Not All Data is Equal. Database vs Lists (CFFL 426)
Not All Data is Equal. Database vs Lists (CFFL 426)
Jack Butala: Jack Butala with Jill DeWit.
Jill DeWit: Good Morning!
Jack Butala: Welcome to our show today. In this episode, Jill and I talk about how not all data is equal.
Before we get in to it, let’s take a question posted by one of our members on Land Investors online community, it’s free.
Jill DeWit: Okay. Craig asked, “I’ve got a buyer looking at a lot in Colorado. He’s not comfortable with a standard contract for deed, plus I hear they don’t really go over well legally in Colorado. And I’m not really interested in a deed of trust due to the headache of recovering the property if he defaults. Normally I would just move on and find someone more flexible or willing to pay more for my trouble. But, unbeknownst to him, I hold an option on a land that will soon expire, so I’m motivated to sell.”
Jack Butala: Nice work.
Jill DeWit: Right. “My idea was this: to sell him two thirds of the interest in the parcel for two thirds of the total price. He’s willing to put down two thirds of the price which only covers the cost of the property to me, along with an option for a remaining one third of the price for a period of six months. So, it’s two thirds the property until he pays the rest of the total cost. If he defaults, I still own one third of the property and have already made back my money.” Sounds like a lot of work.
“What are your thoughts or does anyone in Colorado have a Colorado seller friendly way to structure a terms deal?”
Jack Butala: Craig, I can tell right now, the way this is worded, that you are going to kick butt in this industry. I think this is an incredibly creative, positive way to solve this problem. And you’re getting two thirds down? I think you’re knocking it out of the park here.
Jill DeWit: Well he’s getting back his original investment so, the extra one third would be-
Jack Butala: And it’s a six month contract. So I tell ya, honestly, what I would do if I were in your seat, I would do a deed of trust. I would do it according to the Colorado statute. Six month contract’s easy and if he’s putting two thirds down – the buyer – you’re on your way. I think he’s serious about owning the property. This isn’t like a Luke Smith $50 down, $50 a month scenario, for a hundred thousand years.
Jill DeWit: Exactly.
Jack Butala: Anything else to add?
Jill DeWit: No.
Jack Butala: If you have a question or you want to be on the show, reach out to either one of us, on LandInvestors.com.
We’re a little rough today, you and I.
Jill DeWit: I know, I’m just thinking the same thing.
Jack Butala: It’s Monday morning.
Jill DeWit: I’m trying to rally here. We were at a festival yesterday.
Jack Butala: We went to the Italian festival.
Jill DeWit: In Scottsdale.
Jack Butala: My gosh.
Jill DeWit: We’re both at Scottsdale, it’s nice to be in the same location.
Jack Butala: We almost bought a Fiat.
Jill DeWit: On my goodness, we did. We promised the guy we were going to show up tomorrow, by the way, and test drive the thing. Which I frankly think we should.
Jack Butala: It turns out that Mazda Miata, you know, Mazda and Fiat, got together. So we’ve got the Italian design and the Japanese quality. The Japanese, you know, all the bolts fit together. It’s hard to pass that up. And it wasn’t that expensive.
Jill DeWit: No it’s really not. They have a cute little pocket rocket looking car. So, I think we should go test drive that.
Jack Butala: You look good in it.
Jill DeWit: Thank you. There’s no where to put my purse though, that’s the only problem.
Jack Butala: This is the meat of the show: Not all data is equal. If you listen to this show at all, you probably could write the show, and do the show for us.
Jill DeWit: Oh really?
Jack Butala: Databases versus lists. Who wins there?
Jill DeWit: Can I rant?
Jack Butala: Like Superman versus Batman. Go ahead.
Jill DeWit: Remember, I did a blog on this a while back, and I’m like someone in an alley, selling, “hey buddy, I’ve got a list for sale, you wanna buy a list?” That’s how I feel about lists.
Jack Butala: That’s how I feel about it too.
