This is the Rest of Your Life

Jack Butala: This is the Rest of Your Life. 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:
Steven, Jack Butala for Land Academy. Welcome to our Cash Flow From Land Show. We buy property for half of what it’s worth, and resell it the next day. Free information from Jack, that’s me …

Jill DeWit:
… and inspiration from Jill, that’s me.

Jack Butala:
In this episode, Jill and I talk about the rest of your life. It’s the first day of the rest of your life. It’s a cliché but it’s true. Jill, great show today. Before we start, let’s take a question posted by one of our members on successplan.com, our free, online community.

Jill DeWit:
Okay. Michelle from Phoenix, nice, wrote in and asked, “I’m starting out in Phoenix and interested in doing a rehab/flip. This will be the first one I have not lived in myself. I have general questions about buying from the standard MLS listings versus auctions. Any advice?”

Jack Butala:
Boy did she come to the right place on this, Jill.

Jill DeWit:
Totally.

Jack Butala:
You want to answer this?

Jill DeWit:
No.

Jack Butala:
Oh Michelle. You can buy stuff out of the MLS effectively, sometimes. You don’t really know how it’s going to go until you get in there. You can go to auctions and take your chances. I’ve done both. We still do some version of both, but here, if you want to make sure that you’re going to succeed, submit a bunch of written offers somewhere that you’ve decided where this is going to work.

You’re looking in a specific neighborhood with MLS listings anyway. You’re only going to consider properties at an auction that are going to kind of fit your little geographic model anyway. Why not identify a couple of neighborhoods, maybe 3, send everybody an offer in the mail? It’s so simple, incredibly inexpensive.

The person who really was dying to sell you their property that day, they’re going to sign it and send it back to you. That’s my answer. How’s that?

Jill DeWit:
I love it. You know what I think is really interesting, just a little side note, is that people don’t realize that you can do this and you can drill it down to be so specific so you know you’re really only doing … You want 3 bedroom, 2 bath, this size, blah, blah, blah. You can drill it down to that. It’s not like you’re … It’s like you’re throwing out a really wide net.

I want everybody just to know that you could be real specific so you’re not wasting anybody’s time.

Jack Butala:
You are ensuring your success because in an extremely rare occasion, it’s never happened to me, but it might have happened to somebody where you don’t get any offers back. People get real concerned about that. We teach all our members to do this. I don’t think it’s ever happened. If it has happened to somebody, I’d love to hear about it. We hear all the good stuff all the time.

You’re ensuring your success. If you’re running through the MLS or an auction, you’re constantly asking yourself, “This could work at this price.” What you want to do is send these offers out in the mail where the prices, you’re absolutely sure it’s going to work. If all the houses are selling in that area for 120 grand, send out offers for 75 or 80.

What you’re saying to yourself now is, “Who in their right mind, if their property’s worth 120 grand, is going to sign an offer for $80,000 and get the deal done that week?” Who, Jill?

Jill DeWit:
A lot of people.

Jack Butala:
A lot of people. A lot of people would rather just get the money now and get out of there because there’s something going on in their life. It’s not about the house at all. It’s about the circumstance of the owner. It’s the same thing in land. The same people want to have a … Ready to sell their classic car for way less than it’s worth today because of some stuff that’s going on in their life.

Jill DeWit:
Yeah, something’s happening that’s triggered it and you never know, and you can’t guess it. You just have to reach as many people as you can and they’ll come to you.

Jack Butala:
If you have a question, or you want to be on the show, call 800-725-8816, and please don’t be Eeyore about it.

Jill DeWit:
I love that.

Jack Butala:
Today is the first day of the rest of your life. Boy, what a cliché. This is an inspiration portion of our little duo here. This is an inspiration piece, not an information piece.

Jill DeWit:
I was going to say, it sounds like I wrote this one, but I didn’t. This is really came from you. Hey, Steven might be rubbing off on you.

Jack Butala:
Somebody told me this long time ago. If you haven’t heard it, and this is the first time you’re ever hearing that phrase, ‘You’re the CEO of the rest of your life’, you’re in complete control of this. That’s the … I stop for a second, whenever it happens, and I’m like, “Oh my gosh, you’re right. I have control over my life. Someone’s not … I don’t live with my parents anymore. They don’t control my life, I do.” That’s what this show is about.

