How to Sell Land at Top Speed (CFFL 0122)
How to Sell Land at Top Speed
Jack Butala: How to Sell Land at Top Speed. 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 Land Academy. Welcome to our Cash Flow From Land Show. In this episode, Jill and I talk about how we sell properties every single day at light speed.
Jill DeWit:
Yep.
Jack Butala:
Jill, great show today. Before we get into it, let’s take a question from a caller.
Jill DeWit:
Okay, you got it. Nathan from Dallas called in and ask this question. “I’ve been thinking about this for over a year doing tons of research, I need help figuring out what type of property to start with. Does my budget decide this for me?” I like that question.
Jack Butala:
I love the question, too. I’ll tell you why. I love people who do their research.
Jill DeWit:
I do.
Jack Butala:
Our best customers and best members, I should say, the ones succeed the most, spend some time before they actually make a decision about who’s going to educate them. I don’t think you should spend it over a year.
Jill DeWit:
That’s right. That’s my only comment on that. I’m like I totally in favor with you doing your homework. I’m really a fan of that, but not too long because then you never do anything.
Jack Butala:
Okay, what kind of research helps you? Doing tons of research and I need help figuring out what type of property to start with. What would you do? My kind answer is start with the 4 As.
Jill DeWit:
Not only that. I took this as a different way. I think that the person is asking … I was thinking about the people that we met this last week. Do I do SFRs? Do I do vacant land? Do I do multi-tenant? That’s how I took it. Sometimes your budget doesn’t have to decide that for you because there’s always money when you find good deals. I have 2 things. Do you want me to answer this or do you want to …?
Jack Butala:
I would love for you to answer it. As always I have a lot to say about this, too. Go ahead.
Jill DeWit:
Okay. My 2 points are once you make a decision on what you want to do, go for it 100%. I like you’re saying that your coach told you years ago, “If you’re going to do it wrong, do it 90 miles an hour wrong,” kind of thing. Just go for it. If you decide you want to do commercial property, go for it. Don’t let your budget hold you back slash, however, you can start with what we did with not a lot of money, so I don’t know. Steve, what’s your answer?
Jack Butala:
First of all, my long time, my high school football coach in all of his insanity told us all that because we were running pretty complicated playbooks for 16-year old. A 16-year-old boy is mentally ill anyway. That’s how I remember all those plays. It’s tough for a lot of people, me included. He said, “Look, if you don’t know the play, you can’t remember it. Then when running the play, you better make a mistake at 100 miles an hour. I don’t want to see you out there wondering and scratching your head and just not running. Run something on anything.” That always stuck with me, just make a mistake at 100 miles an hour.
Jill DeWit:
That’s it.
Jack Butala:
Anyway, Nathan, I’ll tell you, here’s my take on this. I don’t think that these subsections of real estate investment like land or houses, or office buildings, I don’t think that you choose them. In the end, I think they choose you. I think most people get into this, thinking that they’re going to buy and sell, and flip houses, and things like that. I started with nursing homes, long-term care a long, long, long, long time ago. Talk about a complicated transaction, I describe that for e-book at landacademy.com, but what you want to do is give it a shot. Give a shot whatever you think. If you want to flip houses, go for it. Our data is just as good for that and you’re going to find that either you love it or you don’t. Jill and I have fortunately been on the same page about this and houses are not … We do it all the time. We wholesale houses. We buy them without looking at them and send them over to a rehab or …
Jill DeWit:
Right. Mark them up a little bit and pass it on.
Jack Butala:
I’m not trying to hard sell here. Why don’t you buy a piece of land for a few hundred bucks and sell it for twice as much and see if you like it. What’s not to like?
Jill DeWit:
That’s an easy one, that’s true, to see even to get your feet wet and learn how the process works, it’s a good thing. It’s a good thing to have on the sign.
Jack Butala:
Right. The people that don’t choose this niche that I’ve seen, that we’ve had here, I’ve seen a common trade. They really don’t like computers. There’s a lot of computer …
Jill DeWit:
Oh.
Jack Butala:
Some real estate people, they never sit in an office. They’re in their car all day.
