Monday Deal Review Lots and Acreage (CFFL 0247)
Monday Deal Review Lots and Acreage
Jack Butala: Monday Deal Review Lots and Acreage. 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: Hello.
Jack Butala: Jill just said-
Jill DeWit: I want to slow you down one day.
Jack Butala: I know. She just said before we got in the show, “You got to slow it down.” Welcome to our show, crazy man. In this episode, Jill and I talk about our Monday deal review, lots and acreage. This is a new thing. We’re going to talk about the deals we’re doing every Monday. Great show today, Jill. I’m excited actually. I love talking about land deals. Let’s take a question though before we get into it. Posted by one of our members on SuccessPlant.com, our free online community.
Jill DeWit: Ryan asked, “I’ve a couple of friends who are looking to increase their leads. For those of you who have used Data to Doorstep,” this is in our thing here, “as a realtor or for a realtor, how do you use it? Can you help me figure out what criteria to pick? I’m looking at doing some direct mail campaigns for my friends. Thanks for your help in advance.” Then he put a little PS to you, Jack, that I know this is something that you have in the works.
Jack Butala: Yeah, it is.
Jill DeWit: That’s cool.
Jack Butala: Vertically, we’re going to release lots, not lots, about four programs like we do for Land. One of them specifically is to help real estate agents get listings. I’m reading through the lines here, but I think that’s what Ryan is asking me. He’s a member. He’s got Data to Doorstep. He uses it but he’s got realtor friends who want to take a crack at sending out offers for houses and maybe getting listings out of it.
This is what you do. This is how Jill and I wholesale houses. We pick an area based on … We only work with one buyer at a time. He’s the guy who actually fix, too. He rehab them. He rehabs a house. He’s always looking for super cheap property to rehab so he can resell it and increase his margins. What we do is we pick an area that we know he loves, and we send offers out. We buy them. Mark them up 10 grand and just sell it to him. I don’t care if it’s $500,000 house, mark it up 10 grand. If it’s an $80,000, which we don’t do anymore, we mark it up 10 grand, but you might in your area.
What Ryan is saying, “How can I help these realtors?” Well, it’s the exact same thing. That’s why I went through that, that lengthy description.
Jill DeWit: That was lengthy. I’m like [inaudible 00:02:31].
Jack Butala: Just the actual piece of mail that you send out, that’s different. I know people that do that and the sellers call back and say, “I’m not going to sell my house for that much, but I will accept an offer at X,” which is higher. Then they say, “That’s too high. I’m a real estate agent. How about I just list it?” I’m not a fan of that at all. That will never make a package. The right way to do it is just to say, “I’m an agent,” like I think you’re supposed to by law. “I have a buyer in the area, and I’m interested in purchasing your house with this buyer for X.”
Jill DeWit: What I hear you saying is go through all the … As you’re picking your criteria, you should just tweak your criteria to whatever that realtor wants. For example, this neighborhood, three bedroom, two baths, this size house, this price range, I’m trying to get leads for those types of properties. Bingo. Then you can quickly in 15 minutes spit out a list of all the owners and all the details of that exact property. Then you can do whatever you want with it, Ryan. The answer is yes.
Jack Butala: Here’s what the whole program is going to be about in less than probably 45 seconds, maybe 30 seconds. You’re a real estate agent on a [CUP 00:03:51] 2, 3, $400,000 house. After all the splits and stuff, you’re going to make 3, 4, maybe 5,000 bucks if everything goes perfectly. Why not find a buyer to represent who buys houses all over the place all the time to rehab? Represent the buyer and just take a fee on the deal. There’s no other agents involved. Now, you have half the work is done because the property is going to be purchased right when you find it.
Instead of trying to get a listing … This works for listings, too, by the way. Instead of trying to get a listing, why not just wholesale it? Find a buyer and represent that buyer in a ton of deals which will lead to more buyers. That’s how I would use it, Ryan. I hope it’s the Ryan that I know because he’s a good guy.
If you have a question or you want to be on the show, call this number 800-725-8816. Today’s topic is Monday deal review, lots and acreage. Jill, what’s in the acquisition pipeline?
