Back Tax Property Data Done Correctly by Jack (CFFL 0220)
Back Tax Property Data Done Correctly by Jack
Jack Butala: Back Tax Property Data Done Correctly by Jack. 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 with Jill DeWit.
Jill DeWit:
Howdy.
Jack Butala:
Welcome to our show. In this episode Jill and I talk about back tax property data done correctly by Jack. This is kind of a technical show. Jill’s going to try to entertain us in between my crap that Jack says about technical stuff. Great show today, Jill. Before we get it all rolling let’s take a question posted by one of our members on success plant dot com our free online community.
Jill DeWit:
Okay Ethan wrote I have been sending out mailers like crazy for a few weeks now. I now have deals coming in however, I’m stuck. I have a signed deal in my hand but I want to make sure I’m covering all of my bases. What are some of the ways to check for liens and encumbrances? I’m just nervous because this is my first acquisition. I thought I heard that information would be accessible with data to doorstep but just do not know how. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Here is a reply from one of our members.
Jack Butala:
Good story.
Jill DeWit:
Yes. Hello Ethan, congratulations.
Jack Butala:
This is how success plant works. I don’t mean to interrupt you Jill, actually I do. People ask questions and senior members or more seniors member, ones that have experience, sometimes it’s even Jill and I or our staff they answer them.
Jill DeWit:
Exactly.
Jack Butala:
It’s free.
Jill DeWit:
It is free. Hello Ethan congratulations. This is a process that I use. Step one: determine if the information is available online directly from the county. Search by county name, state real estate records, county name state assessor, country name state treasurer et cetera et cetera. Love it. Some are easier to navigate than others. Some require you register. Some charge for certain documents.
Jack Butala:
The more rural the county, the less information you’ll have but data to doorstep covers a tremendous amount of it. I think that’s probably going to be still true here.
Jill DeWit:
It’s true. Let’s see here. This is so much good information too.
Jack Butala:
I know.
Jill DeWit:
I love this too.
Jack Butala:
I learned stuff.
Jill DeWit:
This is stuff that we’ve done … We have our own little thing. Keep all your successful findings saved in a database. Yes that way you know everytime you do that county you already have all have all these people’s phone numbers. We’ve done that. We do that too. Good advice. Step two: this should not yield …
Jack Butala:
Should this not yield results.
Jill DeWit:
Should this not yield the results you’re looking for, contact not go to data to doorstep. See if it’s available through the service. Yup, most time it is. Another resource is title point. I haven’t use title point at all.
Jack Butala:
I haven’t either.
Jill DeWit:
I never get to that point.
Jack Butala:
I will research it after the show.
Jill DeWit:
Then step three: call the county directly. Again, should this not yield the results you’re looking for you can call the local title company. Wishing you much success, Tory. This is great. This is all kind of like Tory’s explaining his steps that he uses acting in his own title agent which is excellent. Doing your own homework.
Jack Butala:
I’ve been hearing about liens and encumbrances. Liens and encumbrances are things like a mortgage or it could be a lawsuit filed against somebody who owns property. Could be a bankruptcy. Maybe the person or the company that owns the property filed bankruptcy and the asset … It’s things like that. In the almost 16,000 land transactions that Jill and I have done this has never occurred. Around deal number 3 or 4,000 I stopped checking. Am I saying you should never check on these assets? No I’m not saying that at all. In fact, that’s part of the title process. Know how to do it. These two people in success plant are doing everything correctly. Even better than we do actually. Get to know that process but be cool about it. You don’t have to go nuts and spend a ton of money on researching every single transaction. If you’re spending $500 on a 5 acre property and you’re going to sell it for 1,500 don’t …
Jill DeWit:
Don’t spend 8 hours on this.
Jack Butala:
Exactly, Jill. Be aware of it that’s all.
Jill DeWit:
Exactly. Do your homework. Be aware. That was awesome.
Jack Butala:
If you have any questions or you want to be on the show call 800-725-8816. Today’s topic is back tax property data done correctly by Jack. Jill you can paint your nails if you want.
