Your Imperative Website Benefits (CFFL 0252)
Your Imperative Website Benefits
Jack Butala: Your Imperative Website Benefits. 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: Welcome to our show today. In this episode, Jill and I talk about your imperative website benefits, another way, the benefits you receive by having your own website. I don’t care if you’re in the real estate business or not. Great show today, Jill. Let’s talk about … Let’s take a question, excuse me, posted by one of our members on successplan.com, our free online community.
Jill DeWit: Okay. Mike T wrote, “I think this deal is dead. It is located in Arizona. Wife owned 10 acres in a few years ago. The husband has been paying the taxes. Husband was never added to the deed after his marriage. Wife died suddenly, no will, no probate. Is this deal dead?”
Jack Butala: No.
Jill DeWit: Thank you.
Jack Butala: It’s not. The question is, actually no deals are really dead in these situations, that’s a real answer. That’s the philosophical answer. The question really is, “How much are you willing to go through to get to own this property?” So if it’s a regular northern Arizona, rural acreage 10 acre property you’re going to get 5 or 6000 bucks wholesale on the sell side and you’re probably going to buy it for about a thousand, a hundred dollars an acre, right Jill?
Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative)
Jack Butala: So, no in this specific case, you would have to go through a quiet title action, which by the way, is the exact same legal proceeding, it’s a lawsuit actually, legal proceeding as when you foreclose on a tax lien, so I’m really familiar with it, and it’s a heck of a lot easier than you think. It’s the same ole story. You do the first one and then they’re all easy after that.
Jill DeWit: Exactly.
Jack Butala: So it’s a math question. You want to knock yourself out and go crazy. What Jill’s done in these situations and I’d follow up and close a deal is she says, “You know what? Owner, there’s no way that you’re going to go through all of this and get this thing done on your own, so I’ll give you a hundred bucks if you just comply and sign your name where I tell you to sign it and we’ll get this thing out your life and you can stop paying taxes.”
Jill DeWit: Right. I was just thinking to, like you said, you really are solving a problem for this person, getting something out of it because they don’t know what to do. They don’t know who to call and a lot of them, they’re just going to walk away from it because they’re just stumped.
Jack Butala: I don’t want to get into all the legal stuff but these people were married, so this property is community property in Arizona. He could just go through a quiet title action and get it into his name and then sell it to you or you could do it for him.
Jill DeWit: It’s funny. That’s one of those things that it’s easy for us. I do this often, I see this with you and I with our friends. You and I will go off on these side conversations and our friends look at us sideways like, “What are they talking about?”
Jack Butala: Exactly.
Jill DeWit: It’s funny because I’m like, “Doesn’t everybody know this stuff?” It’s so interesting.
Jack Butala: It’s just the most boring thing on the planet for most people. I was having a conversation with a [number three kid 00:02:55] yesterday and he said, “I never want to do what you do for living,” and I said, “Oh, really?”
Jill DeWit: Oh, seriously?
Jack Butala: Yeah. I said, “Well, what do I do?” He said, “You sit in front of a computer all day.” I said, “What am I doing on the computer?” “I don’t care.”
Jill DeWit: I overheard that!
Jack Butala: He said, “I don’t care what you’re doing. I don’t want to sit in front of the computer all day.”
Jill DeWit: What’s he going to be, like a professional surfer?
Jack Butala: I expect something like that or a fireman or something. He’s 12. In the end what he said was he wants to work in CAD which is sitting in front of a computer-
Jill DeWit: Oh, gee.
Jack Butala: Then he said, quote unquote that “I want to go downstairs in the basement with a welding torch and make the thing that I designed in CAD.” I’m like, “All right. I can get around that.”
Jill DeWit: Okay.
Jack Butala: How that’s different, it’s the mind of a 12 year old. Who knows?
Jill DeWit: Exactly.
Jack Butala: So yeah, for a lot of people this stuff is really, really, really boring, but for some demented reason, Jill and I love it.
Jill DeWit: Well, and so do all of our listeners.
Jack Butala: That’s a … Oh yeah-
Jill DeWit: Unless they’re just listening for us.
