Jack or Jill, That is the Question (JJ 611)
Jack or Jill, That is the Question
Transcript:
Jack Butala: Jack and Jill here.
Jill DeWit: Hi.
Jack Butala: Welcome to the Jack Jill Show, it’s here that we provide entertaining real estate investment advice. Sometimes. I’m Jack Butala.
Jill DeWit: And I’m Jill DeWit, broadcasting this week from beautiful sunny Southern California.
Jack Butala: Today Jill and I talk about Jack or Jill, you decide. And you have to make a choice.
Jill DeWit: Oh my gosh.
Jack Butala: By the end of the show, you will decide.
Jill DeWit: Oh, no. Pick me, pick me. No.
Jack Butala: Hey, you know where this came up?
Jill DeWit: Why, yeah.
Jack Butala: I created this show this episode-
Jill DeWit: I’m so curious.
Jack Butala: Because last week we did a show called “Jill’s Personality”. Jill’s compelling personality.
Jill DeWit: Oh, yeah.
Jack Butala: And the numbers came back, by leaps and bounds, it is our most listened to by two times more than any other episode …
Jill DeWit: Will you please send that to my mom?
Jack Butala: … that our guests listen to. So it prompted me to have this thought, what is it about Jill and why is it so important to be entertaining and to give people what they want? Do people want to talk to you on the phone?
Jill DeWit: Hmm.
Jack Butala: I mean, do people that are buying and that are selling their real estate, did they want to talk to Jill or do they want to talk to me? I know who I’d like to talk to and it’s not me.
Jill DeWit: It’s kind of funny, there’s times that we’ve … that you’re right, you’ve walked by my office and you’re like, “Jesus, she’s still on the phone.” I’m like, “I can’t get them off the phone.”
Jack Butala: Hour and a half sometimes.
Jill DeWit: Sometimes, no.
Jack Butala: And is it a cool transaction where we clear 150 grand on some house.
Jill DeWit: That’s funny. And you know what, you know, you bring up a good point, you know, most of these transactions and those times that you get on the phone, you’re not talking about the deal. You’re getting to know the person. You’re building a relationship and whatever it is you’re winning them over and they wanna sell to you. You know, I know I’m kinda jumping ahead and getting into the show a little bit here but I’ll never forget the first time someone told me, “You know what? I got another offer the other day but the reason I’m doing it with you is ’cause I like you.” You know, like “I trust you and I like you” and I’m like, “Really?”. You know, they’re like, “Yeah” and it was like even not … It wasn’t a far off different offer, but their offer frankly was better but they still liked me. I’m like, “I didn’t even know this was a possibility” and I’m like, “Wow, cool. Thanks. All right.”
Jack Butala: Before Jill gets too far into the actual show-
Jill DeWit: Sorry.
Jack Butala: Let’s take a question posted by one of our members on the JackJill.com online community. It’s free.
Jill DeWit: Okay.
Jack Butala: This is exactly my point by the way.
Jill DeWit: Oh, thank you.
Jack Butala: ‘Cause you’re just, it’s happy and compelling.
Jill DeWit: Thank you.
Jack Butala: It’s Jill’s compelling personality.
Jill DeWit: Thank you. All right, Rick-
Jack Butala: Who wants to talk about boring real estate?
Jill DeWit: That’s right. Rick G writes, “Hi everyone. I’ve been using Jack and Jill’s methods and found among other things a land seller in Arizona with five acres prices for $2300.” Is that a piece? Five acres each, is that what he’s asking?
Jack Butala: Yes, he’s not a member by the way.
Jill DeWit: Oh.
Jack Butala: And that’s kinda my … I asked the producer to put this in for a reason.
Jill DeWit: Oh.
Jack Butala: This is not a member, he’s been using our-
Jill DeWit: Using our computer in-
Jack Butala: … concept or our programs or our concepts for quite some time.
Jill DeWit: And using and reaching and communicating with our other members, I love it.
Jack Butala: Yeah, me too.
Jill DeWit: Okay. So this seller says he has hundreds of them so the investment would be significant, to me anyway. These are not just barren desert, looks like roads are in places and people were cutting them up to be lived on based on the satellite images. I don’t have enough cash to pull this off, are there any investors … Oh, this is why he’s on our community and writing this. Are there any investors out there that would be interested. If anyone’s interested I can get you much more detailed information of course. One way to do this Jack has mentioned is create an LLC for the deal which I could do if an investor’s interested. I would take care of all the work in getting the investor the majority of the profit, say 60%. Split and method is negotiable, just looking for a way to do this deal.
