Throwing Land at Jill (CFFL 0102)
Throwing Land at Jill
Jack Butala: Throwing Land at Jill. 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: Jack Butala here form Land Academy. Welcome to our Cash Flow from Land show. In this episode Jill and I talk about how many deals we are managing at any given time, and how we choose which ones to complete. Jill, it’s raining land deals right now. I see it on the computer every single morning. I can’t wait to talk about this with you, but hey, as always, before we do, let’s take a question.
Jill DeWit: Sure. Jonathan, from Alabama, asks, “There are no tax sales here. How can I buy land for my house?” Good question.
Jack Butala: What does that mean, do you think?
Jill DeWit: What’s up in Alabama? First question is: Why are you leaving Alabama, because …
Jack Butala: Oh, my gosh.
Jill DeWit: I’m just kidding. I’m just kidding. One of my best friends from years ago lives in Montgomery, Alabama, and I know she’s very happy there, so Steven …
Jack Butala: I think he means how can I buy land to buy a house on, or I think what he really means is, I want to buy land, or I want to buy inexpensive property right near here, and I can’t find any tax sales.
Jill DeWit: Is there any chance that they’re not … I mean, I don’t know. I’m looking to you because I have not dealt with Alabama.
Jack Butala: There is virtually … Well, they have, I’m sure, from a statute standpoint, you have to have some type of tax thing, but maybe there is somebody that … Who knows? Let’s just say he’s right. Let’s say there is no tax sales. I think we’re kind of in the business of sending mailers here, so what I would recommend is to send a mailer out to some highly focused areas that you want to buy a house in, or a data product, Data to Doorstep works just as well with buying houses, if not better. Buying land, in fact Jill and I are in a process of releasing a very specific program using the same data to help buy houses and help realtors get listings and all of that. I would highly recommend if you’re having issues anywhere, not just Alabama, with buying property as inexpensively as you expect to, to implement the Data to Doorstep product that Jill and I have. Back to this tax sale thing, I mean, if it wasn’t … if you didn’t want to buy it just to buy a house, you could go straight to Florida, there’s a great tax, they have a tax sale there every week in every county.
Jill DeWit: Accept for just investment purposes and making some money to pay for you house in Alabama.
Jack Butala: Yeah, exactly. Yeah, I guess that … Here’s the big picture to answer that question: you’re never stuck. I don’t care where you are in the country, there’s data.
Jill DeWit: That’s true.
Jack Butala: The Data to Doorstep program that we have contains the best real estate data in the country. It’s the same data that First American Title uses to write policies. It’s not just a list. You’re downloading from an active data base, so that is the right way to do it.
Jill DeWit: The main thing is too, don’t give up. Just because you think you hit a brick wall, there’s a work around. There’s a work around for everything.
Jack Butala: Think twice before you ask questions because we don’t know how to answer them sometimes.
Jill DeWit: Very funny. How did this make it on? Just kidding. I’m teasing.
Jack Butala: How did we come to title a program called Throwing Land at Jill?
Jill DeWit: Oh, my God. It was based on, last night in my car at 9:00, getting a call.
Jack Butala: I have a lot to say about this. At this point in your career should you be taking direct phone calls in a car?
Jill DeWit: I didn’t know, okay, so here’s the deal: we can flip a switch here in our office where calls can be forwarded anywhere, to a certain person, whether we’re in office or not in the office, I can have them forwarded to my phone, for whatever reason, I didn’t know that the switch had been flipped, and the calls were … Okay, so here’s the deal …
Jack Butala: Oh, I see.
Jill DeWit: … inbound calls are directly forwarded to my cell phone last night. Not the best night to be doing that.
Jack Butala: What was going on last night, Jill?
Jill DeWit: I was at a wind tasting event, so this was post wine tasting event. “Sure, I’ll answer the phone.” Okay, so I’m in my car too. I’m driving with my girlfriend and this call pops in, and I didn’t know who it was because I didn’t have my phone with me. It was in the back seat in my purse. I couldn’t see who it was. I just knew there was a call. It was a weird time. I thought, “You know what? I’m going to take this in case it’s somebody important,” you or a kid or something, so I took the call, and it’s post drinking wine. Anyway, I mean I’m obvis …
Jack Butala: I knew what you were doing last night and I would never …
Jill DeWit: I know.
Jack Butala: … call you during that.
Jill DeWit: I know. Thank you very much. Unless it was an emergency, right?
Jack Butala: If anybody can wreck a wine tasting, it’s me.
