REI Mysteries Solved (CFFL 0295)
REI Mysteries Solved
Jack Butala: REI Mysteries Solved. 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: What the heck was that? Hi!
Jack Butala: I don’t know, I was just trying to make you laugh.
Jill DeWit: That’s really good, like I were to forget my name. That was really good, I like that. Thank you.
Jack Butala: I bought a beer, recently.
Jill DeWit: Recent, only one?
Jack Butala: Well here’s the name of the beer, and I say this with love and you’re my favorite person on the planet …
Jack Butala: … but the name of the beer was Stupid Wit.
Jill DeWit: I think that’s really great.
Jack Butala: We had, all had a real good laugh about it.
Jill DeWit: That was really really really good.
Jack Butala: Who would name a beer that?
Jill DeWit: I think it was awesome. I mean it is kind of funny. I mean because you’re witty.
Jack Butala: Jill’s nickname is the Wit, that’s what we have all called her, the kids call her that sometimes. It’s part of her last name and it’s part of that fact that she’s witty.
Jill DeWit: Thank you I appreciate that.
Jack Butala: I adore you if I haven’t told you recently.
Jill DeWit: Thank you, I really appreciate that.
Jack Butala: In this episode, Jack & Jill, talk about REI Mystery’s Solved. Here’s the thing I’m going to real quickly before we get into this. People think there’s these mysteries like these, oh, I could never be a real estate investor because I don’t know the inside track, I need to, there’s a something I don’t know or it’s not, we’re going to solve all that for you today.
Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jack Butala: Before we do, let’s take a question from a Success Plant. Oh right, I’m sorry, before we do, let’s talk about some funny stuff that’s happened to us recently.
Jill DeWit: You just did. I thought that’s where you were going.
Jack Butala: Oh is that it?
Jill DeWit: Exactly.
Jack Butala: I have a funny thing.
Jill DeWit: Yeah.
Jack Butala: Do you have a funny thing?
Jill DeWit: I do too.
Jack Butala: Then there’s going to be three funny things on this show tonight.
Jill DeWit: Okay good this will be good, this is a great, we’re going to totally goof off show. Not that we, not that every other, not.
Jack Butala: Look how happy she is.
Jill DeWit: You know funny.
Jack Butala: She doesn’t want to talk about real estate
Jill DeWit: You know, because all of our shows are so serious, it’s time to.
Jack Butala: Oh yeah serious is you middle name.
Jill DeWit: Exactly. No no, my little thing I was going to talk about is, you know, every woman needs a red carpet dress.
Jack Butala: That has nothing to do with real estate.
Jill DeWit: I know, no. No it’s great, all right let me tell you in thirty seconds, what’s funny is as Jack’s preparing for the show and getting everything rolling, I’m sitting here checking in for my flight, to Florida and where I’m going to use my red carpet dress. I’m just thinking about my red carpet dress and my trip to Florida I got coming up here, which is going to be awesome.
Jack Butala: You look like a knockout in that dress.
Jill DeWit: Thank you very much, I’m very excited.
Jack Butala: I picked that out for you.
Jill DeWit: You know you know, I will, I’ll get some pictures of that and I will put them on my Facebook pages.
Jack Butala: Okay. Good.
Jill DeWit: That that will happen when the moments right and I’m wearing that dress I will, I’ll post that because I think it’s really good.
Jack Butala: Mature, intelligent, professional women know and are honest with themselves about the assets that they have physically and intellectually, and they utilize those. Immature, silly women, look like hookers.
Jill DeWit: Oh.
Jack Butala: Because they’re lost.
Jill DeWit: Oh.
Jack Butala: … and so they just want to slut it all out and that’s so sad..
Jill DeWit: Yeah.
Jack Butala: Immature, idiot men, the absolute wrong men for your daughters, love that slutty thing. The right men, love the classic beautiful, institutional beauty like Jill. Like Jill has, inside and out.
Jill DeWit: Where is this coming from?
Jack Butala: Wow, we should end this show right now.
Jill DeWit: Where is this coming from?
Jack Butala: Just because, you know, we went dress shopping and I was helping you because you have this whole thing in Boca Raton and …
Jill DeWit: Thank you.
Jack Butala: … not one time did you even come close to choosing a dress where you just, the wrong dress.
Jill DeWit: Thank you.
