Word of Month Sells Real Estate and Everything Else (CFFL0256)
Word of Month Sells Real Estate and Everything Else
Jack Butala: Word of Month Sells Real Estate and Everything Else. 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. In this episode, Jill an I talk about word of mouth and how it sells real estate and pretty much everything else. Great show Jill. Let’s take a question before we get all into it. Posted by one of our members on successplan.com our free online community.
Jill DeWit: Cool. This one is from Kathleen, who just recently got into all our Data to Doorstep stuff. I see some next level questions and things coming from her, so this is really good. In an effort to refine my mailer and optimize finding motivated sellers, has anyone set a recording date, or a sale date as criteria? My thinking is that if you set a cap sale date, say like for five or ten years ago, you will scrub out newer owners and target those whom have owned their parcels for a longer time, hence the novelty of owning their parcel has worn off. They may be less emotional about owning it. This is really good stuff.
Jack Butala: Kathleen has a PhD. She’s a clinician.
Jill DeWit: Okay. Let me finish.
Jack Butala: There’s emotion about real estate for her.
Jill DeWit: Yeah. Let me finish this. The novelty’s worn off, they may be less emotional about owning and they’ve had more years of carrying the property tax burden. This may be a way of targeting owners whom are just truly done with owning their vacant parcel and optimizing your response rate. What do you all think? First of all, A plus, Kathleen.
Jack Butala: She should be a writer.
Jill DeWit: Wait, wait. I got to say something funny though. That’s what I was going to say is that even the way she spells and her grammar and her wording and everything, I’m like, “Ah, thank you Kathleen. It’s nice.” It’s not jumbled quick little notes, which I appreciate. This is awesome.
Jack Butala: I love getting to know these members.
Jill DeWit: I think that it’s a brilliant thing to test and see what happens. I would love to see the results of this. Like this mailer versus this mailer. You know what I mean? And see what the response rate was by adding that criteria.
Jack Butala: Yeah, there’s lots of things and ways you can change your response rates. I personally think that they are optimized the way that we do it now. I’ve tried a lot of different things. I’m not disagreeing with Jill at all. Try new things always, but please don’t veer to far from the basic stuff when you’re sending a mailer out that we do. For instance, we send out mailers where the offer is, we send an offer out. We don’t send a postcard. We don’t send a letter of interest. We send an offer out for a set amount of money with a set closing date. Not any of those things or one of those things don’t work for the person receiving, 95% of the time just pass. We’re not in the negotiation business. My personal experience, 15 year opinion to answer this question Kathleen, is no, it’s not going to change a darn thing. Circumstances that are not in the data set, they’re not in the data set that the recorder collects, not recorder but the assessor.
We’re working off of assessor’s databases that are all organized and ready to go. What she’s saying is one of the sorting criteria is how long the property has been owned by the current owner and she’s wondering if the longer they’ve owned it, the more they’re going to want to sell it or the less that they’re going to want to sell it, they’re more likely to sign the thing. My professional opinion is that it has nothing to do with why they’re selling. People sell their property, there’s triggers. Usually it’s death, or a need for money, there’s all kinds of triggers. No. It’s a brilliant concept and I think these kinds of thoughts about, “Hey, how can we increase our yield?” I call it yield, our success yield. Send a thousand mailers out, what’s your response going to get, is always good. Some people believe that if you hand write the address on the envelope they’re going to get a better response. I’m telling you right now though, here’s some free advice everybody, our response rate for rural, vacant, unwanted property is we buy one property per one hundred mailers, sometimes more. You can take that to the bank. For houses, it’s one in two thousand.
Jill DeWit: I wanted to point out the fact that if you’re just tuning and you picked up on this, look at the interesting stuff that we can pick up on our data. The stuff that we can source for is amazing. I’m sure, Jack, from ten years ago we have more and more … That thing we just sat through the other day, there’s so much more that we can really tap into that I had no idea was out there. For example, you want to talk about some of the interesting things the other day?
Jack Butala: You can if you want. My point is we probably use these resources, that data to doorstep as we provide data to doorstep. We probably use 10% of what’s available.
Jill DeWit: Of what’s really available. Because we’re doing a broad reach, but if you really wanted to get … I guess my point is, what we have and what we provide with our data, we have a lot of people in our world who are using it for a variety of things, not just land, but all kinds of property things and real estate agents-
Jack Butala: Right, getting listings.
