Cash in and Out of First Deal in 45 Days (CFFL 405)
Cash in and Out of First Deal in 45 Days
Recording Location: 33.840103, – 118.391379
Jack Butala: Jack Butala with Jill DeWit.
Jill DeWit: Hello, happy Friday.
Jack Butala: Welcome to our show today. In this episode, Jill and I talk about how you cash in and cash out of a full real estate transaction if you’re brand new.
Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jack Butala: In 45 days.
Jill DeWit: Exactly.
Jack Butala: Before we get into it, though, let’s take a question posted by one of our members on LandAcademy.com online community three.
Jill DeWit: Okay. Michael asked this question:
“If I purchased a property on a quick claim deed and I attempt to record it, will I have to pay all the back taxes and get it current?”
Love this.
Jack Butala: This is a good question and it comes up a lot, and the answer is no. So you can purchase a property, any type of property, you can purchase a house.
Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jack Butala: With back taxes on it and so the back taxes, they follow the property around. If you’ve been into this for a while, it seems like a question that somebody should probably know that, you know, a question that you know the answer to immediately, but when you really think about it, no. It’s kind of confusing.
Jill DeWit: True.
Jack Butala: And we’re all used to buying houses where everything is prorated by a title agent and they do all the work for you.
Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jack Butala: Or it’s just kind of an unwritten rule that a purchaser and a seller split certain fees and don’t. So those are unwritten rules, just like I said.
When you purchase a property on a quick claim deed from somebody or you sell it to them, and there’s some taxes accumulated or any lien for that matter, it travels with the property. And as long as you disclose it, you know, you’ve got a nice piece of property, you sell it for two, three, four, 5,000 bucks, it’s got $1,000 worth of back taxes, you don’t feel like paying them off, then you fully disclose it entirely. If the buyer’s got a little bit of experience, there’s nothing wrong with that at all.
Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jack Butala: We do it all the time.
Jill DeWit: Exactly.
Jack Butala: In fact, it creates a little bit of a perception that they’re getting a deal.
Jill DeWit: It’s true.
Jack Butala: And maybe they are.
Jill DeWit: Well, you know, and I’ve even posed it this way with some buyers like, “Here’s the nice thing. You’re spending the money on the property today, obviously, buying the property. You don’t have to catch up the taxes today. If you want to wait and do it in 90 days or something like that to get it current, you can do that.”
And some of the buyers don’t know that. They think that it has to be all done, that they have to send in a check that day and so it’s kind of a nice … Seriously, they can budget and plan their money.
Jack Butala: I just, I want to tell a story.
Jill DeWit: Okay.
Jack Butala: Quite some time ago, you know, because Jill and I get hordes of tax bills in all the time, so they’re from all counties all over the country.
Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jack Butala: So there’s boxes, sometimes, of tax bills that need to be scanned. We scan them and put them on the server. And sometimes new people come in and they see that and they think that, like.
Jill DeWit: Oh yeah.
Jack Butala: We’re criminals, like we’re not paying our taxes, you know, I’ve gotten tax bills. We own a thousand properties in one county. You get a tax bill it’s, you know, $87,000.
Jill DeWit: Right.
Jack Butala: If someone’s just brand new, they just freak out about it.
Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jack Butala: And so. But when you take 1,000 divided by 87,000, you have $87 worth of taxes.
Jill DeWit: Yeah, exactly.
Jack Butala: That tax is on each property.
Jill DeWit: Right.
Jack Butala: So, you know, you can explain $87 to anybody. Am I going to write an $87,000 check to make sure it’s current? No.
Jill DeWit: Right.
Jack Butala: I’m going to explain to the new buyer and say we’re taking $100 off and there’s $87 worth of taxes.
Jill DeWit: Yeah, yeah.
Jack Butala: So.
Jill DeWit: Exactly.
Jack Butala: And if they have problems with that, then …
Jill DeWit: They’re not the right buyer.
Jack Butala: They aren’t.