Jack Butala: We both dressed you, you know it’s not …
Jill DeWit: We both. Hello!
Jack Butala: I mean … We both.
Jill DeWit: That came out wrong.
Jack Butala: We both chose, we, look, the wrong. We chose a dress that reflects your personality.
Jill DeWit: Thank you.
Jack Butala: Actually we ended up buying seven dresses.
Jill DeWit: Well there is that. Thank you, so that was really nice, so thank you very much.
Jack Butala: Wow are we doing a show?
Jill DeWit: We are.
Jack Butala: I tripped myself up.
Jill DeWit: We got kind of sidetracked.
Jack Butala: Yeah, well don’t dress like a slut please. You’re not a hooker don’t dress like one.
Jill DeWit: You’re not talking to me I know.
Jack Butala: No I’m not. Before we get into to talking exactly what we’re supposed to be talking about today, let’s take a question posted on Success Plants, our free online community.
Jill DeWit: Okay. Luke asked, “Is there any reason not to go ahead and advertise a property for sale once a signed purchased agreement is in hand. Or, could you get in double-trouble, doing that, since you don’t actually own the property yet. I know you can with an option agreement, obviously. Correct?” Love it.
Jack Butala: What do you think?
Jill DeWit: Okay, so yes. Option Agreement is that. The Option Agreement is a signed thing saying, “I’m allowing you to market my property and try to sell it.” That check, covers that, now that’s so that’s a whole separate thing. You’re correct but about the, the whole signed purchase agreement. No I wouldn’t, I would get everything ready, I see the transaction coming, I’d have my engineering ready to go but, technically until the deed is signed. The ink can still be wet but it’s signed and the notary stamp’s on it, now you own it. Now you can push the button, while it’s being mailed back to you and while you’re sending it into the county to be recorded and all that good stuff.
Jack Butala: Okay, well we covered the technical part, what do you do in reality?
Jill DeWit: In reality, I get it ready. Things could happen, we, I know we feel differently about that..
Jack Butala: Yeah.
Jill DeWit: I mean.
Jack Butala: We do.
Jill DeWit: You know I guess, you could, technically you could put the posting up and then pull it down if something happens. I wouldn’t take money, how is that?
Jack Butala: Yeah. That’s what …
Jill DeWit: Okay.
Jack Butala: … well you just made my whole point.
Jill DeWit: Is that what you’re saying?
Jack Butala: Yeah.
Jill DeWit: All right.
Jack Butala: Don’t close the deal.
Jill DeWit: Yeah.
Jack Butala: You need to own the damn property.
Jill DeWit: Right.
Jack Butala: You need to make it real clear that you’re not representing the person because that’s not, that’s a huge no-no. If you’re not a licensed agent.
Jill DeWit: Right.
Jack Butala: Or acting like one.
Jill DeWit: I guess this is a gray area that it’s up to each individual to think, to see, you know feel it out. You know what? Here’s a thought, if it’s a person that I have a relationship with and I’ve bought several properties from them before and I know them and I’m on the same page and it’s like, pretend I’m buying. Someone’s buying from us, lets just go back. Pretend it’s a [os-set 00:06:30] of wholesalers, we have established relationships with a lot of buyers who buy properties and they market them for the [end-yuners 00:06:36] or if he’s buying …
Jack Butala: Damn, that’s our business right?
Jill DeWit: … multiple properties from me, blah blah blah blah, and he buys it from me and we have a purchase agreement and before I’ve signed it, he’s out there promoting it. I could care less.
Jack Butala: Yep.
Jill DeWit: That’s great, he knows me and he trusts me, it’s all legitimate, it’s all cool so I guess maybe that’s, depends too on the situation.
Jack Butala: Yeah. I think it’s okay.
Jill DeWit: Okay.
Jack Butala: Do we actually do it? Actually we don’t because the person that’s in charge of all that refuses to do it. I’m more of a risk taker and I also think it’s really … When you’re talking to a seller, you know when they’re ready to do the deal. Some sellers back out at the last second. Not, it doesn’t happen very often, in fact I can’t remember the last time it’s happened to us. Some sellers markup the price right at the end too.
Jill DeWit: Yeah.
Jack Butala: Man that burns me up.
