Proven (LA 939)
Proven (LA 939)
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 DeWitt, broadcasting from sunny southern California.
Steven Butala: Today, Jill and I talk about the word proven. And full disclosure, I was watching a basketball, a college basketball game, and Ford commercial came on and it said, “Proven.” And I’m like, you know what?
Jill DeWit: Is that where this came from?
Steven Butala: Ford is proven. We’re proven.
Jill DeWit: Oh.
Steven Butala: There’s a lot in that word.
Jill DeWit: There is.
Steven Butala: A lot. I have a lot to say.
Jill DeWit: I’m sure you do.
Steven Butala: Hey, before we get into it, though, let’s take a question. Before we get into the question, even, I have been … I don’t think you see the comments people make about this show.
Jill DeWit: No, I don’t look at them. I don’t.
Steven Butala: Recently, there’s been a couple of comments about how-
Jill DeWit: Uh-oh.
Steven Butala: … will you guys quit screwing around?
Jill DeWit: Oh.
Steven Butala: You’re making … This wonderful somebody says …
Jill DeWit: Or I’m here to get some education.
Steven Butala: “You guys are so unprofessional-
Jill DeWit: Oh. Seriously?
Steven Butala: You’re laughing and joking and the only jokes are inside jokes. No one cares.” Yeah. Stop having so much fun. It’s like my high school-
Jill DeWit: Teacher. Yeah, don’t enjoy this.
Steven Butala: … social studies teachers.
Jill DeWit: You’re not supposed to enjoy your childhood.
Steven Butala: Stop having so much fun.
Jill DeWit: Or enjoy your adulthood.
Steven Butala: Stop laughing.
Jill DeWit: Exactly. We’re here to get serious, young man.
Steven Butala: Yeah. Yeah. We’re here to buy and sell real estate.
Jill DeWit: Not enjoy this. I don’t care how big your bank balance is. Do not enjoy it.
Steven Butala: Before we get into it, let’s take a question by one of our members on the landinvestors.com online community. It’s free. And do not laugh. Whatever you do.
Jill DeWit: I promise.
Steven Butala: And don’t smile.
Jill DeWit: I won’t. Nope. Sorry. I will not have fun. It’s like I used to do that with the kids. Ben C. asks, “Hi, everyone. So this is my first official post. Tested out a comment yesterday, but figured this was the best place to start. My wife and I have been researching vacant land investing somewhat passively, I might add, for the better part of six months.” Good.
Steven Butala: Good.
Jill DeWit: “Over the past two months, I figured it was time to take it seriously and really buckle down the research and looked at something other than YouTube videos and gave myself a launch date of June 1, 2019.” This is awesome.
Steven Butala: This is great.
Jill DeWit: Yeah. “The goal is to target vacant land residential lots between a quarter and five acres to start, supplement with larger wholesale lots to get experience with bigger deals without the risk and scale upward from there. I would really like to test a soft start and do a mailer to start. Here are the main things I have questions on. One. What is the least amount of set up? Entity, a PO box, mailers, et cetera, that you need to perform your first mailing? Two. What would be the first things that you would set up after your first mailer? Buyer seller site-
Steven Butala: This person is going to be incredibly successful.
Jill DeWit: He’s kind of got it all figured out.
Steven Butala: Way thorough project list.
Jill DeWit: Three. How worth it is, how has the pro membership been and would you recommend enrolling right away for a beginner?” I would love to … Did you see any of the comments? I’m just curious what people weighed right in, because I have an idea.
Steven Butala: Oh, I expect there’s a lot of comments.
Jill DeWit: I know how they would answer this, so …
Steven Butala: Well, let’s take them one by one.
Jill DeWit: Okay.
Steven Butala: You go first.
Jill DeWit: Okay.
Steven Butala: What’s the least amount of set up? Entity, PO box, mailers, et cetera-
Jill DeWit: Okay.
Steven Butala: … that you need to perform for your first mailer.
Jill DeWit: Entity, not needed. LLC not needed yet. But you do need an address and a phone number that you’re going to keep forever, because once you start this process, you don’t want to be changing it.
Steven Butala: Not your home address.
Jill DeWit: And don’t use your home address. Exactly.
