What Excites Jill Right Now (1093)
What Excites Jill Right Now (1093)
Transcript:
Steven Butala: Steve and Jill here.
Jill DeWit: Good day.
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 Jill right now. This should be an easy, fun episode to do.
Jill DeWit: It’s going to be G-rated, so nobody go there. Just had to say that.
Steven Butala: I think last episode was what excites me.
Jill DeWit: Uh-huh (affirmative).
Steven Butala: So it’s really interesting because we recorded that like two weeks ago.
Jill DeWit: I already forgot what you said.
Steven Butala: Me, too. I entirely forgot about-
Jill DeWit: Do you think it’s changed?
Steven Butala: No. Since you bring that up, I …
Jill DeWit: I wonder if it’s changed.
Steven Butala: We just had a live event and people come up to me, and they say something like this, “In episode 38 you said X, Y, Z.” And I sit and laugh because I just don’t remember. I don’t remember what recorded last week.
Jill DeWit: Exactly.
Steven Butala: Let alone episode 38. Then I have to think like-
Jill DeWit: “Did I say that? I must have.”
Steven Butala: Think about how different our business was in 2015 versus what it is now, so whatever I said in episode 38 may or may not apply right now.
Jill DeWit: Well, I’m proud to say that there’s many times that we eat our words, and we say, “We are now eating our words.” Or, “Realize we said this three years ago. Things have changed,” and things do change.
Steven Butala: Right. Grossly changed.
Jill DeWit: Yes.
Steven Butala: Always for the better, hopefully.
Jill DeWit: Exactly.
Steven Butala: Before we get into it, let’s take a question posted by one of our members on the LandInvestors.com online community. It’s free.
Jill DeWit: Ben asks, “I recently mailed a county in northern Arkansas. It’s my first mailer ever.” Yay. “It was a smaller mailer of around 250 units-”
Steven Butala: Uh-oh.
Jill DeWit: I know. That is really small. “… just to get the process down and see if my mailer would yield responses. I received one angry caller, as was expected, of course. And I was looking to sell about 80-plus parcels.” Oh [inaudible 00:01:56] Wait. I’m sorry. “I received one angry caller, as expected, and another investor who was looking to sell 80-plus parcels at what I thought was a decent price, around $400 an acre, for residential lots that are one to two acres.” I’m liking this so far.
Steven Butala: I mean, that’s $400 for a property. Four to $800 for a residential lot. Go ahead.
Jill DeWit: Amazing. “I did some additional research and reached out to another investor who is active on Land Investors and who has closed a number of deals in this area of Arkansas. He was kind enough to review the deal and determine the lots to be average and slightly overpriced …” I was wondering about this. “… since you could purchase very similar lots on the post-tax auction list for cheaper, like around $150 with the back taxes paid, from what I saw. So that brings me to my question. For those that mail Arkansas, and other markets for that matter, are there certain markets where it makes more sense to only look at the post-tax auction property list rather send mail? What has been the experience for other people working out of Arkansas?” I love this.
Steven Butala: Yeah. I feel very qualified to answer this.
Jill DeWit: You’re pretty much qualified to answer everything. I want to hear the one day when you say, “You know, I do not …” Well, it’s women’s issues, you may be not qualified to answer that topic. That’s probably the only one.
Steven Butala: No. I’m extremely confident. There’s a lot of stuff I’m not qualified to even make comment on.
Jill DeWit: All right. Okay. This one are you are.
Steven Butala: You know the Car Talk Show that we kind of modeled the show after over the years?
Jill DeWit: Yes.
Steven Butala: It’s been off … It’s still on the air, but one of the Car Talk guys passed away. Anyway. They have a segment in their show called Stump the Chumps. We should have that.
Jill DeWit: Are we the chumps?
Steven Butala: Yeah.
Jill DeWit: Okay.
Steven Butala: Yeah.
Jill DeWit: I’ll say, “Women’s issues for 100. What do you think this is?”
Steven Butala: “How did you respond when a woman says this?”
Jill DeWit: Right.
Steven Butala: I’m not qualified.
Jill DeWit: We’re going to do that after this. Okay. Answer the question, and then I want to do that.
Steven Butala: Every municipality in this country there’s … If you look at it from a county standpoint, 3,144 of them all over, counties and parishes, has some way of dealing with property where people just stop paying the taxes. And they take it back into their own possession, and … It varies very widely on how they do this. Some of them even don’t do it at all, even though they’re like required from a state statute standpoint. There’s some municipalities that just aren’t … And they’re not equipped to do it.
