Don’t Take Our Word for it, Check Your Sources (CFFL 377)
Don’t Take Our Word for it, Check Your Sources
Jack Butala: Don’t Take Our Word for it, Check Your Sources. 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.
Jill: Hi.
Jack: Welcome to our show today, this Tuesday. IN this episode, Jill and I talk about: Hey, don’t take our word for it, check it out, do the research. Check your resources, check our … Just do some research, and check it out on everything we say.
But hey, before we really get into it, let’s take a question posted by one of our members on TheLandAcadamey.com online community. It has several names, which we’ll cover in a second, and it’s always free though.
Jill: Kierriah asked, “What do I do when a perspective buyer tells me there may be a POA, kind of like an HOA, a home owner’s …
Jack: Property Owner’s Association.
Jill: Yep.
Jack: That’s a right way to say it, we always say HOA. But when we say, sorry go ahead.
Jill: That’s okay.
No that wasn’t interrupting at all.
Jack: Go ahead, sorry.
Jill: All good.
“What do I do when a perspective buyer tells me there may be a POA, property owner’s association fee, for the neighborhood? I haven’t received anything in the way of a bill since receiving the deed.” Not surprising, may take a little while. “So I have no idea if my property has a POA fee. This buyer wants to own her finance, so I may need to pay this fee for the next 3 years. Should I try to find out since he’s making payments? Do I just wait to see if a bill comes from the POA?
Jack: These are all great questions and I’m so glad this came up.
The first thing you want to do when buying a piece of property, as part of the due diligence, whether or not to actually pull the trigger, google the subdivision name, if it’s in a subdivision, if it’s not then you’re okay. If there is an association, then you want to call the person who runs it, and you want to ask them all about what’s going on there.
Jill: Did you say this before you buy?
Jack: Yeah.
Jill: Okay, good, because you don’t want to buy it and then find out later on they owed $1000.
Jack: Well the chain of events is this: you sent a ton of offers out, a bunch of them come back signed, or the seller calls you, whatever. And then you start to review the property. If you’re new to this show, or new to the whole concept. Everybody else does it backwards and wrong. We do it correct.
Jill: Exactly. Cause everybody wastes hours and days and weeks on properties they’re not gonna buy.
Jack: You only ever do due diligence on a property that the deal’s already … the aconomics of the transaction is done.
Jill: Right.
Jack: In all, in one of those things on the list to check it out is a POA.
Here’s a truth about POAs and HOAs. They have no idea when properties change hands, okay? They are very unorganized in general. I still get a bill every year from an HOA in Texas. We haven’t owned property in there in probably 8 years. So they don’t have a direct connection to what’s the recorder’s office; they aren’t notified efficiently and unless they … Some of the bigger ones go there every day and they see if anything’s transferred, or they go to the website, or they’re in the same building.
What was the question?
Jill: It’s to the POA and the HOA’s advantage to know who the current seller is because they want to make sure that person’s getting a bill and paying them, that’s how they stay in business, obviously. So Kierriah is saying, so what do I do since I haven’t received anything? Well you need to reach out to them and some counties we work with, are so in it and we know, we always just automatically, when recording the deed, we pay an extra dollar to have a copy made of it and sent to that HOA so we know that they’re notified of that, and then it’s easy. That’s how they know, the need to see a recorded deed with the transfer, so they know if they’re not going down there like Jack said, which I don’t know many that really do, you need to help them out.
So the owner wants to own or finance, so I may need to pay this fee for the next few years. Yeah, you need to know. I don’t think that, honestly, I would not pay the fee, I would pass that on to the buyer, but you want to know “Hey, don’t forget this POA has a $30 a year fee” or whatever it is, make sure the buyer knows that; I’d roll it into the transaction. Roll it into the transaction, don’t leave it up to him to pay, obviously, you’re gonna make sure it gets paid, it’s gonna come through you but there’s a [inaudible 00:04:44] for that.