Steven Butala: We cover all of this in the education, by the way-
Jill DeWit: It’s true.
Steven Butala: … but that’s okay.
Jill DeWit: And you can, Ben, especially your first couple deals, you can put them in your name.
Steven Butala: Yeah.
Jill DeWit: We talk about this before, too. There’s nothing wrong with putting them in your name in the beginning, while you’re learning this, you know, your first five or 10 deals. Whatever it is. And then after you’re into it, you figure out, “Oh, this works. I love it. We want to do it.” Now, go do the LLC and set that up. But still your address and your phone number did not change. And make sure it’s number that you own, that you can port with you, because trust me, throughout your career here, in this business, you will have different phone systems, a different phone. You’re probably living in a different place. All this stuff is going to change so that’s why you need those things to be constant, that you could forward them and port them-
Steven Butala: Yeah.
Jill DeWit: … wherever you need to.
Steven Butala: That’s right.
Jill DeWit: So, like for us right now, it’s our same … How long has it been our same mailing address? 25 years?
Steven Butala: Since 1994.
Jill DeWit: This goes back to proven, by the way.
Steven Butala: Yeah.
Jill DeWit: So since 1994, it’s the same mailing address. Has not changed. Have our offices changed? Heck yeah. States have changed.
Steven Butala: States have changed.
Jill DeWit: Exactly. Relationships have changed. But you know what?
Steven Butala: You know what? That mailbox-
Jill DeWit: You might get divorced, Ben, but you’re still going to have that PO box.
Steven Butala: That mailbox is older than all three kids.
Jill DeWit: I was just kidding. That’s funny. It is older than all three kids. That’s very true.
Steven Butala: That’s amazing.
Jill DeWit: You’re right. That’s what’s constant and that’s important.
Steven Butala: Okay. I want you to picture, you listeners and caller, writer, I want you to picture … You send out all this mail. And picture a woman sitting at her kitchen counter in the morning, opening the mail. She’s got a cup of-
Jill DeWit: What’s she drinking? Oh. There we go. I knew it.
Steven Butala: A cup of coffee. She’s got a cup of coffee and some incident in the last five to seven days.
Jill DeWit: She has a Kleenex in her hand and she’s crying ’cause her husband just passed on.
Steven Butala: Oh, stop. That’s terrible.
Jill DeWit: I don’t know. I’m sorry.
Steven Butala: Jeez.
Jill DeWit: I don’t know. I’m sorry. Her dog-
Steven Butala: Some incident-
Jill DeWit: Her dog got hit.
Steven Butala: Okay. That’s bad, too.
Jill DeWit: Okay, well, I’m sorry.
Steven Butala: Some incident in her life is causing some financial stress. We have all been there a million times. It doesn’t matter what it is.
Jill DeWit: Kid going to college. I’ll make that a happy thing.
Steven Butala: Kid going to college. Yes.
Jill DeWit: He needs money for college.
Steven Butala: That’s right.
Jill DeWit: Because we’ve dealt with this situation, too.
Steven Butala: That’s right. So and she’s got this crazy piece of property that her husband bought or somebody bought her or she inherited. For whatever reason, she’s got a bunch of vacant land that she never has no intention of using, ever. She opens the mail, she reads the letter, and says, “Heck, yes. I really do want to sell this, but I bet it’s a scam.” This is what everybody … Every single business. So you need, and then I’m answering this question. What’s the least amount of set up that you need to do? What you’re doing is preparing to ease that person’s concern about whether or not this is real.
Jill DeWit: Right. And you’re legit.
Steven Butala: So you need a website. And you don’t need an overdone website. You need maybe a single page or two or three pages.
Jill DeWit: Show who you are and you’re legit.
Steven Butala: It has a picture of you and your dog and your wife, or whatever make you seem like a normal person.
Jill DeWit: Right.
Steven Butala: And some information about how you buy and sell property and you’re part of a group called Land Academy and you help people by liquidating unwanted assets.
Jill DeWit: And making it very easy for them.
Steven Butala: Yeah.
Jill DeWit: And you pay cash.