Jill DeWit: You don’t know where it came from, you don’t know how current it is, you don’t know if it has everything you need in there. You need to get your own data and be picky about your data and get exactly what you want. Not just buy a used list from somebody else that used the list.
Jack Butala: If you’re serious about this industry at all and making this your career, not just a hobby, you need to access a database. You don’t need to buy a list in Excel. Or any other format. You need to have access to a database and you need to manipulate the list. And here’s why, here’s the take away from this whole show. If you access a database from RealQuest Pro, we’re licensed providers of RealQuest Pro, the best data on the planet, there are twenty different ways you can pull, let’s say for example, all five acre properties in any given state. Let’s say Texas. You can pull commercial properties. You can pull properties with no improvements; properties with improvements. So based on how you extract the data and then scrub the data from a database, you could use the exact same data set and get a completely different result when you send a mailer out. You can’t do that from a list.
From a list all you get is all the five acre properties in the owner’s name and you’re just wasting money. Most importantly, you’re wasting mailer money. So the data itself is, the cost is insignificant, it’s less than 10 cents a unit compared to how much money you spend on mail. So why would you spend a ton of money on sending a mailer out with bad data?
Jill DeWit: I know. Well I’ve talked to people too, that they said, “Oh but I did this to save money, and so I got a list and it’s got all the criteria. And to save money, I sent it to a V.A. in another country, for them to scrub it and get it back to me.” And it was after we talked, and at the end of the day, I’m like, “Did you really save any money?” They’re like, “Yeah, you know what, I didn’t. I got one county, I spent this much money, I’d wait weeks, and then my V.A. didn’t really understand. They did stuff wrong.”
Jack Butala: You can’t really sub that out.
Jill DeWit: They’re not really sure what they’re looking at.
Jack Butala: That’s the business for you. We’re not so much in the real estate business as we are in the data business.
Jill DeWit: It’s true.
Jack Butala: That’ll put food on your table for the rest of your life, if you can manipulate data and buy undervalued property.
Jill DeWit: Yeah, you should be using this data. This is the key. Use this data, let it do the heavy lifting, that’s where the work comes from, is the right data. Everything else is easy after that.
Jack Butala: This might be the shortest episode we’ve ever done.
Jill DeWit: Thank you. But that’s it-
Jack Butala: You don’t look rough, you look pretty.
Jill DeWit: Oh, thank you. I don’t know why this is an area – I’m very curious – why do people think this is an area to skimp on?
Jack Butala: I don’t know. I’ve always wondered that.
Jill DeWit: I’d say skimp on all kinds of other things. But don’t skimp on-
Jack Butala: Here’s a list of things to skimp on in this business: You don’t need business cards. You don’t need more than a three page website. You don’t need more-
Jill DeWit: You could have one website. You don’t need a buy site and a sell site. You could just use one website.
Jack Butala: Please don’t go get an office. Work out of your house. If you can stand your spouse and your children, work in your house.
Jill DeWit: Hey, don’t hire an assistant.
Jack Butala: Don’t hire an assistant.
Jill DeWit: Just do it yourself. Make some money. Bingo. [crosstalk 00:07:19]
Jack Butala: We’ve already done all the work for bulk mail, it’s the price of a stamp. So do not buy envelopes or any of that stuff. Skimp on that. Skimp on the mail.
Jill DeWit: Don’t send a generic postcard.
Jack Butala: Yup. Skimp on the mail, we’ve set that up for you already. Do not skimp on the data.
Jill DeWit: Exactly.
Jack Butala: Drive an old car. How old is your car?
Jill DeWit: How old is mine?
Jack Butala: Mine’s a 2007.
Jill DeWit: Mine’s older than yours, mine’s a 2005.
Jack Butala: And quite frankly, we’re loaded.
Jill DeWit: I know. Isn’t that funny? I could buy a new car tomorrow but I don’t really want one. I like my car, you know, I don’t drive my car very much, so it’s all good.
Jack Butala: Don’t skimp on your children’s education. You can buy used clothes if you need to.
Jill DeWit: Yeah, that’s very true.
Jack Butala: I still do that.