Jill DeWit:
I’m going to go. Will you come call me and I’ll come back in the studio when you’re ready? Just kidding.
Jack Butala:
You know what? As nuts as it gets just like if I get so technical just stop me.
Jill DeWit:
Right.
Jack Butala:
Tell and joke once in a while all right?
Jill DeWit:
Yes.
Jack Butala:
This is how you correctly if you’re soul bent on just sending back tax property which is will never understand. I’m going to be really straight about it up front. You’re making a huge mistake if you just send offers to property with back taxes on it. For a lot of reasons that we talk about all the time. If that’s what you want to do I’m going to start with how not to do it. Don’t seek out a back tax list from a source, any other source, any other source other than the county. It’s probably old. Back tax property, just the nature of it, has all kind of of ownership changes and complications. You want data from the county. What do we say in other shows? That data from the county’s all complicated and convoluted and it’s very difficult to get through.
Here’s what you do. You get data to doorstep which had fresh good real estate data for all the properties in the county and you line that up against the convoluted awful fresh data that you get directly from the county. Step one you look at data to doorstep in county X and you have all that data in front of you. Step two contact the county, get the back tax data. Again, if you’re bent on doing this I don’t know why you would. I don’t ever do this. You’ve got these two sources of data and you run a merge inside of excel based on APN. What you’re left with when you run all the duplicates and find the duplicates in those two lists is super fresh awesome data in a great format but it’s all associated with back taxes. Then you send everybody a letter or an offer I should say. Wow that happened a lot faster than I thought it would. Was that clear or not?
Jill DeWit:
Mm-hmm (affirmative) that was great.
Jack Butala:
How many nails did you paint?
Jill DeWit:
You know what I wrote down here? I wrote down a little I’m going to make … Actually I’m drawing pictures, but what I wrote down was why …
Jack Butala:
You’re drawing pictures?
Jill DeWit:
I am.
Jack Butala:
Are you doodling?
Jill DeWit:
I am doodling. Here’s my note though while I was doodling around. It says why discriminate against the people who pay their taxes? I said mail everyone an offer. How do you like that?
Jack Butala:
This is an equal opportunity. An EEOC Equal opportunity mail campaign.
Jill DeWit:
Dude, I’m going to make … I’m serious because here’s what I’m going to do. I’m like I’m going to make a cool graphic out of that. I’m going to post that. Why are you discriminating against people who pay their taxes, duh. Mail everybody an offer. I don’t understand. Why are we getting …
Jack Butala:
That’s a great way to make a joke out of something that is actually pretty serious.
Jill DeWit:
Thank you.
Jack Butala:
I’m going to say it again. Please don’t just mail back tax properties. You’re doing yourself a huge disservice.
Jill DeWit:
You know it.
Jack Butala:
It’s the most complicated transactions that there are out there. Write somebody wan offer who just wants to get rid of their property and everything’s current and they actually own it.
Jill DeWit:
Here’s my other point on this. If you are really skeptical or you are convinced, whatever why don’t we do this the right way? Run your own test. I’ve seen people do that and they put the results in Facebook and other things. They ran their tests and their light bulb went off like oh my gosh duh. I am doing this wrong. Yeah they’ve run their own tests and checked it so don’t trust us. Do this for yourself. Give yourself a mailer. Put everybody in there and then line up your results here with your results over here. You do the math.
Jack Butala:
That’s exactly right, Jill.
Jill DeWit:
Thank you.
Jack Butala:
You will find that you know, you’re way more successful. Unless you’re an anomaly, you will find that you are way more successful than just by just sending offers to people who want to get rid of their property. When you go buy a car or try to go look for cars do you only look for ones that need a lot of work? No you try to find a perfect car that’s running great for the cheapest price you can. That’s the same thing here. Find some property there’s nothing wrong with it but you got a great deal on it. You don’t have to fix it.
