Your Unfair Investor Advantage (CFFL 518)
Your Unfair Investor Advantage (CFFL 518)
Transcript:
Jack Butala: Jack Butala with Jill DeWitt.
Jill DeWitt: Hi.
Jack Butala: Welcome to our show today. In this episode Jill and I talk about what is your unfair investor advantage. Every single one of us have it. We just have to identify it. Before we get into this killer topic, let’s take a question posted by one of our members on the landinvestors.com online community. It’s free.
Jill DeWitt: Okay. Richard asks, “Hello all. I want to use a legal description to get the latitude and longitude coordinates and create a Google map of my downloaded property files. My RealQuest download did not include this information. I can’t remember if I selected property characteristics on the order page. Is there a reason I did not get this data included with my CSV downloaded file?”
Jack Butala: Gosh this is a good question.
Jill DeWitt: Yeah. Thank you for being detailed too. Go ahead.
Jack Butala: Yeah. Thank you Richard. Again I say it every show probably … But what a group of people. I mean really bright people.
So no, you’re not alone in this at all. Longitude and latitude coordinates are all be missing from RealQuest data. And there’s no button you can click on to do it. We’ve solved that quite frankly. And I don’t want this to be a commercial but we solved that … this problem because it’s been going on since the beginning of time with ParcelFact-
Jill DeWitt: For us also.
Jack Butala: For us too. With ParcelFact, F-A-C-T .com and it’s free. The first few pulls are free. So if you just go there, sign up and type in the assessor’s parcel number, the APN. Bang. You will get a pretty comprehensive detailed assessor’s sheet on whatever the assessor knows you’re going to know. Plus all the corner points and GPS. Not just the center point-
Jill DeWitt: That’s my favorite.
Jack Butala: But the corner points. So how times have you-
Jill DeWitt: It could be a weird like the shape of your hand. I’ve seen these weird properties and it’s all there.
Jack Butala: So the other way too is that we’re licensed providers and as a member you also get Agent 24/7. Agent Pro 24/7.
Jill DeWitt: Title Pro even better.
Jack Butala: Title Pro I’m sorry. Jill knows this product really well.
Jill DeWitt: Title Pro.
Jack Butala: And there’s a lot of parcels there, you can get the GPS center point.
Jill DeWitt: Center.
Jack Butala: But here’s the problem with center points. I mean how many times have you looked at a center point GPS coordinate and great it’s the center point. “I wonder if the property hits the road, that county road that’s going by. We don’t know.” So ParcelFact … all kidding aside … is an incredible value to help you make decisions. And then once you do make the decision, if you’re going to buy it, you obviously need maps and stuff to sell it. You can just literally click one button and it downloads all … like I don’t know 9 or 10 shots from Google Earth outlining the … I mean it’s a truly amazing product and you get to test it for free. About 20% of the people that use the free version sign up. That’s staggering in this business. Usually it’s half of one percent.
Jill DeWitt: Exactly. Right.
Jack Butala: So hope that helps. I wish I had a better answer for you. I wish I could … There was some trick. But there’s not. We spent a tremendous amount of money developing ParcelFact and probably 99% of the properties in the country are covered in there.
If you have a question or you want to be in the show reach out to either one of us on landinvestors.com.
Today’s topic what’s your unfair investor advantage. We all have them. What’s yours? This is the meat of the show.
Jill DeWitt: You want me to share what my … I know what my … We all know what mine is.
Jack Butala: What is it? You know there’s a lot of advantages to Jill.
Jill DeWitt: Well-
Jack Butala: And we’re just talking about your investor advantage.
Jill DeWitt: My investor advantage. It’s me on the phone I think. You know what? I’m going to ask you now Jack. Actually I’m going to … because I believe-
Jack Butala: Let’s just list them like we did before the show. What are some potential investor advantages?
Jill DeWitt: Okay. Here’s some potential investor advantage. Okay number one: You have a lot of money behind you.
Jack Butala: Yeah. You inherited a bunch of money. There’s your investor advantage.
Jill DeWitt: Awesome.
Jack Butala: Now you don’t have to be smart.
Jill DeWitt: You have to think about stuff. You don’t have to worry about that thing.
Jack Butala: You’re great at math. You’re an engineer.
Jill DeWitt: You’re great on the phones and you’re good with people.
Jack Butala: Maybe that’s one. Maybe you’re a retired county official who can get stuff done in that county.
Jill DeWitt: You have the inside track.
Jack Butala: Inside track. That’s a good one.
Jill DeWitt: Yeah. Maybe this is my favorite that you came up with. You describe it the best. You have more balls than brains or something. What did you say?
Jack Butala: No, I said … Yeah you have more ambition than you do common sense.
