjust it. Two, volume. That’s one of the things we talk about often within our community is what solves all these problems? More mail. Then, three, perfect pricing is all wasted if you don’t have somebody answering your phone and the right person answering the phone.

Steven Jack Butala:
Number four is get professional help. It’s something that comes up in our personal lives that Jill says to me all the time, “You need professional help.”

Jill K DeWit:
Thanks.

Steven Jack Butala:
Sometimes, she’s right. Sometimes, she’s wrong.

Jill K DeWit:
It’s not about that. You’re saving that one up.

Steven Jack Butala:
All kidding aside … Well, it’s appropriate now.

Jill K DeWit:
Thanks.

Steven Jack Butala:
All kidding aside, that’s why you joined Land Academy, so you have a bunch of peers that are going to say, “Yeah, I’m not sure that this is the best way … I don’t think you priced this right,” or justify why you’re sending a mailer to central Vermont, let’s say. “Show me the numbers, show me the data and how you got to this point,” because there’s no guessing here. That 10-point plan that I was telling you about addresses all these issues. We don’t guess. The data tells us where to send land and the data tells us how much to send it out for, how to price it. We don’t guess. Almost all cases, you should be able to back up and justify if another set of eyes … Jill and I do this to each other all the time in a really healthy way. “Will you please take a look at this before I send it out?” Always another set of eyes in a big … and it might be that you chose the wrong place to send out mail, to which I would say, “All right, the next time you do this, ask for help earlier.”

Jill K DeWit:
Remember I was just saying about … We had a super cool couple. They finished Career Path and they joined Land Academy Pro. They were going off on a tangent and they were struggling, so they had a private consulting session, which we do. They were at the level of Pro where that’s included. They had a private consulting session where the outcome was, “Let’s look at how you’re picking the areas.” They pivoted and picked a different area and now all of a sudden, floodgates. That’s all it took. Sometimes, it’s that kind of professional help, too. It’s not just, “My pricing is off,” It might be, “I’m having trouble figuring out how to troll, how to pick these areas,” just that part. “I got the pricing down, but I’m not picking the really best areas yet.” All of that, we can help you with no matter what.

Steven Jack Butala:
Yep. Number five, none of this is going to happen unless you have a delivery schedule, unless you break out the components of doing this mailer. You can send your mailer out through Offers 2 Owners, which I highly recommend if you’re brand-new or if you’re at our level. It seems to be those two types of people where [inaudible 00:26:35] … that just don’t want to do it. I don’t want to do a mailer anymore. All the heavy lifting. I price every single one of our mailers personally, but I picked the area, I test it, test it, test it, triple, quadruple test it to make sure it works for us, then I send it to Offers 2 Owners through this product we have called Concierge Data, they do it, they do the mailer and they send it back to me for pricing. That’s exactly what I would recommend. None of that, and I mean none of that, would get done or does not get done, in my case, unless it’s in a calendar, each one of those steps.

Jill K DeWit:
Totally.

Steven Jack Butala:
You just have to stay on track with the delivery schedule. I’ve never known anybody who’s really accomplished [inaudible 00:27:16] … I’ve never talked to anybody who sat around and said, “I’ve accomplished just about everything I wanted to in my life, but I just got up and did whatever I wanted.”

Jill K DeWit:
Will you repeat that? You never [inaudible 00:27:28]-

Steven Jack Butala:
If you’re successful, it’s because you have a schedule.

Jill K DeWit:
… Thank you.

Steven Jack Butala:
You had a concept of what’s possible in your mind and you had … for us, it’s Microsoft 365, and a calendar system that everybody can see and they know [inaudible 00:27:44] … The people that work for you need to know what you expect in a calendar, not by talking. You can’t talk to that many people. You have to have a delivery schedule that’s implemented and everybody that knows what you’re doing. Can you imagine if I did a 40,000-unit mailer, Jill didn’t know when it was going out and had no idea where I was sending it? Could she get through it?

Jill K DeWit:
Not that that’s happened.

Steven Jack Butala:
Could she get through it? Yeah. But that’s not good.

Jill K DeWit:
It’s helpful to be prepared, that’s true, because I’ll be prepared for it. When I know the area, what’s coming, I’ll start working on all the next steps. I’ll have everything else lined up so I’m ready to go when those deals come in.

Steven Jack Butala:
Here’s my question to you, Jill: what do you think I missed? Are there more than five things about really pricing a mailer or doing a successful mailer?

Jill K DeWit:
No. These are the pro tips. This is the stuff that you need to know past the basics. This is like, “Okay, what do we talk about? More mail.” This is stuff that we talk about even with our Career Path alumni calls and things, too. How much are you guys sending? What are you finding? What nuances? Whatever. What’s your schedule? A lot of it’s schedule. That, honestly, I think number five, I’m glad you saved that for the last, is the hardest thing no matter what level anyone is at. I know that people leave … they leave Career Path and they’re fired up, ready to go, then they do it, do it, “Uh-Oh, running out of deals,” and then they get back on. You can’t do that. That’s where … if you send out a mailer, answer the calls, buy the property, sell the property and then start up all the way fresh, that’s not going to work. It’s going to go … You need to be constant momentum and always have things going through the system. That’s what we do and that’s how you sleep really well at night.

Steven Jack Butala:
It’s great that you brought this up. During Career Path, which is … it’s eight weeks. It’s every Wednesday, usually. Sometimes, it’s on a different day, depending on how Jill feels when she schedules it. The Wednesday morning is office hours, so it’s two hours of talking about deals with the whole group, just whatever you want to talk about, pricing, whatever. Then, there’s a guided module that we take a little break and, for approximately two hours after that, every week for eight weeks. The eighth module is you’re supposed to fly out of the nest kind of thing.
I don’t mean that … most of the people that take … it’s called Career Path for a reason: you want to make this your career. Most of the people have already done mailers, they’ve proven the concept to themselves pretty dramatically and they’re making some money, but they want to times X it, times 10 it or add zeroes, as Jill puts it. These aren’t new people, but something happens at the end of the eighth week where people just don’t want it to end. It’s for what you’re saying.

Jill K DeWit:
Oh, I know.

Steven Jack Butala:
They want … it’s like, “Well, wait a minute, wait a minute. In module two, we talked about this, this and this.” I’m like, “Yeah, maybe we should have talked about it in that module, too.”

Jill K DeWit:
You need to do it. Now, you need to take action.

Steven Jack Butala:
Right.

Jill K DeWit:
That’s the whole thing.

Steven Jack Butala:
I don’t bring this up to criticize anyone, I bring it up because it’s the hardest part.

Jill K DeWit:
It’s going off on your own.

Steven Jack Butala:
You’ve got to stick to the schedule.

Jill K DeWit:
True.

Steven Jack Butala:
You have to create the schedule. As an entrepreneur, you’re stick to the schedule, create it and implement it, then deal with the outcomes. I would say the vast majority of people never create the schedule in the first place. You’re already ahead. Create it, stick to it and then deal with what’s going to happen. Those are all built into these five points.

Jill K DeWit:
Exactly. I think you covered it great. I’m trying to think if I … I don’t really have any questions without getting the nitty-gritty, which I’m sure we’ve done it a lot and we can do it again. We’ll do more about that. This is a good point to bring this up, too: if you have some comments and you want to know more, like, “Can we do a deep dive again into something?” Hey, go on our where you’re [inaudible 00:31:43] … if you’re watching this on YouTube, put it in the comments or send us a note. We are happy to talk even more about individual pieces of this, maybe how we do it, how we stay on track, what does your calendar look like? Whatever it is, we can do that.

Steven Jack Butala:
Jill, you have something inspirational to share?

Jill K DeWit:
I-

Steven Jack Butala:
What’s going on with Land Gals, let’s say?

Jill K DeWit:
… Oh. Well, last week’s episode, 2,001, was Samantha Lathus and I talking about some stuff about the Land Gals and we’re working on … well, I can’t divulge a whole lot, but here’s what I can say. We’ve got some good stuff coming that we’re going to release here in the next couple months, weeks/months. They’re going to be not only Land Academy … let’s just say a level between the self-study and our Career Path is coming in the middle there because you’ve been asking for it and I think we have a solution for you. That’s coming up. Maybe some additional coaching opportunities, some one-on-one stuff. It’s going to be pretty darn cool. That’s what we’re working on. Then, for the Land Gals, some whole different things that we’ve got and I’m really excited about that. Then, we’ll have Career Path coming in the fall.
You know what? I guess my inspirational thing is right now … I just want to talk about staying on track through the summer. Here’s what’s going on in our world. It’s the end of April. You know us. Well, if you don’t know us, you do now. We’re getting antsy. We are in Arizona now. It’s our main place for the year, but anybody who knows Arizona knows you don’t want to be here in June, July, August, you just want … We take our sweet RV and we hit the road, like we’ve done for the last two or so years. You will see us doing the next couple shows … in a couple weeks, we’ll be showing up on the road. We’re planning that. It’s really easy to, “Hey, kids are out of school, we’re on summer break, all these vacations,” it’s very easy to do that with your land business. Sure. You’re just like, “Eh, take a break.” Well, guess what happens? Your bank balance will take a break, too. Seriously.

Steven Jack Butala:
Oh, jeez. You’re right.

Jill K DeWit:
What’s really interesting is what we’ve been doing is what I hope you’re doing or you should be doing: stocking up, man. It’s still April. It’s not late. Buy, buy, buy. That’s one of the things Samantha and I talked about last week was she’s like, “We’re low on inventory. I’m selling out.” I’m like, “Every year, it’s a repeat thing.” We’ve been watching and following trends, seasonality and things like that. Those of us who are in this, in Land Academy, know stock up when you can because come with the nice weather, people want to be out and buy their own property to camp on, fish on and build or whatever, and they can get to it, by the way, in the pretty times of year. You want to have a lot of property available to sell for those people.
It’s not late. You should be stocking up and you need to make sure whatever it is … this really ties back to your schedule. It’s not just motivated, it’s just stick to your schedule and make it easy on yourself. If you need to bring in some help, bring in some help to do your schedule. What if you do your own mailers throughout the year but summertime, your way of taking a break is, “I’m going to use Concierge Data. I’m not going to do my own [inaudible 00:35:21] … ” That’s a huge break. If you do stuff like that-

Steven Jack Butala:
That’s what I do.

Jill K DeWit:
… you could be brand-new to Land Academy, have a 10-hour work week, I’m not kidding, and do everything you need to do by using Concierge Data, have PATLive or somebody like that answering your phones and all you’re doing is the front-end stuff. Two hours a day, five days a week, you could get this done. Then, you probably have someone helping you close the deals like a transaction coordinator, like I do. So what? You bring in some help, like I said, and that’s how you take a break in the summer and then not lose any momentum. That’s my inspiration. I want you to think about doing that and what will probably happen if this goes like I think. Come fall, you’re going to go, “Why would I change this then? I don’t have to go back to my 40-hour week. I could stay at my 10-hour week.” You’re doing math.

Steven Jack Butala:
Well, my inspirational talk is very similar to yours.

Jill K DeWit:
Well, let’s pivot to you. What do you want to share with us right now?

Steven Jack Butala:
What I want to share is that we are coming into one of the … this has happened three times in my life, this will be the fourth, my professional life. We’re coming into the fourth real estate recession of my professional life and I can tell you they’re all very similar. What’s going to happen in this recession is the same thing that happened in the last three. The only variable is how long will it last and how deep will it go? Your response to both of those things should be almost the same.
If you’re concerned about your schedule, it’s hard to do and … take a yellow piece of paper, a yellow pad of paper. There’s 12 months in a year. There’s I don’t know how many months left in this … I think eight months left in this year. Take a look at what you want to accomplish in eight months, divide it all up by eight, or 12, or however you look at it. If you believe it takes 10,000 units to buy a piece of property that you want, make sure you send out 8,000 to 10,000 or whatever those numbers are a month. Make sure you’re sending it in places where you know can make whatever number amount of money that you want at the end of the year. If it’s 100,000, 200,000, divide that by the number of months and that tells you how much mail you need to send. Do your data on every Monday, your deadlines on the next Monday to get it to Offers 2 Owners, to get it in the mail or whatever those little steps are. It’s not hard. All it is just sitting [inaudible 00:37:53] … you are 15 minutes away from planning out the rest of the year when it comes to what we’re talking about here. You know what’s hard in life? Not this. What’s hard in life is-

Jill K DeWit:
I’m like, “Uh-oh.”

Steven Jack Butala:
… raising children and paying a mortgage.

Jill K DeWit:
Working with your spouse.

Steven Jack Butala:
Working with your spouse, living with your spouse, at times, having a podcast with your spouse and making up for an-

Jill K DeWit:
[inaudible 00:38:19] with your spouse.

Steven Jack Butala:
… argument right on camera with your spouse.

Jill K DeWit:
Exactly. Sharing a bathroom with your spouse … let’s see, where should we go?

Steven Jack Butala:
Keep going.

Jill K DeWit:
[inaudible 00:38:30]

Steven Jack Butala:
Doing this mailer, organizing your professional life and being an entrepreneur for me has always been the easiest part of my life.

Jill K DeWit:
Yeah.

Steven Jack Butala:
Join us next [inaudible 00:38:41]

Jill K DeWit:
Wait, wait, wait, time out. What’s the moral of this? Is there a silver lining at all?

Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah, doing a mailer … this is not hard. You just have to be organized. I know new things can be [inaudible 00:38:53] … I just dusted off an old drum set that I’ve been meaning to get back to more for exercise reasons than actually learning to be a great drummer, because that ship sailed. I know that’s not going to happen.

Jill K DeWit:
Oh, come on.

Steven Jack Butala:
But it’s still … I have to relearn everything because it’s been so long and I literally just before the show did all that. If it’s new or if you’re bringing it back into your life, it is a little intimidating. I’m a little intimidated by the whole thing. It’ll going to take some saddle time, the right attitude and a schedule and, within a week, I’ll be back into it, probably better than I was before.

Jill K DeWit:
You got this and you got this.

Steven Jack Butala:
Join us next Wednesday for another interesting episode. You are not alone in your real estate ambition.

Both:
We are Jack and Jill.

Steven Jack Butala:
Information.

Jill K DeWit:
And inspiration.

Steven Jack Butala:
To buy undervalued property.

Thanks for listening, and finally, don’t forget to subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts.

The post 5 Pro Tips for Pricing Your Land Flipping Mailer (LA 2002) appeared first on Land Academy.

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Join Jill and Sam as they uncover the groundbreaking rise of women in the land flipping industry. In this eye-opening discussion, they share their journey and insights into how women are reshaping the landscape of land flipping with their unique skills and perspectives. Discover how this traditionally male-dominated sector is evolving, and gain valuable tips and inspiration for your own ventures. Don’t miss out on this empowering conversation about the unstoppable force of women in land flipping!

Transcript: N/A

Thanks for listening, and finally, don’t forget to subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts.

The post Women Taking Over The Land Flipping Industry (LA 2001) appeared first on Land Academy.

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Join Steven Jack Butala and Jill DeWit for a special milestone episode of the Land Academy show! They reflect on the highs and lows of the past 10 years serving the land flipping community, reminiscing about memorable moments, big land flipping wins, and the amazing members who have been part of the journey, as well as the future of Land Academy.

Experience the journey from the beginning by visiting landacademy.com/podcast to access all episodes, including the originals! Don’t miss this celebration—tune in now! 🎊

Transcript:

Steven Jack Butala:
I’m Steven Jack Butala.

Jill K DeWit:
And I’m Jill DeWit and this is the Land Academy show.

Steven Jack Butala:
This is episode number 2000, I can’t believe it. We are calling it Acre by Acre, 2000 Episodes of Land Flipping. Jill and I will be covering the high and low points of the last 10 years serving the land community I guess, moments we remember, big land wins, and amazing members, and then ultimately Jill is going to cover at the end, the future of Land Academy.

Jill K DeWit:
What do you mean low points? Hold on a moment. What are talking about, low points?

Steven Jack Butala:
I can summarize this whole thing like this. This is not anything what Jill and I anticipated.

Jill K DeWit:
No.

Steven Jack Butala:
It’s been like a windy, curvy, switchback-y road.

Jill K DeWit:
Oh, no. For me it’s been all peaches and cream, skipping through a field of dandelions. That’s how this has been, so no. I mean, but seriously, this has been an amazing ride. I’m going to start right now because I peeked ahead on the script here and I know it’s not in there, but I got to just remind everyone here, I’m not even supposed to be on this show.

Steven Jack Butala:
Oh, my gosh.

Jill K DeWit:
I was never intended to be … It was the Land Academy Show, but it was never the Jack and Jill show. It was always Jack and the Land Academy show. And so day one, or not even day one, as we’re pre-episode zero, episode negative two, negative three, as we’re figuring this out and testing this and having guests, some of which showed up and some of which didn’t show up, some of the shows that you recorded we could air and some of them we couldn’t air. It’s funny. We had one guy in particular, we can’t cut that much of this up. This is G-rated. It’s just not going to work. So back in the beginning I was just a fill-in guest.

Steven Jack Butala:
When people didn’t show up, Jill would sit in and the numbers on the shows where she sat in were two and three times what the regular numbers and downloads were.

Jill K DeWit:
So that means three people.

Steven Jack Butala:
So yeah, [inaudible 00:02:11] it’s five instead of three, both of our parents included.

Jill K DeWit:
Yeah.

Steven Jack Butala:
We’re going to cover some of the high and low points all the way through this, but Land Academy doesn’t look anything like what we intended when we started it. And the real reason why is, and we will cover it in a few minutes, is we were constantly and are constantly listening to what our members want and not the changes that they want, and how we can better serve the land community is what this has been. And it ended up being through different products that we’ve released, which we’ll talk about in a few minutes here.

Jill K DeWit:
I still think it’s funny. You go back and dig if you really want to, you could find it on our YouTube channel and on our website, some of the old original ones. You would just call me at my desk and we’d talk for 45 minutes about the I’m doing.

Steven Jack Butala:
They’re all on there.

Jill K DeWit:
Yeah.

Steven Jack Butala:
You know what? That’s a great point. I didn’t think of this. If you want to go back and laugh, they’re on our website, so they’re on the free portion of our website. You can go all the way back to zero. You can’t do it on iTunes or wherever you listen to the podcasts or watch the podcasts usually. It’s too much data storage, but-

Jill K DeWit:
YouTube and our website can do it?

Steven Jack Butala:
I don’t think even YouTube can. I really think you have to go back on our website. I know you do. Those are all audio only anyway.

Jill K DeWit:
Feel free to make a collage and laugh at Jill’s hairstyles over the years or Jill’s hair color over the years.

Steven Jack Butala:
I was thinking about that because we don’t look the same.

Jill K DeWit:
No bangs. No, we don’t. Exactly. That’s so good.

Steven Jack Butala:
So let’s start with moments we remember.

Jill K DeWit:
Okay.

Steven Jack Butala:
I’m going to phrase this in the form of a question to Jill. What do you remember the most or the least or the most painful?

Jill K DeWit:
Starting just Land Academy?

Steven Jack Butala:
Mm-hmm.

Jill K DeWit:
I remember the yellow pad. I remember having a yellow pad and when we finally decided, I don’t know, it was like, I want to say around the holidays or something. For some reason I’m thinking it’s December, but I remember … So this was 2014 I want to say because we launched in ’15, but I remember getting a yellow pad out and drawing a circle and we have it somewhere. I know I scanned it and saved all this, and in the middle of the bubble I wrote Land Academy, and then we had all these little lines drawing out from the circle going what goes into doing a land deal? And I just remember writing down all … We had 10 big pieces to the puzzle to getting a land deal done and it was the beginning of sharing our whole business model and in there we would put down things like, oh, I know what it was, soup to nuts, but we would put down all the little things. I’ll get back to that in a second here. We would put down all the different things that went into having a business like ours. That was the whole point here.
And I remember every time we’d say, should we put that in? Do we talk about that? Do we cover this? How much detail do we go into this to share our business model with? We had no idea how many people would be interested, but who we thought would be interested. We always said, let’s just put it in there, and that was when you taught me the saying soup to nuts. And I’m like, what the heck? So, yep, truth, time. I didn’t know what soup to nuts was and it was so darn funny. So he taught me that and so, for me, that was what this was about.
In my mind, I was one off teaching people, our customers at the time, people were buying land from us. You and I were one off helping them and teaching them like here’s where you get the data, here’s what you do, here’s how you could do this, here’s how you do that. And then we decided to, let’s just say, one by one, it’s going to take a long time. Let’s put something together and call it Land Academy. You came up with Land Academy and share it with the planet and see what happens.

