Would you Want to Buy it? (JJ 674)
Would you Want to Buy it? (JJ 674)
Transcript:
Jack Butala: Jack and Jill here.
Jill DeWit: Hi.
Jack Butala: Welcome to the Jack Jill Show, entertaining real estate investment talk. I’m Jack Butala.
Jill DeWit: And I am Jill DeWit. Broadcasting from sunny southern California.
Jack Butala: Today, Jill and I talk about, “Would you want to buy it?”
Jill DeWit: (laughs)
Jack Butala: (laughs) ‘Cause if you- (laughs)
Jill DeWit: (laughs) Sounds like, “Are you my mother?” (laughs)
Jack Butala: (laughs) Would you kiss that girl?
Jill DeWit: Oh. Right.
Jack Butala: Would you drive that car?
Jill DeWit: Right.
Jack Butala: I’m telling you, if you buy a piece of real estate, and you’re like, “I’m just buying it to resell at the end.” I wouldn’t buy that.
Jill DeWit: This is fun. We can talk about every single property type-
Jack Butala: Furniture, everything.
Jill DeWit: And give a good example and a bad example, and everybody’s going to go, “Duh.” And you know what the reality is? People don’t get it.
Jack Butala: It sounds like a lot of fun, actually.
Jill DeWit: It sounds so [inaudible 00:00:44]
Jack Butala: Before we listen to Jill rant, let’s take a question posted by one of the members on the JackJill.com online community, it’s free.
Jill DeWit: Okay. Joshua-
Jack Butala: I know, I have some rant in me.
Jill DeWit: Oh, I got some stuff. Joshua asked, “Hey guys, so I was getting ready to send out an option agreement to my seller, but I went ahead and started marketing it already on Craigslist. I have a buyer who would like to buy on terms, so I call my seller and offered the same option we discussed, or I went ahead and offered a discounted cash offer. She’s talking to her two children because they are the ones who will be receiving the money. I haven’t done the deal yet, but I learned about options and terms with mobile homes in the past. Any tips on how to go about handling a deal this way? Also, I just sent out two payments to buy two and a half acres for $500 in California.”
Jack Butala: Outstanding.
Jill DeWit: “This one seems to be a home run deal for my first one, too. I believe one of our group members has sold land here in the same size in the same subdivision for $4,000. So, I’m going to follow in their footsteps with the price point. Thanks again, everyone for the help. Much love.”
Jack Butala: Outstanding. Good stories.
Jill DeWit: Really cool.
Jack Butala: On this mobile home thing, what would you do, Jill?
Jill DeWit: I’d buy it.
Jack Butala: So would I.
Jill DeWit: I mean, here’s my thing. There’s no way I would ever be in the situation where I’m making payments and the people are making payments to me.
Jack Butala: Right.
Jill DeWit: I just won’t do that.
Jack Butala: That’s called a wrap.
Jill DeWit: One, it’s just like, it’s called a headache. (laughs)
Jack Butala: (laughs)
Jill DeWit: I don’t want to do that much monitoring and managing this stuff, if they’re on auto-pay to me and I’m on auto-pay to that guy, I’m just not going to do it.
Jack Butala: Nope.
Jill DeWit: One, it’s too easy for one of them to get messed up and it’s usually the guy paying me and I’m still making the auto-pay, and I don’t realize it until much later. Like, shoot, I owned a campaign for a property I don’t own. It’s just a disaster.
Jack Butala: We’re all fortunate enough to be a part of this group, and there’s lot of people in the group who have lots of money.
Jill DeWit: Yup.
Jack Butala: So, if you, for whatever reason, found what you think is a great real estate deal, reach out on Deal Board or on Land Investors. It’s mostly Deal Board, is where you’re going to get the best response, because you will find a partner.
Jill DeWit: Right.
Jack Butala: That’s one of the big benefits. You know, we probably don’t talk about it enough.
Jill DeWit: It’s true.
Jack Butala: It’s being a land academy member, where you don’t have to do these option deals.