Decide what you want, get the information from me about how to do it, and find your source of motivation, from Jill, to stay on track. It’s as simple as that. Decide what you want to do, get the information, and find the motivation to stay on track. “Oh Steve, I don’t need any motivation. All I need is the information.” Here’s the thing, it’s all going to go sideways.

Before you reach your goal, you’ve decided what you want to do now. Maybe it’s buy property for half, maybe it’s be an airline pilot. You decided what you do, now you need to get the information and the education about how to do that. If you leave out the motivational piece, I’m telling you right now, it’s all going to go sideways more than once before you get to that goal. When it does, you should have a pre-planned source of motivation to make sure that you stay on track. Right Jill?

Jill DeWit:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Jack Butala:
What’s your source of motivation, in general? Some people get it from God. Some people get it from their father.

Jill DeWit:
You know what’s funny about that?

Jack Butala:
Some people get it from books.

Jill DeWit:
When you said that, I was just thinking of what my dad used to do, and I don’t know why it brought me to that, but I just noticed. My dad used to have his own motivational sticky notes all over his desk.

Jack Butala:
Really?

Jill DeWit:
Yeah. It was really kind of funny.

Jack Butala:
Do you remember what some of the said?

Jill DeWit:
You know what? I do. They were very personal to him. It was like maybe the guy was on a diet, seriously. He would have sticky notes around his desk helping him to stay on track with his eating goals. It was really interesting. I’m trying to think of what else he would be working on.

Jack Butala:
Like, ‘Hey fat ass, it’s not over yet.’

Jill DeWit:
No. It wouldn’t be stuff like that. It might be how much weight he’s lost, or just reminders. It was usually to him was reminder. Like ‘Get out and exercise.’ That was really what he would do. He would do things like that so he could see it, and it would be on his mind all the time. That would motivate him. It just brought back a warm feeling to me thinking about that. I remember him doing that.

I’m trying to think. You know, Steven, I do a version of that too, where in my world, I have pictures of people important to me around me and I have little sayings that are important to me around me. I do little things like that too.

Jack Butala:
My source of motivation is you, Jill. When stuff goes really sideways, really I just come to you and talk about it.

Jill DeWit:
Thank you.

Jack Butala:
You’ve got to have something because it does go sideways. I don’t care who you are. I don’t care if you have a billion dollars, stuff’s going to go sideways, something’s going to frustrate you once in a while.

Jill DeWit:
Totally.

Jack Butala:
Some people go to church.

Jill DeWit:
Yeah. I was thinking about, before we did this show and I wrote down my kind of notes of this is the rest of your life. What are my 3 steps and mine are this. I love yours. Mine are really … We’re on the same page, obviously. We wouldn’t be doing this if we weren’t.

Jack Butala:
We just did a show about that.

Jill DeWit:
We did. Mine …

Jack Butala:
Maybe it’s a support group. That’s excellent. For a lot of people it’s an REI club. If you’re trying to lose weight, you’d use Weight Watchers. If you’re trying to become a real estate investor, you join a group like Land Academy.

Jill DeWit:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Jack Butala:
Maybe that is part of the motivation too, is to surround yourself with like kind of people that are trying to do the same thing.

Jill DeWit:
That ties in. My steps are: Number 1, what is really important to you? You’ve got to really take a step back and figure it out. Like you said, “Decide what you want.”

Jack Butala:
It changes all the time.

Jill DeWit:
Yeah, it might. That’s very true.

Jack Butala:
Having a huge house in the suburbs was a priority of mine a long time ago and it’s not even on my list anymore. Been there, done that kind of thing.

Jill DeWit:
I have a question about that.

Jack Butala:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Jill DeWit:
Was it really something that you want to do or something you thought you should do because that happens too?

Jack Butala:
Both.

Jill DeWit:
Okay.

Jack Butala:
I’m glad I did it, and I’m glad it’s over.

