What Gets Jill Excited (LA 1268)
What Gets Jill Excited (LA 1268)
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 what gets Jill excited.
Jill DeWit:
Nobody go there, by the way, this is business, this is professional.
Steven Butala:
How much fun is that?
Jill DeWit:
Oh, come on.
Steven Butala:
And who’s nobody, just me?
Jill DeWit:
Well, everybody.
Steven Butala:
Here’s what the title could be. What gets you excited?
Jill DeWit:
In business.
Steven Butala:
At what point in the transaction-
Jill DeWit:
There we go.
Steven Butala:
… do you get real excited and say, you know. Everybody’s got that little euphoric moment or maybe a set of moments in a real estate deal, or like in the company development stage that you’re in, you know, how you’re accumulating wealth in real estate. That’s what this is really about. But no one would listen to it if that was the title. So everyone wants to know what gets Jill excited.
Jill DeWit:
Yeah. So for any of you who just found this show based on the title alone and have no idea what we talk about, but just heard that someone named Jill’s getting excited, it’s not what you think.
Steven Butala:
Could be though.
Jill DeWit:
Oh boy. First.
Steven Butala:
And I’m qualified to answer that.
Jill DeWit:
Before we get into it, let’s take a question posted by one of our members on the land investors online community, it is free.
Steven Butala:
Non-Land Academy member X says the following. “I have traditionally always gotten my lists from the County, but decided to give RealQuest Pro a try because it was advertised in the Land Academy program.” This person’s not a Land Academy member. “I have mailed four counties so far, and the results have been nothing but horrible.” Member X, this is me talking now, has had not a good experience, and so that stuff happens. You know, you can’t bat a thousand. The other eight or 900 members that have passed through and gone on with and had huge success are wrong, apparently. Member X is right here.
Steven Butala:
“I’ve spent thousands of dollars without acquiring a single property. One of the owners call me saying she sold the property two years ago and shouldn’t have had been on the list. The ownership information has been updated on the CAD as well”, which I think he means ParcelFact. “Most of the records are duplicated owner’s names and addresses. So the cost of getting the data increases from 10 to 20% per record. AgentPro provides data for 5 cents per record. I haven’t tried them yet, but they give the same information for half the price. I am never going back to using RealQuest Pro again, what a waste.”
Jill DeWit:
This is funny to me. They just don’t know what they’re doing. They just don’t know and, no, I feel bad.
Steven Butala:
Jill and I have sent out tens of millions of offers and done tens of thousands of real estate deals using RealQuest Pro. So, and we’ve got historical members-
Jill DeWit:
And have hundreds-
Steven Butala:
… historical members, and I don’t know how many, it’s a lot.
Jill DeWit:
They just don’t know.
Steven Butala:
And we have people in our group that are making way more money than us, you know, millions of dollars a month doing this and using that data. So do you think it might be user error?
Jill DeWit:
That’s what I think.
Steven Butala:
Can you imagine going to do something in your life without getting educated on how to do it first? If you decide to become a welder, you go to school for a couple of years and you do an apprentice, you work as an apprentice or a journeyman and learn, you know, you learn to make the mistakes, you learn how to do it.
Steven Butala:
There’s something about real estate and I’ve long said this and I think it comes from real estate agents and how that’s structured, that lends itself to education is optional. So you don’t really have to learn about real estate. I watch HGTV I know how to flip a house now, they do it all the time. Real estate agents historically go to a class, they spend a lot of money for a class, take an exam, and then they find a designated broker. So a hanger license, they pay a bunch of money and that’s it. They never get educated. The class is about how to pass the exam, it’s not about how to buy and sell real estate.
Steven Butala:
So I think that bleeds into other types of real estate. So what ends up happening is the people who do well in real estate like Jill and I are self-taught, you know, I’m totally self-taught and never taken a real estate class that has anything to do with this in my life. This is one of the reasons we started Land Academy, is to teach the correct way to do it.
Steven Butala:
So if you’re not going to learn from us, which is fine, learn somewhere, go get yourself educated about the value of data and why getting the right data from the right place and member X couldn’t be more incorrect about RealQuest Pro and about actually getting data from the actual County. You know, if you want to really put yourself through some, pull a bunch of your own hair out, go get and order some data from a County directly and do a mailer.
Jill DeWit:
Yeah.
Steven Butala:
Which is what I used to do, that’s how I started this.
Jill DeWit:
Oh my God. I don’t even want to think about it.
Steven Butala:
Another member named Sean answers member X. “I can’t speak to RealQuest’s data quality yet since I just started using it, but I have used AgentPro247 and you don’t get all the information on a parcel that you use using RealQuest. Most importantly, you don’t get mortgage data included for the 5 cents per record with TitlePro. Being able to scrub out those-”
Jill DeWit:
It’s AgentPro.
Steven Butala:
Yeah. “Being able to scrub those out before mailing saves you 55 cents per record on postage. Regarding the duplicate names, you’ll find those in AgentPro247 as well. It happens whenever the same person owns multiple parcels.” Thank you, Sean.
