New Member Claire Shares her Success at LandAcademy (CFFL 0003)
New Member Claire Shares her Success at LandAcademy
Jack Butala: Today Jill and I speak with one our members, Claire Herriot. She started down the path with Land Academy. She’s experiencing immediate success purchasing super cheap, unwanted rural land. She’s a stay at home mom with a bioengineering degree accumulating cash flow from land.
Let’s find out how she makes our program work for her. Students and Jill said something like this, “Well, Claire wouldn’t do that. Claire wouldn’t have a problem with that. Claire seems to not have issues with this.” That’s what happens all the time here. You are our logical first customer/member guest.
Claire Herriot: That is very funny. Make sure you’re not buttering me up here.
Jack Butala: No, no. You already bought the pit and you’re sitting over here. You already bought the whole program.
Claire Herriot: Right.
Jack Butala: Tell us a little bit about yourself and what led you to making the decision to come aboard with Land Academy.
Claire Herriot: Let’s see. I think I … Sorry, I’m at home with a four year old right now. My mind is always working and I needed something a little bit more adult to work on. I wanted to find a way to contribute financially to my family. Somebody sent me a podcast called Side Hustle and it featured one of your competitors. The business model sounded like too good to be true, but I started doing a bunch of research.
I actually don’t remember how I came across you guys, but then I listened to your podcasts and you seemed really normal and honest. I don’t know. This just seems like something I can do. I don’t know. Its neat because I grew up in [Novin 00:01:56], Wisconsin and so I really love that place and I love … I’m not going to say the middle of nowhere, but I like [crosstalk 00:02:05].
Jack Butala: That’s an inside joke that we’re going to have to explain now.
Jill DeWit: That’s awesome. I love that.
Claire Herriot: Being doing something pretty interesting and working with people. I don’t know how big I want to get, but just starting out I just want to have some successes and see where it takes me.
Jack Butala: That’s great. The way I put it is like this. I want to go to the mailbox and get 10,000 or 15,000 dollars … 10,000 or 15,000 bucks between the first and the fifth of the month, and then I want to pick my kid up at school every day.
Claire Herriot: Yeah.
Jack Butala: That’s great and that’s what I do. So does Jill.
Claire Herriot: Awesome.
Jack Butala: Cool. I only wrote down a couple of questions here. What was the worst job you’ve ever had?
Claire Herriot: Oh, that’s an easy … I was going to say that’s an easy answer. It is pretty easy. I worked at McDonald’s for my first job when I was 14.
Jack Butala: They hired you at 14 in Wisconsin?
Claire Herriot: Yeah, yeah. That’s the age, but you can’t run the fryer. You can’t use anything hot and you can’t cook, so I was just a cashier. I did not like that, but the funny thing was I probably looked like I was 11. I looked really young. The older gentlemen would try to give me tips. I had no idea that that happened at McDonald’s, but it was really sweet.
Jill DeWit: That’s hilarious. Hiss poor thing is forced to work at age 10 to help out her family. That’s funny. All hands on deck. That’s hilarious.
Jack Butala: I didn’t know kids could work at 14. I want to make some … We’re going to have a talk tonight.
Jill DeWit: That’s so funny though. I have a son, [Clarit 00:04:03], that has had one food related job in his life. He’s 16 now and said, “I’m not doing that again.”
Claire Herriot: It’s a really good motivation for going to college. I’ll tell you.
Jack Butala: Exactly.
Jill DeWit: It’s perfect.
Jack Butala: All right, so are you buying and selling property with the program now?
Claire Herriot: No, not yet. I just sent out my first mailing following all of your instructions. It went out yesterday, so –
Jack Butala: Great.
Claire Herriot: Yeah. It’s exciting. I had previously tried a mailing without actually going through your program because you guys hadn’t released it yet, but I just wanted to try something. I did tax delinquent properties only, and it turned out that all of the properties that I sent mailers to they own way more in taxes than I was going to be able to sell them for. That was a good lesson.
Jack Butala: How was your response on that mailer?
Claire Herriot: I got like … I don’t know, I sent like 300 some. I got maybe 20 to 25 people send me back purchase agreements. That was cool.
Jack Butala: Did you send purchase agreements?
Claire Herriot: I did, yeah.
Jack Butala: Did you buy Mark’s program and do that?
Claire Herriot: Yes.
Jack Butala: So, you cheated on us.
Claire Herriot: [crosstalk 00:05:26]. You guys were unavailable and I was really, really wanting to start.
Jill DeWit: No, that was good. That was a good test and figured it out and realized that you … It works. I love even like our eBook. It cracks me up the people that go, “Uh oh, what do I do?” Just before we were starting and we just had the eBook available, and they were testing it with that. They’re like, “This does work.” I’m like, “I know. Hang on, I promise. More’s coming.”
Jack Butala: So, you got written purchase agreements back in the mail to purchase a property.
Claire Herriot: Yeah, absolutely. I just decided not to because the taxes were like, I don’t know, 2,000 plus dollars and the properties I didn’t think I was going to sell quickly for more than that, so I didn’t want to do it.
Jack Butala: Jill and I are in the process of putting together a program called Tax Overages, and it is exactly what you just did. In a lot of states … And I don’t know where you did this. It doesn’t really matter. I have sent out a mailer exactly like you described with a ton of back taxes on these properties. If you purchased the property before they go back to the entity and they have a tax sale, you can get the overage.
