Our Stages of Success (CFFL 0103)
Our Stages of Success
Jack Butala: Our Stages of Success. 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 for LandAcademy. Welcome to our Cash Flow From Land Show. In this episode, Jill and I talk about our stages of success, and how you can speed yours up learning from our mistakes. Jill, this is a cool show!
Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jack Butala: Hey, before we get into it, as always, let’s take a question from a caller.
Jill DeWit: Okay. Nate from Minnesota called in and asked, by the way he called in 888-735-5045 and asked this question. Can you subdivide rural land?
Jack Butala: Oh, my gosh.
Jill DeWit: I know. Good question for you, because you’ve done this.
Jack Butala: All right, so …
Jill DeWit: There are the answers, yes.
Jack Butala: Your job in the next 45 minutes, your job Jill is to make sure that I don’t sound preachy.
Jill DeWit: I was going to say, or say to say stay awake. As I get into the ins and outs of subdividing rural land Jill, poke yourself. Every few minutes.
Jack Butala: That’s right. I talked to our producer earlier. He said “You know how you guys, you say you only have 6 callers? You should stop doing that.”
Jill DeWit: Oh, is that what he said? Oh, sorry.
Jack Butala: Because people start to think you have 6 or 12 callers. The truth is this. Our show is doing incredibly well. It’s doing way better than I ever thought, and it’s a lot to fun to it. It’s like I say, it’s the best way to avoid real work that I can think of. In the middle of the day.
Jill DeWit: Exactly.
Jack Butala: Okay, so subdivisions. There’s 2 types of subdivisions. This is a popular question among our members, because it’s so incredibly profitable. There’s 2 types of subdivisions. One was designed a long time ago to help farmers or ranchers break up big huge pieces of property into smaller pieces of property so they could give it to their brother in law, or their daughter, or whatever. You got a 360-acre ranch, you want to break it out into 40s and give it to people for Christmas, that kind of thing. That’s the kind that we do and we love. The second kind is where you live. Where somebody really did … Went through entitlements through municipalities. Hired a bunch of people, put roads in and sewers and all that. That’s not so much for our group, however, ridiculously profitable. They’re both incredibly profitable. If you’re a very very young person, and you’re looking for something to specialize in real estate, doing subdivisions, you cannot go wrong. Back to the first kind. Yes, you can subdivide land, in almost everywhere. It all comes down to the rules and regulations. Here in Arizona, and we’ve done it several times, you take a property like a 40-acre property, and you can just by rewriting the description. I’m not going to go into detail, because Jill needs to … You can squeeze in a manicure right now if you feel.
Jill DeWit: I sure could. Just get in, no it’s all good. No, I like this.
Jack Butala: You can take a 40-acre piece of property, and just by rewriting the descriptions, I’m not going to get into the detail, you can turn it into 3 tens, and let’s say 3 fives. Is that math right?
Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jack Butala: 3 tens, 30.
Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jack Butala: Yeah. 40 acres.
Jill DeWit: It would be funny if you did like … 4 tens, a 5, a 2 1/2 and a 6.
Jack Butala: You know how they say “They’re not making land anymore. You better buy it.” You just made some land.
Jill DeWit: You just made some land.
Jack Butala: Create some property.
Jill DeWit: Yeah, you sure could.
Jack Butala: Check, long before you do that, what you’re really doing, look at it another way. That 40-acre property has an APN. Assessor’s parcel number. You want to break it up and make it into more APNs because smaller properties sell for more per acre. Yes, you can break it all up in a lot of places, if you follow the rules, give them some new APNs and sell it for a lot, lot more many many times.
Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jack Butala: There are different rules everywhere, just check.
Jill DeWit: Yeah.
Jack Butala: I’ll leave it at that.
Jill DeWit: Well even if you just thought about taking 1 40 and having 2 20s.
Jack Butala: Yeah.
Jill DeWit: Just getting payments on that. You could probably sell for the same price.
Jack Butala: Yeah, exactly, so look at it like that. You own a 40-acre property and you sell it for $200 down and $200 a month for a really long time.
Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jack Butala: Or you can do 2 20s and do the same thing. Now you’re making $400 on the same investment.
Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jack Butala: Yeah.
Jill DeWit: Exactly.
Jack Butala: That’s a great way to look at that Jill. That’s a great way to bring it down to how much more profitable it could actually be.