Jill DeWit: I love it. Actually, I’m pulling up the email right now to share it because it’s really, really, really cool.
Jack Butala: How many deals do we have in the pipeline, ballpark? I haven’t looked recently. It’s like 340, I think.
Jill DeWit: I can’t keep up. I really can’t. It is so awesome. Here’s what I got. This is an email that I got yesterday. “Hi, I’m looking to sell some land in New Mexico. Would you, by any chance, be someone who can negotiate purchasing this land? I have four for sure, potentially six to eight lots near blank water state park along blank road in New Mexico. They belong to my mother-in-law and her sisters and were left to them by my father. They don’t want them. I know they want to sell. Blah blah blah. Please reach out to me.”
What was really funny is I’m like, “My gosh. Hi.” I used her name. “We bought a couple of parcels from you. I don’t if you remember from dah dah dah.” I said, “Yes, we are interested,” since she was on there. It’s funny because I just saw her name the other day as I’m scrolling down the list. It’s funny that she popped up. She immediately piped right back. “My gosh. Hi, Jill. Thank you so much. Here’s the detail for the four lots that are available right now.”
Jack Butala: Are they in the water?
Jill DeWit: Well, yeah. It’s in the subdivision.
Jack Butala: This isn’t even in the system yet.
Jill DeWit: No.
Jack Butala: I’m learning stuff here, too.
Jill DeWit: No. These are great pretty, pretty lots. I love that there’s so many … This is stuff I look for. I don’t want to mess around. I want to get them all at one time. I’m not going to-
Jack Butala: Multi-unit deals-
Jill DeWit: On these kinds of things. Exactly. It’s so nice.
Jack Butala: Just a second on multi-unit deals. When you have a seller just like Jill described, normally, I wouldn’t even respond to this, but we purchased properties from her in the past so that’s great. Out of the blue like this, then it starts a negotiation, what you want to do is just get … The whole point is to get the seller to send their mail back, send the offers back signed so you can process the deal like it’s buying a pair of shoes. In this case, she’s got multiple property. We already purchased properties from her so she understands that we don’t pay retail. She’s got four lake, or waterfront or near-
Jill DeWit: Four and maybe eight.
Jack Butala: Eight. Now, you’re doing all the work and you’re going to make eight times the money.
Jill DeWit: Exactly.
Jack Butala: Multiple-unit deals are rock.
Jill DeWit: We have a relationship. She knows how we roll. We know how she rolls.
Jack Butala: That’s all because-
Jill DeWit: We all know each other.
Jack Butala: She likes Jill. That’s really what’s going on.
Jill DeWit: It’s really cool.
Jack Butala: Everybody loves Jill.
Jill DeWit: Thank you. I love these and that’s it. My thing to is, too, you don’t want to don’t answer the phone. It’s good to have established, not just from your buyers and your sellers. That’s not a bad thing. Now, however, don’t go crazy like you and I talked about all the time, Jack. Just because you have a relationship with this person, and they send you all kinds of stuff, don’t be buying stuff outside of your criteria at that time. “Hey, my friend has this. You want to buy it?” If that doesn’t meet your criteria, don’t mess around. Stick to what you’re working on because it will zap a lot of your time and you don’t want to do that.
Jack Butala: Establish an acquisition criteria and stick to it. Even if you know you can make some money on a house in New Jersey, it’s too much. Stick to your acquisition criteria. Unless New Jersey houses are your acquisition criteria, then knock yourself out.
Jill DeWit: There you go. It’s really good. I love it. I’m excited. I’m happy. What you were going to say? I’m sorry.
Jack Butala: I was moving on.
Jill DeWit: Already?
Jack Butala: Yeah.
Jill DeWit: That’s all we’re going to share?
Jack Butala: Let’s talk about more deals. People ask us, “Can you guys talk about the deals you’re doing? Why do you just talk about this other silly stuff all the time?”
Jill DeWit: Well, here’s the thing. Here’s what I would do.
Jack Butala: I love talking about real estate deals, by the way.
Jill DeWit: You’re skipping along the top here.