Jill DeWitt: Yeah same thing.
Jack Butala: You don’t know. Two weeks ago you were beat on this whole thing. You don’t know it. You just keep going forward.
Jill DeWitt: Exactly. You don’t know how to stop.
Jack Butala: Those are the … People ask me like, “What is it about successful people?” And that’s it.
Jill DeWitt: That’s a lot of it.
Jack Butala: They don’t know when they’ve been beat. They just keep moving forward.
Jill DeWitt: That’s us. It’s so us. It really is. What do you mean I can’t do that? I am going to find a way.
Jack Butala: Other people on the sideline are watching us go by and they’re covering their mouths and laughing a little bit. They like, “These people are …”
Jill DeWitt: They have no idea. They’re like …
Jack Butala: Yeah. They’re done. Turns out we’re right.
Jill DeWitt: Yeah, it’s so funny. You know what … Some people say it’s going to sink the ship. We don’t use … For us nothing’s going to sink our ship. I mean come on. We’ll figure it out. There could be a huge, huge change in the market and we’ll figure out a way. We now know … because we have. We hung in there man.
Jack Butala: I mean I’m a data analyst just I was born that way.
Jill DeWitt: Yes.
Jack Butala: So that’s really my … Honestly that is my advantage. And I’m not afraid.
Jill DeWitt: You see … You know what? … It’s like that show the Mentalist, Jack. Is that the one where it’s like … The intro … you see the guy and all these numbers flashing in the screen and all these different numbers and they all come together to make something. That’s you. You stare at a spreadsheet and you can look at a thousand lines and go, “I see it. I got it. I see the price advantage. I know exactly what I’m going to do.” And everybody else looks at it going what is … I see a page of numbers.
Jack Butala: We have about nine products that we’re releasing similar to the one we just talked about like ParcelFact on the question earlier. I looked at this yesterday because they’re all moving forward but not fast enough obviously for my taste because it should be tomorrow, next five minutes, they should be done. But that’s just not realistic. So we had to ice out which ones to really choose to get done this month and I did. I literally saw the data like that and it’s … Which ones are most helpful and which ones are going to make us the most money and really solve … It’s the exact same thing. Solve an immediate issue that a lot of investors … a lot of our members are having. So we chose those and they’re also the most profitable for us. Truth be told. That’s part of it.
Jill DeWitt: I’m trying to think of some other unfair investor advantages. Confidence.
Jack Butala: Inside information in real estate is celebrated. Right? Everybody goes out … If you have some [inaudible 00:06:49] … and let’s say, “Oh, you know there’s going to be a new airport’s going in there.” Or “A freeways going to come through here.” Or –
Jill DeWitt: A mall.
Jack Butala: I just did random comparisons-
Jill DeWitt: Westfield Mall’s looking at something.
Jack Butala: I just ran the comparison values and it turns out … And I ran the data and no one knows it but the comparison values are dramatically going up in this little … on the east side of town in this APN schemas. That’s inside information. Whether you create it or you learn about it through at the bar. It’s celebrated in the real estate industry. In the stock market, in public markets you go to prison for that. So think about that. Do you want to celebrate inside information or go to prison for it?
Jill DeWitt: Hello, where did that go?
Jack Butala: I’m serious. So it may be an unfair advantage that insider … Unfair investor advantage you have is that you work at a county and you know about real estate. That’s not criminal.
Jill DeWitt: No.
Jack Butala: It’s good.
Jill DeWitt: I agree. Totally agree.
Jack Butala: Maybe you can be the fastest typist on the planet.
Jill DeWitt: Yeah.
Jack Butala: Somehow parlay that into real estate I’m not sure. Or whatever. But if we all have-
Jill DeWitt: What if you have-
Jack Butala: We all have … Maybe the person that you’re with is not … is holding you back.
Jill DeWitt: What if one of your thing is you’re a fast learner? That’s a good thing. I have seen people that know nothing about this but-
Jack Butala: Me too.
Jill DeWitt: By golly they get concepts. You don’t have to explain it to them very often. You explain it to them once, they got it and they go. That’s a good advantage.
Jack Butala: Maybe you’re unfair advantage … I have a buddy who’s an attorney. You know what he’s good at? Like I’ve never seen anybody that … good at this, is delegation. He does nothing. He owns his own law firm and he’s funny as heck. And he’s the best … That guys never done a task in his life.
Jill DeWitt: Yeah. That’s a good-
Jack Butala: And he’s accepted that it might take three times to get the task done and three phone calls and he’s okay with that. So delegation. I’m not a very good delegator.
Jill DeWitt: No, I’m not either. I get frustrated and then I do it. It’s not good.