Something about me, I’m a computer scientist turned entrepreneur, I’ve been studying Jack and Jill’s method for about seven months. I’ve done one deal with it which was successful and more than doubled my money. I’m buying as much as I can afford with my own money now, however, I blasted out so many offers a few weeks ago that I can’t fund all the stuff that’s coming back.
Jack Butala: Okay.
Jill DeWit: That’s so normal.
Jack Butala: Congratulations by the way.
Jill DeWit: That’s awesome.
Jack Butala: Rick, congratulations. You did everything right.
Jill DeWit: That’s perfect.
Jack Butala: We do not want you to sign up for stuff unless you test it and believe in it and know it works for yourself first. But I have to say it-
Jill DeWit: Now you’re ready.
Jack Butala: … you’re ready and I’ll tell you what you’re gonna get is you’re gonna get the money that you need and the contacts that you need and all of that once you-
Jill DeWit: And support that you need.
Jack Butala: … once you pull the trigger on this. In fact, by now he might even be a member.
Jill DeWit: He might even be.
Jack Butala: He probably is.
Jill DeWit: Or at least he’s found somebody to help him fund these deals.
Jack Butala: Right. So you did everything perfectly and it’s clear that you want to take this thing to the next level, and that’s what we’re for.
Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jack Butala: You know, we are not here to sign people up for some silly education course-
Jill DeWit: And that’s it.
Jack Butala: … and live off of that money.
Jill DeWit: Right.
Jack Butala: That’s not what Jill and I do. You know, we create partnerships and stuff.
Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jack Butala: That’s why we do this show, that’s why we have this whole Jack and Jill concept.
Jill DeWit: Well, and the support.
Jack Butala: Our real job is to buy and sell real estate which we do.
Jill DeWit: Well, I mean, let’s look at it too, all these other companies that we’ve created like TitleMind, what’s that for? It helps you close your deals. You know, that’s one. You know, ParcelFact, help you find these properties, there’s another one.
Jack Butala: Exactly.
Jill DeWit: You know, Offers 2 Owners, take the mystery out of getting this data, you know, into a mailer, we’ll do it for you, don’t even worry about it. And if you don’t even have the data, call Offers 2 Owners, we’ll do that for you too. So, you know, this is it, we’re here spreading the word that whatever property you’re looking for, you know, it’s true when Jack says it’s on the top of our JackJill.com community, it says changing the way, you know, that we buy and sell real estate.
Jack Butala: Changing real estate, mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jill DeWit: I mean, that’s it, there’s great … And this is awesome, so.
Jack Butala: Congratulations, perfect.
Jill DeWit: Yeah.
Jack Butala: Today’s topic, let’s let Jill get back to it.
Jill DeWit: Oh, sorry.
Jack Butala: Jack or Jill.
Jill DeWit: Sorry, I got tied up with work related stuff, nevermind.
Jack Butala: Today’s topic, Jack or Jill, that’s the question. This is the meaning of the show.
Jill DeWit: You know, normally you don’t wanna take me off [inaudible 00:06:31]. “Oh, she’s working now, let her go, let her go.” I swear, Jack, you know, this was so funny, I walk into our office and it’s funny because I can kinda tell there’s times that they’re happy to see me but then it’s like … ‘Cause we do have a good time when I walk in the office, I can tell, everybody says hello and we like … But I can just see them go, “Well, we’re gonna waste an hour now, here it comes.”
Jack Butala: Oh my gosh. That’s exactly what I don’t need to hear.
Jill DeWit: Stop. It’s my office and we do just fine.
Jack Butala: ‘Cause it’s Jill’s compelling personality.
Jill DeWit: We do great.
Jack Butala: You know what, that’s exactly my point.
Jill DeWit: You know what-
Jack Butala: If you just sit around and work all the time and you analyze data in a dark room somewhere and you don’t do the stuff that Jill does, let me tell you that, this is what happened. For a decade, almost 12 years, I ran the company by myself and then Jill got involved and it was an accident. Jill got involved because-
Jill DeWit: By accident.
Jack Butala: It was truly an accident. She just inadvertently kinda got … Jill and I knew each other socially before we were business partners and so she was just kinda lurking, you know? And so finally I said, “You know what? Let’s give her a bunch of property and see what happens.” Well, you can tell the rest of the story yourself. Her sales tripled so my point is-
Jill DeWit: That’s kinda funny. I was off to the side over here and he’s like, “Well, how much money you got going on over there?” And I kinda showed him and he’s like, “What the heck are you doing?”