Steven Jack Butala:
Let’s take a few steps back.

Jill K DeWit:
Okay.

Steven Jack Butala:
I’ve been buying and selling land since 1994.

Jill K DeWit:
True.

Steven Jack Butala:
There’s a huge real estate recession that happened between 2007, and I was very good at it, a huge recession that basically sunk what I created between 2007 and 2009, entered Jill and Jill brought in what I didn’t realize at the time was a massive missing piece to all this, which was personality, personality and sales and just a presence. This is long before Land Academy, so we had to. I was forced to retool the business entirely and she got on the phone and so I provided a bunch of real estate at very good prices for her to sell and that’s when this thing really took off.
Fast-forward to 2014, we’re on vacation with Jill’s yellow pad and we created Land Academy because we ran out of money. We needed more money. We were buying so much property because Jill was and is fantastic on the phone from a sales and an acquisition standpoint. And so we put this thing together to raise capital and we said, you know what we’ll do? We’ll describe to the world, to whoever wants to listen to it or watch the program, this is how we buy property and if you’d like to get involved and fund with us, share in the profit, that’d be great, because we have tons and tons of deals, and it became something after that that I can’t describe. I mean how would you describe that? I just wanted it to cover the cost of … It was a pretty big undertaking. I had to learn the Adobe Suite. We didn’t hire anybody. We bought a camera.

Jill K DeWit:
No, that’s true. It was us.

Steven Jack Butala:
Bought a camera and bought a DVD burner and put the program together and I had to learn the Adobe suite of products so that I could screenshot it and-

Jill K DeWit:
I ordered and lovingly we created together these beautiful binders with an embossed Land Academy logo on them and that’s how it was delivered. That was so funny back then too.

Steven Jack Butala:
CD sets.

Jill K DeWit:
We did it all, down to, I’m going to the mailbox, I’m popping this in kind of thing and printing out our own shipping labels. We did it all.

Steven Jack Butala:
When I knew that we were doing it wrong is when multiple members, new members would send us a note saying, I really want to be a part of this and I love the product, but I don’t have a DVD player.

Jill K DeWit:
Oh, yeah, that’s true. That was true. Remember there was one person that we actually bought them a DVD player. I remember that. I’m like, it’s $39 nowadays, so literally we bought a DVD player and sent it to him. I’m like, got to be kidding me, but okay. That was funny. That’s a good memory. Yeah. What about you?

Steven Jack Butala:
I was thinking back. We have lived in five places since we started Land Academy.

Jill K DeWit:
That’s funny. Only five?

Steven Jack Butala:
What’s wrong with us? We’ve moved five times.

Jill K DeWit:
I know. It’s good.

Steven Jack Butala:
That’s not counting the summers that we spent in RVs, plural.

Jill K DeWit:
True. We got the starter RV out of the way.

Steven Jack Butala:
Here’s Land Academy since the beginning until now by the numbers. We’ve had thousands and thousands of members. We’ve had tens of thousands of just land deals, all land deals, Land Academy wide. There’s no way for me to confirm that, but I know it’s true because we look at these land deals on our Thursday member call, which we’ve been doing for years. It’s been years and years, probably seven plus years. We’ve had a webinar once a week. We’ve had hundreds of thousands of ebook downloads, millions of podcast downloads, and about 5,000 hours of recorded and available content.

Jill K DeWit:
That’s a lot.

Steven Jack Butala:
How does this make you feel? It makes me feel old.

Jill K DeWit:
Tired.

Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah, old and happy, and I don’t know.

Jill K DeWit:
Well, I was going to say we should not look as good as we look, but you be the judge. I’m sure you’re like, no, yeah, Jill, you look tired. That’s fine.

Steven Jack Butala:
There’s a politician who gets elected and they look great and then four years later it’s like, what happened to that guy?

Jill K DeWit:
They age 20 years.

Steven Jack Butala:
That’s this.

Jill K DeWit:
That’s probably us. That’s good. Thank goodness for hair color.

Steven Jack Butala:
Let’s move on from moments that we remember to big land wind.

Jill K DeWit:
Okay.

Steven Jack Butala:
So we’ve completed, again by the numbers, just Jill and I, over 1,000 deals since we started Land Academy in 2014 and over 16,000 since I started in ’94 Jeez, the average land deal for us right now, we generally will buy a piece of property for less than $100,000, let’s say between 60 and 90,000 and we’ll sell it for between 150 and $350,000. That’s the sweet spot now, but jeez, it never was. It changes all the time. There was a time when we started the first program we did, we’re up to Land Academy 3.0 now, but the first program was called Cash Flow from Land. We were still buying real small properties that are real inexpensive and selling them on terms, which we’ve long moved on from. Not because it’s a bad model, it’s just we saw a better opportunity elsewhere. That’s a reoccurring theme at Land Academy. We continually grow and change and adjust to the market.

Jill K DeWit:
True.

Steven Jack Butala:
And so-

Jill K DeWit:
Well, let’s pause on that for a second because that’s a bigger deal and I think gets talked about. I mean you figured this whole thing out. I want to back up. This is all in his head. You didn’t have a mentor, you didn’t have an education program, you had nobody to learn this from. You figured this all out on your own. Even I had you, so I had a mentor and an education, if you will, which was me at your desk and you showing me what to do and not on the data side, you always kept on that, but on the sales side, here’s how we run the properties through the system, go with it. Like, okay, I got this, and I would post my own property and all that good stuff back then. So we have, together, 15 years of full-time transaction history and experience, not counting the 15 years before that that you created.
And so back to what you were saying about pivoting and growing and learning, I mean that’s who we are, and you know it. Those of you who have been listening to us from day one, you know who you are and I know who you are, you go, wait a minute, I remember when you hated real estate agents. Now you love them and now you hate them again and now you love them. There’s all different things that we’ve done. Our data sources have changed. This has changed. I got tired of eating my words, by the way. I’m good at it now. And we continue to do that and we will continue to do that. So this episode 2000, by the way, is not, well, mic drop.

Steven Jack Butala:
Oh, my gosh. No.

Jill K DeWit:
And you’ll hear more at the end here of the show. This is like, oh, hold on. We are positioning ourselves to do even more and greater things with you.

Steven Jack Butala:
I really wonder. You’re right. I’m glad we paused on this because adjusting to your environment is a theme that should be happening in life, not just in business. It’s relationships, all of it. I mean, if you’ve ever had children, you don’t treat a two-year-old the way you do a 17-year-old. You just don’t as a parent. And why should your business be any different? The deals that we were doing 10 years ago or 20 years ago completely don’t even look the same at all. And we’re going to talk about some of the big land wins that we had here in a minute, but had those big land win opportunities come across our field of vision, I would’ve passed on that, largely because Jill’s involved and she knows now and I’ve had, what, 15 years to work with her.
So there’s another set of partnership eyes on the types of deals that we do that we would’ve passed on because I wouldn’t know where to start from a sell side. We can buy it. Jill and I can buy anything. We can buy and fund anything now because of Land Academy. We can fund any deal. We can fund it and we can receive funding. I mean, I think it’s almost infinite, which was why we started Land Academy is to get a group of people together to have a bunch of money so we’re better together, and so that is just a win right there.

Jill K DeWit:
True. Exactly. You had some good notes here about some of the transactions you used to do. That’s pretty good there.

Steven Jack Butala:
For me, I always remember the first land deal and the most recent land deal. The first deal I ever did, I was on eBay sitting at my coffee table in Cincinnati. I was a vice president of Deaconess Healthcare System, one of the vice presidents, and I hated it. And so I got onto eBay, didn’t know you could buy property and 30, 40 minutes later I bought 80 acres in Arizona for I think around eight to $10,000. Clean the whole thing up, clean the posting up, never went to Arizona, never thought about it, made the posting look a lot better, added a lot of information after I researched it online, got on the phone with the county and the whole thing, and resold it for 16 or $20,000.
I don’t remember the exact numbers and I remember receiving the payment on that. I remember it like it was yesterday, receiving the credit card payment. No, it was a check back then. They didn’t even process credit cards and the check clearing and me saying to myself, that’s it. This is what I’m doing for the rest of my life. All I need to do, this is the thought that I had, was institutionalize buying inexpensive property or undervalued property. That hasn’t changed.

Jill K DeWit:
Correct.

Steven Jack Butala:
That is exactly what we do now, and that’s what happened. I quit that job, moved back to Arizona and went on a quest of physical and what ended up happening was I would travel around the country at tax sales, tax deed sales, buy property and resell it online. This is before Jill and I joined forces, so there were some real memorable deals during then. I bought a big release of property, escrow release property in Grand State, Mexico. We made a couple million bucks. That’s a memorable big land win. I bought several hundred properties real close to the Grand Canyon, which by law back then we had to sell in six packs for a bunch of reasons and I made, I don’t know, eight or $900,000 on that.

Jill K DeWit:
Yeah.

Steven Jack Butala:
Jill and I did a deal, a tax deed deal where it was right in the middle of the recession and we just hit this tax sale at the right time and bought 1400 properties, 1400 APNs.

Jill K DeWit:
We were sitting in the county offices waiting for an hour or two, I can’t remember how long it was, while they printed out the deeds and they sent us home with a big stack, a ream of paper with all these APNs. I’m like, this is hilarious.

Steven Jack Butala:
I remember driving home stopping to get her an iced tea and I said, it’s probably about the time you should quit your job.

Jill K DeWit:
You did. I didn’t get it at the time. I remember you really looking, [inaudible 00:18:05] You were driving. You’re looking at me going, you don’t realize this is it. And I’m like, okay, I got this.

Steven Jack Butala:
We paid $11 in APM.

Jill K DeWit:
Yeah.

Steven Jack Butala:
We ended up selling those for over $1,000 each.

Jill K DeWit:
Yeah. You can’t calculate those numbers.

Steven Jack Butala:
I can calculate.

Jill K DeWit:
Okay. They-

Steven Jack Butala:
I can calculate it in my head.

Jill K DeWit:
Okay, got it.

Steven Jack Butala:
So can everyone else.

Jill K DeWit:
Yeah, that’s true, but that was insane.

Steven Jack Butala:
So from there, what was real interesting that happened, and this is a great example of the dynamic between Jill and I as professional partners, she said, well, are there other deals out there like this? This is her sales mind at work because I’m over here doing all the accounting. And I said, yeah, in fact, we should wholesale some of these properties out and suck some cash out of this so we can go buy all these other deals that we have on deck. And she said, well, can you just make a list of, I don’t know, the top 10 people that you think would buy these? And so she did, and that launched, this was around 2009-ish, 10 maybe, launched what would be the next several years of how we bought and sell land. We would buy land, she would contact … She built an email list of people. It was probably 20 or 30 people. I would put a spreadsheet together with prices and APNs, the most basic thing you can imagine, not maps. There was no real copier pros at all.

Jill K DeWit:
There are other investors, they’re pros. They don’t need that. Yeah.

Steven Jack Butala:
These are people that were selling stuff all over the country and online on terms and God knows what they were doing with it, but my job became very, very easy. I had to just to do what I know how to do, which is go and to either tax sales or to find in the little corners of places where I know where to buy back then really inexpensive land, create a spreadsheet for Jill, and then she would distribute it and take the phone calls and process the deeds. So that’s a fantastic example of that was a huge win, that milestone. That’s a fantastic example of just change it with the times, improving. Geez, that was just probably 10 times the revenue. Well, I was out of business because of the recession and she came in and totally breathed new life into the whole thing. So I-

Jill K DeWit:
We had the property. Let’s define our business, had a lot of property, but just not a lot of gas.

Steven Jack Butala:
We had a ton of property and no sales talent because it was me, and she came in and sifted through. We had tons of real estate actually now [inaudible 00:20:45] tons of free and clear real estate that was sitting there and no way to sell it because eBay was done too, single point of failure.

Jill K DeWit:
Totally. So yeah, over the years, boy, we have pivoted, grown, moved. You know what’s funny? You remember the deals. Did you want to …

Steven Jack Butala:
Well, just to finish the thought, and then I’m sure you have land wins, too, we recently did a transaction that I would …This was a frequent thing between John and I, I would’ve passed on, and the deal came in, we bought it. I can’t remember where it was. I think it was Oregon. I’m not sure. The deal came in. I think we paid 140-ish?

Jill K DeWit:
Something like that?

Steven Jack Butala:
And sold it for 235.

Jill K DeWit:
More than that even, actually, it was 280, I think. Yeah. It was an easy double.

Steven Jack Butala:
Right, and that’s always been our thing. Try to double it and now it’s try to double it and make $100,000.

Jill K DeWit:
Right.

Steven Jack Butala:
So if we end up doing 40 deals a year at $100,000, you don’t need a calculator for that either, right? I try to make 2.5 million in profit in our land buying endeavor here the bottom, and so it ends up working out, and so that was a great example. I mean I’m just about done with our 2023 tax return and I can tell you it all worked. I don’t remember the deals anymore.

Jill K DeWit:
Yeah.

Steven Jack Butala:
I know the money and I think you know the people.

Jill K DeWit:
It’s even different for me now. Someone once told me this, don’t think about this, don’t think about how pretty it is, don’t think about where it is, don’t think about the attributes, don’t get hung up on these. Think about all of these properties as a line item on a spreadsheet. I was almost like a general giving a soldier a speech and I’m like, noted. I remembered that. It’s funny. So I’d stop paying attention. If you want to ask me what I closed on last week, I can’t tell you. I have to go look. I really cannot.

Steven Jack Butala:
That’s great.

Jill K DeWit:
Remember, I move on. But what I do remember though over the years is I pay way more pension to our deals some of our members are doing. I can remember some of the deals that are going on right now, I’m not going to share them, but some good deals in the works right now that our community is doing and more importantly our members in their lives and, oh boy, all of you who have shared with me, we call it the Quitters Club still. When you’re quitting your day job and have sent us notes over the years? Oh, I remember that. That’s what I [inaudible 00:23:28] because that is life-changing. Hey, my wife was able to retire. We don’t have to go back to work. I quit my job, fill in the blank. I love all of that, so that’s the stuff that I remember. Those are some of my big wins more than the deals.

Steven Jack Butala:
So the name of this segment is called Big Land Wins, but there’s been other wins now. I realized that I like to instruct. I really get a real huge kick out of … Again, we directly keep in touch with our membership group every single Thursday on a Thursday call-

Jill K DeWit:
In Discord.

Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah, in Discord, on a minute-by-minute basis, so we know what kind of deals they’re doing. We know what is making sense to them. Jill went through a whole phase in Land Academy a few years ago called adding a zero. You’re going to buy for 10,000 and sell for 180,000? Then just add a zero. Or I mean, buy for 10 and sell for 80, add a zero or add a one in front of it.

Jill K DeWit:
Well, it was even to be before that, because a lot of people were hung up with buying for 1000 and selling for 8,000. That was a big hang-up for a lot of people. I’m like, knock it off. Especially with our deal funding now, you don’t have to buy for 1000 because that’s all that you have. Buy for 10, make it count.

Steven Jack Butala:
Deal funding was a massive pivotal point, more for our members than us. It was pivotal for us because we started Land Academy and we immediately got four or five people that were throwing money at us, more money than we needed.

Jill K DeWit:
That’s always the case.

Steven Jack Butala:
WE then realized there’s a lot of other people that want to be involved in this. So we did that and then at some point several years ago, we came up with landfunding.com, and so now we fund people’s deals. And we’re very, very choosy, so we’re almost sure, within reason, if we fund it, we’re all going to do pretty well.

Jill K DeWit:
If I sign off on it, it’s going to be good. We’re going to be okay. Either way, it’s my money, so don’t worry about it. That’s usually the case. So yeah, it’s awesome.

Steven Jack Butala:
The next segment is our amazing members. So without naming names yet, they all have the same kind of profile or MO. Imagine you take a college course and there’s 30 people in the class and the instructor’s somebody with gray hair. If you ask, and I’ve done this with the college professors, what are the students that you really enjoy teaching to get out of it? They’ll always say some version of this, the people that actually got something out of the program and then went and used it in some different way that I never anticipated.
Well, the same situation happens here. My favorite members are the ones who take this basic concept of finding and trolling for real estate that looks like it might be a good place to buy land that’s undervalued and resell it for more, send people offers and then process the deal on the buy and the sell side. And then they see something else in there that no one’s seen, including me. These 80 acre properties can be subdivided or minor split into fill in the blank, or geez, I noticed there’s a ton of variants in a mobile home for sale and sold pricing. And so they take this concept of direct mail offers and make it their own or they make their spreadsheets that we provide their own, and so it just takes on this life of its own. And then we hear from them, I don’t know, six months later and it’s like, yeah, we don’t need to be members anymore.

Jill K DeWit:
It’s not that. They’re funding other people’s deals.

Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah.

Jill K DeWit:
That’s the thing that happens. That’s what I see that’s funny, the progression. Some people, they’ll come in and they need the education, got it, and the funding, got it. And then after a little while, that’s going great and I’m like, Hey, let’s do some more deals. No, thank you, Jill. I don’t need your funding anymore. I can afford to do this myself. I’m not splitting any profits. Noted, and then wait six months and now they’re at the bank for somebody else.

Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah.

Jill K DeWit:
I know that there are people that hang out in Land Academy for a very long time and some that even just come into Land Academy because they know how smart this group is and how strategic we are and how data focused we are. We’re using data, making sure we make really smart decisions and people love to fund our deals and love to work with us.
I remember years ago too, when we were first starting, and my peers at the time, other investors were doing deals together. I’m doing deals over here, they were doing deals over there. We all knew who each other was and I remember then when they would say, oh, I bought a property off one of your members, I know exactly that this person came from you. And I’m like, oh, that’s great.

Steven Jack Butala:
I remember that too.

Jill K DeWit:
That’s really cool, and they actually would thank me. They’re like, thank you. Honestly, it was like, thank you for teaching the planet how to do a deal and what all this stuff means and things like that. That was really good.

Steven Jack Butala:
Over the years, we’ve had people reach out to us and say, you know what? I’m in a position in life where I’m happy to help you guys with Land Academy because it’s working out for me and I’d love to take on partners or whatever their personal motivation for that is.

Jill K DeWit:
Give back.

Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah, I’ll give back. I have to mention Kevin Farrell. He was with us for years and years and years.

Jill K DeWit:
He’s still with us.

Steven Jack Butala:
He doesn’t, but he’s not a moderator.

Jill K DeWit:
Right.

Steven Jack Butala:
Kevin stepped up. He was directly involved in the live events that we had in the distant past and he was a moderator on all of the community sites that we’ve created over the years. The most recent one, the one we use now is a version of Discord. And so he was a moderator and he was also ended up being a consultant you could call him and [inaudible 00:29:28] coaching and consultant, paid for a half hour. And geez, the response we got from people that talked to Kevin was like, wow, he really cleared up chapter seven or really, that’s the push I needed to get the mail out the door, on and on and on. Same thing right now with Carl and Samantha Lathes. They both have really, really showed up. They’re brand new members. They’re career path graduates and just they’re giving it their all. They’re funding people’s deals and it’s been a pleasure to work with them.

Jill K DeWit:
I was going to say, what I noticed, what you just touched on here is people have over the years realized, okay, there’s a lot of giving going on in this group. There’s a lot of abundance in this group, and so there’s more helping than anything, and so I think that’s what you’re speaking to. [inaudible 00:30:24] Thank you for sharing all that. Wow, I can’t believe you just shared all that with me. You just gave me all your secrets and everything. I’m like, awesome. Please help us and pay it forward, and that’s going on.

Steven Jack Butala:
I remember a huge compliment somebody said to me that you guys have created what social media is supposed to be.

Jill K DeWit:
Aw. That was nice.