Jill DeWit: It’s true. It’s too easy to say, “Hey, I need $2,000 on somebody and we’re going to each get, you know, $200 a month for the next three years.”
Jack Butala: Or, I need 2,000 bucks to buy this piece of property because I know it’s worth ten and you sell it and split it.
Jill DeWit: Right. That, too.
Jack Butala: So a person purchases it with you. We do this all the time. Joe and I do it with houses all the time. You put up the money, we found the house, we’ll sell the house, we’ll do all the work.
Jill DeWit: Right.
Jack Butala: And we’ll throw you an offer-
Jill DeWit: Split the money-
Jack Butala: Smoking return.
Jill DeWit: Exactly.
Jack Butala: We’re in the business here, and the good news is, we’re in this business to locate awesome deals. We don’t have to have a ton of money to get them done.
Jill DeWit: Exactly. I wonder how much this is, too, because he’s obviously sending out offers and a $500 mark there, so. Good stuff.
Jack Butala: Money people love people like us. Listeners, and us, Jill and I, specifically, they love it.
Jill DeWit: Oh, because we have all the deals.
Jack Butala: We have all the deals.
Jill DeWit: Right.
Jack Butala: We have a network of people setup. We have an office full of people working hard to get deals done. We have all the tools. They love it. They don’t have to do anything. They can get a good return on their money.
Jill DeWit: Exactly. Yup.
Jack Butala: It’s all good.
Jill DeWit: Love it.
Jack Butala: Today’s topic, “Would you want to buy it?” This is the meat of the show. If you had an asset, any type of asset, but let’s talk about real estate specifically today, that you wouldn’t want to buy, you wouldn’t touch that thing. So, I think the question is, if you wouldn’t want to buy it, I’m not sure your customer would want to buy it. What do you think, Jill?
Jill DeWit: You know, I was thinking of a story of one of the things that we did for one of our properties, which was awesome. We were getting into flipping properties, and I didn’t know a photographer. And we had it staged, ready to go, and I reached out to a photographer, and I had no idea that I really picked the right guy. It just happened to be a person that we knew personally. What’s interesting is, he was from New York, moved down to Arizona, and he had done everybody from Catherine Zeta-Jones to food, to like Campbell’s Soup in his line of work, and he was pretty much retired. He was only doing little one-off things kind of for fun, you know, just when he wanted to, to say yes to some projects. So, I reached to him, Al. I said, “Hey, Al, would you come photograph this house for us?” And he said, “Yeah, this sounds fun.” So, he came out and we setup, remember this?
Jack Butala: I do.
Jill DeWit: It was an all day shoot. It was like-
Jack Butala: We waited for the light to change.
Jill DeWit: Totally, and I realized later, “Boy, that was smart.” I mean, that’s what you want to do. It’s like this, talk about telling a picture, and this guy was amazing, by the way. How many pictures do we see of properties that look horrible. There’s like trash in the corner, beds aren’t made, you know my stupid pet peeve, the toilet seat is up, towels are thrown on the floor. I’m like, “What the heck?” When he came in, he was not only setting up the cameras in the right areas, but he actually had clips, we clipped the towels on the towel racks so they were just angled perfectly in the shot.
I mean, so that’s what I think of when you’re selling your property. You really want to set it up like that. You want to make it look as beautiful as possible. Not only your descriptions, but your photographs, and all of the details. But that little extra fresh flowers on the counter really will go a long way. It will not only make it sell faster, but you’ll get more money for it, too, by the way.
Jack Butala: I agree with you completely, and what I remember specifically, I was just thinking we’ve had, how many photographers have we had since then? And I was just thinking he did a great job.
Jill DeWit: He was amazing.
Jack Butala: What I remember about that is he shot 15 pictures and we used 15. A lot of times people come in and they shoot 300 pictures and then you have to spend a lot of time going through the ones that you like. I loved his approach.
Jill DeWit: Yeah, he really did get all the details.
Jack Butala: The time was in the staging, and then, staging the picture and waiting for the light to be right. And then as he clicked that 15 times and sent us the pictures.
Jill DeWit: Yeah.