Jack Butala: She took a group of assets that I thought we were just gonna write off. Not write off but probably break even on and she tripled or quadrupled the whole scenario so my point is that, you know, your chances are … Listen, or you’re one or the other. You know, you’re like me where it’s all data driven, you’re the brains behind the things and you’re engineering your way through everything. Then you kinda let price do the work for you, or you’re like Jill. Either way, you can make it work.
Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jack Butala: And if you’ve got someone in your life who’s opposite-
Jill DeWit: I think both is best.
Jack Butala: Yeah, that’s perfect then.
Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative). It’s good.
Jack Butala: I joke about the, you know, the title is a joke.
Jill DeWit: I love it.
Jack Butala: Choose between one of us.
Jill DeWit: Well, here’s my point back to the office thing. So I walk in the office and yeah, so we laugh and have a good time and everything but you know what, it picks everybody up and now they’re like … Next thing you know, they’re inspired again and they’re working harder and they’re working faster and it really does make a difference. So tell me what goes on in your office, Jack?
Jack Butala: Oh, man. What goes on in my office? Nothing like that. I’m not joking. Because the people that work with me that I’ve chosen to work with, are smarter than me at what they do.
Jill DeWit: Oh.
Jack Butala: So they don’t need motivation like that. They need projects that inspire them. They’re inspired by the projects that I ask them to do and the creative work that they’re doing. I had one person that works for me recently say, “This is my creative outlet.”
Jill DeWit: Really?
Jack Butala: Yeah, like and he was talking about it like he’s Vincent Van Gogh, you know? And so he’s … this one person specifically is very self rewarded by creative projects. Website stuff and things like that. I guess that’s a great question, Jill. Everybody’s got their thing. You know what really jacks me up? Buying cheap property and running through data, spending a week on doing a perfect mailer or as perfect as I can get it, sending offers out, and buying a bunch of real estate. That is what motivates me and doing it efficiently and effectively where everybody wins. Where the seller’s happy, the buyer’s really … the buyers are always happy, and where I’m happy and it happens in that order. The seller has to be happy, the buyer has to be pretty happy, and I have to be happy.
Jill DeWit: I love it.
Jack Butala: And I will do a deal where I’m not happy just to get it done sometimes.
Jill DeWit: Yeah, I don’t like those deals.
Jack Butala: I know.
Jill DeWit: I have a hard time with that. I want everybody to be happy too. I’m gonna be happy, I want the seller happy, I don’t really pull the trigger if I’m not really happy about it and I have no problem saying that. Now is that … I don’t know if that’s me or life experience or-
Jack Butala: Well, I’ll tell you what.
Jill DeWit: … where I am in my career right now.
Jack Butala: It’s where we are. We don’t need to do next week’s deals but we do them anyway. And so that really changes your attitude for the better I think.
Jill DeWit: That’s true. You know what’s funny? I was just thinking, okay, I’m back to you and me and, you know, how we run things, how different it is, I think that says a lot about us. So your office looks different, sounds different, the people are different, the setup is different, the fact that you guys don’t really have real phones is different.
Jack Butala: We don’t talk to each other.
Jill DeWit: I know. There’s no … I’ll never forget, this is a good story.
Jack Butala: We just stare at each other all day. We do not verbally talk to each other.
Jill DeWit: That’s what I have to share. There was a time back in Scotts, I remember the offices on the lake. When we were newly starting and we had several rooms but we could see each other through the rooms, we would often have the doors open and we could see through … I could see Jack and like he’s not that far, I could talk, but heaven forbid you actually talk. This is when I first brought me in and I went, “What is with this guy and the way he runs things?” It was so darn funny. I have two funny things to [inaudible 00:11:50]. So one is I learned it was do not dare utter a word, you Skype him. I don’t care if it’s, “Are you ready for lunch now?”, you Skype that.
And then the other funny thing was, this is good, I don’t mean to throw you under the bus-
Jack Butala: No, it doesn’t.
Jill DeWit: … but I think this is-
Jack Butala: All of this is true.
Jill DeWit: This is so funny.
Jack Butala: If I wasn’t proud of it I would change it.
Jill DeWit: Okay, oh, but this is true. I’ll share something else good though. Okay, so then I learned don’t talk, okay, got that one, check. Then I think all along I was plotting, I’m like, “Some day when it’s my show I’m gonna be doing this over here. This is how I’m gonna run my team.” And that’s exactly what has happened.
Jack Butala: That’s what happened.
Jill DeWit: That’s why we’re on two separate ZIP codes even. So then-
Jack Butala: Plotting.
Jill DeWit: Our offices. So then Jack has this no paper rule and I’m like, “What is this no paper?” He would come along-
Jack Butala: And we still have that in my office. Do you guys have that?
Jill DeWit: We have a pretty strict no paper rule but I’ll tell you, there’s a few caveats.
