How to Choose a County to Send Offers (798)
How to Choose a County to Send Offers (798)
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 how to choose a county to send offers … all week.
Jill DeWit: Well, that sounds easy, piece of cake, right?
Steven Butala: All week is frequently asked question week, and this is our number two, or number three most popular question. I’ll tell ya, we cover it in great detail in The Cash Flow From Land, our Land Academy 1.0 program, but, it’s still, for whatever reason, it’s not clear, so we’re here to clear it up.
Jill DeWit: You know, I think it is clear, but, you know, it’s still … How do I say this? It needs to be talked about a lot. There’s a lot to it. It’s not like, “Well, you know geometry, have a nice day.” Come on, there’s a whole semester on geometry.
Steven Butala: Sure.
Jill DeWit: I think this is one of those topics that kind of deserves a semester, or at least more than just one pass by, because this is a defining moment in your investment career. That’s not really the right term, but this is one of the most crucial aspects of your investment career, is pricing these offers.
The more that we talk about it, the more that we cover it, the better.
Steven Butala: This is about finding a county, and I agree with you.
Jill DeWit: Oh, excuse me.
Steven Butala: I took a sailing class a lot of years ago. If you’ve listened to the show you know I’m an avid boater. This was so far long ago, and it was in Michigan, so it was during the winter, so we couldn’t … there was no hands-on, it was … we were just in a class.
For weeks and weeks we’d go on Saturday to get my boating license, and all we did was talk about, “This is how you put up a sail, this is how you take a sail down, this is what you do.” After a while it’s like, “You know what? I’d really like to put the sail up, and actually put it up.”
I think this topic, and a lot of topics with real estate investing, there’s only so much talk you can have before you actually have to put the sail up, or actually send a mailer out. Choose a county, and send a mailer out.
I’m following up on Jill, I was gonna save this for later, but you have to sit there and tell yourself, “It’s okay if you fail at this the first time.” Or, even the second time. Jill and I just got a heartfelt email from a very successful … who is now a successful member saying, “Look, I failed at this twice. I failed at sending my first two mailers out. I scheduled a consulting call with you guys, we worked on it, and I just pushed through and figured it out.”
Which, by the way, is very uncommon. If you follow our instructions you’re gonna do okay, but for whatever reason he didn’t … It doesn’t matter. His situation, it worked out great for him, but I think more than actually learning how … This is a compliment to you.
Jill DeWit: Okay.
Steven Butala: More than actually learning how to send … to pick a county and send a mailer out mechanically, anybody can do that. You can learn that in a weekend. You have to have the right attitude, and that’s what Jill brings to the table.
You have to have the right attitude, and you have to sit there and say in the mirror, “It’s okay if I fail at this. It’s not that big of a deal.” But that’s the topic after the question.
Before we actually get into the real topic, and Jill talks about what she’s writing down right now, let’s take a question posted by one of our members on the landinvestors.com online community. It’s free.
Jill DeWit: Jordan asks: “Has anyone ever considered or tried using direct mail to sell a property? If so, what criteria do you use to mail to the people that are most likely to buy? I was thinking of mailing every property owner within a mile radius or so. Then maybe everyone who has purchased any property within a five mile radius within the last year-
Steven Butala: These are all good.
Jill DeWit: They may be anyone who has purchased similar vacant land [inaudible 00:03:57] 10 miles throughout the last year. Thoughts?”
Steven Butala: Yes, here are my thoughts. Any creative way to sell property is absolutely worth a try. Especially because the way the internet is, and the way times are, and how fast we move through what’s new and what’s not these days, I would absolutely try it.
We have a person whose made a whole career out of mailing … directly mailing people within the immediate area of a property that is purchased, and does it very successfully.
Yes. People who have purchased a property within a five mile radius or a 10 mile radius within the last year, no, I think that’s … this is just my gut-
Jill DeWit: Yeah, I wouldn’t get that detailed.
Steven Butala: This is just my gut, because our whole premises, and it’s right, it’s correct, just hit everybody.
Jill DeWit: Yeah.
