What Your Average Work Day Looks Like (LA 744)
What Your Average Work Day Looks Like (LA 744)
Transcript:
Steven Butala: Steve and Jill here.
Jill DeWit: Hello.
Steven Butala: Welcome to the Land Academy show. Entertaining land investment talk. I’m Steven Jack Butala.
Jill DeWit: And I’m Jill DeWit, broadcasting from sunny Southern California.
Steven Butala: Today Jill and I talk about what you’re average work day looks like.
Jill DeWit: It’s probably not what ours looks like. Especially based on today.
Steven Butala: If you’re not bright …
Jill DeWit: What’s your day look like?
Steven Butala: If you’re not really bright, you have a podcast. That’s what my work day today looks like actually.
Jill DeWit: Wait but I made breakfast.
Steven Butala: The theme for this week is: so you’ve done 100 deals, now what? Today is, what does that work day look like? And I’ll tell you what, my feet are up on the desk right now.
Before we get into it, let’s take a question. Posted by one of our members on the landacademy.com online community. It’s free.
Jill DeWit: Okay. Matt asked, “Hey everyone. After a successful first year trying out the land investing business, I’m hoping to scale up. Jack often says that the most experienced members of the group have scaled up from the $1,000 Profert Properties to $10,000 Profert Properties or higher. I would like to sign properties for cash. And so I’d like to find a balance between time on market and profit per deal. Has anyone experienced where the tipping price point might be for cash buyers?”
Steven Butala: Yeah. Good question.
Jill DeWit: “Obviously fewer and fewer people kind of buy for cash the higher up you go. I’d like to hear from people’s experiences where that might fall off. I made these numbers up, but for example: a $5,000 selling price for a $10,000 market value, property flies off the shelf. $10,000 for a $20,000 market value sells for fairly quickly as well. But $20-$30,000 selling price takes a little longer, takes a long long time. Most cash buyers are $10,000 or below, or something along those lines. Please reference your selling price and your determined market value. Thanks in advance for your time and consideration of this question.”
I didn’t read the whole thread too by the way. I’m gonna go back and see what people have said their experiences have been.
Steven Butala: What better to answer this question than to just give you an example. If you go to LANDiO, L-A-N-D-I-O, dot com, we have no affiliation. And his name’s Tory, who owns this property, owns this [inaudible 00:02:24] company. And he’s been a member now for over a year, and he went from zero to making exactly what you’re shooting for here. And he makes six digits a month. He’s easily made a million dollars so far. He’s a perfect working example of pricing and sales. And here’s what his trick is. He’s a fantastic marketer. Look at his posting. Look at the graphics that he creates and the way that he sells his properties in a video. That, more than the selling price, is gonna make these things fly off the shelf. You have to post them really well. Especially this higher, expensive property.
Try to send a mailer off for 10 grand, for property that you know you can sell for 50, that’s probably worth 100. $10,000, when you get a letter in the mail that is offering $10,000 to sign your name, it’s very compelling. I don’t care who you are, 10,000 bucks for a piece of property I’m never gonna use? Do I want 10,000 right now or do I want to list it with an agent? Wait six months? It works. So I would shoot for–this is what Tory does on LANDiO–he is a perfect working example. Look at all of his completed sales. He sells between 40 and 80 to 100,000 bucks, and he buys them for 10 or 15.
It’s a great place to move from. But, listener, not Matt, listener, you don’t wanna do this in the beginning. You wanna learn first. Do 10 properties before you make a 1,000 bucks unit. You’re real familiar with how to do it.
Today’s topic … oh do you wanna say anything there?
Jill DeWit: No, I’m fine. Oh Jill, you’re still here? All good.
Steven Butala: Do you ever listen to Howard Stern and he’s got Robin’s in the back?
Jill DeWit: I never really …
Steven Butala: And there’s whole four hours for his talks. And Robin’s just sitting there.
Jill DeWit: That’s hilarious. How does she do it?
Steven Butala: I don’t know. She probably makes hoards of money too, just sitting there listening.
Jill DeWit: Just to sit there, yeah. Love it.
Steven Butala: Today’s topic: what your average workday looks like after 100 deals. This is the meat of the show. What do you think Jill? Try to be serious now.
Jill DeWit: Oh really?
Steven Butala: No, I don’t care.
Jill DeWit: Well [crosstalk 00:04:35]
Steven Butala: Oh, go ahead. Let’s start with you.
Jill DeWit: Okay, the first thing is reports. In a perfect world, you’re waking up looking at reports. And in a perfect world, you’re looking at one of them is your bank account.
Steven Butala: That’s exactly what we do. I’m glad you said that, because you should have some automated system of reporting. We happen to get ours in an email, we look at how much money we made yesterday.
Jill DeWit: Right. And you can see who checked out, what they bought, what’s being processed. All that good stuff.
Steven Butala: Right. It’s a great way to start the day.
