Jill’s Advice Corner (JJ 613)
Jill’s Advice Corner
Transcript:
Jack: Jack and Jill here.
Jill: Hi.
Jack: Welcome to the Jack Jill show. It’s here that we provide entertaining real estate investment advice. I’m Jack Butala.
Jill: And I’m Jill DeWit, broadcasting from sunny southern California.
Jack: Today, Jill and I talk about what’s in Jill’s advice corner this week?
Jill: You know what’s funny? Every time it’s sunny, it really is sunny. Someday I’m going to actually say it’s overcast or rainy, but I don’t have one. That’s one of the beauties about being here. Yes, it’s December and it’s still sunny southern California. We’re still recovering from some fires.
Jack: Yeah. Personally looking forward to this show because I can’t wait to hear what advice you have for us this week on staying motivated and whatever else it is that goes on in your office and your zip code. It’s very different from my work.
Jill: My zip code in a different office. Different office, different zip code. That’s how you get it together.
Jack: Before we get into Jill’s advice, let’s take a question posted by one of our members on the JackJill.com online community. It’s free.
Jill: Okay, cool. Now, this question I noticed is our producers added this in and it’s someone who is not a member in our community. I mean, you don’t have to be a member to post in our online community. That’s the whole point. I know there’s a lot of people in our online community that come to us from all different places and stuff, but we’re all still doing kind of the same thing, obviously.
Jack: The whole point is for new people to ask questions and for seasoned people to respond and that’s what’s going to happen here.
Jill: Exactly. It’s so good, too. It’s so nice. I’ve had people say, “Everyone helped me out, so now I’m paying it forward and helping that person out, somebody else out.” It’s so nice. Adam O. asks, “Hi all, I have sent out three mailers so far, about a hundred each mailing. The first two that I sent out, I followed the program to the letter.” It’s all free. It’s not our program, obviously, because we don’t send out that few.
Jack: It’s someone else’s program. This guy’s not a member.
Jill: Exactly.
Jack: We’d never, ever advocate, sorry to interrupt, sending out a hundred leads.
Jill: Sending out that few. You’re not going to get a good response with that many.
Jack: Yeah.
Jill: Okay, anyway. I followed their program to the letter, offering $500 in my first mailer.
Jack: We don’t advocate that.
Jill: Right, exactly. Yielded five total responses, but all five were insulted by my offer and would not even consider talking to me further. That’s what can happen.
Jack: This is how not to do this.
Jill: All right. Sounds like something might’ve worked out, so we’ll see. You said no problem. Today I just received my first phone call from my second mailer and it got the same result, another mad person on the line. The second mailer, I offered a thousand dollars, not $500, so I anticipated the same general responses from my second mailer.
Okay, here we go. Now we have two fails, okay. My third mailer that went out this week, it’s only 300 units. This is not a lot of units.
Jack: There’s just no way.
Jill: You’re just not getting the traction you need. That’s a big thing. My third mailer that went out this week, I tweaked the offer letter to an open, oh gosh, an open offer format. Okay, Adam, we can so help you. It sounds like our people are trying to help you. My third mailer, I tweaked it open offer format, so I did not input an offer price, oh gosh, but essentially left the field open to try to solicit an offer from them. Just thought I would throw this out to the group to see what you all think.
Jack: I’m going to tell you what I think.
Jill: Or if any of you have any advice or experience on doing something different. Oh boy, do we. We can help you. I will post about the response I get from the open offer letter format when I get them. Any feedback is appreciated, thanks.
Jack: Luke Smith responds, “So you are offering to buy at their number? Sounds like a colossal waste of time.” Well said, Luke. Luke is a member of ours. “I think you need to send out more offers at the lower numbers, maybe target the lower appraised value of properties.” Well said, Luke. “I’m just a beginner, but can’t imagine opening up negotiations,” which is funny because Luke’s not a beginner at all. He’s just being humble. He bought thousands and thousands of properties. “I’m just a beginner, but I can’t imagine opening up negotiations with a hundred people when I’m looking to buy way below market.”
What he means is that a hundred people, this is what you don’t want to do, you do not want to send a mailer out that says I’m interested in buying your property. Every single person’s going to call you back and they’re going to try to negotiate a price with you. You don’t want that. Let the mail do the work for you. Luke goes on to say, “I would want to be weeding through them as fast as possible to get the one who just signs the low ball offer and sends it back. If some others call, that’s great, but it’s just an ancillary benefit.” What Luke’s looking for is a signed agreement back in the mail, and that’s what we look for too.
Jill: Bingo.
