Too Many Offers Sent to a Given County? (CFFL 0291)
Too Many Offers Sent to a Given County?
Jack Butala: Too Many Offers Sent to a Given County? 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 De Wit.
Jill DeWit: Hi.
Jack Butala: Welcome to our show today. In this episode, Jill and I talk about too many offers sent to a given county? What’s that all about? Boy, if you listen to this show, we’re going to have some fun with it today. Before we get started, let’s share some interesting funny stuff that’s happened to us lately, Jill.
Jill DeWit: What about that man cave?
Jack Butala: My gosh. That’s brilliant to bring that up in this environment. Go ahead.
Jill DeWit: I don’t know if you saw on my Facebook yesterday, but it’s not the best quality, I have to admit. We were walking around, and having a good time, so it’s a little rocky, but if you tuned in and saw my Facebook Alive yesterday, I was showing a man cave. I’m here in Arizona with Jack. I’ve been here all this last week. We got invited to go watch some football yesterday with some friends of ours, and quote, unquote, “this guys man cave”. I’m thinking it’s like a garage set up.
Jack Butala: That’s what I thought. Same thing.
Jill DeWit: That’s what everybody has.
Jack Butala: I pictured a garage.
Jill DeWit: Exactly. You walk in, this place was … Jack said, “I want to live here”.
Jack Butala: It’s twenty-five thousand square feet. It’s a light industrial building. The front of it in the outside, you would never know what’s inside.
Jill DeWit: Yeah.
Jack Butala: They work in the front. Go ahead.
Jill DeWit: Sorry about that. Yeah, their offices are in the front, where there is some business. I’m really not still quite sure exactly what they do. I don’t remember. You go to the back, and it just opens up into this unbelievable … You know what it reminded me of? When you walk through the Willy Wonka room, and that, “Welcome to dah dah dah dah”. That’s exactly the appearance when you walk into this room, you’re like, “Oh, wow!”
Jack Butala: You know what it reminded me of, is a sound stage. Jill and I have recently been to a lot of studio’s in Hollywood. It reminded me of a large building, and every separate section of a large building was set up, so it was set up with the full kitchen in one section.
Jill DeWit: Yeah.
Jack Butala: A full billiards area. A full drum beating man area where you have a meeting, right out of a movie, with big leather chairs, and cigars, and stuff. Then, one part was a movie theater. One part was a garage for Harley’s. They could make a whole business out of this.
Jill DeWit: Totally. Exactly.
Jack Butala: It was cool.
Jill DeWit: With the roll up doors. That’s what I thought was, too. They’ve got every attention to detail. Roll up doors, where you can just even roll a whole deck into the outside, if you want to be outside.
Jack Butala: They have a roll away deck, a roll out deck, with all the stuff on it, and then roll it back in.
Jill DeWit: I know. Tables, and chairs, and roll it right back in.
Jack Butala: Because the weather’s good.
Jill DeWit: Exactly.
Jack Butala: I was amazed.
Jill DeWit: Don’t forget the ski lift in there. Then, they had these fun things from details from some of their trips.
Jack Butala: All of these guys go on trips together.
Jill DeWit: Yeah.
Jack Butala: Putting a big picture on the wall of their ski trip, of these guys on a ski lift wasn’t enough. They had to bring the seat of the ski lift, have it sent back, hanging from the thing.
Jill DeWit: Exactly.
Jack Butala: Unbelievable.
Jill DeWit: Yeah. It’s so funny.
Jack Butala: Unbelievable.
Jill DeWit: Yeah.
Jack Butala: There’s a whole poker room.
Jill DeWit: Yeah.
Jack Butala: I’m sure we’re leaving some stuff out.
Jill DeWit: Yeah.
Jack Butala: And a bar.
Jill DeWit: Yeah. The bar in the middle. I totally forgot about that.
Jack Butala: Nicer than any bar I’ve probably ever been to.
Jill DeWit: My gosh, it was just gorgeous. It was hilarious. Yeah. That was good stuff yesterday. It was kind of hard to leave that.
Jack Butala: Anyway, this program is about real estate, believe it or not. Before we address the question, and the title, let’s take a question posted by one of our members on Successplant.com, our free online community. Jill.
Jill DeWit: Okay. This one is a little long. It’s a good meaty paragraph here. Adam says, “Hi, all. I’ve sent out three mailers so far, for about one hundred each mailer. The first one that I sent out, I followed the program to the letter, offering five hundred dollars on my first mailer, yielded five total responses, but all five were insulted by my offer, and would not even consider talking to me further. No problem. Today I just received my first phone call from my second mailer, and I got the same result; another mad person on the line. The second mailer, I offered one thousand dollars, not five hundred dollars. I’m anticipating that same general response from my second mailer. My third mailer that went out this week, I tweaked the offer letter to an open offer format. I did not input an offer price, but essentially left the field open to try to solicit an offer price from them. Just thought that I’d throw this out to the group and see what you all think. Or if you think any advice or experience of doing something different. I will post about those responses when I get the open offer letter from that mailer. Any advice is appreciated. Thank you”.
