How to Sell Land on the Internet (CFFL 0204)
How to Sell Land on the Internet
Jack Butala: How to Sell Land on the Internet. 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 for Land Academy. Welcome to our Cash Flow From Land show once again. We show you how to buy property for half of what it’s worth and sell it the very next day. Great information and instruction from Jack, that’s me …
Jill DeWit:
And inspiration from Jill, that’s me.
Jack Butala:
In this episode, Jill and I talk about how to sell land on the internet. Sounds simple? Well, it is. This show, the reason that this show came up is … Well, I’ll tell you in a minute. Awesome show, Jill. Let’s start off with some funny stuff that happened to us recently.
Jill DeWit:
I was kind of giggling about this with our staff the other day. Have you ever seen these office space work pods before?
Jack Butala:
Yeah, I mean, for the first time I saw one yesterday when we were shopping for office space.
Jill DeWit:
It’s really kind of funny.
Jack Butala:
It doesn’t look comfortable at all.
Jill DeWit:
It doesn’t, no.
Jack Butala:
It’s too small.
Jill DeWit:
You know what? I thought about it like the design is like when they first came with these pods on the airplane, you know, like a little first class pod? It’s kind of like they started it like that, but imagine that smaller and you’re sitting up. It was really cute because I was describing it to our staff and one of our people said, “Oh, that’s cool. I’ll work from the pod. I can take a nap in the pod.” I’m like, “No, no, no, you’re seen. They can see you.”
Jack Butala:
I think they make it small and uncomfortable on purpose.
Jill DeWit:
Maybe that’s it.
Jack Butala:
You’re not supposed to work there for 8 hours.
Jill DeWit:
No. It was really kind of funny. I was kind of cracking up. I’m like, “What is this little thing? It’s really funny.” That was a new one for me. I’d never seen that. You know what? Hey, imagine this, how many people could you cram in a 10 by 12 office if you had … You could probably put 10 pods in there.
Jack Butala:
I did that a long time ago.
Jill DeWit:
Could you imagine?
Jack Butala:
I had 4 people in an office and 1 was me right when I started because I was super on a budget, and it’s not a good idea.
Jill DeWit:
Did you even have a cube divider up?
Jack Butala:
Yeah.
Jill DeWit:
Okay, good.
Jack Butala:
We did. Take it from me, you want happy employees.
Jill DeWit:
Yes.
Jack Butala:
If they’re not happen, then it just costs money. Spend an extra thousand bucks on a bigger office, seriously.
Jill DeWit:
Remove the boss.
Jack Butala:
Yeah, yeah.
Jill DeWit:
Get a bigger office, and do not have the boss in there.
Jack Butala:
I swear, we make more money when I’m not here. I swear it. I’m not joking.
Jill DeWit:
We both roll that way, it’s kind of funny, for different reasons, I think. It’s good.
Jack Butala:
Let’s take a question posted by one of our members on SuccessPlant.com, our free online community.
Jill DeWit:
Okay. Dan T. wrote, “Okay, so you’ve agreed on a price with a seller, now where do you go for additional research when you’re just starting out to check title ownership, encumbrances, leans, zoning, water, electricity, and other property perks, et cetera? I know the Data to Doorstep program and it provides access to some of that info, but I can’t afford the multi subscription quite yet.” Okay, I got it.
Jack Butala:
I put this in here for a reason, and I was hoping that you would answer the question, Jill. I don’t remember exactly when you joined us. Did we always have …
Jill DeWit:
It’s all a blur.
Jack Butala:
Did we always have Data to Doorstep always since you’ve been here?
Jill DeWit:
Did we always have a version? Gosh. Wow.
Jack Butala:
I think the answer’s yes.
Jill DeWit:
Shucks, I don’t think so.
Jack Butala:
I didn’t always have it.
Jill DeWit:
Wait a minute. Having access to that information, you know what, Jack, I do not think so. I think when I started … You know, I honestly think that when I started learning how to do this, I didn’t dive into that yet because I …
Jack Butala:
I think you started and we had a ton of property, we had like thousands and thousands and thousands of properties in inventory.