Jill DeWit: You know I have another little tip for Luke though and I agree with you, is what I’ve done is I’ve got the signed purchase agreement now. Now we’re closing the deal and we’re my office is arranging the notary and everything. I may not be advertising it on my website, but you better believe it’s on my list for all my buyers. My hot buyers like, “Hey, this property’s coming in you know if you want it let me know.” You know kind of thing and I’ll just, it’s going to go right to you and I don’t have to do any of the work.
Jack Butala: Or.
Jill DeWit: I would definitely do that.
Jack Butala: Or if you were doing the right thing and posting it everywhere, get all that engineering done for sure.
Jill DeWit: Yes.
Jack Butala: Don’t wait on that.
Jill DeWit: That’s was the [crosstalk 00:08:00].
Jack Butala: A lot of deals, no. You know I shouldn’t say this out loud, a lot of deals we do never ever hit the internet.
Jill DeWit: Exactly.
Jack Butala: We just, we’re purchasing in [a-pe-on 00:08:02] and shoving it over to the end seller. We’re wholesaling it. That’s one of the reasons we choose a wholesale property because you have to do literally one tenth of the work.
Jill DeWit: Yeah. That’s it because the works that involved in getting, making the maps pretty and getting the photos and writing a description and putting it up there when I’ve already sold it to my guy over here.
Jack Butala: [crosstalk 00:08:28] We just don’t.
Jill DeWit: It doesn’t make any sense.
Jack Butala: In the beginning your career, that’s exactly what you never want to do.
Jill DeWit: Right yeah. Don’t do the.
Jack Butala: Do as I say, not as I do.
Jill DeWit: Exactly but.
Jack Butala: You want to promote yourself as much as you can and build up a huge buyer list and the best way to do that is to have great property deals available.
Jill DeWit: Exactly.
Jack Butala: You want to be on the show or you have a question. Reach out to either one of us at successplant.com. Today’s topic, REI, Real Estate Investment, Mystery Solved. Here’s this back story. Jill and I, before we started Land Academy said, “Boy we really have to up our game in social media.” Well I thought, there’s some big mystery out there, or some, we were missing something. I hired an extremely high priced firm in Washington State and said, “What’s the secrets?” They said, “What do you mean the secrets?” This is what they said, “Oh you need to possibly do a, you need to have a blog and you need to get involved in social media and start to attract a group that of like kind members. What? What’s the secret? What does Oprah do? What does, what do these huge, people in social media do?
Oh no they just provide really good content and they hire somebody like us to distribute it. It took me a week to understand there’s no secret, it’s just really hard work. If you want to really succeed, have a good podcast or have a good YouTube channel. Check check, we have them both. Then I started thinking, there’s a lot of people who are new to real estate. They think, might think there’s some big huge mystery’s out there, inside track. Oh I could never do that, they, well, this is what this show is about. We’re going to solve those mysteries. This is how you succeed in real estate investing. You buy property for less than what it’s worth and you resell it. You get the word out and collect a group of people on the internet or where ever you are, that want to buy it from you. Now you have buyers before you actually go get the sellers.
Jill DeWit: That’s what I was going to say.
Jack Butala: That’s the mystery, solved.
Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative). That’s, I was just going to say the exact same thing. You want to have the buyers lined up, almost first. I mean it’s true, first, you’re going to … How do you get that going? You’ve got to kind of establish yourself a little bit and that’s by having these rocking deals out there, that you know attract these people and they go, “All right, whatever you just did, do that ten more times and I’ll buy them all.”
Jack Butala: Yep.
Jill DeWit: That’s how it goes.
Jack Butala: Yep. We have members that are reporting this now, they’re saying, “I just got a call from a guy, he’s buying my whole inventory.”
Jill DeWit: Yeah.
Jack Butala: Because you’re doing everything right.
Jill DeWit: This guys not been with us a year.
Jack Butala: Right.
Jill DeWit: I know exactly who you’re talking about, it’s amazing he’s like, “What do I do? I’m out of inventory.” It’s like the greatest thing on the planet.
Jack Butala: It’s really ironic because a lot of times in this business you have too much cash and not enough property.
Jill DeWit: Right.
Jack Butala: Then you’re regular customers are saying, “What the heck.” We’re in that situation right now.
Jill DeWit: I could say, I know this. I think sometimes people look at our real estate website, Lands Stay like, “They’re not doing anything.”
Jack Butala: Yeah.
Jill DeWit: Oh it’s the funniest …
Jack Butala: Oh geeze.