Jill DeWit:
All the time.
Jack Butala:
They’re looking at the actual real estate. We don’t look at the actual real estate very often here in person. In fact, at our level, we don’t ever look at it and I don’t recommend you that you do that, but we love computers here. I do, anyway, Jill.
Jill DeWit:
You do.
Jack Butala:
Jill likes people.
Jill DeWit:
I like people. You know what’s funny? If I had to choose, I would be out in my car all the time, having fun and meeting people. No work will be getting done, but I’d be having a whole lot of fun, and I make a lot of connections.
Jack Butala:
I did a real estate deal about 3 years ago for a first time ever. It was always a goal of mine to never talk to the buyer and never talk to the seller on the phone, and never talk to anybody involve in the transaction. It’s just exchanging emails, putting money in the mail, [hiring 00:05:26] and never read the whole thing and never talk to anybody. I patted myself on the back for that. There are most people, Jill included, who think that that’s mentally ill.
Jill DeWit:
No, that’s just the way you like to do it and that’s totally fine. That’s not mentally ill.
Jack Butala:
I just wanted to prove it.
Jill DeWit:
That’s good. I like that.
Jack Butala:
What’s the show about anyway?
Jill DeWit:
Okay.
Jack Butala:
I’m sorry, one more little question he had. “Does my budget decide this for me?” I don’t know, Jill.
Jill DeWit:
I don’t think so.
Jack Butala:
I don’t think so either. Forget about the money, please. We get this question so often.
Jill DeWit:
We do. If you’ve got a good deal, go for it. Find a good deal. There’s always money there. There’s people back there. There’s people behind you, wanting you to come to them with this deal that you’ve sourced and found stuff like that.
Jack Butala:
Never ever let a good acquisition go to waste. The short answer is forget about the money. Go full speed ahead to try to source undervalue properties. When you find them, and you will very soon especially if you’re involved with our group, bring the deals to us, go out on Craigslist and say, “Look, I have a great deal and it’s $30,000 below market, but I don’t have a cash to do it and I don’t want this acquisition to go to waste.” Use that, use that sentence. I don’t want this great real estate go to waste because of lack of funds. You will get a tremendous response.
Jill DeWit:
Mm-hmm (affirmative), I agree.
Jack Butala:
Okay, sorry, that was a long way to answer them.
Jill DeWit:
I know. I didn’t think the question was that long. All right. How does it land to top speed?
Jack Butala:
This is made for you.
Jill DeWit:
You have to talk really fast to a lot of people, a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot. No, that’s not the right answer.
Jack Butala:
Absolutely, but not to do it.
Jill DeWit:
Exactly. Try it really fast. Put signs everywhere, no.
Jack Butala:
I’m going to start off with my industry rule about all real estate, about why property doesn’t sell and then you can just take it from there, Jill.
Jill DeWit:
Oh, then you’re just going to leave?
Jack Butala:
Yeah, I’m going to go get a Coke.
Jill DeWit:
I’m going to lunch. I guess, I’ll see you later.
Jack Butala:
There are exactly 2 reasons that any property doesn’t sell, any of it. One, it’s priced too high. This is the vast majority of it. Why is it priced too high, Jill?
Jill DeWit:
They’re not doing it right.
Jack Butala:
You paid too much in the first place.
Jill DeWit:
Right.
Jack Butala:
Or you’re crazy and you’re trying to maximize the fruition to that, you’re a good bird dog, you’re good at finding real estate. That’s your real charm. Number 1, it’s priced high. Number 2, it’s priced perfectly but you’re not reaching the right people. The right people don’t know it’s for sale. It could be perfectly priced and if it’s not posted to anyone on the internet, you just have to sign on it, in 3 cars drive by a day, you’re not going to sell it.
Jill DeWit:
Correct.
Jack Butala:
Jill, how do you get the word out? How do sell this land? You would sell properties every day. How do you do it?