Jack Butala: She means paperless.
Jill DeWit: No, but Jack would come along … If I wrote down even how much money I was spent on the lunch order on a sticky note-
Jack Butala: No, no, no.
Jill DeWit: … and I throw it in the trash-
Jack Butala: There’s no sticky notes.
Jill DeWit: Well, that’s what I’m saying, let me finish my story. You wouldn’t even allow that. Jack would come along and take everything that was paper related out of the trash and put it in the shredder one by one and I’m like, “What is this guy doing?” I understand, that’s a pet peeve of yours, the paper and the paperless, and I was still learning but what was so funny I was so mad at him for like … I’m like, “I really have to put this in the stupid shredder?”
Jack Butala: You were mad?
Jill DeWit: I was mad at you.
Jack Butala: Like mad mad?
Jill DeWit: So I was like … So I ate a banana and at my desk I was eating a banana and I look to the guy across the room at the time, you know who I’m talking about, and I said, “I’m about to shove this banana peel in the shredder.” I wanted to jam up the shredder with a banana peel just to show you how much this is driving me crazy ’cause I didn’t really understand too. I’m like, “All right, so I get it, it’s okay.” No, and now I have adopted that so in our office, I mean, we have a file cabinet and it’s full of supplies. You know, like cups and stuff like that, little things.
Jack Butala: We don’t.
Jill DeWit: I know you don’t. But we also have TitleMind so we do have paper and paper clips-
Jack Butala: That’s why we can’t … I was just gonna say that.
Jill DeWit: … and mail supplies so I do have to print out a deed.
Jack Butala: The reason I can get away with this is because I just call TitleMind to close all the deals.
Jill DeWit: Right. Yeah, we do it for you.
Jack Butala: Here’s the thing with sticky notes and all that, here’s the root of it.
Jill DeWit: Where does this come from?
Jack Butala: If I have something to do where I need to remind myself to do something I have a whole system set up for that. I have a calendar CRM scenario where I don’t put a sticky note on my monitor. I think it’s a bad habit.
Jill DeWit: Really?
Jack Butala: Yeah, it’s a bad habit is what is it.
Jill DeWit: Okay.
Jack Butala: If I need to remind myself to do something it’s usually gonna happen, I don’t know, later today or tomorrow or next week. I have a schedule and a calendar and it gets done.
Jill DeWit: You know, I do understand that and I have embraced that and adopted that Jack and it’s one of the things I love about you. Sometimes you just need to write something down right now. Like, okay, you know what, let’s be honest with you, okay, listener, Jack’s computer like now at his desk, no paper. Me, I have a notepad right here.
Jack Butala: I know.
Jill DeWit: ‘Cause I’m writing little notes about the show and when I’m done I’m gonna take it and I’m going to shred it.
Jack Butala: Okay. You know, whatever works. It sounds like I’m an ogre and I walk around and hover over people’s desks and I don’t do that at all.
Jill DeWit: No.
Jack Butala: I don’t.
Jill DeWit: No, you are-
Jack Butala: I had my way and that’s it and there’s a reason that I have an office with a door in it.
Jill DeWit: No. But you know what I was gonna say though, it’s funny, it’s interesting about our personalities, okay, that’s how you run your office and everything and no, and I get it, it’s very efficient and streamlined and no, it’s good. My office is different and it works for us. Then what’s so neat is outside of … What’s funny is I was thinking outside of work our friends are so alike, isn’t that funny?
Jack Butala: Yeah. Yeah, they are.
Jill DeWit: That-
Jack Butala: I wonder why that is.
Jill DeWit: Isn’t that interesting? We have different work environments but socially when you get us away from work and in our home and everything, very similar.
Jack Butala: Yeah, I mean, I’m a completely different person at work than I am socially or even on the show. You know, and that’s where Jill comes in ’cause she deals with people at work both on the employee side and customers and buyers and sellers and all of that. And trains people and hires people and … I mean, I hire my people. My people and I, I mean we finish each other’s sentences. We just think that way.
Jill DeWit: Exactly.
Jack Butala: And I don’t hover over their desks at all, I just expect them to get stuff done and they do. We don’t even really have business hours in my end of things, they just know what they’re supposed to do and that’s it.
Jill DeWit: Got it.
Jack Butala: I don’t care where they do it or what they do. We all have notebook computers for example, your team all has desktop computers ’cause they need to be there answering phones and processing stuff.
Jill DeWit: It’s a whole different environment-
Jack Butala: Yeah.
Jill DeWit: … with mine.
