Picking the Right County to Send Purchase Offers to Owners (CFFL 0257)
Picking the Right County to Send Purchase Offers to Owners
Jack Butala: Picking the Right County to Send Purchase Offers to Owners. 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 and I talk about picking the right county to send purchase offers to owners. Jill, great show today. Let’s take a question first though, posted by one of our members on SuccessPlant.com, our online free community.
Jill DeWit: Cool. Milan wrote and asked, “A guy agreed on my offer for 40 acres of land but he wants to keep half of the mineral rights. I think I might kill the deal on the sell side when the potential buyer sees this on the deed. It could seem like ‘buy your own land but it’s not really 100 percent yours.’ What do you guys think? I’m going to tell him no mineral rights or no deal in a very nice way, like we just want to mediate there and no diggers are-” Oh, meditate there, excuse me. Wait, I want to go back. “I’m going to tell them no mineral rights or no deal in a very nice way, like we just want to meditate there and no diggers are allowed.” That’s hilarious. Like we’re just going to pop up and start digging and saying, “Excuse me.”
Jack Butala: I think some of this land is used for stranger things than that.
Jill DeWit: That’s really cute.
Jack Butala: I don’t know, what do you think? Would you let it kill the deal?
Jill DeWit: No. I wouldn’t, because most of my buyers, they’re worried about where to put their cabin, they’re not thinking of it like, “there’s gold in them there hills.”
Jack Butala: It never gets discussed.
Jill DeWit: Exactly.
Jack Butala: I’ve discussed this topic maybe twice in 15 years with a seller or buyer.
Jill DeWit: You know what I tell them? I’m sure you do the same thing. If it ever comes up I’m like, “You know what? Let’s just assume there are no mineral rights,” because most of the time I don’t. If there’s something down the road that you get, yea, that’s a bonus, but I’m really not picking up land for that nor do I care to keep it. It’s not on my criteria.
Jack Butala: I’m surprised it even came up at all. I think if it came up with us and I was actually doing the deal, I think I would tell the seller, “Thank you, but I’m going to move on.”
Jill DeWit: You can do that too.
Jack Butala: I think that Milan’s probably relatively new. That’s fine, I just think this is a way to complicate a first or second or third or fourth deal. I think you’ve said it a million times, Jill, it’s like, “Come on, man. Let’s just do a simple deal.” First 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 deals, let’s just be simple about it.
Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative). You may be a hundred deals in and this is the first one that comes up too. Sometimes these things just don’t come up like we said.
Jack Butala: I guess my question would be too, and I don’t want to get all philosophical and brainy about this, I really don’t, but who really knows who owns what mineral rights? This has been a deal for … Unless you have, staring at a physical copy of all the deeds, because that’s how mineral rights get conveyed. They get conveyed right on a deed. It’ll say, “accept mineral rights” or whatever. You just really, truly don’t know.
Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jack Butala: I bet you a dollar this guy doesn’t really own anything.
Jill DeWit: Yeah, that’s true. He thinks he owns it but it could’ve been 2 transactions ago which were 50 years ago. Somebody else has it.
Jack Butala: When everybody’s digging for gold in California, all these mineral rights and these deals got … There’s tons and tons of stuff that went on and not all of it got recorded, if you know what I mean. It’s complicated.
Jill DeWit: Here’s another thing to think about: it may not be just that somebody wants to have the mineral rights, because nobody really knows what that’s worth, it may be worth zero, but I can see maybe a potential buyer worried that, “Is someone going to show up and start digging?” No, no, no, no, no. That’s not what that means also. When you’re buying, let’s be honest. The parcel that your home sits on right now, what if there’s oil under there? That doesn’t mean that the guy who homesteaded it a hundred years ago is going to come and tell you to move your house because there’s oil under there someday. No.
Jack Butala: We’re sitting in southern California right now doing this show. There’s a ton of oil under where we’re sitting and nobody’s digging for it.