Jill DeWit:
Have a system and don’t get hung up like post it everywhere. You should have, A, your own website because you want to build credibility, by the way, and drive traffic to your website, by the way. Be have it all on everything out there, Dreaming Up, LandWatch, Land and Farm, Trulia …
Jack Butala:
Let’s be helpful here. Really list the actual sites that it should be on.
Jill DeWit:
Okay. Your website, you should have it on Land and Farm. If it’s vacant property, it’s a …
Jack Butala:
It’s landandfarm.com.
Jill DeWit:
Mm-hmm (affirmative). Landwatch.com, I would suggest eBay as a Buy It Now option.
Jack Butala:
Me, too.
Jill DeWit:
If you want to get a good price for it and we’ll get into in a minute if you don’t care about it what to do with it, just to move it. You could do Trulia, just post, let’s put them on everywhere. There are some other …
Jack Butala:
Craigslist.
Jill DeWit:
Yeah, Craigslist.
Jack Butala:
Eaglestar.net.
Jill DeWit:
That’s a good one. You know what, I even do in social media.
Jack Butala:
Yep, that’s exactly I was going to say. Once you get good at it, I’m going to give away some secrets here in just a minute. Once you got the ball rolling, you need to run a promo. Jill’s promo is called the Hump Day Special.
Jill DeWit:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jack Butala:
Every Wednesday, she sends 1 or 2, or 3, or few properties out to this massive network that we’ve established. I think you sell a property every single day.
Jill DeWit:
Yeah, it’s pretty much a mile dash with the phones because I mark them to move on the Hump Day Special, so, yep.
Jack Butala:
Here are some few other tips. You got to make it as easy as you can for people to check out. The ideal scenario is for them to click on the link in whatever you sent. Then they just check themselves out. They could put in their credit card number that shocks a lot of people there. She’s in real estate prowess because they say, “What is this? Am I buying a pair of shoes, or am I buying a piece of land?” It’s the 21st Century and I can almost guess the person’s age that asks a question like that. Times have changed and you can buy it. It’s as that simple.
Jill DeWit:
Mm-hmm (affirmative). The other thing I was going to say is … I don’t know if I’m jumping ahead, but you got to be patient. You can’t expect it. I mean, you got to put it out there, every where, and put as much property information as you can about it, by the way, and you want to have good pictures and a good description if you want this. I see so many ads, I go in to LandWatch. I’m looking for calms and things. I’m here and I see all kinds … Like a property posted, no description, no photos, and a phone number. I’m like, “Really, do you really expect someone to get excited about that?” I moved down the list and this is what I do. I’m not looking at it, so.
Jack Butala:
By the way, if you are a member that receives our Data the Door Step Program, we teach how to send direct mail to property owners to find undervalue property. I read a study that [Hudd 00:11:20] put out a few years ago and they said that about 60% of a people who purchase a house, 60% of the buyers for any given house are in the neighborhood already. If you have a house for sale, a guy cross the street, sees the sign and go up, and he calls his brother, and says, “Hey, I know you guys are looking for … You and your wife were …”
Jill DeWit:
Do you like my neighborhood?
Jack Butala:
It sells property, sells to immediate area other property owners. You have the data for exactly the properties that you purchased. Why not drop a little note to the closest 10 or 15 people? Here’s another hint. I’ve never had to do that. I honestly I’ve never had to do that because our stuff sells so well, but here’s another hint. If you could take about an hour, go into landwatch.com, wherever your property is. Let’s say, it’s in, I don’t care, Tennessee. Find all the other people who are listing property whether they’re agents or owners in Tennessee or in the immediate area, and send them an email. You can build a huge buyer’s list, I mean, thousands of people that you spend a day in LandWatch, reaching out, getting emails, and talking to people. It’s not hard to build a huge list immediately.
Jill DeWit:
Mm-hmm (affirmative), very true. That’s a really good way.
Jack Butala:
Jill and I …
Jill DeWit:
I forgot about that, too. That’s right. Just reach all the people that are right there, that you’re looking at their properties. That’s a great idea.
Jack Butala:
Jill and I … I have extensively gone into these websites that the ones that Jill just listed and built a massive list and it works. They receive an email from us every time we get a property. The ones that don’t want to receive it anymore, it’s like everything, they unsubscribe. It works great and it doesn’t take too long.