Jill DeWit: Right. People love … It’s still considered a, when you bring it down to a 5-acre property, now it’s not so big for some people, but when we’re talking 20 acres, every acre still has plenty of room to roam. You feel like you’re on a … Versus a 40, I think it would sell just as well.
Jack Butala: I do too. It’s more about … I agree with you completely. It’s more about the attributes.
Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jack Butala: We haven’t talked about the 4 As in a really long time.
Jill DeWit: We have not talked about the 4 As, you want to bring that up?
Jack Butala: If I can remember them.
Jill DeWit: Oh, my goodness. Do you want me to do that?
Jack Butala: Acreage.
Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jack Butala: We always want to buy property that contains some version of the 4 As. You want to really make sure that not one of them’s completely left out.
Jill DeWit: This is Steven’s own system. Steven came up with the 4 As. I love it.
Jack Butala: Yeah, I came up with this a long time ago. A lot of years ago, I had an acquisition person who was really struggling and I just came up with that on the fly standing there.
Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jack Butala: Acreage, the more the better.
Jill DeWit: Yep.
Jack Butala: Access.
Jill DeWit: Yep.
Jack Butala: Can you get to it or not? Attributes, is it close to a lake or is it a great place to snowmobile? Is it close to the Grand Canyon? Affordability.
Jill DeWit: Yay. Ding ding ding.
Jack Butala: The cheaper the better. I wasn’t out drinking last night like you were.
Jill DeWit: Listen, you. That was a wine tasting event. It wasn’t just a casual … Yeah, pub crawl.
Jack Butala: Yes. Yes. What is the name? Nate, yes, Nate. You can subdivide land and you should really look into it.
Jill DeWit: Yep. Great. What’s the show on?
Jack Butala: We have a member, we have a member. This is that hot topic on SuccessPlant right now. We have a member who is seeking out counties where it’s easy to do this. He’s so convinced that … He’s regularly very successful like we are, but he’s now seeking out counties where it’s easy to do this and then buying land and doing it.
Jill DeWit: Once you get one under your belt, you know exactly what to do.
Jack Butala: That’s it. Because you talk to the same 3 people at the county.
Jill DeWit: Exactly, hey, we’re doing it again.
Jack Butala: Yeah.
Jill DeWit: Great. Can … Then it’s going to get faster and easier every time that that makes so much sense.
Jack Butala: I got a funny story about subdivisions and then we’ll move on to the real topic of this. This is a lot of years ago, we did this. We took … There’s a rule in Arizona where if you subdivide a property, or you just cut it up, let’s call it. You take a 40 and you can break it down 5 ways. The regs are completely different. If you go 6 and over you’re subject to an incredible amount of stuff.
Jill DeWit: Right.
Jack Butala: We did it, like 3 times in a county. Here. Then we went to do it again, and everybody in the county said “No, we’re done.” I’m like “What are you talking about? We’re just …”
Jill DeWit: Isn’t that what you’re …
Jack Butala: Yeah. What happened to the last 4, 5 times you did it?
Jill DeWit: Yeah.
Jack Butala: We’ve decided that you guys from Scottsdale, I’m quoting.
Jill DeWit: What?
Jack Butala: “You guys from Scottsdale, that’s enough.”
Jill DeWit: We’re not letting you play that anymore?
Jack Butala: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jill DeWit: You’re kidding me.
Jack Butala: No, I went nuts.
Jill DeWit: Yeah.
Jack Butala: I went to go see their supervisors.
Jill DeWit: What if I’m in Minnesota? What if I’m somewhere else? Then I can do it?
Jack Butala: Well it became a Scottsdale, Scottsdale is up and …
Jill DeWit: What?
Jack Butala: In case everybody doesn’t know.
Jill DeWit: What?
Jack Butala: Scottsdale is a little known for being uppity, although I don’t think it really is. It’s …
Jill DeWit: It was discrimination.
Jack Butala: It was a evil yuppie from Scottsdale. That’s what we call it around the office now.
Jill DeWit: Wow.
Jack Butala: Or we did then.
Jill DeWit: That’s what they were referring to.
Jack Butala: Yeah.
Jill DeWit: You as, us as.
Jack Butala: Yeah, they just didn’t want us … Because they knew what we were doing. We’re buying property for …
Jill DeWit: Well what’s wrong with that?
Jack Butala: I agree, Jill.