Jill DeWit: Right. I think people don’t really understand sometimes and it’s not a bad thing, but you don’t have to worry about that. It’s really not going to probably ever come up in your lifetime. There’s another thing too, Jack. Is this something people even realistically look for now nowadays? When’s the last time you heard someone, other than in Alaska … In Alaska I still hear people … Or the fracking areas-
Jack Butala: Honestly, people, their whole lives are centered around purchasing mineral rights. It’s actually a pretty big industry and I understand why people would want to retain mineral rights. There’s a huge company in Nevada called Nevada Land and Trust I think. They’re tied to the railroad somehow and it dates back to the 1800s. They have a ton of land for sale. If you go look for them right now. I actually talk about them in the Cash Flow From Land program. I’ve purchased a ton of property from them really cheap. Their whole thing is we never wanted the property anyway, we just want the mineral rights, so they retain all the mineral rights to all of that property and-
Jill DeWit: It’s just gambling that maybe someday …
Jack Butala: There’s so much money in oil and minerals and stuff in this country, crazy money. Exxon Mobil’s the most profitable company in the world.
Jill DeWit: How do you know what you’re sitting on though?
Jack Butala: Yeah, it’s a dice roll but they have armies of attorneys to making sure that they own the mineral rights and the whole thing. That’s why I just shy away from this because even if you say, “I own the mineral rights. Here’s my deed and my grandfather’s owned this thing since it was homesteaded,” and there’s companies out there drilling and stuff, they’re going to tie it up and it’s not worth little people like us dealing with this. I’m sure I’m going to get a bunch of emails saying I’m wrong.
Jill DeWit: Here’s my question: I’m just going to play devil’s advocate here because I’m curious. What would you say, I want to hear your answer and I’ll tell you what I think. John Smith wants to buy this property from us in Nevada and it’s got gorgeous views and beautiful sunsets and red rocky areas, whatever it is, and he wants to put his cabin there. John Smith’s not going to think about or worry about somebody coming along and uprooting his cabin for mineral rights. What if John Smith thinks about it and asks you about that?
Jack Butala: I would say, “I’m very confident you do not own the mineral rights and I’m extremely confident no one’s going to come knocking on your door to put an oil well there. Extremely confident. If they do, I’m pretty confident that if you contest it at all they’re probably going to buy their way out of it with you in which time you can go find another awesome cabin spot and probably be all the richer for it.
Jill DeWit: Exactly.
Jack Butala: That’s why every time this topic comes up it’s way beyond our level.
Jill DeWit: That’s what I was thinking. If ever really something crazy like that happens I’m thinking you will be compensated. Let’s not worry about that.
Jack Butala: Yep.
Jill DeWit: Thank you.
Jack Butala: We have multiple … I have sold property to people that get payments from large companies just because they think they own the mineral rights and he company really doesn’t want to look into it and they want to do some stuff. There’s no drilling, there’s no anything. They get payments every year. It’s like leasing farmland, that’s how they look at it.
Jill DeWit: Right.
Jack Butala: I’m way to far into this.
Jill DeWit: It’s just kind of interesting.
Jack Butala: What’s the caller’s name?
Jill DeWit: Milan.
Jack Butala: Milan.
Jill DeWit: Yeah, you know Milan.
Jack Butala: Don’t worry about this. If they want to have mineral rights, I don’t know. I would walk away, especially if it’s a very first deal, but it’s not that complicated if you want to get through it. I like simple deals.
Jill DeWit: Yeah, uncomplicated is let them have them, it’s written on the deed, and move on.
Jack Butala: Yeah, okay.
Jill DeWit: Okay.
Jack Butala: Jill wants to get every deal done, that’s why I love her.
Jill DeWit: Thank you.
Jack Butala: It’s awesome.
Jill DeWit: It’s like, what’s the best way out? Can everybody win here? That kind of a thing.
Jack Butala: I just want people to sign the offers, send them back, do the deal, resell it.
Jill DeWit: Right.
Jack Butala: Find a partner that’s awesome, like Jill. If you’re crazy like me.
Jill DeWit: You are motivated and it’s good.
Jack Butala: Today’s topic: picking the right county to send purchase offers to owners. This is the meat of the show. Jill asked us to do this topic today. She actually picked the title and everything based on a conversation that she had with a very new member. Jill, tell us about that please.