Jill DeWit: -Finding property owners for X reasons, dream it up. Mortgage people, whatever it is. We have access too much. We provide it’s awesome.
Jack Butala: We’re about to quadruple the information and consequently the ways that this data to doorstep is used. Data to doorstep is a collection of tools, that helps real estate investors, REI people whether you’re new or old, or experienced or not. It’s the tools that the pros use to get deals done.
Jill DeWit: Anybody in the real estate world, you could have a mortgage company and you’d be using our data.
Jack Butala: You could buy skyscrapers, you could be a developer. We have lots of people off of Michigan Avenue in Chicago and in Manhattan that are, they’re triple A real estate developers and skyscraper investors, commercial real estate guys that buy our stuff and use it.
Jill DeWit: Exactly.
Jack Butala: We have a ton of new people, brand new.
Jill DeWit: Yep, and they’re so ahead of the game. Good question Kathleen. Thank you.
Jack Butala: Great question. Today’s topic, word of mouth sales real estate and more. This is the meat of the show. Jill came up with this title. Jill, how did you come up with this title, because I think it’s fascinating?
Jill DeWit: Because I have people coming to us that are hearing it from other people. I have two different things that are happening right now and it’s the greatest thing on the planet. I have A, people finding us and listening and getting involved in our world because they have friends who are in our group and they’re listening to them and they’re hearing the results and they’re like, “What is going on,” kind of thing. “What are you buying? What are you selling? What are you doing?” Then I also have people that are coming to us as investors. They have bought property from some of our members and they are coming to us now saying, “All right, I bought this from this guy, I asked him how he knew how to do this and he pointed to you.” I’m like, “Yeah that’s right.” It’s 100% word of mouth and it’s the greatest thing. It’s great because when something comes to you word of mouth, the source, it passes their checks, you know what I mean? It takes some of the guesswork out for you. Like, “Hey, I’ve been doing this already. I know what works and everything like that.” What do you want to say Jack?
Jack Butala: Every time I think of word of mouth, I think of my mom cooking in the kitchen when I was a kid. Then when I got older and started cooking a little bit myself, I would call her and say, “What kind of spaghetti sauce did you use?” Then she would tell me and say, “But here’s the thing. If you don’t use this kind of butter,” not for spaghetti sauce but, “If you don’t use this kind of butter in this recipe, it’s just not going to work, or if you don’t use Philadelphia brand cream cheese for the cheesecake it’s just not going to be what you remember.” Man, what kind of word of mouth for a product. First of all it’s your mom. Second of all, your whole childhood is centered around these meals. That’s always stuck with me for how to develop and run a company. You want somebody to say the same thing that your mom just said. “If you don’t use this quality data from these guys, you’re just kind of wasting your time or it’s going to work half the time not all the time.” I can’t say enough how important word of mouth is.
You ever hear of buzz marketing? They branded themselves now. They’re in Boston. Here’s their deal. They have these affiliates, they’re not affiliates like you think about. For lack of a better description, they are housewives that do not work and they sign up, they have 50,000 or 60,000 people. Then this buzz marketing group, they go to, let’s say Proctor and Gamble because they’re going to release a new fabric softener something. They send out 50,000 units out to these affiliates. These people who are at home, use the fabric softener and they start talking about it. They talk about it with their friends and the whole thing. What a product launch. All word of mouth. Get on the internet review it. Word of mouth, it sells everything. It sells real estate. Land Academies is because of word of mouth. We never set out to do this. This was at the request of people who were buying property for years. “How do you guys do this? I want to do it too.”
Jill DeWit: I’m sure, too, some of our buyers and our investors and everything, I know this, they were, “How did you get that? Where did you get that property? How cheap, whatever?” Next thing you know, here they come. Just as investors. I know that happens. What a compliment. It’s just the greatest thing on the planet. It’s free advertising too by the way. That’s the kicker. Not only is it one of the best resources but it’s free, it’s organic for those of you who are on that kick. It’s gluten free and organic.
Jack Butala: Here’s some stuff about Jill.
Jill DeWit: Word of mouth advertising is gluten free and organic.