Jill DeWit: If you need to, there’s nothing wrong with that.
Jack Butala: Don’t eat bad food.
Jill DeWit: True.
Jack Butala: You don’t have to spend a lot but just eat whole foods. Eat a lot of vegetables. Turns out your parents were right about that.
Jill DeWit: Don’t skimp on taking care of yourself.
Jack Butala: That’s good.
Jill DeWit: Health, exercise, whatever it is, don’t skimp on that, like with your food.
Jack Butala: Don’t look down your nose at plastic surgery either.
Jill DeWit: Oh my gosh. No, no. Yeah, don’t skimp on a doctor. Don’t skimp on elective surgery.
Jack Butala: Get a good dentist. Take it from me.
Jill DeWit: That’s true. I like that one. You can skimp on your car, what else can you skimp on? You can skimp on your furniture even. I don’t care. Skimp on that stuff. Skimp on your dishes and your furniture.
Jack Butala: Buy new under garments though, and sheets, you don’t want those used. And a mattress. You need a new mattress.
Jill DeWit: That’s yucky. Oh no.
Jack Butala: I read a thing recently, somebody did a blog and they said this, “You would never check into a hotel if you saw the person who stayed there before you. You would stop checking into a hotel forever. You’d sleep in your car.” Although my car’s probably dirtier than the hotel. I’m sure of it. Jill got in my car a couple of days ago and she said, “It smells like a locker in here.”
Jill DeWit: It does, it stinks. Like, what have you guys been rolling around town with?
Jack Butala: She said, “It’s not cleanable, you need a new car.”
Jill DeWit: You need to detail it or get a new car. It needs help.
Jack Butala: We have successfully avoided talking about this topic.
Jill DeWit: Well we’re kinda done. I mean, that’s it. No, I think this all related to the topic. Things to skimp on, things to not skimp on.
Jack Butala: Never, ever pay full price for real estate. Ever. Ever. Ever. Including your primary residence. Skimp on acquisitions, do not skimp on data. You know what, that’s the take away here.
Jill DeWit: That’s perfect.
Jack Butala: Save your money for acquisitions and, you know, do not spend it on silliness. Business cards and such.
Jill DeWit: Yeah. Pay cash for your acquisitions. If you can, pay cash for your primary residence. You know what, buy less primary residence, skimp on it, rent it.
Jack Butala: Either rent your primary residence or pay cash. Do not get it mortgaged and be strapped down to all that stuff.
Jill DeWit: Brilliant. I just had a discussion with my mom the other day, by the way, and she actually just agreed with this one.
Jack Butala: Does this sound preachy?
Jill DeWit: No.
Jack Butala: She did? You and your mom agreed on something?
Jill DeWit: Yeah. And it was real estate related, how funny is that?
Jack Butala: Wow. Is your mom a licensed agent anymore?
Jill DeWit: Not anymore. But she was in southern California for a long time.
Jack Butala: I’ve known you for a lot of years, I don’t think you’ve agreed on anything with your mom ever.
Jill DeWit: No, I think this is the first.
Jack Butala: What is it with women and their moms?
Jill DeWit: Except when I used to call her and complain about my kids and she’d say, “Ha ha! Your turn!”
Jack Butala: Yeah. Moms and daughters can get into it good.
Jill DeWit: Like, aw man. Yes they can. Speaking as being a mother, I sure can.
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 to buy property for half of that it’s worth and sell it immediately.
Jack Butala: You are not alone in your real estate ambition.
Hey, thanks for showing up today.
Jill DeWit: Oh, you’re welcome. I think our show turned into a rafter talk.
Jack Butala: I know, yeah.
Jill DeWit: But I think it all ties in. Things to skimp on and not skimp on. And there’s a really good reason why – you want to do this right.
Jack Butala: I just got a deal in, a thousand acres, it’s all cut up into fives, tens, and twenties, and forties, in southern California, for $127 an acre.
Jill DeWit: That’s a good deal.
Jack Butala: Yeah. I’m running to the bank on that.
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