Jill DeWit: Well, it’s something that seems to come up often when I talk to folks that are either new or are thinking about getting into this and they have some idea of how it all works, like probably everybody listening to this show, but one of the things that they get hung up on is just picking a place to start. When I say that I just mean picking a county. It’s funny because I hear different things like, some folks in our world tell people go here, here, here and here, I’ve had great luck. They even go so far, this is a little joke of mine, the secret county thing. There is no secret county. Or they’ll go to the ones where I know you can get a cheap or free list here and you can start there. For me it just comes back to, there’s so many different … So much information out there that someone can get bogged down and not get anywhere. I guess that’s what it is.
What we teach and what we do and why we’re here, is really helping every individual learn how to find the best place for them and get past that hurdle. I don’t want to say small, because for some people it’s huge. I have talked to people who have been looking into this for over a year and they still can’t pick a county to start. They’ve got different lists and they just look at things and they just can’t get past it. They can’t get a mailer out there and they can’t get stuff going. Maybe it’s a 2 part thing. Jack, you want to weigh in?
Jack Butala: Yeah. The next few shows, and this is with intent, are dedicated to getting past that first deal. It’s something that we all have had to go through, every single one of us. Unless you grew up working in your parent’s office doing deal after deal after deal, it’s something that everybody struggles with. It’s something I struggled with in 1999, so we are really going to dedicate this next several shows to this topic. Today’s topic though is about choosing the right county to send the offers in. Some people can’t even get to that point. What I say quite simply in the Cash Flow From Land program is there’s a 3 step process that I go through mentally and I do it on a computer screen to confirm for me that I’m choosing the right county to send letters in. It’s not 100 percent, it’s just a darn good idea. It falls under the topic of I can teach you or show you my process, but in the end you’re going to have to go do it yourself.
There’s a lot of people that just say, “Steve/Jack, can’t you just give me the name of a darn county that works?” I’ve done that and it doesn’t work. I just had a conference call with some people that I gave them the name of a county and they said, “What the heck?” First time I’ve ever heard it in my life. They were not as overwhelmed with offers as everybody else I’ve ever heard of. It turns out we dug deeper and there’s some other pretty serious issues and it wasn’t the county at all, it was other stuff.
Here’s the 3 step process: Number 1, get census maps from the census.gov online. Get the color coded ones, the ones that are dark green where it’s super rural. They gauge it by people … People in this dark shaded area, there’s half of one person lives per square mile. You look at it like that, so that’s number 1, find a super rural county or super rural area. Number 2, go out on the internet to a place like taxsalelists.com or anywhere there any one center location on the internet, it’s posted on our website, the resources, to see if there’s a ton of back taxes in that county. They’ll list it there. You don’t want to dig down and just only send letters to back tax property. We’ve covered that a million times. You’re going to send letters to everybody, but it’s a gauge. It’s a gauge to see that, hey, I might send out a bunch of offers for a really low price and get a pretty good response.
Number 3, and this is most important, go to places like landwatch.com if in fact you’re doing this with land, not houses, and find out what properties are selling for. If there’s a bunch of properties on there, I mean hundreds and hundreds of properties that are selling for a hundred dollars each, and I’m exaggerating because that doesn’t happen, but that may be a saturated county. If there’s 14 properties and they’re priced okay and you can see that they’re selling, that might be a good gauge.
Jill DeWit: Yep.
Jack Butala: is there an exact way to do this? No.
Jill DeWit: Exactly.
Jack Butala: You have to use your imagination and you’re going to hear me say this now for the next few shows: The imagination that you have that you were born with, if you want an A to B to C instruction manual on how to become a successful real estate investor, that doesn’t exist. If somebody tells you that it does, they’re wrong. What you want to do is develop the talent for making these little choices all along your career.
Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Thank you very much, Jack. That was perfect, I love it. Then pull the trigger and if one of those things as you’re going along, you got 1 and 2 but you don’t have 3, move on. Let’s look at the next one til you get all 3 and then start sending out some offers then pull the trigger. You know what you just did, Jack, and I love it, you’re giving it … How do I say this? Quantitive, is that the right term …
Jack Butala: Quantitative.
Jill DeWit: … Reason to pull the trigger, spend some money on some postage and send out an offer. That’s the next thing. For me, what I come back to is, some people have trouble picking a place to start because they don’t have those tools. They don’t know what you just explained. That’s what I wanted you to share. That’s what I share with a lot of new people is, “All right, hold on everybody, we can help you.”