Jack Butala: It’s about five things in this world that get under Jill’s skin like a bur under her saddle and organic everything is, and diet this and all that. She is like, “What the heck is wrong with this world. Everything’s organic. Everything’s gluten free. Shut up and eat some white bread.”
Jill DeWit: You know what my whole thing is? My whole thing is I’m all for that. In a perfect world, we’re all making our own stuff and there’s only four ingredients in everything. No, seriously. Slash, however, the people that are just so against anything and that’s all they will eat. They’re just so picky you can’t even … We have a really good friend. You know who I’m talking about right now, too. We all know, “Well, if we’re going to go out to dinner with them, because of her, we’re limited to these four restaurants.”
Jack Butala: Four places to eat in her life.
Jill DeWit: I’m like, “Doggone it.” I know.
Jack Butala: How closed … I hope she doesn’t listen to this show.
Jill DeWit: That’s got to get boring. No she doesn’t. It’s just so funny.
Jack Butala: Jeanine if you’re listening to this show, expand your mind man. There’s more than four restaurants on this planet. I’m just kidding, [inaudible 00:12:25]
Jill DeWit: That’s so funny. It’s awesome. I’m just loving it too. I had another thing that came up today that was funny along this line.
Jack Butala: [inaudible 00:12:38] She’s on the soap box now.
Jill DeWit: I’m on our topic.
Jack Butala: I love poking you with a stick a little.
Jill DeWit: I’m on our topic. It’s about the word of mouth point. I had a call the other day. Someone had scheduled a call with me. The whole jist of the call was wanting to know that I’m a real person. That we are real. He’s done the homework. He’s read it. His friend’s in our group. Ready to just to go, “I’m in.” What was funny, he just wanted to talk to me just to make sure we are real people and this is all legit. Yeah it is. It was very sweet because I’m like, “Is there anything else you want to talk about?” “No, no. We’re good. That was it.”
Jack Butala: You’re so good at what you do. It’s good that you have the job you have and I have the job that I have because I don’t have patience for some of this stuff. “What do you mean?”
Jill DeWit: That’s a compliment.
Jack Butala: I know it is. It should be taken that way. I’m like, “Yeah it’s real.”
Jill DeWit: It’s a compliment. It’s awesome. I like it. You know what? Embrace your differences Jack.
Jack Butala: I know.
Jill DeWit: That’s one thing about you. It’s all good.
Jack Butala: Massage your scalp.
Jill DeWit: Silly.
Jack Butala: This is the technical two. Two minutes of property investment advice from our fifteen year, fifteen thousand transaction experience. If you want word of mouth, credible information, seek it out from somebody who has conquered it already. Don’t seek out how to buy real estate from somebody who’s done three deals. Seek it out from somebody who’s done a bajillion deals. Don’t learn how to cook from somebody who really can just make cereal. Seems basic and easy, but that’s how this word of mouth thing really starts. It starts from a credible source. Right?
Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative)
Jack Butala: If you have a question or you want to be on the show, call 800-725-8816. Jill inspire us.
Jill DeWit: If you’re not getting your desired results, try another way. I see this happen all the time. Usually it’s a communication thing, is what I see. I see people trying to communicate and all they do is keep restating the same sentence, retyping the same sentence, re-emailing the same sentence and it might get louder, or whatever it is. They don’t try it a different way. They don’t take a moment to step back and go, “All right. This person’s obviously not getting it. I need to turn this around and try to explain it another way that they will understand it.”
Jack Butala: I love it.
Jill DeWit: Thank you. I know you’ve experienced this Jack, how have you?
Jack Butala: This gets on my nerves. What it does, is it just leads to inefficiency and bad communication or lack of communication or too much communication or too little, it’s so easy to really sit down and say, “This is not hard to fix.” Really I think it’s a result of just bad habits on someone’s part. Yeah, I experienced this with people who work for us a lot. A good example is like a family member that you don’t see too often, like an uncle or something like that. It’s like, “Man, this guy’s still doing this after all these years he’s saying this thing like this? The same saying over and over.” That kind of thing. Sometimes, like with you Jill, your weird stuff is endearing.
Jill DeWit: I’m talking about in trying to get your point across. Thank you, I appreciate that. I’m talking about more, I’m trying to get my child to pick up the room, because I have guests coming over, I don’t know. I’m trying to think of just anything.
Jack Butala: That’s a good example.
