Tons of Ways to Succeed. Which One Makes You Happy (CFFL 379)
Tons of Ways to Succeed. Which One Makes You Happy
Jack Butala: Tons of Ways to Succeed. Which one Makes You Happy. 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 be told with Jill Dewitt.
Jill Dewitt: Hello.
Jack: Welcome to our show today. In this episode, Jill and I talk about, “Hey there’s tons of ways to succeed.”
Get this, what we do. In the end, which one makes you happy? You got to get up tomorrow happy or it’s just not going to work in the long run, right?
Jill Dewitt: Oh my goodness.
Jack: Be fun. This is awesome. This is inspirational.
Jill Dewitt: I know, it’s kinda like a Jill show.
Jack: Before we get into it, lets take a question posted by one of our members on the Land Academy online community. It’s free.
Jill Dewitt: Jeff asked this question, “Have you ever used the duration of ownership as a filter criteria?” This was on a weekly call and I love this question so I’m glad it came up here.
Jack: Yeah, me too. It’s great. Great question.
Jill Dewitt: Yeah, this is one of the questions that, this is …let me preface this real quick here. This is the kind of stuff that we talk about on our weekly member calls. That’s exactly where this come from and we want to share this here. So, Jeff had said “Have you ever used the duration of ownership as a filter criteria?” So, going through our data and figuring out who we’re going to mail to. He said, “For example, owned more than 3 years, etc, or is it irrelevant?” Jeff, or Jeff. Jack and I are both on the same page on this one.
Jack: Here’s a tiny bit of background. There’s a universe, that we have access to it and the assessors data bases all over the country and it’s exactly like it sounds. Every single piece of real estate is in that database, every single one from skyscrapers to pieces of land to everything. It’s our job to intelligently scrub all that data down to get to the ones where you’re going to send offers to owners and it makes since, right? You don’t want to send a $500 offer to a personal loads and office building. It’s just silly and you’re wasting your money and time. There’s lots of scrubs. There’s lots of filter criteria just like Jeff said, you know, and he’s thinking maybe if I just … one of the data columns is, this purchased it on X, Y, Z dates. He saying, maybe there’s more likelihood of a person owning property for a longer length of time, that they might want to sell it.
Jill Dewitt: Which is good. I wish it were where he’s thinking that.
Jack: Right. Me too. It’s thinking out of the box and it’s a great question.
Jill Dewitt: Yeah.
Jack: His question is, “Is it irrelevant”, and the answer is yes, it’s irrelevant.
Jill Dewitt: Because we don’t know how, A, how accurate that is and B, it could of been a transfer of ownership because someone had passed. It could have been someone passed on yesterday and they quick claimed it over today to just to somebody else or whatever it is and they now want to sell it. Still been in the family for 45 years but it doesn’t reflect that so, you might be missing some good things.
Jack: I’ve said it a million times, what you’re really looking for is the situation. So, there’s just lots or triggers that cause people to sell their property for less than retail valve. One is, it’s got a mortgage right. You’re not in control of how much you sell it for, the bank is.
Jill Dewitt: Exactly.
Jack: One is death. People sell property when they’re dead. In fact, that’s the reason, in vast majority.
Jill Dewitt: It’s pretty cool from the grave buying property. We both kind of worded those things. It’s not exactly how it goes but you get it.
Jack: Yeah and another one is family situations where they just have to sell the property or maybe they-
Jill Dewitt: They passed on and the family inherited it and that was the trigger, is what’s going on. So, totally. But the other, is lots of things like that that triggers it.
Jack: Well, there’s 4 or 5 things that really trigger someone to make that decision but there’s way more things that are just noise, you know. That’s a very intelligent question and I’m constantly looking for unique ways to sort of date it, make it better, make your yield better, you know. By the way our yield is, we buy 1 property per 100 letters we send out, in general, land. For about every 2,000 letters for houses, we buy 1. But bear in mind, we’re scrapping the bottom. We have members who offer much higher prices and their yield is much higher than that.
Jill Dewitt: Right, it’s funny when it’s, we’ve all done this, it’s funny when we have people, they have sent out offers, and they’ve come just, “I’ve clearly offered to much because I have so much mail coming back, I don’t know know what to do with it.” Lord knows we’ve done that. We’ve offered way to much. We’ve offered way to little but we still find stuff. You still find gems. Things still come out of it. It’s not bad but it’s funny when I really have, that come up more often where I have some members that said, “I think I kind of overpriced these because every single person is sending them back.”
Jack: Been there.
Jill Dewitt: It’s so funny so, yep. It’s good.
Jack: If you have a question or you want to be on the show, reach out to us on landacademy.com.
