What Excites Steven Right Now (1092)
What Excites Steven Right Now (1092)
Transcript:
Steven Butala: Steve and Jill here.
Jill DeWit: Hi.
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 excites Steven right now.
Jill DeWit: This Steven.
Steven Butala: Meaning me. It’s weird to say that title about yourself.
Jill DeWit: It’s kind of funny.
Steven Butala: Before we get into it, let’s take a question posted by one of our members on the landinvestors.com community. It’s free.
Jill DeWit: Danny wrote, “Hello Land Academy family. I have a few customers who have been asking me if I am the owner of the property.” I’ve got a cough, sorry. “Some even ask for the copy of the warranty deed.” This is weird. This doesn’t usually come up for me. “What do you usually say to your customers when you don’t own it yet because it’s an option deal? Is there a risk of telling them the truth?” Not at all.
Steven Butala: There’s never a risk of telling the truth. In fact, that’s what my advice would be.
Jill DeWit: No, tell them the truth.
Steven Butala: I would say, again this comes back to equitable title, which you talked about I think two shows ago?
Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Steven Butala: If you have an option, a signed option … This is why I recommend getting a signed option and not just doing it like a kind of handshake. You now have equitable title in the property. I mean, it’s a legal deal. You don’t own it, but do you have an interest in it and you can make some decisions about it.
Jill DeWit: Exactly.
Steven Butala: So I would absolutely just tell the story, the absolute straight story. “Yep, I have equitable title in this transaction. This person owns it and he’s empowered me to to sell it for him for this price.”
Jill DeWit: I would like to add, I think there’s an underlying thing going on here that we’re not picking up on, which is some reason this buyer is not feeling it with you. So that’s why they’re asking for more stuff here. Is your website not that good? That’s your first thing, they can’t find you anywhere on the internet. They’re not feeling good about it. So before they pass over some money, they want to make sure this is all legit. So that’s what I read into this. And if you had a website and your LinkedIn and your Facebook and your company and your face is there, it all shows you’re an investor and you’re buying and selling property in this area, then that would solve all my concerns and I wonder if that would do it.
Steven Butala: And the final nail in the coffin is, “Hey buyer, if you’re not comfortable with this, I get it. We’ll just close through escrow, that’s fine.”
Jill DeWit: Yeah, that’s fine too.
Steven Butala: And the escrow agent will honor that relationship. If they don’t for whatever reason, they’re not the right escrow agent.
Jill DeWit: Right. Thank you.
Steven Butala: Today’s topic, what excites me right now. This is the meat of the show.
Jill DeWit: What does excite you? This …
Steven Butala: I think with this … This is Jill’s topic by the way.
Jill DeWit: It is.
Steven Butala: What I think Jill’s really asking me is, “What are you working on right now that really excites you and what’s new and what products are you going to kick out, or what’s the latest?”
Jill DeWit: What gets you out of bed in the morning, Steven? That’s it.
Steven Butala: I am really excited about two things. The new features that we will be releasing on parcelfact.com and tax lien foreclosures, because … And I’ll tell you why. Because Land Academy itself is going great. We finally since 2015, we have about the right number of members. We have an advanced group, which I think is just killing it and I’m proud to be a member of our advanced group. I think it’s about 15 people. We’re doing deals with them, specifically with two members I’m doing transactions, it’s very profitable. We’re buying and selling real estate effectively, although we could improve.
Steven Butala: So all that stuff’s kind of running in the background. So it’s a good sleepful night for me at this point in my career. But what’s new, my job kind of like in this relationship with Jill and I and my role in Land Academy is to kind of be out front and with new products, and new product lines and revenue streams to add. In ParcelFact, we designed ParcelFact to quite simply do one thing: find property that just has an APN. It’s rural vacant land, so the post office hasn’t assigned an address yet.
Jill DeWit: Right.
Steven Butala: And more than half of the 150 million properties in the country don’t have an address. Forever it was nearly impossible to locate these properties, let alone the boundaries of the properties, let alone who owns them and the same spot and all that. Well, the parcelfact.com now as it exists does all those things. What we’re doing now is throwing more APIs at it so that you can actually get the person’s phone number, or you can get their email address in a lot of cases-
Jill DeWit: It’s going to be cool.
Steven Butala: And we’re finding that ParcelFact itself and the sorting functions that we’re adding really appeals to a lot of different people, not just in land investing and not just in real estate. Think about dropping your address in there where you live and then finding out who owns all the properties around you and what they paid for them. There’s a lot of applications to this. We have one member who is a home remodeler in our group that’s using it to prospect for home remodeling. So I’m excited about that.
Jill DeWit: Oh, me too. I got to add on that. I think there’s a use for it for any anybody and I know that’s coming too. I won’t release that or leak that, but there will be a whole separate product that’s for the planet and not just investors like us.
Steven Butala: Yes, exactly.
Jill DeWit: There’s a use for everyone to know who’s where. I mean, this is like-
Steven Butala: You can find anyone. You can type in their name and if they own real estate they’re going to pop up-
Jill DeWit: Exactly-
Steven Butala: And then know pretty much everything about them. This is all-
Jill DeWit: It’s out there-
Steven Butala: Legal and available. It’s just putting a database all in one spot, put it all in one spot.
