What Land Buyers Really Want (CFFL 338)
What Land Buyers Really Want
Jack Butala: What Land Buyers Really Want. Leave us your feedback for this podcast on iTunes and get the free ebook at landacademy.com, you don’t even have to read it. Thanks for listening.
Jack: Jack Butala with Jill DeWit.
Jill: Hey.
Jack: Welcome to our show today. This episode Jill and I talk about what land buyers really want.
Jill: Can you tell me what I want, what they really really want? Sorry just thought about that.
Jack: First let’s take a question posted by one of our members. That was a blast from the 80s. No like the 90s that’s the Spice Girls.
Jill: Yeah it was.
Jack: Let’s take a question posted by one of our members on landacademy.com our free online community.
Jill: By the way I think one of the Spice Girls lives really close to us in LA and we’ll leave it at that.
Jack: Really?
Jill: Yeah she’s married to a soccer player.
Jack: Oh. Oh yeah.
Jill: Yeah. Speaking of Spice Girls. It’s not like I see her in the grocery store but she’s there. Okay. So Chris asked, “I have purchased my first properties and the notaries have the put the signed deed to the mill to me.” Yay.
Jack: Awesome Chris congratulations.
Jill: “I should have them in a few days. Can I start marketing the properties right now or do I need to wait until the deeds are recorded at the county office?” Oh, I like these questions.
Jack: Can you answer that?
Jill: Absolutely.
Jack: Without putting us in prison.
Jill: You’re so silly. You know me so well. Of course. When the deeds are signed the ink can actually still be wet but they are signed. The property is yours Chris. Market away. You are only recording them now. You can get these deeds back and put them in your safe and then record them like later on like right when you get to sell them.
Jack: Please don’t do that.
Jill: No I know. But I’m just saying don’t do that but you could do that.
Jack: Legally and philosophically one hundred percent correct and ethically correct.
Jill: Right. The point is …
Jack: It just causes problems.
Jill: You’re having it recorded. It’s signed in your hands and that’s your proof that you own the property. You have it recorded so it’s public knowledge. That’s the key and you want the assessor to know where to send the proper tax bills. You don’t want to have the old owner be still be getting the tax information when it’s really now your responsibility.
Jack: Yeah, see that’s why.
Jill: So you want to catch all that up. But the big picture is, okay now can I really go out there and put it on my website and start selling it? Do I really own it now? Is it okay for me to do that? The answer is yes and heck yeah and you better do that. That’s the goal. You want to do that. You want to have it in a perfect world it might even be sold before you even have a chance to get it recorded.
Jack: Good point.
Jill: Because that’s the goal here and that’s what Jack and I do sometimes. It’s great when that happens. It’s nothing better than sending in two deeds to be recorded at the same time like here’s the deed for when I bought it. Oh, then number two now please record this one second because here’s the deed of me selling it. How cool.
Jack: Now keep doing exactly what you’re doing because you’re headed right down the right path. eventually you’re going to have a group of A list buyers like Jill and I have. I don’t know there’s probably ten of them maybe a little bit less. When we get a deal in when the mail comes back and we have a signed offer, what we do is actually I’ll make a phone call or send an email out to one of our A list buyers whose bought property just like that in the past, and I’ll say hey we’ve got some more. I trust you so here’s the APNs, we haven’t purchased them yet, we’re not fending it off. They’re coming in we’re just about to move forward on it but I want to let you know first and see if you want to buy all the properties and I’ll put your name on it. We’ll go ahead with the acquisition and then do the deeds for you to buy them from us at the same time. There’s a lot of ways you can slice what you’re asking but you’re doing everything exactly right. The marketing process, at least mentally, should start the minute that purchased agreement comes back or the minute they call and say, you know what I don’t want it for a thousand bucks I’ll do it for 15 and if you agree start to mentally go down that marketing process.
I’m guilty of this. Too many people wait. They buy the property, it gets signed and that gets shoved to the side because you’re doing other acquisitions especially if you’re new. You want to get the sales machine all prepped up and primed and ready to go before you start killing it in acquisitions. I’m guilty of that or have been in the past.
Jill: I concur. You know what? You know what Jack? I’m not even going to talk you out of that. No, you’re right. I’m just kidding it’s okay.
Jack: Jill you nailed it. If you are going to do it the way, the right, right, right, way … yep. If it’s signed you own it.
Jill: Exactly. You know I got to say here’s why I think you’re guilty of that Jack because the rush is really when you buy it. We know how it’s going to sell and how it’s going to go out and what it’s going to be priced at and that’s kind of not as exciting anymore. Yeah I doubled my money, whatever. I knew it was going to happen because I bought it for this, that’s the exciting parts. I think that’s what happens sometimes.
