Invest from anywhere. Japan Canada Italy Australia Austria (CFFL 0052)
Invest from anywhere. Japan Canada Italy Australia Austria (CFFL 0052)
Jack Butala: Invest from anywhere. Japan Canada Italy Australia Austria. Why We Can Afford to Give Land Away Every Month. Every single month we give away a property for free. It’s super simple to qualify. Two simple steps. Leave us your feedback for this podcast on iTunes and number two, get the free ebook at landacademy.com, you don’t even have to read it. Thanks for listening.
Jack Butala: This is Jack Butala for Land Academy. Welcome to our Cash Flow from Land Show. In this episode, Jill and I talk about some of the successful members we have who live in other countries. Jill, this is one of those topics that I label as an unintended consequence in a really good way. Can we believe that we have members from other countries? When I started this, this is one of those things, it that was void in my mind. I thought that this was from a marketing perspective, I set up everything for America, for Americans.
Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jack Butala: Now we’ve got what? I know we’ve shipped packages and programs to where? Japan, Canada, multiple units shipped into Canada.
Jill DeWit: Belgium, Italy, I’m trying to think where else.
Jack Butala: I think Australia.
Jill DeWit: Europe, yeah.
Jack Butala: A bunch of military bases I know too.
Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jack Butala: In other countries.
Jill DeWit: Exactly. It is so interesting.
Jill DeWit: Did this ever even cross your mind?
Jill DeWit: Didn’t even think about it. I just love the fact that that’s the true … I love that they get it. I mean, the point is we love that we can sit here from our desks, and we look at it like it’s a benefit because what if you’re somewhere and you have a commitment? You have a day job, and you have kids, or whatever it is. You can be sitting at your desk at home and doing this whole program. Why can’t you be doing this in another country the same way? Exactly the same thing. They get it, and I love it.
Jack Butala: The thing that I can compare it to is, for what I’m responsible for in these companies, I have … Jill’s got some full time people that work for her, several. I have a set of virtual assistants that are task specific.
Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jack Butala: All of them are not in this country so they just set their hours. I’m not the only client or customer that they have.
Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jack Butala: For instance, I have somebody who produces this podcast elsewhere. They are available during my time zone.
Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jack Butala: I know you and I have tried this personally. We’ve gone to a way different time zone on vacation.
Jill DeWit: Yeah.
Jack Butala: And tried to work.
Jill DeWit: And failed. Because we’re in Mexico having too much fun, by the way.
Jack Butala: Or France.
Jill DeWit: France, that’s true. We tried, we were doing it there.
Jack Butala: Or Barbados that one time.
Jill DeWit: That’s funny.
Jack Butala: Do you think that it’s a mindset?
Jill DeWit: Yes. It’s 100% a mindset.
Jack Butala: Oh, “We’re just on vacation.”
Jill DeWit: Yes. That’s exactly what’s going on. We very well could’ve been very productive but we chose not to.
Jack Butala: We’re irresponsible.
Jill DeWit: Totally, at least when we’re not at our office. Even then, no, just kidding. Oh my gosh. The way the staff-
Jack Butala: This is what the whole podcast is about.
Jill DeWit: The way the staff looks at us sometimes, like, “Oh, there they go again.”
Jack Butala: They have that look like, “How can he be the owner?”
Jill DeWit: Oh my gosh. I have to say I had a child recently tell me, I don’t remember what I was doing in the kitchen, but he was like, “I can’t believe you own several companies.” He actually said that to me. It was so funny.
Jack Butala: Why because you just learned what Twitter was, or something?
Jill DeWit: I don’t know what it was. No, it was … It wasn’t that that technology-, technologically advanced. I can’t even talk here. That was the thing, the kid was just rolling his eyes, going, “I cannot believe you own several companies.” This is embarrassing.
Jack Butala: Oh come on. I want to know, what was it?
Jill DeWit: I don’t remember what it was. I don’t know.
Jack Butala: That’s hilarious.
Jill DeWit: It was just so funny. I thought that was really good.
Jack Butala: Did you say something like, “I can’t believe you’ve made it to the eleventh grade?”