Jill DeWit:
Right.
Jack Butala:
It was kind of during the downturn, so we turned the acquisition piece off for a while and I think we were just selling property, if I remember right. We always had it. I know we had it when you arrived, I just don’t know if anybody used it.
Jill DeWit:
Right, well here’s my … I don’t know if we had it. I definitely didn’t use it in the beginning, and I appreciate not using it at the beginning because you want to learn how to do things the right way, the real way, the old fashioned way, because what if you didn’t have that, does that make sense?
Jack Butala:
Yeah, that’s right. That’s really why I brought this up.
Jill DeWit:
This is probably … I may have stated this before, but I’m going to state it again, when you learn to fly an airplane, you’re not getting into a glass cockpit where you have a GPS and all the bells and whistles and go-around buttons and all of that exists, by the way.
Jack Butala:
There’s a go-around button?
Jill DeWit:
There’s a go-around button on the bigger planes. When you’re learning in a little 2-seater … If you’re sitting in a Citation Sovereign and you look down to your right, seriously, there literally is a go-around button. We can explain that later. I’m like, “We have a go-around button?” Anyway, so here’s my thing. When you’re learning to fly an airplane, you’re learning to fly the real way. You’re learning with a watch and a compass and looking out the window and landmarks and timing. What if all your equipment fails? You need to know how to do it the old fashioned way. I look at it like this question, what if all your equipment fails? You need to know how to do this.
Jack Butala:
All of our kids know how to drive a manual stick for that exact reason. It’s mandatory, and change a tire and stuff.
Jill DeWit:
They may not do well at it, but they understand the concept.
Jack Butala:
Yeah, for the same reason. Here’s the answer: if you don’t have the tools that we provide, the Data to Doorstep tools, they’re professional grade tools, it’s the same stuff that title companies use, you’re hurting yourself. There’s an easy way to look up ownership. You got to call the county. Sometimes you have to write a little check for $1.35 or something and have them send you the vesting deed, which you definitely want to get. You don’t want to title anything without that. For leans and encumbrances, you can order that information online from several places, although I don’t even think I would trust that. I mean, I would trust our product the most.
Jill DeWit:
You can do it other ways, but there’s a bunch of different … You have to go to different departments and different places and different …
Jack Butala:
You should do it once.
Jill DeWit:
Yeah. It takes some time. The answer is yes.
Jack Butala:
You should do it, because you’ll never do it again.
Jill DeWit:
Right, and then you’re going to go, “All right, now I’m done.” You know what? That’s so funny. Then you say, “Okay, how much money did I really save by wasting a week and calling all these people and sending all these checks to get this variety of information?” Or I could cut to the chase and do what the pros do like Jack and Jill, and there you go.
Jack Butala:
I also think you should order county data and then try to send a mailer from that.
Jill DeWit:
That’s a good tip.
Jack Butala:
You’ll never do that again either.
Jill DeWit:
That’s a really good tip.
Jack Butala:
I include in our Cash Flow From Land program, in the back, I include a sample data set from a county in New Mexico that I got a lot of years ago. It’s just gobbledygook awful. First of all and second of all, it doesn’t really give you assessed. You need assessed values to really effectively send a mailer, and I don’t think I ever have received mailer data directly from a county that’s included assessed values. You’re shooting in the dark. Find a way to afford it, Dan T.
Jill DeWit:
It’ll save you money in the end, that’s a big thing.
Jack Butala:
Yeah.
Jill DeWit:
Yeah.
Jack Butala:
It’s tough to … I think we answered it. Hey, if you have a question or you want to be on the show, call 800-725-8816. Today’s topic, how to sell land on the internet. Doesn’t that seem silly, Jill? Not silly, but so basic? This is how I came up with this topic today. I was talking to somebody very recently in a social situation, and it came up like, “What do you do for a living?” thing came up. I said, “I buy and sell land.” All that does is generate questions. Those of you in the business, come up with a better answer for that. If you’ve been in the business for a while, you already know this. Find a better way to answer it. That’s what I said, anyway. They said, “What the heck?” I said, “Oh yeah, we buy property and we send a lot of mailers out.” They get that, and then I say, “We just sell it on the internet.” They said, “What? You can sell land on the internet?” It seems basic to us. If you’re listening to this, you’re into the topic anyway. Yeah.