Jack Butala: When that was the result of that whole thing I was like, “I want to move into this house.”
Jill DeWit: Right.
Jack Butala: You guys did a great job, Joe.
Jill DeWit: It really was awesome.
Jack Butala: You truly did a great job with a foreclosed on, falling off the lot, house.
Jill DeWit: Right, but that story with him made me think about this. Would you want to buy it? That’s it. You want to paint that picture that, you know, like Jack’s, you said earlier in another show like, if when you’re done with your property, you’re actually sitting there with your head in your hands going, “Do I want to sell this?” Then you know you did it right.
Jack Butala: We’re all in the marketing business and presentation really, really counts on the internet. That’s kind of been this week’s theme, I guess, inadvertently. This week’s theme about how to present the property, and so the end-all question is, “Would you want to buy this asset that you’re presenting on the real estate?” Or is it an afterthought? If you go on Land Watch right now or Land and Farm, not so much Land and Farm, but really in Land Watch has a presentation problem. A lot of properties that they have in there are just, there’s no pictures or one picture. Pictures like two counties away, like you were saying before the show. (laughs)
Jill DeWit: (laughs)
Jack Butala: Or in some cases, it’s the guy’s backyard.
Jill DeWit: Right.
Jack Butala: It’s just really like an afterthought posting.
Jill DeWit: It’s like a plat map. Nowadays we don’t even need that anymore and they put a plat map up all the time. I’m like, “Really?”
Jack Butala: If you’re going to sell a car, wash it first.”
Jill DeWit: Right.
Jack Butala: Have it washed.
Jill DeWit: Exactly.
Jack Butala: And hold the phone horizontally not vertically. It’s just tiny little things that really, really matter.
Jill DeWit: It’s really true. I’m trying to think of what else would make you want to buy it. You want to make it look gorgeous, you know, here’s a funny one. Remember the first time I did this? Because where we live, and you know, I was born and raised in California and then I spent some time in Arizona, and back in California now. So, for me, snow is awesome. So, Jack gave me some properties a long time ago and I was doing some postings, and I found these photos that we had in our inventory that had snow, and I’m like, “This is gorgeous. Look here’s the fence going into the property and it’s got snow on it. It’s just so dreamy and beautiful.” I did at least have the blue sky, but there was snow on the ground, and I thought these were great. And I showed them to Jack and he’s like, “Get those off there!” Do you remember that?
Jack Butala: Yeah.
Jill DeWit: You’re like, “Snow?” And I’m like, “But it’s so dreamy.” He’s like, “Okay, you’re the only one that thinks that’s great. Trust me.” You know, you had 15 plus years on me.
Jack Butala: Snow gets dirty so fast. It’s so hard to get a good snowy shot. I think maybe if you’re, it’s just fresh snow, and all the clouds cleared, it’s sunny, and the snow is not on the road so it’s not all gray. I just think snow is tough.
Jill DeWit: Got it.
Jack Butala: You know what it is? Would I want to buy a piece of property that is covered in snow, probably not.
Jill DeWit: Right.
Jack Butala: I think I’d love to ski there for a weekend.
Jill DeWit: Right, exactly.
Jack Butala: But would I want to buy it? That’s a [inaudible 00:10:32] thing now. I don’t think so. But maybe, I mean, would you want to buy snowy property?
Jill DeWit: Yes, in the right place, not year round. You’re right, and I think that’s what the problem was. It’s like that could convey this is year round you’re dealing with snow, and plant that thought in their head. So, this is going a little deeper here, but there’s a psychological thing that you’re trying to convey here. Like, you have taught all of us on our staff, “Make sure there’s blue sky.”
Jack Butala: Lots of contrast.
Jill DeWit: If you have a few puffy white clouds, those are good. Not a lot, but a few.
Jack Butala: Mountains.
Jill DeWit: If you can see some mountains, and even certain angles, if you can find or get shots that are, you know where it’s like, from the property low, almost ground level, shooting up, those are the right angles. You know, all kinds of things like that. And when you do the fly overs, Jack. When you do that, you want to get down at the ground level, and people really kind of see.