Jack Butala: I’m sorry.
Jill DeWit: Jack.
Jack Butala: Go ahead.
Jill DeWit: Here’s my next step.
Jack Butala: It’s your show.
Jill DeWit: This is what I want everyone to take away from this. What are my next steps now I’ve got the details? Now, I need to find out … There’s two things that have to happen. A, do I want it? B, what is she asking? That’s the next step. You don’t want to be … In a perfect world, in this type of scenario, you want to find out quickly if you were on the same page financially. If you’re not on the same page financially, get the heck out of there and move on. Like Jack just said, she knows me. She knows us. She has an idea of what we’re going to pay, how fast we’re going to close and how the deal is going to go down. I’m going to assume, at this point, that she’s going to be … We’re all on the same page.
Imagine this was somebody just random. Your next step would be, “Great. Thank you.” Don’t put in a day’s work on this, by the way. The lady just sent me back the details. Don’t sit and analyze it yet because you want to find out even if it meets your whatever. You want to find out are they asking $500? Are they asking $5,000? If they say, “I want 5,000,” then just stop right there. Don’t even do anymore work. “Thank you very much. Not what I’m looking for.” Move on. I want to just help everybody not waste a lot of time.
Jack Butala: I had to let somebody go for this, what I’m about to bring up, because they couldn’t grasp it and they were a former real estate agent. I believe that’s the source of the issue. Price should not be a point of negotiation. What the heck does that mean? What it means is that you mail an offer out. If you’re offering a thousand dollars and they call back and say, “I really do want to sell my property,” my answer historically has been, “Then, please sign the agreement that we sent you. Send it back, or scan it, or send it, or let me know that you’re going to do that. We’ll process it and we’ll get the thing done for you as fast as possible.”
If they say something like this, “Wait, wait, wait, wait. A thousand dollars is not going to work for me.” Worse yet, they say, “Okay.” Then we get down two, three days later or three or four phone calls later and it’s like, “Well, no. That price never worked for me.” On the very first phone call, you need to say, “Does that price work? Is a thousand dollars acceptable? Is $500 acceptable?” If they say, “No, not at all,” personally, I stop there. This is one of the reasons that Jill is better at this than I am because she’ll sit around the phone and make sure that … She’ll get the price that she wants by just pure filibuster.
Jill DeWit: No, I don’t.
Jack Butala: That’s how she does at home here, too.
Jill DeWit: No. I do not. You’re so silly.
Jack Butala: It’s a compliment. It’s a huge compliment.
Jill DeWit: I’m no filibuster.
Jack Butala: I know. By befriending them and saying, “Look … ”
Jill DeWit: I passed on a lot of deals.
Jack Butala: This is actually the Technical Two, so I’ll just say it right now, the next segment of the show. Price is not negotiable most of the time. It seems ironic and it feels wrong because everybody since the beginning of time has sat around the table and negotiated a price about a real estate deal. I don’t do it. The offer is the offer and that’s it. If for whatever reason you find yourself low on offers, which would crack me up, send more mail out. Buy the properties at your price. Control your destiny. Buy the properties at your price. If you’re not getting the properties at the price you want, send more mail out.
Jill DeWit: Yeah. You’ll get good at that. There’s nothing wrong with saying, “Look, I hear you and I get it. This is my offer.” Just leave the door open. Always leave the door open because you’d be surprised. Sometimes they come back. Make sure you say, “Hey, you know what? If something changes though, let me know. My offer will stand,” or whatever you want to say. I have had, gosh, $10,000 become $1,000,
Jack Butala: I know you have.
Jill DeWit: … and stuff just by being nice and leaving the door open and just saying, “Hey, I get it. If you get that, great. All the best. If something changes or, gosh, you’re sitting on it for a month and a half and you decided you’re done with that, let me know.” They come back.
Jack Butala: The only real reason I personally have adjusted the price at all is if somebody who sees an offer calls back and says this, “Hey, I got your offer for a thousand bucks and I get it. I’m ready to sign it and send it back, but my sister owns half of this property. She wants a thousand dollars, too. If you could take 1,500, I’m going to go back to her and I’m going to really sell it hard. We’re going to get a $750 check each. If you could just do that, that would be great.” I’ll do that.