Jill DeWit:
You’re into something, something weird.
Jack Butala:
You’re into being bored for 20 minutes.
Jill DeWit:
Yeah.
Jack Butala:
Yeah, it turns out you can sell land on the internet. We’ve done it almost 16,000 times now.
Jill DeWit:
Who knew?
Jack Butala:
Their first question was, “What? Who the heck would buy land on the internet?” It just cracks me up.
Jill DeWit:
It’s so funny.
Jack Butala:
I decided to do a show. Jill, how do you sell land on the internet?
Jill DeWit:
You describe it really well. You put it out there everywhere, and it’s not crazy. It seems like second nature to me now. It really is. It’s so funny, I love what you said, Jack, about, “What do you mean? This really works? That must have been a one-off.” Jack, “I must’ve had almost 16,000 one-offs then. Okay. We’ll go with that.”
Jack Butala:
He got lucky.
Jill DeWit:
Yeah, right. Okay.
Jack Butala:
I did. I had 15 years of luck.
Jill DeWit:
Yeah. As we get into our cars and drive away, we live over here, whatever.
Jack Butala:
I still get that. That’s that land up there, that doesn’t count.
Jill DeWit:
There must be something wrong with it. That’s my favorite.
Jack Butala:
It’s not really real estate.
Jill DeWit:
Yeah, that’s right. Never mind that I just sold the house in the empty lot next to you, but we won’t go there. It’s okay. On the internet.
Jack Butala:
Right.
Jill DeWit:
So funny. It’s so interesting, and it’s funny because more and more buyers, with maps and everything, they’re not doing a drive by. I mean, there are some that want to see it and stand on it and that’s a different customer. The real customers out there, they’re buying it happily from us on the internet, not even looking at it. It’s easy.
Jack Butala:
Well, I’ll answer the question. This is how you sell land on the internet, you sell it exactly the way Zappos sells shoes. You check out, you click on the credit card link, and you buy the property. The only difference is that instead of getting a pair of shoes in the mail, you get a deed. What? That was the reaction last night.
Jill DeWit:
I love it. How many properties do you have in your checkout cart there? 3. I have 3 checkout carts, and look at these pumps. That’d be hilarious. Hey, that would be cool. That’s funny. I know, right? Man, I wish we could get on Amazon with this stuff. Someday Amazon’s going to figure this out and allow us to put property on there. We’re going to bug them.
Jack Butala:
I was watching the news this morning and the newscaster had this dress on that looked like Eddie Van Halen’s guitar.
Jill DeWit:
I kind of liked that dress. Did you like that, the black and white?
Jack Butala:
With the black and white stripes there?
Jill DeWit:
I meant to say something about that. I liked that dress.
Jack Butala:
The stripes looked exactly like Eddie Van Halen’s guitar.
Jill DeWit:
That’s why I liked it.
Jack Butala:
What do I do? I’m sitting in front of the internet, I type in “dress that’s just like Eddie Van Halen’s guitar”. You know what comes up?
Jill DeWit:
What?
Jack Butala:
The Van Halen store and there’s like 7 …
Jill DeWit:
There’s a Van Halen store?
Jack Butala:
There’s a Van Halen store.
Jill DeWit:
Nice.
Jack Butala:
Then I started thinking, maybe there should be a Land Academy store, or maybe we should go tell these construction guys to stop disrupting the show.
Jill DeWit:
I’m going to have to say something in just a minute, seriously.
Jack Butala:
Anyway. Hey, let’s just laugh about it. They’re just doing their job. Yeah, you can buy a Van Halen dress. I don’t think that was one.