Jack: Kierriah, we’re both proud of you.
Jill: Yeah.
Jack: She’s been, not a super … She’s not one of the original people, but she’s been with us for a few months, right?
Jill: Yeah, she’s been with us for a while.
Jack: She’s very vocal on the internet, vocal in our group, and asks a ton of good questions. There is such a thing as a stupid question, and Kierrah doesn’t ask it.
Jill: No. You know one of the things I noticed about Kierrah too, she’s super good in social media, so I know that she’s on it thinking about properties and getting them out there on social media, cause that makes a difference. That kind of leads into our show, some of the things I have to say about that, so this will be good.
Jack: If you have a question, or would like to be on the show, reach out to either one of us on landacademy.com.
Jill: Today’s topic: Don’t take our word for it, check your sources.
Jack: Research, research, research.
One day, about a year and a half ago, Jill came to me and said, this was after we started landacademy.com, I think it was probably even still a .org back there.
Jill: Yeah, I think it was a .org, yes.
Jack: And she said “There’s no way for our people to contact each other, so can you please do something about that cause it will be really helpful too?” And then she said, “Oh by the way, I’m going on vacation for 3 days.”
Jill: I did, it was one of our [00:06:00], we want to communicate with each other, we want to communicate with you, we could all help each other. We were like “yes!”
Jack: So I made a hot coffee, and stayed up for, I’m not joking.
Jill: A week?
Jack: 24-36 hours, I’m not joking about this. And myself, designed successplant.com, which is our online community. The name will soon change to landclique, like a clique in a high school, not C-L-I-C-K; C-L-I-Q-U-E, like a frenchy.
If you think this is a pile of [inaudible 00:06:40], and I don’t blame you, I think I would too, go to successplant.com and ask people, say “Hey, what is it with these two idiots that are on my iPhone everyday? If they think they’re funny, they’re not!”
Jill: St … Aww
Jack: Check out your own sources. We, theoretically, have some competitors, go check them out.
Jill: I gotta share some few things about it. The thing about this, and it’s not really just about us and what we do, and everything, don’t take our word for it. Even like you’re talking to sellers, don’t take their word for it, go check the taxes by yourself, by the way. Always do your own homework. Whether it’s about us, a property you’re buying, dreaming up; always, always double check. You’re not crazy.
Jack: What I’ve noticed about if I could build a member profile for landacademy members, they are very research-y and geeky.
Jill: Yes, that’s a good point.
Jack: We all are.
Jill: You’re right. Some of our most successful members were the ones that were the most critical [crosstalk 00:07:55] so they did the most homework and really checked things out, and I encourage that all the time. I tell them all, they e-mail me questions, and I’m like “Don’t ask me, go ask the members, they’re tell you.” That’s what I wanted to share too, not only is our online community is there, and free, and open; it’s not filtered, it’s real. They will tell you. If you dig deep, especially in the beginning, there’s funny stuff in there.
Remember the time about when people were talking about when we first starting our show, some of our people were piping in about the Michigan accent coming out [crosstalk 00:08:29], the funny things Jack says, actually it was the crap Jack says, that was funny. There’s all kinds of good stuff in there too. It’s all real, and check it out.
I want to parlay this into something else, which is, your buyers check you out. SO just like we’re telling you check everything out, check us out, do the back story, go check our linked in, go check everywhere and you should. You need to know that your buyers do this about you. Everybody does this about you, it’s not just your employers, [crosstalk 00:09:06] dating, dating they do that. I’m sure that on first dates, where they just meet a guy, I’m positive girls run home, they probably do it in the bathroom actually, they look up the guy at the bar on Facebook [crosstalk 00:09:20] … Yeah, just make sure he’s not crazy. I mean, like the bathroom in the bar. I’ve never seen it, but I’m sure it happens.
