Double Your Money in 14 Days with Jill DeWit (CFFL 0008)
Double Your Money in 14 Days with Jill DeWit
Jack Butala: Double your money flipping land, not houses, in fourteen days, with my partner Jill DeWit.
Jill, welcome back.
Jill DeWit: Hi, thank you. Happy to be here.
Jack Butala: Thanks, I’m super excited about this show, a little bit more than most of the shows because it’s a direct result, or a direct request, of a handful of our members. We did a show on the last podcast show that we had, I don’t know, probably six … no, three, four months ago.
Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jack Butala: And the topic was similar but … and it gets very high, that show specifically, gets very high rankings in iTunes, so I figure we’d scale it back a little bit, make it just a little bit more simple, and use one or two examples of stuff … deals that you’ve done recently to show how we very simply double our money flipping land.
Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jack Butala: And never actually go see the property.
Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Love it.
Jack Butala: So.
Jill DeWit: Sorry.
Jack Butala: Hey, I’ve got to tell you before we get started … it’s Wednesday.
Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jack Butala: And you do the Wednesday hump day special for all of our platinum members at landstay.com, which is our real real estate company. It’s not like Land Academy, which isn’t really a real company.
Jill DeWit: Not a real company. Yeah, the one that pays the bills? Just kidding.
Jack Butala: I’m on a list, you know? I’m on a list, like I was a customer. I don’t know if you know that. I’m like a … what do they call those shoppers in the mall? Secret shoppers, or something?
Jill DeWit: Shop around my stuff? Got it.
Jack Butala: You know, they look for shoplifters? What are they called?
Jill DeWit: I don’t think they’re …
Jack Butala: Mystery shoppers. Mystery shoppers.
Jill DeWit: They’re not looking for shoplifters. That’s not what they’re … for customer service purposes.
Jack Butala: Oh.
Jill DeWit: It’s a positive thing, silly.
Jack Butala: So what is a mystery shopper? Somebody that … Tell me what a mystery shopper is. I clearly thought it was for finding shoplifters.
Jill DeWit: No. People are mystery shoppers, and they get coupons and deals because they go in … it’s like, if I’m a mystery shopper in my own company, I want to see how they’re doing. I want to see the customer experience from … if I walked in and they … like, my office. I walk in, hello, it’s a little bit different. The goofing off stops, right? But, you know, if I walked in, in a disguise, they don’t know it’s me, then I can really get an evaluation of what goes on when I’m not there.
Jack Butala: Oh.
Jill DeWit: And how they really treat the customers, and is the customer service … is the experience everything that we’ve trained them to do? Are they handling things … themselves appropriately, and all that good stuff.
Jack Butala: Well, I’m a mystery shopper for Land Stay.
Jill DeWit: Okay.
Jack Butala: And, man, you guys knocked it out of the park this week. The e-mail is really clear and concise, and the maps are awesome and … just the whole thing.
Jill DeWit: Dude, did you check out … I’ve got to tell you, when I was putting the deal together I went, okay, let’s see what today’s comps are, and I went, holy moly.
Jack Butala: Yeah, I did.
Jill DeWit: I mean, the same subdivision. I did the math. Minus priced at thirty-one percent of the next …
Jack Butala: The next lowest one. That’s not even the average.
Jill DeWit: I know. I found one, it was like thirty five hundred dollars an acre. I did the math. In the same subdivision. Mine is eleven hundred dollars an acre.
Jack Butala: You know, I should say that we’re not … this is going to air … this podcast is probably going to air many weeks from when we’re actually doing it. So we’re not trying to sit here and sell property. I’m really serious. We’re not trying to sell property, I’m simply just telling you that your stuff looks great. And I’m sure it’ll sell by the end of the day.
Jill DeWit: Thank you. Yay. I have something good to share if you want to hear about the price?
Jack Butala: Yeah.
Jill DeWit: Sorry, okay.
Jack Butala: Yeah, yeah, yeah. We never talk about the topic that we’re talking about.
Jill DeWit: This is true. No, I have something so good to share. This just came into my e-mail right before you called me, and I’m looking at this going, what the heck? I’ve made friends in a certain subdivision’s HOA location.
Jack Butala: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jill DeWit: You know who I’m talking about?
Jack Butala: There’s like three, so it’s one of three and that’s fine.
Jill DeWit: Right. Well, one of them, we’re not going to say whom …
Jack Butala: Good.
Jill DeWit: Sent me a list, and … just sent me this e-mail.
“Jill DeWit, I don’t want to be pushy or presumptuous, but I was wondering if you would be interested in looking at some property that the church I belong is wanting to sell. These properties were donated, and they aren’t interested in keeping. I’ve attached the list, thanks for the consideration.”
Jack Butala: Oh my gosh.
Jill DeWit: Right?
Jack Butala: So, any mention of price? You know all the questions I’m going to ask.
Jill DeWit: No, it’s … I haven’t even got that far. As we sit here, I’m opening it up and it’s like … one, two, three, four, five … wait. I don’t know, twenty-five, thirty properties.
Jack Butala: Oh my gosh.