Jill DeWit:
I’m the inspirational one so I try to get into people’s heads on this. Here is my two cents. I find that the people who are paying their taxes on this and they don’t want the property any more are more, it’s easier to negotiate with them. They don’t know that they can walk away. They don’t know they can stop paying their taxes. They might be afraid of it and they really want to get out from under this. They’re tired of paying that money but they feel like they have to pay that money. Some of those people, and I love it when I’m talking to them and they’re staring at a tax bill because often that’s when they call us. They’re like oh gosh I was just about to pay another couple hundred dollars. I’ll tell them don’t pay it. Don’t pay that right now.
Jack Butala:
That’s right, that’s right Jill. Well said.
Jill DeWit:
I’m glad you’re looking at that. Don’t pay that. Don’t even worry about it. I will take care of it. Here’s the deal.
Jack Butala:
You can hear the sigh of relief on the other end of the phone.
Jill DeWit:
You can of the call, really. Like okay yeah put that down. I see you’re staring, okay you’re staring at a $150 tax bill. Here’s what I’m going to do. Don’t pay that. I’m going to send you 100 or not 100, I’m going to send you $1,000 on Tuesday with a notary to your door and we’re going to take care of everything. They’re like oh thank goodness. That’s really how it goes. How easy is that? Everybody wins.
Jack Butala:
It just makes so much sense. It’s so logical to us but until you do it. You know what the problem is? We have people, competitors, who teach this.
Jill DeWit:
People think it’s the only way. While we’re over here making a lot of money.
Jack Butala:
It’s an easy sales pitch. Here’s the sales pitch that they give you. Follow the advertisement, owners advertise if you look for it the fact that they want to get rid of their property by they just stop paying the taxes because they don’t want it. That’s not the case. I’m here to tell you.
Jill DeWit:
That’s the thing.
Jack Butala:
That is not the case.
Jill DeWit:
I agree.
Jack Butala:
It might be partially true but you know, the biggest reason people stop paying taxes on real estate is that they’re dead, all right? When people are dead and own real estate it’s a very difficult scenario to un-do. You as an investor are a deal maker. You don’t want to be un-doing people’s estates you want to buy. John Smith, talked to John Smith on the phone. John Smith owns the property. John Smith signs the deed and now you own it and you want to get a good deal on it. You don’t want to pay market price. That’s the game we’re in. We’re not in the estate game, fixing people’s estates.
Jill DeWit:
Exactly.
Jack Butala:
If you have to do it, I just explained how.
Jill DeWit:
You did.
Jack Butala:
Run a merge in excel or access and based on APN. You’re going to get a good fresh list of back tax properties but don’t do it.
Jill DeWit:
But don’t do it. Here’s a positive. Again, we don’t discriminate.
Jack Butala:
I know where that’s going to go.
Jill DeWit:
We don’t discriminate.
Jack Butala:
That’s going to be a headline in a lot of stuff.
Jill DeWit:
It is.
Jack Butala:
I know how Jill thinks.
Jill DeWit:
I’m an equal opportunity buyer. Awesome that’s it.
Jack Butala:
What are the initials there? E E equal opportunity E O
Jill DeWit:
Equal …
Jack Butala:
EOB instead of EOC.
Jill DeWit:
EOB equal opportunity buyer. Love it.
Jack Butala:
That’s hilarious.
Jill DeWit:
This is hilarious. Is this good? Okay here’s my thing. I’m an equal opportunity buyer. What this means is …
Jack Butala:
I just tried to end it. She won’t let it end.
Jill DeWit:
I am going to. I got to get one more thing in here. This is really valuable information.
Jack Butala:
If you have a question, go ahead. Go ahead, go ahead.
Jill DeWit:
Don’t discriminate. When people do call you and say hey by the way but I owe X amount you want to always ask that question. Let’s just back up. You did everything right. You have back tax property data going out and current property data because you just sent a mailer to everybody in the county the right way. Someone’s calling you back you do need to ask that question but don’t discriminate saying oh forget it I’m not going to talk to them because they owe money on taxes. Oh no. You’re still going to look at it like you do with every other deal. Just make sure you ask the question and you know where they stand and you are aware of that right now going into it. You don’t want to find out you know, 3 hours from now after you’ve figured out where the roads are and you’ve done all these pretty maps and things like that. You’ve spent a lot time on it. Great I was going to offer them $600 and I just realized that he owes $1,000 well that’s not going to work for me now. Ask that up front. Just get that information so you know what it is and that’s it.