Steven Butala: Hit everybody within a mile or two mile radius, and I’ll tell you-
Jill DeWit: You never know-
Steven Butala: What else is gonna happen, get ready, put your hat on, put your helmet on, because what’s gonna really happen is that you’re gonna find more sellers.
Jill DeWit: Yeah, that’s usually what happens. Yeah, more people come forward with other things.
Steven Butala: In Land Academy 2.0, I actually provide the documents that we use to do this, the actual documents.
Jill DeWit: Exactly. Love it.
Steven Butala: Oh, wow.
Jill DeWit: Yeah.
Steven Butala: Today’s topic is how to choose a county to send offers. This is the-
Jill DeWit: I meant to say county.
Steven Butala: This is the meat of the show.
Jill DeWit: I know, I meant to say county. You know, because these are, this whole week are all really crucial things. Choosing a county: important. Pricing the offers: important. These are all huge, huge, huge things.
For some reason people have this conception that it only works in certain counties, there’s a secret list of counties-
Steven Butala: Oh, I love this, where you’re going with this-
Jill DeWit: They think that, “It’s saturated now by the way, because we all know what the good counties are, and we’re already doing them, so it’s not gonna work.” There’s a lot of mixed conceptions out there, and so I love this topic.
One of the things that I love sharing with people who just find us is that we are here to help and teach you to go do it in other areas. Areas that we’ve never touched upon. I guess the whole thing is it really does work. That’s the whole thing.
We’re not here saying … We do have steps to this process, but our steps are, here’s what we look at, here’s the criteria. Everything that we’re doing right now … You notice we’re never gonna sit and say, “Offer a flat amount.” We’re offering … we’re telling you a strategic way to do this, and it’s the same with picking a county.
You need to know strategically, what are you looking for? A population that looks kind of like what? We’re never gonna say, “Your population should be between X amount and Y, and give you a number.”
Steven Butala: Right.
Jill DeWit: We’re not gonna do that, that doesn’t make any sense. But if you know if it’s a percentage, and you kind of have an idea of what triggers to look for, now, and that’s what this whole show’s about, I know you’re gonna get into it, now you can go replicate this all over the country. You could do it in Georgia, you could do it in Alaska. You can do it in Maine, you could do it in Florida. You know? That’s what’s happening.
By the way, 3,144 counties in the country … and think about the number of properties … you’re never gonna hit them all.
Steven Butala: Yeah, let’s start with that. There’s 3,144 counties/parishes in-
Jill DeWit: In the country-
Steven Butala: In the country. There’s 150 million properties. I have it all broken down by zip code. Quite honestly, I will be releasing it in January with our House Academy Program, which really takes a scientific approach to that.
Picking a county for … this is for rural vacant land only, this isn’t for info lots. If you listened to Land Types, the show yesterday, we talked about the types of land you can purchase. This only applies to rural vacant land.
You want to go to … We set up a website called countywise.com. Go to that site and take a look at the census population density maps, they’re all color-coded, and the darkest green ones are the most rural.
The key is to find a county that’s in green for rural vacant land, and follow the pricing steps that we talked about on other shows and in our program. That’s how you pick a county. It’s that simple.
Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative), and there’s other triggers that you share, which I love, that you’ve looked … There’s things that you look at. They’re not deal breakers, but you have other good triggers.
Steven Butala: Yes, so here’s a couple more. In the program there’s a three-step process, that’s step one. Step two is take a look at the past … the past … the history of the counties’ tax auctions, or tax … back tax property.
In general-
Jill DeWit: I like that.
Steven Butala: This is not completely true, because I can’t reiterate this enough. This works in every county, pricings are variable. But, in general, for rural vacant land to get a huge bargain, the more back tax property that is kind of flowed through the county … the better off you’re gonna be purchasing really inexpensive property.
I will tell you this, it’s gonna be harder to sell it. The people that choose the best counties, and price their mailers properly and send it out, get a little creative. They choose counties that are not so dark green that … It’s 1.2 people per square mile. They’re a little bit closer to civilization, and they’re a little bit more expensive. They’re not-
Jill DeWit: People want to hang on to their land a little bit.