Jill DeWit: Thanks. Anyway, guys were not invited on purpose, as you know. Just girls. Anyway, I took the call and it was a guy was reaching out, he had emailed me, he took a photo of a legal description basically. I got a photo of a legal description from a cell phone emailed to me and that was it, with nothing. I replied back, I’m like, “Hmm, well, I’m assuming you want to sell this to me,” this was yesterday, “So, I kind of need some more information,” because I went looking it up and the guy’s email, the name on the email, doesn’t match the seller, so I said, “Hey, I need a little more information. Who’s name is on this? What’s the deal? Blah, blah, blah, so he was calling me back last night from my email. He was explaining his story like, “Oh, actually it’s my friend. I’m trying to help him sell this property in Socorro County?
Jack Butala: Yeah.
Jill DeWit: By the way, and …
Jack Butala: That’s good stuff.
Jill DeWit: It is good stuff. That’s why I emailed the guy back and I’m like, “What’s the deal?”
Jack Butala: That deal hasn’t made it into the database yet because I haven’t seen it?
Jill DeWit: No, no, no. It hasn’t because I’m still trying to find out who really owns it before I …
Jack Butala: I have like nine questions, but I’m not going to interrupt anymore. Go ahead.
Jill DeWit: He’s calling me to explain this story that, “It’s my friend’s property. He needs it sold. I told him I’d help him, so that’s why I sent it to you.” I’m like, “Okay, great.” My girlfriend’s in the car looking at me cross-eyed like, “Does this happen to you all the time?” I’m like, “Yeah, this is kind of how it goes. People just calling you randomly saying, “You want to buy this? We just want to get something out of it. We don’t really care. We’d like to make a profit. We just need to get rid of it,” kind of thing. She’s looking at me like, “Wow.” I’m like, “Yeah, this is how it goes.” Anyway, it was funny because I asked him like, “How did you hear about us? How did you find us? You’re a total unrelated third party. You don’t even own the property. This is not your gig.” He said, “I went on a county site and there’s a list of people there that are potential buyers. Because we have a track record of buying and selling a lot of property in there, and I’m like, “Nice, and we are on that list and I’m like, “Fantastic.”
Jack Butala: I put us on that list six years ago.
Jill DeWit: We didn’t just randomly get on it? I thought we … Okay, well anyway, thank you. We’re on that list and I was just like, “Okay, great.” It was perfect, so that’s just one story of many people just blowing up my phone …
Jack Butala: That’s great.
Jill DeWit: … right now. I have another one too. I could say that …
Jack Butala: Wait a minute. How big is this deal? How many acres is it?
Jill DeWit: You know what? He didn’t even know. I got the legal description. I’m still just doing the initial looking it up.
Jack Butala: Socorro County is southwest and east, or let’s just say south of Albuquerque, and there’s several subdivisions that are pretty much made up of 2 1/2 acre properties, and it’s such a great … very set up to be like a commuter distance to Albuquerque. I’ve had a tremendous amount of luck trying to sell property …
Jill DeWit: Do you want another subdivision?
Jack Butala: Yeah.
Jill DeWit: We [have Grand Estates 00:08:34].
Jack Butala: Yeah.
Jill DeWit: Okay.
Jack Butala: RGE is a … I know it very, very well.
Jill DeWit: Okay. All right. He thought it was just an like a acre. I’m like, “I think it’s bigger than that.”
Jack Butala: I think it is too.
Jill DeWit: Yeah, I’m like, “He doesn’t really know.”
Jack Butala: Those properties are … I’m going to use a word I should never use, but those properties are very buildable. Buildable means something different for everybody. They are buildable for our group, our market. You know?
Jill DeWit: Mm hm (affirmative).
Jack Butala: That doesn’t necessarily mean there is sewage running through the subdivision, or anything like that. That’s great.
Jill DeWit: Yes.
Jack Butala: Here’s my second question, and then you can tell us about the second property.
Jill DeWit: Sure.
Jack Butala: Do you control the phone forwarding yourself? Do you have to actually do something or do your people just take care of it for you? Because if it’s yes to the first one, I would make some changes tonight.
Jill DeWit: No, my people.
Jack Butala: All kidding aside, you shouldn’t be getting phone calls at a wine tasting.
Jill DeWit: I know.
Jack Butala: I really mean that.
Jill DeWit: I know. We’re having a talk today.
Jack Butala: You just love, you just love it don’t you?
Jill DeWit: Part of it is I don’t mind. I do love those calls. Let’s be honest. I love getting calls from sellers saying, “Hey, here’s what I have. Do you want to buy it?” I do love that, so I think there was a flip, a switch that got flipped in error though last night.
Jack Butala: Okay. I’m going to leave it alone. If you need my help, let me know.
Jill DeWit: I absolutely know where to go.
Jack Butala: Let’s hear about the next deal.