Jill DeWit:
Okay. I got that. You decide what’s really important to you. All right, then what needs to change to get you there? Like, “I want to have that house. Well then I’ve got to have the income to have that house. I’ve got to make that change.” You say information, and you’re right. I just look at it a different way.

Jack Butala:
Yeah, that’s awesome because that’s the yin and yang of this whole thing. You’ve got to have both.

Jill DeWit:
Right. Then you know what the thing for me is? It’s the huge one where I see people getting hung up all the time. I have friends that are going through things in their life and they know, they really want this and they know, “Oh I’ve got to have it. I know what I got to do. I know I got to do this or it’s never going to happen.” What the heck are they waiting for? That’s where people get hung up.

For me, it’s step number 3. What the heck are you waiting for? Just do it, and that’s the part that I just don’t understand.

Jack Butala:
I think you have to develop a sense of self-confidence to get anything you want. You have to believe that you can do it. That comes in all different ways. Sometimes this comes from your source of motivation, who knows. I don’t know, maybe it’s a teacher. Maybe you had such a rough time when you were a kid that you’re mad about it and now you’re motivated to get something done and change it.

Jill DeWit:
Yeah.

Jack Butala:
I think self-confidence is really important. Like I don’t think Hitler had a lot of self-confidence if you know what I mean. I think he was working something out that … I don’t know.

Jill DeWit:
You know what I think? How about this? What if you don’t have self-confidence? I think you can develop it.

Jack Butala:
That’s what I think.

Jill DeWit:
I think what you could do is you could take baby steps. It’s like, “Okay, I want to do ‘X’, whatever it is. All right, I’m not going to change my whatever overnight, but I can do this tomorrow.” As you do ‘X’, one little baby step, now you’re that much closer and, “Oh hey look, I did it.” Then you’re going to start building up self-confidence. I think you can do that too.

Jack Butala:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Jill DeWit:
For example, maybe you want to be a really good speaker. Who knows? You have this goal to do ‘X’ in your company and part of it is, you want to be the CEO, you have to run a board meeting, you hate talking in front of people, who knows. Something like that. “All right, I’m going to start taking little steps and speaking at more in meetings. I’m going to start holding my own meetings.” I don’t know, something like that. Then as you get more comfortable with that, you will get more self-confidence and get …

Jack Butala:
[inaudible 00:11:58]. You know what? Sometimes I think this stuff … When I write these titles, I think this is so basic that it’s just boring, but no, I mean, what you just said, it’s like there’s so much common sense, but it’s so important to do that. Just cut all the stuff up into steps. Deconstruct what … Look at the end at what you want, deconstruct all the steps to get there. Maybe go out on the internet and find somebody that’s already done it.

You want to buy real estate for half price and learn how to do that? Deconstruct it, go out on the internet. You’re going to find us, or somebody like us, who’s done it almost 16,000 times. Deconstruct how you’re going to get there. It usually starts with collecting free information, oh information. That’s what Steve does.

Jill DeWit:
Exactly.

Jack Butala:
This is the ‘if then’ segment of the show. If you do ‘X’ then ‘Y’ will happen. If you want to buy a house to flip it, and you want to buy it way below market price, then send 1,000 written under-value offers in a neighborhood you choose, to the homeowners where you think it might work. If you want to buy a cheap piece of property, send a lot of direct offers out in a place that you’ve identified where this might work.

Jill DeWit:
Like what Michelle asked.

Jack Butala:
Yeah.

Jill DeWit:
Just like that.

Jack Butala:
It’s a big mystery. People spend 58, 80, $100,000 in a hotel room, in a hotel lobby listening to people who charge that much. What they’re going to tell you is what I just told you. They’re not even going to tell you how to do it. We tell you how to do it. Not only do we tell you how to do it, we provide you all the tools. We provide you the national database that’s up to date for that day, and we provide you with a printer, and a bulk mail license and the whole thing.

Jill DeWit:
We even show you what you’re letters should say based on ours.

Jack Butala:
Then we give you the letters … All you really got to do is stay motivated. Then we give you a source of that, which is Jill.

Jill DeWit:
Aww thank you. I appreciate it.

Jack Butala:
Why are you doing this? You’re listening to the show. You must be interested. You can’t be interested in listening to us philosophy, you must be interested because you want to buy stuff cheap.