Some people I’m sure can figure this out on their own, but a lot of people need some guidance, like you just did, Jack. “Please Jack, show me how to do this. Please Jack …”
Jack Butala: I do show-
Jill DeWit: I know, that’s what I’m saying. “Please Jack, I want a screen shot of this. I want to see you doing this,” and that’s what we do. That’s what really is helpful and that’s why so many of our folks are successful, because they have those screen shots.
Jack Butala: If you’re struggling with this, if you’re a current member or thinking about being a member, go out on SuccessPlant and if you have a username, jump in. If you don’t, get one. It’s all free. It’s all 100 percent free, and it’s packed with all of our current members talking to each other about little issues like this.
Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jack Butala: This is maybe not such a little issue for you, but ask some of the senior people, “How did you guys get over this? How do you choose a county?” They will jump in and tell you.
Jill DeWit: Do you know what’s interesting about that? That just brought up a good point. That is a good testament of how well you have conveyed this message, Jack, because that is something I do not see very often from current members in SuccessPlant, the county. They’re past it.
Jack Butala: Yeah, they’re past it.
Jill DeWit: They see it, they watch it, they get it, they get the mailers out. Really the big things are, now I have the deal and I need help with the deal.
Jack Butala: Yeah.
Jill DeWit: That’s really where they are, which is so great.
Jack Butala: Like Milan.
Jill DeWit: Yeah.
Jack Butala: Great question ask-er today.
Jill DeWit: Exactly.
Jack Butala: I can guarantee you, all the people that are successful with this and everywhere else, I can guarantee they took my advice, they took the 3 step process, they took it seriously, reviewed some counties, but they probably didn’t send a ton of letters to the exact same counties that I used in the program. I have consulting calls every week with people who have chosen counties that I would never have considered to send letters to and I never have. Jill and I have never sent, and they’re killing it.
Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative). I love it. It’s the greatest thing. it’s like, where is that?
Jack Butala: I know this might sound nebulous, I always look for a technical answer, like come on, just give me the specs, give me the skew, did the bolt fit onto the nut. There’s imagination and creativity that goes into real estate investing, not just what we do.
Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative). You know what’s interesting too, Jack? Having this concrete example I think will help a lot of people getting over the big nebulous hurdle. There’s a lot of like, “Oh my gosh, am I doing this right?” By having step A, B, C that you can literally write down and check off, might take some of the scariness out of there and make people feel confident to send out a letter and get that first deal.
Jack Butala: I have never, ever spoken with in consulting, or just in passing, with anyone who’s a female who has struggled with this because women generally trust their feelings and trust their sense of whatever when they’re going through this process and I never get a consulting call on, “Hey, this isn’t working the way I thought.” It’s only with men because men just want … I’m a guy, I can say this, men want a map.
Jill DeWit: That’s very interesting.
Jack Butala: Point A to B to C. “Why didn’t it work?” Why is it so awesome?
Jill DeWit: That’s funny. You’re saying we women are like, “Just show me and leave me alone. I got this.” That’s kind of how I am.
Jack Butala: We have a member, and I said this on the air before … It is exactly how you are. That’s why I think, again, we’re good -partners. We have a member who only purchases property in places where she’s vacationed and had a good time.
Jill DeWit: Yeah.
Jack Butala: That varies so far from my 3 … And she’s killing it.
Jill DeWit: Yep.
Jack Butala: If that doesn’t make the point I’m not sure what does.
Jill DeWit: Exactly.
Jack Butala: This is the Technical Two, 2 minutes of property investment advice from our 15 year, 15 thousand transaction experience. Use your imagination when you’re choosing a county. Get a gut feel for what’s going to happen or what you thinks going to happen and let it rip, or, and here’s the technical advice: Send letters to multiple counties at the same time. It totally mitigates your risk. Don’t just choose one and pour all your time and effort in there. Choose 6, choose different states. Try new stuff.
Jill DeWit: Love it.
Jack Butala: It’s going to happen your whole career. You have to try new things constantly. We do it every single day.
Hey, if you have a question or you want to be on the show, all 800-725-8816. Jill, inspire us please.
