Profile of People Who Get It (LA 810)
Profile of People Who Get It (LA 810)
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 the profile of people who get it, and as always, it’s not just about real estate.
Jill DeWit: By the way, yesterday I talked about my COH. So for anyone who didn’t catch the show yesterday, I’ve took COH as my personal components of hotness, and so it could be a … Steven meant it as a component of hotness for buying land, and I took it as-
Steven Butala: For real estate markets.
Jill DeWit: For purposes of the business. And I took it to a teenage level-
Steven Butala: Which is good.
Jill DeWit: Which component of hotness, which is-
Steven Butala: It just always happens.
Jill DeWit: You know. It’s the component of hotness. Let’s just be honest with it. So anyway, one very important component of hotness is people who get it.
Steven Butala: Oh.
Jill DeWit: That’s why.
Steven Butala: Nice tie-in.
Jill DeWit: That’s why I’m tying this back in. Because yeah, if you don’t get it … On my component of hotness, that’s like a whopping zero.
Steven Butala: Oh, on your personal component of hotness.
Jill DeWit: If you don’t get it, if you walk around not getting life …
Steven Butala: Oh, yeah. Yeah.
Jill DeWit: Or you’re an extreme narcissist, or something like that …
Steven Butala: Wow. Big words today.
Jill DeWit: I am. Well, so-
Steven Butala: I agree with you on all this.
Jill DeWit: That, actually will take off some of the other good components. Say you’re attractive. Oh no, that just, that … I’m sorry. It works against you. So I had to bring that up. If you don’t get it.
Steven Butala: We can talk about component of hotness, and we can tie it right into this topic, actually.
Jill DeWit: That’s my new COH.
Steven Butala: Before we do that, let’s take a question posted by one of our members on the landinvestors.com online community. It’s free.
Jill DeWit: [Milan 00:01:38]. We have a couple questions with Milan this week. Milan asks, “Let’s say you have $100,000, and you can make only $25,000 of that in acquisitions. That gives you … ” Oh, “You can only make $25,000 acquisitions.” Okay.
Steven Butala: Four acquisitions.
Jill DeWit: So, that gives you four shots. Why is this funny? These are very, just like thinking out there. I love it.
Steven Butala: This is good stuff.
Jill DeWit: Yeah. “What type of land do you buy, what are the comps, and what do you sell it for? Is it the classic, “Buy for $25,000, comps at $100,000, sell for $50,000, or would you do different numbers? Steve? Jill? Others?”
Steven Butala: If I had $100,000, and I had to buy land, not wholesale houses, I would probably spend $80,000 or $90,000 on a piece of property.
Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Steven Butala: I’m not saying you should do this, because I’ve been doing this since the ’90s, so when I buy a piece of property, I have a tremendous amount of confidence. Like, I mean, it’s risk free. Ask Jill. Jill’s famous for saying, “Well, Steve came out of his darkroom and said we should go buy X,” and she doesn’t even question it anymore.
Jill DeWit: No. Yeah, I know.
Steven Butala: Because she knows I was obsessing on whether or not it’s gonna work, and take all the risk out of it in every suit, and I’ve already looked at 500 deals. And this one finally got to her, and she’s like, “Yeah.”
Jill DeWit: Yeah.
Steven Butala: I don’t know. She doesn’t even question it. But, this is what I would do. I would take $80,000 or $90,000 of that, and I would search and search, send a ton of mail out, and buy the perfect property, and probably sell it for $300,000 or $400,000. We’re doing several deals like that. That’s what I would do. What do I think you should do? If you’ve got 100 grand of acquisition money, I think I would probably break it up into two or three properties in different markets. I know this is hard, because it takes a lot of time and work, but it’ll pay out.
Jill DeWit: Right.
Steven Butala: I would probably try to generate, not double my money, because now you, I’m assuming … Milan’s been involved in this for a while.
Jill DeWit: Couple years. Yeah.
Steven Butala: I’m assuming this 100 grand came from the fact that you now know what you’re doing. I would stop with the doubling and tripling the money on raw, vacant land, and I would take an infill lot, probably somewhere in a really good vacation spot area west of the Mississippi, and in that $33,000 acquisition, try to turn it into 50,000 bucks as fast as you can. Forget about the profitability. Or maybe even $33,000 to $45,000, and then do that over and over and over and over and over again with speed. Not so much dollars per transaction. Dollars per transaction is what I described for me.
Jill DeWit: Right.