Jill DeWit:
I love it. Is your commute that boring? This is all you can find?

Jack Butala:
You’re standard’s so low that you have listened to more than one episode of this show? You should stand in front of the mirror tomorrow morning and ask yourself some questions. “Do I really need to listen to this show again? It’s so simple.” If you have a question or you want to be on the show, call 800-725-8816. Jill, give us an inspiration for today.

Jill DeWit:
Okay. My inspiration for today is take a minute, think about what are you grateful for? Steven?

Jack Butala:
Whoa.

Jill DeWit:
Take a minute. You don’t have to do anything. I’m not telling you to write a letter, I’m not telling you to write it down, I’m not telling you to reach out to that person and thank them. No. Just take a second and think about what you’re grateful for.

Jack Butala:
Yeah, without causing too much dead air here on the show, I am extremely grateful for the fact that I can even get an opportunity to even help one person today. I mean it. It sounds sappy and all that, but I really mean that.

Jill DeWit:
That’s a good one.

Jack Butala:
About a year and a half ago, Jill and I were sitting around because in the light of being extremely truthful and straightforward, which is what Jill and I are always. We were done financially. We were sitting around and I’m sitting there, I’m going, “Well, wait a minute. Should we do 20 times more deals than we do? It’s not going to change anything.” Here’s a secret. After $20,000 a month, after all your bills are paid every month. After 20 grand, it just becomes numbers on a computer screen.

Unless you have some kind of spending problem, where you need to buy a Ferrari every week. $20,000 a month, you’re not going to spend 20 grand a month. You’re just not. I was sitting around a year and a half ago going, “What the hell and I going to do with the rest of my life?” That’s how we … Jill and I said, “What are our customers asking for? What do we hear all the time?”

They said, “Teach us how to do this. Teach us how to do this” which we’ve been doing for a lot of years, we just never had a website for it or a program put together, anything like that. I am very, very thankful that we decided to go down this path. This podcast is getting huge. I’m thankful for that.

Jill DeWit:
Me too.

Jack Butala:
Such an efficient way to send our message. Very inexpensive, upfront, inexpensive way to send our message and people are listening to it so they must like it. What’s yours?

Jill DeWit:
Mine is I want to give back. I’ve always … As a kid, you remember, I would get in trouble giving things away. I’m grateful …

Jack Butala:
Tell us a story. [crosstalk 00:17:14]

Jill DeWit:
I used to get in trouble …

Jack Butala:
What do you mean gave stuff away?

Jill DeWit:
This has always been me. My philosophy’s always been if somebody takes something from me, they must have needed it more than me. Okay, it’s not a big deal. My mom used to get mad at me because I’d give away everything from my dolls to my lunch. Seriously. It was funny because …

Jack Butala:
There’s a Disneyland going on inside of your head gal. You live in Disneyland.

Jill DeWit:
Seriously. I remember getting in trouble because there was some nice … I don’t even remember the names of them back then, but years ago, there were nice dolls that you would have as a little girl, and I would give them away. My mom was like, “What the heck?”

Jack Butala:
I think we should give away everything …

Jill DeWit:
I, no. I agree.

Jack Butala:
We need to pay our employees.

Jill DeWit:
Exactly.

Jack Butala:
If we didn’t, I would give it all away.

Jill DeWit:
I agree.

Jack Butala:
Not that land, but all the educational material.

Jill DeWit:
I’m grateful for waking up when I want to wake up every day, for the most part, and doing what I want to do every day, and getting to give stuff away too. When I say give it away, it’s helping people. I give away that kind of thing.

Jack Butala:
The message I wanted to give today is, you are in control of your life, so start taking it seriously. Join us in another episode where Jack and Jill discuss how to use information, that’s me …

Jill DeWit:
… and inspiration, that’s me …

Jack Butala:
… to get just about anything you want. We use it, we choose to use it to buy property for half and sell it for way more immediately. Good show, Jill.

Jill DeWit:
That was fun.

Jack Butala:
What do you think of this new format?

Jill DeWit:
I like it.

Jack Butala:
I do too.

Jill DeWit:
I do like it.