Jill DeWit:
Exactly.
Jack Butala:
You know what that was originally? It was just electrical tape that was taped on it. Maybe there should be a Land Academy store.
Jill DeWit:
Maybe. I like that.
Jack Butala:
There should be bobble heads of Jack and Jill. That’d be funny. We should give that stuff away, actually. We shouldn’t charge for it. Who the heck would want that anyway?
Jill DeWit:
You’d be surprised.
Jack Butala:
It wasn’t always like this. This is a long … It’s the result of a comedy of errors for 15 plus years. We used to do it on eBay. We used to auction it off, they’d click on it, they’d buy it just like anything else. We still do. We still sell.
Jill DeWit:
That is true, you could have your property in your cart along with your watch and all that good stuff. There you go, that was the example right there.
Jack Butala:
I called Amazon to try to sell some property and they said, “No, we can’t do that.” I said, “Why? We do it all the time.” “Yeah, we just can’t.” I don’t understand it.
Jill DeWit:
They’re not there yet. We’ll help them. We’ll just make our own. We kind of do.
Jack Butala:
I think eventually we’re going to buy houses this way.
Jill DeWit:
Yes.
Jack Butala:
I don’t think you’re going to click on it with a credit card, but you’re going to say, “Yeah, I do want the house.” Click, click, click. I mean, realtors do not want that to happen. You’re just cutting them out of the deal. I’m shocked that there’s still realtors in 2016. I’m really surprised by it, actually.
Jill DeWit:
Yeah, I’m a little surprised too, and they’re still doing the same old driving around stuff that they did … I don’t understand the whole concept.
Jack Butala:
That’s why there’s so much damn confusion about investing in real estate and why this is … We’ve been sending direct mail offers out forever, and it’s still very brand new to a lot of people, the vast majority, because they’re so misinformed by realtors. This isn’t bash realtor day, I’m just saying the way that they make money is a little bit antiquated. I’ll leave it at that. How do you sell land on the internet? Just like Zappos. Go check out Zappos, it’s pretty cool. We model a lot of stuff after Zappos because they’re a perfect e-commerce site. It wins awards and stuff.
Jill DeWit:
Yeah. I mean, the point is, there’s pictures, there’s descriptions. I mean, it’s all that good stuff. I think what you’re trying to say, how do I say it, I should say, is it’s a good description, it’s easy, good pictures. You like that, Jack?
Jack Butala:
Yeah, keep going.
Jill DeWit:
All of that. What do I think about when shopping on Zappos? You know what else? I might check out who I’m buying it from. You have a good website, it explains who you are, and you have a good satisfaction rating or something like that. That’s good.
Jack Butala:
That’s leading into that Technical 2 and stuff. There’s a bunch of stuff you can do, and you can do it in the next 20 minutes, that will dramatically, and I mean like 80% plus increase your chances of selling stuff on the internet. Let’s just do it.
Jill DeWit:
Okay.
Jack Butala:
This is the Technical 2. 2 minutes of property investment advice from our 15 year, 15,000-plus transaction experience. You’re about 85% more likely … This is not my number, it’s off the internet. To sell whatever you’re selling on the internet if you take credit cards, if you accept credit cards though a link. You can click on it and put it in the cart, just like Jill said, and check out. Land is no different. We actually revamped our land stay site very recently, you should go check it out. Landstay.com. We even made it easier. If you want to buy on terms or cash, you click on the button. We haven’t actually populated it yet because we’re so ridiculously out of inventory all the time. The stuff that we do have up there, it sells immediately.
Jill DeWit:
It’s amazing to me, the people that go, “Oh my gosh, I can’t believe that just happened.” I’m like, “I kind of told you that would happen.” One or two of them, and then they go, “Okay, I get it. I’m in.” It’s funny.
Jack Butala:
Yeah. I mean, the way that … When I started, we would sell it on the internet and exchange checks. We’d wait for a check in the mail and we hand wrote deeds, can you believe that?
Jill DeWit:
I remember that. Well, I don’t remember the handwriting part.