Steven Butala: Yeah.
Jill DeWit: Which is good.
Steven Butala: They’re easier to sell then, too.
Jill DeWit: Exactly. I love it. One of the things, too, … People think, like, “Should I just go and look and see where there’s available property, and if there’s a lot of property, buy it, or if there’s not a lot of property buy it. There’s different variables to that.
Steven Butala: Well, I should-
Jill DeWit: Okay.
Steven Butala: Let me real quickly finish the third step. The third step is to go out on the internet on land and farm, or Land Watch, or any land site. Jill and I own a site called Land Pin, which is all of our members, so that’s not necessarily the best gauge.
Actually, if you want to see what people-
Jill DeWit: What our people are doing-
Steven Butala: What our members are doing, and where they’re killing it, go on the Land Pin-
Jill DeWit: Exactly.
Steven Butala: Like a completed sales, perfect situation, like research. But, go out to these websites and see how many properties are for sale. I always pick on Mohave County, Arizona, because Mohave County is very rural, it’s close to Las Vegas, it has tremendous amount of history with back taxes, subdivision property, but it doesn’t pass number three. Which is, how many properties are for sale?
There’s thousands and thousands of properties, so you’re entering into a huge competitive space for Mohave County if you go there and buy property for a thousand bucks and expect it to sell … sell it for five to ten thousand, you’re gonna be disappointed.
Jill DeWit: Exactly.
Steven Butala: You have to get a little bit more creative. There’s art and science to this. Maybe more art than science. You know, I would love if, what Jill said earlier, if that were true. If you do … Between X and Y, and this fits it, and this fits it, and this fits it.
Jill DeWit: Right.
Steven Butala: You know, that’s just not the case-
Jill DeWit: That would be great, but, no, it’s not that way.
Steven Butala: This is for rural vacant land only.
Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Steven Butala: For other types of land, specifically info lots, which is what we talk about in 2.0, it’s all science.
Jill DeWit: Right.
Steven Butala: It’s all fit it, fit the puzzle into the last … the puzzle into the … pieces into the puzzle.
Jill DeWit: Exactly. I love it.
Steven Butala: Join us next time … where we discuss five minute land due diligence, Jill-style.
Jill DeWit: And we answer your questions posted on landinvestors.com, it’s free.
Steven Butala: You are not alone in your real estate ambition.
Jill DeWit: Talk to me.
Steven Butala: That question, again, it’s a frequently asked question week-
Jill DeWit: It is.
Steven Butala: Is very, very tough for people to understand-
Jill DeWit: That’s true.
Steven Butala: Who are super, super brand-new.
Jill DeWit: Yeah. They think, “Are you gonna just tell me?” “Yeah, I can pick it for you, but I’m not doing you any good.”
Steven Butala: This works.
Jill DeWit: You need to learn how to do this for yourself, because you’re gonna find diamonds out there that I didn’t find.
Steven Butala: This concept of sending offers … Jill and I have sent millions and millions, probably ten million offers out.
Jill DeWit: Right.
Steven Butala: Since the ’90s. It’s worked for every single product type-
Jill DeWit: It does.
Steven Butala: Every single product type, and every single-
Jill DeWit: Every single county-
Steven Butala: Type of land, houses, commercial property-
Jill DeWit: Exactly.
Steven Butala: It’s all a matter of the pricing.
Jill DeWit: Bingo!
Steven Butala: If you want to scrape the bottom there are super rural counties and where to do that. If you want to spend a little bit more, and maybe sell it for a little bit more, a little bit faster, now you’re coming back into the urban areas.
Then if you really want to kill it with info lots, like we talk about in 2.0, you’re gonna spend some money, but you’re gonna make some money, and you’ll sell it a lot faster, because now you have a usable commodity. That’s very obvious to home builders.
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We are Steve and Jill.
Steven Butala: We are Steve and Jill. Information-
Jill DeWit: And inspiration-
Steven Butala: To buy undervalued property.
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