Choose Two Sources of REI Education at Least (CFFL 0259)
Choose Two Sources of REI Education at Least
Jack Butala: Choose Two Sources of REI Education at Least. 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 and Jill DeWItt.
Jill DeWit: Hello.
Jack Butala: Welcome to our show. It’s really your show.
Jill DeWit: Howdy.
Jack Butala: In this episode, Jill and I talk about why you should choose two sources of real estate investor education. At least two. Great show today Jill. Let’s take a question first posted by one of our members on successplant.com, our free online community.
Jill DeWit: This is from Claire. Hi, Claire. I put a little note in successplant too, telling her when I was going to do this. Claire asked, I’ve got a buyer who wants escrow in Southern California. In your guide, Jack, for Southern California, you say that a buyer and a seller split escrow costs. My question is is that a law or regulation? I’m not going to pay for it since I’ve already given the buyer a significant discount, but I want to know can I legitimately have him pay for it all, or does the escrow company really need a check from both me and him? If so, I’ll just up his purchase price. Thanks.
Jack Butala: That’s an awesome question.
Jill DeWit: I love it.
Jack Butala: Claire’s been with us from just about the beginning and she’s a perfect example of from zero to hero. Here’s the answer. Please make sure that this is correct, but I’m ninety-nine percent sure it’s correct. I don’t think there’s any laws at all governing who pays escrow in any way. I can tell you that historically everybody splits it and then stuff that gets prorated, like real estate taxes and some other fees and things like that, that’s just historically the culture that surrounds it. Incidentally, escrow itself is relatively new in the whole sea of real estate. It used to be that an attorney had to close every single deal. Escrow started in California. It was a California answer to, I don’t want you darned attorney to be involved in my real estate deal, and then it spread east from there.
To answer your question very simply, Claire, negotiate the deal that you want. We regularly, when this happens make the seller pay for everything, and I mean everything, so that we just get a check. All the time it works or we don’t go forward with it, because that’s just how we do it. Yeah, there’s no law. I’m almost sure there’s no law or reg. If you’re using Fidelity Title, there might be a Fidelity Title rule where you split it. I’ve never heard of that though.
Jill DeWit: Then, Claire is the perfect work around. Either way it’s okay. I’m just going to up his price because he’s getting a rocking deal. It’s going to work out the same to both of us in the end. However we do it is fine. That’s how I role too, Claire. I love it.
Jack Butala: I’ve done it on house deals, SFR deals where I say, we’re going to pay for everything.
Jill DeWit: That’s the ting. I was just thinking, that tells me right there too, because yeah, I’ve heard that and known that that buyer’s going to pay all closing costs, or a seller pays all closing costs.
Jack Butala: Incidentally, this is a sales tool. It’s not an issue to get over. It truly is a sales tool. I’ll tell you what sellers love to hear. We’re all used to hearing a price, I don’t care what you’re buying. It costs thirty-four dollars and in the end it doesn’t cost thirty-four dollars, it cost thirty-eight, because there’s taxes and fees and it’s all kinds of stuff that goes on. When you tell a seller, if they’re on the fence about selling you a piece of property and you say, you know what? You’re going to get a cashier’s check on Thursday for thirty-four hundred dollars, not thirty-eight, not thirty-one five, because there’s fees and escrow. You’re going to get a check for thirty-four hundred dollars on Thursday, if they’re on the fence about it they’re not anymore and they really appreciate the direct response.
I also think that you’re sending a message. In Claire’s case here she’s sending a message. Great. Happy to go through this with you, but you’re going to pay for it because the property’s already cheap. Now, they think they’re getting a great deal but they have to play … I think there’s a good solid psychological approach, on the buy side, the sell side, [inaudible 00:04:12] exactly what she’s saying.
Jill DeWit: Exactly. Thank you.
Jack Butala: Today’s topic, choose two sources of REI education. At least two. This is the meat of the show. As I said before, Jill, we’re dedicating these five shows, I guess we’re about in the middle of it, maybe five or eight shows on how to get past that first real estate deal. This is one of those topics, what do you think? You talk to new members all the time who come from other places where they’ve been educated and quite frankly disappointed and that they’ve been recommended to us. How do you handle that and why do you advocate not just having one place to go?
Jill DeWit: Couple reasons. One, it’s important to get different viewpoints on things and everybody brings something to the table. I’m really a fan of having multiple sources of education and different techniques. You might take a piece of this here and a piece of this there, because you really want to find what works for you. When we were sitting down and discussing topics and this came up and I said, I want to address this because I talk to a number of people that have purchased someone’s educational information, whether it’s a book or a program or just gone to a seminar or something, and they feel like they’ve failed. They feel like they’ve wasted their money because they didn’t get anything out of it, and they’re like, here they are standing, now I’m looking to you to solve this.