This is what I won’t do. Same situation. “My sister wants to sell it, too. What will you offer?” “Well, I already just made an offer. I have a thousand dollars you got in the mail.” “No, no. What are you really going to offer?” Then I just click. I’m not negotiating it with myself- [crosstalk 00:14:04]
Jill DeWit: Yeah, you can’t go back [crosstalk 00:14:04]. It’s silly.
Jack Butala: Negotiating a deal with myself.
Jill DeWit: You’re right.
Jack Butala: I have a pet peeve about that. Do I sound angry about this? I am a little.
Jill DeWit: You’re a little negative.
Jack Butala: I get upset about this. I sent you an offer. Hey, [inaudible 00:14:16].
Jill DeWit: I know.
Jack Butala: I sent you an offer.
Jill DeWit: That’s why you and I do things differently. You know what? That’s okay, Jack. You’re all about that. You’re right. This is the best way really is. Just get into a system. Send out offers, and do the ones that come back, and flip them, and go.
Jack Butala: I see this happening in marriages.
Jill DeWit: No. Send a lot of offers?
Jack Butala: “Hey, husband. This is not right what you’re doing over here. This thing that you’re doing is not right.” “What do you like me to do?” “I don’t know. Try something different. I’ll let you know.” “Well, I’ll do it this way then. How’s that?” “It doesn’t feel right yet.” “How should I do it?” “I’ll let you know. Keep going.” I call it a moving target. “Keep trying. No, it doesn’t feel-”
Jill DeWit: No, those aren’t the right flowers. No, I don’t like those either. Could you imagine?
Jack Butala: I see people who have lifelong relationships like this and it’s not gender specific.
Jill DeWit: I can imagine this. This is great.
Jack Butala: The flower thing is perfect.
Jill DeWit: No, I don’t like those flowers either. What?
Jack Butala: I can honestly say, Jill-
Jill DeWit: What the heck.
Jack Butala: I can honestly say that you are not that kind of person at all.
Jill DeWit: Could you imagine if I did that? If I said, “Send them back. That’s the wrong color.”
Jack Butala: I have personally-
Jill DeWit: I know that there’s people that would do that.
Jack Butala: Personally had that happen. You know what’s great about you? You’re the first person I’ve ever known or ever been in a relationship with where I can literally go buy you a dress, and bring it back, and you’ll put it on and be happy like it’s a movie.
Jill DeWit: Yeah, I like it because you picked it out.
Jack Butala: Every person I’ve ever known, they’re like, “It’s too short.”
Jill DeWit: It’s too cool.
Jack Butala: “It’s too long. It’s not the right color.” All these. It just ends up going back.
Jill DeWit: No. Thank you. I appreciate that.
Jack Butala: Huge compliment.
Jill DeWit: Now, I know why you’re kind of taking it back sometimes. You’re like, “Really? Can I do that?” I’m like, “Yeah, go pick it out. I’m okay. I like it.” Seriously. It’s fun.
Jack Butala: Jewelry, too. Have you ever taken any … It wouldn’t hurt my feelings at all, honestly.
Jill DeWit: No.
Jack Butala: I don’t think you ever have.
Jill DeWit: No, I love it.
Jack Butala: I think that’s awesome.
Jill DeWit: Well, that’s half of it. Everybody needs to slow down and appreciate it’s a gift and where it’s coming from. Let’s not be that picky. If you want a blue one, go buy yourself a blue one or whatever it is. Come on.
Jack Butala: Right. There’s times when you really do need to find out like if there’s something real specific, I don’t know, like … There’s a few examples I can bring up like, I don’t know, the main wedding ring, or engagement ring-
Jill DeWit: How about a house?
Jack Butala: Or a house. House is a good example. You do not want to surprise-
Jill DeWit: Hey, baby. I picked it out. Hope you like it.