Jill DeWit: Right.
Jack Butala: If you have a question or you want to be in the show, reach out to either one of us on LandAcademy.com. It’s free.
Today’s topic, and this is one of Jill’s. Jill loves this topic. How to cash in on a real estate deal, if you’re relatively new, in 45 days, start to finish. So Jill, what are the basic, I know you did a blog about this or I think it was in the newsletter actually.
Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
And we did a show about it. Started with a show.
Jack Butala: Uh huh.
Jill DeWit: Because we get this question all the time. You know, it’s, “I’m full time, you know, how long does it take me?”
So we just came up with a magical, “Well, you could do it in 45 days.”
Jack Butala: Yeah.
Jill DeWit: That was what it started. And then we dissected it in a couple different places, like on the show, and then in a blog, and then I really dissected it in a newsletter.
So I’ll cover it loosely here just to give you an idea, but it’s because I wanted people to see that you can really do it while having a full-time job and only doing a couple hours on the weekend.
Jack Butala: Yeah.
Jill DeWit: You know, or on a Tuesday night, you know, whenever you have time. Whenever it is.
My thing is, okay, Sunday afternoon. That time when the kids are playing out back and wife’s cooking a nice dinner and you have some time to get on the computer. You can do this.
Jack Butala: Right.
You could co-title this as “The Anatomy of a Real Estate Deal.” Because these are the basic things they need to get any real estate deal done.
Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jack Butala: With like a Jack and Jill twist to it.
Jill DeWit: Right.
Jack Butala: So go ahead.
Jill DeWit: Okay.
So my first thing was, the beginning, you know, and I really made this so it’s a really slow, methodical thing. First, you know, putting aside, you know what you’re doing and the education. You’re past all that.
You’re now ready to do a deal. So you’re going to spend a couple hours on a Sunday just identifying a county. That’s it.
Jack Butala: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jill DeWit: You’re going to sit and do your research. You’re going to look at maps.
Jack Butala: Population density.
Jill DeWit: Census maps. And yeah, that. And, you know, look at some counties. You’re going to look at some comps. You’re going to see what’s available in these areas, what things are kind of selling for.
Jack Butala: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jill DeWit: Make sure that it’s in your price range, you know, and in an area that you can maybe get GIS, you know, and you know, look up the recording process. Just some of the little things.
Mainly, just make sure that there are properties, not a ton of properties available, you know. It passes all your tests.
Jack Butala: I call it testing for reason.
Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jack Butala: So are you looking at three counties, let’s say. Is it reasonable that if I get five or six or 10 people to call me back or send back an offer-
Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jack Butala: Is it reasonable that I can look this up pretty quickly and see that, yeah, it’s a pretty good deal.
Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jack Butala: Or is it one of these counties that they’re so rural that it’s going to take days and days-
Jill DeWit: Right.
Jack Butala: Of research to figure out where the count of property is. We’re making it easier with a lot of the tools that we’re rolling out to do this. One of them’s parcel back-
Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jack Butala: Where you can find just about any property. It’s the testing for reason phase.
Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jack Butala: So you come up with one or two counties during that phase. A couple hours.
Jill DeWit: Yeah. A couple hours on a Sunday afternoon.
I said three to four hours. You sit down and that’s it. You’re done and you come back to it next week.
Okay, now we’re on week two. What do I do? If I’ve got the county all figured out, now I’m going to really pull the data, so I’m going to identify, source, pull the data, download it, and I’m going to send it to my printer because I can do that all at the same time in just a matter of hours.
Jack Butala: Yeah, exactly. With the Land Academy tool set, as a member, you have access to RealQuest Pro and LetterStream for 49 cents, whether you send out 10 offers or 10,000,000.
So we have spent literally a year to make this incredibly simple. You know the way that we have done it in the past and every step of the way it’s gotten easier to this point.
You pull the RealQuest data versus pulling data from anywhere else is much, much, much easier.
Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jack Butala: And doing a mail merge, which LetterStream does for you, it couldn’t be easier. So, yeah.
Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jack Butala: That’s great. So how many hours do you give that?
Jill DeWit: I give it just a couple hours. In my example, three or four hours, because I’m assuming you’re new at this.
Jack Butala: Yeah.
Jill DeWit: So I’m giving you some time.
Jack Butala: Good.
Jill DeWit: So all right. Now that’s it, feelers went out. [crosstalk 00:07:50]
Thank you.
You don’t read my newsletter?
Jack Butala: (laughing)
Jill DeWit: (laughing)
Jack. I know you don’t read the newsletter. I know.
Jack Butala: I write for it.
Jill DeWit: You might get something out of that.
Jack Butala: I wonder if, like, people who work at a newspaper, well no one works at a newspaper anymore. Do they read the whole paper or do they just read the stuff that they write?
Jill DeWit: You know what’s funny? I count on you not reading the newsletter.
Jack Butala: (laughing)
Jill DeWit: So there’s stuff that I put in there that I’m like, “I’m going to throw this out there to the community.”
Jack Butala: Oh my gosh.
Jill DeWit: “And he’s never going to know.”
I’m serious. I count on you not reading the newsletter.
Jack Butala: Now I have to read it.
Jill DeWit: (laughing)
Jack Butala: (laughing)
Jill DeWit: So all right. That’s week two.
Okay, now we’re on week three. So now you’re sitting back. Now here come the returned mail. The offers are coming back.
Jack Butala: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jill DeWit: Maybe some phone calls are coming back.
Jack Butala: Yeah.
Jill DeWit: Now you’re gathering and you’re fielding all that, that data. And I did a whole week on that. Just get it all in.
Jack Butala: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jill DeWit: Put it all in a system. Put it in a spreadsheet, basically, so you have it all lined up. You know what the offers are.
Jack Butala: Right.
Jill DeWit: Who called you back. You know, did they accept your offer?
Jack Butala: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jill DeWit: You know. And that kind of thing. And that’s it.
Jack Butala: Yeah. There’s tools that make that real easy. Jill’s developing a tool called JillLive.com where her people answer your telephone and give the information that they need. That’ll speed that up.
If you’re brand new, I don’t suggest it, because I really think you need to answer your own phone for a while.
Jill DeWit: But if you work during the day and you can’t, [crosstalk 00:09:17] it’s for the time that you can’t.
Jack Butala: Right.
Jill DeWit: There you go. But you should at least call them back.
Jack Butala: Yes. You should make contact with that person.
Jill DeWit: My staff at JillLive.com will help you with inbound calls when you’re not available.
Jack Butala: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jill DeWit: But…
Jack Butala: They’re not going to do the deal for you.
Jill DeWit: No.
Not yet, anyway.
Jack Butala: Right.
Jill DeWit: That’s coming.
All right, so that’s week three.
Now week four, now you’re doing your research. You’re sitting down, week four, a couple hours. You’ve gathered all the data. You’ve got who knows, 10, 20, 30, I don’t know, people that reached out to you.
Jack Butala: Some number, yeah.
Jill DeWit: Depending on how much you.
Jack Butala: Some number between five and 20.
Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
And now you are doing your due diligence. Now you’re going back and going, “Do I really want to buy the property?”
Jack Butala: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jill DeWit: Now I’m looking up, “What’s the tax situation? All right. Who’s alive, who’s not alive?” You know, all those little details, making sure that you could close the deals that you want.
Jack Butala: Is the property conveyable?
Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jack Butala: Is there access? You know, let’s say they do. Seven or eight come back. Especially if you’re really new, the first deal you want to do needs to be the best of the bunch.
Jill DeWit: Right.
Jack Butala: You know.
Jill DeWit: Line them all up. It’s going to be the easiest.
Jack Butala: To mitigate risk.
Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jack Butala: Completely.
Jill DeWit: Exactly.
So week five, now you’re closing the deal.