Steven Butala: And in your spare time, you race Golden Retrievers or something that makes you really identifiable. That’s what you need. That’s the answer to that question. They’re going to look you up. What do you do? What do you do when you get a piece of mail and you’re concerned or what do you do before you go out to eat?
Jill DeWit: Google them.
Steven Butala: You Google it.
Jill DeWit: Then you look on Yelp, you read the reviews-
Steven Butala: Yeah.
Jill DeWit: Exactly.
Steven Butala: That’s what they’re going to do.
Jill DeWit: Yep. Can I say more on question two?
Steven Butala: Yeah.
Jill DeWit: So what would be the first things that you set up after your first mailer? So that answer’s a site and the Google Voice, we’ve covered that, too. Let me go back, too, Ben. I’m not a fan of Google Voice.
Steven Butala: Yeah.
Jill DeWit: I really want somebody to the answer phone.
Steven Butala: Yeah.
Jill DeWit: So because you’re going to miss … I can absolutely tell you you’re going to miss deals if you don’t have somebody-
Steven Butala: Half. You’re going to miss half the deals.
Jill DeWit: … answering the phone. And it’s not expensive. Just … I think they have a thing down to $89 you could start. And through us, you get 20% off that. So how cheap. It’s very cheap.
Steven Butala: She means PATLive. Set yourself up on PATLive.
Jill DeWit: That’s where I was going to end with. PATLive.
Steven Butala: Oh.
Jill DeWit: So I was going there. I just hadn’t-
Steven Butala: Or get yourself a burner phone. If you intend-
Jill DeWit: And forward the number to the burner phone.
Steven Butala: Yes.
Jill DeWit: Exactly. And if you can kind of answer the calls maybe. It might be hard for people. Let’s just say Pat probably, like everybody, has a day job.
Steven Butala: Yeah.
Jill DeWit: Just invest in PATLive. It’ll be money well spent.
Steven Butala: Okay.
Jill DeWit: Then.
Steven Butala: Question number three.
Jill DeWit: And it has how worth it, how’s it been, the pro membership been and would you recommend enrolling right away for a beginner? I don’t think you can do this without it. The tools that we have, you have to have access to the data. So right there, you’re dead in the water, if you don’t have it. You have to have that.
Steven Butala: You have to get the data somewhere, okay? And that’s my stock answer for, “Is Land Academy’s membership worth it?”
Jill DeWit: Right.
Steven Butala: I mean, where else are you going to get the data? I guess …
Jill DeWit: It’s not this cheap.
Steven Butala: And the education. That’s how I look at this. The education’s free. What you’re really paying for is the data.
Jill DeWit: Okay.
Steven Butala: Access to the data.
Jill DeWit: I think you’re paying to learn how to do this, though, too, in the programs.
Steven Butala: I mean, I’ll tell you, Jill and I fund a lot of deals, so if you go to Land Investors and go to get funded or I think it’s funding.
Jill DeWit: Deal funding.
Steven Butala: That’s one of the menu items. We partner with a lot of people and we also entertain partnering with people who are not members.
Jill DeWit: Exactly.
Steven Butala: And I’ll tell you, there’s a massive difference between the people who are educated and the people who aren’t.
Jill DeWit: Exactly.
Steven Butala: And the deals that they choose, how they choose them, and how they just handle the whole thing.
Jill DeWit: It’s very true. Exactly. So back to-
Steven Butala: Ask other people in Land Investors if this is worth it. Don’t ask us.
Jill DeWit: Yeah. So, yeah, I’m sure he’s doing it.
Steven Butala: We obviously believe in it.
Jill DeWit: Well, you know what, and for listener, by the way, if this is something that’s of interest to you, please go on the landinvestors.com website right now. You can find this thread that was written by Ben. We really pulled it out of there. And read what our members have said and you can see, read a lot more about it, too. Right there. But, yeah, the membership, I’m serious. You’re dead without the membership, because I need the data. I need the cheaper mail. I need to be able to do my due diligence-
Steven Butala: You need ParcelFact.
Jill DeWit: That’s one thing.
Steven Butala: You can’t do this without ParcelFact.
Jill DeWit: When the calls come in. Yeah, you have to have it looked up on ParcelFact. I also need TitlePro247, because I’m doing my due diligence there. I need to check the chain of title.