Jill DeWit: They don’t understand the importance of it to me. They’re like, “What’s the big deal.” If I’m not getting the results, I need to word it a different way. It’s kindergarten here, but one thing I learned as a parent, is especially with boys, seriously. This is good and maybe this works with everybody and I haven’t tested it on grown up boys. I probably should, but with little boys-
Jack Butala: This is going to lead to Steve’s [inaudible 00:17:15].
Jill DeWit: No. With little boys, one thing that I learned is you need to get down at their level, kind of in their face and only give them a few things at a time. Here, that’s an example. Say I’m not getting the results I want, because I said, “I want this place looking fantastic.” I think everybody knows what that means, no. They don’t know that means pick this up, put that there, organize this, do that. Maybe it’s my website, how about this one. Here’s a good example. I want my website to be better than Zappos, that’s what Jack loves. Talk about vague. I think I know what it wants and I think everybody gets that. I gave him an example by the way too. Use Zappos, but they don’t really know. I meant this, but I meant blue not green. I meant a checkout like this, not a cart like that.
Jack Butala: Web’s irrelevant, you mean.
Jill DeWit: That’s a good example. I’m not going to get the results I want and no kidding. I’ve got to try another way. Some people might get it. I’ve had a boss like this. I had one very few times, I had a few, but a very few times I’ve had bosses and even teachers when I was in school, that we were on the same wavelength. They could give me something and I actually knew what they meant and I would go off and run with it, and they were very happy because we were totally on the same wavelength. That doesn’t happen often. My peers, like my boss would say, “We need X done by this date.” I would go do it. My peers would need more steps to the process. We need four of those and three of these. You need to do this by this date and a whole checklist, because that’s how they got it. I’m going way off on a tangent.
Jack Butala: No. It’s okay. When I’m struggling with communication, if I’m asking somebody to do something that’s not getting through and it keeps happening or vice versa. If somebody’s asking me to do something and they’re just not, Jill, just not happy with the results, what my innate reaction is to stop and set up a system, not only for what’s going on with that specific topic or task, but to put a system in place to solve all of it when it comes up in the future too. I don’t know where I learned that or whatever, but it’s a very typical, very large part of running a company and it’s taught formally in business schools and stuff. Don’t solve problems, create systems to solve all the problems in the future that are specific to the one that you’re looking at right now or solving right now. That usually does it. The other thing, the good news is that if it’s just not working, socially or professionally, Jill nailed it, sometimes people just don’t communicate. They’re so far off and they just don’t do that. That’s okay.
Jill DeWit: What if it’s you by the way. Don’t think it’s all on one side. It might be you. You could be the problem. You might have to look at it a different way or go back to the person and, I’ve done this, we do this together all the time. I will still come to Jack and say, “You know what? I am just not getting it. I know the jist of this, but this project that you’ve tasked me with, whatever it is, I’m not getting it. What are you trying to do here?” It’s good to ask that.
Jack Butala: Did you ever here somebody say a sentence like this, “Everybody in my life doesn’t understand me.” You know what? They don’t understand you, you’re the problem. Not everybody in your life. If everybody in your life’s not understanding the way you communicate, you have a problem, man.
Jill DeWit: That could be.
Jack Butala: If one person doesn’t and the other five thousand do, get rid of that person.
Jill DeWit: Or find a way to communicate. Find out what their thing is and then, by the way, your life will be a lot happier.
Jack Butala: And they’ll be happier too.
Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative)
Jack Butala: Join us in another episode were Jack and Jill go half cocked off and talk about strange stuff that has nothing to do with information, that’s me, everything to do with inspiration.
Jill DeWit: And pretty vague, out there, I’m not sure we really call it inspiration, that’s me.
Jack Butala: To get just about anything you want.
Jill DeWit: We use it everyday to buy property for half of what it’s worth and sell it immediately.
Jack Butala: You are not alone in your real estate ambition. Good show Jill.
Jill DeWit: Thanks.
Jack Butala: Sometimes it’s fun to go half cocked off with you.
Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative) I think it’s valuable stuff to talk about. Big picture stuff. I like that and hopefully it helps someone. It helps me. When I sit and talk about it and I think of other ideas and I’m like, “All right. This is what I’m going to do differently next time.” It really helps me.
Jack Butala: Right. Information and inspiration to buy undervalued property.
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