Steven Butala: I don’t think you’re there yet, and it’s good that … This is all good, that you have a bunch of dough, but that’s just kind of step two.
Jill DeWit: Well, the nice thing is, too-
Steven Butala: I would love to hear yours.
Jill DeWit: Well, what you just said too is, you’re talking about speed up. Get these transactions. And at this dollar amount you can do the speed, because you’re not doing the work. And remember-
Steven Butala: Yeah. You’re selling the MLS.
Jill DeWit: Well, yeah. Because you have a title company doing the middle part, and you’re posting it in different places. It’s all gonna go different … You’re doing less work, less input for more output.
Steven Butala: I mean, you’re exactly right. You’re-
Jill DeWit: That’s what you want to do.
Steven Butala: You’re using an escrow agent instead of closing it yourself.
Jill DeWit: Right.
Steven Butala: And you’re posting it on a fixed price MLS, so you’re allowing some more … It’s just faster and easier.
Jill DeWit: Right.
Steven Butala: And so, that’s the second. You’re shifting in from second to third gear now.
Jill DeWit: I like that.
Steven Butala: Don’t worry about third or fourth. We’ll talk about that. I’m in sixth gear. Jill and I are in sixth gear, and … You know.
Jill DeWit: Thank goodness both of our vehicles go to seven.
Steven Butala: They do go to seven, don’t they?
Jill DeWit: They do go to seven.
Steven Butala: What is that? When did that happen?
Jill DeWit: I know.
Steven Butala: Last car, I had a manual three speed. Three speeds. And now, these highfalutin new cars have seven speeds.
Jill DeWit: Seven. Didn’t my-
Steven Butala: And they tell you when to shift, and stuff.
Jill DeWit: Didn’t my last little green car have five? I think it was five. Yeah, jumping five to seven is interesting. You’re right.
Steven Butala: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Three to seven’s interesting.
Jill DeWit: Yeah.
Steven Butala: Today’s topic, people who get it, and people who don’t. This is the meat of the show. We covered this two days ago with the show about can you play the guitar, and do you really even want to? So, let’s say you can play the guitar, and you do want to play the guitar. It comes easy to you. All the stuff that we talked about on that show applies, and it’s easy for you. I mean, do you really get it, then?
Here’s an example. Can you describe the posting that Seth Williams just … In between recording shows just now, Jill shared with me what Seth just posted on social media. Seth Williams, who’s in our business.
Jill DeWit: Yeah. Ari tips for Seth. He’s in our group, too. So, Seth posted an image of a really cool black, I think it was a Ferrari. And the license plate said, “2.7 GPA.”
Steven Butala: Meaning the guy got a D-plus in school.
Jill DeWit: Right, and he’s driving that car.
Steven Butala: By the way, nobody gets it more than Seth. I have nothing but respect for Seth, by the way.
Jill DeWit: Right.
Steven Butala: We work together on all kinds of stuff.
Jill DeWit: Right. But you-
Steven Butala: But the guy who’s got this Ferrari, I’m not sure that he gets it.
Jill DeWit: Oh. Really?
Steven Butala: Yeah. The guy that does the video on YouTube or on Facebook, who’s standing in front of his new Bentley and says, “You can have one, too,” doesn’t get it.
Jill DeWit: Oh, yeah. I hate those. I hate those. I keep seeing that, by the way. There’s one thing. I haven’t seen it in a couple weeks now, but I swear for like a week straight in social media, I kept seeing this same image of someone who put their child in the front seat behind the steering wheel of their Rolls Royce. I’m like, really? I think this is just ridiculous. It’s stupid. You know, you shouldn’t be … I don’t know. Why people use that as a way of promoting themselves, bothers me.
Steven Butala: Somebody told me a-
Jill DeWit: It’s a little bit over the top.
Steven Butala: A long time ago … Let’s take the real estate out of this, for a second. Somebody told me a long time ago that there’s two types of people on this planet. People who get it, and people who don’t.
Jill DeWit: Right.
Steven Butala: And that means different things for everybody. Like your hotness. It ties into this hotness factor.
Jill DeWit: Yeah, it all comes back to the COH. I’m gonna wear a shirt around that’s like, a COH.
Steven Butala: You know what’s really how people pass the hotness factor, for me?
Jill DeWit: Oh, please tell.
Steven Butala: I mean, it probably was different when I was younger, but it’s totally, it’s all about just having fun, and laughing, and being honest, and going and doing silly stuff, like stuff that you probably shouldn’t be doing at your age.
Jill DeWit: Right.
