Seller Called Back on My Offer – Owner Passed Away (CFFL 0141)
Seller Called Back on My Offer – Owner Passed Away
Jack Butala: Seller Called Back on My Offer – Owner Passed Away. 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 8-part series Jill and I talk about what to do when sellers start calling you back based on the fact that you sent them an offer to buy their property in their mail. This is episode 6 of 8, it’s called The Seller is Calling You Back for my Offer, but the Owner Passed Away.
Jill, what do you think? What do we … You know what? Let’s start by taking question like we always do.
Jill DeWit:
We always do.
Jack Butala:
Before we actually get into the show.
Jill DeWit:
Okay. Mark from Tampa called in and asked, “I actually try to respond …” This is funny. “I actually try to respond to the yellow letters I receive. I figured that everything is for sale if the price is right and it’s always nice to form a connection. Sadly some are unwilling to pick up the phone, put their own name on things and use their own voices, and it leaves me feeling uneasy. They already know my name and address and are reaching out to me, why all the secrecy on the their end?” This is …
Jack Butala:
I’m not sure I understand the question.
Jill DeWit:
Okay, so here is the question. Actually, I saw this one and it was a little bit condensed because as you can see it was a long question.
Jack Butala:
Yeah.
Jill DeWit:
Okay. Here is the story; Mark clearly is in the business and he owns properties and he gets offers from people, kind of like we send out offers. He gets offers from people wanting to buy his property. Instead of just kind of going, “That’s kind of interesting,” and putting them aside, he calls people to find out, “This is kind of a good … Reach other people on my business. Hey, maybe we have some stuff, we can do deals together or whatever.” What was funny is the comment was, “How come when I reach out to these people,” you can’t find them, they’re not answering their phone, it’s not even their voice. He made some notes that I was even like, some of them are even like computer recordings, which I didn’t know people … They’re doing stuff like that.
He’s like … I guess his question is, why would somebody do that and doesn’t that push people away like it pushes him away? All the secrecy, and I agree.
Jack Butala:
Yeah. I think that there’s a … Jill and I talked about this a lot. A lot of these stuff didn’t happen by accident. I bet that Mark is a little bit … He’s probably trying to reach out to people who might be a little bit older than him. Used to be, not that long ago, before the internet, people typically just hid behind their companies. They started an LLC or whatever, and that was just … It was XYZ company, it had nothing to do with their last name or anything, and it was very accepted and actually encouraged. Even in business school you learn about starting an LLC and why to do it, you protect yourself and you never put yourself out there. Then all of a sudden the internet came around and everybody … Rightfully so I happen to agree with it, everything is a lot more transparent. People I think want to know who is behind a company.
Think about this, do you ever see these commercials for AT&T and … What’s that Progressive commercial? Progressive Insurance. There’s a woman on there, I think the character’s name is Flo and she has become, and they did this intentionally, the face of Progressive Insurance. Progressive Insurance is a publicly traded company that’s owned by a tremendous number of people and it can get lost in the whole sea of media and advertising.
Jill DeWit:
Right.
Jack Butala:
What they did, and it turned out to work out really well for them … Toyota is doing the same thing right now.
Jill DeWit:
It’s true.
Jack Butala:
They put a face to the whole thing.
Jill DeWit:
You’re right.
Jack Butala:
Now we just think of Flo and Progressive Insurance an the whole thing. That’s the trend, and I don’t think it’s a trend, I think it’s here to stay. That’s why [Jill, 00:03:57] are right out up in front of our company constantly, figuratively and literally, talking to people and making our names just as well known and our reputation as the companies that we own.
Yeah, I don’t get it either Mark. Why is all the secrecy? What’s that all about? I don’t think that the people, whoever are running these things, that you’re contacting, they haven’t gotten the memo.
Jill DeWit:
Hey, I have an idea.
Jack Butala:
Yeah.
Jill DeWit:
What if we did a version of what Progressive Insurance does? What if we had like … I don’t know. Heidi Klum or Brad Pitt as the face of our business.
Jack Butala:
I don’t think … I think Heidi Klum and Brad Pitt are a fantastic idea.