Jill DeWit: Gee, I’m sorry. I’m pretty … I’m willing to bet that on the car dealership parking lot, he’s probably selling it to me more than what he’s going to get. There’s a profit in there somewhere. I’m sorry, what am I missing?
Jack Butala: Some people at counties get really, and I’m not so sure they’re wrong all the time, but they get really, they take it personally when people from out of their area are buying their property. They don’t know what they’re going to do with it. They just get concerned that there goes the neighborhood kind of thing.
Jill DeWit: Yeah.
Jack Butala: I don’t want to make this …
Jill DeWit: You got your way in the end?
Jack Butala: What ended up happening is we all got together. This is maybe 10 years ago. I wasn’t doing the subdividing. I had a full time engineer in it with the brunt was falling in on him. He was on the front lines. He was like “Look we can do this, but we can fight this fight, or I can just go one county over, and these people love me over there.”
Jill DeWit: Ah.
Jack Butala: In the end, I pulled back and said all right. Why? Why upset people for no reason and start lawsuits and stuff?
Jill DeWit: Right.
Jack Butala: We just went to the next county over. It wasn’t physically the next country. We just moved onto another county in the same up there.
Jill DeWit: Right.
Jack Butala: It worked out great, it was fine.
Jill DeWit: Different area, it was fine. That’s great dude.
Jack Butala: By the way, see I’ll tell you, I could drag this out for 45 minutes.
Jill DeWit: Sure you could, yeah yeah.
Jack Butala: The county makes a lot more money the more APNs they have.
Jill DeWit: True, they get more tax.
Jack Butala: They’re very motivated.
Jill DeWit: Taxes off of this. What they did to you makes absolutely no sense other than someone didn’t want to do their job.
Jack Butala: I really think it was a evil yuppies from Scottsdale thing.
Jill DeWit: Oh.
Jack Butala: I know it was.
Jill DeWit: That’s silly, but you have to get everybody in agreement, that’s just dumb.
Jack Butala: Right.
Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jack Butala: The topic today is our stages of success.
Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jack Butala: My whole point is not to talk about our success as much as it is to help people who are starting in this business make a little outline. Like a little roman numeral outline like you’re in 8th grade.
Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Or like you’re in one of the business classes that we help out at NAU.
Jack Butala: Yeah, like at the university, right. What do you think the first one is? I took no notes for this. This is coming right off the top of my head.
Jill DeWit: Well, I thought about this, and I think I approached it from a less analytical. I approached it the Jill way, how about that. Let’s just say …
Jack Butala: I’ll wreck it with the Steve way.
Jill DeWit: Totally. That’s what’s going to happen. I’m just laying it out right now, because I want to tell you what I think phase I is, and I hear you now. You’re going to say “No, no no.”
Jack Butala: This is every single day. Every single day of our lives together.
Jill DeWit: No, no no.
Jack Butala: Jill just wakes up all happy and we’re all flush with money, and there’s no reason to be upset about anything, the weather’s always perfect in Arizona.
Jill DeWit: It’s true, we got trips coming up.
Jack Butala: Right about 10:00 I’m wrecking everything for her.
Jill DeWit: That’s true, then everybody’s crying. Just kidding. Nothing. Nothing just going right. I thought it was this great idea. I’ve just been told it sucks.
Jack Butala: Okay. Let’s hear it hippie.
Jill DeWit: All right, hippie. Here’s … Here are my stages of success. I looked at it like a business, okay? I have five stages.
Jack Butala: Good.
Jill DeWit: Do you want me to give you all 5 then, in order?
Jack Butala: Yeah, sure. I’ll give you mine then too.
Jill DeWit: Okay. I came up with it’s the idea. There’s a … That’s stage 1. Testing is stage 2. I have start up now, which is go for it, and it better be taped together, don’t spend a lot of money. That’s stage 3. 4 is your full-fledged business, and then 5 is your coasting.
Jack Butala: Yeah. Mine’s light.
Jill DeWit: Sort of.
Jack Butala: Yeah, no, it’s very similar.
Jill DeWit: Is it? Okay.
Jack Butala: I mean you just have different words for it, but it’s awesome. You’re a little bit heavier on the front end and I’m a little lighter. I’m a little heavier on the back. I just think that’s reflective of the stuff. What we’ve … Startups that we’ve been through and the whole thing.
Jill DeWit: I like it.
Jack Butala: I’m like … My first one was research.
Jill DeWit: Okay.