Steven Jack Butala:
I know. This is a lot of years ago, actually.

Jill K DeWit:
That’s nice. Yeah, helping each other, not cutting people down.

Steven Jack Butala:
Right.

Jill K DeWit:
There’s abundance. There’s enough property to go around. We used to get that, remember, in the beginning? This is a good one. We used to get this all the time and now we don’t get it anymore. Aren’t you guys nuts for sharing your business model? Because didn’t you just create competition for you? To which I say I understand your thoughts and don’t think we didn’t talk about that because seriously, before we sat down and even put Land Academy together, we did say, are we nuts for teaching other people to do what we do? That could be creating our own competition in the land buying and selling space. And we did the math and, trust me, there’s enough property to go around. I still don’t worry about it.

Steven Jack Butala:
There’s 150 million pieces of property in this country.

Jill K DeWit:
Yeah.

Steven Jack Butala:
We can all-

Jill K DeWit:
I can’t touch them all.

Steven Jack Butala:
There’s almost two million licensed real estate agents in this world all scrambling to try to get the same listings. There’s probably less than maybe 800, maybe 1000 people buying and selling land actively like we are.

Jill K DeWit:
True. I want to talk about amazing members on my side of the sheet here.

Steven Jack Butala:
Sure.

Jill K DeWit:
Who do I recall and remember and get excited about? All the strong women in Land Academy and you know what? There are more. I remember early on my Bay and Chelsea from a while ago who’s back, and Bay’s been with us for quite some time. So in the beginning there were very few women investors and then it transitioned to more couples coming in. The men would join Land Academy and get the wives involved and some of them … I remember a member in particular bought Land Academy and handed it to his wife. If you don’t want to go back to work, this is a way you can not go back to work and be home with the kids. I’m like, oh, this is smart. You’re good. And then watch the women get into this and take off, and so now I have … Gosh, thank you, Bay and Chelsea and Michelle and Sam and Shannon, and I’ve got some new ones coming up through the ranks right now. I got a Tara and a Zane that I’m like, oh, I’m keeping an eye. I’m hearing about you guys and I’m excited to see what kind of deals you guys put together.

Steven Jack Butala:
So as fun as it is to take this little trip down memory lane, I’ve tried to live my life by this saying, you’re only as good as the last great thing you’ve done, and I really believe that. So great, we did all this. Congratulations, Jack. You started in 1994, you did thousands and thousands of deals and you and Jill made it together. Congratulations.

Jill K DeWit:
And you’re still together.

Steven Jack Butala:
How does this affect me? Yeah.

Jill K DeWit:
Yeah.

Steven Jack Butala:
How does this affect me and what’s going to happen next? Which brings us to our final segment called The Future of Land Academy, which is my favorite. This is really what I want to talk about. We’re always, both of us, looking forward.

Jill K DeWit:
Oh, totally.

Steven Jack Butala:
I’m not patting myself on the back about past tax returns. All the products, as I said earlier, have been developed directly in response to members’ requests. From the very first product, people were asking us long before that Land Academy was even a thing, how do you guys consistently buy cheap land? And we would tell them, we wouldn’t hold it back. This is what we do. I didn’t give anybody seller’s phone numbers, but we told them, this is the concept.

Jill K DeWit:
This is where you go get the data, that kind of a thing.

Steven Jack Butala:
Then it happened so much because Jill was selling so much property to people just on email and verbally, can you teach us? That started happening.

Jill K DeWit:
Yeah.

Steven Jack Butala:
And so we said, sure, I’ll tell you what. Why don’t you give me this piece of property that we know you own and then we’ll all sit down for a few hours and I’ll answer your questions? That’s how it started. Then that happened more and more and more. So finally Jill and I sat down and said, this is where the yellow pad came in, we were actually on vacation, why don’t we just create a program so we don’t have to do this individually, one-on-one all the time? And I remember saying this to Jill, if we make $5,000 extra a month, it’ll cover all the costs and the grief and the labor and all of it and we’ll go on our way. And so that was the whole goal of Land Academy, to generate $5,000 to just cover costs.

Jill K DeWit:
That was so funny.

Steven Jack Butala:
Here we are.

Jill K DeWit:
I will never forget, I launched it early. I was doing my own little social media posts, my own little pictures and all the little stuff in Facebook and just doing what I thought and then I opened up … We had a checkout, you made the website, had a sweet little checkout page and I sent a little email blast and here you all came. I’m like, what just happened? It was so good.

Steven Jack Butala:
So my point is those products were at the request of people, our regular land buying customers, and then I remember launching Land Academy, and just what Jill said, and it was landacademy.org back then because we couldn’t afford the dot-com.

Jill K DeWit:
Yep.

Steven Jack Butala:
There were all these questions, so they got these DVDs, they watched them and they were emailing us question after question. So Jill said, we need a place on the internet where everybody can communicate with each other and help each other, not just get the help from us. And she said, oh, and I’m going on vacation. This is all a true story.

Jill K DeWit:
This is funny.

Steven Jack Butala:
I said, all right. And she was gone for, I don’t know, four or five days.

Jill K DeWit:
Just a weekend. You did give me some tasks. You said, I’m going to do this. You need to come back with three blogs. And I’m like, you did? I had to write three blogs. I’m like, okay, deal.

Steven Jack Butala:
Did you write them?

Jill K DeWit:
Yes, I had to. That was my assignment.

Steven Jack Butala:
Oh my gosh.

Jill K DeWit:
Yeah, I remember that.

Steven Jack Butala:
It makes it sound like a one-way street.

Jill K DeWit:
Well, no, but you were doing something and I was doing something, so yeah.

Steven Jack Butala:
Make no mistake, I work for Jill.

Jill K DeWit:
Oh, thanks.

Steven Jack Butala:
Let’s just be clear on that. So I created this website called Success Plant, and it was a WordPress plug-in, and geez, it just immediately took off. All these products, with a few exceptions, which I’ll mention in a minute, really took off. And so everybody that was in Land Academy and we had a free section and a paid section and everybody within Land Academy, that’s when we really got to hear or watch what the hang-ups were, where people were fumbling and one of them was data. Oh, my God, can you believe how much it costs at RealQuest? This data costs this and this. Then they started saying, well, maybe we should put together a group where we know we can buy this much data every month. And so Jill came up with, let’s just have a membership.
And we went to Irvine and sat down [inaudible 00:37:42] RealQuest at the time. We sat down with one of the directors or vice presidents of RealQuest and they said, you two are out of your mind. We will never resell data to you. You guys are land investors and I get it, but we were for oil and gas companies and all that. Enter Jill and so we came out of there with a drafted agreement for how we can provide way low-cost data in RealQuest. Now it’s DataTree. We did the same thing with DataTree. A lot easier with DataTree because they were looking at our usage in RealQuest, and so that became the data situation. I can keep going.

Jill K DeWit:
That was fun. I wonder what happened to that guy. We had a good time. Yeah.

Steven Jack Butala:
Then we got so frustrated with attempting to find or do our own mailers that Jill and I started offers to owners and hat was pivotal, too, because that’s all we do. offersandowners.com only processes offers for us and members and people in the business, so we got really good at it. Jesus, this was a few years ago

Jill K DeWit:
And again, brought the cost down. That was the whole thing. People were getting hung up on the mail merge, and so that was one of our first products was we’ll do the mayor much for you and we can bring the cost down, because one by one people were trying to figure out how to save money, including a sweet member who’s been with us for this whole time too, who was first initial was L, getting his own big printer in his garage thinking that that would work, and then realizing that’s way too expensive.

Steven Jack Butala:
By the way, I did that.

Jill K DeWit:
Yeah, I know, but we turned it into a company now and not a one-off. It was for us, one off. You can’t one-off do your own mail.

Steven Jack Butala:
It won’t work financially.

Jill K DeWit:
No, it won’t work financially.

Steven Jack Butala:
You can’t one-off get your own data.

Jill K DeWit:
And you don’t have a backup when the printer doesn’t work and your envelopes don’t show up and all of that, so that doesn’t work.

Steven Jack Butala:
Getting your own data and doing your own mail will end in tears.

Jill K DeWit:
Totally.

Steven Jack Butala:
It’ll end in bankrupted tears.

Jill K DeWit:
Yep.

Steven Jack Butala:
I know this because that’s what happened to us, minus the bankruptcy, but there were a lot of tears putting this stuff together. We started a company that’s still around called Deed Perfect because we noticed that people are having trouble doing their own deeds, and so you just plow in your information and it kicks out a deed.

Jill K DeWit:
Yeah.

Steven Jack Butala:
For a very long time, our transaction coordinator was using Deed Perfect to do our deeds. I don’t even know that.

Jill K DeWit:
Yeah, I did know that.

Steven Jack Butala:
She said that recently. We provided a place to sell land called landpin.com, P-I-N. It’s not used so much now anymore because we use real estate agents for much higher valued real estate deals on the sell side. Geez, we started landfunding.com, landtank.com. Both of those are places where if you need to get a deal funded, you can put it in there. We started houseacademy.com.

Jill K DeWit:
And House Tank.

Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah, and House Tank. So Jill and I regularly, not super regularly, but consistently still buy houses and we will be, because the economy’s changing, get back to that, not exclusively. It’ll never replace land, but it’s a good product type to add to what we do. We started Career Path, which is our high-end class. It’s an eight-week class.

Jill K DeWit:
A mastermind.

Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah, it’s a mastermind group for people where it’s their career. They’re not just horsing around. They’re past all that and they’re real serious about it.

Jill K DeWit:
It’s like, I’m done making $200,000 a year. I want to make that two million a year. Okay.

Steven Jack Butala:
These are all the result of us getting floods and floods of requests of emails like, how do I do this? What happens here? And finally the answer is you should join Career Path and all these things will be answered. Okay.

Jill K DeWit:
Yeah.

Steven Jack Butala:
We have a program now as a result of … Again, and this is my final product, it’s not a conclusive list of all of our products, but because people in Career Path were being introduced to the people in Offers and Owners that do put the mailers together and being introduced to our transaction coordinator team, the people who do our deals, their response was, well-

Jill K DeWit:
Can I hire them?

Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah, can I hire them? Why can’t they be my staff? And we started Land Academy Pro, so now you can use our staff and use our people to do the mail, the same people that Jill and I used to buy and sell property in this very small group.

Jill K DeWit:
Yeah, so that’s a good recap. There’s some other things that we don’t need to bring up that didn’t work out over the years. There’s several sites. If you go back and dig, you’re like, what happened to that? Okay. So that’s part of why you’re here too, right? Well, we’re going to pivot. This is our thing for 30 years. Sorry, 30 years for you, 15 for me, this has been our gig and we’re not going anywhere and we’re even better at pivoting and spotting these things and staying ahead of it. And so for me right now, my big exciting thing is Landgals.com, that’s coming. There’s going to be a live event in the works. I’ve got new program stuff in the works. I’ve got special breakout things that I’m already doing right now just within the Land Academy community for my Sweet Ladies group because you guys are figuring it out and I want to help you. That’s it. Our theme has been retire your husband and I love that. We have had people in Land Academy that have done that and it’s so great.

Steven Jack Butala:
Who knows what’s next?

Jill K DeWit:
Yeah.

Steven Jack Butala:
I can tell you we’re in a flat real estate market now, and for the first time in a lot of years professionals, reading their opinions about what’s going to happen with real estate and a lot of it’s nothing’s going to crash, I don’t think, like it did the last time, but it’s certainly flattening and there’s a shift in high demand real estate in urban areas to rural areas, which is our specialization. So why not? We will be buying and selling more rural real estate than we ever have, and so will our members. And so if that becomes some type of special product, then I’m sure it will. Then we’ll get involved in that forever. People have been asking us to pool revenue or pool investment capital and do syndications, and I have kept that in my back pocket, but we’ll see.

Jill K DeWit:
Yeah, we’re too good at what we do to stop.

Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah.

Jill K DeWit:
Honestly, I’m going to end it on this for me, like I said, we’re too good at this to stop. Why would I? We have built this amazing community that is just … We’re taking over the world here and I’m pretty proud of them and we have so many good ideas and things, and the lifestyle that we can do all this. We can take our RV, be anywhere, and we’ve been showing you how to do this too. So gosh, wherever you are in your investment journey, and if this is something you’re just thinking about, you’re not too late. I’m going to say you came in at the right time. No matter where you’re coming in, it’s the right time because we’ve learned a lot, solved a lot, and we’ve got new things going forward and that’s who we are. So maybe when I’m 90 and I can’t talk on the phone, but by then, when I’m 90 and it’s hard to talk on the phone, watch me still get some good deals [inaudible 00:45:15] I believe it will happen.

Steven Jack Butala:
It’s in your soul.

Jill K DeWit:
It is in my soul, and we’re here to help you and I’m excited for what’s to come. I have to share one little thing too before you end this, and I know you have a wrap up too. So one of our team members sent us the sweetest celebration, personalized M&M’s thing, and I just wanted to thank Erin for this. It has our faces on it. I can’t [inaudible 00:45:43] but the staff’s all laughing like, I don’t know if I can eat an M&M with your face on it. I’m like, I bet you can.

Steven Jack Butala:
I bet if you tried real hard, you could maybe put it under the sole of your shoe.

Jill K DeWit:
Our faces, and congrats on 2000. So we are going to be celebrating tonight, not with M&M’s, but with a real bottle. So thank you and thank you to the Land Academy members for this and our staff and to you.

Steven Jack Butala:
Thank you, Jill.

Jill K DeWit:
This is your brainchild.

Steven Jack Butala:
Do you think we’ll do episode 3000 someday?

Jill K DeWit:
Yeah, maybe 4,000 and 5,000.

Steven Jack Butala:
I really do too.

Jill K DeWit:
I do.

Steven Jack Butala:
If you would’ve asked me around episode 1000, I would’ve said, I don’t know. It’s a lot of work.

Jill K DeWit:
I think at episode 10. No, just kidding.

Steven Jack Butala:
Oh, at episode 10 I said there would be no episode 11.

Jill K DeWit:
Yeah. That’s so funny.

Steven Jack Butala:
Join us next Wednesday for episode number 2001. You are not alone in your real estate ambition.

Steven and Jill:
We are Jack and Jill.

Steven Jack Butala:
Information …

Jill K DeWit:
And inspiration …

Steven Jack Butala:
To buy undervalued property.

Thanks for listening, and finally, don’t forget to subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts.

The post Acre by Acre: 2000 Episodes of Land Flipping (LA 2000) appeared first on Land Academy.

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Join Jill DeWit and Kimberly Crossland in this land flipping podcast as they discuss working with your spouse and real estate from the road. They share valuable tips and personal experiences. Whether you’re a seasoned remote worker or aspiring real estate investor, this episode offers practical advice to thrive in today’s dynamic landscape. Tune in for actionable insights!

Transcript: N/A

Thanks for listening, and finally, don’t forget to subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts.

The post Ladies In Land Flipping | Remote Investing (LA 1999) appeared first on Land Academy.

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In this podcast episode, learn how Jack and Jill successfully flip land. They emphasize the importance of experience and knowledge in the land flipping business, and highlight the value of learning from those who have been in the industry for a long time. They outline the 10 steps involved in flipping land, including identifying a target market, sending out mailers, managing inbound responses, acquiring properties, listing them with a real estate agent, and closing the deals. They also provide insights into what makes someone successful in this business, such as taking action, making quick decisions, and being willing to ask for help and funding. They conclude by encouraging listeners to be prepared, motivated, and committed to their land flipping endeavors.

Transcript:

Steven Jack Butala:
I’m Steven Jack Butala.

Jill K DeWit:
And I’m Jill DeWit, and this is the Land Academy Show.

Steven Jack Butala:
This is episode number 1,998, and today we are talking about how to flip land successfully.

Jill K DeWit:
You know what’s cool? I need to add up the numbers, but we’ve been doing this now going on 10 years. Not just our land business, that’s decades. We’ll get to that later.

Steven Jack Butala:
We’ve been teaching for 10 years.

Jill K DeWit:
But just teaching and sharing our business model now for going on 10 years. We have people who have been in Land Academy with us since the beginning. They’re going on 10 years. So my point is-

Steven Jack Butala:
Totally, I didn’t think about that.

Jill K DeWit:
If anyone is qualified to talk about how to make millionaires, and I don’t like to drop numbers like that, but it’s the fact, and really teach people how to start and grow and make a really successful land flipping business, it’s us.

Steven Jack Butala:
So I have a whole framework about how for this episode, about how to actually flip land successfully, but Jill brings up a good point. I wonder if it’s a good thing with all this experience or a bad thing.

Jill K DeWit:
It’s a great thing.

Steven Jack Butala:
I do too.

Jill K DeWit:
Are you kidding? I was talking to somebody the other day and they even said it to me or they’re like, “Duh, why would I want to learn from someone who’s done 100 deals versus someone who’s done 10,000 deals?” And we’re going on and we have like 17,000 deals and these are our deals. I want to make sure everybody knows it’s not the community deals. I can’t even imagine as a community how many deals we’ve done, because we’ve got some heavy hitters that are just male and flip like crazy. They’re always the quiet ones in the group. You don’t hear about them very often, but they’re there. I know they’re pulling a lot of data. I see the charges go through and it’s really, really cool.

Steven Jack Butala:
When I was young, I was always the smartest in the room professionally when it comes to computers. This is when Apple just started and Windows started to become names and products you could buy that could really enhance your business. And so as you can imagine from the older people that I was doing business with at the time or working for, there was a lot of pushback. They literally thought computers and technology was a fad.

Jill K DeWit:
Oh, gosh.

Steven Jack Butala:
It was going to go away, and there’s no real replacement for personal relationships. And I think half of that’s true. So I do think there is no replacement for personal relationships and there never will be. It’s the reason we still have real estate agents and we still go to buy a car to car dealership, God forbid.

Jill K DeWit:
Right.

Steven Jack Butala:
It’s because people just need to have a face and talk to somebody. So I understand that, and the technology part, that’ll apply too. It certainly applies to everybody. There are over the years since what, 25 years I’ve been doing this, the technology changes are staggering without going into the details.

Jill K DeWit:
Oh, my gosh.

Steven Jack Butala:
And I decided a long time ago to keep up with them, but the basic stuff’s never changed.

Jill K DeWit:
Well, even be ahead of them.

Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah, be ahead of them.

Jill K DeWit:
I’m going to say, “You’re not a, ‘Oh, I’ll catch up with you guys.'” What do you think? No, you find something and tweak it and say this and pull us all with you in a really positive way.

Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah, so my point is you keep up with or stay ahead of the technological changes, and I’ve made a commitment to that a long time ago. But I think that there’s young people, and I love this by the way, who think that people who are older and have a lot of experience in stuff might not be the best place to learn from, because they are not embracing these brand new concepts. The newest one now is AI, which that term is grossly misused. AI is now what I believe is a term that’s used for querying a database. And there is such a real thing of learning intelligence out there. It just doesn’t apply to the internet. And so I think that there’s so many buzzwords that go on with things on the internet now, like, “Oh, well. We’re applying AI to buying and selling land.” You’re never-

Jill K DeWit:
Please define. And if you ask them, explain and then it goes into a black event.

Steven Jack Butala:
Well, I’m just not, you know?

Jill K DeWit:
I don’t know.

Steven Jack Butala:
That’s not going to be a title for us.

Jill K DeWit:
Oh, yeah.

Steven Jack Butala:
It’s just not, because I understand the implication of AI and we can sit here and talk about it for two hours if you want. Probably looking at me or Jill and I, probably don’t look like the people that are capable of talking about that stuff.

Jill K DeWit:
You know what? There’s stuff behind the scenes. I have two points to make, first about the AI thing. There’s stuff behind the scenes though that our team is using that, so we really are using it. It’s not like, “Oh, we’re old school, we’re never going to do that. And I have an IBM electric on my desk.” No. So there’s stuff that we are behind the scenes utilizing this new intelligence and way of doing things. We’d be nuts not to. And the second thing I wanted to say was back to your point when you said in the very beginning of this paragraph, I don’t know what to call that.

Steven Jack Butala:
I call it a rabbit hole.