Jack Butala:
It should be in the list of questions that you have right the first time you talk to somebody or if they sign the offer and send it back it should be what’s wrong? Is there anything wrong with the thing? Anything I should know about before we … That’s kind of what I always used to say. What are you not telling me, seller?
Jill DeWit:
You should have a list of questions on your desk that is ever growing and every changing.
Jack Butala:
The list of questions that you have if you send back tax mailers out is about 14 times longer than the one that we actually use.
Jill DeWit:
That’s true.
Jack Butala:
In fact, we have one question. What are you not telling me?
Jill DeWit:
Who really owns it?
Jack Butala:
Who owns it? Is there …
Jill DeWit:
What’s the real story?
Jack Butala:
Is there anything I need to know before I go down the path of closing this deal with you. Is it a super fun site? Do you have a 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th mortgage on this thing that I don’t know about.
Jill DeWit:
Right, exactly.
Jack Butala:
Do you actually own it? All those things are very prevalent with back tax property. You don’t want to deal with that. You just want to talk to John Smith who said you know what? It turns out I really don’t want this property and I don’t want to go through all the stuff of listing it on the MLS and everything. Why don’t you just send me $1,000 with a notary, I’ll sing the stuff and we can call it done. God bless you. I hope you make a ton of money. I’m a mechanical engineer and I’m happy with that.
Jill DeWit:
I had it all these years. The kids don’t want it.
Jack Butala:
It happens to Jill and I every single day.
Jill DeWit:
I thought I was going to do stuff.
Jack Butala:
Every day we have offers coming in and people calling and saying hey thanks for getting me out of this thing. I know it’s worth more. Good luck.
Jill DeWit:
Exactly.
Jack Butala:
Can I end it now?
Jill DeWit:
Yes you may.
Jack Butala:
If you have a question or you want to be on the show call 800-725-8816. Inspire us.
Jill DeWit:
My inspiration today is listen. Sometimes if you just not talk …
Jack Butala:
This is a message to me, not to you listeners.
Jill DeWit:
Well it is now.
Jack Butala:
Jack, listen.
Jill DeWit:
Listen, listen, listen Linda, listen. Remember that?
Jack Butala:
Yeah I do remember that.
Jill DeWit:
That was really funny. Listen. That was so cute. I forgot about that. Now it’s replaced with the chewbacca thing. The chewbacca mask has replaced the listen Linda, listen youtube thing that went viral.
Jack Butala:
That was classic.
Jill DeWit:
Yeah that was really good. Listen, listen to your sellers. Listen to your buyers. Listen to your people. There’s a lot of …
Jack Butala:
Listen to your mother.
Jill DeWit:
Listen to your mother.
Jack Butala:
Regardless of your age.
Jill DeWit:
Listen to Jill. Listen to Jack.
Jack Butala:
That was for the kids.
Jill DeWit:
Okay. There’s a lot of …
Jack Butala:
Listen to your mother.
Jill DeWit:
There’s a lot of stuff that’s not being said that you’re missing because you’re not effectively listening.
Jack Butala:
We have a talk show so I’m super good at not listening.
Jill DeWit:
Yes that’s very true.
Jack Butala:
I’m really good at having one way conversations which is really what a podcast is.
Jill DeWit:
This is very true.
Jack Butala:
I don’t have to listen.
Jill DeWit:
I know.
Jack Butala:
You’re telling me I do though.
Jill DeWit:
Maybe you should. It’s something worth thinking about. Actually this isn’t for you. It really isn’t for you.
Jack Butala:
I know it’s not.
Jill DeWit:
No it’s really for … I was thinking about my last little thing about when you’re talking to a seller. They’re calling you back and they’re explaining their property. You’ll pick up on little things and you need to listen. You need to find out … Sometimes I mean, if you really listen and you’ll find out really what the story is behind the property. You’ll know right then and there if it’s a good deal or not. You’ll know when they say stuff like my wife and I have had this for 20 years and we’re going to retire there.