Jill DeWit: It’s fantastic. And this woman, because she knows her stuff, she put down the subdivision, the unit … there’s two different subdivisions. She put down the unit block, the acreage …
Jack Butala: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jill DeWit: She gave me the assess value, the taxes, where they stand.
Jack Butala: Right.
Jill DeWit: I mean, she’s on it. I sent her a nice thank you, I said, “Absolutely, thank you for thinking of me. I’ll look it over this weekend and get back to you.” So, talk about cool …
Jack Butala: Wow.
Jill DeWit: Yeah.
Jack Butala: You know, that reminds me … you know, we’ve said this probably five hundred times. In all the venues that we talk about buying and selling land, it’s like … every once and awhile something just falls out of they sky, right into your lap, and you make twenty or thirty thousand bucks on it.
Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jack Butala: And I put not houses … the topic of today is doubling your money flipping land, not houses. I put not houses in their this time because …
Jill DeWit: I like that.
Jack Butala: If you’re flipping houses, does a house fall out of the sky? Does a house deal fall out of the sky into your lap, where you really have to write … I don’t know. You’re probably going to end up … I’m just thinking out loud here. You’re going to write, maybe a two thousand dollar check at best for all these properties, right?
Jill DeWit: Right.
Jack Butala: Probably less. Because they know how you do this, Jill DeWit. You sweet talk everybody and then you say, “Oh, I only can pay ten cents.”
Jill DeWit: Hey, hold on everyone. When I say everyone, I mean you. No, it’s not that, I’m … if you don’t want it, and you’re going to give it away, I’m happy to give you something for it. I’m not here to nickel and dime people and beat them up. I mean let’s … I really do …
Jack Butala: It’s fair.
Jill DeWit: I do give a good price. I really do. You know what, and we negotiate. There’s plenty of times that I’ll negotiate and go … you know and I really have had some … I offered eight hundred and she said, “Well, if you did eight hundred, would you do a thousand?” And I’m like, yeah, I can do a thousand.
Jack Butala: Sure.
Jill DeWit: You know, it’s going to make the deal happen, and you’re happy, sure. So … I don’t want you painting a picture that I’m like this horrible … uh-oh.
Jack Butala: You know, I bring this up because I secretly admire it. You know, I’m a … historically an acquisitions person. All the way through my whole career I’ve been an acquisitions person, and it’s like … I’m addicted to it. You know?
Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jack Butala: So I have to get a deal done, so I will actually probably out-negotiate myself. I’ll negotiate a situation that is not the best situation for me, just to actually get a deal done, you know?
Jill DeWit: Right.
Jack Butala: And I don’t think you’re like that.
Jill DeWit: No.
Jack Butala: I think you’re like, “I’ll just … whatever, man. I’ll do the deal if you want, but this is what we’re … we’re only interested in x.” That kind of thing.
Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative). You know, that’s true. I am way … this has changed for me dramatically from when I started doing this stuff. I am really only numbers. You know?
Jack Butala: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jill DeWit: I’m all about the numbers. And if the numbers don’t line up and make sense to me, I don’t care how pretty it is and how nice you are, or how great the circumstances are, I’ve got to walk. And it’s nothing personal, I have so many other things that are great deals, I’m just going to kind of move on.
Jack Butala: All right, you know what? It’s funny, because when sometimes when we do shows like this and we get off topic, because we’re pretty off topic right now …
Jill DeWit: Yeah.
Jack Butala: I have a special colored sticky note on my desk, because now I know what the next podcast topic’s going to be tomorrow.
Jill DeWit: Oh, what is it?
Jack Butala: Between you and I.
Jill DeWit: What is it?
Jack Butala: The differences between flipping land and flipping houses.
Jill DeWit: Oh, yeah. That’s a good one.
Jack Butala: Yeah. I think there’s a lot.
Jill DeWit: Oh my gosh, there’s a lot. Do you know what I think is so funny, and we’ll talk about this on that podcast? Which is, people think that what I do is … for some reason it overwhelms people. They think it’s harder, and I don’t know why. You know what I mean?
Jack Butala: I don’t understand that either.
Jill DeWit: Thank you. Well based on our … we did a podcast the other day with a gentleman who is one of our members now, and do you remember he wanted to detail about … he did that and said “Holy cow. All the variables and all the things that could go wrong …” You know? And he said he just didn’t understand that you can make money off unimproved land.
Jack Butala: Yeah.
Jill DeWit: That was his thing for him, remember? Because he said he had a big … he had some property that he … was it in Tennessee that he inherited? I think?
Jack Butala: Yeah, exactly. West Tennessee.
Jill DeWit: Yeah. And they were like renting it out, making a little money, and it was like farming or something. Maybe there was cattle on it …
Jack Butala: Yeah. It was a land lease. Yeah.
Jill DeWit: Yeah. So he was like … that was the first time he realized, “Oh, I don’t have to do anything to it and I can make money.” And we’re like, “Bingo. That’s true.” And I think there’s still a lot of people out there that don’t get it. You don’t have to do anything with it … you could make money.