Jill K DeWit:
Yeah. You were the smartest one in the room in these areas always. I may not have been the smartest one in the room in a lot of environments, but I was probably the most talkative.

Steven Jack Butala:
And most energetic.

Jill K DeWit:
Thank you.

Steven Jack Butala:
And none of that’s changed.

Jill K DeWit:
Oh, thank you. None of that’s good or bad. Boy, who’s that person in the corner and what are they talking about?

Steven Jack Butala:
I’m almost never the smartest person in the room any more about anything.

Jill K DeWit:
Oh, please.

Steven Jack Butala:
But I was really early on. So my point is there’s a real serious value to the amount of transactions that Jill and I have done. And that was my lead into our topic, How to Flip Land Successfully. We’re qualified to talk about this topic.

Jill K DeWit:
I’m going to argue the fact that if you are in any room of real estate professionals, you are the smartest one, period. I’m just going to say it.

Steven Jack Butala:
Oh, boy.

Jill K DeWit:
Come on. You’ve been doing it the longest.

Steven Jack Butala:
It’s too much responsibility.

Jill K DeWit:
You invented all this stuff. Look how many people are following in our footsteps and it’s beautiful. You started this thing.

Steven Jack Butala:
Yep.

Jill K DeWit:
Thank you.

Steven Jack Butala:
All right, so what’s the very first step about how to flip land successfully? Number one-

Jill K DeWit:
Are we jumping into the topic?

Steven Jack Butala:
Oh yeah, right. We have to do this. Three [inaudible 00:06:22].

Jill K DeWit:
Like we have no question and I’m like, I missed all this.

Steven Jack Butala:
Each week on the show… I’ll get back to that in a second.

Jill K DeWit:
Okay. [inaudible 00:06:29]. He got us all excited.

Steven Jack Butala:
Each week on the show we answer a question from our Land Academy Member Discord Forum and take a deep dive into a land-related topic by popular request from our Land Academy community. So let’s take that question, Jill.

Jill K DeWit:
Okay. So Sandy wrote, “Hello all. I’m new to Land Academy, but not new to land flipping. I came from another online land group where I realized about 10 land deals in” Excuse me, “Where I completed about 10 land deals and then I sold them on terms. I realize now that buying for cash and selling for cash is where the real money is. I’m a Jack, not a Jill. What advice do you have for me in making this transition and any advice in general to be successful in this space?”

Steven Jack Butala:
Well, welcome.

Jill K DeWit:
Yay.

Steven Jack Butala:
You are joining the ranks of probably more than half of the people who have ever passed through Land Academy here in an existing membership group. For whatever reason, I don’t think that we’re the best marketers out there, but people seem to land. They choose us last after going through other programs.

Jill K DeWit:
You may not start here, but you’re probably going to end here if you’re good. Yes.

Steven Jack Butala:
No. So what’s my advice for you for starting out? Or I don’t know, you’re probably in second gear right now, which is great.

Jill K DeWit:
That’s good.

Steven Jack Butala:
I would clear your mind, go through the programs and utilize all the tools that Jill and I have put in place to help you be successful from wherever you’re joining us. So you’re joining us in the middle, which is great. You have some experience. Join our Discord Forum, get through Land Academy 3.0, the education. Somebody told me recently, it’s like 26 hours.

Jill K DeWit:
Oh, it was like 14 hours.

Steven Jack Butala:
Okay, good.

Jill K DeWit:
Yeah, I don’t think it was 26. I think it was like 14.

Steven Jack Butala:
It’s a lot. There’s a lot of detail.

Jill K DeWit:
But I think we thought it was like six or eight hours and they’re like, “No, no. It’s more than that.” I’m like, “Okay.”

Steven Jack Butala:
And then there’s a user dashboard where you can access everything. We have a Thursday member webinar. There’s 100+ people on there every Thursday where we look at our deals, ask any questions. There’s a lot. There’s that and a lot more. We will do your mailer for you with a product called Concierge Data. We own… This is not a sales pitch. She’s asking where she should start?

Jill K DeWit:
Utilize the tools, utilize the resources.

Steven Jack Butala:
That’s it.

Jill K DeWit:
That’s the main thing. We provide you with, not only the education, but all the tools and support that you need. You only have to ask.

Steven Jack Butala:
They’re all there. And so it’s your job to get yourself organized, stay on track with the program and execute each little piece. And then there’s all kinds of support for wherever you’re coming, we will meet you there.

Jill K DeWit:
Can I add one little note too, because she said she’s a Jack and not a Jill?

Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah.

Jill K DeWit:
There are other Jills in this group that need Jacks. So if you’re not sure what we’re talking about, he’s always the data guy, picking the areas, pricing the mailers, doing all that stuff, right? Getting it out there and making my phone ring. And then the phone starts ringing now, and that’s where I jump in, getting these sellers to getting the deals, getting them to fall in love with me and my team and wanting to do the transaction with us, make it easy for them all the way to the sales point when it’s all done. So it’s interesting that there’s a lot of Jacks. Now more Jills are coming around.

Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah, it’s true.

Jill K DeWit:
But in the beginning when we started Land Academy nine years ago, we had way more Jacks, way analytical and nobody could answer the phone. It was actually funny, and now it’s like we pivot a little bit, pivot a little, even more women, which is a whole nother conversation. But more Jills. So my point in bringing this up is there are so many partnerships I have seen made successfully running that met within Land Academy, and so that’s a huge thing. So don’t worry about that too, Sandy. If you’re like, “Great, I can do all this but I can’t do this.” Then again, all you need to do is reach out to your peers, because there’s probably somebody there that said, “You know what? I need you, Sandy.” No, I’m serious.

Steven Jack Butala:
Today’s topic, How to Flip Land Successfully. So I want you to just clear your mind for a second and think about what flipping a piece of land really is. You’re buying something and you’re selling it for more. And through that transition, you’re taking money, you’re buying an asset. You’re redressing it up on the internet, not physically, but redressing it up on the internet and selling it for more. And keeping the money, that’s in between. So if you buy a piece of property for 20,000 bucks, you sell it for 40,000… I’m oversimplifying here, you’ve made $20,000. You put it in your pocket. That’s what this is. That’s the goal. It’s never changed. I don’t care how much AI or whatever is called AI is involved, how many employees you have don’t have, that’s it.
So what I did, and I didn’t realize this and I was thinking about this early this morning for some reason, I don’t know why. Well, I knew the topic was going to be this today. I know you did it too, long before we ever crossed paths, is bought stuff and resold it. I don’t care what it is. So if you’ve done that, if you bought a house, let’s say, cleaned it all up, and I don’t mean renovated it, I mean bought a house. Your life circumstances changed and you need to sell the house, how’d you sell it? Did you sell it for more? Did you lose money on it? Did you put your heart and soul into reselling that house?
If you ever had a garage sale, you got 25, 30, 300 things out there, a couple of them you probably sold for more than you had into it. Maybe somebody actually gave whatever you sold and so you made money on it. That’s either in your soul or it’s not, buying something and reselling it for more. It certainly is in mine.

Jill K DeWit:
I was going to say too, the point I want to make sure it’s clear, because I think this is going to attract people who are new to us, and they don’t know who we are, and you’re probably maybe listening to this for the first time. We’re not saying, “I’m buying something off the MLS that’s a bad listing with bad photos and involving an agent,” or something like that. That’s not what we’re talking about. We create a deal where there was no deal and then so we’re taking something… It’s almost like I’m going back to your garage sale thing. It’s like I walked in my mom’s house and said, “You know that vase in the corner that’s collecting dust, that’s worth something. Can I buy it from you for 20 bucks?” And then all I’m going to do is give it a bath maybe. I wash it and put it on a table and sell it for 50 bucks. Kind of like that. That’s what we do with land. So I want to make sure that that was clear how we do that.

Steven Jack Butala:
There’s 10 basic steps to buying and selling land successfully. Number one, you have to identify a market where you think this is going to work. This works in all markets. I’ll say that again. Buying land and selling it for more works in every single market. The variable is time. So I can buy a piece of property in the most rural market in North Dakota that there ever was for a reasonable price, and clean it all up and resell it and it will sell. It might take 20 years. We don’t want that. We want to choose intelligently-used data to choose markets where we can do it a lot faster than that, hopefully inside of a month. So you need to really understand how to use data to find a target market to buy and sell land. We are experts at that. There’s no other way for me to say it. That’s how I spend most of day.

Jill K DeWit:
That’s one of the unique things about us.

Steven Jack Butala:
Number two, you need to test that market and then get the data of all the people that own real estate in that market. The universe of property owners, we are experts at that. We are licensed providers of the best source of data, and when you look at all the costs associated with it, there’s no place cheaper to get data than it is from us in the long term.

Jill K DeWit:
And training.

Steven Jack Butala:
Let’s keep this real simple.

Jill K DeWit:
Okay.

Steven Jack Butala:
Let’s just go right through the 10 steps.

Jill K DeWit:
I won’t talk.

Steven Jack Butala:
You can talk. Now you’ve got the data. What we do is we send every single one of those logical sellers an actual offer. “Sally Smith, I would like to buy a property for $3,122 and 13 cents.” That we have found gets the best response. Jill and I own property all over this country. Every week we get offers that we crack up, like, “This is never going to work. The seller’s never going to respond to it.” What was the most recent one we got?

Jill K DeWit:
Oh, in the mail?

Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah.

Jill K DeWit:
Oh, my gosh. It was like a fake handwritten envelope with a fake yellow pad, and there wasn’t even a number in there. It was just, “I want to buy your property in this county.” They didn’t even tell me which property. They didn’t have my name inside there. It was really weird, and they only use their first names. They didn’t even really give their company name or their last name, and they gave me a Yahoo email account. I’m like, “This is not, this is,” I feel bad. I want to help this person.

Steven Jack Butala:
So these are examples often.

Jill K DeWit:
That’s not going to send the right message.

Steven Jack Butala:
I’m only on step two, and we’re already identify… The name of the show here is, How to Flip Land Successfully?

Jill K DeWit:
True.

Steven Jack Butala:
And so if you’re not identifying a target market based on data and results, that’s number one. You’re not going to do it successfully. Number two, if you’re not sending out pricing, creating a mailer and sending it out, based on very intelligent data-driven pricing and sending out an offer, not just a letter of interest, what Jill just described as a letter of interest, you’re probably not going to do it successfully. In fact, I’ve done all these things.

Jill K DeWit:
That’s going to slow you down.

Steven Jack Butala:
And I’ve done all incorrectly.

Jill K DeWit:
It’s time and money wasted, unfortunately. You want them to call you back with a number.

Steven Jack Butala:
And so I’m skipping ahead in steps, not necessarily, but steps between creating a mailer and pricing it, and then approving the mailer. Whoever you get to do your mailer, we have a company called Offers 2 Owners that does mailers for you. All you have to do is check our pricing. That’ll get you to step number five, which is managing the flow of inbound responses. So let me be super clear. Step one is to identify and test for logical places to send mail. Number two is to get the ball rolling down the mailer road, and so you’re creating a mailer. Number three is managing the mailer, whether you manage yourself or you manage it through our mailing company or anywhere else.
And number four is you price it and you get it out in the mail. So number five now is managing the flow of inbound responses. This is where I stop working and Jill starts working.

Jill K DeWit:
Right.

Steven Jack Butala:
So she will utilize something, some phone-answering service. We use PATLive. There’s a ton of them out there. Or you can answer your phone yourself.

Jill K DeWit:
Back in the day, I did it myself.

Steven Jack Butala:
And manage all this inbound flow of people saying, “I do want to do this deal and thanks for letting me know, and what’s the next step?” All that to go pond sand, because you’re crazy. My properties were $13 million and you offered me 13 cents.

Jill K DeWit:
I personally love this part. This is my favorite part. Can I just want to pause for just a second? This is when the win happens for me. You know when you’re buying it, what you’re buying, how valuable it is and all that good stuff. So that’s for me, that’s so exciting. I love it. I love getting the calls and talking to the sellers and making these transactions happen. So that’s step five.

Steven Jack Butala:
Step five is what I call, because the name of the show is How to Flip Land Successfully, this is where I believe most people fail.

Jill K DeWit:
Really?

Steven Jack Butala:
Yep. I think that. There was a… I said this in Career Path. Jill and I teach a class called Career Path. It’s in a real advance for people who make this their career or it is their career and they want to get better at it. One of the things that I remembered from going to school to college is that in every business there’s a moment where the customer is receiving your product or your service. There’s this magical moment where they decide, “Wow, this is something I’m going to utilize and I believe in it,” or, “I don’t want any part of this.” It’s when you sit down in a new car in a dealership and you decide, “This is exactly what I’m looking for,” or, “Oh, my God. I never want to see this car again.” It’s the time. It’s what bedside manner is for healthcare workers.
Every business has that moment, and it’s at this moment when they talk to Jill for the first 15 to 30 seconds, the seller does. They’re going to decide whether or not they want to talk to her and sell a piece of property or deal with her at all. This is imperative, and I used to think a perfectly priced mailer, “Oh, we don’t need to do this other stuff over here. It’s just not the case.” I used to think that before Jill and I joined forces about what, 15 years ago?

Jill K DeWit:
Mm-hmm.

Steven Jack Butala:
So it’s imperative to get somebody who knows how to do this. If you’re somebody like me or just if you’re in corporate sales for your entire life, then you already know all of this. Number six is now you’ve got a list of people that have called you back or a list of potential deals. You’ve created, congratulations, real estate deal flow. This has eluded the vast majority of people in all real estate of all time. Creating deal flow, what Jill referred to earlier, is you’re creating a real estate transaction. You’re not out on the MLS looking for one to sell for a higher rate. You’re not in Walmart trying to buy something to resell it for more somewhere. It’s very unlikely that that’s going to happen. In fact, I would say it’s probably not going to happen.
So you’ve got these 10 real estate deals that you have created and just like 10 of anything, some of them are going to be great, some of them are going to suck and the rest of them are going to be in the middle. And so you take some time and decide which ones you want. Or if you’re Land Academy-

Jill K DeWit:
Well, the great ones.

Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah. Well, if you’re a Land Academy member and you’re new, then if you’ve been doing this for a long time, you’re going to jump up and down when you get off the phone.

Jill K DeWit:
You know.

Steven Jack Butala:
If you’re new, you’re going to utilize the resources that Jill and I put together in Land Academy to make you successful.

Jill K DeWit:
Or ask us. We’ll help you.

Steven Jack Butala:
We’ll tell you if it sucks or not. We’ll tell you if it’s great. If it is, we’ll fund it. If it sucks, then we’ll tell you that too.

Jill K DeWit:
We’ll save you. No, no. The whole point of that is we save you. That’s one of the big values I see every week on our member calls and say, “Hey, would you guys do this deal? I’m on the fence.” And we’re like, “Okay. You need to look at this, this and this,” and guide them. Or like, “Uh-uh. Because of this and this, I wouldn’t even do it.” They’re like, “Whew. Thank you. You just saved me all that work and energy and time and money potentially.” So absolutely.

Steven Jack Butala:
Hey, now’s a good time to ask you to Like this episode if you do or follow our channel. We’re here every week, every Wednesday. I think that these programs air at 3:00.

Jill K DeWit:
Yep.

Steven Jack Butala:
And then we also have just redeveloped a product called Concierge Data where our guys that work for us, they’re the same people that do our mailers, will do your mailer for you. So if you go to Offers 2 Owners, offers2owners.com. Just check it out. Give them a call, actually. Talk to Aaron. Tell him Jack and Jill sent you from the podcast. So step seven, you actually acquire the property. You looked at, let’s say 10, and a healthy number is two of them really meet after talking to the sellers and checking it all out and using the due diligence program that we have provided, let’s say eight A’s, which that’s for a different conversation. We try to make due diligence as simple as possible, and you decide you want to buy two, so you buy them, and if you are brand new at this, that can be intimidating, that process.
But again, that’s why you have Land Academy and a bunch of people at your fingertips, literally. You can ask questions all day long and get the deal done correctly without any fear of missing steps. I’ve noticed that people, that was one of the things I was concerned about when I started was, “What steps am I missing in this actual transaction?” Or, “What should I be reading? There’s a big stack of papers in front of me on these two deals. I don’t know what a lot of this stuff means.” That’s why you have your peer group here, us.
Number nine is just quite simply, you’ve made a decision. You bought the property, and so now you’re going to travel down the path of listing it with a local real estate agent. And so that can be a tricky little path too. Again, we’re all going through the same thing. Hundreds and hundreds of us here at Land Academy are going through the same thing. So picking a real estate agent, Jill, we could spend hours.

Jill K DeWit:
That’d be a whole nother show. That’d be fun to talk about. So I love that.

Steven Jack Butala:
So you listed it with a real estate agent and then you manage the real estate agent, geez, like you manage your children. Unfortunately, it’s a very-

Jill K DeWit:
I hope you manage your children.

Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah, yeah.

Jill K DeWit:
I’m sure some of you don’t.

Steven Jack Butala:
Bad example.

Jill K DeWit:
Yeah.

Steven Jack Butala:
The property eventually gets sold. It may get sold for the price you want. It may not, most of the time for us, almost all the time.

Jill K DeWit:
It’s pretty close.

Steven Jack Butala:
We sell for what we want, otherwise we wouldn’t buy it.

Jill K DeWit:
Yeah.

Steven Jack Butala:
I think that’s step eight or nine. And then step 10 is you collect the money. You approve the sale, close the deal and collect the money. It’s a 10 step process. The difference between doing it successfully, in my opinion, or not successfully, is all about who’s in your life. If you have people that are buying and selling land and doing real estate deals all the time who have had a ton of experience and they’re available to you, that’s the difference between all the people on the internet right now who believe that they can flip land and actually the people who do it successfully.

Jill K DeWit:
That’s a good point. Can I look at that for just a minute before you close it?

Steven Jack Butala:
Sure. Sure.

Jill K DeWit:
It’d be nice to just identify some of the trigger points here. What makes someone really wildly successful? I would like to add that. So of these steps, step number one, okay, taking the time to dig in and not have a dart board, not trust your friend, not trust somebody you’re watching, doing what you think you know. “Oh, San Antonio, I got to hit San Antonio. Let’s just mail that.” But really taking the time and testing these markets, that’s a huge thing right there, and that separates the successful from the unsuccessful right out of the gate. Number two, just taking action, going through the process, learning how to do a mailer or hiring someone to do it for you, but knowing. Don’t have an automated easy button and you know someone who really knows what they’re doing.
They understand this whole process. They know how to scrape comps. It’s again, not an easy button in a machine that doesn’t really look at these numbers and knows what is real and what is not real so you can take them out and not mess up your numbers and have an overpriced mailer kind of thing. But taking action and getting through that is huge. These are places… Like someone coming in, I’ve seen them go through the step one, but actually getting the mail out, huge obstacle. For some reason, people get hung up right there. We’ve had people in Land Academy for months who haven’t sent out a mailer, and I know in their hearts they’re here for the right reason. They’re like, “Okay, next month I’m going to do it. Next month I’m going to do it.” But there’s something that holds them back. So you’ve got to just, who cares? Push through it.
If it’s not the greatest work, that’s okay. Get it out there, but you have us, and we’ll show you and teach you and coach you and help you to make sure you did everything you possibly could. Do your best job here. Now hit it, get it out kind of thing. Looking through here where people get hung up and what’s successful. Okay, when we got to the part about the calls are coming back, that is huge. The successful folks answer the phone themselves, A., or have some other live body that they know, they’ve vetted, they’ve tested, even a service that we all use or other people have used and trusted, huge. You would have so many missed deals, if it goes to voicemail or you have some other… What if you only had an email? It’s just people aren’t going to use that. They’re going to pick up the phone and call you kind of thing.
And you have to have someone there and have the right person there, by the way, who knows how to talk to these sellers and work with them. Let them know who you are. It’s a real person and talk money with them right away. That’s another just a light bulb, successful moment. Making the decisions, what’s a really good, successful person there? They know how to make quick decisions, and they’re very good with their time, and they are not afraid to cut a deal that they’re not comfortable with. I see people getting hung up here trying to make a bad deal work. A real successful person knows what we’re talking about. They study their eight A’s. They go, “Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Got them all. Let’s go.” And they’re not afraid to just move forward and buy the property.
What’s another point? Well, when we’re buying the property, what’s a real successful person doing? They’re not afraid of money. They’re not as afraid of spending money, and if they don’t have the money, they’re not afraid to ask for money. I know people that don’t utilize the deal funding resources that we have right here, even from us. Ask. If it’s a great deal, I will happily write that check.