Steven Butala: Yeah.
Jill DeWit: Because the county’s not always that great and I don’t always have it up to date there. So I need that information. And now I need to do a deed. Well, I need DeedPerfect, so there we go, and oh, by the way, now I have a question. Well, you know what? You need us on a Thursday call.
Steven Butala: Yeah.
Jill DeWit: To ask us that last question. Maybe even on a Thursday call, because you’re a member, is just like, I know this is a huge value. You just want to do a would you do this deal with us and give us the state county APN in our closed group and have Steven really look it up right there with you.
Steven Butala: Yeah.
Jill DeWit: For free. And say, “Yeah, I would do this deal.” And you’re going to go, “Okay. Great. I’m on the right track. Baby, we got this.”
Steven Butala: So, all of that said …
Jill DeWit: Yeah.
Steven Butala: Is it possible to succeed without Land Academy membership? Yeah. There’s people, if you go over Land Investors, all over the place there’s people that buy and sell land that are not members of Land Academy, so-
Jill DeWit: Right. They’ve taped it together.
Steven Butala: Yeah.
Jill DeWit: It’s a slower … There’s a learning curve.
Steven Butala: It’s going to take a lot more time.
Jill DeWit: That’s the thing.
Steven Butala: That’s it.
Jill DeWit: There’s a learning curve if you want to kind of tape it together then on your own. And there’s nothing wrong with that. But if you want to ramp it up faster, jump in.
Steven Butala: Yeah.
Jill DeWit: Thank you.
Steven Butala: Today’s topic, the word proven. This is the meat of the show. What I never anticipated when we started Land Academy … This is not a profit center for us. Land Academy is not a profit center. We buy and sell land and now we partnership with people, and that’s how we make money. We do this show as kind of a way to give back to the whole industry and just to help. And frankly, Jill and I enjoy it most of the time.
Jill DeWit: Right.
Steven Butala: What I never anticipated when we started Land Academy in 2015 are the offshoots of people-
Jill DeWit: Oh.
Steven Butala: … holding their own webinars and their groups and all kinds of stuff and I think it’s great.
Jill DeWit: Starting their own little side things.
Steven Butala: I think it’s great. The real estate business and the internet in general is riddled with unproven events.
Jill DeWit: Yeah. I see.
Steven Butala: Or products.
Jill DeWit: So your point here is-
Steven Butala: There are some people-
Jill DeWit: … do your homework on people?
Steven Butala: There are some people that I don’t think they’ve shaved yet-
Jill DeWit: That’s-
Steven Butala: … that are trying to teach other people how to buy and sell real estate. Or they’re dying, dying to get in front of a camera and have their own show.
Jill DeWit: Are you talking about … So you’re saying experience. There’s nothing to whether it’s life experience-
Steven Butala: How can you have a show?
Jill DeWit: … and/or-
Steven Butala: Real estate experience.
Jill DeWit: Right. Real estate experience. Okay.
Steven Butala: How can you have a show-
Jill DeWit: Which I agree.
Steven Butala: … when you’ve done five or six deals?
Jill DeWit: Could you imagine?
Steven Butala: Or let’s say you’ve done none.
Jill DeWit: I’ve got this. I’ve done the whole program. Forwards, backwards, three times. I’m going to start something right now. I got this.
Steven Butala: So I’m glad you’re listening to the show.
Jill DeWit: That’s very, very true.
Steven Butala: I’m glad … You know, there’s this … Our group is packed full of great people. It really is. And they’re educated well and the vast majority are doing really well for themselves. So you obviously have a choice about what you listen to and what you watch. It’s just it cracks me up more and more for some reason, people are … I’m glad. It’s just funny. It’s funny for me.
Jill DeWit: I still, though … I’m sure you do, Steven. I still take it as a compliment.
Steven Butala: Yeah.
Jill DeWit: You mean, so let’s all back up here. And I just want to point a couple things out. What a great compliment that we have shared and taught and coached and helped people, supported people to the point that they’re like, “I can teach other people and I can help other people.” What a compliment to us about that.
Steven Butala: Yeah.
Jill DeWit: I think that’s huge.
Steven Butala: Yep.