Jack Butala: My experience in teaching people how to flip land for money is that there’s a little switch in their head, and everybody’s switch is different. The thing that kind of pushes somebody over the edge to make the decision to do this … everybody’s got a different topic.
Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jack Butala: For him it was seeing how much money this … and he said it wasn’t a ton of money but it was like, man, there’s just … there is no work at all.
Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jack Butala: You know, he gets a check, and that’s it.
Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jack Butala: How bad can you screw up land?
Jill DeWit: Right.
Jack Butala: Kind of want to knock on wood when I say that but … I guess we are kind of doing the next podcast but … yeah, everybody’s got a switch. For a lot of people it takes doing one or two houses to say, “Man, this is way harder than I thought it would be.”
Jill DeWit: Yeah.
Jack Butala: I would love to buy a piece of land in another state … I don’t know anything about it. I hired somebody, paid them fifty bucks to go take a picture and I sold it for twice as much money.
Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jack Butala: Now, this is what our podcast is really about now.
Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Exactly.
Jack Butala: So.
Jill DeWit: Well, you know, and I sat … when you and I did the few flipping residential deals that we did …
Jack Butala: Yeah.
Jill DeWit: And when I really sat and … as fun as it was for me, I really got a kick out of it, I mean I enjoyed the process, but when I sat and added up my hours and divided up what I really made …
Jack Butala: Yeah.
Jill DeWit: You know? And what I could’ve done at my regular job, it was astronomical how much was lost.
Jack Butala: Sure. You mean you’re regular job buying and selling land?
Jill DeWit: Exactly. This regular job.
Jack Butala: Yeah. There’s no comparison.
Jill DeWit: Yeah.
Jack Butala: Plus, every deal for us … I have to stop talking about this because we’re taking the wind out of the sails for the next thing, the next podcast.
Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jack Butala: Every transaction’s similar.
Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jack Butala: You know? Every land … I mean, flipping a house, you don’t know what you’re going to get into. Until you really get in there and find out what’s going on, and you have to see it and touch it and smell it and all that stuff. I guess it makes for those good TV shows, like when they open the door, they bought it from the bank and they didn’t see the inside yet. Did you ever see those shows?
Jill DeWit: Yes. Like that couple in Orange County, right? Because they are looking in the windows and hopping over the fence.
Jack Butala: Yeah.
Jill DeWit: And then they go and stand in front of the courthouse with cash and their kid.
Jack Butala: Yeah, that. Exactly. That’s the same show. And they get a …
Jill DeWit: Tarek. Tarek I think is his name. Yeah.
Jack Butala: They get a wrecking bar, and they buy the house, they go in their and it’s … there could be a dead body, there could be … I don’t know.
Jill DeWit: Usually she walks in, and then she walks right out because it smells so bad.
Jack Butala: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jill DeWit: That’s what I’ve seen, so. Yeah, we don’t have any of that.
Jack Butala: When’s the last time you saw a piece of property that we bought and sold. I mean, serious. Really think back.
Jill DeWit: Well, we started to drive Southern Arizona one time by an auction, but we really didn’t … you know what? Here’s what usually happens, this is funny. Usually, you and I might be driving back from, I don’t know, California or something. And we’ve commented on, “Hey, we owned a bunch of property there.” That’s usually how it goes, right?
Jack Butala: Yep.
Jill DeWit: “Oh, we used to own a bunch of …”
“Oh, cool, that’s great, yeah right.”
“I remember that, so that’s where that is.”
Jack Butala: Maybe we still do, I don’t know.
Jill DeWit: Maybe we do.
Jack Butala: It reminds me of a funny line from the movie Caddyshack where they’re sitting on the golf course and the guy says, “So what do you do for a living?” And he says, “I own a bunch of lumber yards, but I’m not sure where they are.”
Jill DeWit: That’s us.
Jack Butala: So, we own a bunch of real estate, I’m just not sure exactly where it is.
Jill DeWit: You know, it’s so funny, that happens all the time to both of us. I know. When we’re out, even with people that know us kind of well, and they’re kind of asking us about how much … I think if you own x amount of acres and you have like a big piece, most people must know off the top of their heads, “Oh, I have a eighty-six acre ranch in duh-duh-duh.” You ask you and I, I’m like “Heck I don’t know. I couldn’t tell you. I know it’s a lot.”
Jack Butala: That being said, there’s about five, maybe eight pieces of property I’ve had … I’ve owned for years, and I know exactly where they are, and how gorgeous they are, and you know … I dream about retiring their one day.
Jill DeWit: Ah.
Jack Butala: So, theirs always a special few, and a couple of them that you really like.
Jill DeWit: You know what, the ones that I had, they became … they went from … like Big Bear. They went from emotional, to numbers, to get rid of it, they’re gone.
Jack Butala: Yeah. I was going to say, another name for the podcast could be, “If you are interested in having a love affair with your investment, don’t participate in our program. If you’re interested in doubling your money and not really caring that much about how it happens, this is for you.”
Jill DeWit: Exactly. I love it. Well, and back to the topic of this, I was just thinking about doubling your money, flipping land, not houses. Do you know …
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