Secret Sauce of our Most Successful Members (CFFL 373)
Secret Sauce of our Most Successful Members
Jack Butala: Secret Sauce of our Most Successful Members. 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: Hi.
Jack: Welcome to our show. Today in this episode Jill and I talk about the secret sauce of our most successful members. A little bit like with Luke’s myth last week Jill. Before we get into it let’s take a question posted by one of our members on the landacademy.com online community. It’s free.
Jill: Dave asked, “how difficult is it to do a terms deal if the buyer wants title insurance? Would you structure the terms the same way but have the buyer pay for title insurance up front?”
Jack: Can I answer this?
Jill: Sure. Go right ahead.
Jack: There’s exactly two ways. Well, there’s a lot of ways to do terms deals but there’s two basic big picture ways. One, through a title agent just like he’s describing. One is just where you do the contracts yourself and everybody agrees to pay. The first way is called a deed of trust in certain places. In Arizona that’s what it’s called. You actually record the deed before … the big difference between the two is this, when you go through a title agent you record the document and then the lean gets removed just like a mortgage. The lean on a document or like financing a car there’s now a lean. So you own the property but you have to pay it off so that’s exactly what you’re describing and what you’re asking is it possible to do this? Yes, you record it just like a mortgage for a house. The buyer owns the property, they pay and pay and pay, and when it’s done the lean gets removed. It’s the buyers name from day one and at the end it’s still in the buyer’s name. There’s no lean. The other way stays in the seller name all the way through the term. The buyer pays and at the end it gets recorded. How’s that for simple?
Jill: I know. What would you do in the second one about the title insurance though? Would you have them pay up front?
Jack: If it’s a typical deal for us where you’re making an avid profit on the down payment. I would think I’d pay.
Jill: I might roll in. I’m with you because let’s just say.
Jack: [inaudible 02:14]
Jill: Knowing Dave let’s say it’s one of these deals. He bought it for four he’s selling it for five or four thousand, he’s selling it for 20 thousand because it’s on terms. Maybe it’s a five hundred or so a thousand dollar down payment. Let’s just say. Let’s say that he’s getting 200 dollars a month for a long long long time. I’m just kind of using some numbers.
Jack: That’s a typical deal for a … Jill and I both know exactly which Dave this is.
Jill: I’m thinking that I might plop down the 700 dollars once I get some payment from the guy. Even two payments in or something I’d say … whatever you work it out. I’ll get you the title insurance because I’m going to roll that cost in basically. He had the title insurance. Because if anything crazy happens and the seller after six months is gone, the money you’ve got up front pay for that title insurance and that’s going to help you sell it the next time.
Jack: This is probably a topic for a whole episode but the down side through dding it through a title agent like this is that if the buyer stops paying it’s going to cost between … and if you have to go through a foreclosure process just like on a house. It’s costs between one and two thousand dollars to get it back in your name as an owner. You only ever want to do that when you really are convinced that they’re going to pay all the way through or they’re going to pay half way through. You can tell.
Jill: Just make it worth your while.
Jack: Actually Jill you probably have a lot to say about this. You can tell. When someone buys a piece of property and you talk to them on the phone for awhile you can tell if they’re going to stick around.
Jill: You can tell. You’ll tell if they’re wishy washy or not. You’ll know by the questions that they’re really going to be out there using it. By the way, say it’s that person and you know they’re already out there camping on it, loving it kind of thing, you know they’re going to keep paying. Unless something crazy happens. Even in that situation I always try to work with people. Hey, I lost my job or my wife, something happened.
Jack: Skip a payment or something.
Jill: Can I roll it back to this much for six months and then I’ll catch it up. We really love it. We’re so happy. Yeah I’ll work with people on that. That’s okay.
Jack: I got a buddy who owns hundreds of houses in a downturn he went and got a financial partner and bought hundreds and hundreds of houses for 20 and 30 thousand dollars each. He’s taking in tons of money. He’s doing extremely well financially. He’s completely done in life but he still insists on renting the property himself. He shows up, and you know what he does to check to see? When he does that he goes out and looks at their car.
Jill: I know who you’re talking about. It’s kind of funny I know. Because if it’s a messy car that’s his thing. If their backseats a disaster, there’s food everywhere and they can’t even keep their car clean, I’m not going to rent to them. I think it’s kind of funny.
Jack: You can smoke it out too on the phone. 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, and this is the meat of the show, secret sauce of our most successful members. If you listened yesterday or even Monday, these are Jill’s topics. She came up with them this week. This is Jill’s week. It’s Jill week.
Jill: It’s Jill week. Not hell week. Jill week. This all stems from questions and things that I’ve answered with people who have scheduled calls with me. A really good question that I get now and then is, what is it about your most successful members? What makes them stand out? I wrote down three things and I’d love to hear yours. This is one that’s fun because Jack and I always differ on things like this. My top three things for our most successful members, like their secret sauce, is number one they follow through. They follow along. They do exactly as prescribed even if it feels wrong.
Jack: Wow.
Jill: Right?
Jack: That’s valuable.