Steven Butala:
Kevin says, Kevin is one of the moderators on Land Investors. He’s incredibly accomplished and he’s an advanced member. “You’re blaming RealQuest Pro for the data that is provided by the County. Some counties are years behind updating some of their records. You should expect similar results from TitlePro247 or AgentPro”, it’s the same company. “If you were to pull the same data from the same County, they will not be different by much, except for the way they filter the data. “Regarding the duplicate names”, as Sean said, “that occurs when the owner owns multiple parcels, which is a great thing. That’s part of doing a mailer and member X would know this if he got educated before he shot his mouth off on this forum. This is more of a problem with less rural counties. There’s been a lot of recently subdivided lots created. The person who did the splits is still the owner of many of the lots. In a County like that, I will lose half my data when I take out the duplicates”, just the way it is sometimes, and like Sean said, it’s better to spend the money on the data”, I’m paraphrasing, than to spend 55 cents for wasted postage.
Steven Butala:
Postage is expensive, data’s cheap. This is me speaking now. You want to scrub out as much as you possibly can and that’s just the way data scrubbing is. Member X would know that if they got educated before they shot their mouth off on this forum.
Steven Butala:
Luke says, we all know Luke, Luke Smith. “You get a lot more detail with RealQuest Pro data. I like AgentPro247 and TitlePro247 for pulling deeds and all kinds of recorded stuff. You can pull mortgages on there too. It just costs a few extra cents, but it’s good to know what banks and rates are going on to keep your shopping or just to, you know, snoop on your neighbors.” “I wish,” Luke goes on to say, “there was one and all be all data source, but it’s just part of the business.” I’m going to say that again. This is just part of the business.
Steven Butala:
Always shopping for the best data records to mail offers to is part of this. The more I study the longer my mailing wish lists get. And that’s the reason Jill and I provide three sources of data, TitlePro, AgentPro, RealQuest Pro, and DataTree, now with your subscription. Atrocious, sophomoric comment.
Jill DeWit:
Can you imagine having so many ways, things like, I wonder what industry they’re in. And I would, you know, any industry, you can say the same thing. Like I would never do that it’s ridiculous, well, you don’t know how to use it. Oh my gosh. I have, like my watch, I can see somebody saying, “Garmin sucks, it’s the stupidest watch, why do they even put these in an airplane? Who trusts Garmin? This thing, I can’t use it, I can’t even tell what time it is.”
Jill DeWit:
Well, you know it’s got a manual by the way, and you’ve got to get in and dig in and learn how to use it. This is a great watch, it links up to satellite and you can get extra stuff? Heck yeah. Is it going to be really extremely accurate? Yes, but you have to learn how to use it. Sorry.
Steven Butala:
So like I said on Monday, the theme of this whole week has been, if you want to do this halfway, Oh, I don’t need an education, I see it on HGTV all the time. If you want to do this halfway expect halfway results.
Jill DeWit:
Thank you.
Steven Butala:
I may have a lot more to say, but Jill’s like, okay, that’s it.
Jill DeWit:
That’s so funny.
Steven Butala:
Today’s topic, what gets Jill excited? This is the meat of the show.
Jill DeWit:
In business.
Steven Butala:
There’s always this little euphoric moment. You should go first because I have a euphoric moment in the anatomy of every deal, but you go ahead.
Jill DeWit:
It just happened on whatever day it was. I think it was Friday, it was Friday last week. A couple of times a week, or even, let’s just say once a week right now, I get these Moe Stephens doing something. And here I come, literally dancing and jumping up and down-
Steven Butala:
Jill, I love that too.
Jill DeWit:
… because of a deal. And it’s the same situation and here’s when I jump up and down, like I try not to, but it’s often me barging into a room because I’m like, Oh my gosh, and the last one was on Friday, last Friday. And it was me, it was a deal then like, I think this is good. I think this is good, I’m not sure. This is one of those deals that I’m not the pro on. So I sent it to one of my brokers that I’m working with. I said, “Hey, when you have a minute, look at this deal.” And this is one I think I was buying for $22,500. And he wrote, and I was waiting to see what his thoughts were. So he came back with a, “Hey, when are you going to have the deed on that one? If we list it for 89, I could probably sell it for 70, 79.” Shoot. I’m sorry. And anyway, “list it for 89, sell it for 70, 79.” And I was like, ding, ding. I knew it. When it came in, I was so excited. That’s what gets me excited. These amazing deals.
Steven Butala:
So in this case, there was confirmation from an unrelated third party. Pretty unrelated, I guess, that we were right.
Jill DeWit:
It’s just, I’m a deal junkie. It’s knowing what is possible. Can I get that?
Steven Butala:
What is it?
Jill DeWit:
It’s my alarm. I’m sorry.
Steven Butala:
This is a real show, everyone.
Jill DeWit:
I can’t believe I’m actually doing this. I’m so sorry. Okay. How’s that for real?
Steven Butala:
Go get that.
Jill DeWit:
It’s Friday. Okay.
Steven Butala:
This is Friday and we do real estate deals and stuff goes off.