Jack Butala: So everybody listening has something that they’re really good at that they can parlay into the thing. And then you just hire the other stuff out. Most of it.
Jill DeWitt: Right.
Jack Butala: There’s a few things you can’t hire out. I don’t think. Like analyzing data or pricing. I can help you with it. I do every Thursday, I help people with pricing information.
Jill DeWitt: So now we’ve identified a lot of different unfair investor advantages, including picked on our unfair investor advantages. So what do you do when you know what yours is? You go [inaudible 00:09:20]. This is really easy. You know I have the best team around me right now. I know that we all know a little bit of something. So I know I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Okay. [inaudible 00:09:34] got to identify what is your unfair investor advantage and capitalize on it.
Jack Butala: Capitalize on it. Geez Jill.
Jill DeWitt: Exactly. So run.
Jack Butala: What does capitalize mean by the way?
Jill DeWitt: Take that and run. And fill in the pieces that you’re not good at and always sticking to you doing the thing that you know only you do best.
Jack Butala: Capitalize means monetize in my … I mean it might. I haven’t looked it up but … It means turn your talent into money or turn the situation into a monetary gain. Sounds like you go to hell for that. But I don’t think so.
Jill DeWitt: You know what-
Jack Butala: Is it bad to make a lot of money?
Jill DeWitt: So you know what this reminds me of … we were just having a talk-
Jack Butala: It’s good to make a lot of money.
Jill DeWitt: With one of our kids about … Yeah you know we get it. It’s not who you know but it’s who you know. So you know it’s kind of like that. That’s how I feel this whole topic … We just have to be honest with each other. Jack is … We made some new friends that may or may not be high up in the yacht club here locally. And we’re hanging out with them this weekend. You know what? It might be who you know. Because we’re trying to find the inside track on what yachts are available and who’s … what’s going on and that’s the best way to do it.
Jack Butala: Yeah.
Jill DeWitt: Is find out from the inside track. So yeah, are we doing anything wrong? No.
Jack Butala: No.
Jill DeWitt: It makes me … I’m not a rule breaker. I mean … Well, yes I am.
Jack Butala: Yeah, you are.
Jill DeWitt: So anyway but I’m not … Come on. It’s not like I’m doing anything bad. It’s just kind of like who says I have to do it this way because this way’s faster and better and next thing you know everybody’s going to be doing it my way because I found a better way.
Jack Butala: So I used to own a company. To get back on track here. Thank you Jill.
Jill DeWitt: Sorry. Where did that go?
Jack Butala: I used to own a company. It was me and another guy at his kitchen table. We bought a bunch of long term care facilities, nursing homes and assisted living facilities in a different state. And we were both acquisition people. That’s it. So none of us were operators. In fact quite honestly, when I look back on that, it was ridiculous. It should have never worked. About two years later, I sold all my shares to him because he was having a great time with it and he was really born to do that. But the first thing we did was travel around the western part of the country interviewing operators that would come on for a reasonable amount of money with a little bit of equity. So what was our … What was my unfair investor advantage? Number one I could find the deals and I picked a partner that could find an operator. Did we actually really do anything in that company? No. We just put it together. So maybe that’s your thing. Maybe you never want to do a real estate deal ever.
Jill DeWitt: You’re a great operator.
Jack Butala: But you’re a facilitator and a … You’re the conductor. Right? The conductor doesn’t play every single instrument. He just keeps it all together and running smooth hopefully.
Jill DeWitt: Exactly.
Jack Butala: So there’s a million ways to look at that. Chances are you’re smashingly good at one or two or four of these things. And chances are you suck at a bunch of them too. That’s why you get a business partner. Stuff I’m good at, Jill’s not so good at and vice versa.
Join us for another episode where Jack and Jill bore the hell out you with my crazy information.
Jill DeWitt: You silly.
Jack Butala: And Jill’s information to get just about anything you want.
Jill DeWitt: We use it every day to buy property for half of what it’s worth and sell it immediately.
Jack Butala: Even though that didn’t make any sense.
Jill DeWitt: It didn’t make sense.
Jack Butala: You are not alone in your real estate ambition.
Jill DeWitt: It’s okay.
Jack Butala: Well that was a fun show for me to do. I’m sure that nobody was listening to it.
Jill DeWitt: No. I think that’s good … See this is … Everyone, everyone, everyone … This is such good advice. You need to think big picture. Sometimes more than details. Because if you can’t wrap your head around the big picture and see the end goal who cares what all the little details are.
Jack Butala: Right.
Jill DeWitt: So you got … This is a good show and I’m glad that we did it.
Jack Butala: Me too.
Jill DeWitt: Thank you Jack.
Jack Butala: Information and inspiration to buy undervalued property.
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