Jill DeWit: No, so then I was just going to follow up with just kind of what’s going on. Not only do I have these random calls and emails coming in, but people have been following up with me and saying, “Have you had time to review my property yet?” These sellers have actually been very understanding. I’ve been telling them that, “Look, I have a lot on my plate right now. I am reviewing multiple deals, and I mean multiple.”
Jack Butala: Before we set down to do this show I looked really quick into the data base at some of the most recent stuff that’s in there, and I saw a like 40 acre properties. Several in Texas, one in Oregon.
Jill DeWit: There’s a Jeff Davis County again.
Jack Butala: Yeah. I mean, I can list them on and on. It’s all good property. Sometimes you go through waves where for whatever reason, the property there’s just not … they are just tiny little, and I’m not saying there is any such thing as bad property, all I’m saying is there is some super high quality property in there, and it’s not based on any recent mailer we did, so it’s just a testament of what ten years of mailers will get you.
Jill DeWit: Mm hm (affirmative), having a system. I mean, once you flip the switch, if you just stay consistent and hang in there, it will keep coming, and coming, and coming, and coming.
Jack Butala: Let’s say in 60 seconds or less, because you’re newer at this than me. I’ve been doing this for 15 years and I tend to be a little jaded, but you’re what? Six or seven years you’ve been doing this?
Jill DeWit: Since 08-09? Yeah.
Jack Butala: In 60 seconds or less, what would you say to somebody who’s starting out because a lot of people are listening? The three or four people that are listening to this show, two of them are starting out.
Jill DeWit: Two of them? The one that’s still listening … I’m just kidding, I would say start a system, don’t panic if you don’t get your phone ringing right away. Generally, you will get some stuff happening right away, but I’d say just create a system with everything and stick with it.
Jack Butala: Get the data.
Jill DeWit: That to.
Jack Butala: Don’t hesitate to get the data.
Jill DeWit: Since you have an idea of how I should be answering this, Steven, why don’t you tell me? You’re like telling me, “No, that’s not what I want to hear.” Then, what do you want to hear?
Jack Butala: When’s the last time any member has said anything like this, “Oh, this just didn’t work out the way I thought.”
Jill DeWit: No, that’s true. They won’t.
Jack Butala: I have never heard that.
Jill DeWit: I just want to make sure that you just keep going, and going, and going. Don’t stop. Don’t turn off your phone. Don’t whatever. The deals will come.
Jack Butala: Exactly.
Jill DeWit: It’s not that hard when you have the data and you have the tools …
Jack Butala: No, the instructions.
Jill DeWit: … and you have the … We tell you how to create your offer and what it should say, and how to pretty much get it in the mail. We tell you everything you’ll have to do. You just have to do it.
Jack Butala: What convinced you? I never asked you these questions. This could be a whole different show. Then, I want to make this a two hour show, but what flipped the switch in your head like, “Man, there is something here. This is what I want to do.”
Jill DeWit: When I first saw your whole set up years ago and then I knew.
Jack Butala: Oh, okay.
Jill DeWit: Yeah.
Jack Butala: You know what flipped my switch? When I got past the first deal. I bought a piece of property and I cleaned it all up on the internet, you know?
Jill DeWit: Mm hm (affirmative).
Jack Butala: Took pictures and the whole thing, sold it really quickly and got a check.
Jill DeWit: Yeah, that’s probably …
Jack Butala: It’s a get past your first deal kind of thing.
Jill DeWit: Probably the same for me because when I first started messing around on the side, remember you threw a bunch of properties at me and said, “Here just follow this template, basically. Put them on eBay and see what happens.” Then, I’m not saying anything, but you’re like, “How much money are you acquiring over there? I’m like, “Do, da, do, da, do, I’m just kind of over here putting it in the bank.” Going, “This works.” I didn’t realize how easy it really was. People are checking out; they are paying. Back then it was a different billing system and it was super easy. It still is now in the new way of doing it, but it was all new to me.
Jack Butala: Back then we had a single venue for sales, which was eBay. Now we have like 12, and yeah, it’s a little more complicated, and it’s slightly more work. Not really, most computers, we have a great system here, so computers pick up most of it, but man, at the success of having multiple venues for sale, if there is anything I could go back and change it would be that. I wouldn’t have relied on one sale venue for so long.
Jill DeWit: That’s good. I mean, a lot of good came out of that.
Jack Butala: Man, I mean, to quote the title again, I know deals are just being thrown at us right now.
Jill DeWit: Mm hm (affirmative).
Jack Butala: Never have I’ve gone through a dry spell at all ever, but I’ve never gone … I don’t recall when it’s been this heavy.
If you enjoyed the podcast, please review it in iTunes . Reviews are incredibly important for rankings on iTunes. My staff and I read each and every one.
If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to email me directly at steve@LandAcademy.com.
I would like to think it’s entertaining and informative and in the end profitable.
And finally, don’t forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes.