Jill DeWit: Isn’t it? And then …
Steven Butala: Even if it’s zero …
Jill DeWit: Based on your reports you decide if you’re gonna do anything else that day. That’s how Steven roles.
Steven Butala: Once in a while … well you know what, I look at the report, and then I look at the weather on the ocean to decide whether or not to go on that boat.
Jill DeWit: Well you know what you do?
Steven Butala: I do those things in that order.
Jill DeWit: Well here’s what you do. Here’s what else that you do. You go, “We officially make more money staying the Hell out of the office, so why would we go there?”
Steven Butala: I’ve been saying that for years.
Jill DeWit: Yes I know.
Steven Butala: I swear.
Jill DeWit: That’s what you do.
Steven Butala: I make more money if I don’t go to work.
Jill DeWit: It’s vacant office justification. How’s that for a title of a show?
Steven Butala: I don’t even have a desk there anymore.
Jill DeWit: No you don’t have a desk there anymore.
Steven Butala: Jill has a whole office where you close the door and everything.
Jill DeWit: I do.
Steven Butala: She’s never there either.
Jill DeWit: Exactly.
Not today.
Steven Butala: Your work day, after a hundred deals, should look like getting reports in the morning and you should do some version of this just about every day. Scouting for new places to send letters, and then manipulating data so that you get actually pricing data and send it in letters. You should be thinking about all the time, what other niches from yesterday, do you want to expand into? A very logical expansion for people who have done already 100 deals is houses. Very very logical. And we’ll be releasing House Academy one in October.
Jill DeWit: November.
Steven Butala: Okay, November. So I’m filming it right now and I’m having more fun than I can tell ya. That’s what my work day looks like, filming.
Jill DeWit: Exactly.
Steven Butala: And then you should always be thinking about acquisitions. You should look at your inventory. I’ve mentioned this a couple days ago. Look at the property that you own, free and clear, houses included, and the cash that you have. And always be looking for new ways to market the property that you own faster, so that you can convert the dirt into cash.
Jill DeWit: Convert the dirt.
Steven Butala: Convert the dirt.
Jill DeWit: Flirt to convert, and convert the dirt. Now we got it, that ended the whole thing. That’s perfect. We haven’t talked about that in a long time.
Steven Butala: You want to be converting real estate into money all the time. And then plowing that money back into real estate to convert it into money. Over and over again, and then choose a point where you’re done.
Jill DeWit: Or don’t choose a point. It’s okay too.
Steven Butala: Yeah, I mean it’s so easy. It’s so easy for us, we have a whole staff.
Jill DeWit: Do you remember this guy … this is like a year or two ago. I used to remember getting this guy calling about some property. We must have hit him with a mailer, and it was so darn funny cause he said, “You know, I retired from this business, technically retired 10 years ago.” But he’s like, “It just keeps going, it doesn’t stop. So why would I say no?” He technically retired, but he still buys and sells 10 years later cause the profit’s too good. He just does a few here and there just because.
Steven Butala: Once a month, I sit down for about a day, a full day, probably eight hours, maybe 10 hours total. And I do the mailer for the whole month. So I do have one full work day a month for sure.
Jill DeWit: Oh, well there’s good.
Steven Butala: That I actually …
Jill DeWit: Well there’s one we can account for.
Steven Butala: And I can’t …
Jill DeWit: Kidding.
Steven Butala: I’ve never subbed that out. Hey I enjoy it.
Jill DeWit: Oh you can’t.
Steven Butala: I enjoy it. And I really think it’s part of why we’re successful.
Jill DeWit: Yeah.
Steven Butala: But we have such a group now. I probably could find somebody in our group [inaudible 00:08:26], but why?
Jill DeWit: I don’t know.
Steven Butala: It’s so much fun.
Jill DeWit: I still swear, there’s some magic dust that you sprinkle on it. There’s something that comes in the pricing. I know you use our team for putting stuff together, but I wanna come to the pricing part of it.
Steven Butala: Yeah.
Jill DeWit: I swear I don’t think you should ever give that up.
Steven Butala: Yeah I agree.
Jill DeWit: So, it’s not like it’s hard for you.
Steven Butala: Here is what your average work day should exclude.
Talking on the phone constantly to people who wanna buy your inventory.
Jill DeWit: Correct.
Steven Butala: That’s a waste of time. If that’s the case, if that’s happening you really need to stop what you’re doing. Maybe even turn the phone off, and figure out how you’re going to–including taking a phone number off your website.
Jill DeWit: Lot of our members have got great FAQs on there. They have videos explaining how the whole transaction works. Make sure you’re posting–that’s one of the reasons that we have landpin.com. We tell people, “Post your property there first, as remember it’s free, and then use it as a template for everywhere else. And then you’ll know you’ll have all the pertinent details that someone needs to make a decision, will be right there. Cause you don’t want them calling you asking you something silly like, “What’s the exact size again?” Or, “What’s this information?” when you have it right there.