Jack Butala: Our members do for sure. I think half of our listeners just want to feel bad for us and they probably listen to our show and they probably feel a lot better about their lives.
Jill DeWit: That’s what I was going to say. They walk away going, “Wow, I am so lucky.” That’s what goes on. “Man, these two. Boy, am I lucky?”
Jack Butala: Yeah, everything’s fine when [inaudible 00:04:15] here.
Jill DeWit: [crosstalk 00:04:17] think about that stuff. I just have to take a ticket, “Next. Next.” This is much easier. I don’t have to think.
Jack Butala: Today’s topic, you’re, the benefits of having a website. They’re actually imperative. This is [me 00:04:32] to the show. I can’t tell you the number of times that people have said, “Oh yeah. We went and checked you out on the website. Everything looks good and we’re ready to go,” so especially if you’re selling land or real estate or anything, when somebody Googles your name to check you out for credibility, they better come up with a good website and you better have, right on the front of your website you should probably have maybe one of the best pictures that has ever been taken of you.
This is not even my recommendation. I’m just regurgitating the stuff that I’ve read about marketing and people and the whole thing. Jill and I have actually used our website for completely different reasons and gotten things that we wanted to sure. I’m sure Jill’s going to tell a story about renting a house for quite a long time right on the Pacific Ocean.
Jill DeWit: I have something I’d like to touch on first.
Jack Butala: Because of her website.
Jill DeWit: I have to touch on, is the photo on the front of our website really your very best photo?
Jack Butala: No. Yeah, actually it might be.
Jill DeWit: We need to [inaudible 00:05:36], so that’s kind of funny. Everybody that’s listening right now is going to really go quickly and look at it and I’ve got to tell you, that is not the best photo.
Jack Butala: You want to feel good about yourself, go check our website [crosstalk 00:05:44] pictures on our website.
Jill DeWit: That’s one of those things that we joke about but it’s totally true. When you’re starting a new business and you’re taping things together, there’s some things that you do yourself and you need to and it’s important. Then there’s a time that you can say, “Okay, now we can up our game.” You know what? A website is a good example.
I know a lot of our members who are on a tight budget and guess what? They might be making their own website and learning WordPress a little bit or they’re hiring their brother or somebody that they know at least can make a basic website. That’s not crazy and then when you now can afford to up your game and make it look professional and you have a couple thousand to throw at it then do that.
That’s a good … I think it’s good with this topic too because having a website doesn’t mean you need to go invest $4000. You just need to have a presence.
Jack Butala: That’s it.
Jill DeWit: That’s it. [crosstalk 00:06:40]
Jack Butala: They have to have a reference point so that you differentiate yourself from everybody else who’s just simply got a silly Facebook page.
Jill DeWit: Exactly. I think we talked about before, have your face on there. It’s okay to make it funny. Make your website however you want to portray yourself. Jack and I like to portray ourselves as casual. We always go by our first names, relaxed and very honest and upfront so I think it’s something to think about too is your website because it’s not only going to see you but reading your material, they’re going to get a real good feel for, gosh, what kind of person you are and how you operate.
Jack Butala: Right.
Jill DeWit: Are you real thorough or it just kind of a slap together [inaudible 00:07:25]?
Jack Butala: Skipping along the top of the topic, as I call it.
Jill DeWit: Exactly. Did you want me to-
Jack Butala: Well said.
Jill DeWit: Thank you.
Jack Butala: Yeah, you know that [VRBO 00:07:35] story?
Jill DeWit: Yeah.
Jack Butala: There’s a lot of reasons and ways that we use our website to get other stuff way out of the realm of real estate.
Jill DeWit: It’s funny because I’ve started using it all the time. Anytime I need, you can just get a meeting with somebody sometimes.
Jack Butala: Get a meeting? I love it.
Jill DeWit: [crosstalk 00:07:50]
Jack Butala: I love getting a meeting like that.
Jill DeWit: Maybe there’s someone that I’m kind of like reaching out to somebody at a different level. I’m like, “Look. We need to talk,” and then they go to our website and they go, “Oh, okay.” You know, when people call you and they are not really familiar with you, that’s a perfect example, but they can go to your website and go, “Oh, okay. They really are who they say they are. They really have that many deals and they really have that kind of a ‘whatever’ going on. They really have 252 of this show,” I’m looking down showing 252 today of just this show.
