You Can Have it All, Just Not at the Same Time (LA 1174)
You Can Have it All, Just Not at the Same Time (LA 1174)
Transcript:
Steven Butala:
Steven 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 you can have it all but just not at the same time. What the heck does this mean to you?
Jill DeWit:
I know, it kind of sounds kind of vague, like cake and eat it too kind of thing.
Steven Butala:
Yeah. Well, I just think there’s, timing’s everything. And some people can handle a ton of, some people can … I don’t know how they can do it. They can have six kids and launch a real estate career and do great.
Jill DeWit:
Can they?
Steven Butala:
I don’t know.
Jill DeWit:
Let’s talk about it. Let’s talk about it in depth.
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:
Okay. Jeremy wrote, “In a recent, Would You Do This Deal, Steve and Jill mentioned they would like the deal better if the offer price to buy the land was lower than the mailer offer price. Wondering what type of strategy or language anyone can share about how to go back to the land owner and try to negotiate/offer a lower price for the land. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.” I’ve done this many times.
Steven Butala:
This is created for Jill, so we’re going to listen to her.
Jill DeWit:
Yes.
Steven Butala:
But Would You Do This Deal is a program that we have on every Thursday for Land Academy members. I guess it’s around three o’clock Pacific time, where we all get together on one webinar. We do this every week, and people submit their deals, and we all talk about it. Yeah. It’s good. No, don’t do it. Here’s why.
Jill DeWit:
Right. We answer all kinds of questions and that’s just one of the things that we do is Would You Do This Deal. And it’s fun because then we get in, it’s usually because it’s someone submits that they’re on the fence about it, and they want our input. Here’s the property, and we look it up state, county, APN. We all look at it together because it’s all visual too. And they say I’ve got it locked in at $3,000 let’s just say.
Jill DeWit:
And so Steven and I will go in and look at it and go, Oh … it’s usually right away we all pull it up and we go, “Oh, we see it.” If we have that reaction right away, usually it’s a where’s the access? What can you do with it?Because it’s a slope like this. It’s a 45 degree slope or something, something crazy. So what happens is, right, so we’ve said, “Hey, it’s not a kick it to the curb, not a total pass/ however, I wouldn’t pay 3000 for it. I’d pay 1500 for it, and here’s why.”
Jill DeWit:
So now Jeremy’s saying, “Well this is great. Now how do I go back and do that with them?” So what we usually do is, I’ll go to them with that information. I’ll present an email with a picture or a map and my reasoning why like, “Hi, Mr. Smith. I know I offered 3000. Have you seen the property? Because let tell you what I’m staring at right now. I did some research, and I can tell that access is an issue, and we may or may not be build on it. Only this one area, I think I could do something with,” or whatever the issues are, things like that. And then I say, “And because of all that, the best I can do is $1,500. If that doesn’t work for you, I get it. But this is my best offer, based on all the information that I’ve now found since I sent out your offer.”
Jill DeWit:
And that’s legit. It’s honest. It’s real. And I obviously don’t love it. That’s the thing too. When you’re going back with these new offers, revised offers, if you will, there’s a reason for it. Because come on, let’s be honest, we’ve all priced it pretty darn well. Jeremy, you’re in our group, so I know you did your homework, and I know you came in good. If it was a beautiful, stellar property that didn’t have whatever issue we’re talking about, $3,000 would be fine. But now you’re staring at it going, sharks. I can’t do it for 3000. There’s no way I can, get what I need out of it. I can’t sell it for as much as I thought because of these problems.
Jill DeWit:
So what you do is just go back to the seller, clearly state the problems, give him a new number, and it needs to be a number that you feel really good with. Don’t just give him a new number because you feel like you have to, because you made him an offer. If you made him an offer and you don’t want it at all, just go back and tell him, “I don’t want it all. I’m super sorry. I just, my research doesn’t meet my criteria at all. I wish you all the best.” And move on. But your 1500, that needs to be a number that you know if they say, “Okay, I’ll take the $1,500. I’m well aware of those issues,” because usually they know. And you’re like, “Okay, well at $1500, I priced it, then I have to buy it, and it makes sense to me.”
Steven Butala:
Here’s what’s important to remember in this whole career. You have complete control over the deals you do, and I mean complete control. The way that these offers are written and the situation that you’re putting yourself in when you send out all these offers is, I want to buy a property for three grand. If it comes back and you really feel like it’s worth $1,500, then do it at 15 or don’t do it at all. Never do a bad deal. There’s no reason you would ever say, “Oh man, I sent him an offer. We got all this information. Now it’s like, “I really think it’s worth half of what I sent. I got to suck it up on this one.” That never has to happen, ever.
Steven Butala:
That’s what separates this business model from a ton of other business models out there, I think. Let’s say owning a convenience store, you’re in complete control. You have complete control, and you don’t have any real sunk costs, costs that you have to … Well, because in some businesses it’s like, “Man, I got to sell all this stuff out because I have to pay rent this month.” And so you don’t have all this. If you’ve ever owned a business, there’s a lot of decisions that you constantly are making, and you’re saying to yourself, “I wish I didn’t have to do this. I wish I didn’t have to pay this rent, pay all this payroll, or order this stuff from this guy, because I know it’s too expensive.” None of that happens here.
Steven Butala:
Today’s topic, you can have it all, just not at the same time. This is the meat of the show. I wrote this topic because the A number one issue when people … when Jill and I asked people, members who are not doing as well as we think they should be, the number one thing they say is, “I don’t have enough time, and I have all this other stuff going on in my life.” And so I started using this sentence a long time ago, and I guess I want to share it here in front of the camera. So what does this mean to you? You can have it all, just not at the same time.