Jack Butala: Ours is really kind of an IT. It’s more of an engineering IT what motivates you to be creative. There’s a lot more creativity that goes on in my world, on my end of what we do than I think you people realize.
Jill DeWit: That’s very interesting too.
Jack Butala: I don’t think your people are being creative.
Jill DeWit: No.
Jack Butala: I think they’re processing and talking to people.
Jill DeWit: And it’s not that they can’t or not, that’s just not what we fill in the company.
Jack Butala: Yeah.
Jill DeWit: And we are getting the stuff done, that’s it. I mean, it’s true, you’re the CEO I’m the COO. You’re out there dreaming up the stuff, you’re really good at that and really the lead content and all that, and then I’m here, you know, and I like to do that stuff but I’m really good at … You come up with it, I think I put it into place a little bit, we both put it into place and then my team carries it out. It’s very interesting.
Jack Butala: More than anything right now what I work on is finding new markets to send offers.
Jill DeWit: Yeah.
Jack Butala: And that’s very creative.
Jill DeWit: It is, and it’s something that, I mean, you’re so good at it.
Jack Butala: I am constantly testing new methodology for mailing and pricing.
Jill DeWit: Nobody can do it better than you Jack.
Jack Butala: There’s probably somebody. I mean, there are people I know for a fact, there’s a handful of people in our group that literally make more money flipping real estate than we do probably ’cause they don’t have to spend time on the show.
Jill DeWit: That could be. That could be.
Jack Butala: And they’re just sitting there doing that stuff but I don’t know who’s answering their phone. Well, actually I do.
Jill DeWit: I don’t think anybody does it better than you.
Jack Butala: That’s really nice of you to say.
Jill DeWit: You’re welcome.
Jack Butala: And you know what you can do with that banana?
Jill DeWit: Oh.
Jack Butala: I’m just joking.
Jill DeWit: Woo. Well, you’ve done it again.
Jack Butala: Well, you’ve done it again, wasted another 20 minutes or so listening to our silliness.
Jill DeWit: That you can never get back.
Jack Butala: Join us tomorrow where we discuss how we accomplish the 24 month millionaire. That’s our number one question right now.
Jill DeWit: Oh, I love it.
Jack Butala: “Jack, you mentioned 24 month millionaire on the show.”
Jill DeWit: “When am I gonna see that?”
Jack Butala: “Where is that? Where can I find it?”
Jill DeWit: Oh, cool. And we answer your question, should you have one other than that, post it on the JackJill.com, our online community. Go to our website and you will find it.
Jack Butala: You are not alone in your real estate ambition.
Jill DeWit: That was fun.
Jack Butala: That’s some classic stuff though, those are good stories. I remember that, some of that stuff.
Jill DeWit: Yeah, that is really good. I’ll never forget how the banana peel … God, that was so funny. I was so tempted to shove it in there, oh, I would have [inaudible 00:19:31].
Jack Butala: Jill and I … So Jill had a regular job and I was obviously doing this stuff full time and we nailed a deal where we managed a ton of money. And so she quit her job and I love it by the way when we get reports from our members on this.
Jill DeWit: Yeah, when that happens.
Jack Butala: The happiest time where you make enough money where you’re really like, “You know what? It’s just time. We’ve been doing it for a year, two years, whatever, I know we can easily live off this now. I believe in it.” Anyway, Jill and I had that almost 10 years ago now that that happened and so we made the mistake of working in the same office for eight to ten hours a day and that’s when I learned a lot about how she works, she learned a lot about me and we decided to work in separate ZIP codes.
Jill DeWit: Yes.
Jack Butala: And that’s totally normal and natural I think.
Jill DeWit: Exactly.
Jack Butala: Don’t you?
Jill DeWit: It’s true. I’m sure people wonder how the heck do we do this without killing each other.
Jack Butala: I mean, we should do a show on that.
Jill DeWit: Oh, how do we do this without killing each other?
Jack Butala: Yeah, because you know what, I feel qualified after this amount of time-
Jill DeWit: I do too.
Jack Butala: … to actually provide some pretty credible advice.
Jill DeWit: We could share some of our counseling sessions.
Jack Butala: You know, we could just have a whole show that’s called group counseling.
Jill DeWit: That’s it.
Jack Butala: Group counseling for couples who work with each other.
Jill DeWit: Oh, there we go.
Jack Butala: That’s the name of the show.
Jill DeWit: I love it, that’s awesome. Hey, share the fun and listen to that show coming up by subscribing on iTunes or wherever you are listening. Hey, while you’re at it, please rate us there. We are Jack and Jill.
Jack Butala: We are Jack and Jill. Information.
Jill DeWit: And inspiration.
Jack Butala: To buy undervalued property.
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