Jack Butala:
Oh my gosh, Jill you’re exactly right.
Jill DeWit:
Oh my gosh.
Jack Butala:
Now I know what you’re doing.
Jill DeWit:
Now I know. You know what? The person is really sharing some stuff with you that’s really valuable information to you. Now you’re like you know what? All right now I’m paying attention to this property. Now I’m going to go back and look and see you know what? The guy is really telling the truth. They have owned it that long. I just looked it up from the county and I can see that. All right I feel good about this. I’m going to make this deal. The guy had the property for 20 years. If someone was looking for him for that long he wouldn’t have it. Whatever it is. We can listen and tell if there’s problems.
Jack Butala:
Here’s my follow up. A huge indicator of where there’s problems is if seller’s not telling you something is when they call every day. Is the deal done yet? Is it done yet? After the third time I have a three call rule. That’s a title of a show. Three call rule. If they call everyday and say can I have my money? Can I have my money? Can I have my money? Is it closed yet? Is it closed yet? Don’t do the deal. Personally, I don’t do it because it’s annoying and I don’t need to. There’s 92 other deals behind.
Jill DeWit:
I have a guy doing that right now with us. He’s trying to sell us something … He’s trying to sell us a bundle of stuff, just reached out to us randomly …
Jack Butala:
Properties?
Jill DeWit:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jack Butala:
Oh I know exactly who you’re talking about.
Jill DeWit:
He’s tripping your radar now.
Jack Butala:
If I know about a deal, if I know about a transaction in lands day this is where we are in our careers, then somethings really wrong. It’s either really screwed up or it’s like we’re going to make $300,000 on it.
Jill DeWit:
Yeah this is really screwed up.
Jack Butala:
I know exactly who you’re talking about. In this guy’s portfolio is properties that we sold him, a couple of properties that we sold him a long time ago, a lot of years ago.
Jill DeWit:
Yeah he won’t let up and it’s tripping my radar. I’m not feeling good about it.
Jack Butala:
What’s that all about? Why doesn’t he just put it on where it’s supposed to go like we do?
Jill DeWit:
Exactly. There’s another question … That’s one of the things that tripping my radar.
Jack Butala:
Usually when people have a lot of properties they’re in the business.
Jill DeWit:
That’s what I’m saying.
Jack Butala:
It’s good advice, Jill. Listening’s extremely … I’m going to try it sometime.
Jill DeWit:
Let’s try that today.
Jack Butala:
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.
Jill DeWit:
We use it everyday to listen and buy property for half of what it’s worth and sell it immediately.
Jack Butala:
Listen, Jill get there first. You know? The last few inspirations you’ve done have been brilliant and they’re like one word.
Jill DeWit:
Thank you.
Jack Butala:
Like listen is … I you know, that could be a whole show.
Jill DeWit:
Mm-hmm (affirmative). Thank you.
Jack Butala:
What was the one before this? It was brilliant too.
Jill DeWit:
Do the right thing.
Jack Butala:
Do the right thing. Spike Lee.
Jill DeWit:
My things were motivation, motivate your people, the last 4 ones I have written down in front of me, use your good instincts, do the right thing and listen. My better thing is the crap Jack says which is listen I might try that today.
Jack Butala:
I won’t thought. You know why?
Jill DeWit:
Because you don’t have to. Here it comes. Here it comes.
Jack Butala:
I’m one of the owners. I’m the less compassionate owner. There’s a show right there.
Jill DeWit:
Oh my gosh.
Jack Butala:
Go talk to you mother about it. She’s the compassionate one.
Jill DeWit:
Yeah I don’t really care over here.
Jack Butala:
You’re failing at this anyway. That’s my attitude.
Jill DeWit:
There we go.
Jack Butala:
Then, never mind.
Jill DeWit:
Exactly.
Jack Butala:
It’s a good thing we have you.
Jill DeWit:
Thank you.
Jack Butala:
We’d be a mess.
Jill DeWit:
Thank you.
Jack Butala:
Information and inspiration to buy undervalued property
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