Jack: Jason P., who’s a member of ours, responds to both of these comments, “I did something similar on some mailings before I got into Land Academy.” That’s what’s really going on here. Adam is part of another group who’s teaching it incorrectly. Jason says he did something like that before he joined Land Academy. “I bought some land and the response rate is much, much higher. The higher response rate isn’t necessarily a good thing. I was more of a land appraiser than a land buyer. I wasted a lot of time interacting with people who probably had no intention of selling.” Ding, ding, Jason. “I would recommend that you follow the program. It’s a proven formula.” Thank you, Jason. “And make solid offers and you can make good money on, but that are also appealing and fair to the sellers you target. Let your mailer weed out the tire kickers and save yourself a ton of time.”
Jill: Thank you, Jason.
Jack: Isn’t it beautiful, Jill, when they all can just answer the questions themselves?
Jill: I know.
Jack: Well said, Jason and Luke. Thank you.
Jill: This is what you have to look for, too.
Jack: Adam, we’re not busting on you. I was right where you’re sitting, exactly where you’re sitting, with no help like Land Academy or anywhere else. You never want to send out postcards that say, “Hey, I’d like to buy your property.”
Jill: You know what, though? In Adam’s defense, though, he’s trying to learn and he followed somebody else’s advice. I give you a lot of credit. You tried it and that way, like our other guys say, it’s really not the best way. I hate to… I don’t like to talk negative about people, but I’m just going to say our way really works and it’ll save you a lot of time and a lot of money and a lot of aggravation. You can find some really good deals.
Jack: We’re here to make money, not talk to people on the phone.
Jill: Right. Do you want to sell? How much?
Jack: Yeah, I would love to sell you my- I can hear it now.
Jill: Exactly.
Jack: Today’s topic: Jill’s advice corner. This is the meat of the show. I, personally, can’t wait to hear what Jill has to say this week.
Jill: Thank you. This is a new thing that Jack’s bringing up, and I actually like this. Today, I wanted to piggyback on yesterday’s show. If you listened yesterday, it was the 24 Month Millionaire and the book and everything that Jack’s putting together. It’s been a 24 month process.
Jack: Yeah, it really has.
Jill: He’s shared pieces with it, tidbits, and he hadn’t compiled it all into one big thing, which is what he’s going right now. It’s going to be awesome when it comes out. My topic today is where do you want to be in 24 months? It doesn’t have to be a monetary thing. It can be where do you want to live? Where do you want to be in your career?
Jack: Oh geez, well said.
Jill: Thank you. Where do you want to be in your relationships? Where do you want to be- Dream it up. That’s what I want to talk about. Gosh, how do you make something happen in 24 months? This is just crazy talk. Well, here’s what you do. There’s three steps here. The first step is, number one, isolate it. Figure out what it is. No matter what you have going on or how great things are, no matter you think you’re done, come on, let’s face it, Jack and I are perfect- you’re never done.
Jack: Isolate what you want.
Jill: Isolate what you want. Spend some time and think about what’s next for you? Where do you want to be? What’s different? What do you want to happen in the next 24 months? As you do that and I really want you to spend some time, sleep on it a couple days or a week or even spend a month, really spend some time on this and as you’re doing this, it’s easy to share this with people. Hey, what’s going on in your world? I’m thinking about the next two years and I want to do X. That’s going to happen. You want to share this with the people in your world because you want to get them either on board-
Jack: Or out of your life.
Jill: Right, or that one. You know, Jack, it’s funny, you laugh, but it’s true.
Jack: I know.
Jill: My note to myself was here, ignore anyone that does not agree with you. I want you to consider spending less time with them. Only you can decide what that means to you. I’m not saying go get a divorce or cut off that friend, but let’s be honest, there are people in our lives, Jack and I have them too, there’s people that build you up and there’s people that bring you down. You know what, do you really need them? Think about it. Even if they’re related to you, and I hate to say it like that, but if they’re not building you up, you don’t have to cut them off, but let’s consider spending less time with them. This is about you and where you want to be.
Jack: I have a buddy who had a terrible, this is a couple of years ago, terrible tragedy happen in his family, and I helped him, dramatically helped him. I went way above and beyond what a friend should do.
Jill: Did he live in the guesthouse for a while? Was it that guy?
Jack: It doesn’t matter.
Jill: Okay.
Jack: He never recovered. He became, to me, a person that you’re talking about and so I had to cut him off.
Jill: Thank you, Jack.
Jack: Yeah. We were the best of friends, actually. I got him all the help he needed. I’ll still take his calls today and stuff, but he just became what you’re referring to here, just a massive negative presence in my life.
Jill: Isn’t that sad?
Jack: There’s only so much you can do. Stuff happens in life. You’ve got to rebound.
Jill: Right, and you can’t let it bring you down. You can’t let it mess with you.
Jack: Exactly. This guy did not do what you’re talking about here. He didn’t set a goal and recover from it and rectify it. Nine times out of ten, if you try hard enough, whatever you’re getting out of is going to be way better. You sit there and you think, I’ll never get back to this, like the cliché of the football player, high school football player just can’t get out of that phase in his life.