Steven Jack Butala:
If it’s even a reasonable deal, there’s somebody in our group-

Jill K DeWit:
They’ll write the check.

Steven Jack Butala:
… may or may not be us, they’re here to fund deals. They’re not here to do what you do.

Jill K DeWit:
That happens and what’s great too, it’s confidence and experience and knowing what you’re good at. I am not too proud to say, and I’ve done this like, “Hey, I think this is a great deal, but you know what? I don’t know this area quite as well as this person, and I know they are loving to do deal funding. If I were you, I would reach out to this person and tell them I sent you, see what they say. And if it’s a real good deal, they’ll tell you. And if they want to fund it, oh, they will,” kind of thing. And there you go. I’m trying to find the… I’m thinking of successful light bulb moments is what I’m doing here. Signing paperwork, there’s no light bulb moment there, other than do it. Let’s see what else here? And make it easy. Just make it easy. Don’t overthink stuff.

Steven Jack Butala:
Can I jump in here?

Jill K DeWit:
Yeah. Why? You’re going… I can’t go through with this?

Steven Jack Butala:
Oh, are you… Just go ahead and finish it.

Jill K DeWit:
Oh, yeah. I want to finish my little light bulb moments through the list. Listing with an agent. Real successful people know how to pick up the phone and vet an agent and to not take the first person you call until you find someone that you connect with. And then the last thing, you already know how it’s going to end. Real successful people already have, when they bought it, already have in their head a targeted sales price. So it’s no surprise. Now you can take that.

Steven Jack Butala:
That’s a recap. Let’s recap. The first step in this process is to locate, based on data, locate a place to send mail. The second step is to identify all the people that own property there and get an offer in their hands. The third step is to manage the inbound flow of deals and make some decisions about which ones you like, which ones you don’t, and why. The next step is buy the ones you like. This next step after that is sell the ones you like or sell the ones that you own, and that’s it. And it’s those five basic steps. There’s a lot of stuff in between that happens, a lot of details, but that’s what groups like Land Academy are for.

Jill K DeWit:
We’ll help you.

Steven Jack Butala:
It’s a five step process. Yep.

Jill K DeWit:
Well, the whole thing is too, people don’t understand I think though. We go into great, almost too much detail sometimes, but you brainy folks love it. So if you’re questioning, “Hey, does Land Academy talk about fill in the blank?” 99.9% of the time, it’s yes.

Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah, we do.

Jill K DeWit:
The only thing I’m not going to do is to sit down with you and fill out your tax return kind of thing. But outside of that, every possible conversation you can imagine, because that’s who we are. I’m here to help. The whole thing is Land Academy is helping you start or grow or both your own successful company. That’s it. And then we’re all just doing deals together and it’s awesome.

Steven Jack Butala:
Here’s a profile after 10 years of teaching that we think really fits who’s successful at this and who’s not. First, who’s successful? If you’ve been successful at anything in your life in the past or let’s say most of the stuff that you’ve tried, you’ve been successful at it, you’re going to be successful at this. You probably don’t even know it. You don’t know that you have that go-getter type personality, and you’re not going to lose. You’re not going to even know when you’re defeated. You’re just going to keep barreling through. We have tons of people in our group who have sold their companies or own companies now, and they want an extra place, diversification, an extra revenue stream. And so those people do very, very well with us. The second type of really successful member for us is somebody who’s just really, really new and really, really energetic.

Jill K DeWit:
I was going to use the word hungry.

Steven Jack Butala:
Both. It’s the same thing. We’re talking about the same type of person. So those are real, and that comes down to a personality type. It doesn’t come down to whether or not they’re smart enough to understand the processes or whether they’re a Jack or a Jill. That personality type is going to overcome all of that anyway. That’s just how they do it.

Jill K DeWit:
And age doesn’t matter.

Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah. As you can imagine, on the flip side, the people who don’t do this successfully are the ones who quite simply just don’t follow through. They don’t follow through on the steps and that’s it.

Jill K DeWit:
Well, I just call it sometimes it’s like I say, “They let life get in the way.” That’s what happens. So I understand. So that’s part of it too, when you’re going to come at this… Oh, I could use it for that. All right.

Steven Jack Butala:
No, no.

Jill K DeWit:
I’ll save it. Oh, no, I can save it for my inspiration.

Steven Jack Butala:
I’m just saving it next. Jill has something inspirational to share.

Jill K DeWit:
Something [inaudible 00:35:15]. Okay, I can save it for that. So all right, so I’ll just say that. What my inspiration is, don’t let life… Well, life will get in the way if you’ll let it.

Steven Jack Butala:
With anything.

Jill K DeWit:
It really will. And I know I don’t need to minimize. Sometimes there are major life events, so I’m not referring to that. But there are a whole lot of life events that people could overcome, but they let them get in the way. And it’s interesting to me. I’ve had people even four times, it’s the sweetest thing.

Steven Jack Butala:
Really?

Jill K DeWit:
You know who you are and I love you guys. People have left. There’s been a life event. They left and then sometimes weeks, sometimes months, sometimes even a year, they’re like, “You know what? I did not give that my full attention and energy. I know what’s going on in Land Academy. I’m still hearing about my buddy that I started with and how much money he’s making right now. I need to go back and get back to this.” And they come right back, and I’m happy to have you back and I love that.
So my inspiration is the first thing would be, get yourself mentally and physically ready to do this. I want you to have the budget so you can afford to get educated. Just like anything, I wouldn’t say go buy a 7-Eleven with no money and take out a loan. And I wouldn’t say… There’s no business I would say, “Oh, just take out a loan and see how it goes.” No way. No matter what business you’re going to do, save up, get some education, do everything you can before you jump in so you know what you’re getting into, and then prepare your whole family and your whole life, your vacation schedule, your kids, every little thing. This is the same thing. It shouldn’t be taken lightly. If you want to really be successful, get everything in a row.
Prepare everybody. “We’re not going to take a vacation this summer. This is what we’re doing, because wait two years and wait until you see the vacations we can take,” kind of thing. That’s the goal. So just get everything ready and go at it 112%. Remember that 12 degrees thing. I think that was 12 degrees, whatever that book was, that was so long ago. That’s my inspiration. And if it’s not the right time, and I tell this to people all the time, I talk to people that call in, I say, “You know what? Wait six months. I’m not going anywhere. You need to be in the right place. You need to be ready to do this, and I don’t want you to do this half blank. I want you to come at this full speed, and we’ll get you there.” What do you want to share today?

Steven Jack Butala:
So I was having a conversation with one of the people that worked for us a couple of weeks ago, maybe a week ago, and we were talking about how this generation, it is an absolute. It’s expected of you and it’s a norm to have some type of side gig, to be working on something on the side that eventually, if it goes right, is going to be your entrepreneurial shot and mark in life. And I could not have grown up in a more different environment. I grew up where you were very rewarded for, this is a lot of years ago in Detroit, rewarded for either being in a company person and working there forever and getting a gold watch and you retire. Or going off and starting your own company, which is nearly impossible back then unless you had all kinds of backing and people that were involved in the businesses and the contacts and the money, because starting a metal stamping plant costs back then even millions and millions of dollars.
So most or all of us chose number one. Fast-forward to now, it’s 180 degrees different. You are expected to have a side gig. But I don’t think that most people have any idea what that means from a personality standpoint and what Jill just referred to about sacrifice, personal sacrifice. The more stuff you pile on in your life like children and marriage and a mortgage and all of that, the further you’re going to get away from accomplishing whatever’s making that side gig that we’re all now expected to have a reality. And I think that makes me sad, because we’re in one of the greatest entrepreneurial times, if not the greatest entrepreneurial time, in the history of our country. It has never been cheaper and easier. You are literally a half hour away from starting your own company.

Jill K DeWit:
Isn’t it amazing? Can we unfold this onion a little bit here? I was raised differently, which really I saw both sides. I watched my dad hustle with different jobs back in… He had so many jobs it’s comical, from firefighter and selling insurance and radio DJ and mailman, Disneyland. Some of this was before I was born, but I know of these jobs, and to pilot to professional pilot to investor. He too, I always watched my dad have this job that paid very well and then a little side hustle, because he had time to do this stuff. I just think it’s really interesting. I’m trying to think with the kids now. I see when I say kids, I am referring to our kids. So this is the one. I’m not picking on anybody that doesn’t deserve it, but I watch our kids have-

Steven Jack Butala:
Jill’s caveats. That’s what I call it.

Jill K DeWit:
There we go. So I watch our kids have an opportunity, squander the opportunity, have to get a real job or just some other job to pay the bills, which you should, not sleeping on my couch, kind of thing. And then realize, “Oh, that’s an opportunity,” and I’m seeing a shift. I feel like there’s a generation where… There’s a generation in the middle of us and our kids where they’re afraid to take on their own company. Have you noticed this?

Steven Jack Butala:
Go ahead. Yes.

Jill K DeWit:
Okay.

Steven Jack Butala:
It’s the same fear that I had and that my parents had and their parents had. Nothing’s changed. I’m going to finish your point.

Jill K DeWit:
Yeah, go ahead.

Steven Jack Butala:
Nothing has changed from me staring into the abyss when I was 18 or 17 years old with this insurmountable task of trying to open a metal stamping plant or whatever.

Jill K DeWit:
That was your thing?

Steven Jack Butala:
Just hold on.

Jill K DeWit:
Oh, sorry.

Steven Jack Butala:
It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter what I wanted. You are staring if you’re a young person right now into this seemingly black abyss, because everything’s relative of where do I start? What you have that we never had was education and the internet.

Jill K DeWit:
YouTube.

Steven Jack Butala:
And you have answers to every question that you’ve ever, ever… So this is not some old guy saying, “I had it harder than you.” That’s not what I’m saying. I’m saying it’s the exact same thing. It’s just relative. The tools that we had were finite back then, and the tools that you have are finite now. You just have to work your way through it, and at some point you’re going to look at yourself in the mirror and say, “I’m set up for this or I’m not.” Or you’re going to motivate yourself. If you have a personality type like Jill, you’re going to motivate yourself and talk to yourself to the point where you’re going to make this successful and that’s it.
And that is coming full circle to what this topic is about today is How to Flip Land Successfully, because you’re staring in the mirror saying, “This is it now, this is it, and I’m taking this down to the end. I might not know how to do a mailer. I’m going to find out somebody who does. I might not know how to build a website and that’s easy. It costs 300 bucks on Fiverr. I don’t know how to do this. I don’t know how to do this, but what I do know is I’m going to succeed at it and I’m going to be the quarterback.” That’s all I am. In all of these businesses that Joe and I own is a quarterback.

Jill K DeWit:
What am I?

Steven Jack Butala:
You’re like a-

Jill K DeWit:
I like this.

Steven Jack Butala:
You’re the wide receiver.

Jill K DeWit:
I was going to say-

Steven Jack Butala:
You’re Tron.

Jill K DeWit:
I know. I was waiting for that one. I’m not the kicker.

Steven Jack Butala:
No one wants to be the kicker.

Jill K DeWit:
No one wants to be the kicker. Yeah, I’ll be the wide receiver. I was expecting that.

Steven Jack Butala:
Calling myself a quarterback is actually not that accurate. I think I do a lot less than what a quarterback does. What I probably-

Jill K DeWit:
Well, you call the plays.

Steven Jack Butala:
I’m a general manager more than anything.

Jill K DeWit:
That makes sense.

Steven Jack Butala:
Quarterbacks have talent. I’m the general manager that makes sure the lights are on in the stadium and then whoever didn’t turn the lights on in the stadium is going to hear from me. I am not the quarterback at all now that I’m thinking about it.

Jill K DeWit:
That’s hilarious. Are you the guy that makes sure the Gatorade’s out there and all filled up too?

Steven Jack Butala:
I am the guy who put the person in place of the Gatorade.

Jill K DeWit:
There we go. Okay. Well, in that case, now what? Am I still the wide receiver or what am I?

Steven Jack Butala:
No, no, I think I’m not sure. I don’t know.

Jill K DeWit:
I’m definitely not the person with the clipboard yelling at people.

Steven Jack Butala:
You’re the mascot.

Jill K DeWit:
Oh, I’m the mascot. That is actually accurate.

Steven Jack Butala:
Although if Jill was a mascot, she would be the mascot with the head on, the head of the mascot on for about eight minutes, and she’d take it off and, “No one can see me with his head on.”

Jill K DeWit:
No one knows it’s me. This is going to come back to bite us. I can already hear you folks who know us are going to bring this up again. I’m talking about the… What was your job? You’re the manager, the manager of the mascot.

Steven Jack Butala:
Not even the owner. I’m just the manager.

Jill K DeWit:
General manager of the mascot. That’s great. That’s like every years ago we had team red, team blue. That’s good. I love this. Hey, don’t forget, if you want to find out more, you have some questions, you can talk to our team, reach out. Send a note to support@landacademy.com.

Steven Jack Butala:
Join us next Wednesday for another interesting episode. You are not alone in your real estate ambition.

Jill K DeWit:
We are Jack and Jill.

Steven Jack Butala:
We are Jack and Jill. Information.

Jill K DeWit:
And inspiration.

Steven Jack Butala:
To buy undervalued property.

Thanks for listening, and finally, don’t forget to subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts.

The post How To Be Successful At Flipping Land (LA 1998) appeared first on Land Academy.

View Details

Jack Butala and Jill DeWit explore the real estate market, discussing the anticipated stagnation in 2024 and offering valuable insights for investors. Jack shares three crucial strategies to thrive in this shifting market: increasing offer volume, recognizing the rise in rental demand, and predicting demographic and relocation trends. With their expertise, Jack and Jill provide practical guidance for real estate investors adapting to changing conditions. Discover expert tips and strategies to excel in the evolving real estate landscape by watching this video.

Transcript:

Steven Jack Butala:
I am Steven Jack Butala.

Jill K DeWit:
And I’m Jill DeWit, and this is the Land Academy Show.

Steven Jack Butala:
This is episode number 1,997, and today we are talking about three ways to take advantage of the 2024 real estate stagnation that is sure to happen this year. A little later we’ll talk about how we’re going to take a look at how you respond to change. This change is going to happen this year, not just in real estate.

Jill K DeWit:
Uh-oh. Is this a, “Jill, we’re taking a deep dive into your psyche. How do you respond to things?”

Steven Jack Butala:
I would not dare.

Jill K DeWit:
Oh, gosh.

Steven Jack Butala:
To put you center stage, and ask you all kinds of questions that put you out of your comfort zone. No joke.

Jill K DeWit:
Yeah, right.

Steven Jack Butala:
No, that’s not what this is.

Jill K DeWit:
Thanks a lot. We left my comfort zone a long … way back there a long time ago, like 10 years ago.

Steven Jack Butala:
Were you ever in your comfort zone, do you think? Seriously?

Jill K DeWit:
Yeah. I mean, yeah. You know what? I was not in my comfort zone. I was in a comfort zone, and I hated it.

Steven Jack Butala:
Me too.

Jill K DeWit:
I felt trapped.

Steven Jack Butala:
Me too.

Jill K DeWit:
I felt stuck. I couldn’t stand it. I hit the ceiling of where I was working. There was nowhere to go, and then that’s why … I’ve had that a couple times in my life, and I had to make changes, and now that we run our own companies, I don’t have that problem anymore.

Steven Jack Butala:
We just had this exact talk about, I don’t want to blow the episode here, but how risky a W-2 job is, and it’s so ironic because you think it’s the greatest thing ever, “Oh, I got this great job. I’m going to get a new car. I’m going to buy a new house. I’m finally going to do the stuff I want to do.” It’s totally the opposite.

Jill K DeWit:
It’s true.

Steven Jack Butala:
You should hunker down, especially this day and age, and prepare for that single point of failure to fail.

Jill K DeWit:
It’s true.

Steven Jack Butala:
Each week on the show we answer questions from our Land Academy member Discord forum, and review land acquisitions from our weekly member webinars, and then we take a deep dive into two land-related topics.

Jill K DeWit:
Yup. All right, so Alicia wrote, “How many zip codes do you gauge your mailer on in the red yellow green test? So what I mean is, do you test 3 to 10 zip codes, and then if 6 out of 10 are good, and then 4 don’t pass, what’s your number? I’m sure I’m overthinking here.” I like this question.

Steven Jack Butala:
Alicia-

Jill K DeWit:
How many is enough, and what’s not too much?

Steven Jack Butala:
You’re not overthinking this at all, and I have to tell you, I love your contribution to Discord, not as a person who’s … you are using Discord how we intended it when we set it all up. She’s asking tiny little questions every single step of the way. I can read through Discord on most of the channels, and I can see where you are in your career.

Jill K DeWit:
That’s sweet.

Steven Jack Butala:
And at some point I’ll tell you, and I say this with passion, we’re just not going to hear from you again. That’s how this always happens because you’re off and running and, “Thanks, guys-

Jill K DeWit:
That’s true, “Loud, loud, loud, got it.”

Steven Jack Butala:
“I got what I needed from you, and bye.”

Jill K DeWit:
True. True that.

Steven Jack Butala:
You’re not overthinking this at all. I would test as many zip codes as you possibly can stomach. The more that you test, the more you’re going to find two or three or four that absolutely kick the heck out of the other ones. But I will tell you on a personal note, the vast majority of the time when I pick an area to test, and I run, let’s say a 10 zip code test, I choose like eight or nine of them. There’s usually one glaring.

Jill K DeWit:
What’s your average, 8 or 9 out of 20?

Steven Jack Butala:
10.

Jill K DeWit:
10.

Steven Jack Butala:
10 is good. 10 is a good-

Jill K DeWit:
10 is good.

Steven Jack Butala:
Regional rural market, if it’s urban, it’s a whole different deal, and we talk about that in House Academy. Urban markets are usually for House Academy, and you can see right away where you should be sending mail, but rural land markets, like 10.

Jill K DeWit:
What’s the most common thing that you … of the red yellow green tests, days on market new list is sold, and what’s the third?

Steven Jack Butala:
In the universe of properties, what’s listed.

Jill K DeWit:
Yeah. Okay. What’s the number one? What weighs the most? Is it days on market?

Steven Jack Butala:
No, it used to be. It used to be days on market for a long, long time was a real indicator, or you could look at, let’s say three zip codes out, just on the sake of argument. One’s got a days on market of 80, one’s got a days on market of 70, and one’s got it of 60. 60 is the best because stuff’s moving faster, but that’s just not … What I really look at now is what’s pending, and what’s existing. So if I have … There’s a market I just analyzed for mobile homes, and it has as many pending properties as it does for sale properties. What I can tell then is that, and it was a lot too, like 30 pending, and with the entire list, I think there were, left over there were 30 for sale still. So there was a huge problem, in my opinion, with the properties that are still left for sale, meaning they’re not priced correctly, or the quality of the product or location is substandard. So now it’s telling me everything I need to know about that market, and I want to stay out there.

Jill K DeWit:
They’re not interesting.

Steven Jack Butala:
So you can tell so much from this red green yellow test.

Jill K DeWit:
It’s true.

Steven Jack Butala:
You can’t overdo the red green yellow test. First of all, it’s free.

Jill K DeWit:
By the way, it’s free. Exactly.

Steven Jack Butala:
It’s free.

Jill K DeWit:
You haven’t download any data yet.

Steven Jack Butala:
And it’s easy.

Jill K DeWit:
Yeah.

Steven Jack Butala:
Doing the mailers, if you don’t get concierge data to do it, especially if it’s your first time, it’s time-consuming and a pretty big learning curve. But red green yellow test is you in a weekend and a pot of coffee, and you’re going to come out of that, which I can tell you know what you were doing already just by asking this question. More is better for all this stuff.

Jill K DeWit:
I think more is better too, in a lot of things, most things, not kids.