Jill DeWit:
Maybe we should look at this. Maybe we’re doing it all wrong. Let’s do something like that. I don’t want Henry Winkler and Betty White.
Jack Butala:
If anybody knows who Henry Winkler is, that’s sad. Like I do.
Jill DeWit:
That would be so funny. Can you imagine, “Hey, this is the face of our business. This is all we could afford.” We got, like the Leave It to Beaver guys now doing some commercials that I saw. Maybe he’s available.
Jack Butala:
You know we’re honestly going to get … This is too much fun to get right into this podcast.
Jill DeWit:
I know.
Jack Butala:
I’m going to tell a story about exactly what you’re talking about.
Jill DeWit:
Okay. Let’s hear it. This is good.
Jack Butala:
There’s a subdivision in Modoc County, which is in Northern California, I think it’s right on the border of Oregon. Somebody went in and … It’s a gorgeous subdivision by the way. Somebody went in and subdivided the heck out of this property a long time ago. It’s huge, it’s thousands of acres. They subdivided it and then hired a whole team of … This is before the internet, so they had to hire the face of what the subdivision was. They hired that guy that you were in love with when you were a kid Jill, from the TV Show CHiPs.
Jill DeWit:
Erik Estrada.
Jack Butala:
Yeah. They hired Erik Estrada. He was the face of that subdivision [flying people up 00:06:02] …
Jill DeWit:
Ponch.
Jack Butala:
Ponch, yeah. I bet we could get Erik Estrada.
Jill DeWit:
Won’t that be cool.
Jack Butala:
I don’t want to … We are the face of this company.
Jill DeWit:
Well, hey, you may have just solved our problem. I remember we were talking about the other day at lunch, we are in the process of putting together in the fall a live event to do, and we talked about having somebody famous do our intro, maybe Erik Estrada. I’m just kidding.
Jack Butala:
I know you are.
Jill DeWit:
I know. Okay, sorry.
Jack Butala:
Mark brings up a great point. Let’s not hide behind our stuff anymore. Let’s stand right up and say, “Hey, …”
Jill DeWit:
You’re right.
Jack Butala:
“… If something goes wrong, call me, I’m Steve.” I mean it. I’m not saying that flippantly or sarcastically or anything else. That’s why we’re in front of the company,
Jill DeWit:
That’s right.
Jack Butala:
We’ll make sure it’s right.
Jill DeWit:
That’s why I’m in front of the camera.
Jack Butala:
Yeah. That’s why Jill put me in front of the periscope today.
Jill DeWit:
Exactly.
Jack Butala:
That answers that.
Jill DeWit:
Yap.
Jack Butala:
6 of 8. 8-part series, episode 6 right now, about how sellers respond when we send them an offer in the mail. Here’s 30 seconds of background; Jill and I have literally made a career out of sending out offers in the mail to buy peoples’ property. Are they priced at retail level? No. No. We send them out substantially below retail level and we try to use this methodology to sift through the people who might just want to get rid of their property from a convenience standpoint and not necessarily maximized pricing. Guess what? It’s almost 16,000 deals later; been doing this since the 90s, and quiet frankly we’re killing it. The whole series is about other responses that we get, the varied responses that we get when they do call back or when they send back the offer signed [inaudible 00:07:57]. This one’s about the owner passed away.
Jill DeWit:
Right.
Jack Butala:
Often Jill and I talk about the triggers that make people sell their property, and one of them is; it’s a very popular one, it may be the most popular, the owner actually passed away and whoever is got the offer from years ago in their file, or they just received it in the mail. It’s usually not, obviously not the person that passed away, it’s the surviving spouse, possibly a relative or whoever inherited the property. We are solving that problem for them and they’re checking it off their list by purchasing it directly from them very, very quickly for less than retail value, in most cases below wholesale value, and some cases well below.
Jill, you’re the expert, you’re the one who … Well, your staff does but, you’re the one who ultimately makes the decision about buying property from a … Which properties to buy and things like that, what do you do when somebody calls and they’re sniffling in the background saying,
Jill DeWit:
I know.