Jill DeWit: Do you have a grateful attitude during your day? Hopefully all day, or even part of your day. It’s a mindset and if you’re not walking around at some point in your day reminding yourself to be grateful for whatever little thing it is, for the car that you drive, for the home that you live in, for the people that love you, for the job that you have, even though you may not love the job but it’s a paycheck, it’s keeping the wheels on the bus, and healthy kids and the sun shining, it’s important and you need to. Jack, do you-
Jack Butala: Well said.
Jill DeWit: Thank you.
Jack Butala: We all could use a dose of slowing down for one second and being thankful for what we have. I know it sounds trite, it’s not trite at all. I bet you a dollar almost all of us don’t do it enough.
Jill DeWit: It’s funny. I’ll share my little story, what made me think of this this morning. I was sitting, waiting for you, Jack.
Jack Butala: Waiting for me?
Jill DeWit: Yes I was-
Jack Butala: You mean, a woman was waiting for a man?
Jill DeWit: I was. I was waiting for you, Jack. You ran inside the drugstore to get a notepad and I’m sitting out in the car, with the top down by the way, that’s probably why this woman was able to talk to me. I just happened to be sitting in the car, I must’ve been listening to music with a smile on my face or something. For some reason the woman rolled up and she parked in the spot next to me and thought maybe I was waiting for them to open. She said, “Are they open?” I’m like, “Oh, yes. I’m just waiting.” She’s like, “Oh, okay. Thank you. Have a nice day.” I’m like, “Thank you. You too.” I’m just like …
Jack Butala: You had a little southern California moment.
Jill DeWit: Right? I’ve lived enough time out of southern California that I forgot how everybody is here sometimes. Just that little “have a nice day” and a little nice smile, the stuff I try to do to other people but now they’re happening back to me, I’m grateful for. It was really nice.
Jack Butala: Awesome advice.
Jill DeWit: Thank you.
Jack Butala: Hey, join us in another episode where Jack and Jill discuss how to use information, that’s me …
Jill DeWit: … And inspiration, that’s me …
Jack Butala: … To get just about anything you want.
Jill DeWit: We use it everyday to buy property for much less than what it’s worth and sell it immediately.
Jack Butala: You are not alone in your real estate ambition.
Good show, Jill.
Jill DeWit: Thank you. Do you remember me saying that about in the car?
Jack Butala: Oh yeah. I just … People know how to live life here.
Jill DeWit: Yeah.
Jack Butala: I’ve been saying it over and over. I think it’s great.
Jill DeWit: It’s nice. We all need to be reminded today to be be grateful for what we have sometimes because it’s too easy to get caught up in the negative and the pushing and the burning the candle at both ends to get everything better, whatever level you want it to be at so it’s nice. I just want to have everybody slow down a minute and be thankful.
Jack Butala: Everybody gets hung up on stuff when they start in REI, real estate investment, and finding a county was not one of the things for me, doing paperwork and some other stuff really was. Did you ever struggle with that?
Jill DeWit: Nope, because I had you, but I hear it often. It really does come up often. I think a percentage of it is bad information, meaning they don’t know what they’re doing kind of thing.
Jack Butala: What do you mean they don’t know? You mean the people who are instructing them?
Jill DeWit: Uh-huh (affirmative). That’s one of them.
Jack Butala: You don’t mean …
Jill DeWit: Not our people.
Jack Butala: You don’t mean the actual investors.
Jill DeWit: No. They didn’t get the right information and the right help learning how to do it. Then I think there’s a percentage of pushing the button. It’s like answering the phone the first time. There’s a little of that.
Jack Butala: We have a direct competitor who says this sentence a lot: “There’s a secret list of counties and I’m going to give it to you,” and that’s just not true. There’s no secret list of counties. What there is is using your imagination and creativity and doing statistical analysis to see what indicators are pointing to the fact that maybe you should send some offers out to this place.
Jill DeWit: Bingo.
Jack Butala: It’s not just land, it’s for everything. We do it with apartment buildings and houses all the time. If you’re going to follow an A to B to C road map you’re never going to be able to branch out into other things that really can make you some serious, serious money, like commercial real estate, wholesaling houses, and all that other stuff which we do all the time.
Jill DeWit: Exactly.
Jack Butala: Good show. Information and inspiration to buy undervalued property.
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