Steven Butala: Arkansas, bless their heart, is extremely organized. They have a state … Instead of doing a county by county or even city by city, which is what Texas does, they have a state centralized way of dealing with back tax property. It’s set up in four stages, and those four stages are based on the length of time that’s passed since the person stopped paying their taxes. Stage four property is the end of the line. You can go in … There’s huge, huge Excel lists for every county and municipality in Arkansas. You can scour those lists, and if there’s $80,000 of back taxes or $800 of back taxes or $800,000 back taxes, you can write a check for $50 or $150 and chances are it’s going to be accepted.
Steven Butala: There’s one guy in our group that does this every month, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of properties he buys every month. Too much property to sell. In fact, he’s so jammed up. I’ve done this for years. We haven’t done it recently because we’re focusing our manpower, Jill and I’s manpower, on multimillion dollar deals in California.
Steven Butala: Anyway. The writer here-
Jill DeWit: Ben.
Steven Butala: Ben is asking, “I got this deal in my hand.” Hopefully it doesn’t have any back taxes, Ben. That would be my first question. And, “Should I buy it?” Because chances are the person that got this letter from you went and bought these properties from the back tax list. I’m sure of it, actually.
Jill DeWit: That could be. Yeah, because they have 80.
Steven Butala: So the answer is this. He’s asking, “Should I actually just go buy a property in the back tax lists, or should I … This bird the hand that I have for $400 per acre, should I buy it?” And the answer is if it makes sense, I would buy it for $100 an acre. See, the thing is with these properties, a lot of the property that’s left on these back tax lists may have an HOA issue … You got to really … I’m oversimplifying this and making it sound like it’s really easy. “Oh, you just pick these out, send a check, and it’s over.” You got to check liens. You have to check for HOA. A lot of these properties have HOA. It doesn’t wipe out the HOA accumulation of value.
Jill DeWit: Right, for the county. Buying them from the county. Check that.
Steven Butala: But I’ll tell you this. Here’s the secret. If you can get acreage in Arkansas, if you’re really looking at one to two acre lots for four to $800, you’re going to do great. A lot of that property is just tiny little properties that are not useful, or they’re in these huge HOA environments.
Jill DeWit: Got it. But it’s good to know. And I think what he was asking, too, is, “Did I miss something? Should I have checked that?” There’s no way of knowing, and there are not a ton of areas where it really make sense. I mean, I know there’s not a ton. There might be a few that it might make sense that you could get properties other ways. But the other point is, too, what Steven always says, and I always go back to is, “Now you’re going out and doing something versus letting it come to you.”
Steven Butala: Well, it came to you. You won. Your mailer worked.
Jill DeWit: Yeah. So you did it right. But you can even use that for a negotiation tool with this person. Like, “Look. Hey, here’s the deal. I found out there’s 10 properties around this one that we’re talking about. They’re all in the back taxes. I can have him for $150.
Steven Butala: Yep. Jill’s absolutely right.
Jill DeWit: So I would buy yours for $150 right now. It’s a whole lot easier, and we can call it done. Or I can say, “I’m sorry. I have to go buy these,” you know?
Steven Butala: Yeah.
Jill DeWit: Everybody gets it.
Steven Butala: Well said.
Jill DeWit: Thank you very much.
Steven Butala: Today’s topic-
Jill DeWit: Wait. I didn’t get to do my fun thing.
Steven Butala: Oh. Oh.
Jill DeWit: Okay. Hold on. You’re just so into this show. I want to do my funny thing. Okay, so here’s my thing back to what we’re talking about. Steven, we’re going to test-
Steven Butala: Stump the Chumps.
Jill DeWit: We’re going to Stump the Chump. And today, the chump is Steven. And our topic-
Steven Butala: It’s like every other day.
Jill DeWit: Our topic, women’s issues. Our question today, Steven, for $500 the question is how do you answer this? A woman says, “No. I don’t need to get flowers.”
Steven Butala: Oh, my gosh. That’s a trap. That is … Okay. May I answer it?
Jill DeWit: Yes, you may.
Steven Butala: A woman says that sentence there, they do not like you at all. If it’s not your wife … Well, it could be your wife that doesn’t like you at all. But if they say, “Please …” Did you ever see on a movie like somebody … you give them flowers, and the woman like throws them in the garbage can because they’re just done with you?