Jack: I had a former partner like pulled me aside one time. This is a lot of years ago, and said, you get high off of acquisitions do you know that? You get like you’re stoned on heroine. Just happy and smiling and all calm. I’m like I didn’t know what I do. I get like a natural rocky mountain natural high.
Jill: You do. You do.
Jack: Off of buying property for cheap.
Jill: It’s a good thing. I remember we were out somewhere one time I took a call because I was buying a bunch of property one time and you were with somebody else in ear shot. You go, listen to this watch, watch. You were like all excited. Did they take it? Did they take it? I’m like yeah.
Jack: Oh my gosh it’s just a great feeling.
Jill: Exactly. Watch Jill. Listen to this call. Yep.
Jack: It’s making me all flushed. Especially when you do it.
Jill: Thank you.
Jack: When you do the acquisition it’s like double whammy, you know?
Jill: Look at her go.
Jack: If you have a question or you want to be on the show reach out to either one of us on landacademy.com. Today’s topic: what land buyers really want. I bet you and I have a slightly different version of this Jill. I like when that happens. This is the meat of the show.
Jill: I’m curious. Okay. I wrote down my three things that I just came to mind, what I think they want. I think number one, they want an easy transaction. They want it to be simple, not involved, easy to pay, and all that good stuff. Number two they want a good price and they might want owner financed. So depending on the buyer, depending what you’re doing they definitely want a good price obviously. They want to feel real good about it and maybe they need to make payments short term or long term and they appreciate that. Then the third thing that I think that land buyers really want, they’re excited. They want to use it today. So I tell them, hey the minute you sign this purchase agreement and while we’re doing the transaction and everything, go camp on it. It’s yours. I tell them that.
Jack: That’s great.
Jill: I do. I say, do you want to go camping tomorrow? And they’re like … and just letting them know that they can go out there and stand on it and feel and love it, they love … they get excited.
Jack: Just like you own a house when you get a mortgage. It’s the same thing.
Jill: You can’t wait to get the keys. It’s like you can’t wait to get the keys. So that’s my way of saying, once we have that signed purchase agreement while I’m waiting for the wire transfer and everything I’m okay if you want to go out there and stuff. Here are the keys. Take it for a spin. Seriously. They love that. What are your things Jack?
Jack: You all know those exactly the same things … those three were actually on my list. I have a couple more though. One is they don’t want any surprises. You never want a surprise when you buy a car, when you buy anything. You don’t want it to be slightly advertised better than what it really is. As consumers in this country in this day and age we’re a little bit used to being … oh, it wasn’t like the commercial. You don’t want that so Jill and I take a lot of time to try and write a posting and include documents in the posting. Include the deed they’re going to receive and everything else. To really not have any surprises and to answer all their questions and sort of make it easy. It falls under what Jill said number one it needs to be easy. And if they go look at the property it can’t be ridiculously different than what you described.
Jill: Exactly. Heavily treed and then it’s dessert.
Jack: Yeah, you don’t want to do that. You want to represent the property accurately. Basically accurately for what it is. Don’t say that it has drive-up paved road access when it’s got two track access that-
Jill: You need four wheel drive and a …
Jack: And they’re out looking at it in a sub-compact Ford and you don’t want that.
Jill: Exactly.
Jack: So I think buyers really just want to be told the truth. I think buyers do not, and this falls under your affordability thing, they don’t want it … if you sell a property for a thousand bucks they don’t want to know that there’s this fee on top of it, there’s that fee on top it, there’s this fee on, delivery fee, and so now it’s 14 hundred and it’s not a thousand. I can’t stand that personally.
Jill: I agree.
Jack: We’re in office situation right now that this person loves to tack on little one percent things every single month and I’ve chosen not to have this battle. It’s just not cool man. Represent the stuff the way you’re going to represent it.
Jill: Exactly.
Jack: Land buyers too are unique than maybe let’s say car buyers. They’re all kind of interesting people. Maybe they want to get off the grid, maybe they want to have some fun during the weekend and recreational type fun. Maybe they’re RV-ers or maybe they like ATVs. All those types of people are really interesting, I think. They’re not sitting around watching TV on the weekend. I think it’s a really interesting group, it’s an interesting customer to have.
Jill: I found too over the years it’s changed. There’s a lot of very professional people that are just done with city life. So they’re smart. It’s not like it’s a bunch of cowboys, you know what I mean?