Back when you were really driving the property, there was a once upon a time that you were taking your own photos, which is awesome. And you said you would have the truck in the background, or like your chair or something or whatever. You always said that those did really well. It was really kind of interesting.
Jack Butala: A lot of times we would shoot without leaving the car. We’d roll the window down and get a good shot, because you’re looking at a lot of property and pressed for time, and if the side-view mirror gets in the shot, that’s not the worst thing that could happen. A lot of people really stress-
Jill DeWit: They like that.
Jack Butala: -about things like that, but I think it brings an element of reality to you see yourself there. You see yourself behind the driver’s seat of going to that property.
Jill DeWit: Exactly.
Jack Butala: Instead of Hollywood photo shoot. So, that’s kind of what I wanted to say here. This Hollywood photo shoot over-processed photography of real estate is just as see-through as Jill’s toilet seat being up. You want it to be real, and you want it to accurately represent the property, and you want it to make it look like you really want to be there. But if it’s over-processed with, filters are real popular right now, these crazy colored filter, fuzzy 4K, all that. I think that’s a little bit silly, too.
Jill DeWit: I like some of them, you know what though, I differ a little bit on this because maybe there’s a happy medium.
Jack Butala: There is, that’s right.
Jill DeWit: Okay, maybe if you’re lead photo’s that because, I like it because if your lead photo’s gorgeous, it gets them to click on the posting. That’s where I want them to be. So, I’m cool with that, because you’re right, you don’t want to ever inaccurately display your property or convey what you’re selling because you’re going to be doing refunds the whole time.
Jack Butala: Right.
Jill DeWit: So, I like that.
Jack Butala: Every property, with very few exceptions, has some type of attribute. Here’s an example. We just bought a property, Jill and I, in Pennsylvania that’s in a fork in the road and a river goes right through it. So it’s not a large property, and it is right on the road. But I’ll tell you, it’s a great fishing spot. It’s super inexpensive, potential great fishing spot. It might be a great property to put up a billboard. There’s a lot of good uses for that property.
Jill DeWit: It could be a tiny house property, too. Something like that where you can, because those are on wheels, you could wheel it right up there and park it.
Jack Butala: Right. That’s unlikely based on the size, but my point is, it does have some cool attributes and you can see yourself maybe with your kid, or one of your kids, fishing there, or using it for something. So every property’s got an interesting attribute. What you don’t want to do is take a property like that and say, “You’re going to build a mansion on that thing.” You just-
Jill DeWit: Go to the lot line, there’s no neighbors. (laughs) Can you imagine?
Jack Butala: So you want to present the property you have for what it is?
Jill DeWit: What is it that sings to you, Jack?
Jack Butala: The little house on the prairie scene.
Jill DeWit: Oh.
Jack Butala: For rural vacant land. For houses, for SFR’s what sings to me is price.
Jill DeWit: Okay, very good.
Jack Butala: But that’s just me. But I’ve had enough experience now to know that that’s not what sings to everybody.
Jill DeWit: You know, I have to tell you that I know that to be true because we recently looked at some property in our area. We’re always looking at property, but you asked me to come view a property very recently not far from us with an incredible view, and you saw it as, “We get the incredible view for an incredible price.” And I saw it as, “You call that a bathtub?” (laughs)
Jack Butala: (laughs) Oh my gosh, you’re right.
Jill DeWit: Remember that?
Jack Butala: I remember that house.
Jill DeWit: It was one of those. It was built in the 50’s.
Jack Butala: I loved that house.
Jill DeWit: Oh my gosh, so imagine this.
Jack Butala: I would have moved into that house.
Jill DeWit: Right, this is how differently we are.
Jack Butala: It had the original kitchen and original bath.
Jill DeWit: Original bathrooms. So, please let me describe this bathroom. You walk in, pink subway tile kind of tile, and it’s awful pink. I mean, it’s awful pink, old. And then you’re standing on the bathroom level and you look to the shower and it’s a good foot and a half below where you’re standing.
Jack Butala: You really step down.