Jill: That’s a common one. If you listen to Luke Smith talk it reminded me, Luke even said-
Jack: I have to say this real quick. I just got a note from our producer like three minutes ago she said comments are pouring in.
Jill: About?
Jack: The Luke Smith show last week. They want more members to go on the show. I’m just letting you know I replied to her and said reach out to the top 20 or 30 people.
Jill: Good. We’ll do it. There you go and then you can hear from them.
Jack: Let’s see if they can be on the show. If you want to be on the show listener, please email Erin at landacademy.com. E-R-I-N. She’ll schedule you.
Jill: Love it.
Jack: Even if you did one deal we’d love to hear about it.
Jill: Yeah. So they follow along as prescribed even if it feels wrong. That was one of the comments Luke made. I thought, god that’s so good. It’s true. You have to get out of your own head. You’re sometimes your own obstacle. Jack and I keep saying you need to do this first and then do that and then do this. I know a lot of our members go, what? That doesn’t make sense at the time and then later on they go, oh I guess I did need to set up my social media and I did need to have all of that linked ahead of time. Oh I guess I do need to have a website because as I send out these offer letters, people really are looking me up. That recently came back too that we talked about with some members. Don’t just blindly send out a bunch of offers because you’re not going to get the response that you could get if you had a website and your presence out there created because these people will look you up. I do it. Man, if I got a letter from somebody think about it.
Jack: It’s the first thing any of us do.
Jill: You just got a letter in the mail from somebody offering you to buy your home for 150 thousand dollars and you’re actually thinking about this here. You better believe they’re going to do your homework. It’s like hiring an employee. You wouldn’t hire an employee without doing your homework on them. You want to make sure they’re legitimate, their name is right, the picture matches up, they are the right person. They did really have those three jobs here on the resume. You’re checking them out. That’s a couple of examples.
Jack: We try to make it real easy with our members to ride off of our coat tail. It’s real hard. Once you get one property, for example, and you post it on your website. It’s like, oh there’s on property there. That’s why we have land pin so you can post your stuff for free there and you can also link your website to land pin. It gives you a lot of credibility.
Jill: That’s just one of the things that we prescribe and the successful people do it.
Jack: What else do you think is just liquid counter intuitive that we ask people to do and just blindly trust?
Jill: You sound like you have a few. Go.
Jack: I do. You know what might now make sense is this whole notion of, is this really not about real estate? It’s about data and it’s about finding a situation. It’s about using data to get offers out to people to see who’s in a situation to sell. It’s not about the property. The first month or two that I started doing this a lot of years ago, I’m sending offers out for 20 percent of what property is worth and people are signing them and sending them back. I’m like, there has to be a catch. It just doesn’t make any sense. I’ve got a hundred thousand dollar, in some cases, hundred, 200, 300 thousand dollar pieces of land and buying for ten grand. They don’t even care. they just want to be done with it. That’s hard to understand and swallow.
Jill: It’s very true. They’re closing that chapter on their state or their family. Who knows what it was? They just want out.
Jack: One is just blindly follow us like, drink the koolaid.
Jill: Yeah, I mean even if it feels wrong. They do, they follow the steps. Okay, the second one is they ask questions and they reach out for help on the big stuff.
Jack: Oh, not the little stuff.
Jill: They’re doing their homework. They’re really showing up and doing their homework. But man there’s a big deal or some big situation then they call in the big guns which is Jack or myself and they do consulting and we tackle it together. That, I think, for some of our top members, that’s one of the secret sauce things.
Jack: We have what’s called data deal review. It’s either data review or deal review. Members can schedule a consulting call with me to look at their data set that they’re about to send ten thousand millers out on. They don’t want to spend the money so they talk to me first and that, I think, that’s a great idea. It’s about fifty fifty by the way. 50 percent of the time I say it’s great. 50 percent of the time we really address some stuff and I’m super glad they don’t send it out. Then I have deal review. Same thing. Should I buy this property or not? Where’d you buy it? That’s a lot of fun. I have a lot of fun. I scheduled my whole Wednesday to help members do that. Jill’s got one by the way. Jill does … what do you call it? Just consulting?
Jill: Exactly.
Jack: For sales.
Jill: Because I’m more sales and that kind of stuff.
Jack: And closing.
Jill: Working with accounting, working with the sellers and the buyers and everything that surrounds customer service and sales and all of that. Even just getting out of your head. I’m hung up on something. I’ve done several consulting where I’ve had people that are just like, “I’m just afraid to pull the trigger. Can you talk me through it?” Sure.
Jack: God, that’s great Jill.
Jill: It’s not about the actual deal. It’s about all right. I’m nervous going through. I’m about to spend three thousand dollars here. I’m nervous. I’m like, all right let’s talk about it. Make sure you did everything right. Yeah, you checked all the boxes. You do need to push the button now. That kind of a thing. That’s that. Are you ready for my third?
Jack: Yes.
Jill: My third and final one for the successful member secret sauce is tenacity. They don’t stop. They are like us.
Jack: That’s my number one.
Jill: They see hurdles and obstacles that would make other people throw in the towel and decide to go back to whatever job they had.
Jack: That was my number one.