Jill DeWit:
You know what’s interesting, Steven, is that it seems like the people who are real serious buyers, they don’t ask a lot of questions. I have a few red flags that I see when I have sellers or buyers contacting me. If they ask a lot of questions, you need to go stand on it and feel it, and all that kind of stuff, they may not be the right people, but the real serious ones is like they already do their homework before they call me and they’re ready to go. You just have to wait.
Jack Butala:
Yeah, if someone calls you and say, “How do I pay for this? I want it.” They’re probably going to buy it.
Jill DeWit:
Yeah, they’re probably going to buy it.
Jack Butala:
The other thing too is that I personally have an issue with, “Hey, give me a call and let’s talk about it.”
Jill DeWit:
Right.
Jack Butala:
You give them a way to purchase the property to click on it and sign out. The same goes with when you’re buying a property, don’t send a piece of mail out that says, “Hey, I love that piece of property you have over there. Why don’t you give me a call? We’ll talk about buying it for a minute.”
Jill DeWit:
Right.
Jack Butala:
Every single person that you could send a little to is going to call you back and you’re never going to get a deal done because you’re talking to people who aren’t real sellers.
Jill DeWit:
Too busy on the phone. Exactly.
Jack Butala:
You want to send an offer.
Jill DeWit:
Yeah. I think the big thing is you just take a step back and realize it’s got to be priced right. You got to reach the right people and make it easy for them. I think if you just took that away, that’s it.
Jack Butala:
Right.
Jill DeWit:
I love it and I don’t know.
Jack Butala:
Go ahead.
Jill DeWit:
I was going to say if you bought it wrong, I’m wondering, if you buy it wrong, how do you recover.
Jack Butala:
I have never personally done that, so I don’t know.
Jill DeWit:
Okay.
Jack Butala:
I think that you need to buy a property backwards. We’ve talked about this.
Jill DeWit:
That’s true.
Jack Butala:
Start with what you want to sell it for as crazy as how it made me the number might be, start with what you want to sell it for, cut that in half, and then work down from there. If you send a thousand offers out, 10 people call you back and say, “Yeah, absolutely. I want to do this.” Then you let the mail and the sellers decide for you. You already set the price and then you let those people come back to you and say, “Hey, that’s what I want.”
Jill DeWit:
Exactly.
Jack Butala:
The other 80% can go kicking and screaming, and say you’re crazy, but all it takes is a couple to start it.
Jill DeWit:
You know what, you said something earlier when we were going for this call and I like what that eroded down, don’t cut corners. That’s a really good advice for people to be patient. It’s going to be just fine. Don’t cut corners. Don’t get hung up on it. That’s when I see people to make a mistake I see people making is they’re like, “Oh, this is perfect for Craigslist. I’m just going to put it there.”
Jack Butala:
I see that all the time.
Jill DeWit:
I’m like, “Why are you doing that? I’m just going to put it on eBay on a 30-day auction and just see how it goes.
Jack Butala:
In a spirit of completely and totally telling the truth, Jill and I have a pretty good wholesale network of people that’s really has nothing to do with Land Academy. We’re very guilty with this. Honestly, Jill, we don’t post our properties where we should to get the notoriety that we need or not need but that we should probably deserve.
Jill DeWit:
Right now, I don’t have inventory to work with and that’s why.
Jack Butala:
What happens with us?
Jill DeWit:
They disappear so fast.
Jack Butala:
What happens with us and this might be helpful. It just as a long-term goal to shoot for. When the mail comes back, when we send a mailer out or any deal from any source comes in, the first thing that I know Jill does in the back of her head says, “Oh, I think that’s going to be perfect for X,” because she’s got a group of people that they’re ready to go and pay. We don’t have to do any work. She shoots and it goes in the county, in the AP and state, and they look it up because they’re for us. They’re in the business and they say, “Absolutely, I’ll send you a check or wire the money today.” That’s not what we only do.
Jill DeWit:
Correct.