Jill DeWit: … thing, it looks like we’re not doing anything, it’s like, I keep looking at these same six properties. That’s the same six that are left over, you’re not seeing the.
Jack Butala: We’ve sold four thousand properties in between.
Jill DeWit: Thousands that are gone and the, gosh the hundreds every month that just don’t make, they don’t make the website because we’ve already sold them. Why? Because we have those investors sitting right there, anxious to buy them from us and that’s how you make it.
Jack Butala: I’m going to solve another mystery, at the risk of hearing radios and computers and cell phones click to the off position.
Jill DeWit: Uh-oh. I’m like all ready here you should see the look on my face.
Jack Butala: I’m going to talk about why Donald Trump is so successful as a real estate …
Jill DeWit: Click.
Jack Butala: … developer. I’m only going to say this once.
Jill DeWit: Ehhhhhhhhhhhhh. It’s like a dial. Something.
Jack Butala: I’m going to-
Jill DeWit: We interrupt this show with a …
Jack Butala: Yeah wouldn’t that be funny?
Jill DeWit: … an emergency announcement.
Jack Butala: I don’t care what you think about …
Jill DeWit: I’m just kidding.
Jack Butala: … Donald Trump politically. I could care less, I don’t have an opinion about his politics, I don’t care. I truly, from the bottom of my soul do not care about him. I’m going to tell you why he’s so successful and he was successful from minute one. Because he branded his last name, one sylabel, one word, Trump. We all know what it is and we know what his properties look like all right? Why the heck would you brand, you’re. Real estate developer doesn’t need to brand himself. What the heck? Why does he write all these books The Art Of The Deal. Here’s why, vacancy and occupancy in commercial real estate is the business. If you have full properties, you have no vacancy is the ideal scenario almost all the time. Well how do you do that? You brand yourself. He has branded, he goes into a market, he builds the best building. The best apartment building/casino/what ever it ends up being, an office building. He says, “Oh it’s a Trump Tower.” Then all the people that-
Jill DeWit: Oh it must be nice.
Jack Butala: Then I want, I’m going to move out of my place and move into this place, I want to live in the best building. In office buildings, it’s all, image is everything for your company so. That’s the whole secret of commercial real estate. Brand yourself, Sam Zell did it. Sam Zell is one of my hero, personal hero’s.
Jill DeWit: What were, where was his?
Jack Butala: In Chicago.
Jill DeWit: Okay thank you.
Jack Butala: He did the whole branding Trump thing but he did it with, I’m not, I’ll refuse to wear a suit, he total dissident. He’s like, I got …
Jill DeWit: Is he still around?
Jack Butala: … yeah, he created our wreaths our real estate investment trusts.
Jill DeWit: Awww yeah.
Jack Butala: He created that product.
Jill DeWit: Ahhh. Okay.
Jack Butala: Huge liquid respect, like Bill Gates respect for that. How he goes about doing it is just, it’s my way or the highway and but he has respect.
Jill DeWit: Yeah. That’s good.
Jack Butala: I hope that solves the mystery of why some of these guys are so successful, it’s not. A lot of people think it’s because they build great buildings.
Jill DeWit: Right.
Jack Butala: Or the architecture’s great or they use great fixtures or … It’s not that.
Jill DeWit: I know. I would love, you know what, I would love to have more. This would be great questions if anybody wants to know, if you have more things you want us to cover on this topic. Put it in Success Plant because I would love to talk about what other mysteries we’re not thinking of right now Jack, that other people have. I know they’re out there you know do I have to be.
Jack Butala: I know.
Jill DeWit: Well actually I just thought of one and I wanted to say real quick.
Jack Butala: Yeah sure.
Jill DeWit: Money. I have talked to a lot of people that said, “I never thought I could be in this business. I thought I was, I think this is an awesome thing but I thought that you needed a lot of money to be able to do this. Then when they find out you don’t …
Jack Butala: You need, virtually, it’s zero.
Jill DeWit: … and you just start small even.
Jack Butala: Yeah.
Jill DeWit: Yeah and what Jack said was zero and why was that because you’re not putting in the money, you’re just finding the deals and putting everybody in place and you’re cashing a check in the middle.
Jack Butala: Finding undervalued real estate is way more value, there’s all kind. There’s no problems finding money out there.
Jill DeWit: Exactly.
Jack Butala: There’s way more money, than intelligence, trust me.