Jill DeWit: I’m going to let you answer, then I’m going to tell you the truth in a minute.
Steven Butala: You’re going to let me … You’re going to Stump the Chump.
Jill DeWit: I am going to Stump the Chump.
Steven Butala: If a woman says, “I don’t want any flowers,” they’re saying it out of anger or … Because they do. They want flowers. But I think there’s a certain point where … And we’ve all been relationships like this. Unless you’re 12 years old, you’ve been in a relationship where she’s just not that into you anymore, and maybe she … I’d just run away. Actually, I wouldn’t even deal with that.
Jill DeWit: Is that your final answer?
Steven Butala: Yeah. Yeah. I would avoid that, actually. I would try to find a new acquisition. I would just send more mail out.
Jill DeWit: Well, get a point for partial credit, which is she really does want the flowers. So it’s a trap. That part’s true, also.
Steven Butala: You can’t fool this 52-year-old on these women’s stuff.
Jill DeWit: When a woman says, “No. I don’t need flowers,” or, “I don’t want any flowers.”
Steven Butala: Oh, that’s different.
Jill DeWit: Well, that’s what she said. Now, there’s no throwing him a ball. You didn’t ask the question.
Steven Butala: Well, the voice intonation changed.
Jill DeWit: Oh. Oh, well. Okay. I’ll just say, “I don’t want any flowers.” No matter how they say it, they want the flowers, and they want … And that means double-time it. Ignore it. Send them. And find out what kind they really like, and nail the right color and the right flower.
Steven Butala: This is just like sales. You know why men don’t do that? Because they all know that’s the right thing to do. Everybody knows it. You know why they don’t do it? Because they don’t want to deal with the rejection.
Jill DeWit: Oh. Well, who’s going-
Steven Butala: The possibility of rejection.
Jill DeWit: Wait, wait. Who’s going to reject it? At the end of the day, you don’t think they’re going to smile when the flowers come their way?
Steven Butala: Jill, you’re not the regular woman.
Jill DeWit: All right. I’m telling you.
Steven Butala: I’m telling you, a lot of women, that’d just make them more mad.
Jill DeWit: Well …
Steven Butala: A lot of women wake up real mad in the morning.
Jill DeWit: I don’t know. All right. You did half Stump the Chump. You get half of it. You get to do me on the next show.
Steven Butala: My answer would’ve been different if it was you. If you said, “I’m asking this,” or, “I’m saying this sentence,” then my answer would have been totally different.
Jill DeWit: All right.
Steven Butala: I would have answered it that way.
Jill DeWit: Oh, okay.
Steven Butala: And I’m not trying to be right here. I’m just trying to clarify.
Jill DeWit: Oh, okay.
Steven Butala: We could play Stump the Chumps tomorrow.
Jill DeWit: We could do that again. I like this.
Steven Butala: All right.
Jill DeWit: Great. It’ll be men’s issues.
Steven Butala: [crosstalk 00:11:15] Today’s topic-
Jill DeWit: Because men have issues.
Steven Butala: I got to tell this story really fast. We’re at the live event, and there’s some people in our group that only buy a hunting property, and they were telling these stories about … And they’re very expensive hunting properties, big properties, and their margins are huge. They make a couple hundred thousand dollars on each one of these deals, and they sell pretty fast because of the way they market it, and who they marketed to. And Jill said … I don’t know why she was involved in this. But she said, “I’d be happy to take people out and show them their hunting property and get on a horse and bring bagels and coffee.” I said, “I don’t think people who are hunters-”
Jill DeWit: I forgot about the bagels and coffee.
Steven Butala: “… have bagels and coffee in the morning. I think it’s more like whiskey and jerky.”
Jill DeWit: I remember that, yes. Bagels and … Again, I was trying to be G-rated.
Steven Butala: I’ll bring the ATVs and the whiskey and the jerky.
Jill DeWit: And the guns.
Steven Butala: That’s actually how people go hunting. Yeah.
Jill DeWit: Whiskey, jerky, guns on an ATV, and I’m all, “Bagels and coffee on a horse.” All right.
Steven Butala: Every single time we go fishing, Jill … This is like a Jack and Jill episode.
Jill DeWit: I do pack a picnic.
Steven Butala: Jill packs a picnic to go fishing, and it’s just really time-consuming, and it’s a distraction. I want to go fish.
Jill DeWit: Well, then it makes it a fun trip for me. I don’t want to sit there and just stare at the line.
Steven Butala: I want to just chill.