Jack Butala: I put this question here intentionally. Adam, I’m going to answer the question for everyone, not just you. It’s not a personal thing to you at all. This is absolutely not how to do this. I’m saying it to help you, and to help everyone. Please don’t send out a one hundred unit mailer. You’re setting yourself up to be disappointed, and please send it to the right people. Our data, we use it for a reason. There’s a way to choose who you send these letters to, and who you don’t. Sending out one hundred just to test it is not the best way to do it.
Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jack Butala: I recommend a bare minimum of fifteen hundred mailers that go out. The pricing really, really matters. Who you send it to really, really, really, really matters. It’s all in the program. Your end part of this question where you just open it up, and open it up for discussion will yield to a tremendous waste of time.
Jill DeWit: Yeah. You’re going to get a great response, and everybody’s going to want to sell it for more than the house next door kind of thing, because they think it’s worth it.
Jack Butala: Raising the price, also, not going to work. People don’t sell real estate in this program because they care about the price at all.
Jill DeWit: Right.
Jack Butala: Now you’re setting yourself up for a lot of work down the line, because you’re buying property for too much money. I’ve done all these things. You know, Jill and I have made all these mistakes for you.
Jill DeWit: Good point.
Jack Butala: You don’t need to redo our mistakes.
Jill DeWit: Yeah.
Jack Butala: What you need to do is really, and you did the right thing by going to successplant. There’s a lot of people below your question that answered you.
Jill DeWit: Yeah.
Jack Butala: The more senior people in our group, so stick to the program, pal.
Jill DeWit: Yeah.
Jack Butala: We’ve figured it all out for you.
Jill DeWit: Exactly.
Jack Butala: Send a bigger mailer out, and make sure you’re sending it to the right people. Send it for a real small amount of money, you’re going to buy some real estate.
Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Thank you, Jack.
Jack Butala: You’re welcome. If you have a question, or want to be on the show, reach out to either one of us on successplant.com. It’s free. Today’s topic, too many offers sent to a given county question, right Jill? I know you love this topic.
Jill DeWit: I love this topic.
Jack Butala: We both have raspy voices today.
Jill DeWit: Yeah, I know. We’ve had a little bit of a crazy weekend.
Jack Butala: We’ve had a whirl wind schedule.
Jill DeWit: People in town, and me in town.
Jack Butala: Turns out people like this academy thing. I didn’t think it was possible.
Jill DeWit: You’re so silly.
Jack Butala: I really didn’t.
Jill DeWit: You’re silly.
Jack Butala: People love it. The show’s popular, and now we have a crazy schedule.
Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jack Butala: They’re begging us to do live events.
Jill DeWit: Exactly.
Jack Butala: When I say they, I mean Jill.
Jill DeWit: Silly.
Jack Butala: Is it possible, Jill, to send too many offers in a given county?
Jill DeWit: I don’t think so.
Jack Butala: I used to think so. That was a big concern of mine in the very beginning; in the nineties.
Jill DeWit: We talked about that.
Jack Butala: This is what sealed it for me recently. We just took out a new member. He’s an experienced house flipper, and he never sends out one mailer. He sends three.
Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jack Butala: He times them. He educated me. He said, “The more you send it out, the more likely it is that you’re just warming them up”.
Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jack Butala: Then, we’re watching football in this man cave, and I’m counting the number of Lincoln commercials in the game.
Jill DeWit: Good point. I do remember that, with what’s-his-face. The actor.
Jack Butala: Matthew …
Jill DeWit: McConaughey.
Jack Butala: Yes.
Jill DeWit: You’re right. We seen the same commercial over and over again on the hill in LA.
Jack Butala: To the point of nausea.
Jill DeWit: Yeah.
Jack Butala: I bet fifty to sixty to seventy percent of the commercials in that whole game were that one commercial.
Jill DeWit: Exactly. They’re just over killing that commercial.
Jack Butala: Repetition works.
Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jack Butala: This competitive notion of too many people are sending offers, that sealed it for me. I know it’s not truth from experience. People are worried that our county’s going to get saturated, and that’s just not the case. Don’t worry about it.
Jill DeWit: You know what’s interesting, too. I’m just thinking of these people. I’m putting myself in their shoes. I get this offer, I’m not in the position to sell, I toss it, I throw it away. Something might change in my life, I’m like, “Oh shoot. I hope I get an offer now”. Something might change, and I can imagine myself looking for an offer in the mail, and it’s got to be the right one.
Jack Butala: Right.
Jill DeWit: It really is just timing.
Jack Butala: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jill DeWit: You know what’s so interesting to me is, it’s the right offer, or the right letter, or these sellers pick up something by you. They may not be interested at that moment, but they save your letter. That’s what I found that’s so interesting. The people that call us back five, six, seven, ten years later, even the kids find a file when grandma, or whoever passed on, and there’s a letter in there. “I know this was ten years ago, but you guys are still here. You just answered the phone. Is there any chance you want this property?”