Jill DeWit: And it’s all tiled down in there and I kind of thought it, but I wasn’t sure, and the person who was showing us the home, who was the homeowner, confirmed that, “Isn’t that great? It’s a tub.” I’m like, “I’m not taking a bath in that.” You step down and it’s just like square. It’s like you’re basically you could sit your butt down in water is the equivalent of it, but it’s certainly not a tub. I know, it’s yucky.
Jack Butala: (laughs)
Jill DeWit: And we left that and you’re like, “Oh by the way, let me follow up with this.”
Jack Butala: I’m going to tell you what I saw when she’s done.
Jill DeWit: This is good. It had a one car garage that really was built for a model T and we sat there going, “Oh fantastic, one of our vehicles fit in there and that is it.” Really, and we have four right now.
Jack Butala: All good points.
Jill DeWit: So we could get one vehicle in the garage and we’d have to be storing a couple cars or something, and that was like, “Oh.” Yeah, so that-
Jack Butala: This property-
Jill DeWit: Yes.
Jack Butala: Was on the ocean.
Jill DeWit: Yes.
Jack Butala: You walk out of the back gate onto the beach.
Jill DeWit: Yeah, I still-
Jack Butala: So, I can overlook all that.
Jill DeWit: Yeah, I can’t.
Jack Butala: It was apparently location.
Jill DeWit: Yeah.
Jack Butala: That’s okay.
Jill DeWit: And that’s okay.
Jack Butala: Because there’ll be another real estate deal next week.
Jill DeWit: Isn’t that funny? And you saw it as, yeah, that’s so true. I-
Jack Butala: I would want to buy it. That’s the name of the show. The name of the episode here.
Jill DeWit: You would buy it?
Jack Butala: I would buy that.
Jill DeWit: Yeah, I wouldn’t.
Jack Butala: It was rationally priced. It was a great location and I see the possibilities. It would take at least 50,000 bucks to, maybe more, to get those bathrooms and that kitchen where it needs to be.
Jill DeWit: I think it needed $100,000 or more.
Jack Butala: Yeah, probably a hundred.
Jill DeWit: I think maybe more. At least $100,000 worth of work.
Jack Butala: It still would have been way ahead. But like we need a new project, you and I. (laughs)
Jill DeWit: (laughs) Oh, welcome to my world. Just when Jacks says, I have to share this. One of the things I love about you, because life is never boring, Jack says, “This is it. We’re done. We’re set.” And then in the next sentence says, “Hey, you want to go look at an open house with me?” (laughs)
Jack Butala: (laughs)
Jill DeWit: I’m like, “Oh, what?” I’m so over it now. I used to go, “What just happened?” Now I’m like, “Nope, I knew that was coming.”
Jack Butala: This is the pot calling the kettle black. (laughs)
Jill DeWit: (laughs)
Jack Butala: I have so many comebacks for that, but I will spare you and our listeners.
Jill DeWit: Oh please.
Jack Butala: Well, you did it again. You spent another 20 minutes listening to the Jack and Jill Show. Join us tomorrow where we discuss, “Does this property make me look fat?”
Jill DeWit: This is going to be good. And we answer your questions should you have one. Post it on our online community found on JackJill.com. Go there, it’s free.
Jack Butala: You’re not alone in your real estate ambition.
Jill DeWit: Alright, bring it. What’s one of mine? Come on, you’re holding back.
Jack Butala: No, it’s one of the many, many reasons I love you is that you just-
Jill DeWit: Here it comes. That was softening it. Nice.
Jack Butala: You always are interested in something new, Jill. You just never stop.
Jill DeWit: You know what, that’s the equivalent of someone saying, “Oh, bless your heart.” Which is like, “You idiot.”
Jack Butala: No. I really mean that, sincerely.
Jill DeWit: Alright.
Jack Butala: It’s never boring with you. Never. You’re always-
Jill DeWit: Nor with you.
Jack Butala: Always something new. (laughs)
Jill DeWit: (laughs) Thank you, Jack. Hey, share the fun by subscribing on iTunes or wherever you are listening, and 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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