Jack Butala: Jill and I have done primary residence deals like this. I’ve done all the work because I’m crazy. I’ll spend 80 hours on finding something like that or a car. I’ll say, “I got it all down to this. Here’s four.” That’s how Jill likes to be presented. Here’s four of them, you choose. You don’t want to have all the grunt, awfulness. Those four are totally … Just like we send out offers. Those four are totally acceptable to me. Whichever she chooses is fine. That seems to work great.
Jill DeWit: Yes, it does. Keep doing that.
Jack Butala: If you have a question or you want to be on the show, call us at 800-725-8816. I already did the Technical Two, right?
Jill DeWit: You did.
Jack Butala: That means it’s time for Jill to inspire us.
Jill DeWit: I’m very proud of this one. What does your desk look like and what does it say about you?
Jack Butala: I love it.
Jill DeWit: Isn’t this good? I just came up with this.
Jack Butala: I love it. This is wonderful.
Jill DeWit: I’m all excited. Think about where you’re sitting right now. Is it neat? Is it organized? Is there trash in the corner? Do you have cup stacked up? Do you have piles on your desk? I’m even thinking about your actual desk. Is it glass? Is it wood? Is it one desk? Is it two desks? Is it open to greet people or are you in the corner? Do you look out a window? Do you not like … There’s so many things. When you really sit and think about it, it’s super interesting.
What’s funny is as I say this … I love my desk. I love my setup but I’m not a super duper fan about the way I’m facing. You know what it says about me? I’ll tell you right now, Jack. My desk is right now positioned in both the California office and the Scottsdale office, my desks are placed where I thought I wouldn’t be in the way. I was trying to make room for other people. That’s really me. It’s not like I’m going to go right now, and move it, and put it in the middle of the room and say, “Heck with you all. You can just walk around me because this is the best view.” That’s not me but there are people that are like that, too, by the way.
Jack, what does your desk say about you?
Jack Butala: It says I’m the owner. I haven’t even thought about it until now.
Jill DeWit: My gosh. Great.
Jack Butala: The way it’s organized and stuff … Look, here’s the thing, I’m one of those people who there’s nothing on my desk ever. My whole life is completely,
Jill DeWit: Why is this?
Jack Butala: … paperless because it’s organized. That’s how I organize things. If it’s on my desk, I’m working on it. My computer is the same way. If it’s on my desktop, like the desktop of my computer, I’m working on it. If not, it’s filed where it’s supposed to be. I don’t have a waste basket. I don’t have any office supplies.
Jill DeWit: It’s true. Where did that trash go? Where did that trash went? You got a cool trashcan in here because you thought it looked cool and then you realized it’s a trashcan. Now, it’s hidden.
Jack Butala: What the truth is there, not that anybody cares except you, maybe you don’t even. It looked like Oscar the Grouch. It was his trashcan.
Jill DeWit: I know.
Jack Butala: It was the source of a bloody mess yesterday because it was … You know that first date scenario that we went through?
Jill DeWit: Is it gone?
Jack Butala: No, no, no.
Jill DeWit: Good. I’ll use it. I like it.
Jack Butala: I just got to grind down some parts and then I will because I love that thing.
Jill DeWit: That’s it.
Jack Butala: I love that little trashcan. It looks cool. My desk is glass. There’s two parts of it. Never had a credence in my life. That seems silly. I have two huge monitors, sometimes four huge monitors. Scottsdale has got four.
Jill DeWit: Isn’t that interesting?
Jack Butala: It’s just efficient.
Jill DeWit: That’s about you. That’s true. That’s about you.
Jack Butala: Yours is wood. I’m not sure if it’s by choice.
Jill DeWit: It is.
Jack Butala: You have a little rolly thing that goes in there with all your stuff.
Jill DeWit: I need a little more room. I’m not like you. I have pens and things. You know what’s funny? You know why? Jack, this is what it says about me. You know what my rolly thing is there for? It’s for a lot of people including you. You come in looking for sticky notes and pens because they’re not on your desk but you know you can get it on mine. I’m okay with that.
Jack Butala: I have a backpack, not a briefcase. I threw my briefcase away when I threw my accounting career away, totally.