Jack Butala: Yeah.
Jill DeWit: “They’ve done that many podcasts,” so-
Jack Butala: Right, Jill.
Jill DeWit: I was doing that recently too and I was looking for maybe outsourcing some of our podcast stuff. It was easy to call a guy and go check it out. It is a daily show and there’s several hundred there.
Jack Butala: Yeah. Every time we contact the marketing company, do some stuff for us. They all say, “Wow, you guys do a lot of podcasts. That’s great.” Plus we get all the SEO benefits of getting the transcription and getting it in writing and slapping it all over the place. There’s huge benefits to all of that.
Jill DeWit: Exactly.
Jack Butala: I took a sales course a long time ago, Jill, and it obviously didn’t help, but I did remember-
Jill DeWit: That’s hilarious.
Jack Butala: I remember one thing the guy said. He said, “Every morning when I want you to do is get on a phone,” this is long before the Internet, “Pick up the phone and call somebody famous. Try to get to them. Call their agent and use-”
Jill DeWit: I’ve heard that tactic, yeah.
Jack Butala: “Anybody. Call Brad Pitt or call somebody in your industry, the guy that is the CEO of the biggest company that is in your industry,” so there’s a story about Harvey Weinstein who’s a producer in Los Angeles, very famous producer and he called Elvis Presley, this was like in the 50s, every day for like two years, every single day at the same time, 1 o’clock I think. Finally, Elivis Presley calls him back after like two years and Harvey Weinstein says, this is Harvey Weinstein with The Penniless.
Jill DeWit: That’s hilarious.
Jack Butala: He says, “All right, you want to promote my shows? I want you to be in Las Vegas at this Chapel at X time on Y date with a million dollars cash.”
Jill DeWit: What?
Jack Butala: This guy came up with it. This guy called a bunch of people that he knew. He’s like, “Elvis is going to meet me. We’re going do this whole thing,” and he did it and he was his producer. Harvey Weinstein went on to do … He’s an extremely large Hollywood producer of movies and stuff and that’s a true story.
Jill DeWit: Where do you come up with this stuff? I’ve got to ask, I’ve got to say Jack, [crosstalk 00:10:23] you know what’s so funny is-
Jack Butala: I only talk to you on the show.
Jill DeWit: It’s hilarious. The stuff that you’re reading, this is what’s so interesting. Where were you in, what realm were you looking for that?
Jack Butala: I’ll tell you. I’ll answer that question.
Jill DeWit: Okay.
Jack Butala: There’s a documentary or there was a documentary on Netflix streaming called [Mensch 00:10:46] and it’s all about Harvey Weinstein.
Jill DeWit: Oh.
Jack Butala: I don’t know [inaudible 00:10:50], not Harvey Weinstein. That’s a different movie, but anyway I had saw Harvey Weinstein’s biography on … It’s not called [Mensch 00:10:57] but it’s-
Jill DeWit: On Netflix?
Jack Butala: On Netflix, yeah, and his whole life story and that’s where it started.
Jill DeWit: A bio.
Jack Butala: Poor kid from Detroit, I mean from New York, from New Jersey or New York I think.
Jill DeWit: Interesting. Well, that was very enlightening. Thank you.
Jack Butala: The point is, get a website. I don’t care what business you’re in and even if it’s just quite simply johnhsmith.com or whatever and it’s a picture of you and your family and that’s it.
Jill DeWit: Exactly. Yeah.
Jack Butala: Did you tell [inaudible 00:11:25] story?
Jill DeWit: I have told the [VRVS 00:11:27] story.
Jack Butala: Just now though?
Jill DeWit: No. Do you want me to [crosstalk 00:11:30]
Jack Butala: Yeah, and this will really … and then we’ll move on. This is really what it’s all about.