Jill DeWit: Yeah.
Jack Butala: Finding the under valued real estate.
Jill DeWit: It’s like dating. Anyway, go ahead. I could find rich men but not smart men. Joking.
Jack Butala: God, fifteen things went through my head.
Jill DeWit: I had to say that. Ha ha ha.
Jack Butala: If you can find rich, smart men.
Jill DeWit: Oh that’s easy.
Jack Butala: Hold on, you could write a book. Should be called Gold Digger. If you’re going to dig gold for gold, dig for smart gold. That’s the name of your book.
Jill DeWit: I don’t know.
Jack Butala: Smart Gold Diggers.
Jill DeWit: Smart Gold Diggers, oh my gosh.
Jack Butala: Smart gold diggers don’t dress like-
Jill DeWit: Gold digging the smart way.
Jack Butala: Gold digging, without dressing like a hooker.
Jill DeWit: Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. I just thought of something funny about that one, I’m not going to say it now.
Jack Butala: No say it say it.
Jill DeWit: No I was just, I was having a discussion with somebody who obviously, like they tried to marry that person but they did it all wrong and the guy’s still here twenty years later. Twenty year, they thought they were going to go for the Ana- I do not condone, this is not my thing but we’re saying, “It looks like somebody tried to do an Anna Nicole Smith thing but we’re laughing because they did it all wrong because they’re still together, he’s still alive. She never thought he’d make it this far.
Jack Butala: I have a buddy who’s, every time we’re in public, he’s like, he says some version of this, “Ah there’s a trophy wife who’s just, it’s got old.”
Jill DeWit: Ohhhh.
Jack Butala: Boy I should never say that.
Jill DeWit: No.
Jack Butala: It just took a change.
Jill DeWit: It did.
Jack Butala: Here’s another myster- real estate mystery solved, let’s get back on track. I know the shows a little bit longer than we usually but this is important. People think that the real estate that they’re buying is actually about the real estate that they’re buying. It’s not, it’s not about the house you’re buying or the piece of land, it’s about the deal.
Jill DeWit: Yeah.
Jack Butala: The deal structure, if you’re buying the worst house, in the neighborhood for too much, you’re doing it wrong.
Jill DeWit: Yeah.
Jack Butala: If you’re buying the best house in the neighborhood for too much, you’re doing it wrong. Buy a good house for cheap because somebody died or somebody got a new job or because they just want to get rid of it.
Jill DeWit: Kids went to college.
Jack Butala: Anything.
Jill DeWit: Dreaming up.
Jack Butala: Any of the triggers, the situational triggers that cause people to sell real estate. A lot of times they just put an offer in front of them, something shiny. They don’t care about the price, they just want to get out of there. Let’s say they’re an engineer or a doctor, they don’t care about maximizing price, they care about their jobs and their family and stuff. They’re not like us. You buy real estate from people who are not like us. This is our job, right?
Jill DeWit: Exactly.
Jack Butala: So I hope that solves the mystery. It’s not about the real estate it self. People focus on that, hyper-focus on the real estate itself. It’s all about the deal.
Jill DeWit: Exactly.
Jack Butala: Join us in another episode, where Jack & 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 half of what it’s worth and selling it immediately.
Jack Butala: You are not alone in your real estate ambition … Cracking me up man.
Jill DeWit: Thank you. That was, I like that topic and I’m so. I would love to have a lot of people put stuff in Success Plant to go look at and answer because I know there’s a lot of mysteries out there. I talk to people all the time going, “I didn’t know I could do this.”
Jack Butala: You know what I’ll do? Sometimes we do like a five episode little mini-series kind of thing. This could be that.
Jill DeWit: Yeah it could.
Jack Butala: If people respond to it well.
Jill DeWit: Do different tings everyday and.
Jack Butala: We’ll just talk. You know there’s a lot more mysteries that are. It’s not, you know, I really think we can help.
Jill DeWit: I do too.
Jack Butala: Because I, demystifying this whole thing or anything for that matter. I’m serious about this social media thing.
Jill DeWit: Right.
Jack Butala: You know, I thought there was some crazy formula out there. It’s not. It’s just get yourself out there as much as you can. Even if it means making a fool out of yourself like I do everyday on the podcast.
Jill DeWit: On that note.
Jack Butala: Information and inspiration to buy undervalued property.
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