Jack: I was in Best Buy yesterday with number 3 kid, and I walked around the store and I said “Come here,” to the kid, “Come here, let’s walk around the store, look at these people.” Everyone was standing, whatever they were looking at, they were standing in an aisle looking at some item and staring into their phone checking the price. They’re researching it, you know, “Am I gonna buy this here or am I gonna buy this on Amazon?” I’m sure that’s what it is.
Jill: I do that all the time.
Jack: I do that too. I research the heck out of stuff, to the point where it makes people in my life like, “Joe, nauseous.”
Jill: Oh totally. Like, knock it off. Then we have to have the conversation, are we really gonna run home and save $10 or do we just want it right now? Let’s just not think about that. You do just have to go through some of that stuff. That is so true.
Jack: I don’t buy groceries online, and I should. Do you?
Jill: No, we should. I don’t. THere’s so many things I don’t do online.
Jack: Number 3 said to me yesterday, “In the future, will there be no stores?” I really had to think about it. I think it the future it’s gonna be like Tesla.
Jill: It’s going to be very interesting.
Jack: Tesla doesn’t have dealerships, they have a little store in malls, and you don’t test drive it or anything. You look at it [crosstalk 00:10:44]. Literally, they have a kiosk that you order on there and they deliver it to your house. How efficient is that?
Jill: They really deliver it to your house?
Jack: Yeah, how did this dealership model ever come about? I mean, I actually know the answer to that question, I don’t want to bore you.
Jill: It’s kind of like the realty state agent quest thing … Is that what it is? Wait, did car dealers came out about because of realty state agents?
Jack: Car dealers came about because of Henry Ford. They were taking so many orders for the Model T, out of Detroit, but people in California were ordering Model T’s, and they couldn’t get them there fast enough one at a time. They would get a building in store in there, and then that somebody, probably Henry Ford, I don’t know, said “Why don’t we just sell them right out of there? And it’s expensive, why don’t we shift cost shift onto someone who’s not really affiliated with us, an independent person and they can deal with the customers. We don’t want to deal with the customers. We only want a thousand customers, we don’t want 7 million customers.” Hey, that’s kind of like our model.
Jill: Brian!
Jack: They whole sale them out, and the dealer makes the money.
Jill: I love it.
Jack: It sucks to walk into a dealership though, I’ll tell you that. I don’t know who’s fault that is.
Jill: I’m trying to think if you and I have ever done that together, and I don’t think we have. [crosstalk 00:12:09] My last car, you were kind of alone for the ride, and you were like my mechanic, if you will, you were just giving it the once over. You were the muscle, I did all the stuff. When we got the car for number one, we had a good friend …
Jack: That’s why we never go. We have a friend with a used car dealer and we just call him
Jill: I’m not sure we’d be here today if we tried to buy a car together.
Jack: [crosstalk 00:12:41]. I embarrass Jill sometimes because I don’t have any patience for this crap.
Jill: I remember you telling me a story where you went, even to that friend of ours when you were just getting to know him, and you said, “Look, here’s the deal. This is my checkbook, here is my pen, if you can guarantee I’m gonna be out of here in less than 10 minutes,” whatever you’re timing was. [crosstalk 00:13:05]. Then you said, “This check will have your name on it, otherwise I’m walking.”
Jack: Did you hear what he said? “You’re a freaking customer. You think I want to sit here and talk to you any longer than I have to? I’ll do it in six minutes!” He’s from New Jersey too, I love this guy. His name’s Evan. He lives next door to our attorney/friend, and every time I’d just call him and say “I need a car for us,” he’s like “Great.” [crosstalk 00:13:38] He marks them up 500 bucks, that’s his whole thing. He’s like, “I’m gonna buy it, this is how much I’m buying it for from another dealer,” or wherever he gets it, and my [inaudible 00:13:47] just 500 bucks on this. That’s what he makes. Not just on us, on everything. He’s real transparent like that, and I’m sure that’s one of the reasons he’s so successful. I would love for a dealer to really tell me what the cost is, there’s all this other stuff that goes on, games that you can play. [crosstalk 00:14:04] How much is it? I’m marking it up 500 bucks and now we shake hands, and that’s it.