Steven Jack Butala:
There’s a gear shift there. I agree with you.

Jill K DeWit:
Not marriages or kids, more is not better.

Steven Jack Butala:
Jill, just bought a new couch, and she, I think overspent on it, and-

Jill K DeWit:
Oh, this is good.

Steven Jack Butala:
Hold on, there’s a compliment here.

Jill K DeWit:
I can’t wait to hear this one.

Steven Jack Butala:
We both sat down on this couch, and it’s really nice actually. It’s going to change our lives quite honestly.

Jill K DeWit:
Yeah.

Steven Jack Butala:
It’s sad to report, but that’s all it takes.

Jill K DeWit:
I won. I was right, not that I need to win.

Steven Jack Butala:
The first thing, we both looked at each other and said, “No children will ever sit on this couch. It’s not going to get racked or-

Jill K DeWit:
We have no kids at home, and no pets.

Steven Jack Butala:
We both just had a little smile on our face like-

Jill K DeWit:
I can have a tan couch, a cream couch, that’s it. I intentionally bought a cream couch and I love it.

Steven Jack Butala:
I do too, actually.

Jill K DeWit:
It’s awesome.

Steven Jack Butala:
Today’s first topic, three ways to take advantage of the 2024 real estate stagnation that will happen. Mark my words. It’s happening now. The real estate market is finally responding, finally responding to the crazed frenzy that was COVID-driven. Everybody got to work from home, who could. Everybody moved out of town, who could.

Jill K DeWit:
True.

Steven Jack Butala:
And so there was a lot of movement. There was just … and it drove prices way up, unrealistically high.

Jill K DeWit:
True.

Steven Jack Butala:
And so for lots of industries, they got subsidized by the governments, not just in this country, but all over the place. So what ended up happening, in my opinion, is this massive interruption in real supply and demand, and that trickled into this pure supply-demand of real estate in location and price and all of that. Then a bunch of other stuff happened, it got too crazy, so the federal government stepped in specifically last year, raised the hell out of interest rates to a kook level, in my opinion, and that had a huge effect on access to capital, including mortgages. The whole result is, and that was the federal government’s intention, is to stop the madness, and to bring some balance back into pure supply and demand, and we’re going to see that.
Before that actually truly happens, the pendulum’s going to swing back in the other direction. It was a frenzy before, it’s going to take a huge chill pill, and this year we’re going to see what I’m going to call stagnation. It’s probably going to be a little bit deflated, but it won’t crash, I don’t believe, like it did in 2000 and, let’s say ’10 or ’09. So how can we really take advantage of this as investors? I said this before a thousand times, this is my third time, so I really … my third time buying and selling land as a primary way to make money, my primary income in business. The second time was just a repeat of the first time, the severity was different, this time will be just like the first time, pretty equal severity. So number one, there’s a lot more properties on the market so you need to, number one, make a lot of offers, a lot more offers than you’re making now because they will be responded to much more favorably because there’s so much real seller competition.

Jill K DeWit:
I love this.

Steven Jack Butala:
Number two. More people, and take this how you will, will be renting than buying. There is the stagnation that’s going to happen or is happening, happens in the job markets too, less people are getting-

Jill K DeWit:
Because they can’t afford to buy.

Steven Jack Butala:
Less people are getting raises, more people are getting laid off. I hate to be negative here, but there’s no other way to say it. So there’s a lot more down, and when things are down, it’s just like the stock market, when it’s down, those are opportunity. Some things … In my opinion, the stock market usually gets artificially put down, like let some newscast comes out, or some type of natural event happens and the stock takes a huge dive and then it comes back up. It’s all based on news reporting. It’s based on reality. This is based on reality.

Jill K DeWit:
True.

Steven Jack Butala:
People lose their job, they’re going to need to make some decisions in life, which takes me to point three. People are going to move. All this frenzy of all these people that are working from home in response to COVID, and bought a property in Lake Tahoe, can’t afford it now, or maybe they’ve got a jobs change or scenario, and they have to move back into the city, and so it’s not just houses, it’s all of it. Tons of people bought land with the idea of building a house out in the woods because they were going to work from home forever, and that’s all going to change, and it is changing. So enter you, the real estate investor, take a look at all these things, digest it all, run and just keep sending offers out in areas that are indicative to these three things or more, whatever makes sense to you, you’re going to win.

Jill K DeWit:
I love it. I’m trying to think what is … I had a question about this as far as prices. Did you really dive deep enough, I wonder, in the pricing or can you add to that? In addition to sending out more offers, this is where you can just … We talked … How do I say? On our Thursday member call, we have people that will bring up deals sometimes, and they’re kind of on the fence about it, I’m like, “You know what then, what will solve it?” Often it’s money. So I’m like, “All right, so if you got it for what,” they’re like, “Well, yeah, if I could buy it for that, then I’d do it and figure it out. It would be a no-brainer.” I’m like, “Okay, that’s how you need to think about it.” I think that’s going to come up even more.

Steven Jack Butala:
Let me just kind of tee up what Jill is really saying. We get a deal in. Where’d you do this deal? On our Thursday call we look at tons of them, every single Thursday for our membership group, and they are presented like this. This is a buy for 14,000, and a sell for 65,000.

Jill K DeWit:
Right.

Steven Jack Butala:
We look at it, and bring our experience, and a bunch of other people that are on our panel say, “Oh, I love this about it. I love this about it. I love this about it, but this is not good. There’s an issue here.” What’s going to fix it? Well, you’re buying it for 14, what do you say you try to buy it for 7, and then you’ve got all kinds of room on the sell side if something goes wrong to say “No, it’s a buy for 7 and sell for 22.” Because some stuff went wrong, and you don’t want to be buying for 14 and selling for 22, it’s just not worth your time. So what she’s saying is, I think, if I can paraphrase, “Just do that anyway. Send out the offers that way. Do it on all the deals. Just send out three times as much mail as you’re currently sending, and pick and choose which ones you want to do.”

Jill K DeWit:
You speak Jill very well. Jill got three sentences out, and Jack says, “Let me take this back over here, I’ll explain it.”

Steven Jack Butala:
[Inaudible 00:12:59] super clear. What she’s saying is buy the freaking property cheap, all right? Especially now, there’s a lot more property-

Jill K DeWit:
That’s it, be aggressive.

Steven Jack Butala:
On the market. Probably it’s going to take you a little longer to sell it, you want to make sure you’re buying the stuff cheap.

Jill K DeWit:
You should be looking at everything like this. If this guy says yes to this number, I’m buying it. I got to buy it. That’s how I want you to think about it with every deal right now, and like he said, mail it out that way. Don’t be afraid of it. Watch what happens. We joke about this all the time. You’re on the phone and you say, “You know what? I know I said 53, I meant 53,000. I meant 5,300. I did some looking at it, that’s best I can do,” and then wait for it and see what happens. Usually there’s a reason behind it. I don’t want you to be that guy, don’t try to be a not good person, but there’s circumstances that you’re like we’re talking about right now you got to make some really smart decisions, and you’re not … Whatever it is, it’s up to them to say yes or no, if they’re comfortable with it, they say yes, and if they’re not, they’ll say, “Can you make it 10?” And I might make it 10.

Steven Jack Butala:
Let me tell a little anecdotal story about Jill to really drive her point home here. I used to live in Hermosa Beach, and there was a town in California, a town close by named Torrance, and a property came up for sale. I’m not sure if it came up on the MLS. It was a house, which is way out of our business model. Back then we were buying and selling land just like we are now, but a property came up, we either became aware of it or it was listed on the MLS, and it was a good deal, just the square footage and all the statistics. It was clear to me something was going on with the seller, so I said, “Hey, you know this girl friend that you have, who’s a real estate agent, and she seems to be really active and very successful at it, let’s get her to go find out why. She can be our real estate agent on this deal.” I think it was 700,000 bucks in a sea of 1.2 million properties.
So she did, she called her girl friend, she went and found out the whole thing, and we determined that the property at 700,000 was a pretty good deal, but not a good enough deal for us. We determined that at 650 or 625, I don’t remember the exact numbers, that’s the kind of Jack and Jill pricing and deal that we’ll do. It’s real tough for us to lose any money. In fact, we’re probably going to make a hundred grand pretty quick. That was the exact thought process. So Jill being Jill goes back to her and says, “I know what’s listed for this. This is the price, and let’s close the deal,” and she blew her top. She said, “At that price I would buy it.”

Jill K DeWit:
That was it. I’m like-

Steven Jack Butala:
And Jill said, “That’s the whole point.”

Jill K DeWit:
Exactly.

Steven Jack Butala:
Every deal we do is like that.

Jill K DeWit:
Exactly.

Steven Jack Butala:
As if to say, “You have to buy it at that price,” and a big massive light bulb went off in her head and said, “That’s why these guys live on the ocean, and I don’t.” I could see it unfolding in her head, because she was thinking it-

Jill K DeWit:
Wasn’t that funny?

Steven Jack Butala:
In terms of presenting offers and potential embarrassment, or whatever real estate agents think about. I don’t know.

Jill K DeWit:
Well, probably maximizing her commission, I would say. I don’t know.

Steven Jack Butala:
I don’t know either.

Jill K DeWit:
No, but that’s a good story. I forget about that.

Steven Jack Butala:
When you look at the land deal, you need to look at it and say, “I have to buy this. I have to buy this. This is … In fact, I probably should open escrow today and-

Jill K DeWit:
Run to the bank.

Steven Jack Butala:
“Stop what I’m doing now. This deal is so good I need to buy it.” Those are the-

Jill K DeWit:
Before anybody changes their mind.

Steven Jack Butala:
Those are the only deals that Jill and I do, and there will be more of them during this stagnation period. How do we accomplish that? What’s the real secret? We send out truck tons of mail and offers.

Jill K DeWit:
I love that. That was good.

Steven Jack Butala:
Let’s take a look. Do you want to talk more?

Jill K DeWit:
Nuh-huh. I’m drinking my tea.

Steven Jack Butala:
Let’s take a look at one of our favorite land acquisitions from our weekly Thursday member webinar.

Jill K DeWit:
I’m trying to think what to say, to talk about … I liked your offers to owners. I’m trying to think if there’s another product I can roll in here and talk about.

Steven Jack Butala:
Well, it’s March, are you ready?

Jill K DeWit:
Okay.

Steven Jack Butala:
Jill and I own a full-blown commercial company.

Jill K DeWit:
Printing.

Steven Jack Butala:
A commercial printing company called offers2owners.com, and I know for a fact because I just approved it, that we are running some pretty amazing March sales.

Jill K DeWit:
Yeah. As a matter of fact-

Steven Jack Butala:
March discounts.

Jill K DeWit:
Well, and there’s going to be some special stuff going on too if you join us next Tuesday. So next Tuesday, March 26th, I will be live with our concierge data lead. What do we call him? We’ll just say lead in the companies, and doing a behind-the-scenes look at the concierge data, what really goes on. So join us, go to offers2owners.com or landacademy.com, and you’ll find on the front page there a place that you can sign up to attend the live webinar, and just see what we do, what goes on, and ask some questions, and take advantage of the deals coming up. Now we’re going to take a look at another question posted by one of our members on the Land Academy Discord online community. All right, Sid wrote, “Responding to Troy-

Steven Jack Butala:
Another member in Discord.

Jill K DeWit:
“I started with another,” I can already tell this is cool, “I started with another program that used neutral letters as their primary marketing method. Since you’re not putting a price on the letter, you will get three to four times the number of responses. You will spend a lot of time on the phone to determine that 95% of those callers will not fit your buying criteria, and want retail price for their property. I did buy my first property with this method, so it does work, but with a lot of wasted noise.”
“I joined Land Academy and switched to the blind offer method, not near the amount of responses, but the seller has an idea of the price you’re willing to pay. Most will want to negotiate the price, et cetera, so the person answering the phone or calling you back, if you have it going to a service, is the key to the business. I’ve priced too high and I’ve also priced too low on some mailers, so the key is to determine what price you’re willing to negotiate and stick with it. I’ve had sellers refuse to initial accept my price only to call back one to two months later and accept. Good luck with your journey.” That’s so sweet.

Steven Jack Butala:
There’s a lot of … For whatever reason, we had several people in the last, let’s say 60 days, join us from other programs, and there’s all kinds of different methodologies out there. We obviously believe ours is the best, and one of those is neutral letters where you just send an offer saying, “Hey, yeah, you know, I’d like to buy a piece of property.”

Jill K DeWit:
One of the other ways to do it. Yeah.

Steven Jack Butala:
“I’d like to buy a piece of property, give me a call,” and so it generates a ton of activity, but not at a price that you typically want to pay.

Jill K DeWit:
Right. I even had one come in. We don’t do neutral letters at all. We don’t do postcards. I don’t do anything to warm anybody up because the last thing I want to do … If I send out a postcard to the planet saying “I want to buy your property,” they’re all going to call me, and then we’re going to all … It’s just going to slow me down and waste my time. What’s funny about the offer range, which I’ve seen, did we mention that?

Steven Jack Butala:
No.

Jill K DeWit:
This is just … I got to tell you, I just had someone send me an offer on a property that I don’t own anymore, but it was so funny because not only … they’re expecting me to do math as a seller, they don’t know who I am. So I get this thing like, “Hey, we want to buy your 4.6 acre property in Tennessee, and we’re willing to pay anywhere between 2,000 and $8,000 an acre.” I’m like, “Well, A, all I see is $8,000 an acre, and now I got to do the math.” But when they sent that out, I’m sure they’re thinking 2000, why don’t you just send an offer for 2000 an acre and just cut to the chase? Then when I get it and I see it, it either works for me or it doesn’t, that’s the point.

Steven Jack Butala:
Why would somebody do that?

Jill K DeWit:
I know, ain’t that weird?

Steven Jack Butala:
No, I’m asking seriously why.

Jill K DeWit:
I don’t know. I guess just to get a phone call. I would say that if you’re going to write 2,000 and 8,000, just say 2,000 or more, or just at minimum or something like that. I don’t know.

Steven Jack Butala:
Whoever you are, and-

Jill K DeWit:
When you give two numbers, you’re automatically going to see the higher one. Unless you’re buying something, you automatically see the red sticker.

Steven Jack Butala:
Whoever you are, whatever type of investor you are, or you want to be, please take note of this. When you do a mailer, I don’t care what kind of mailer it is, put yourself, picture yourself sitting at the kitchen table opening the mail, and they open your letter and what their response is going to be. I don’t think that you’ll end up sending a letter that requires somebody to get out a solar-powered calculator out of their junk drawer, and then explain it to their husband who doesn’t want to sell a property anyway for any price.

Jill K DeWit:
That happens. Is it really 4.6? I mean, can we-

Steven Jack Butala:
We make them go through four steps to actually consider picking up the phone and saying, “Oh, $8,000 for my four acre property, $32,000 sounds pretty good.” About 1% of anybody who receives your letter that way is ever going to get it … is ever going to go through that process. They’ve already had the life event that’s going to make them sell the property to you, if they see $32,000 associated with a property they never wanted in the first place, they’re going to call you. If not, if they think it’s worth 55,000, they’re going to call you and yell at you. That’s fine, that happens all the time. They’re going to crumple your letter up and throw it away, and that’s fine too. That’s all part of what we do.

Jill K DeWit:
Totally. It’s hilarious.

Steven Jack Butala:
Today’s second topic, let’s take a look at how you, not you, Jill, but you listener, respond to change.

Jill K DeWit:
It should be let’s take a look at how Jill responds to change. Let’s just start there actually.

Steven Jack Butala:
Actually, you know what?

Jill K DeWit:
I’m okay with that.

Steven Jack Butala:
You handle change really well.

Jill K DeWit:
You know, I didn’t always.

Steven Jack Butala:
Really?

Jill K DeWit:
No, I didn’t. Well, I guess it depends on some things, but I remember … maybe I do it well because there’s one situation I didn’t, and then that surprised me, and that’s the one I hang my hat on. It was changing from Sabre to quick Res. Anybody who was in the airline industry knows, “Ah, I know what that is.” Heck, I spent eight weeks learning Sabre, and you’re making me ditch all this knowledge that I had. It’s like, you know what it is, it would be like if I took Excel away from you and said, “No, you’re just going to fill in the boxes.”

Steven Jack Butala:
That happened.

Jill K DeWit:
You would fight, wouldn’t you?

Steven Jack Butala:
I went from Lotus to Excel, and I was in companies where they would start riots.

Jill K DeWit:
Yeah. So that was the same with me, I’m like … That one I wasn’t really comfortable with, and there was a reason why, because I like the old school. I want to know what I’m pulling and what I’m doing. I don’t like easy buttons. What?

Steven Jack Butala:
We come from a generation, Jill and I, as many of you do, where just putting a computer on your desk was a massive change.

Jill K DeWit:
True.

Steven Jack Butala:
Why can’t I put this in a three-ring binder? Why don’t I have to use a copy machine anymore?So that first generation of change, then there was terrible software we used that didn’t work, so you turn the computer off and just do it the old way. Then some software came around that actually worked okay, and the supervisors all said, “We’re going to use this now so you can throw those three ring binders away.”

Jill K DeWit:
Exactly.

Steven Jack Butala:
Then we really started getting software that made our lives easier. So if you entered the workforce when software was good, then change is really easy for you. That’s my whole point to this. So if you’re younger, change through computer … Now we know, fast-forward to now, we know that Apple 17 is going to be better than 15 theoretically. We just know that, and we’ve accepted it, and change will come, and it’s going to happen and we pay for it, and it generally makes our lives better.

Jill K DeWit:
Usually, it’s better. Now I’m excited for it.

Steven Jack Butala:
It’s better. Yeah, me too.

Jill K DeWit:
Well, you know what? So here’s what happened, that was my one thing. So you know what? You’re right, I am good at change because I’m … as you’re talking, I’m thinking about it. I’ve moved a lot. We’ve moved a lot. We go where jobs are. We go where kids need to get in school. We go where we want to be. We go where we can now afford, or we go where we can’t afford. We are not afraid to do that. Some people don’t do that. A lot of people don’t do that.
So I was raised on change, I wonder if it’s nature or nurture. I guess that’s my … I always think of that, whatever it is, I always go, “Is it nature or nurture?” I don’t know why, but it helps me process it when I think of it like that. So I think for me, by nature, I’m probably fine with it like, “Am I still going to be able to do X?” Then I’m like, “Sure, then let’s do it.” That’s all I care about. I don’t have a lot of major needs, but by nurture, I was raised in a little bit of a, “Here’s what we’re doing now,” kind of thing. All right, let’s go.

Steven Jack Butala:
So a lot of this too, I think is industry-specific. If you’re in the tech industry, you have to embrace change, and it’ll make or break you. You’re always trying to find the next best thing and make it great. Timing is everything in that industry. In healthcare, you have to embrace change. I used to be in healthcare, and I’ve never seen a group of people, in general, that are more adverse to anything changing in my entire life.

Jill K DeWit:
If we’ve got by with using this old charting system for 25 years, why can’t we do it for 25 more?

Steven Jack Butala:
There’s some reasonably good arguments to back it up like, “I’m going to deliver the same exact care to this person, whether I put it in the computer or not.” What you lose is outcomes, and care plans, and all the stuff where you can measure the delivery of care, and which caregivers maybe has a better outcomes than the one next to them and all of that, and that defeats the purpose of why you should theoretically get into healthcare in the first place. So I get it, a lot of it is industry specific, and some of it is age, but I’ll tell you what? Change happens, and in this industry you better embrace it.

Jill K DeWit:
Well, I’m going to talk about you before you bring it into us real quick.

Steven Jack Butala:
Oh, man.

Jill K DeWit:
I know. Well, just how do you think you are on a scale of 1 to 10? And then I’ll tell you what you really are. Wait, I’m writing down a number. All right, so what do you think you are?

Steven Jack Butala:
I embrace technology change, on a scale of 1 to 10, 1 meaning I’m terrible, and 10 meaning I’m great at it?

Jill K DeWit:
Mm-hmm.

Steven Jack Butala:
I embrace technology change probably north of 9.

Jill K DeWit:
Okay.