I’m like, you know what? It’s never a bad thing. I always want to make them feel good, that it wasn’t a bad thing. It was never a bad investment. I’m sure you got something good out of it. Gosh, if anything it got your feet wet. It got you thinking about this whole concept and now you get it. You understand it. There was obviously something missing there, because now you’re still looking for more information. It’s not crazy to get involved and find more information from another source to figure out what pieces were missing and get you off and running, if that makes sense. Do you Jack, I know you. You don’t go to the bookstore and just have one topic and just going to pick out one author and trust what they say verbatim. No. I’m going to look at a couple different books. I’m going to get a couple different perspectives. I’m going to get a couple different viewpoints and then make my decision how I want to do it.
Jack Butala: I only go to the book store if I go to the record store first. In my mind. In 1994.
Jill DeWit: What does that mean?
Jack Butala: There’s no bookstores anymore, Jill. There’s like one.
Jill DeWit: There’s book stores. I still see the bookstores. Excuse me, Jack. How about online.
Jack Butala: Look, I’m laughing with you, not at you.
Jill DeWit: Online research. How many times do we do things too. This is a good example. This is a perfect example. You and I come up with something and then we both go off on our separate corners and then we research it and come together with what we have. You’re going to have a different perspective. Here’s a good example. We were just researching blogs. Remember that? We were trying to figure out, what’s the best way to do a blog?
Jack Butala: Yeah.
Jill DeWit: Format? Remember that? This is a long time ago. What was the best format for blog? You and I both went off and we timed ourself. It was like an hour. Meet back here in an hour and have a printed stuff and both of our stuff was so different but we sat down and then we said, I like this. I don’t like this. This makes sense and then we melded it into what we thought was perfect for us. That’s the same thing. There’s no wrong education. There’s no bad thing, but you’ve got to figure out what’s right and which pieces are right for you, to get you where you want to be.
Jack Butala: There’s two types of people, two types of members that come to us and quite frankly we do not accept every single person. Number one, there is a potential member who just wants to be wealthy, and number two, is somebody who has already signed off or bought into or loves the idea of real estate. When they’re new and they say something like this, I love real estate. I’ve always loved it. I don’t understand why. My parents did really well in it or my uncle has a couple of rental houses. He’s real happy with that. When you have some little back story about why they love real estate or it just sings to them, now we have something to work with. When they seek some education elsewhere and then they come to us and say, it was a great start but I really need more answers. They need the holes to be filled.
I’ve actually heard them say that, that there’s some gaps in this and it looks like you guys can fill them. That person’s going to do really well. They’ve already signed. I’m not here to sell you on why real estate is a great way. That’s a whole different thing. You’re going to do that on your own. You’re going to do that way before you find us. We’re not going to sell you on the fact that buying dirt and flipping it or having rental houses is a great thing. That’s just not, so, two, three, four, five places to get educated are great. I’ll tell you right now, Jill and I are experts. We are absolute experts at purchasing under valued property. I think in the industry, i think probably, line us up against the greatest acquisition guy ever, which I used to be, we’ll knock it out of the park. I will tell you, we are not the single greatest people to go to about internet marketing media.
There’s other people out there that can sell anything on the internet. We’re no slouch. We get it done. We do great, actually, but there are sources out there, because that’s such a changing industry. It changes every week. There’s better sources for that, so I would highly suggest that once you get through us and if you hit a ceiling, it hasn’t happened yet but then seek internet marketing from a different, Jill and I actually we’re looking around to partner with somebody who’s just a knock it out of the park expert on, whether you’re selling shoes or whatever.
Jill DeWit: That’s a good point.
Jack Butala: Lots of sources.
Jill DeWit: That’s a very good point. That’s why we’re so successful. Then on the back end we’re really good at it and even we could use some help there. Good. Thank you.
Jack Butala: This is the technical two, two minutes of property investment advice from our fifteen year, fifteen thousand transaction experience. If you’re not sold on the fact that real estate is for you and you just want to check it out, you’re way not ready to invest the time, energy, and money into formal education like we provide. We have a lot more podcasts to listen to, a lot more people to talk to. You really have to look in the mirror and say, is this really what I want to do, because if I’m going to do it, I’m in, and then kill it. Make sure that you really believe in it and want to have a long term income, both equity and income before you spend time and money.
Jill DeWit: Exactly, and some people that we don’t work a whole lot and we’re goofing off a lot and we do that but there’s work here guys. There’s stuff you’ve got to do. That’s what I’m trying to say. I don’t want people to have this false sense of, I’m going to make x amount a month and I’m going to just coast after a few deals. That’s not the norm. You would need to make the decision, what kind of life you want. I love what we do.
Jack Butala: I do too. I can’t imagine doing anything else.
Jill DeWit: I don’t want a nine to five, but there are a lot of people that like a nine to five. One of my very good friends is a school teacher and she’s very happy and it’s very rewarding for her. She’s got her masters and she’s here in California. That’s really all she wanted.
Jack Butala: Joe’s little brother is a day trader, or he was. He’s retired from that. I can’t imagine doing that, and he’s like, what are you talking about? This is the greatest thing ever. I love this thing.
Jill DeWit: I know. He loved the energy and the challenge. For me, it’d be like I’d feel like I’m having a mini heart attack every day.
Jack Butala: Me too. All day every day.
Jill DeWit: I am not going to do that.