Jack: Yeah, because of the internet. You know, work from anywhere.
Jill: Right. Exactly. They can’t own property. They’re in San Francisco dreaming up whatever it is some major city where it’s-
Jack: Or New York.
Jill: Yeah, New York and owning property for them is very difficult and they make a good living. They make a good living you still can’t afford to buy a stupid piece of property. So for them they’re like, you know what, this is my thing. It’s very interesting. Those are my favorite because they’re smart. They do their homework and by the time they get to you and say hi I’m calling to complete the transaction, if they even have to call. If you’re doing it right you have a button on your website they can just check out and pay because they will. It’s a really smart, intelligent group and they especially want it easy. They don’t want to talk about it. They don’t want to fill out a bunch of paperwork. They don’t want to have to do this stuff. They just want to hand you the money, have the deed, and go enjoy their property.
Jack: Jill’s exactly right. For a lot of these newer customers that we have in the last few years, they’re on a debt free kick. So this is a step for that process for them. They own a piece of property now maybe they’re going to throw an RV on it. Maybe they’re going to throw a modular home on it or a tiny house or whatever … they’re all a different version of the same thing. But they’re on their way to being debt free and living off the grid.
Jill: Exactly.
Jack: It’s an adventure. It’s not like buying a pair of shoes or a car or something like that. It’s like a lifestyle change.
Jill: It is.
Jack: They’re excited.
Jill: It is.
Jack: So you want to make sure you don’t let them down.
Jill: Exactly. Exactly.
Jack: Join us in another episode where Jack and Jill discuss how to use information, that’s me.
Jill: And inspiration, that’s me.
Jack: To get just about anything you want.
Jill: We use it everyday to buy property for half of what it’s worth and sell it immediately.
Jack: You are not alone in your real estate acquisitions. Yeah, I love the basic land customer. I’ll tell you … we didn’t talk about it but there’s some crazies in there.
Jill: Oh gosh yes.
Jack: You can tell right off the bat if who’s crazy and who’s not.
Jill: How do you tell? I know how I tell.
Jack: I can tell immediately if they’re just thinking out loud but if they call and say look I really do want that property I got to move some money around, I got to pull some money out of an IRA and put it over here if you can just hold it for three days. That’s the kind of customer I love.
Jill: I know. You know how I tell the ones that are not serious?
Jack: And you’re better at this than me. Go ahead.
Jill: 18 phone calls and they want to know, well let me ask you this? Is it good for planting flowers? I’m serious. I’m not kidding. They come up with some of these crazy questions. Can you just find me anything in this price range? Anywhere in this state that has a view?
Jack: They think that you’re a real estate agent.
Jill: I’m like yeah, no. That’s not what we do.
Jack: We’re just not real estate agents. We have to say that on the phone constantly. I hear people in the office saying it all the time on the phone. Oh, I’m sorry we’re not right licensed real estate agents we’re the owners of this property. Oh. I can hear them on the other end of the phone.
Jill: It’s a great thing.
Jack: Oh, now I get it. Oh.
Jill: Yeah, they love that. When I tell them that, like I can make the decision let’s do it right now. They’re like, really? I’m like, yeah I don’t have to go back and talk to anybody.
Jack: Right.
Jill: Well let’s figure this out. If you really want it we can figure this out.
Jack: You know that’s what’s sellers want too. They just want to connect with somebody who’s not hocking some stuff.
Jill: Right.
Jack: They’re not a shlocky sales person, that kind of thing.
Jill: Exactly. You know what, what land buyers really want what’s along those lines we didn’t talk about, is they want to know that they’re buying from a reputable person. Individual, company, whatever it is. That is like you just said transparency. Completed sales on a website is a huge way to show that gap.
Jack: I was just going to say that. We have historically kept our most recent completed sales on our website or wherever else. It’s posted. A lot of the sites that know this business they’ll allow you to say sold. I am now in the process of putting back from our data base ten thousand plus completed sales to really add a ton of credibility to that. Exactly what you just said. I thought about doing that because people were watching our members take their sold properties off of their own website. I think that’s a huge mistake. The first thing they do is if they say … if a customer goes on a site and says, oh half of it’s sold. It’s a call to action.
Jill: Exactly.
Jack: Maybe I should make a decision on this.
Jill: Bingo.
Jack: You’re right they want to feel like … they don’t want to fly by night scenario.
Jill: Right. You have a transaction history. Yeah, you’re not going anywhere this is your business.
Jack: Right. Information and inspiration to buy under value property.
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