Jack Butala: Because I’ve never looked at, whenever I’ve started a company or looked at, I’ve never sat under a tree and had a light bulb come off in my head and say I had an idea.
Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Got it.
Jack Butala: I really looked at, I went through it backwards. Or wait a minute. What’s most profitable? Then did research.
Jill DeWit: Got it.
Jack Butala: I never said “I really would like to be in the hog slaughter business.” You name it.
Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jack Butala: It was never business specific for me. It was always money first.
Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jack Butala: Then you … I think mine are research, startup, what is that. Research, startup, and then institutionalization. Now you’re sitting there saying “The startup worked, we’re doing great and it’s all a mess.”
Jill DeWit: Right.
Jack Butala: “It’s a big, huge mess. I got to institutionalize this. Get everything organized. Bring the right people in.”
Jill DeWit: Right.
Jack Butala: What is that, 3 stages?
Jill DeWit: That’s 3.
Jack Butala: Institutionalize, four is bring it on home. Then 5 is exit. You have to figure out how to get out of that.
Jill DeWit: Oh.
Jack Butala: You should never start a company-
Jill DeWit: I missed that one.
Jack Butala: Never start a company or a marriage unless you know how it’s going to end.
Jill DeWit: You just love to say that. Oh my goodness. Wow.
Jack Butala: Here’s a topic, isn’t it fun how much time we spend on, upfront research on like businesses and stuff but not with marriage at all? Or even friendship. Let’s say friendship. I don’t want to upset people.
Jill DeWit: Good point. That’s a little scary when you think about it, you’re right.
Jack Butala: Do you really sit there and … It’s all based on a feeling.
Jill DeWit: Yeah.
Jack Butala: Oh, I like that guy.
Jill DeWit: I’m in love.
Jack Butala: Or even friendship.
Jill DeWit: How do you think it’s going to work? Did you do your homework?
Jack Butala: Oh, I like that guy.
Jill DeWit: How do they look on paper?
Jack Butala: Yeah, no nothing like that goes on.
Jill DeWit: Are they a mass murderer?
Jack Butala: Yeah.
Jill DeWit: You might want to do some checking.
Jack Butala: Looks okay on Facebook.
Jill DeWit: Exactly. Or the swipey thing.
Jack Butala: Yep.
Jill DeWit: Swipe swipe, yes yes no no. Tinder. That’s it.
Jack Butala: Oh my gosh. How do you know about Tinder?
Jill DeWit: I’ve seen it! I don’t have it.
Jack Butala: You crack me up, Jill. You are full of surprises. There’s never a dull moment with you, not even one minute.
Jill DeWit: I’ve seen it. I … I got to tell you something funny. Last night, on … At the wine tasting I was at, I actually sat next to a woman that out loud said “I’m on 3 online dating things right now.” She was talking about. She’s 42. Or 40 something. She’s dating a 30. At least 10 years younger, this guy.
Jack Butala: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jill DeWit: I’m like, nice job.
Jack Butala: I bet he’s getting something out of it too.
Jill DeWit: It was hilarious. Exactly. It was good. Yeah. We were cracking up. Anyway, that’s a whole another thing.
Jack Butala: Yeah, it sure is.
Jill DeWit: Yeah.
Jack Butala: I’m sorry, what were my stages?
Jill DeWit: Okay. You have … Okay, lets talk about this. Your stages are-
Jack Butala: Let’s line them up against yours.
Jill DeWit: I’m going to just, so you’re research. This is a good call. I like this. It’s a good show. Your research is my idea and testing rolled into one.
Jack Butala: Right.
Jill DeWit: You got to have some idea. I’m … You just jump into the research and testing, but we’re both doing some testing and running some numbers, making sure this is … Makes sense.
Jack Butala: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jill DeWit: Whether that means finding out these … Whatever you’re going to sell. Where can you buy it? What do I need to do this? What’s my customer base? Where am I going to buy it, produce it, market it? You like where I’m going with this?
Jack Butala: Yes, I do very much.
Jill DeWit: Okay. What else is missing for you in the research part?
Jack Butala: Nothing.
Jill DeWit: Okay.
Jack Butala: That’s the time that I … It’s so much … Want to hear something funny? Some of the software that I choose, that we use for a lot of different specific little tasks that are in our databases and stuff. I don’t choose it on necessarily what the best software is. I choose that software based on how much education is available.
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