Today’s topic, “There’s tons of ways to succeed at this.” There’s a lot of ways to skin a cat. In the end, you got to do what makes you happy. There’s lots of things to focus on. I love acusistions and Jill’s more on the sales side. So, you got to structure it so, it’s all working and it makes you happy. You don’t want to get up every day a dredge through it, that’s what jobs are for. If you listen to this show consistently, you’re probably not real happy with your job.
Jill Dewitt: We’ve had this common theme that comes up.
Jack: Because, I’m sure you’re not listening to it just for the entertainment.
Jill Dewitt: That’s true.
Jack: Sure of it.
Jill Dewitt: Remember that, I read this couple last week and then it was really cute. They were asking about what we do and it was, we always kind of tip toe around it because you don’t normally want to get into it but we started talking and they were saying, “You guys should have a show” and we kind of said, “Oh well, we kind of do”. We both said together, “if you’re really bored one day, I mean bored or have a long, long car ride, this might be funny. It might be silly, I don’t know”
Jack: You can be the seventh listener of this show.
Jill Dewitt: Yes.
Jack: We have 6 listeners right now, be the seventh.
Jill Dewitt: That’s right, you’re so funny and 3 of them are family. That’s so funny.
Jack: So, I was telling Jill before the show, she’s like “What the heck is this about?” She’s reading the title “Tons of ways to succeed. Which one makes you happy?” She says that for like half the shows I write.
Jill Dewitt: This is true.
Jack: What the heck is this?
Jill Dewitt: What is this?
Jack: This doesn’t make any sense at all. How can we talk about this? This is what I mean. We send a lot of mail out, we send offers out, and they come back and so a vast majority of the people, new members, people that are listening to this don’t believe it, right. They’re very skeptical and that’s very natural and good.
Jill Dewitt: Right.
Jack: But, if you become a member, our members after they send the first mailer out, now they realize, oh my gosh there’s something to this.
Jill Dewitt: It works.
Jack: It works, right. There’s a lot … now they start to develop a sense of what they like. There’s a lot of ways to succeed. They’re customizing it for themselves. This just happens to be what works great for Jill and I as partners because she likes sales and I like accusations. But, in the end you got to decide, lets get the basic stuff done first, right. We all agree that sending offers out, offers to owners, works really well. We all agree. We all agree that a certain percentage of people that get an offer for less than their property is worth are going to be a little miffed. They’re going to call you back pretty miffed about it. That is outside of some peoples comfort level, they don’t want to be yelled at on the phone, ever, for any reason and it kills the business model for them and that’s okay, because it’s not making them happy.
Jill Dewitt: No, it’s not and it, you know my-
Jack: I think it’s funny as heck.
Jill Dewitt: I do too and honestly, I think though, and the best way to handle those is you just be confident in what you did and who you are and just like “Hey, I’m sorry. It doesn’t work for you. All right, I wish you well and have a nice day.”
Jack: Yeah, I have a bunch of canned answers. My favorite is, I clearly sent this, I clearly made a mistake sending this to you and pricing this. I sent a lot of letters out and I don’t mean to upset anybody. I thought that’s what it was worth. It’s clearly not. Have a good day.
Jill Dewitt: It’s easy to, usually you can calm them down.
Jack: Oh, wait, wait wait. Then they say, “Wait, wait, wait, wait that doesn’t mean I don’t want to sell it. I just-
Jill Dewitt: That’s the funny part. That’s the one that cracks me up. How dare you and you’re like “Oh, I’m so sorry.” They’re like, “Well, hold on a moment. Lets talk again, what would you pay?” Oh gosh, here we go and now we’re negotiation and that does not fit Jacks.
Jack: Yeah, and then I say, no, I think you should just have a good day.
Jill Dewitt: Yeah. No I really meant that.
Jack: And that makes me happy. Yeah, negotiations are the overtone topic this week.
Jill Dewitt: Exactly.
Jack: I will walk away from a deal. At this point in my career and I do this often, I will walk away if the price, if we have to talk about price for more than a few minuets.
Jill Dewitt: Right, I agree. Thank you.
Jack: What was, in the beginning I wasn’t like that at all. I developed this. Every little nuance of these mailers that we send out, these offers, like it contains a price. They used to not contain a price. The first mailer I ever send out said, “Hey, give me a call. Maybe, we can put something together on this property over here.” That’s what happened, a million people called. I said, I got to put a price in there. Through all of making a lot of mistakes, what we send out really works. You used to not even sign it, Jill. You used not send a purchase agreement out.
Jill Dewitt: Right.