Jill DeWit: In the ocean? Is your briefcase under the bottom of the ocean right now and off the pier?
Jack Butala: I threw suits in the ocean. I threw …
Jill DeWit: Ties.
Jack Butala: Time cards in the ocean.
Jill DeWit: You know what? Do you have a single tie here in California?
Jack Butala: I own one tie and one suit.
Jill DeWit: Where is it?
Jack Butala: No, it’s not here. It’s all in Scottsdale.
Jill DeWit: It’s hilarious. I love it. That’s good.
Jack Butala: I’m not even going to say it on the air. You know what it’s for, listener. Those two events.
Jill DeWit: We only go to one.
Jack Butala: Yeah. At my age, there’s not a lot of weddings anymore.
Jill DeWit: That’s awesome.
Jack Butala: This is a silly question. Do you have like a, not formal, formal black tie, but like a suit coat dress to go [inaudible 00:22:20]? You probably [inaudible 00:22:22]. I don’t even have a coat here.
Jill DeWit: I do. I usually have and I have it here with me. This is off topic but it’s interesting. I usually do have one special dress that I have never worn that I always keep for an emergency. I have it here in the closet in plastic. It’s wrapped up in a case so I have a nice … Shit. I need a quick … We need a dressup dress. Let’s go. I have one.
Jack Butala: That’s awesome. I would just go buy it, I guess, if we really needed it.
Jill DeWit: Yeah. You can do that. That’s good.
Jack Butala: Your desk probably says a lot. I read an article a long time ago. It’s stuck with me obviously about what … It was brilliantly written by a person who owns a office cleaning company. It was written because there was a person, a mid-ranged manager had a waste basket under the desk like one of those Rubbermaid. They have file, like a Manila file sitting on top of that garbage can. You know what I mean. Sat on there. It’s not in the garbage can but sat there because they ran out of desk space.
Jill DeWit: Like a top on it.
Jack Butala: Yeah.
Jill DeWit: I got it.
Jack Butala: Well, that got all thrown away. The person blew their top because it was important stuff. This cleaning company wrote a blog or an article about how executives have nothing on their desk ever and mid-ranged people have ton of work. There’s stuff everywhere. The worker/technicians or the associates, they’re ultra organized. It’s always the middle manager that’s a mess.
Jill DeWit: That’s interesting.
Jack Butala: Their take was the middle manager is a mess. Don’t touch any of their stuff. Just clean around it. The top level manager wants everything scrubbed down clean and disinfected even though they’re not doing any work at all. The lowest level person is incredibly organized and everything is locked. You know what? That rings true. In every company, including these companies we have, it’s pretty much true.
Jill DeWit: Yeah, I agree. Good stuff.
Jack Butala: Jill is cutting me off. It’s really funny. I get kicked under the table sometimes. On that note, join us on another episode where we discuss how to use information, that’s me.
Jill DeWit: Inspiration, I’ll try not to let Jack go that long next time, that’s me.
Jack Butala: To talk about dresses and suit coats that you don’t really care about.
Jill DeWit: What? We use it everyday to buy property. It doesn’t sound like we buy any property around here as much as he’s chatting but we do. For half of what it’s worth and sell it immediately.
Jack Butala: You are not alone in your idiosyncratic ambition to buy real estate. Where did that show go?
Jill DeWit: What the heck? My goodness. I usually don’t have to reel you back in. Boy, it was like, “Where are you going?”
Jack Butala: Too much Diet Coke in the morning.
Jill DeWit: That’s it. Exactly. I’m going to tell the truth. You drink Mountain Dew.
Jack Butala: Well, it’s Diet Mountain Dew.
Jill DeWit: Excuse me. You get jacked up.
Jack Butala: Am I too jacked up right now?
Jill DeWit: Yes.
Jack Butala: All right.
Jill DeWit: You get jacked up. It’s kind of funny.
Jack Butala: Now, that the show is over, I’ll reel it back in.
Jill DeWit: It’s all good. I’m just teasing you. It’s funny. I see it happening.
Jack Butala: Information and inspiration to buy undervalued property. Thanks, Jill.
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