Jill DeWit: Okay. Well, I want to enjoy my mimosas and my bagels.
Steven Butala: Today’s topic, finally, What Excites Jill Right Now. This is the meat of the show.
Jill DeWit: Other than talking about women’s issues.
Steven Butala: Jill’s clearly excited today.
Jill DeWit: Yeah. Oh-
Steven Butala: You have notes.
Jill DeWit: I do have notes. All right.
Steven Butala: This is totally a Jack and Jill episode.
Jill DeWit: It kind of is. We got to get on that. What interests me right now? Number one, again, as you just said, we just came off a live event that was so much fun. What does that do? It makes you really think about things I could be doing better in my business every darn time we get together. I don’t care what level you are. We had some people at our event that were brand new, like they just joined that week. It was a funniest thing.
Jill DeWit: We had a guy … I’m trying to remember his name, but it was so sweet. He’s like, “I just enrolled on Tuesday. I got on a plane on Wednesday, and I booked a room to stay from the airport as I’m on my way out to you guys to see you guys on Saturday.” I’m like, “This is the greatest thing.” So I don’t care if you’re brand spanking new to Land Academy, or you’ve been with us for five years, we all get something out of these events. Actually, it was two. We had two people there, Bei and Luke, that were at the live event. Bei Zhang and Luke Smith. They were the longest members that were at the events.
Steven Butala: They got an award.
Jill DeWit: We gave them some awards and some [crosstalk 00:14:01]
Steven Butala: Next time, we should do little statues like the Academy Awards.
Jill DeWit: Oh, we did. We had statues, but they were … We had gifts.
Steven Butala: [inaudible 00:14:06] they have plaques? Oh, yeah. Yeah.
Jill DeWit: They were gifts. We had gifts.
Steven Butala: I want to do little Academy Award statues next time.
Jill DeWit: Yeah. So I just … The first thing I’m excited about is all the things that I’ve got going in my head from that live event. Like, “All right,” as we all do. Every single one of us, I know, from that event went home was something. And I know, too, because I’m watching our … We have online chat with our just advanced group on our phones that we’re all communicating. And I can see everybody communicating like, “Okay. How did you get that guy? What are you using over here for this? How did you do that?” We’re all upping our games, and it’s great.
Jill DeWit: And, by the way, that’s the whole point of Land Academy. We’re all helping each other. We’re all getting stronger, doing better deals. Our businesses are getting bigger, and that’s the way it should go. No one’s trying to close the door and not help someone or share secrets or whatever. There’s enough property to go around. We’ve already covered that. So did you want to comment?
Steven Butala: No.
Jill DeWit: Okay. The second thing I want to talk about … Well, I mean what’s exciting now? I have five things. I’ll whip through them. Are you bored?
Steven Butala: No.
Jill DeWit: Okay.
Steven Butala: I love to hear what interests you, excites you.
Jill DeWit: All right. Staffing’s going well. I know for a long time we kind of talk about, “Ugh, staffing.” Well, we took a little break. You and I literally took a break. We were, a week ago, in Lake Arrowhead. Even though we say we took a break, we goof off/we work anyway. But part of it was just kind of a think week, you like to call it.
Steven Butala: I got it from Bill Gates. I stole it, actually.
Jill DeWit: Yes. Yes.
Steven Butala: Think drink week was what it ends up being.
Jill DeWit: That’s true. It’s really drink week with some thinking. Let’s think about drinking week.
Steven Butala: I mean, I’m sure Bill Gates goes and has a think week, and he actually thinks and reads and stuff, but … When we have like a week of time where we don’t have to do anything, there’s drinking.
Jill DeWit: That’s funny.
Steven Butala: Let’s just be honest about it.
Jill DeWit: Exactly. But we were thinking about staffing and reorganizing, and we came back, and we did it.
Steven Butala: Yeah.
Jill DeWit: What we had to do is really take a step back. This is a whole nother show, by the way. But you have to really sometimes assess, “Are you in the right role? Is that person in the right role?” And quit trying to put people, including yourself, in roles that you want to be in that excite you. Maybe they excite you, but you’re not the best person at it.
Steven Butala: Yeah.
Jill DeWit: You need to assess and make some changes, and that’s what we did. And I’m excited about that, including [inaudible 00:16:29] We’re hiring again. It’s like we’re always hiring, but it’s good. It’s exciting.
Jill DeWit: I’m excited about the House Academy show. That’s one of the things that we, I think, now have a game plan. It’s going to start very soon.