Jill DeWit: Number one. And I love that we’re reaching … You know, I had someone the other day, just a couple days ago, I was in BiggerPockets putting some comments in there and this girl’s like, “All right. What are you trying to do here?” I’m like, “Nothing. There’s enough deals to go around.” She’s like, “Oh. Okay.” It’s like she thought … I don’t know what she thought I was trying to do or-
Steven Butala: Seriously. What-
Jill DeWit: It was really kind of weird. She was like-
Steven Butala: Tell us about it.
Jill DeWit: I was answering somebody’s question. I was sincerely helping them and answering a question and this woman’s like, “All right, what are you … What’s your … What’s your …
Steven Butala: What are you selling?
Jill DeWit: Yeah. Something like that. And I’m like, “Nothing. I’m really here helping people. Have you not met me and my group because if you come along-
Steven Butala: This is what I’m talking about.
Jill DeWit: … and see. I’m giving it all away, basically. I’m keeping the lights on and we have a huge staff.” But at the end of the day, we’re not making much money, so anyway, it’s really more giving than getting and, as it should be, you know?
Steven Butala: This show gets larger and larger constantly.
Jill DeWit: I love it. And that’s Land Academy. And you’re right. Land Academy is … pays for itself. Let’s just leave it at that. And then over here our investing. That’s still our business.
Steven Butala: Yeah.
Jill DeWit: And I love it and it’s never going to go away, so …
Steven Butala: It just cracks me up. There’s lots of critics out there and there’s lots of people that think they can do it and then when you really see what they’ve done, it’s nothing.
Jill DeWit: It’s like 20 deals. Now do your homework. That’s a good point. And I don’t want to pick on anybody.
Steven Butala: Jill and I have done almost 16,000 deals.
Jill DeWit: Yeah. And then of all types.
Steven Butala: This is show number 939.
Jill DeWit: It’s like do you want to talk about the commercial thing I’m doing right now? Do you want to talk about the house where I just told the lady go jump in a lake, kind of thing? Sure. What do you want to know? Seriously. That was just today.
Steven Butala: Jill terminated.
Jill DeWit: I did.
Steven Butala: She cut off a buyer.
Jill DeWit: I did.
Steven Butala: Terminated them-
Jill DeWit: They were playing games.
Steven Butala: … because they were taking too long and they’re whiny.
Jill DeWit: Wasting our time.
Steven Butala: And I won’t say-
Jill DeWit: They think I’m desperate.
Steven Butala: I won’t say they’re from Canada.
Jill DeWit: I paid cash for it. I’m not desperate. You can walk. I know what’s it worth. I don’t care.
Steven Butala: The amount of this conversation.
Jill DeWit: I am not sweating.
Steven Butala: That has gone on, because we’re down to the last $5000 purchase price and Jill said, “Do you know what?”
Jill DeWit: No.
Steven Butala: No.
Jill DeWit: They went lower. I’m like, “We’re not doing that.”
Steven Butala: Jill said no. No. See you. Don’t call back.
Jill DeWit: Yeah. Exactly.
Steven Butala: I love that about you.
Jill DeWit: I did as much as I’m going to do and we’re going to let it go. So because what was the whole … Can I back up here real quick? So I just want to recap here. Proven is, to you, making that we are proven.
Steven Butala: We’re proven.
Jill DeWit: And making sure that whoever you learn from and follow, if you will, that they’re proven. Do your homework.
Steven Butala: Yes.
Jill DeWit: Okay.
Steven Butala: Yes. You have a finite amount of time.
Jill DeWit: That’s true.
Steven Butala: And resources.
Jill DeWit: That’s true.
Steven Butala: Don’t waste it on some silliness.
Jill DeWit: That’s true.
Steven Butala: That just got your, something was shiny of Facebook or on the internet and it’s … Here’s why I’m saying this. The vast majority, not the majority, at least half of the people that are members now have come to us from other … They have other educator experience-
Jill DeWit: Right.
Steven Butala: … and they all say a different version of this, “Man, I wish I would have found you guys first.”
Jill DeWit: I know.
Steven Butala: “I spent too much money and time listening to these ding dongs-
Jill DeWit: Yeah.