Steven Butala: That’s totally massive hot. I mean, that describes-
Jill DeWit: Well, I’m good at that.
Steven Butala: It describes you. Basically, Jill’s a-
Jill DeWit: Things I shouldn’t be doing at my age.
Steven Butala: She’s a tomboy who can pull off a dress.
Jill DeWit: Thank you.
Steven Butala: And so that, to me, is like it ends right there for me, in a good way.
Jill DeWit: Thank you.
Steven Butala: You get it. You always have. You’ve got it since the day I met you.
Jill DeWit: Thanks. I do get it.
Steven Butala: You’re not trying to-
Jill DeWit: I get frustrated by people who don’t get it.
Steven Butala: You’re not trying to impress anybody. You’re not trying to be something you’re not. And I think all that material stuff … You know, we’re not strangers to some of this traps. They’re traps.
Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Steven Butala: It’s just a big, huge advertisement that you don’t get it. And I’ll say this. Here’s another set of people who don’t get it. Over the years, people, our friends, have come to us saying, “You know, you’ve got all these people in your group that are so successful at this. I’m looking to make a change. You know, can you help me?” And my reaction … It no longer is. It’s no longer this way.
Jill DeWit: Yeah, I know.
Steven Butala: But it used to be, “Oh my gosh, yes. I’m happy to. We’ve been friends forever. All the stuff’s free. Here’s your username. Here’s your password. Knock yourself out. I hope you hit the top five percentile.” Without exception, we have lost every single one of those friends, and here’s why … And it ended in a firey ball of tragedy. It didn’t just end, like, “You know, thanks, Steve, but I don’t have time to do this.” Which is really what happened.
Jill DeWit: Right.
Steven Butala: It ended because they’re so embarrassed that they couldn’t figure out Excel, and just the basics of buying and selling land on their own in a self-study environment, versus a hand-holding environment. They just didn’t call us. They stopped calling us because they’re embarrassed. Chances are, it was in their wheelhouse. Chances are, they could have played the guitar. They just didn’t make it a priority.
Jill DeWit: Or one person took it to the other extreme, and they were using you for the stupid questions. They didn’t get it. It’s like-
Steven Butala: Well, they were just blaming us. They’re blaming. “Why is this … This should be easier.” Go ahead.
Jill DeWit: Oh, I took it like, “You know, I know you have your PhD, but I need you to help me, because I’m still in 101. You know, accounting 101. I know I’ll get there where you are.” And that’s not the person … You shouldn’t go to that person for that kind of stuff. You know?
Steven Butala: That’s just one example. There’s all kinds of examples of people who get it, and people who don’t. But in general, if you do this one thing, you will get it … It’s take responsibility for yourself, and for your success and your failures. Just take responsibility for yourself.
Jill DeWit: I see it differently.
Steven Butala: You take total responsibility, Jill, for everything. Almost maybe too … You know, you might take responsibility for other peoples’ stuff too much.
Jill DeWit: It’s true.
Steven Butala: But I’m not criticizing you at all. I hope you know that. I’m just saying. And you do it out of niceness, but … Take responsibility for the fact that you either can learn this stuff, or you can’t. And don’t blame, oh, let’s say the Land Academy’s customer service department for the fact that you can’t remember your username and password.
Jill DeWit: I look at it like this. Okay, so the topic today is profile people who get it. People who get it, to me, are confident people. They’re confident, and they do take responsibility, like you said. But for me, they take responsibility going, “I’m gonna learn this. He’s talking about Excel stuff. I don’t really know that much. I’m gonna spend all weekend, do every Excel thing I can find on my own. There’s so much YouTube out there, free on the Internet. And by the end of the weekend, now I’m a solid intermediate or upper-level beginner. I know I can keep up. I can do this.” So that’s, for me, taking responsibility. They get it. They’re trying. They’re really trying. And yeah, and don’t make excuses.
Steven Butala: Yeah.
Jill DeWit: That like, “Oh, well. You know, it’s not my fault. The computer just … You know, I don’t know what’s the problem. It won’t turn on now.” You know what I mean? There’s always something like that. “It’s not my fault.” Well, how about you unplug some things, maybe power on and off? I don’t know. Maybe run some defrag. I don’t know if we still do whatever-
Steven Butala: No.
Jill DeWit: You know what I’m trying to say, but …
Steven Butala: What she’s saying is, how about whatever it is, you don’t get emotional about it at all?
Jill DeWit: You get past it.
Steven Butala: You don’t get heated about it at all.
Jill DeWit: You don’t. Yeah.