Jack Butala: Right.
Jill DeWit: I thought that so, too. They hung onto our letter.
Jack Butala: Yeah.
Jill DeWit: Who know how many they got in between then that they didn’t keep?
Jack Butala: Sure. Right.
Jill DeWit: That they tossed.
Jack Butala: Yeah. You’re going to hold onto an offer.
Jill DeWit: Right.
Jack Butala: Let’s be clear about it.
Jill DeWit: I’m not going to hang onto a postcard.
Jack Butala: No.
Jill DeWit: That pizza postcard, I not going to care less.
Jack Butala: If it’s addressed to the actual person, and the APN’s in there, it’s a real mail merge.
Jill DeWit: Exactly.
Jack Butala: There’s probably maybe other people. I don’t know. No one’s ever sent an offer to us on the house that we live in, which baffles me.
Jill DeWit: Right.
Jack Butala: I’m testing it.
Jill DeWit: The thing is, too, when you go through your mail, if they’re not in that place, they’re just going toss it aside.
Jack Butala: Yeah.
Jill DeWit: You’re not harassing them. Even though people call, and say that you are sometimes with these offers. I think it’s kind of funny. Those people are actually looking for something. Those are the same people that, there’s a little bit of road rage thing going on. Don’t get their McDonald’s order wrong. You know what I mean?
Jack Butala: Yeah. Exactly.
Jill DeWit: We joke about it, but I think that on the grand scheme of things, there are not that many people out there that are really like that.
Jack Butala: I love when you say ‘scheme’.
Jill DeWit: Thank you. There are not that many people out there that you really are insulting. You send me an offer, and I’d be like, “Yeah, right. I am not going to sell it for that”. That’s funny. That’s me.
Jack Butala: It’s a squeaky wheel thing. You’re exactly right. You got disgust in a shell. You upset a few people, but you also buy some super cheap real estate. So what? There’s ups an down’s to everything.
Jill DeWit: I think they’re the first to call back sometimes. Next thing you know, you’re completing a deal, and you’re actually really helping somebody.
Jack Butala: Yeah.
Jill DeWit: That’s the thing I wish would be discussed more, and I meant to say something about it right now. The number of times I have had people heartfelt thank me for getting the stupid property out of their life, they were going to let it go back to the county, whatever it was, they’re just so happy to not get this tax bill now every year, and all that stuff. It’s just amazing. They’re getting something out of it. “Now I can afford to put this money towards my kids college”, whatever it is.
Jack Butala: Yeah.
Jill DeWit: That’s the reality. You get into this business, and you have a few of those, and it makes all the other stuff seem like nothing. Which is true.
Jack Butala: Yeah. Well said.
Jill DeWit: Thanks.
Jack Butala: On the sale side of this, they’re appreciative.
Jill DeWit: Yeah.
Jack Butala: There’s a couple of people that are upset, but they’re upset about something else.
Jill DeWit: Yeah.
Jack Butala: Join us in another episode, where Jack and Jill discuss how to use information, that’s me.
Jill DeWit: 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 split immediately.
Jack Butala: You are not alone in your real estate ambition. I love how you really set that whole topic straight, Jill. You always have, because when people are brand new in this business, they get some phone calls from some sellers that are like, “What the heck are you talking about sending me a thousand?” It’s one billionth of one percent, you know?
Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jack Butala: It’s the squeaky wheel thing, and you always turn that around to be a positive thing. You’re the voice of reason on that, and I sincerely thank you. I’m not joking.
Jill DeWit: I was just thinking I was going to start a thread in success plan, I might even write a blog about it. Why are we focusing on the few things. I want to see all the good stories. I know our members are saying, “This person just thanked me. This persons so happy”.
Jack Butala: Yeah, we should have good story day.
Jill DeWit: Thank you cards. The hate versus the love. There’s really a lot of love from these people that you’re helping. You know what else? I was going to say one more little thing real quick about these counties. You and I, we keep trying to find a number. Remember we talked about this? When you really think about how many properties are out there in the different counties, and the chances of you and I stepping on each others toes, we can all be in the same county, but one persons doing the two acres. One persons doing five acres. Ones doing ten. Ones doing fifteen. Ones doing twenty, forty, sixty, whatever. The chances of us really stepping on each others toes are not that high.
Jack Butala: I just ordered the data from Real Class; the custom data downloads because we’re going to look at. I’m going to drill down county by county. There’s X amount of properties with no improvements on them.
Jill DeWit: Right.
Jack Butala: There’s Y amount of properties that have houses on them, and the numbers are staggering.
Jill DeWit: Right.
Jack Butala: There’s so much more land …
Jill DeWit: Than houses?
Jack Butala: Yeah, but when people are flipping houses, why do [crosstalk 00:14:23]. No one ever comes and says, “Get out of my area”.
Jill DeWit: Right. It’s kind of funny.
Jack Butala: I’m going to put the thing to rest with data.
Jill DeWit: Cool.
Jack Butala: Information and inspiration to buy undervalued property.
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