Jack: It was just an offer.
Jill Dewitt: Right.
Jack: This is a full blown PA.
Jill Dewitt: Right. You notice the interesting now is, some many people come to us. It’s a little bit frustrating and I’m watching the people in our world get this too. Now that you have an established buying and selling history, next thing you know everybody says, “Oh, I have this over here.” “Oh, I have that over here.” You can get bogged down in that, so, I’m thinking of our topic today, Jack, and ways to succeed. One of our ways to succeed is not be a mom and pop, kind of be a mom and pop feeling operation, but not really.
Jack: Yeah you want to be a machine.
Jill Dewitt: Exactly, you don’t want to be always making $500 a week. You’re not going to get ahead doing that. You have to really … but for some people that’s their goal and that’s okay. You better really thing about what makes you happy, tons of ways to succeed. I guess, that is it right there. You could make $500 a week and if you do than you’re going to do things a little bit differently. You’re going to handle your offers differently and you maybe talking to more people. I don’t know. If that makes you happy, there you go.
Jack: We choose to do one thing really, really, really well. When you start to talk to owners, they’re going to say, “Hey, I have a funeral home over here I’d like to sell too.” What you don’t, what I don’t want to be and what I really recommend not doing this, is being an opportunist. Don’t do that. There’s a lot of opportunity out there. You don’t want to seize it all. What did Warren Buffett say? He said, “Take the top 25 things you want to do in your life and throw away the bottom 20.” Now, you have a list of 25 things because it’s only going to distract you from the top 5 things. Really pick those things and that’s it and then really excel at it. That makes me happy.
Jill Dewitt: Do you remember, we had this in our own company for awhile and then we’ve coached other people with the dilemma, like you just said. You go into this business and we tell people, pick something to start with. Okay, it’s 5 acres. I’m going to really focus on 5 acre properties or whatever it is and this kind of a property and this kind of an area because it’s very easy to go, “Oh, this one came up over here. Oh and this one came up over here.” Now, you’re all bogged down learning a new property type in a new area and it’s taking you away from really getting your feet wet and really learning this business. Keep your head down, stay focused, do what you’re doing and then do it. It hasn’t come up in a while, which I find interesting.
Jack: It’s probably because they listen to this show.
Jill Dewitt: Maybe.
Jack: I hope.
Jill Dewitt: Yeah. Maybe. That used to come up often where people go, “Well, what about this and what about that.” I’m like, well hold on a moment. I don’t know where all that came from and now you’re wasting a whole lot of time. Bugs us a lot of things too are-
Jack: It’s that drum machine analogy you use. Jill bought a drum machine, Jill was in a band, in a girl band.
Jill Dewitt: I was in a girl band.
Jack: That’s cracks me up. I don’t know why.
Jill Dewitt: Do you know what it was named?
Jack: What?
Jill Dewitt: It was When in Doubt.
Jack: That’s a good name.
Jill Dewitt: You like that?
Jack: Yeah.
Jill Dewitt: That was our name. We had a logo and everything.
Jack: We never really talked to each other unless we’re on the show.
Jill Dewitt: My girlfriend went so far, this is crazy, she actually had it tattooed on her arm. I’m not kidding.
Jack: Oh my gosh. Does she still have it?
Jill Dewitt: No, it was later covered up and then later removed. She went so far as to get our old band name tattooed on her arm.
Jack: When in Doubt.
Jill Dewitt: I can’t believe I’m sharing this. We got a drummer in a box. Boy, were we excited. I had my DX7, my Yamaha DX7. I thought that was so darn cool.
Jack: Did you have little skirts and stuff.
Jill Dewitt: We didn’t, no. We were all leather. We weren’t totally … I mean, it was like more combat boots kind of thing. Like Doc Martens and stuff like that. I mean, it wasn’t like weird punk or anything.
Jack: That might be the reason-
Jill Dewitt: It was all electronic.
Jack: That might be the reason that you didn’t make it big.
Jill Dewitt: Yeah, that’s one of the reasons.
Jack: Skirts are better.
Jill Dewitt: It’s true. Yes, it’s true. It was all black leather and jackets and stuff like that. I had this bustier that I loved. We won’t get into that anymore.
Jack: So, much mail for what I just said.
Jill Dewitt: But, what’s so good, I like your … this has been my thing that we bring up now and then. We get this stupid drum machine and it’s very hard not to want to use every little sound because you’re so excited to have the drum machine in the one song, you can’t do it, it’s overkill. You cannot do the hand clap and the cow bell.
Jack: Yeah.
Jill Dewitt: All the sounds.
Jack: Yeah, just-
Jill Dewitt: In one song.