Jill DeWit:
Well, what you started to say in the pre-show part makes sense to me. Do you think you can successfully have six kids and six companies and six homes and all of these, super easily? Oh, and take six months of vacation. Let’s imagine this, all right? This is the dream, six kids, six companies, six cars, six months vacation. Do you think you can do that all super easily?
Jill DeWit:
I’m not sure. I do not think so. I think something’s got to give, because you have to focus your time on something. Because if you’re pouring all your energy into your companies, then your kids are suffering. You’re pouring all your energy into your kids, and your company’s suffering. You could pour all your energy into your cars. No, your wife is suffering. So I really, I don’t, I know you’re going to come back and talk about scheduling. And I think that you should-
Steven Butala:
Yes I am. How did you know that?
Jill DeWit:
Because I know you, and I know you too well here. But I still think that there’s a cap. Go ahead.
Steven Butala:
Well, I think the title of the show tomorrow, actually, is called Obsessive Calendar Scheduling. I’m going to leave the scheduling part of it for tomorrow. But I really think there’s times in your life to do stuff, and there’s times in your life to kind of put yourself second. And then I think it comes back around where in the early retirement age, where it’s all about you again. So if on your bucket list or your priority list is getting rich, well, you know what, here’s mine.
Jill DeWit:
Okay. I like this.
Steven Butala:
Get and stay rich. And I mean crazy, exceeding your expectations, grossly exceeding what it costs you to live every month. When Jill and I were talking before the show, her, at the very tip top, she didn’t even hesitate. She said “I want freedom, freedom with my time.” So you can have all this stuff, I think. You just have to be incredibly organized, and you have to say this to yourself in the mirror very honestly, and Jill just did in a different way. “I can’t do all this stuff at the same time. I do want to have these six cars, but this just might not be the right time because the kids are still little. I do want to get rich and stay rich, and the earlier I start out down that path, the higher percentage of possibility that it’s going to be successful.”
Steven Butala:
I’m just about done with a book called The Stuff Your Father Never Told You. And that’s kind of what this is all about. You can’t do all this stuff at the same time, but you can do it all. You just can’t do it at the very, at the exact same time. The real tragedy in this, is if you try to do it all and you fail, and you will fail, then you think it’s like “Ah, real estate is just not a good vehicle for me.” And that’s just not the case. You just didn’t spend enough time on it. I learned that the hard way in college. I’ve got four classes or five classes. I’m spending 80% of the time on the classes that I like, and the other ones are kind of getting kicked to the curb, and the grades reflect that.
Jill DeWit:
Doesn’t everybody do that? It’s funny, I watched that with our staff. We have some new projects that we’re working on right now. And I watch people in our office and I’m like, “They’re only working on the fun stuff.” All the other important stuff that needs to get done is getting pushed down and down and down on the list. I’m like, “All right, this is not cool.” But it’s normal. We all do it.
Steven Butala:
Absolutely.
Jill DeWit:
Kind of like dating. I’m over here back to dating. You should only date the fun guys. That’s what I did. I’m serious.
Steven Butala:
I think that you should do that anyway.
Jill DeWit:
That’s what I mean.
Steven Butala:
You should never just … Yeah. Why would you ever not date somebody who’s fun?
Jill DeWit:
I agree. Oh, they’re out there though.
Steven Butala:
Oh, I know. We can make this about dating really quick if you like.
Jill DeWit:
People do it. People get in relationships and they stay stuck. I’m like, “Why do you stay stuck?”
Steven Butala:
The best way to solve this, all kidding, yes they do. All kidding aside. The best way to solve this and the best advice I have is to not … don’t get married too soon, don’t have children too soon, and don’t have a mortgage too soon, if ever. Those three things will stop you, permanently stop you, from being successful. And if you do that stuff, and this falls into you can have it just not at the same time, do it in a light way.
Steven Butala:
Choose the right person who is really on the same page with you and wants the same income level. Have one child instead of 42 children. And if you have to have a mortgage, and I know there’s some people … Jill and I have, to this day, have friends in this crazy expensive neighborhood that we live in, are just bent on having this crazy mortgage instead of just renting. That’s not helping anybody or anything. So just make these decisions, choose the thing that you really want the most at that time, and do away with the other stuff. It’ll all happen later.
Jill DeWit:
Love it.
Steven Butala:
Does that make sense?
Jill DeWit:
I love it. Happy you could join us today. Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday you can find us right here on the Land Academy Show. Tuesdays and Thursdays, I hope you’re listening there too, we are on the House Academy Show.
Steven Butala:
Tomorrow, the episode on the House Academy Show is called Obsessive Calendar Scheduling. You are not alone in your real estate ambition.
Jill DeWit:
Oh, I can’t wait for that one tomorrow.
Steven Butala:
If somebody said, “Hey, this calendar,” because this happens in companies with software all the time. “Hey Steve, this calendar thing that you’ve been doing, that’s great, but we changed it all, so you can’t use a calendar anymore. You have to figure out something else.” Or “Here’s another tool. It’s called a Franklin Planner, and we think that this is going to help you be more productive.” Or “Here’s a notepad.” Honestly, I say this truthfully, it would cut my productivity down and my organization and my morale by like in half.
Jill DeWit:
I know, I’m sorry. We don’t mean to do that. The Land Academy show remains commercial-free for you, our loyal listener. So wherever you’re watching, wherever you’re listening, please subscribe and rate us there. We are Steve and Jill.
Steven Butala:
Information …
Jill DeWit:
And inspiration …
Steven Butala:
To buy undervalued property.
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