Jack Butala:
Still working out the kinks, but I think it’s okay.

Jill DeWit:
I think so. I think people … I think this is … You know what? I think this is going to be more helpful sometimes than some of our other stuff because depending where you are in your investment career, some of our topics are timely and some of them might be behind people and some of them might be ahead of people, but now matter what you’re doing right now, this kind of stuff is pertinent to everyone today.

Jack Butala:
You know when people schedule calls to you to talk about buying … They’re in that final decision of making … purchasing our informational programs and stuff, or our data package. What range … When they call you, are they … Does it range from, “I’m totally ready to go” or “I’m brand new at this” or what typically do they … Do they have a pattern or is there typical questions that you answer?

Jill DeWit:
I’ll tell you. Typically, they are already there. They almost just need to have one last little confirmation that: A, we’re here and gosh you really are there and you want to help. Yeah, and B, knowing that they can do it. Some people I think are worried that, “God, I’m not sure I have it in me. I don’t have that background.”

Jack Butala:
They need motivation.

Jill DeWit:
That’s right. They’re like, “I really haven’t done this before but boy I’m excited” and they almost just want to say, “Jill, I’ve been doing pharmacy sales for 10 years”, who knows, whatever. “I’m sick of it. I’m burned out. This is what I want to do. I’ve done all my homework, I’ve read everything I can. I understand the whole concept. I totally trust you guys. I’m in, but can I really do this?”

That’s it. It just takes a little, “Heck yeah. Do you think that we knew all the answers? No, oh my gosh.” That’s the whole point is what we bring to the table is, “I’m helping you with all that little stuff. You don’t have to think about it.” A lot of these questions you would ask yourself along the way, now you have all the answers. It doesn’t get any better than that.

Jack Butala:
We have a lot of members right now. For some reason, a disproportionate amount of members who are at this stage. They sent the mailer out, for whatever. They, on their own, chose a place, the right area, sent the mailer out just like we always talk about and instruct. Then there’s a little silent period of about a week, because the stuff’s in the mail. Then they get a million calls, and some signed offers. They’re sending us pictures you know.

Jill DeWit:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Jack Butala:
Pictures of their mailbox. For some reason we have a disproportionate amount of people at that stage right now and it just … For me, it’s like remember when the kids were little and they get up and it’s Christmas?

Jill DeWit:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Jack Butala:
That’s what it’s like, only the grown-up version. There’s money in the mailbox. Thousand and thousands of dollars and then they have a taste of it, and they have control over their life. That’s what this show’s about. You can control this. You have control over this. You’re not a slave to your job, or your relationship, man. You can do what you want.

Jill DeWit:
My favorite thing is the people that call us and are like, “Oh my gosh, I have 30 offers to review.” “Congratulations.” They’re like a little bit freaked out by it too. It’s the best thing. It’s almost like they’re going, “Oh no.” I’m like, “Oh yes. This is is, you did it.”

Jack Butala:
I have a consulting call scheduled on Wednesday with a guy who … He did exactly what we said, but I actually think he sent too … This is his first time. He’s never done a deal. He went nuts and sent like 8,000 letters out. We recommend 1,500 your first time. He’s called me and emailed me. The correct way to reach Jill and I by the way, is to go out on Success Plan and dig around and find out the right protocol because if you email us directly, or call us, it’s not going to … That’s just not the way to do it anymore. There’s just too many members. The right way is to go out onto Success Plan and read the FAQ and it’ll tell you exactly.

If you’ve got deals you want us to look at, there’s a way to do that. That’s the right way to do it. This guy, he scheduled a consulting call, which we charge for, and I know what he’s going to say. He’s going to say, “I overdid it. I bit off more than I can chew. What do I do?”

Jill DeWit:
It’s a good problem to have.

Jack Butala:
It’s the greatest thing ever.

Jill DeWit:
That’s the funny thing is that people are like, they’re panicking. I’m like, “You did everything right, now just … You did everything right, now go. You got this.” It’s like learning to fly. Congratulations, you can fly, go.

Jack Butala:
Yep. Hey, let’s go buy something for half price today and resell it. Jack and Jill information and inspiration.

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.

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