Jill DeWit: No, I didn’t say that. I should have. I was laughing too hard to come back with anything. That was really good. You’re right, this is a remote gig. This can be a remote gig. You can do it from anywhere. That’s so impressive people have figured this out.
One other thinking is, I wonder how many people … It’s kind of interesting. You’re in Europe doing it so you’re … Say it’s your day time, you’re doing it on our off-hours. It’s kind of nice to get … I love when I wake up and I have emails there waiting for me. People that have replied to me and they’re on totally different time zones. They’re working while I’m asleep and vice versa. It’s really nice.
Jack Butala: Right.
Jill DeWit: It’s not a big deal. With email now, I don’t have to be at the phone at a certain time. It’s really great. Neither do they. They can be selling to people in their countries. They can be selling to people here in the United States.
Jack Butala: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jill DeWit: They’re in another country and a lot of this is just done via email. They can set up a time to talk if they need to but so much of it, you don’t need to talk.
Jack Butala: You really don’t. That’s a really a good point that we don’t talk about too much. If you want … For years and years we didn’t have a phone number literally.
Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jack Butala: If you want to set your company up so it’s that way, I don’t think you’re going to maximize sales that way, but I think you could get away with it. I think when you’re absent like that or it’s a little bit harder, or when you have a day job, anybody who buys a program, you’re going to come across some stuff where, “Man, I wish I was really working on this full time.” I think it forces you to be organized.
Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jack Butala: And to get yourself all automated. I’m giving you real world, real-time examples. We’re overrun and inundated with inquires on landstay.com to sell property to people. Like we teach in all of our programs, put up a website, post your property there for sale. Put it out on Land and Farm, and Land Watch, and Zillow, and wherever else people sell real estate.
Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jack Butala: We are inundated. I don’t know if it’s because of this podcast, or our members. It’s not from our members, our Land Academy members, it’s from people who want to buy property from us. Regular customers.
Jill DeWit: Both of them.
Jack Butala: I decided about a month ago because I’m now tired of it.
Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jack Butala: Hopefully that’s what prompts people to make these decisions, like they’re tired of it from a different time zone.
Jill DeWit: Right.
Jack Butala: We’re in the process of putting up a website where people can just check out.
Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jack Butala: We used to have that. No, we never did where it’s just an automated, like you’re buying a pair of shoes, I want to buy this piece of property.
Jill DeWit: Oh, yeah.
Jack Butala: Click, click, click.
Jill DeWit: I’m so excited for that.
Jack Butala: This is what you’re deed is going to look like, fill this out or else you can’t check out, and that’s it.
Jill DeWit: It’s going to be awesome. I’m very excited about that.
Jack Butala: Necessity is the mother of invention kind of thing? That’s my point here.
Jill DeWit: It’s not crazy. Think about it because we’ve been selling property on eBay for years, and years, and years.
Jack Butala: Mm-hmm (affirmative),
Jill DeWit: That’s where I think of too, where I really started to see our international people was back … It still is. We put everything in the posting. All the pictures are there. Maps are there. You can look it up, here’s the GPS coordinates. It doesn’t matter who you are, where you are, you can get a good idea of the property, and buy it online from us from eBay anywhere in another country. We’ve been doing it that way for years. Now, I’m really looking forward to the new site that we’re going to have.
Jack Butala: Right.
Jill DeWit: It’s going to be great.
Jack Butala: From eBay, we went to a much more profitable wholesale model where we just had a handful of people, “Take a look at the list. Choose what you want. Call Jill or call one of our people and we’ll complete the transaction for you on the phone.” What ended up happening is now, I think it’s because of this podcast, it was like a secret for a while, for a couple of years.
Jill DeWit: What? LandStay?
Jack Butala: Yeah.
Jill DeWit: Oh, it’s true.
Jack Butala: The people that are saying, “Oh Jill, I want APN XYZ,” and she says, “Yeah, no problem.” Then they say, “All right, here’s my address and I’ll talk to you later.” Those kinds of sales are awesome but what ended up happening is retail buyers, and when I say retail, I mean and users-
Jill DeWit: Yes.
Jack Butala: They were calling up with a lot of questions like, “Now what county is it in?”
Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jack Butala: “Do you have any mobile home destinations?”