Jill: I know, it’s so frustrating. It’s ridiculous. You look at the sticker, it makes my eyes hurt, and you’re like “What the heck, why do I have to do this, why do I have to do that?” That’s not the way I roll, that’s not what I want to do.
Jack: Car costs $24,000. I’m making $800 on it. That’s it, that’s all I want to know.
Jill: I don’t think that has to do with being a sales person. A good sales person just gets it done, a good sales person knows when someone’s a tire kicker and someone’s really serious. It has nothing to do with negotiating or anything like that, they’re just finding the right people and then properly conveying what it is, and that’s it.
Jack: I’m in the process of buying a car online, and this is actually to the point of this, about checking your sources. There’s a car website out there called Car Gurus, I think it’s called, and they gauge the deals that way. They say this is $5000 above what it should be, or below, or this is a great deal and they sort them all that way. The default sort is the best deals first that are close to you.
Jill: What about that whole concept if you … Isn’t there a place where you can e-mail or … You were telling me this, you can put in your order …
Jack: For new cars.
Jill: Then it will be a bidding war with the sellers, the dealers.
Jack: Yeah you put the make and model and the colors even, and it goes to a network all over the country, and you generally don’t want to buy a car where you’re taking delivery, cause you can theoretically, not that I would ever do this, avoid sales tax.
Jill: Hey, we just said we’re transparent, tell it like it is, Jack.
Jack: I just did. It’s great, it’s like the over of cars, they actually do bidding. This is how it should work, the consumer takes control back. It might be a dealer in Rhode Island, or something like that, that’s got the best car, delivery and the whole thing. I’ve haven’t seen one for used cars, only new cars.
Jill: I think it’s brilliant.
Jack: Me too.
Jill: Someone should do that.
Jack: So don’t take our word for it, that’s the whole point here. Just go and check our competition, check anything, be a researcher. I realize time is scarce, this day in age, but within reason you really should look into stuff. There’s a right way and wrong way to do it for your personality.
Jill: There’s no excuses with the internet, nowadays. Or, intranet?
Jack: Interweb
Jill: Interweb. Go check the interweb.
Jack: Join us in another episode where Jack and Jill discuss how to use information, that’s me.
Jill: And inspiration and keeping Jack in line, that’s me.
Jack: 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’re not alone on your resource quest. Yikes.
Jill: Whoa.
Jack: The hell was that?
Jill: I don’t know. That’s good thinking on your feet there.
Jack: Geez.
What’s going on today with you? You’re happy.
Jill: It’s not raining.
Jack: That’s what it is. It’s been raining in California and Arizona for weeks.
Jill: We can’t get away from it. Shucks everyone is giving us a hard time in Arizona cause we left California, then we bring the rain here, like sorry.
Jack: It’s sunny now.
Jill: Yeah, it’s okay now. But then it’s gonna start raining again in a couple days. It is what it is. Both places need it.
Jack: Yeah, everything’s green here in Arizona. We’re in Arizona right now.
Jill: You know what else? We are smack dabbed into 2017 in January and the holidays are over, everybody’s showing up, cause it’s January. I think that’s why I’m happy too. I’m talking to people and they have a whole different attitude, a whole different mind set, everybody’s made obviously some good decisions, and they’re like powering forward and it’s really nice.
Jack: Buyers and sellers are the same thing. Everybody’s got a short little check list, theoretically, written down or not. A lot of sellers are like, “one thing I would like to get done this year is to sell this darn piece of property I’m not using, and I don’t want this to take till December.”
Jill: Exactly.
Jack: I might as well just sign a letter that I just got. It’s not about price to me, it’s just about taking it off my list.
Jill: Totally.
Jack: Information, inspiration, to buy undervalue property.
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