Jill DeWit: Wasn’t our team just talking about this? The other day they were talking about the amount of data Facebook has on us, the number of hundreds of facts about each and every one of us. If you don’t think that they know it, you’re mistaken. They do. It’s shocking what’s out there and I’m over it. I’m like, “You know what, just get over it.” So we even have with our advanced group, we have a thing called WhatsApp that we communicate with right now. We’re all just checking in with each other. And so for a while I’m like, “Do I want to have everybody have that much accessibility to me?” But you know what? I’m over it and they should, and it’s okay and it’s the right people.
Steven Butala: And then they can look up your phone number anyway.
Jill DeWit: I know.
Steven Butala: It’s staggering.
Jill DeWit: I actually got a text this morning, not kidding, a text that said, “Is this Jill Dewit?” And you better believe I did not reply to it.
Steven Butala: Wow.
Jill DeWit: Right? Who would say that?
Steven Butala: Somebody sent me a text too.
Jill DeWit: Who would say that? Are you serious?
Steven Butala: Yeah. I did too.
Jill DeWit: That’s funny. I’m not going to reply. If you want to reach me, you should say, “Hi Jill, this is X, Y, Z. We met at so-and-so’s house the other night and you said you could help me with,” whatever.
Steven Butala: I have a peeve about people leaving a message. I don’t care if they work for us or-
Jill DeWit: I hate that-
Steven Butala: And they just say, “Hey Steve, give me a call.” I’m never calling you back, ever. I never even respond to that.
Jill DeWit: That’s true.
Steven Butala: Ever.
Jill DeWit: That’s one of your pet peeves. I love it-
Steven Butala: Because you should do-
Jill DeWit: Tell me why you’re calling.
Steven Butala: They should do what you said.
Jill DeWit: I do.
Steven Butala: “Hey Steve, give me a call. I’ve got this thing. I would love to hear your voice”-
Jill DeWit: “Just need to pick your brain for two minutes.”
Steven Butala: “I’d love your advice on it, or I’m stuck on this thing,” or whatever. Just tell me what it’s all about.
Jill DeWit: “Hey, give me a call when you can.” Nope, not happening.
Steven Butala: I think that’s a manipulative … That reeks of manipulation.
Jill DeWit: That’s hilarious.
Steven Butala: And that’s another peeve I have, manipulating stuff. Why do you want to manipulate stuff?
Jill DeWit: I know. I know that I’m not guilty of that because I’ll be like, “I’m on my way to CVS and they have alcohol. Do you want any?” I couldn’t be more specific. I’m in line.
Steven Butala: One of Jill’s middle names is over-communication.
Jill DeWit: Well, it works for you. I try to remove all the questions.
Steven Butala: You can always call me if there’s alcohol on sale somewhere.
Jill DeWit: That’s right. There we go.
Steven Butala: The second thing I’m real excited about is foreclosing on tax liens and not just Arizona, but some other states because we’re in a a window right now because of the last economic recession. It’s about five or eight years later. And when that happens, all the problems that happened are now coming. They’re ripening because that’s how the tax lien world is. It’s about five to eight years delayed because that’s the amount of time these counties and states give you to get current on your taxes. So that’s a real good indication that people are not alive any longer or it’s just very, very unwanted property.
Steven Butala: Unwanted properties should be the middle name of Land Academy, and that’s what tax liens are. They’re just property that people have given up on. They just stopped paying taxes, so we’re in a process. Every tax lien I’ve ever foreclosed on and resold I’ve made in excess of 10 times what I have invested in it, all in for fees and everything. And we’re used to doubling our money with real estate in general, not houses, but with land. So when you start to talk about a multiple times 10 that’s what excites me. And that’s what the template of this is. And there’s no competition, there’s no negotiation. There’s not a lot of talking. You either foreclose on it or you don’t. The judge either says, “Yep, you’re right. You did this right, here’s the property,” or they don’t.
Jill DeWit: Right.
Steven Butala: And too what I’m finally excited about is we’ve got now, because of this group we’re in and some other reasons, virtually limitless capital. And so Jill and I are famous for spending down our acquisition budget every single month. And so-
Jill DeWit: I’m good at spending money on property.
Steven Butala: We’re coming into a recession here. We are coming into a recession here. The car sales are down and all kinds of stuff. So 2020 is going to be the beginning of this thing. I don’t think it’s going to be nearly as bad as it was last time, but we’re coming into it. And historically people who are good at real estate investment do really well in these downtimes. It flushes out a lot of real estate agents, that’s good. And it does a lot of stuff. It flushes out a lot of … It separates the people who know what they’re doing from, not.
Jill DeWit: Exactly.
Steven Butala: I’m excited about that.
Jill DeWit: I am too. Isn’t that funny, I can really only think of a handful of people that before the last recession that were hanging in there when I came on board and that are still here today. There’s not very many and that’s okay.
Steven Butala: Hey, join us next time for the episode called What Excites Jill Right Now.
Jill DeWit: And we answer your questions posted on our online community found in landinvestors.com. It is free.
Steven Butala: You are not alone in your real estate ambition.
Jill DeWit: That was kind of nice. I forgot how much I liked shows where the other person does majority of the talking.
Steven Butala: It’s been that kind of week for me.
Jill DeWit: Oh, I know. That’s why I’m like, “I’ve had to talk a lot,” and this time I didn’t have to. So that made it very pleasant. So thank you. And I’m happy to hear what’s exciting you.
Jill DeWit: The Land Academy Daily Show remains commercial free for you, our loyal listener. So wherever you’re watching or wherever you are listening, please subscribe and 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 Apple Podcasts . Reviews are incredibly important for rankings on Apple Podcasts. 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 Apple Podcasts.