California is the state to do that in. You know what? When the thing’s done … I’m not sure exactly when it’s going to be done. I’ll get you a copy and I’d love to get your opinion. With our program, do you think you’re going to be a flipper or a terms investor or what do you see happening down the road?
Claire Herriot: I definitely want to do terms down the road, but I really want to break even. I’m going to do some flips in the beginning.
Jack Butala: Great. Concentrating in California?
Claire Herriot: Yeah, I’m starting in California. I do want to do Wisconsin eventually, but it just seems a little bit more straight forward for me right now to do California. So many more properties and I just … I don’t know. Just seems a little bit easier.
Jack Butala: Yeah, I think you can’t list in California because you put it out on the internet once you buy it for sale. Once you put it on the internet for sale … Everybody loves California. It sells itself.
Jill DeWit: Yeah. Here’s a question. How much time do you spend online?
Claire Herriot: You know what? I think it’s a function of being a scientist, but I tend to do a lot more research maybe than I need to before I do something. I’ll take a couple hours after my husband and son are in bed and do some research.
Jill DeWit: That’s really good to know, Claire, because, trust me, when you pipe in I can tell that you have some good stuff. Now I really know there’s a lot that went behind that. If Claire says it, trust me, she’s tested it all. This is probably a good one.
Jack Butala: I have an accounting background and I take the exact same approach to everything. It drives people in my life batty. It’s like, man can’t you just make a decision on this? I’m like, “I need a half hour more and then I’ll know for sure.”
Claire Herriot: Oh, yeah. That’s the story of my life making a decision. I love the research. I want to know everything, and then when it comes time to do something that’s a bit harder.
Jack Butala: The last car that I bought I had three spreadsheets of research that I did.
Claire Herriot: That’s impressive.
Jill DeWit: What do your friends say? Have you told anybody else what you’re doing? Did you just take a phone call from somebody that wants to give you five acres? Has anybody said, “What’s going on?”
Jack Butala: Yeah, do your friends think your a drug dealer?
Claire Herriot: They don’t. I haven’t told many people because, I don’t know, I wanted to keep it to myself for awhile just maybe for fun, but also just to see how it went. I want to have a completed transaction before I tell people, but I do have my husband who’s my best support and he’s totally encouraging me. He’s like, “Oh, you’re such a teacher’s pet.”
Jack Butala: You’re totally a teacher’s pet.
Jill DeWit: You are. [inaudible 00:09:52]. Yeah, that’s Claire.
Jack Butala: Now it’s going to be teacher’s pet Claire. What would Claire say? What do you mean? Well, like teacher’s pet Claire.
Jill DeWit: So funny. That’s nothing. I’m glad he’s on board. Did he ever have any concerns or anything that you had to talk him into or has he said, “Hey, run with it, babe.”
Claire Herriot: He said, “Run with it. If you’re successful, I want to quit my job and we can go through it.”
Jack Butala: That’s great.
Jill DeWit: That’s really good. Are there any parts that you are nervous about? Now your mailers out, you got [inaudible 00:10:36], and you’re checking off the list here. You’re learning how to value property and all that. Is there anything coming up like, okay my phone’s about to start ringing. Is there anything you’re nervous about?
Claire Herriot: I did get good practice with the phone ringing. I’m shy, so I don’t like answering the phone, but once I talk to the people they’re usually … I haven’t had any people angry at me yet. Most people have been super, super nice and telling me jokes. That’s been really fun. I think I’m not nervous about the paperwork, but I definitely want to go through that whole process of buying and selling once. I think I’ll feel better about it.
Jack Butala: Can I offer you a suggestion?
Claire Herriot: Sure.
Jack Butala: Deed the property or … Did you get a property with a package when you purchased one from us?
Claire Herriot: Yes.
Jack Butala: I’m just suggesting this. Deed the property to your husband and then have him deed it back to you because it’s the exact same property … Or a relative or anybody like that.
Jill DeWit: Or your son.
Jack Butala: Yeah, or your son. Exactly, Jill. That’s great.
Jill DeWit: You could put it in your son’s name. You don’t have to be 18 to own property.
Jack Butala: Yeah, that’ll take all the jitters off for you.
Claire Herriot: That’s a great idea. I’ll have to do that. I actually … Oh, I want to tell you. Today I’m doing a Craigslist … I’m sorry, not Craigslist … eBay auction for that property.
Jack Butala: Great.
Jill DeWit: Yay.
Claire Herriot: Yeah, so I’m going to see how that goes.
Jill DeWit: It’s funny. Are you nervous about the, all right am I really going to put down only 99 cents?
Claire Herriot: I’m not nervous about that because you guys gave me the property for free, so I can’t lose on this one.
Jill DeWit: Well, at least I’m going to get a dollar out of this.
Claire Herriot: Yeah, I should. No problem. I did what you guys did, which is you have a [dock 00:12:28] processing fee, which is what? 3.99 or something. That’s exactly what I need. I looked at your stuff and that’s what you were selling your properties for, so I figured I would just do the same.
Jill DeWit: Good. Good plan. There you go. Then you know you’ll get something out of it and it’ll cover your costs and all that. Good.
Claire Herriot: Yeah.
Jill DeWit: It’s going to be fun. Those are fun because it all happens at the very end. I used to sit and watch them and then it was like … Way back when, it was exciting and it just drove me batty. You kind of have to walk away, but it all does happen at the end. There’s sometimes a massive bidding frenzy, depending on the property. It’s funny.
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