Steven Jack Butala:
I embrace technology or I embrace change that’s related to the regular building blocks of life like where I live, I’m probably a 2.

Jill K DeWit:
Oh, so where would you if you overall averaged it? I’m holding … You could probably see my number.

Steven Jack Butala:
I can’t see it.

Jill K DeWit:
So yeah-

Steven Jack Butala:
I’m probably like a solid 6.

Jill K DeWit:
Oh, I gave him an 8. Do you see that?

Steven Jack Butala:
Oh, good.

Jill K DeWit:
You can’t see it, but there’s an 8 on there. I gave him an 8. You’re way better than you think.

Steven Jack Butala:
You’re probably about an 8 too.

Jill K DeWit:
You know what? I take it back. I’m an 8, you’re a 7.

Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah, I think those are good numbers, maybe 6.

Jill K DeWit:
For whatever reason, I’m good at it. You’re like, “Here’s what we’re doing now,” I’m like, “Okay.” When we bring people into Land Academy in our backend part of it, the staffing, what’s one of the things I tell them? Don’t get comfortable, because however we’re doing it today might not be how we’re doing it tomorrow, so just hang on and you’ll get used to it. So it’s funny, so thinking about Land Academy, this is a good topic because we are now, we are in year nine of just Land Academy, everybody. We’re going to be in 10 years of Land Academy, a decade of teaching and helping people. How cool is that?

Steven Jack Butala:
That’s insane, yeah.

Jill K DeWit:
Man, this is awesome. So we’re going to quickly be rolling into year 10 of Land Academy, and I’m thinking about the changes we even had since Land Academy. We didn’t have the mapping stuff. We didn’t have the GPS stuff that we had when we started Land Academy. We had a whole different data. We’ve gone through three different data sources, almost four when you go back to the old, old, old school ways, it’s pretty cool. Our online community has changed three times. I’m trying to think-

Steven Jack Butala:
Oh, geez.

Jill K DeWit:
Right?

Steven Jack Butala:
We failed at sending out mail with outside commercial printing companies, to the point we were so upset about it we just started our own.

Jill K DeWit:
True.

Steven Jack Butala:
How many data set? This is our fourth. This is our fourth source of data because they just keep getting better.

Jill K DeWit:
Four, yeah.

Steven Jack Butala:
And it’s not our last.

Jill K DeWit:
Right. That’s the thing, you know-

Steven Jack Butala:
You know what hasn’t changed?

Jill K DeWit:
What’s that?

Steven Jack Butala:
What Jan does, Jill’s transaction coordinators. How we source transactions has dramatically changed.

Jill K DeWit:
True.

Steven Jack Butala:
How we sell them has changed.

Jill K DeWit:
True.

Steven Jack Butala:
First, it was real estate agents, then it was just us, Facebook marketplace, all this other stuff, then we did it on terms, then we didn’t, and now we’re back to finding good real estate agents. We’ve come full circle.

Jill K DeWit:
Myself in the middle didn’t change, the way I answer the phone-

Steven Jack Butala:
Nothing in the middle changes.

Jill K DeWit:
Oh, the way I enter the phone, and what I do, that didn’t change.

Steven Jack Butala:
The two ends change, and that’s it.

Jill K DeWit:
Wow.

Steven Jack Butala:
Processing a deal, and taking it through escrow is all exactly the same.

Jill K DeWit:
That didn’t change, and my phone number didn’t change.

Steven Jack Butala:
It’s really important to really, I think, deconstruct your life and see where a change is appropriate and where it’s not, and not to be hard-headed about this. I was very hard-headed about this. I was the last person to get a cell phone. Once I embraced it though, and some of it’s really worth it, I think social media in general has a terrible change, I think it brings worse than better.

Jill K DeWit:
I think it peaked.

Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah, I hope so.

Jill K DeWit:
I really do think it peaked, so we’ll see. My point for me to wrap up today is, I still mean it, we’re investors right here with you, doing our own deals right alongside you, so when a change is needed, we’ll do it. We’ll record it for you. We’ll write a program and record it for you, and we’ll share it with you. We’ll figure it out. We’ll watch for it. We’ll figure it out. We’ll test it, we’ll perfect it, and then we’ll share it with you to keep you moving forward, because we do want to do some bigger and better deals with you all the time. That’s our goal.

Steven Jack Butala:
Hey, let’s take a look at another one of our favorite land acquisitions from our weekly Thursday member webinar. Jill, you have something to share?

Jill K DeWit:
I do. So I was thinking about this recently, talking with my staff about people in Land Academy, and people not getting to Land Academy. Off and on I help take calls and talk to people who are interested, and have questions about joining, and I have a new person now helping me out, who’s within our existing staff, he’s been here for years, he said, “I want to help with the phone calls,” I’m like, “Thank you, yes.” It’s interesting, my point today is it’s interesting what we’re uncovering, and some people are not coming at this with the enthusiasm that they need to to be successful, or to make it more positive, yay, to those who are. So let me pivot for a minute.

Steven Jack Butala:
Hear the story. There’s a story here.

Jill K DeWit:
I’m going to pivot and make it good. Why wouldn’t you not go 110% at something, anything that you’re committed to?

Steven Jack Butala:
I agree.

Jill K DeWit:
I don’t have it in me to not do that.

Steven Jack Butala:
Me too.

Jill K DeWit:
I would rather not do it. If I’m going to start a new hobby, take on a new project, definitely a new line of business, oh, I’m in, and I’ll start kicking other things. Anything else that’s not important, takes up my time, takes up my mental energy, oh, it’s out of here. Anybody who stands in my way, especially people who stand in my way, who don’t agree with what I’m doing, or just holding me back, sorry, they’re just not going to be around because I’m going to commit, and I’m going to go at it. So that’s the thing, most of our community is made up of that, and that really does make me happy. That was my comment today, is think about when you make a pivot and you’re jumping into something new, make sure that you are all in, because if you are and you make those tough decisions to say, “I’m not going to let this fail,” you have to come at it and say, “Whatever happens, I’m going to get through it. I won’t let it fail,” you will succeed.

Steven Jack Butala:
My dad used to say, “If it’s worth doing, do it right,” and that’s what I think you’re saying. If it’s not worth doing or you don’t add into it or whatever, then don’t even just … just get out of there.

Jill K DeWit:
Well, if it’s not worth doing to you, then you don’t see it, you don’t feel it, you’re not invested in it.

Steven Jack Butala:
That’s what I mean.

Jill K DeWit:
Yeah, you shouldn’t do it. Don’t do anything you’re not invested in.

Steven Jack Butala:
First, figure out what’s worth doing.

Jill K DeWit:
Right, and for me, well, for you, if it’s a hobby, you’re doing it to, for whatever reason you want to do the hobby, you love it, you want to learn it, maybe you just want to have a release, it’s relaxing, those are all good reasons too. But for what we do, like if you’re starting a new business or something, or adding to your existing businesses, you’re going to make sure the math works, and then when you make sure the math works, then you’re in.

Steven Jack Butala:
Times 10. Make sure that-

Jill K DeWit:
That’s what you do.

Steven Jack Butala:
It had to work in a spreadsheet before it’s going to work in real life.

Jill K DeWit:
Exactly. What about you, Jack? What do you have to share with us today, informational?

Steven Jack Butala:
Along the lines of what we talked about today, I’ve realized that this is an endless pursuit. Components of it end and restart, but it is not … you don’t ever stop trying to get better at what you’re doing if it’s worth doing, along the lines of what you’re saying, so it’s endless. I used to think, and for a lot of reasons, and I grew up in an environment where you start a company, the company works, you keep your customers, you keep them happy, and that’s it. You keep making parts or whatever it is that you’re doing, and it’s not an endless pursuit, it’s kind of like a and then you kick your feet back up and this whole notion of, and you don’t hear this anymore of, “Hey, I want to be on the beach by the time I’m 40 years old.”

Jill K DeWit:
Yeah, you don’t hear that anymore.

Steven Jack Butala:
Ever. Because it’s not a thing anymore.

Jill K DeWit:
That’s interesting.

Steven Jack Butala:
You’re going to endlessly pursue whatever it is because, largely because of technology, technology changes so fast. The way that we source real estate deals will not be the same next year as it is this year, that I can tell you for sure.

Jill K DeWit:
True.

Steven Jack Butala:
Then three years from now, we probably won’t even be … it’s probably going to look really different, how we buy them, how we sell them, the amount of technology that’s used, whatever role AI plays, it will play a role for sure, and if you don’t have an open mind to that, it’s going to end. This is just an endless chase.

Jill K DeWit:
That’s so interesting.

Steven Jack Butala:
I actually think it’s good.

Jill K DeWit:
Don’t forget, you can reach us and my staff for questions, or you want to join or just find out more, whatever it is, two things, go to landacademy.com, or if you need to reach someone, just send a note to support@landacademy.com.

Steven Jack Butala:
Join us next Wednesday for another interesting episode. You are not alone in your real estate ambition, we are Jack and Jill-

Jill K DeWit:
We are Jack and Jill-

Steven Jack Butala:
Information-

Jill K DeWit:
And inspiration.

Steven Jack Butala:
To buy undervalued property.

Thanks for listening, and finally, don’t forget to subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts.

The post Respond To Change in Real Estate 2024 (LA 1997) appeared first on Land Academy.

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Join Steven Jack Butala and Jill K DeWit on the Land Academy Show as they dive into episode 1,996 discussing why tech layoffs create some of the best land investors. With insight into the upcoming recession and strategies for capitalizing on the influx of available properties, they provide valuable guidance for navigating the market. Tune in for expert advice on leveraging layoffs for success in land investing and learn how to make the most of changing economic landscapes.

Transcript:

Steven Jack Butala:
I’m Steven Jack Butala.

Jill K DeWit:
And Jill DeWit. And this is the Land Academy Show.

Steven Jack Butala:
This is episode 1,996. Today we are talking about why tech layoffs create the best land investors. And a little bit later in the show three ways to take advantage of the huge amount of property that’ll soon be for sale. How do we know this? This is our third time, our third cycle, Jill.

Jill K DeWit:
True. But I’m not as old as you. How is that possible? Are you sure? There’s parts of me that I’m like, look at me. I have wrinkles. I’ve experienced…

Steven Jack Butala:
Stop.

Jill K DeWit:
All right, well.

Steven Jack Butala:
Jill keeps getting skinnier and prettier, and that’s the truth.

Jill K DeWit:
Oh, thank you.

Steven Jack Butala:
I’m not trying to win anything here.

Jill K DeWit:
Do you know what you won’t see?

Steven Jack Butala:
I keep getting less intelligent and wider.

Jill K DeWit:
Stop it. If I have my way and I do it right, you’ll never see my gray hair. Now, you on the other hand, we’re not going to go there. Could you imagine if I Just For Men’d you and you just showed up like… I wonder if there’s a one-day washout? That would be kind of funny.

Steven Jack Butala:
What’s a one-day washout?

Jill K DeWit:
I don’t know. We could try it.

Steven Jack Butala:
What is that?

Jill K DeWit:
I wonder if they have a… I bet they do. I bet there’s a version of that. They have stuff for gals. I’m sure I could do it with you where I just put it in, and it only lasts a day until you wash it.

Steven Jack Butala:
And then I don’t leave the house because I’m a freak?

Jill K DeWit:
It would just scare everybody. Like, who is that guy? Like you just saw some late-night TV guy. He was on a commercial. I’m not going to name names. I don’t want to throw him under the bus, but I kind of did. But he did an insurance commercial, and we’re like, “Whoa, colored his hair.”

Steven Jack Butala:
That’s what I was just going to say. I mean, we’ve all seen old guys walking around that have 32-year-old looking hair, and it’s so obvious.

Jill K DeWit:
See, I’ve been coloring mine for decades.

Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah, but women, you can’t tell.

Jill K DeWit:
Kind of like the recession we’re coming into. You won’t feel it. Stick with us. If you stick with us, my hair color won’t change, and I’ll make sure you keep making money. How’s that?

Steven Jack Butala:
That’s actually pretty true.

Jill K DeWit:
Thank you.

Steven Jack Butala:
Each week on the show, we answer questions from our Land Academy member, Discord forum. We review land acquisitions from our weekly member webinars, and we take a deep dive into the two land-related topics by popular request. If you want a sneak peek of our Discord forum, go to landacademy.com. It’s free.

Jill K DeWit:
All right, so here’s our question. Julie wrote, “You can also try…” I guess this is a part of a thread talking about AI stuff. So Julie piped in, in this thread, and her comments were, “Hey, go ahead and try the reworked AI service. Just found out about it at a conference. They scrub on lists, and they give it a score based on the likelihood for a response rate and acceptance rate.”

Steven Jack Butala:
So hold on a second.

Jill K DeWit:
Huh? Is this what I think it is?

Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah, so somebody created an application where you upload a list. In our case it would be, I’ve done all my stuff in DataTree, and I got a mailing list ready to go. And I’m going to upload it into this unknown area on the internet.

Jill K DeWit:
Share it with them.

Steven Jack Butala:
For whatever application they wrote, they’re going to judge the likelihood… They’re going to give it a score, the likelihood of a response rate that your seller’s going to give.

Jill K DeWit:
That’s hilarious.

Steven Jack Butala:
So go ahead.

Jill K DeWit:
It’s $150 for 3,500 lines. Okay, that’s flipping expensive.

Steven Jack Butala:
Who cares?

Jill K DeWit:
I know.

Steven Jack Butala:
If it’s accurate, I’m all-

Jill K DeWit:
That’s your phone service.

Steven Jack Butala:
If it’s accurate, I’m all for it. It’s not accurate. Go ahead.

Jill K DeWit:
“I just did it, and we’re sending our first mailer out.”

Steven Jack Butala:
This, Julie, scares me like I can’t describe to you.

Jill K DeWit:
“Contact them and ask more about it if you’re interested. But yes, my husband used to do only out-of-state mailings, but we’ve had plenty over the years who live in the States in the same county.” Same here, Julie. I’ve had that too. And even around the corner from the lot. Same here. Anyway, “LOL. Now I’ve been filtering out instead just people who live within a 30 to 50 mile radius.”

Steven Jack Butala:
Okay. I’m not picking on you.

Jill K DeWit:
I’ve got people that live in the lot next door.

Steven Jack Butala:
I’m not picking on you. I’m really not. But this is very flawed logic, not on your part, but on the part of these developers. And that just goes to say, or it goes to show you… And this is just the beginning. It started with Priced a few years ago. The logic that goes into these applications all under the name of trying to make our lives easier is flawed.
It just says, “We had a great luck sending out out-of-state mailings, and then over the years we’ve got people that are close to the lot where we’ve done deals too.” So why, what’s behind this acceptance rate ideology? I think we’re all in this world that we live in right now, way too quick to say, “Oh, there’s an app for that.” There’s an app for telling me whether or not the person’s going to respond to my mailer. I’m telling you, if you send out 10,000 letters and you price it right, and you do your homework, just like we teach about where to send the mail, read the data, read. This is not a data-driven decision. This isn’t an easy button.

Jill K DeWit:
You know what? I feel like they’re preying on people. I could make this in a heartbeat. This is just a roll of the dice. I could make one. People would buy it all day long for us because I could say, “Look, I have the experience. I can tell you what chances they’re going to answer the phone.” But you don’t really know that.

Steven Jack Butala:
Here’s why people will respond.

Jill K DeWit:
You can pay $150 for these lines.

Steven Jack Butala:
Let me take all the mystery out of this for everyone.

Jill K DeWit:
I’m just saying, I’m sure there’s exception, exception, exception, exception, exception. “We don’t guarantee our results.” I’m sure that’s on there.

Steven Jack Butala:
Year over year, over decade, over decade. Not just Jill and I, but the members of Land Academy and people in Career Path and our alumni group and we have all agreed on this one point. The vast majority, if not all of the people who responded positively through our mailers the way that we do them are because they’re experiencing some version of a life event. Their spouse died.

Jill K DeWit:
Got laid off.

Steven Jack Butala:
They got laid off. There’s life event scenarios where they need money or they’re just done. It’s the same decision-making process literally as having a garage sale, “Yeah, I just don’t want it anymore.” How an application would know what’s inside, what’s going on in a seller’s head? Sign me up for that app.

Jill K DeWit:
It won’t.

Steven Jack Butala:
But whatever ideology this is using, and it sounds like the ideology is based on proximity to the actual target property, whether they’re close or far or out of state or in state or the property’s vacant or all that. I’ve worked through all of that stuff and it doesn’t work.

Jill K DeWit:
Nobody has more experience than you. Period. And you wouldn’t even do this.

Steven Jack Butala:
No, I wouldn’t.

Jill K DeWit:
Because you can’t guarantee that.

Steven Jack Butala:
Well, first of all, I’d say, “How are you deciding application developer?” And this is a 22-year-old kid out of Palo Alto that probably designed this thing. How do they know? All they did was someone told him out-of-state mailers are more successful than in-state. So he said, “I’m going to make an app for that.” And so you pay $150 to run your lines up and it takes out half of them or 20%, or scores it based on proximity. You can do that in Excel.
So again, Julie, I am not… And thank you for bringing this up and I’m not criticizing you in any way, but this is just the beginning of the applications that like this thing, you will see, and this isn’t AI, by the way. This is database mining.

Jill K DeWit:
I guess the main point today. I want to make it positive please. Don’t pick on anybody.

Steven Jack Butala:
Oh, too late for that.

Jill K DeWit:
Just a little bit. So I’m going to bring it back in. Remember what you have here in our community and with us and this is why we’re here, to save you. And if you think it through and it makes sense, run it by us, like you just did, Julie. So I’m curious, I bet within Land Academy in our Discord area, I’m sure a lot of people said what I’m thinking, which is, “Hold on a moment, think about who you’re missing here and what you could be missing,” which is what’s going to happen. So we talked about this just the other day in Career Path. We just went through pricing.

Steven Jack Butala:
That’s why I put it up here.

Jill K DeWit:
And the whole module was, well, everybody’s like, “What if I zero in on this and I zero in on that? What if I just go by zip code?” I’m like, “Hold on a moment. Keep in mind everybody, my mailer now, your mailer is now not going to reach 20%, 30%. Who knows? Even 20% is too high. If you scrub out some people that could be good sellers, gosh, you’re just missing out. And there’s some opportunity right there.”

Steven Jack Butala:
I am all for new technology. Geez. I remember when I started sending out direct mail in the late ’90s, early 2000s, everybody told me I was nuts. It was a waste of time and money. And that was a new technology, believe it or not back then. So I’m all for new technology and making your lives easier, as long as it’s accurate.

Jill K DeWit:
Let’s all think it through.

Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah, and we’re thinking it through.

Jill K DeWit:
That’s it. Just all think it through just to make sure what are they using, what are they doing, what’s behind there? Well, even the other day too, we were having a lot of discussions on, I think it was office hours talk. Oh, it was the Advance Group. We all got to go to the Advance Group and we were talking about a lot of these easy buttons and things to do, and new technology, and a lot of us ruled it all out. At the end of the day… I had another thought and I lost it, but I’ll come back to it.

Steven Jack Butala:
That’s okay.

Jill K DeWit:
Anyway.

Steven Jack Butala:
We’re pretty famous for saying here at Land Academy, “Make your mailer bigger, not smaller.” The numbers work. If you send out ten, twenty, thirty-thousand mailers and you make $10,000 or $15,000 on a deal, your ROI is significant. And so I’m not sure why you would pay to actually make your mailers smaller?

Jill K DeWit:
Thank you.

Steven Jack Butala:
Thanks for this topic. Why tech layoffs create some of the best land investors that Jill and I have seen?

Jill K DeWit:
Oh, I just thought of what I was going to say. We were discussing a program that all it is taking DataTree, which we all have access to the real direct DataTree, but it’s taking DataTree data and scrubbing out stuff and serving it up. I’m like, why would you do that? And just a different format? I’m like, why would you do that? Just go to the source. So anyway, that was my thing.
Okay, so today’s topic, I love this one. I hate it when I hear it. I feel so bad. YouTube music in one day, shut down. I mean they laid off everybody. Google, was it 40,000? How many people from… Amazon’s getting ready to do some layoffs. I mean every day you’re hearing about layoffs and it’s not like escrow agents. It’s like big tech stuff, mass laying off people. And I’m like, my first thing is I feel bad. My second thing is I can help you. I can teach you how to put food on the table. That’s what we do.