Jack: Pick a couple that’ll make you happy.
Jill Dewitt: Exactly, we, that comes up now and then. Yeah, like the drum machine. Yep, just like that. Don’t try to have a girl band when there’s, yeah, just 2 of you and you really don’t know what you’re doing too.
Jack: Combat boats are not in style any longer.
Jill Dewitt: That was not me by the way, that was my partner in there. That was her thing.
Jack: God, do you any pictures.
Jill Dewitt: Oh sure.
Jack: I got to see that.
Jill Dewitt: Oh yeah, I could show you. Yeah I got, it was funny.
Jack: That’s great.
Jill Dewitt: My mom probably has more, so, yeah.
Jack: We had a member, Jill and I did a live event quite some time ago and there’s …. in a live event there’s people that come that are just brand new and they usually have jobs and not a ton of time to really do research and this always come up whenever we get in a group of people that are brand new like that, “I’ve got this deal over here”, “I’ve got this deal over here”, “I’ve got this deal over here.” We basically have this show, this episode, you’re never going to get anything done if you look at it all. You just want to make it efficient. You want someone to sign an offer and send it back to you for you, are the prices done? It’s all done, the time frame’s done, how’s the deals going to go down in done, it’s all done.
Jill Dewitt: Right. Exactly
Jack: You don’t ever really want to put yourself in a position, and I mean this in life, where you sitting there explaining everything.
Jill Dewitt: True.
Jack: You know, you’re not going to win.
Jill Dewitt: Yeah.
Jack: There’s a … relationships, people in relationships have to explain a lot of stuff sometimes. Not in my relationship, I never have to explain anything socially to Jill at all, every.
Jill Dewitt: Already thinking up my own. That’s hilarious. I was thinking, like, as a kid, as a teenager, I never wanted to explain to my dad what happened to the car.
Jack: Yeah, that’s what I think. That’s exactly right. Explanations-
Jill Dewitt: I don’t know what happened to those tires. Pop, pop, pop. I was just as surprised as you are.
Jack: If you’re explained something it’s because something is wrong.
Jill Dewitt: This is, you’re hiding something.
Jack: It’s wrong. What’s right?
Jill Dewitt: You know what, you’re right. If you find yourself explaining something, it triggers that you don’t, you might be hiding something, you don’t really know what you’re talking about.
Jack: You’re not conveying it properly.
Jill Dewitt: Correct. Get out of there.
Jack: This is, you know … it’s you first sentiment.
Jill Dewitt: It is.
Jack: Like a 13 year old kid.
Jill Dewitt: That’s right. If you have to explain it, run.
Jack: Somebody put a video together on YouTube, I’ve watched it 20 times. It’s videos of mostly preteen boys doing bad stuff and taping it but it all goes wrong, right. My favorite is this guys, for some reason, this kid is stacking bricks on a glass kitchen table and it just shatters, it explodes.
Jill Dewitt: Of course.
Jack: I swear, every single video ends with them just running away.
Jill Dewitt: That’s funny. Like, no ones going to know.
Jack: Like running for their lives. Like you say, get out of there.
Jill Dewitt: That’s still my instinct too.
Jack: I know it, that’s what I mean. That’s why it’s so funny because you’re still really 13.
Jill Dewitt: Yeah. Nobody saw it, walk away. Walk away. Walk away.
Jack: Oh my God. Join us in another episode where Jack and Jill discuss how to use information, that’s me.
Jill Dewitt: And how to get out of stuff, that’s me.
Jack: How to run for your life, that’s Jill. How to avoid conflict, that’s Jill.
Jill Dewitt: That’s good. Just about anything you want.
Jack: You are not alone in your real estate ambition. We got the last lines out, I guess.
Jill Dewitt: Barely.
Jack: I got to show you that video, it’s really funny.
Jill Dewitt: Oh, I can, yeah.
Jack: Me and number 3 kid, look at, watch stuff like that all the time.
Jill Dewitt: I’m sure you do.
Jack: Just completely, just kids doing the worst stuff ever.
Jill Dewitt: Oh my gosh, that’s so funny.
Jack: The reason it’s so funny is because I was exactly like that.
Jill Dewitt: Oh, yeah.
Jack: That’s how I know.
Jill Dewitt: Yes, that’s really good.
Jack: Information and inspiration to buy undervalued property.
If you enjoyed the podcast, please review it in iTunes . Reviews are incredibly important for rankings on iTunes. My staff and I read each and every one.
If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to email me directly at jack@LandAcademy.com.
I would like to think it’s entertaining and informative and in the end profitable.
And finally, don’t forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes.