Jill: Right.
Jack: There’s so much more great stuff out there, especially if you’re making a pile of money.
Jill: Exactly. Maybe that’s it. Who knows what it is? Now you’ve figured it out, so what’s step two? Put together a solid plan and schedule it out. Now, here’s my thing. So many people are racing to the finish line and it’s just not realistic. You need to really- that’s why 24 months is a good number, whether it’s building your business or finishing your education or making a big career change, something like that. 24 months is a good timeframe and I want you to not race to the finish line, be realistic, schedule stuff out, and like Jack, put it on the calendar and hold yourself accountable. That’s the final thing.
Jack: Wow. Hey, hey.
Jill: Do it. Don’t give up.
Jack: Do it.
Jill: What?
Jack: It’s good, Jill. I love when you forcefully talk.
Jill: Thank you.
Jack: I love it. I’m going to do this more often. There’s so many things I could say that I’m not going to say right now.
Jill: Wait a few minutes.
Jack: Okay, anyway. You’ve given yourself a realistic timeline. You do have to hold yourself accountable. Don’t give up. Stay motivated. One of my things that I do to motivate myself is I include small rewards along the way. Figure out whatever it is that will keep you on track and include that in there. What if you have 30 days to do X and you bust your whatever to get to that goal, you know what, now give yourself a few days off or whatever it is for a reward that you did it. You know what it’s going to do? It’s going to help you catch your breath and motivate yourself to do it again and just keep going and going and going. Before you know it, you’ve hit that goal.
Let me ask you a couple questions. I’m going to play devil’s advocate here.
Jill: Do it.
Jack: Let’s say you get up, let’s say everything’s going great the first 6 months in this 24 month journey that you have here, and then you just plateau and you get up in the morning and you’re like, “You know what? Everything’s on track. It’s fine.”
Jill: I’m going to coast.
Jack: “I suck. I don’t want to do this anymore.”
Jill: Sorry. You can’t.
Jack: I agree with you. I agree. You stick to it.
Jill: What do you do? Maybe you write a contract with yourself. Maybe you write a contract with yourself and- that’s a good question, Jack.
Jack: Then you must not have wanted it that bad enough.
Jill: I don’t know. You know what? Here’s the thing, I don’t think that’s it, Jack. You’re giving up. You need to have a chat with yourself is what you need to do.
Jack: I agree.
Jill: You spent enough time in the beginning that you isolated, I am going to have- maybe it’s a million dollars in the bank. I will have a million dollars in the bank in 24 months. You know what? If you stop six months in your plan, there’s something else going on with you and you need to figure that out and get back on track.
Jack: Ding ding.
Jill: You can do it. You did that. You spent the time in. You have a schedule. It’s not crazy. You’ll quickly uncover, as you’re going down your path, if it was realistic or not realistic. What’s so interesting to me is once you get the ball rolling, for me it gets more fun. You know what I mean? When I start seeing- maybe it is a monetary goal. I mean, that’s just an easy one to choose, that we can all identify with.
Jack: Or weight loss, too. For guys, body building. There’s a huge upfront period of no reward at all in any of that, and then you start to see some results, start to see some results.
Jill: That’s motivation right there.
Jack: The last third of whatever you’re trying to do is like, man, now I’m bringing it home.
Jill: You know what else? Then you find it doesn’t take long. It’s hard in the beginning. Let’s all be honest. It’s hard to make these changes, but once you’re 30, 60, 90 days into this thing, this is now your new lifestyle and then it’s even easier. This is just how I think. Now I do work out every morning. That’s it. Now I know I don’t splurge on those things anymore. It’s not a big deal. I don’t even care. I don’t even miss it. I don’t even miss it.
Jack: You stop thinking about it. That’s how I personally know, and that’s actually in my book, when you stop thinking about it, that’s how you really know you’re over it or you’re onto the next place that you wanted to be.
Jill: Right.
Jack: It happens with people in addiction and they talk about it all the time. I haven’t thought about having a drink in four years. That’s how you really know you’re over it.
Jill: Exactly. You’re on your way. This is your lifestyle. Here’s what’s so cool about this, like Jack just says, you don’t even think about it. Now this is your new life. By the way, now you’re 24 months, wait until you see what happens in 48 months. Wait until you see what happens in duh, duh, duh. Now you’re like, oh I got this. Game on.
Jack: I’m going to put that in my book, actually.
Jill: Thank you.
Jack: That’s a great- boy, that’s a good point. I was focused on the 24 months and hitting the goal, not after that at all.
Jill: Yeah. Now that you know, that’s the best part of this. You know what, Jack? That’s you and me. Everything that I share and everything that you and I talk about is really us. Not going to cry. Joking.
Jack: You should raise your standards.