Jack Butala: It gets more and more fun as you go through the 45-day period. The fun stuff’s at the end.
Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Yeah.
Okay, so week five is, now you’re buying it and at the same time that you’re buying it, because you already know you’re buying it, it’s all going through. At the same time, you’re setting up to- It’s the one property. You’re setting up to have the notary, you know, meet your seller, have the DRA them to sign it, and come back to you. And while you’re doing all that, you are creating your posting to promote and advertise the property.
Jack Butala: Nice.
Jill DeWit: All at the same time. Because remember, once the deed is signed, it’s yours.
Jack Butala: Yes.
Jill DeWit: It doesn’t have to be recorded yet. Once it’s signed, it’s yours. So that’s why you can turn around and advertise it the same day that the notary says it’s done and it’s on its way back.
Jack Butala: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jill DeWit: So you have it all ready to go and you push the button and now you’re selling it.
And then, you want to add on to that?
Jack Butala: No. No, it’s perfect.
Jill DeWit: Okay.
Jack Butala: Or, I mean if it’s a larger deal, you could close it through escrow, and if you chose the right escrow company and they’re jumping up and down on the desk like I do sometimes.
Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jack Butala: They’ll get it done real fast for you.
Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Exactly.
Jack Butala: It’s really easy to get these deals done. Notaries love doing these deals. There’s no real estate agent so there’s no lender, so it takes all the work out of it.
Jill DeWit: Right.
Jack Butala: Almost all of it.
Jill DeWit: Cool.
And then week six. Now you’re selling it.
Jack Butala: Yeah.
Jill DeWit: That’s it.
And you know what, and this is something I want to spend a minute on, because people don’t believe us and it’s so true. I always encourage people to reach out to our members to ask them. Ask our members who have sold anywhere from 10 to 50 properties in a month and they’re out of inventory.
Jack Butala: Yeah.
Jill DeWit: “Is this true?” And the answer is yes. And why? Because we buy it right.
Selling this property really is not a big deal for us, so people look at us going, “Well, how do you sell it so fast?” Well, because it’s a great property and it’s really priced well. I don’t have to think about it.
So when I say week six is selling it, I mean week six is selling it.
Jack Butala: There is a reason that we constantly talk about acquisitions and don’t talk about sales so much.
Jill DeWit: Correct.
Jack Butala: Sales is so automatic. When you buy a property for less than half of what it’s worth.
Jill DeWit: Right.
Jack Butala: That’s one of our slogans I think. Selling it’s not that hard. (laughing)
Jill DeWit: Turn to page two. (laughing)
Jack Butala: This is show number 400…
Jill DeWit: 405.
Jack Butala: 405 and I don’t have a script.
Jill DeWit: No, not yet. No, you don’t. That’s clear.
Jack Butala: (laughing)
So we don’t spend a lot of time talking about sales because it’s so automatic.
Jill DeWit: It really is.
Jack Butala: There’s four or five places on the Internet that post property like this.
Jill DeWit: Like Land Pin?
Jack Butala: Like Land Pin, Land Watch, don’t forget Land [inaudible 00:13:06]
Craigslist.
Jill DeWit: Yeah.
Jack Butala: Land Pin is the one that we go to.
Jill DeWit: That’s the best.
Jack Butala: And you know there’s people that live and die, buyers live and die by monitoring these websites.
Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jack Butala: To find great deals.
Jill DeWit: Right.
Jack Butala: So you know, in fact you should start collecting them like we do.
Jill DeWit: I was thinking of a new slogan. Land Pin, because the thing about Land Pin, by property investors, for property investors. Because there’s a lot of sites out there that they’re not really doing deals like we are. I like this.
Jack Butala: (laughing)
Jill DeWit: I just came up with that.
That’s what I’m going to use.
Jack Butala: Our slogan right now is rock bottom priced land.
Jill DeWit: I know.
Jack Butala: But I like yours, too.