Jill DeWit: I haven’t had as much of that lately but you’re right. What’s happening now is, my Platinum Buyer’s Club that I do on LandStay-
Jack Butala: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jill DeWit: I put out a hump day special which I didn’t this week because of the holiday. I do a hump day special every Wednesday and the phone blows up the minute I hit the send button. I’m like, “Whoa.”
Jack Butala: Yeah.
Jill DeWit: People are like, “Is it gone?” “Is it gone yet?” “Can I buy that?” “Can I buy that?” I’m like, “Wow.”
Jack Butala: Right.
Jill DeWit: It’s like minutes.
Jack Butala: Isn’t that funny when members say, “How do you guys sell property?” That question always cracks me up. That’s the exact same reaction you just had-
Jill DeWit: It’s so great.
Jack Butala: … is exactly the same one I had.
Jill DeWit: It’s so funny, “Gee, who would buy that?” Oh, you’d be surprised. It’s so funny.
Jack Butala: We spend a tremendous amount of time in our programs, and on this show, and in every aspect of what we do talking about how to buy undervalued, inexpensive property. We don’t spend a lot of time talking about … Although we do cover it in great detail in the actual program itself.
Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jack Butala: We don’t spend a lot of time selling it because it’s so darn easy.
Jill DeWit: It is very easy.
Jack Butala: There’s no way to communicate that to the naysayers.
Jill DeWit: Isn’t that interesting?
Jack Butala: Yeah.
Jill DeWit: It’s funny because we’ve had new members tell us that their spouses forced them to prove this to them. Right? Which is true.
Jack Butala: There’s a show coming up called, “How to explain this whole thing to your wife.”
Jill DeWit: That’s good, yeah. Yeah, they’ve been forced to prove this crazy notion to their wives that you can really buy property and then sell it for more and do nothing to it. It’s after one transaction and they see the numbers, they’re like, “Okay, we’re in.”
Jack Butala: Right, right. Exactly.
Jill DeWit: “Yeah I’m in.” It’s kind of funny to see. One of our members in particular, it was a funny story when he said, “Yeah, just that one.”
Jack Butala: Do you know why?
Jill DeWit: And she’s like, “Okay, go for it babe.”
Jack Butala: The source of the doubt, which I totally understand, I’ve narrowed down to bad experiences flipping houses.
Jill DeWit: You’re right. I can see that. They hear real estate. They hear flipping and they go, “Oh, no.”
Jack Butala: Then they think of somebody on late night TV who says, “Come on over to the Hilton for 35,000 bucks, I’ll tell you all the secrets.”
Jill DeWit: That’s right. “Bring all your credit cards, and bring your w2s, and your tax statement from last year.”
Jack Butala: What?
Jill DeWit: Just kidding.
Jack Butala: I know. It’s just sad.
Jill DeWit: I will never forget about that person that told us that.
Jack Butala: I will never flip a house again.
Jill DeWit: Oh my gosh. Yeah.
Jack Butala: I will never flip a house that I renovated again. We flip wholesale houses all the time. I’m just saying I’ll never actually renovate a house-
Jill DeWit: We don’t do anything to them.
Jack Butala: Yeah.
Jill DeWit: Yeah. We’ll buy it, and turn it, and didn’t do nothing to it, and let somebody else do something to it all day long.
Jack Butala: Right.
Jill DeWit: Right.
Jack Butala: Anyway, I guess these are some of the issues that you would have if you were out of the country.
Jill DeWit: That’s true. You can’t do that out of the country.
Jack Butala: Yeah.
Jill DeWit: You know, I’ve seen people do that in bigger pockets. They’re having discussions about trying to do that in another state, or even somewhere that’s not necessarily … “I can’t go over and check on the house.” I’m like, “Why are you guys doing that?” That is kind of scary. I would not do that. I would not buy a home in who knows, Southern California, and trust that my contractor’s doing everything right. Trust that when they call me and say, “This broke, we need to fix this.” There’s no way.
Jack Butala: Right.
Jill DeWit: You’d have to go live there for three months-
Jack Butala: Right.
Jill DeWit: Or two months or whatever it is while you’re doing the renovation.
Jack Butala: There are so many unknowns in that business that it just makes me not see. Just thinking about it sitting here right now just the brief few minutes that we’ve talked about it, you know, there’s just so many unknowns. I don’t want to be negative.