Jill DeWit: Yeah, just .. We were, gosh it was in April. We were here in California and we decided we weren’t going to leave and I was looking for a beach house. I did our thing where I’m going to make 10 offers. Let’s see what comes back, 10 crazy offers because it was just beach house stuff. I isolated the ones that I wanted to rent to, and it’s a vacation rental by owner VRBO and I threw out an email and I said, “All right. Here I am. I’m looking to rent a beach house here on the Strand for the whole month of April. I’m willing to pay X. Here’s our website. Look us up. We’re very respectful. Jack’s,” I love Jack’s saying. “Your maid won’t even know we were here,” kind of thing. I threw that in there.
I said, “By the way, I’m reaching out to several so if you’re interested, please answer me back quickly,” and in two hours had a place for the month of April and I know she looked this up and checked us out. All right, it took all the research, the guesswork like, “All right, who’s this crazy person,” out of it and I know that’s what got us our place.
Jack Butala: Yep. The maid won’t even know you’re here and we are not teenagers having-
Jill DeWit: A party-
Jack Butala: A Kegger [inaudible 00:12:47]
Jill DeWit: Exactly-
Jack Butala: For 14 days straight.
Jill DeWit: Right because we’ve seen those along the beach.
Jack Butala: Yeah. Yes, we have.
Jill DeWit: And by the way, if you’re going to do this on the beach, don’t be there in July because you will be next to that person so you want to be there in, I don’t know. April is about the end, then it starts to get nutty.
Jack Butala: Exactly. Hey, put up a website. Doesn’t cost anything. If you need a referral, go to our resources page and we’ve got a staff full of people that’ll hook you up really … I’m not selling anything. They work for us but they also do websites on the side and stuff and we don’t take any money for it at all.
This is the technical two. Two minutes of property investment advice from our 15 year, 15,000 deal experience, and this one happens to have nothing to do with real estate. Establish credibility so when people or your customers or your friend’s, parents or grandparents Google your name, you’re proud of yourself. Google your own name. What’s it called? Vanity search. Google your own name. If it says-
Jill DeWit: It has a name?
Jack Butala: Yeah, it’s called vanity searching, like vanity plate and if your name comes up in your arrest records right there, you need to put some more content on the Internet.
Jill DeWit: If the first thing you pull up is your mugshot, probably not a good thing.
Jack Butala: If you’ve got a mugshot story, now is the time to tell it.
Jill DeWit: Oh, my mugshots story. [crosstalk 00:14:08] I don’t have a mugshot.
Jack Butala: Your friend’s Alabama mugshot story. It’s worth telling.
Jill DeWit: Seriously?
Jack Butala: Absolutely. It’s fun. I laughed, laughed, laughed at this.
Jill DeWit: Okay, all right. I’m trying to think. How do I shorten this? My best friend’s from college and those years, my former roommate, I’ve got to be careful, moved to another state and had a little-
Jack Butala: She’s the CEO of a very large, very profitable company.
Jill DeWit: Right and we’ll leave it at that. Don’t [crosstalk 00:14:37] not going to say the state. I’m not going to say what it is or anything like that.
Jack Butala: Go ahead.
Jill DeWit: Yeah, so she bought this really, really big home, great home in a Easterly, Southeasterly state. Turns out the builder was not necessary the best guy. He happened to be a neighbor. They kind of got into it and it was kind of a good old boys community where they came out and arrested her, which is an [event 00:15:03] and it was all-
Jack Butala: It’s a Hatfield’s and McCoy’s thing.
Jill DeWit: Totally and it was all dropped. They didn’t do anything right. It was all just a weird thing, just whatever, but the poor thing ended up getting a mugshot that day, which is really kind of silly anyway. Nothing came of it because it was all false so months later, going to get an ID for a concealed weapon permit and goes to up to the clerk and they say, “I’m going to use the photo you have on file.” “Well, of course, please,” because of course, “It’s my DMV photo.” No, no, no. It wasn’t her DMV photo.
Jack Butala: It was her mugshot.
Jill DeWit: It was a mugshot on her concealed license.
Jack Butala: That redefines irony.
Jill DeWit: That’s the best.
Jack Butala: It really is.
Jill DeWit: I’m just like, “Man, that’s so hilarious.” Yeah.
Jack Butala: Apparently, in this state, whatever it is, you can get arrested and still get a concealed weapon permit pretty easily.