Steven Butala: You go on to YouTube, and you find out why your computer’s not turning on.
Jill DeWit: Solve it. You solve it.
Steven Butala: Maybe you do it on your phone.
Jill DeWit: You get, yeah.
Steven Butala: You just get past it.
Jill DeWit: Right.
Steven Butala: Those kinds of people get it.
Jill DeWit: You know what else I think people who get it?
Steven Butala: I have a lot to say.
Jill DeWit: So, it’s secure. They are taking responsibility. They’re solving their own problems. But it’s also the people … I think the people who get it … Like, not just in our world. I’m saying, like, in life too … They’re not afraid to take some chances, and just jump. They’re like, “You know what? I’m pretty sure I’m gonna land somewhere close to this target. I’m going for it, man.”
Steven Butala: “And if I don’t, I’ll jump again.”
Jill DeWit: Right.
Steven Butala: “And if I don’t that time, I’ll jump again.”
Jill DeWit: “I’ll figure it out. I’ll tweak it, and get it right the next time.” That’s someone who gets it, too. Not afraid-
Steven Butala: Here’s another example of somebody who gets it. People ask us all the time … People ask us this question as much as they ask us about real estate. “What is it with you and Jill? Why do you guys get along? What the hell?”
Jill DeWit: Well, it’s Jill.
Steven Butala: Here’s why. Here’s the whole secret.
Jill DeWit: Do you know how much patience she has?
Steven Butala: Here’s the whole secret to the whole thing. If Jill comes to me, or if I go to her and say, “Look. This thing’s not working. This thing at work we’re working on, or whatever. This over here.” Or, you know, “Your toenails are too long.” My reaction is not, “God, what are you talking … ” My reaction is, “Oh, wow. I didn’t notice that. Thanks. I’ll take care of that.”
Jill DeWit: That’s true. Yeah.
Steven Butala: Or after thinking about it for a minute, I’ll say, “I kind of respectfully disagree.”
Jill DeWit: And that’s fair. And I get it, so I’ll say, “Okay.”
Steven Butala: And then if we need to go further than that, let’s talk about it a little bit. But that’s just how it is. Instead of just, you know, immediately getting defensive, and immediately saying, “The stuff that’s in front of me doesn’t meet my criteria, and there must be something wrong with everything else and everyone else in front of me.”
Jill DeWit: Yeah. Right.
Steven Butala: And that’s how you lose. That’s why you don’t get it.
Jill DeWit: This ties into one of the things that we talk about. Our successful members, that we’ve learned … People who get it, because they’ve had another life, they’ve owned another business, they’ve been through some stuff. They know how to work through problems. Really, being a former business owner I think is awesome. Because if you made it in a business, you can make it here. They get it.
Steven Butala: Insecurity is the root of all evil. All of it.
Jill DeWit: Right.
Steven Butala: And so, people that complain, and, “I can’t … ” I’m struggling not to swear.
Jill DeWit: That’s okay.
Steven Butala: It’s because in the root of it, they’re upset with their surroundings, because they don’t feel like they can keep up.
Jill DeWit: And you know what? All I have to say, Steven, is I get it.
Steven Butala: I know you do. You totally get it.
Jill DeWit: Thanks.
Steven Butala: Well, you’ve done it again. You’ve spent another 15 or so minutes with us, listening to the Land Academy Show. Join us next time, where we discuss another interesting episode.
Jill DeWit: And we answer your questions posted on our online community, landinvestors.com. It’s free.
Steven Butala: You are not alone in your real estate ambition.
Jill DeWit: Yeah, this is a whole funny week.
Steven Butala: Yeah, you know why? Because a couple weeks ago, we were talking about some pretty intense real estate stuff, and you were just going, “Oh my gosh. There’s got to be more to this.”
Jill DeWit: Really.
Steven Butala: Yeah.
Jill DeWit: Okay.
Steven Butala: This is all driven from your reactions.
Jill DeWit: Okay.
Steven Butala: Me trying to please you.
Jill DeWit: Well, then next week we’ll find the happy medium.
Steven Butala: Yeah.
Jill DeWit: I like to do a little of both, so … Thank you. Thank you for not giving me a hard, brainy, like, “I gotta get out my calculator” week.
Steven Butala: Right.
Jill DeWit: So, I appreciate that. Share the fun by subscribing on iTunes and YouTube. And while you’re at it, please rate us there. We are Steve and Jill.
Steven Butala: We are Steve and Jill. Information …
Jill DeWit: And inspiration …
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