Steven Butala: … doing X, Y, and Z. And it’s not just people. I wish I would’ve found you guys first, with this land thing first, because I wasted a lot of money and lost a lot of money.”
Jill DeWit: Yeah.
Steven Butala: Renovating a house, because it’s sure not like the HGTV episodes.
Jill DeWit: Right.
Steven Butala: So spend your time and money on something that’s proven. You deserve it.
Jill DeWit: I have nothing to say.
Steven Butala: Mic drop.
Jill DeWit: Well, you’ve done it again. You’ve wasted another, I don’t know, 15 minutes or so listening to the Land Academy show.
Steven Butala: Join us next time for the episode called Already Successful Members Succeed.
Jill DeWit: And we answer your questions posted on our online community, landinvestors.com. It’s free.
Steven Butala: You’re not alone in your real estate ambition. Hey, how was that for a rant?
Jill DeWit: It was a little bit of a rant. That’s what I was just going to say. I’m like, “Hmm. He had to get something out.” Did it work?
Steven Butala: The most popular-
Jill DeWit: Is it off your chest?
Steven Butala: Yeah.
Jill DeWit: Okay. Good.
Steven Butala: No. It’s never really gone.
Jill DeWit: Oh.
Steven Butala: The most popular radios shows, by leaps and bounds, are just guys ranting.
Jill DeWit: Well-
Steven Butala: They’re just frustrated as heck with the way the world is.
Jill DeWit: Well, hold on a moment.
Steven Butala: And I think that’s okay.
Jill DeWit: And I’m okay with that. But what I was going to say, too, when you started to say the most popular shows, I thought you were going to say the most popular shows are people, let’s just say experienced. I don’t … I’m not going to use age numbers here, because I’m a girl. I’m not a fan of age. So-
Steven Butala: Oh, shoot. We’re laughing. Don’t laugh.
Jill DeWit: That’s right. But you know, and they’ve been there. That sings to me. You know, I just wrote a blog last week about our online community and there’s I can’t remember how many thousands of posts in there. I’m like with the experience that we bring to the table, now, with the thousands of people that are in our online community and the thousands more post-
Steven Butala: Yeah.
Jill DeWit: … you can pretty darn bet that whatever situation you’re experience or what question you have, it’s probably in there.
Steven Butala: Yeah. That’s right. It’s proven.
Jill DeWit: It is proven.
Steven Butala: And it’s not just us that …
Jill DeWit: That’s-
Steven Butala: Look when we started this thing, Land Academy thing, there’s been several times where I’m like, “You know what?” Because we’d get comments like, “Come on, you guys. This can’t work.”
Jill DeWit: Right.
Steven Butala: And my initial reaction, Land Academy would never exist if Jill wasn’t involved.
Jill DeWit: Thank you.
Steven Butala: And even like last week, I don’t-
Jill DeWit: Thank you.
Steven Butala: I don’t need to do this. My whole reaction to anybody’s opinion is, “You know what? That’s fine. Don’t join. Don’t listen.”
Jill DeWit: I’m still cool.
Steven Butala: In fact, you know what?
Jill DeWit: If it doesn’t sing to you-
Steven Butala: Why create what’s just happened with this house in Arizona?
Jill DeWit: Yeah.
Steven Butala: Don’t buy it then.
Jill DeWit: Yeah, I don’t care. Doesn’t bother me. I’m not going to talk you into it.
Steven Butala: I’m not going to sit here and sell you something.
Jill DeWit: No.
Steven Butala: If you don’t see the value in this, then you don’t see the value in this. That’s fine.
Jill DeWit: And that’s okay.
Steven Butala: Hundreds and hundreds of other people are making, literally, making fortunes.
Jill DeWit: Right.
Steven Butala: Doing this in our membership.
Jill DeWit: Yep.
Steven Butala: They’re asking us for more products every single day.
Jill DeWit: Yep.
Steven Butala: To make it easier and they’re willing to pay. So I feel proud.
Jill DeWit: Me, too.
Steven Butala: And proven.
Jill DeWit: Me, too. Wherever you are listening or watching, please rate us there.
Steve and Jill: We are Steve and Jill.
Steven Butala: Information.
Jill DeWit: And inspiration.
Steven Butala: To buy undervalued property.
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