Jill DeWit: Right. You know what? There’s just so many things that can go wrong. It’s almost like, I don’t want to say you’re setting yourself up for failure but with our model we take a lot of the issues, and the guesswork, and the problems out of it. If it’s not the right price, you don’t buy it.
Jack Butala: That’s it.
Jill DeWit: You move onto the next one.
Jack Butala: You nailed it.
Jill DeWit: There’s no surprises. You know what you’re getting. You’re looking at it?
Jack Butala: What’s the worst thing that can happen if you buy a piece of property and you do your homework for $500? Let’s say the whole thing goes sideways. I don’t know what happened, just dream it up, and you lost $500.
Jill DeWit: Big deal, I lost $500. I didn’t lose $5000 or $50,000.
Jack Butala: You didn’t get a loan out, and your credit got wrecked. You can still talk to your brother-in-law because you didn’t borrow any money from him.
Jill DeWit: I’m going to make it up.
Jack Butala: Yeah.
Jill DeWit: On the next deal.
Jack Butala: Has that happened? I can’t recall. I don’t think I’ve … I’ve got to look it up before I say it. I’m pretty sure that I have never lost any money on a real estate deal. If I have, it’s less than … Of the almost 16,000 deals that we’ve done, if I’ve ever lost money in a single deal-
Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jack Butala: It’s because … It’s maybe three or something.
Jill DeWit: No, we’ve never. I can’t think of anything we’ve lost money on but/however I’ve watched the next guy make a ton of money off of it.
Jack Butala: Yeah.
Jill DeWit: I go, “Wow, I could’ve held onto it and I could’ve done that.”
Jack Butala: Yeah.
Jill DeWit: But who cares?
Jack Butala: It’s our business model.
Jill DeWit: Right. I got what I wanted and I’m out. Good for them.
Jack Butala: We have a list of completed sales on one of our websites. This guy, I don’t know if he’s a member or thinking about being a member but some people read all of your stuff because they have some kind of a mental problem-
Jill DeWit: They have nothing to do with it.
Jack Butala: He read every single word of every single whatever.
Jill DeWit: Okay.
Jack Butala: Then they come up with what they think are six brilliant questions just to teach me a lesson. It’s funny. This guy said, “In 2003, there’s these three properties on your list where you actually sold them for less than you paid.” You know, what that list doesn’t show is, very often Jill and I sell tranches of pieces or groups of real estate to wholesale people.
Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jack Butala: Our A-list people. Yeah, if you buy two 40 acre properties and you allocate one of them as $8000 and one of them as $2000, and they buy it for whatever, you look at that line item, the accountant in me is coming out, and that $2000 one can show a loss.
Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative)-.
Jack Butala: On the deal you make tons of money.
Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative). That’s funny.
Jack Butala: Whoever that guy is, actually I do know who he is and I’m not going to name his name, that’s the answer.
Jill DeWit: Right. That’s kind of funny. Oh yeah, what are you going to say? “That almost sunk the ship.”
Jack Butala: Yeah. We lost $82 on both of those.
Jill DeWit: Whew, oh no. Forget it, I’m out.
Jack Butala: That’s another point. It doesn’t fall under this. It doesn’t fall under this topic but I’m going to bring it up anyway since I’ve got myself all riled up. You know?
Jill DeWit: This is good. Here we go. Bring it.
Jack Butala: A couple of shows ago, we did a show called, “This guy’s not going to make it in this business.”
Jill DeWit: I wish I would’ve thought of that. That’s great.
Jack Butala: I’m not picking on this guy specifically. I’ve moved on but there are certain people who, they get involved with our thing, and they’re ready, and they want to be done, they want to be retired in four months.
Jill DeWit: Yes.
Jack Butala: That’s not how this works.
Jill DeWit: With no work. No effort, right? They want a roadmap.
Jack Butala: They ask me direct questions, “Which county should I start in?”
Jill DeWit: Oh my gosh.
Jack Butala: “Approve my mailer.” “Let’s do this, and I want this, this, and this.” If I answered all those questions, he would be learning nothing.
Jill DeWit: Right.
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