Jack Butala:
I walked to school, both ways, uphill.
Jill DeWit:
Here we go. In the snow. Here it comes. Oh my gosh.
Jack Butala:
Do you have any questions or you want to be on the show? Call 800-725-8816. Jill, inspire us.
Jill DeWit:
Are you providing good content with your business? This kind of ties into it, too. I was just talking about be Zappos. My point is, be truthful and transparent.
Jack Butala:
Yeah. You know, we don’t talk before the show and we surprise each other with some of the stuff. It’s amazing how much this ties in.
Jill DeWit:
It does, exactly.
Jack Butala:
Yeah, if you’re trying to pull a fast one, in real estate or anything else, especially online, that’s just silly. Here’s what happens sometimes, a lot of people sign up for Success Plant. We have a lot of members on there because it’s free. About every eighth person signs up with a username like this, thenewlandguy@gmail.com.
Jill DeWit:
That’s right.
Jack Butala:
What is that? Are you embarrassed? Why can’t you just be John Smith from Utah?
Jill DeWit:
Exactly. Do you realize what name you just pulled out of the air?
Jack Butala:
John Smith? No.
Jill DeWit:
That’s kind of the founder of the …
Jack Butala:
The spaceship group?
Jill DeWit:
Something like that. We’ll leave it at that. Wow, that was really kind of funny.
Jack Butala:
You got to bring religion into the show.
Jill DeWit:
What the heck?
Jack Butala:
Why don’t we talk about politics, too?
Jill DeWit:
That’s hilarious?
Jack Butala:
All 6 listeners, now we have 2. How do you feel about Donald Trump?
Jill DeWit:
Here we go. I was waiting for that. I was totally waiting for that.
Jack Butala:
How about Hillary Clinton?
Jill DeWit:
No comment. I have no comment about any of this.
Jack Butala:
Good answer.
Jill DeWit:
Oh, my gosh. Yeah, I’m not going to say anything. Don’t drag me down that path. That’s not fair.
Jack Butala:
Anyway, you’re absolutely right, just be as transparent as you possibly can. There’s no more hiding behind companies like it’s 1932.
Jill DeWit:
Exactly. Yeah, and it does help you. Have good content, like I said, and maybe even do some informational stuff. You want to make some attention. Share some good articles on your website. Drive some traffic that way. It’ll really help you out.
Jack Butala:
Exactly. Hey, 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 do just about anything you want.
Jill DeWit:
We use it every day to buy property half of what it’s worth and sell it immediately.
Jack Butala:
Get there first. Hey, if you can hear over the construction that’s happening on my balcony …
Jill DeWit:
I’m going to take a step outside here in a second because I can’t take it.
Jack Butala:
If you’ve never seen Jill … Here’s the thing about Jill, when she gets upset about something, it only happens like once a month maybe …
Jill DeWit:
Hey, since it’s the after show, should I open the door and let everybody hear me saying it?
Jack Butala:
No.
Jill DeWit:
Okay. You know me, I’m going to politely say, “Can you take it to the other end just for one more …” I’m going to ask for 45 minutes.
Jack Butala:
I’m a big fan of …
Jill DeWit:
I’m going to move them. Here I go.
Jack Butala:
Putting people in their place, but not guys that are working. She’s going to let them have it.
Jill DeWit:
Watch me. Hey, guys, can I bother you for 45 minutes to go to the other end? We’re actually recording a podcast show and it’s so … This is our last day, and I just have … Thank you so much. The little stuff, I’m like, “Okay, now it’s getting really loud.” Thank you.
Jack Butala:
I hope that came through. It wasn’t so bad. She always gets what she wants. Nice work, Jill.
Jill DeWit:
Thank you. All right, much better. They were really nice. Give me 45 more minutes, please. They said, “No problem.”
Jack Butala:
Nice work.
Jill DeWit:
Thank you.
Jack Butala:
Jack and Jill, information and inspiration. Jill just kicked some butt. Let’s go buy some property.
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