Jill: Just say forget it I’m out. I’m going to pray my 401 K is enough kind of thing. They are not those people. They see those kind of situations as little speed bumps and they also see them like Jack and I do as a positive thing which that’s why not everyone’s doing this. That’s what keeps me doing well.
Jack: Such common sense it seems but it’s amazing. You know, that’s why I dislike the sales approach to some of the education out there. It’s just a big huge sales pitch for an hour and they get everybody riled up. This is a traditional way to sell stuff. That’s how you sell.
Jill: Could you imagine?
Jack: That’s how you sell cars. Oh my gosh you look beautiful today.
Jill: You and I jumped up and down.
Jack: I can’t stand it.
Jill: You were like blowing whistles. That would be really funny. Hey, it’s our Monday morning round up or whatever it is. That would be kind of funny.
Jack: I just finished the content for our website, the product that we’re going to launch. We haven’t launched it yet. Offers to owners. I say right in there. I say, if you haven’t done at least a month of research to find out if this is what you want to do or if you’ve never done a deal this is not for you. This product is not for you. It’s for people who have done a few deals.
Jill: They know what they’re doing.
Jack: Tired of buying property out of the [inaudible 13:51]. They’re tired of taking calls from brokers. They really want to learn just a fresh new way to build a new income stream. That’s the product. It’s a revers approach. There is no sales. It’s like, just please know that you want to do this and once you do join don’t be high maintenance for us.
Jill: That ties into what we talked about, I think it was yesterday. Jack and I are not kidding. We’re really talking about making this kind of an interview process. We really want to make sure we get the right people in our group. We’re keeping it small for a reason and we are going to close it up and there is going to be a wait list. Period.
Jack: We’re approaching.
Jill: We’re not here to have thousands of people and hope that three percent of them are doing something. We want the opposite. We want a small group with 90 percent of them killing it.
Jack: I don’t know if you know this. We’re less than 15 members away from cutting it off.
Jill: Exactly. That might come up soon so we’ll see. My whole little interview thing. Now I might just do it, maybe I’ll save it for the last ten or something like that. The last ten slots. We’re not messing around now. Schedule a call with me and we’ll see. Anyway, that’s my list. Do you have anything else you want to add about the secret sauce?
Jack: Mine is that you just don’t know when you’ve been beat. Failing is not something you even think about. If you’ve done your research … that’s why I brought this research thing up. If you’ve done a lot of research, you know you want to do this, and you’ve done it. One of the things that I see in these successful members is maybe they own another business and it’s not doing what they want. They already know how to run a business and what it takes.
Jill: Correct.
Jack: That’s a huge positive in the right direction in my opinion. Maybe they did a couple of houses. They flipped a couple houses and it just didn’t work the way they wanted or they made some money, they just hated it. They’ll love real estate but not houses. Or not retailing houses let’s say, maybe whole selling is better. Those are pretty serious. But then we have some people who are brand spanking new who knock it out of the park every lot.
Jill: It’s hard to say. We can think of an example always of the opposite. That’s why I try to pick not just your experience. That’s the thing Jack. You just said it. It’s not so much your experience, it’s who you are.
Jack: One of our first members is a stay at home with a masters degree in engineering. I talk to her. We did a show with her a year ago, more than a year ago.
Jill: A lot of years ago.
Jack: I said, there’s just no way. She’s not going to … and she’s like our top whatever. She’s one of the top producers. I love being wrong about that stuff.
Jill: Totally.
Jack: Hey, there’s no secret sauce. It’s hard work.
Jill: It is.
Jack: It’s hard work, dedication, an commitment and you got to have the right information and the right inspiration. That’s why you listen to the show. Join us on another episode where Jack and Jill discuss how to use information, that’s me.
Jill: And yes it’s true. 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 ambition. I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again, maybe one of the greatest feelings on the planet that I’ve ever experienced is parental pride. Like when your kids are just … they’re succeeding and you just see that look on their face and they’re like, man I killed it. I kicked the math test.
Jill: I hit the ball.
Jack: I hit that ball or I kicked that math test’s ass.
Jill: Exactly.
Jack: In a pretty reduced way I get that from our members. That’s why we do this Jill. I wouldn’t do this if I didn’t like it. Would you? Maybe you’re miserable and fostering resentment. It’s all going to explode right now.
Jill: Oh I am holding. It’s coming. It’s coming. It’s building. You just can’t see it. See this in my eyes? No they’re not yellow from last night and drinking. No, this is from-
Jack: Drinking?
Jill: I’m joking.
Jack: Did you drink last night?
Jill: Well maybe I did. Maybe I’m not joking. But anyway.
Jack: Did you go to church yesterday?
Jill: No, because it’s Wednesday.
Jack: Oh right.
Jill: Hello.
Jack: I didn’t know which day it was.
Jill: Yeah, I know. No it’s Wednesday actually. I did not go to church on Tuesday. I appreciate that though. Thank you very much. You’re a crack up. Sometimes we have our own version of church around here. Let’s just say I did that.
Jack: A lot of derogatory stuff went through my head just now. Information and inspiration to buy undervalued property.
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