Jack Butala: Those are two great opposite ends of the spectrum examples. If you have a question or you want to be on the show, call 800-725-8816. My personal favorite time on this show, Jill’s inspiration. Inspire us, Jill.
Jill DeWit: Stop doing stuff you hate. Don’t do it. Seriously. Whatever it is. There’s two things. One, does it really need to be done? Two, can you find a better way to get it done?
Jack Butala: I’ll do yourself, with these inspirations. I love this.
Jill DeWit: Thank you.
Jack Butala: I say this to our members, and just to people in general. I say it to our kids all the time. If everyday you’re getting up and it just sucks you’ve got to make some major changes fast. There’s so many resources. This day and age, when we were kids, we used to go to the library and read books or talk to our parent’s friends.
Jill DeWit: Watch tv.
Jack Butala: There’s so many places you can go to get all kinds of inspirational help or any technical advice. If you are unhappy and you’re doing stuff you don’t want to do all the time, that’s not good.
Jill DeWit: There’s a lot of resources too for free to help you get out of whatever pickle you’re in. That is one of the nice things. You’re right about the internet and everything out there. There’s all kinds of things that you can do to get yourself, like you just said, motivated, and get a game plan. Whatever it is. It may be something really little that you just hate doing everyday. You know what? Find a way to not do it.
Jack Butala: It might be your job.
Jill DeWit: It might be your commute.
Jack Butala: Yeah. That’s great. Awesome. That’s a perfect example. Can’t stand the commute, love the job. Maybe commute in a different vehicle. I did that.
Jill DeWit: That’s true. [inaudible 00:14:23] find a way to work at home a couple days a week.
Jack Butala: I bought a motorcycle. I’m not saying you should do this. I bought a motorcycle and the commutes that I do have half a year are an absolute rip roaring blast now. I look forward to it. I jump out of bed, get ready to get on that thing, and go take the damn thing on.
Jill DeWit: I know people who have taken other jobs that might’ve even paid less to remove the commute out of their life and for them, that provides a much better quality of life. They’re just so much happier. They get to spend that extra time with their family. They’re not stuck in traffic.
Jack Butala: Here’s the flip side.
Jill DeWit: They’re happier people.
Jack Butala: Maybe a commute is the best part of your day, because you don’t have to talk to anybody. You can listen to this podcast. No one’s calling you. You turn your phone off. You tell everybody, I don’t get any cell reception.
Jill DeWit: That’s right.
Jack Butala: I worked with this woman one time, she would book trips on an airline, cross country trips, and she never had a trip. Her name’s Terry.
Jill DeWit: What do you mean?
Jack Butala: She’d never had a business trip. She would get on an airplane just because she doesn’t want to talk to anybody anymore. She would fly there, take a five hour trip from the west coast to the east coast, have this little fictitious business meeting or whatever. Or maybe she’d walk through, whatever.
Jill DeWit: She built a company for this?
Jack Butala: No. I worked with her. We worked for the same super large company.
Jill DeWit: I’m going to start doing that tomorrow. You just gave me a great idea. I have a meeting, I can’t tell you about it. It’s really great. It’s awesome. When I get back I will fill you in. It’s awesome.
Jack Butala: We were managing health care facilities. I was buying them and she would manage them and she’s like man, …
Jill DeWit: Dude, I’m so going to do this.
Jack Butala: On a couple of them I went with her, I’m like, that was not for me.
Jill DeWit: You went back to get lobster and then come back? This really was a business trip?
Jack Butala: We had all these facilities, so we would walk through the facilities. It was sort of justified but not really. Maybe it was, maybe it wasn’t. It was fun though. We had a blast. Terry’s retired now. I learned a lot from her.
Jill DeWit: You’re just so funny. I think I got my point across. Whatever it is that you hate, find a way to make it fun or change it or just don’t do it. Thank you.
Jack Butala: Join us in another episode where you can burn off twenty minutes of your life and listen to us discuss how we use information, that’s me.
Jill DeWit: And inspiration that you want to keep listening more.
Jack Butala: Then you get everything 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. You continuously outdo yourself in the quality of these inspirational things. Stop doing crap you don’t want to do.
Jill DeWit: Thank you.
Jack Butala: You can take it a step further. I don’t want to blow it out of shell, but …
Jill DeWit: Nice choice of words.
Jack Butala: Dave Ramsey advocates filing bankruptcy to just stop the madness. I’m not advocating that.
Jill DeWit: Does he? I’ve never heard him say that.
Jack Butala: Constantly.
Jill DeWit: Really? I’m always like, pay it off.
Jack Butala: Find a way to pay it off if you can. If you’re in so deep file bankruptcy and start over, but do not just sit there and suffer is what he says. Deal with it. I’m not advocating that at all. I’m just saying is drastic measures are required, and you made some mistakes and you’re just going to pay for it for the rest of your life …
Jill DeWit: No, that is the wrong thing.
Jack Butala: Find a way to hit the restart button. That’s all I’m saying.
Jill DeWit: Thank you.
Jack Butala: Information and inspiration, even though you get crazy bad looks across the studio desk from Jill, to buy undervalued property.
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