Steven Butala: Next week.
Jill DeWit: Yeah. Maybe by the time this airs-
Steven Butala: Actually, it will start … This is airing tomorrow. It will start next week.
Jill DeWit: Okay, cool. All right. So we’ve got House Academy show that we’re going to be a really moving forward with consistently, and I’m excited about it.
Steven Butala: We just sent out 20,000 urban mailers today, actually, for houses. We’ll report back on how that goes.
Jill DeWit: Well, I will have a lot to share because the first wave is going to hit my phone.
Steven Butala: This is a new type of mailer for us. I’m not going to go into too much detail, but for a lot of … We’re filling an order for a buyer is what’s happening, a developer type buyer, and so it’s a zoning-based mailer. So I’ve been doing this a long time. I think this is going to be fish in a barrel because this guy is willing to pay retail. He just needs a specific type of zoning in like four or five specific urban areas, so this is like a House Academy member’s dream.
Jill DeWit: Yeah. Then the fourth thing is I’m reading more. That’s important to me.
Steven Butala: I noticed that. There’s lots of books around.
Jill DeWit: I know. It’s kind of funny. I’m always carrying a book with me. The first day we were on our little vacation getaway, you came around the corner, I had a book in my hand. It made you kind of giggle [inaudible 00:18:01] pretty thick book. So some fiction, some nonfiction. I read a lot of everything.
Steven Butala: Yeah.
Jill DeWit: It’s important to me, and it makes me feel good.
Steven Butala: I think it’s great.
Jill DeWit: Thank you.
Steven Butala: When I read, I read stuff like How To Foreclose On A Tax Lien In Texas and Why, by whomever.
Jill DeWit: That’s true reading. I’m reading Deepak Chopra, Metahuman. And I went to his thing the other night. That was really cool. On Monday night, I got to go … He was in El Segundo so real close to us. I got to go hear and see and talk to him.
Steven Butala: What was he like in person? Ever since I’ve known you, you’ve-
Jill DeWit: He’s exactly how you think he is.
Steven Butala: Really? Does he present himself? Is he like acting, or is he just all chill?
Jill DeWit: He’s very chill.
Steven Butala: Looked you in the eye and everything?
Jill DeWit: Very chill. Very chill. Very nice. He doesn’t … It’s what’s funny? You would think he’d be a big presence and like work the stage and work the room. He’s not that way. He kind of just kind of stands by the podium and just shares what he has to share, and it’s so insightful that you’re just drawn in, naturally drawn in. He doesn’t get excited, or …
Steven Butala: To get to that point in your career, I think you have to have that actor type presence, where it’s like, “Wow. He’s in the room.”
Jill DeWit: What shocked the heck out of me is I did not realize how many books he’s written. He’s written like 80-something books. Not kidding. And 20-something on the Best Seller’s list, and the guy’s not even 80. I think he said he’s 72, I want to say. So that’s a lot of books a year. He writes multiple books a year. I’m like, “Man, that’s his thing.” But anyway, that was cool. So that’s what I’m reading. It’s good.
Steven Butala: It’s good.
Jill DeWit: And then last thing I’m excited about, which is kind of really most excited about is I’m [inaudible 00:19:41] a push forward my women in business and aiding women entrepreneurs. I’ve been talking about it for a long time. I have a very good support group of women who want to be involved. I’m pretty excited about that.
Steven Butala: It’s great.
Jill DeWit: It’s going to be good.
Steven Butala: I mean that’s a-
Jill DeWit: It needs to happen.
Steven Butala: That’s a fish-in-the-barrel scenario. There are so many people that I know … These are the ones I know about that have reached out to you that have nothing to do with our group-
Jill DeWit: Right.
Steven Butala: … that have reached out to you and both locally and because of the show that are really ready to participate.
Jill DeWit: Exactly. It’s going to be good. Thank you.
Steven Butala: Join us next time for another interesting episode. I think the two episodes that are coming up after this involve our staff members. I know they do.
Jill DeWit: Cool. And we answer your questions posted on our online community found at LandInvestors.com. It is free.
Steven Butala: You are not alone in your real estate ambition. I wonder how many times I’ve said that.
Jill DeWit: It’s a lot.
Steven Butala: It’s more than 1,100. We’re coming up on show 1,100.
Jill DeWit: Wow.
Steven Butala: Isn’t that kooks?
Jill DeWit: It’s crazy. It is so crazy. 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. 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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