Jill DeWit: [inaudible 00:15:56] It was not really a real arrest. It was just silly.
Jack Butala: If you have a question you want or you want to be on the show call 800-725-8816. My personal favorite part of every single one of these shows is the one where I don’t talk.
Jill DeWit: I was just going to say. Is that why?
Jack Butala: Jill, inspire us.
Jill DeWit: Okay. All right. Are you doing too much yourself? Are you taking on too many tasks personally because you feel that no one can do it right or give it the attention it needs and then maybe finding yourself bogged down? This happens a lot. I see this … I do this. I see this in our office. I see other people doing this and it happens so you have to really take a step back. I just want to make sure if you find yourself getting bogged down, take a step back and see “Do I really need to be doing all of this stuff? What can I delegate,” and then, by the way, once you delegate it, it doesn’t really have to be perfect.
Think about what standards it needs to be. One of my examples is a really good friend of mine, she runs everything. She does it in work and she does it in her home and then we get together for a glass of wine and she’s a stressed-out mess. I’m like, “Why are you doing this? You need to delegate-”
Jack Butala: Like last night.
Jill DeWit: Yeah. You need to delegate some things and just sit back and let them go. All right. Your employees, sure they didn’t do it maybe at your standards, but hey, it’s exactly what it needed to be-
Jack Butala: Or your vendors.
Jill DeWit: Yeah, or your vendors and let that go kind of thing.
Jack Butala: This whole thing, this is awesome by the way. This whole thing falls under, I would categorize it under “It’s going to get worse before it gets better.” Yeah, you can do the task, 30 seconds. I’ve heard it, you’re heard people say this a million times. If you want to get it done right, do it yourself.
Jill DeWit: Right.
Jack Butala: Well, turn that off. Turn that off in your head because it’s silly. Yeah, you can do it faster and better and it’s who you’re liking and then just move on. Or you can teach somebody how to do it and then have some patience about the whole thing and get them to where they’re actually performing a task maybe better than you are and it’s running in the background. You can move on to something that you’re really good at like making deals in a situation.
That’s what I tell our memebers, “You’re a dealmaker. You’re not a paper pusher.” Get other people to do the simple stuff for you and but make sure you know how to do it. It’s like Math. There’s a reason you don’t learn math. How many times have you heard kids say, “I have a calculator. I don’t need to do this.”
Jill DeWit: Oh, right. [crosstalk 00:18:39]
Jack Butala: You need to know the theories and stuff. There’s way more to it so you need to know most of the stuff yourself. Not all of it. You don’t need to know how to build a computer to use one.
Jill DeWit: Right.
Jack Butala: So that’s awesome, Jill.
Jill DeWit: Thank you.
Jack Butala: Manage some people, don’t micromanage them.
Jill DeWit: Don’t micromanage.
Jack Butala: Don’t stay up all night doing your own stuff unless you’re really young and poor and you’re on your way up.
Jill DeWit: Exactly.
Jack Butala: Hey, join us in another episode where Jack and Jill discuss how to use information that’s [me 00:19:05]-
Jill DeWit: And inspiration, that’s me.
Jack Butala: To get just about anything you want.
Jill DeWit: We use it every day to buy property for half of what its worth and sell it immediately.
Jack Butala: You are not alone in your real estate ambition. Good show, Jill. You [freaking 00:19:20] crack me up with that, with that mug shot stuff.
Jill DeWit: Oh, my gosh.
Jack Butala: That was a good story. You can’t make that up.
Jill DeWit: Funniest story.
Jack Butala: That’s almost a movie script.
Jill DeWit: Right. That’s good. That’s really good stuff.
Jack Butala: Extremely intelligent, pre-middle-aged in her 30s, young woman moves to southeastern state and gets discriminated against-
Jill DeWit: Totally.
Jack Butala: Like blatantly discriminated against and then arrested for it?
Jill DeWit: I know.
Jack Butala: Then her mugshot ends up on a gun permit.
Jill DeWit: Exactly.
Jack Butala: You can’t write that stuff.
Jill DeWit: No, [inaudible 00:19:55] Love it.
Jack Butala: Inspiration and information to buy undervalued property.
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