Jack Butala:
“[inaudible 00:08:57] my mom passed away, and I really would like to [stay at 00:09:00] this property, because I got a hundred other things to do with the estate.”
Jill DeWit:
Thank you. You know what? Steven you read my mind, thank you. That was my very first note that I wrote for this show which was, “Please empathize,” I mean, they’re going through something so that’s number one. Number one, it’s nice and number two, it’s the right thing to do, and number three, it puts you that much closer to having a nice relationship with this person and getting them to want to work with you, and sell to you. You need to just know that you’re probably solving their problems. Now they’re going through mum’s file or dad’s file, whatever it is; that’s what often it is, the owner passed away and now it’s the kids, and they’re trying to figure out what to do. They found your letter that you had sent a while back offering to buy the property and now they’re reaching out to you for help and they often don’t know anything about what to do.
They may or may not have even known about the property, sometimes they do, they knew it was in the family, but they don’t know that much about it. Sometimes it’s a pleasant surprise that they’re like, “Wow, look what dad had set aside for us,” so it’s really good.
Jack Butala:
I know it pushes your empathy button Jill, and I think that’s one of the reasons you’re so successful at it, and I mean that very sincerely. I think you take a friendship type of approach with most of these sellers and I think it’s very appreciated in this deceased owner situations, so it’s very, very effective I can tell you that. We really are helping these people, if you’ve really had a family member die or a parents especially, you have … This is a long list of stuff to do and selling assets like these to people like us make it super easy.
Jill DeWit:
Exactly.
Jack Butala:
Everybody wins kind of thing.
Jill DeWit:
Exactly, so …
Jack Butala:
Is there anything super different Jill that you do that …
Jill DeWit:
Yes.
Jack Butala:
We obviously get a ton of phone calls from all corners of the, you know. What do you do that’s real different?
Jill DeWit:
Okay. Here’s my big thing about when you’re in this situation, two things. One, make it easy as possible and two don’t take on too much. Some of these situations could be legally tricky, and remember, you’re not an attorney; maybe you are an attorney, but you’re probably not an attorney, you don’t want to guess on these situations if you aren’t sure, and you don’t want to get in a pickle kind of thins too. Depending on the situation, it might be really easy to transfer the property, it might involve more work. They might be going through probably an attorney that actually might help you in the process and get stuff that way. You might use a [title 00:12:12] agency depending on what’s going on that gets an unrelated third party involved here, and the other option is … I’ve had some that were just … It was so tricky and the expense of getting legal involvement was what was needed to get transfer title and do all that stuff, was worth … Cost more than the property, than it was really worth, that I was willing to spend, so some of them I just passed.
Jack Butala:
If I may summarize …
Jill DeWit:
Yes.
Jack Butala:
The fast that one of the owners is deceased may complicate the transaction, not always but sometimes, especially if there’s no estate planning and the former owner passed away suddenly. Our job, or the service that we offer, and it’s obviously free in [inaudible 00:13:04] of buying the property, is to make that as easy as possible. Sometimes it’s so difficult, it’s just not worth it, and that doesn’t happen too often. I think that’s what Jill is talking about, but you still refer them and help them to the right way and give them the right people that can help them. Yes it’s complicated at times, most of the time it’s worth it, and if it’s too complicated, we just walk away, or we send it over to somebody else and get the seller the professional legal help that they need.
Jill DeWit:
Mm-hmm (affirmative). That’s something that I always do, because that’s just who I am. I’m always giving out free advice over the phone when people call me up. Often, like people are calling me … Maybe it’s someone that’s getting on in years and they’re thinking about selling their property, but they weren’t sure about it. I do this often and they’re like, “You know? I don’t want to sell. I’m just going to … We’re good. I’m going to keep it for the kids.”
I say, “Hold on. Wait a minute. Stop.”
They’re like, “What?”
I always say, “Please promise me that if you’re going to hang on to this property you are going to make sure that you put it in their name now, or get it in the trust now. Don’t leave a pickle for the kids.”
They always go, “Oh, thank you. Okay. You know? I appreciate that.”