Jack Butala:
We don’t go through the map process. There’s a lot of stuff.
Jill DeWit:
That is a great goal to shoot for though like you said, Steven, who doesn’t want that. I don’t have to advertise it at that point, so that’s really great.
Jack Butala:
If you’re looking to build a list, put us on the top. We would love to be at the top of your A list. Turns out we buy a lot of property.
Jill DeWit:
Turns out.
Jack Butala:
Join us on other episode where Jill and I discuss your all important success and property investment and in life. Sometimes I feel like is that your basic?
Jill DeWit:
No.
Jack Butala:
You gave more detail?
Jill DeWit:
No, I think basic is good. That was content heavy.
Jack Butala:
Oh yeah? I’m not horsing around or not.
Jill DeWit:
No, that’s my only thing, but I think …
Jack Butala:
You look really pretty today.
Jill DeWit:
Thank you very much. Some people like that though. Some people like …
Jack Butala:
You look pretty all the time but today it’s just …
Jill DeWit:
Thank you.
Jack Butala:
I think it’s a Friday thing.
Jill DeWit:
It’s a Friday. I’m going to have fun.
Jack Butala:
You’re just happy on the inside, too.
Jill DeWit:
I’m usually happy on the inside. That was a good content one. People say, “You guys horse around a lot. I want more meat.” There’s your meat.
Jack Butala:
It’s not that much fun, is it?
Jill DeWit:
Yeah, it’s not that fun.
Jack Butala:
You know why it’s not that fun, because we’re not having that much fun either.
Jill DeWit:
Exactly.
Jack Butala:
I’d rather horse around all …
Jill DeWit:
It’s hard for us. You have to focus, what? What are you talking about.
Jack Butala:
It hurts my head to think like this all the time.
Jill DeWit:
It does. Oh my goodness, what’s your attention span, Steven? What do you think it is?
Jack Butala:
I’m glad you brought that up. I just read that … Somebody did how to do a perfect YouTube video. In part in that, it was pretty in-depth. Somebody paid for this study. It said, “You have about 2 seconds to capture someone’s attention and after about 20 seconds, 10 to 20 seconds, they’re really going to decide whether or not they’re going to watch the rest.”
Jill DeWit:
Right.
Jack Butala:
You better at the end of it do something consistently with all your videos that makes someone to watch till the end like, I don’t know, pop champagne or left, or head up, or put something in a microwave that never should go in there, I don’t know, some kind of silliness after you’re instructing something that’s intelligent.
Jill DeWit:
Can I tell you something about me with YouTube?
Jack Butala:
Yeah.
Jill DeWit:
If they’re not attractive, I have a hard time watch … I’m sorry. It helps if you look good.
Jack Butala:
I just assumed that you had a pretty low standard in men, anyway.
Jill DeWit:
No, what the heck? What does that mean?
Jack Butala:
You chose me.
Jill DeWit:
Steven, you’re silly. No, but I have to admit that, I don’t know, if you’re missing some teeth and you’re really, really smart.
Jack Butala:
What?
Jill DeWit:
I don’t know, you might need to just do the screenshot not but you right there.
Jack Butala:
Oh, I see.
Jill DeWit:
Yeah.
Jack Butala:
Use your best attributes.
Jill DeWit:
Yes.
Jack Butala:
Yeah, all right, I get it. That’s how I would phrase that.
Jill DeWit:
Yeah, I don’t mean to be …
Jack Butala:
Put your best foot forward.
Jill DeWit:
I don’t mean to put some people down, but come on, there are some unattractive, very brilliant people out there. Maybe they shouldn’t be the face of the whatever.
Jack Butala:
You’re pretty smart and you have a great voice. Don’t film your feet that kind of thing.
Jill DeWit:
Think about the commercials we watch. There’s a reason why the real executives are not in those commercials. They don’t want to.
Jack Butala:
There’s a reason that we have a podcast and not a video show.
Jill DeWit:
I wasn’t referring to us. Oh, thanks a lot. Okay, I’m out.
Jack Butala:
Let’s go buy some property.
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