Jill: No. It’s so darn true. I mean, look at where we are. Now I don’t even think about- the thought of not having my own company or companies and my lifestyle 20 years ago, I don’t even think about it. It’s not even- now we know what we’re doing and boy, there’s so much more I want to do and bigger and grow and help people and books and all this stuff. It’s not even a big deal.
Jack: Where I am right now with you and I and with these companies and revenue, I now am systematically removing anything and everything that I do not want to do.
Jill: Yes.
Jack: I do this show because I want to.
Jill: Brilliant.
Jack: Jill and I, for the first time, are hiring a personal assistant to run everything in our house. The personal stuff, not the business stuff. We’ve had, all through the years, multiple employees doing things and happily that worked great. I’m personally done with personal stuff. I’m done opening the mail, driving anywhere. I’m done going to stores. I’m done with all of that.
Jill: Yeah, that’s the conversation I do, too, I have with myself. Is this what I should be spending my time on right now? Often it’s no and then you need to make some changes.
Jack: You know what prompted this? What happened?
Jill: What?
Jack: A couple weeks ago I was in a drugstore, a chain drugstore, and got into it with a cashier, a young female cashier, who clearly knew a lot more about life than I did and what I wanted at that moment. It wasn’t that bad and it wasn’t her fault. She was probably just having a bad day. That prompted me to say, you know what? We are financially well off enough where I don’t have to go to this darn drugstore ever again. It’s not going to cost that much for me never to go shopping again. In fact, it’s a drop in the bucket, so why are we doing it?
Jill: I agree.
Jack: Then I started making a list, and I’m like, if I don’t have to go to that CVS, I don’t have to go here.
Jill: I don’t have to do this, I don’t have to do that.
Jack: I don’t have to open the mail.
Jill: Yeah.
Jack: Then you start going, I’m going to make this happen.
Jill: That’s it. That’s 24 months, now you’ve got this. You’re making different decisions. At 48 months, now I’m making different decisions and then so on and so on and so on.
Jack: You also have to keep flexibility. You don’t want to just be militant about this.
Jill: That’s why I say don’t race-
Jack: You want to be borderline militant but you need to be flexible too, especially if there’s other people in your life, specifically children. You need to have some flexibility and give yourself some leeway. If you fall off the wagon, so to speak, or off-
Jill: You can’t just throw in the towel and say, “Well, I guess I start all over.” That’s a good point.
Jack: You have to be flexible.
Jill: On the 24 month thing, if you make one little goof up, it doesn’t mean you start up at month one again. No, you’re in the middle of month five, so recover, make month six count. You got this.
Jack: If it ends up being 26 month millionaire, that’s not the end of the world
Jill: You failed. Could you imagine? That’s really good one. Huge fail. That’s awesome. 26 month millionaire, failure. That’s not a failure
Jack: This is in the book. Every time I start a new company, whether it’s at the request of our members or just some crazy cockamamie scheme I come up with-
Jill: Which is often. That’s more like-
Jack: I put a budget together. I put it all together, I spend a ton of time on it, and we either actually implement it or we laugh about it and then not do it. One way or the other, what ends up happening is revenue is half of what I expected and expenses are twice as much. If you can still survive on that, you’re going to do fine.
Jill: You’ll be fine.
Jack: Just prepare for tragic stuff to happen. That’s what I do. Jill doesn’t do that. Jill just happily goes through life, like Walt Disney.
Jill: Thank you. I appreciate that. Thank you, Jack.
Jack: Join us tomorrow where we discuss how we analyze big city days on market and we run a whole review from Seattle, Los Angeles, Chicago, New York using real time information.
Jill: I’m looking forward to that. That sounds good. We’re going to answer your questions, should you have one, so post it on JackJill.com. Go find our online community. It’s free.
Jack: You are not alone in your real estate ambition.
Jill: That was fun
Jack: It really was. I got a lot out of it.
Jill: Thank you. I appreciate that.
Jack: It was probably a little bit more crying on the part of our listeners than laughing.
Jill: Why?
Jack: I don’t know. It’s hard to learn new things. No, I’m just joking.
Jill: I don’t know. Sometimes, you know what? Look, sometimes stuff like this, you know what you should be doing. Come on. We always have something we should be doing better, more efficient, more changes.
Jack: Always.
Jill: Right? I’m hoping that this is going to sing to those people and say, “All right. Jill, you’re right. I need to do this and I’m going to do this. I’m going to spend some time on it. I’m going to put together a plan. I’m not messing around, and look out.”
Jack: If I can learn stuff from Jill after all these years, you certainly can, listener.
Jill: Thank you very much. I appreciate that. If you appreciate that, please subscribe to us on iTunes or wherever you’re listening. While you’re at it, please rate us there. We are Jack and Jill.
Jack: Information.
Jill: And inspiration.
Jack: To buy undervalued property.
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