I do make sure I tell people that, “Make sure you think about them.” It’s just a nice thing to do and it’s so …
Jack Butala:
Hey, if you have any questions about our business model and what this is all about, go on over to successplant.com and ask some questions. successplant.com is an online community that I set up personally for all of our members to collaborate. Tons and tons of people are in there all the time talking about doing these deals and they would be happy to answer your questions.
Join us in another episode where Jill and I talk about your all important success in property investment and in life.
… All right. I’m going to hang this periscope thing.
Jill DeWit:
I think so. That was a good show. I hope … It was … Was it kind of dry? Was it too dry?
Jack Butala:
Yeah, it’s always too dry. I’d rather just talk about funny stuff all the time.
Jill DeWit:
I know, me too. How do we do this?
Jack Butala:
I don’t know.
Jill DeWit:
Well, let’s talk about something funny now.
Jack Butala:
Okay.
Jill DeWit:
What do you have to share?
Jack Butala:
Maybe I’m just not a funny person. We’re in California.
Jill DeWit:
I have something funny to share. How nice … To tie into your California, I’m sorry; how nice people are out here by the way as far … If you’re used to beach areas in Southern California, you know parking is tricky. It really is helpful if everybody is really nice and then we all work together, but I am constantly surprised at how nice people are about … You know, you come up to a spa … Nobody is going to get in a fight here over a parking spot, it’s more like, “Oh, you first.”
“No, you first.”
“It’s okay.”
It’s just so funny.
Jack Butala:
This is a … I got … This is going to be a 30-second rant and I’ll control myself. The traffic in Southern California sucks and every time I get here it gets worse, and I’m not set up for that because I’m from Detroit; I get mad at anything. I promised myself, driving out here a couple of days ago, that I’m going to get a motorcycle, or at least some type of vehicle where you can drive in between the cars and really just take some of the stress out of it. I’m a very experienced motorcycle rider. The first thing I did when I got here is I got on the computer, went on to Craigslist and found … I literally found my dream … I wanted this vehicle since … It’s a 1979 Vespa P200E, and it’s a color that I want, and it’s like five blocks from here, the seller. It’s got a surf board connection thing to it and the whole … It was just a sign from above that I need to buy it.
Jill DeWit:
I know.
Jack Butala:
I took a really negative awful thing, and I’m picking it up tomorrow, paying cash for this thing, and I can’t wait.
Jill DeWit:
I know.
Jack Butala:
howtotakeabadthingandmakeitagoodthing.com
Jill DeWit:
Exactly. I love it. I am glad. I’m really glad. What’s cool is, you didn’t elaborate a whole lot but this is really something that you’ve wanted for how many years?
Jack Butala:
Since I was probably 15.
Jill DeWit:
Thank you.
Jack Butala:
Which is why it’s a 1979.
Jill DeWit:
You can now afford it.
Jack Butala:
Actually you know what? I think in 1979 I was like … I don’t know, pretty close to that age.
Jill DeWit:
Hey, I got to ask you this; in 1979 was it the same price that you’re paying for it now?
Jack Butala:
You know what? I bet it is.
Jill DeWit:
Because it sounds like …
Jack Butala:
I’m going to check on that.
Jill DeWit:
[inaudible 00:17:48] price.
Jack Butala:
I bet it’s exactly the same price.
Jill DeWit:
Exactly. The guy didn’t lose a dollar on it and he’s been driving … He’s the second owner and he’s had it for 15 years.
Jack Butala:
This is the second owner and the original owner gave it to him …
Jill DeWit:
Right.
Jack Butala:
… With 15 years original paint and the whole thing. I’m a car, vehicle nuts so I’m pretty jacked about going to pick this thing up tomorrow.
Jill DeWit:
This is just hilarious.
Jack Butala:
[Smoking deal 00:18:09].
Jill DeWit:
I love it.
Jack Butala:
It might fall apart on my way home, I don’t know. Yeah, it won’t.
Jill DeWit:
I love it.
Jack Butala:
Hey, on that note, let’s go buy some property.
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