Steven Butala: That’s right. You really wanna use the postings on LandPin. Look at other people’s postings. It’s really easy to see who is taking this seriously and who is not. A good posting will do all the work for you. And if you’ve done your job on the buy side, buying it real cheap, it’s just a piece of cake.
Jill DeWit: Exactly.
Steven Butala: You completely have total control over their real estate deal.
Jill DeWit: It is.
Steven Butala: I would opt to not sell a property. I would honestly say, “You know what, if I have to talk on the phone, I’m not gonna do it. I’ll just wait for the next buyer.”
Jill DeWit: Right.
Steven Butala: And so fortunately we have a staff that deals with all this customer service issues, but I used to have a three-phone-call rule: if I talk to somebody three times, even a buyer, it’s over. There’s something wrong. That buyer’s requiring too much hand-holding.
Jill DeWit: They’re not a good buyer, they’re not legitimate.
Steven Butala: Or even a seller.
Jill DeWit: Right. There is just something. We’ve all had them. You’ve done over 100 deals, so you’ve had this. Someone that says, “I need some proof to see that you really own the property because when I go to the recorder’s site, it doesn’t show your name.” Well cause I’ve only had it for five minutes, too by the way. So that’s why it hasn’t even flipped in my name yet. And some of the counties, it might not flip for months. So …
Steven Butala: Jill’s right. So you’ve done 100 deals. You know all the questions they’re gonna ask already. Put em in an FAQ, and just then start directing them toward there.
Jill DeWit: Exactly.
Steven Butala: We don’t do it anymore, but we used to put a sentence in all of our postings that says, “Every single thing we know about this property is in this posting, so don’t call us.”
Jill DeWit: It doesn’t say it like that, but …
Steven Butala: It used to.
Jill DeWit: I know.
Steven Butala: And you got a hold of it and “chillified” it. Softened it.
Jill DeWit: I did “chillify” it, yes.
Steven Butala: I used to say it. We are sitting in air-conditioned offices in Scottsdale. We have never seen the property. We purchased a property specifically for immediate resale. That’s the business we’re in. Don’t ask, we don’t know.
Jill DeWit: And many many times people figured it out, and that’s their game, man. There’s so many times we could have got more for the property. I don’t care, lucky for you.
Steven Butala: Right.
Jill DeWit: So, yep. Awesome.
Steven Butala: Well you’ve done it again. You’ve spent almost 15 minutes with us, listening to the Land Academy show. Join us tomorrow, for another interesting episode, where we discuss how to buy land in bulk, using a release. One of my favorite real estate deals.
Jill DeWit: And we answer your questions, posted on our landacademy.com online community. Go there, it’s free.
Steven Butala: You’re not alone in your real estate ambition. I did a deal. I’ll save it for tomorrow. I did a deal, I made a million dollar–1.2 million dollars using a release.
Jill DeWit: Yeah, save it for tomorrow.
Steven Butala: Okay.
Jill DeWit: Can I add two things?
Steven Butala: Yeah.
Jill DeWit: Okay. Number one: for anybody here who is done more than 100 deals, and you’re struggling with this, this is one of the reasons why we’re having this live event in October. This is 100% for you. So it’s October fifth through the seventh, 2018. You can get all the details at landinvestorslive.com. So please go check it out, we’d love to have you, and we know we can help you. And my second point I wanted to say is: you’re at this point, and maybe this is for the $1,000 or the 1,000 deal people too–wherever you are–think about giving back. I’m starting to have those conversations with a lot of our members that are like, “Jill, we’re just off doing our thing”, and they’ve come back and said, “You’ve given so much to us, we’d like to give back to the community.”
Steven Butala: Wow, people said that?
Jill DeWit: Seriously, not kidding.
Steven Butala: What do you ask them to do when they say that?
Jill DeWit: It’s still new to me, I’m like, “I don’t know what to give you, that’s so great.” So I don’t know what to do with that yet. But for now we’re all helping each other in our online community, but I’m gonna come up with some good ways that everybody who wants to give back, can give back, and that’s the stuff we should be doing too. All that does is make you better, gets the word out more on what kind of a person you are, and at the end of the day, it’s just gonna help your transactions, and help your efforts.
Steven Butala: I don’t even know how to answer that.
Jill DeWit: I know.
Steven Butala: Like I wouldn’t know what I would want.
Jill DeWit: It’s happening, Steven.
Steven Butala: That’s great, man.
Jill DeWit: It’s awesome. Share the fun by subscribing on iTunes, or wherever you are listening. And while you’re at it, please rate us there.
Both: We are Steve and Jill.
Steven Butala: Information …
Jill DeWit: And inspiration …
Steven Butala: To buy undervalued property.
If you enjoyed the podcast, please review it in iTunes . Reviews are incredibly important for rankings on iTunes. My staff and I read each and every one.
If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to email me directly at steven@BuWit.com.
The BuWit Family of Companies include:
I would like to think it’s entertaining and informative and in the end profitable.
And finally, don’t forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes.