Steven Jack Butala:
Well, here’s the thing, there’s a lot of layoffs not just in the tech industry, and this is not going to go away. This is probably the rest of 2024, and all industries. If it hasn’t been hit yet, it will. We founded Land Academy during the tail end of the layoff in the early teens. It was a devastating bank crashing, real estate crashing, negative amortization loan scenario. Much, much worse I believe than anything that’s happening now. And we picked up some of the best members and long-term members that ultimately have come to us and said, “I’ve replaced my salary, my family’s happy, and everything’s going great.” So I’m not trying to sell anything here and I am certainly not trying to… Geez, we feel for you. I empathize. We have both been laid off. So I understand what that is.

Jill K DeWit:
Have you?

Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah, in the way, way distant past.

Jill K DeWit:
I haven’t been laid off. Except when you laid me off. You laid me off now and then, that’s the only time.

Steven Jack Butala:
I’m trying to not make light of this. This is the one time we’re not supposed to laugh right now.

Jill K DeWit:
I know. I’m like, speak for yourself buddy. Well, I almost did, but then they put me in a different position. So, sorry.

Steven Jack Butala:
It doesn’t matter. It’s not about us.

Jill K DeWit:
Okay. That’s what I’m saying.

Steven Jack Butala:
It’s about you. And this is very, very unfortunate, but I’m saying it can be a new beginning of something. And we have many, many long-term, very successful and extremely intelligent members that have joined us, written their own applications to make their lives easier based off of what we teach, and they buy and sell property. And it’s also, it’s kind of a double-edged, well, a triple-edged scenario because at the time that you’re experiencing this extremely unfortunate situation, there are a lot of sellers out there that are liquidating stuff that they don’t use, namely land or whatever. So you can get some amazing bargains and build up a pretty good strong land portfolio pretty quickly.

Jill K DeWit:
I have two things.

Steven Jack Butala:
Sure.

Jill K DeWit:
Okay. One is back to the topic. I want to bring some energy up here right now too. So tech people, one of the things I love about this is really as a topic, is you guys get it. You know, it’s interesting. There’s all kinds of people that come to Land Academy and it’s changed over the years. The women and the couples now are way more prevalent than they were in the beginning. But we’ve always had a brainy group and I think it’s because, I know it is because of the way you see this and teach this and run the numbers and data. This sings to people who are tech pros and minded. So I love it. I mean those of you in the tech world that have been analysts and all kinds of positions like that, or accounting, numbers focused, this is drinking water for you.
Now other people, you can still do it. It’s harder. There’s more of a struggle for people that come to this from other walks of life, but they could figure it out. But I just wanted to just hit it home that this is a perfect fit for you if you understand real estate a little bit. If you understand there’s money to be made in real estate and you’re coming from a tech position, this is going to be child’s play for you, like taking candy from babies. I’m not kidding.
The other thing I wanted to talk about today along these lines, I thought was really interesting. And I noticed this, in a recent group of new members, people have come to Land Academy and their goals and their needs are much lower than they used to be. People are like, “I want to make $2 million this year.” I have a lot of people who are like, “I just want to make $500,000. I just want to make $100,000.”

Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah, I noticed that too.

Jill K DeWit:
I’m like, well shucks. It’s really easy to screw it all up and make $100,000.
Samantha did a, one of our Land Academy ambassadors, did a sweet presentation about the economy and the way we do deals. Man, if you set out to do one deal a month and make $20 grand, if that’s your goal, you screw it all up and you only do five deals this year, but you make $20 grand, that’s $100,000. Those are for a lot of the group low numbers around our group. So I just want to… I don’t know, do you want to talk about that? I just thought that was so interesting.

Steven Jack Butala:
I mean just the pure math should be real easy. To replace a salary or a good salary is not that hard. Jill and I are… The people in Career Path are used to making a lot more money than that in general. So you’re absolutely right. But the other thing is that the lifestyle, if you’re a tech person, you wake up and…

Jill K DeWit:
Ding, ding.

Steven Jack Butala:
Make a cup of coffee and get dressed, maybe not, and go to work. You’ve got a place already set up. Well, that’s what buying and selling land is.

Jill K DeWit:
Yep.

Steven Jack Butala:
By the way, you don’t have to wait until you’re laid off. If you’re a tech person, you have 90% of the smarts already is in your soul or you wouldn’t have chosen this career and succeeded in it in any capacity. You already know all the tech piece. There’s some people who have historically struggled with the tech piece that’s involved in how we make data-driven decisions, you already do all that, probably better than us.

Jill K DeWit:
You know what I found too is interesting about tech people? It’s like they’re never satisfied. No one’s going to say, “Well, I’ve learned Excel. I’ve learned the 2020 version of Excel and I’ve Windows 9?

Steven Jack Butala:
Somebody’s got Windows 9?

Jill K DeWit:
I don’t know, you know what I mean.

Steven Jack Butala:
You have a pick 9.

Jill K DeWit:
I don’t know. I’m just thinking about… You know, like…

Steven Jack Butala:
I’m an expert at Windows 9.

Jill K DeWit:
You get an update on your phone. No, I don’t need it. I’m not going to do it. So what’s funny about tech people is, my point is they’re always… They are wired. I don’t know if it’s nature or nurture, but they’re wired to get to the next program, get to the newest version and create the newest version and all that. So I think when you said, “Hey, don’t wait till you get laid off to do this.” I’m thinking it probably sings to tech people anyway because they’re always bored and looking for something else. I know you are.

Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah. Technology never ends. Actually, that’s my end little talk at the end of this episode. Technology will never stop. There’s some stuff that stops. If you go to a convenience store, that’s about it. Or you can get another one.

Jill K DeWit:
Well, if you have a convenience store in Windows 9.

Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah,

Jill K DeWit:
And Lotus 1-2-3, you’re still using that.

Steven Jack Butala:
No. Let’s get back to Windows 9 because you’re never going to live this down.

Jill K DeWit:
I know.

Steven Jack Butala:
If you’re running Windows 9 in your convenience store, you’re done.

Jill K DeWit:
Maybe they don’t even have that. Maybe they have a journal. Oh my goodness.

Steven Jack Butala:
Let’s take a look at one of our favorite land acquisitions from our weekly Thursday member webinar and stop this madness.
Hey, if you don’t know by now, Jill and I have our own full-blown commercial printing company to help you get mailers out in the mail successfully. We keep adding products. The latest product that we’ve added is concierge data, so you don’t have to do a mailer at all. You can just go in, place your order, and at the end of it we’ll provide all the data back to you so you can check it all. And make sure that it’s your own. Make sure it’s priced right, and it fits with your criteria. It’s not an easy button, but they do take all the heavy lifting out of it.

Jill K DeWit:
I was going to say too, don’t forget, March 26th. Tuesday, March 26th in the afternoon, check out our website, check out offers to owners and check out Land Academy or check your email if you’re in our group here, you’ll know the time. We’re going to do a behind-the-scenes sneak peek with concierge data.

Steven Jack Butala:
Oh good.

Jill K DeWit:
Yep, it’s awesome. So check it out.

Steven Jack Butala:
That’s great.

Jill K DeWit:
Go to landacademy.com and you’ll find out where you can sign up to attend that. It’s going to be a Zoom webinar.

Steven Jack Butala:
Let’s take another question posted by one of our members on the Land Academy Discord online community.

Jill K DeWit:
Chris wrote, “On wholesaling/dual close, what drives me crazy is that they are all taught they can buy houses/land, whatever, even commercial properties by tying it up with a purchase agreement, without a clear exit strategy or money needed to close. Then they all run around on Facebook groups trying to sell the contract or double close, and these deals sometimes get daisy-chained with three or four investors on the same deal. And when double closing, they put the property under contract for up to six months.”
“They promise the seller the price they want and then if they don’t find a buyer, they have a way out of the agreement so the buyer is screwed.” Or the seller is screwed, I should say, the seller is screwed. “Buying in cash with a funder or a lender has an actual value proposition. If you need cash now, we can buy the property at a lower price and close quicker than if you listed it. If you don’t see any value proposition for double closing, let me tie your property up for six months so I can possibly make more money, is the only value I see one-sided.”

Steven Jack Butala:
This is a really important point, and this has been a debate that’s been going on for a lot of years between people like us who actually buy assets and resell them, control the deal and provide some value in my opinion. Versus people who wholesale/dual close, who just do it, exactly what Chris just said. They tie the property up, try to flip it before they… It’s a no-lose situation for them in most cases. Well, Jack, if it’s a no-lose situation, why wouldn’t everybody do it? For the exact reasons that Chris is saying here, it’s a one-sided value proposition. One person can potentially win. In the end this is doing way more damage in the industry than good.
If you see a good deal, buy it. Or call somebody in our group to fund it and just do the right thing, buy it and then resell it.

Jill K DeWit:
I’m going to go on record setting too, what’s to keep the seller from changing their mind? What if you’re doing everything right? You’re doing this, you have it under contract, you’re doing your best to be a good person. You just don’t have the dough. But guess what? The seller changes their mind. They go dark on you. You find a buyer, you’re all locked up. You’re ready to go and then good luck getting them on the phone. What are you going to do? Sue them? No, let’s be realistic. It’s going to be a waste of time and money. So that’s the part that bothers me too. I don’t control the deal. That’s your saying, and I love it.

Steven Jack Butala:
Just the whole notion of brokering, a successful broker if you’ve ever dealt with one on anything, let’s say for fun, it’s a commercial real estate broker and an art broker. Separate people in separate situations. So the broker has some knowledge or has some… They’re bringing some value to the table and so the broker calls me and says, “I know that you buy these types of paintings and I have one. I’m not going to tell you exactly who the seller is, that I don’t think you know about.” Now he’s immediately bringing some serious value to the table. I’m intrigued.
There’s no value in tying up a transaction and then splattering it all over the place to see what’s going to happen. Just to have somebody else, just to see who the next sucker is. That’s what this is. If somebody’s got a pocket office or let’s say an apartment building, they know I have six apartment buildings in the area and they call and say, “This isn’t on the market, but I’m bringing some value to you. I think the other six buildings that you own, this one’s just like it. So I’m happy to put this deal together for a fee.”
There’s huge value in that for both parties, the seller and the buyer. Or if we call or send a mailer to somebody, “Hey, we’d like to buy your property, and it seems like it might be the right time for you.” Oh my gosh, yes, there’s value. Everybody wins there. So I don’t see, this can’t go on. Legislation’s going to close in on this. That’s how I see it, see it kind of ending.

Jill K DeWit:
True. Well, there’s so many that we could go on and on and on about this. I don’t think we need to, but thanks.

Steven Jack Butala:
Today’s second topic is three ways to take advantage of the huge amount of property that’ll soon be available for sale.

Jill K DeWit:
Well, I’m going to have to say this again. How do you know that, Jack?

Steven Jack Butala:
This is our third time going through a recession. All kidding aside, I didn’t believe it the second one we went through, just it was a mirror image only much higher in severity than the first time. And I believe this will be less severe. But I will tell you that we’re already tracking the data. The data doesn’t lie about how many properties are getting listed. There’s way more properties getting listed than there were even just last year and certainly way more over the last several years like before COVID.
More properties are being listed and staying on the market longer, and so all the statistics and the data add up to more properties for sale. What does that mean to you? Well, it means an amazing number of opportunity. Well, let’s talk about the three ways to take advantage of that. Let’s just all buy into for a second that it’s happening. It is happening and there will be more and more and more inventory throughout the year, probably into 2025. When there’s more property on the market, it becomes what everybody now refers to as a buyer’s market. There’s more property, prices are less.

Jill K DeWit:
That’s number one of your three?

Steven Jack Butala:
Well, yes. So in a buyer’s market, what do you do? Number two, it yields to cheaper prices and access to capital and things like that.

Jill K DeWit:
I’ll be the visual. You’re the audio, I’m the visual.

Steven Jack Butala:
And then number three, which I believe is the most important is, this is a symptom and the underlying cause of all this is the need for additional capital for some reason. That’s what’s driving a seller’s decision even in the greatest market ever. It drives the seller’s decision. So we’re watching a tertiary debt or credit card debt go up. That’s an indication that what’s the first thing to go when people start having financial life events? Stuff they’re not using. It could be land. It could be a second house. It could be a car that they…

Jill K DeWit:
People start looking around. I know people that do this, they literally start looking around their house to see what they could sell. I’m not kidding. Wow. I was just thinking, there’s going to be some good deals. I mean, I’m not being funny. I’m being serious here like on OfferUp and those things too. Someone’s going to be dumping those excess, fill in the blank just to get some money just to get some food and stuff. That’s a real thing. It’s so interesting.
But on the bigger scale, like you said, there’s going to be people that, “Hey, this property, we’ve never built on it. We’ve owned it for 20 years. We inherited it.” Whatever it is, it’s time to get that and to turn it into cash.

Steven Jack Butala:
If you’re a successful land flipper like us, or if you’re a successful house flipper, let’s say, not a house renovator, but a house flipper, you need to start just… I want to plant the seed in your head. Start to look into expanding your existing business because it’s only going to get better, into other things. Jill and I have had this exact conversation in the last week, so we’re great at buying and selling land. We bought sold a lot of houses, but we really need to step that up because the amount of, the number of deals for houses are going to become more abundant.
And then finally, and I can’t believe that we’re actually having this serious conversation is maybe we should start buying some long-term rentals. If the prices get to be anywhere close to the way that they were 10 or 15 years ago, there’s massive advantages. If we were buying and flipping houses for buy for 20, sell for 60, those houses are worth $300,000 now. And so that’s a great… And I’m not a big fan of renting, but I’ll tell you, for those margins I can put up with it.

Jill K DeWit:
Exactly.

Steven Jack Butala:
So, expand your product type is my point.

Jill K DeWit:
But wait a minute, Jack, it sounds like you’re eating your words again. Well, listen folks, things change. I had someone call me out.

Steven Jack Butala:
I am absolutely eating my words.

Jill K DeWit:
Someone called me out the other day about, “What the heck, I actually been… Like, I’m one of the two people that started listening to you guys back in 2015.” I’m like, oh, oh. They’re like, “You hated agents and now that’s all you use.” I’m like, “Yep. And I’m sure there’s more things coming that I’m like…” You know what? If you can’t roll with the punches and change, you’re not going to survive. And I’ve gotten very comfortable eating my own words. That’s okay, stuff happens.
So you know what? Now let’s take a moment and take a look at another land acquisition from our weekly Thursday member closed webinar.

Steven Jack Butala:
Jill, you have something inspirational to share?

Jill K DeWit:
Yes, I wrote it down. It kind of goes with a little blog in an email that I had to go out a couple of weeks ago, just kind of reminding everyone. 2024, one of my themes for 2024 is, “You got this.” And in the blog and in the email I took it to, “We got this.” So what does it mean? We’re in this together. Our community is so, two parts of this. Our community is so smart. If you don’t lean on them, you’re nuts. And if you don’t see them as a resource, you’re crazy.
Lean on our community. Lean on us. There’s just so much knowledge there. Even now and then I have to remind people, “Why aren’t you going to Discord and using the search function? There’s probably someone that’s dealt with this situation.” You don’t have to even wait until Thursday. You have us every Thursday, but you don’t have to wait for that. Go in there and if you don’t see it, pop in the question, wait 10 minutes, someone’s going to probably have some experience and knowledge or ideas to help you solve whatever the question is, or get out of any jam that you might be facing.
I’m like, I just want to remind everybody we’re in this together. The possibilities are really endless. And then my other little part was, every deal has potential. I want to make sure that everyone knows that every single phone call that you have coming to you, there’s a potential deal there. And I want you to really take them seriously. Especially now with what’s coming up. We’re going to have some more people from years ago calling you back. And what if they’re calling you on a mailer that you don’t even do? It’s too small. You don’t buy for 3,000, sell for 9,000 anymore. You’ve way moved on. But you know what? Maybe they have something else. So, take those calls. Ask them those questions and just give it a moment and see what’s possible.

Steven Jack Butala:
This leads directly into my information piece.

Jill K DeWit:
Well good. All right, Jack, what’s your part please?

Steven Jack Butala:
I was in a pretty long staff meeting. There’s no such thing as a short staff meeting, but I was in a staff meeting, let’s call it.

Jill K DeWit:
For you, wait, wait, wait. Aren’t all staff meetings too long for you? Five minutes, too long.

Steven Jack Butala:
We’re all going around the room telling everybody, and it’s good. It’s very healthy to know, it was all company scenarios. So we have, Jill and I have three major lines of business. First and foremost, we have our real estate company where we buy and sell land. We have our commercial printing company where we do people’s mailers, and they actually do our mailers, our real estate company’s mailers. And then finally we have Land Academy. And as everybody was going around the room and saying what’s going on in their lives, I noticed that they were either talking about people or they were talking about processes.
Like the printing people were saying, our printing people don’t bring up processes anymore. They never have because they’re not… We’ve got it licked. Because it’s our process that Jill and I have perfected for a really long time to do a mailer. And so they spend a lot of time talking about people. “Wow, this person submitted this mailer. They really have their act together. We should contact them and offer them this promotional thing because they’re easy to work with and they’re real consistently with the mail,” and on and on and on. “This person on the other hand, nope, big huge problem. Had to talk with them for two hours. Not sure that they’re going to actually ever send out a successful mailer. The real estate people, no process issues there at all.”

Jill K DeWit:
True. The deals are going through the system?

Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah. The deals that we do, the process was long-established before I met Jill. She’s only just improved on it since she got involved. Land Academy, all people. It’s none of the processes. And I’m a process person. I’m constantly looking around to try to find out how I can do a better mailer, how I can make a product that we deliver in the mailing company easier for everyone to follow. And so you have to decide if you’re a people or a process person and embrace it. Jill just talked all about people in her inspiration, and actually glomming on that moment when they contact you and say they want to sell their property. Just positive.

Jill K DeWit:
But wait, I turned it into a process like the answers in Discord. Does that count? Do I get points for that? But there’s a process and a way to get your question answered. But I hear you.

Steven Jack Butala:
Embrace either one.

Jill K DeWit:
Yin and yang. That’s why we’re good together.

Steven Jack Butala:
That’s what I mean.

Jill K DeWit:
That’s it.

Steven Jack Butala:
Every successful anything.

Jill K DeWit:
I’m going to answer the phone and get deals. And if you had it your way, it would be all automated. And that’s nothing wrong with that.

Steven Jack Butala:
That’s right.

Jill K DeWit:
And that’s just different.

Steven Jack Butala:
And I would fail.

Jill K DeWit:
You’re doing just fine.
Hey, don’t forget, you can reach us for questions and help simply by sending a note to my team via support@landacademy.com.

Steven Jack Butala:
Join us next Wednesday for another interesting episode. You are not alone in your real estate ambition. We are Jack and Jill.

Jill K DeWit:
We are Jack and Jill.

Steven Jack Butala:
Information…

Jill K DeWit:
And inspiration…

Steven Jack Butala:
To buy undervalued property.

Thanks for listening, and finally, don’t forget to subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts.

The post Making A Career Shift From Tech To Land Investor (LA 1996) appeared first on Land Academy.

View Details

Today, Steven and Jill offer crucial insights for successful land acquisition in the 2024 recession, emphasizing the need for the cheapest property and strategic deal creation. They also share experiences and advice on working with a spouse in the land business, highlighting the importance of open communication. Stay tuned for exciting announcements about Land Academy Ladies, a monthly gathering for female investors associated with Land Academy.

Transcript:

Steven Jack Butala:
I’m Steven Jack Butala.

Jill K DeWit:
And I’m Jill DeWit, and this is the Land Academy Show.

Steven Jack Butala:
This is episode 1,995 and today we are talking about what your land acquisitions need to look like to survive the recession that’s going to happen here in 2024, and a little bit later we’re going to talk about working with your spouse.

Jill K DeWit:
Yay. That’s what I think.

Steven Jack Butala:
So much fun to work with your spouse.