Jill DeWit: By property investors. Because it’s important to know, by the way. It’s just a little side note, but Land Pin, we created it out of a need for not being able to sell our properties the right way.
Jack Butala: So by property investors, for property investors.
Jill DeWit: For property investors.
Jack Butala: So B-Y, not B-U-Y.
Brought to you by property investors for land investors. Yeah, I like it.
Jill DeWit: Okay.
Just a thought. Anyway.
But I wanted to say that.
So week six is now you’re selling it and it really can happen that fast.
Jack Butala: Yeah, and again, so every step of the way. I hope I didn’t interrupt you, but my point is there’s a hard way and an easy way to do all this stuff. So you’re going to really, really help yourself a lot if you take credit cards on your website. We’re hooking up Land Pin right now.
Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jack Butala: So that you can, on behalf of you, for you, you’ll have your own vendor account. You can take credit cards there. So whether you’re selling on terms or for cash, you know, when somebody wants to buy it, they don’t really necessarily have to make three or four phone calls or attempts to contact you. They just press the button and buy it.
Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jack Butala: And process the deal.
So there’s ease all along the way. And don’t expect out of yourself to do this perfectly the first time.
Jill DeWit: Correct.
Jack Butala: Don’t sit around and plan for 45 days and then start the process.
Jill DeWit: True. That’s not what that’s for.
Jack Butala: The first 45 days is for really screwing some stuff up.
Jill DeWit: Just do one.
Jack Butala: Yeah.
Jill DeWit: Slow, methodical, like we spelled out, and now you got this. Now you can do another one. And another one, another one, and after 10, that’s kind of my little thing. After 10, you’re going to feel like a pro.
Jack Butala: Every step of the way, reach out to other members who are doing it, too.
Jill DeWit: Yeah. We were all there once. [crosstalk 00:15:23]
Jack Butala: Success plans.
Jill DeWit: Yeah.
Jack Butala: It’s probably how you found this podcast. You know, I put together that site a long time ago. It’s a community of all of us.
Jill DeWit: Yeah.
Jack Butala: They’ll help you.
Jill DeWit: Totally.
Jack Butala: Or maybe not. Maybe they’ll laugh at you.
Jill DeWit: (laughing) They won’t. You’re so silly.
Jack Butala: (laughing)
Jill DeWit: Good thing it’s Friday.
Jack Butala: So what’s in the newsletter that I don’t know about?
Jill DeWit: Oh, my goodness. All kinds of things. We’ll get to that.
Jack Butala: Are there like psalms and-
Jill DeWit: No.
Jack Butala: Are you a religious person?
Jill DeWit: Yeah right.
No. No, it’s “Email Jack these questions.”
Jack Butala: Is it devil worshiping?
Jill DeWit: Watch what happens.
No, no, no. Silly.
Jack Butala: Join us in another episode where Jack and 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 every day for our sanity.
Jack Butala: (laughing)
Jill DeWit: And to buy property for half of what it’s worth and sell it immediately.
Jack Butala: You are not alone in your real estate ambition.
What a week.
Jill DeWit: Am I hearing music from the pier?
Jack Butala: I don’t know.
Jill DeWit: I think there’s something going on over there. Maybe. That’s cool.
Jack Butala: Yeah.
Jill DeWit: Love it. I’m glad it’s Friday.
Jack Butala: Me, too.
Jill DeWit: I can’t wait to hear. I hope the waves are showing up in these shows.
Jack Butala: Yeah. I’m sure. I can’t wait to see whether or not they’re so annoying that it’s just going to stop everybody from listening.
Jill DeWit: It kind of might. That’s true. (laughing)
Jack Butala: No, I think… When have you ever had a bad time when there’s waves crashing around and stuff?
Jill DeWit: No. None.
Jack Butala: I can think of a couple times and I wish I wasn’t on a boat at that time.
Jill DeWit: Right.
Jack Butala: But most of the time it’s all fun and margaritas and stuff.
Jill DeWit: Exactly.
Jack Butala: 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.