Jill DeWit:
Exactly. So I’m a deal junkie. So the bottom line is what gets me excited. When I pull up a deed, it’s the initial pulling up a deal, it’s the buy side. That’s the whole thing. Seeing what’s possible, knowing we’re going to buy it for this and it’s worth this, and then either my confirmation or somebody else’s confirmation or your confirmation that this is a home run. I’m like, whoa, boy, that’s it.
Jill DeWit:
And now I’m done, by the way. Now the excitement’s over. Okay. So here’s how it all went, like a running in the room, I’m jumping up and down, like, Oh my gosh, this is great. We were already in escrow so that was awesome. And so now all I’m doing is telling my people, how fast can we close because I think he’s got a buyer. That’s the whole thing too. So then after an hour, I’m like, huh, it’s okay.
Steven Butala:
I’m the same way, Jill.
Jill DeWit:
Because I know how it’s going to go. I know how fast it’s going to sell. We have a great, this guy knows his stuff, and it will come through. And you know, what’s going to happen is 30 days from now, not even that, three days from now, or, you know, three days after I have it done, you know, recorded, purchased. And I say, ready go with him, he’s going to pick up the phone, whatever is, and he’ll call me back saying, “All right, here we go, I got a buyer, we’re ready to go.” I’m going to go, “Huh, okay, that’s cool, great.”
Steven Butala:
That doesn’t excite me either.
Jill DeWit:
No, I know, because we knew how it was going to happen. It was just that instant, it’s that instant rush of wow. And on the flip side, what doesn’t get me excited is looking at deals and trying to make them work. And I keep looking at people going, “Why are you doing that?” You should be having this feeling, especially right now in this climate of crazy uncertainty with people’s careers, lives, where they’re going to live. You know, there’s so many people that we are helping. They’re like, get this, I need the cash. Do you want this?
Jill DeWit:
You know, I had one the other day, I really had a legitimate one where the guy said, you know, he was about to say, “Do you want to take it off my hands?” And I’m like, I kind of don’t. It was a real small, older deal in an area that we don’t work with. And the back taxes were so much that I said, “Look”, the amount of money I would make on this property, doing this deal for this gentleman was less than a thousand dollars. So I’m like, “I’m really sorry, but my time’s worth more than that. I’m sure you can understand.” And I had to nicely … he’s afraid that the County is going to come to him with all this stuff. I said, “No, you don’t have to worry about that. Just stop paying. They’ll send more letters. And then eventually one will say, ‘Hey, on Tuesday, we’re taking it back, you know, just FYI.'” And he said, “Okay.”
Steven Butala:
You know, that’s a real off topic point of clarification. If you stop paying your property taxes in the County, eventually this is five years down the road, or if you pass away and you’re dealing with your parents’ estate or something, there’s no repercussions to you. The property taxes are tied to the property itself and not you at all. So it doesn’t affect your credit score. It’s not like going through a foreclosure on a house, nobody’s causing anger, you don’t get angry letters, none of that stuff. You get a bunch of letters, never a phone call, that says “You got a pay your taxes, you got to pay your taxes.” And it escalates and escalates. And then, or you could even just call and say, “You know what, you can stop sending the letters, I don’t want the property, just take it.” So there’s no real … people think it’s like a foreclosure in the house.
Jill DeWit:
It’s not. It doesn’t go on your record. He thought I was going to ding him or like garnish your wages and that doesn’t happen. Yeah, was a little side note. But the point for me today is, you should be getting excited. I want you to be looking at these deals and you should be going, you should be so excited, even if you’re brand new going, “I think I just found gold, and I’m going to bring it up on the member call, because I think I found gold, just to make sure I’m looking at this right.” And you probably are right. I just want you to have that feeling too.
Steven Butala:
It’s just like finding a big piece of gold in the river. You know, for me it is.
Jill DeWit:
Exactly.
Steven Butala:
I get really excited when I find a County that I know is going to work before we send the mail out. So I get that little euphoric tinge that way and then getting the mail out’s kind of just a mechanical put stuff in motion. I get extremely excited when we get signed purchase agreements back and the property’s amazing. That’s the biggest euphoric deal for me.
Jill DeWit:
Right.
Steven Butala:
And then Jill’s team closes it. I don’t really care when we get the money after selling it. In fact, I usually don’t know about it. And then finally, the third way I get really, I’ll never get used to this how great this is, because I do the financial statements for all these companies every month and every other month, one of the companies I go in there and I’m like, “Oh my gosh, there was $45,000 in this bank account and there’s $680,000 in there now. What did Jill do and why?
Steven Butala:
So what we do is convert money into property and back into money, that’s it. And sometimes it goes really, really, really, really extraordinarily well.
Jill DeWit:
Thank you.
Steven Butala:
So I get real excited with that too.
Jill DeWit:
You know I have one more that I was going to say that I get excited about. I have two things that I got excited about this week. And my other thing was I was flipping through social media and I saw one of our members put a post in there asking about health insurance, because he’s making the transition to leave his day job, and he wanted to know what everybody else was doing, you know, health insurance wise. And all I saw was he’s getting ready to just take that leap. And that gets me excited.
Steven Butala:
I get really, really, really excited about that too. And it’s a different type of excitement. It’s like a-
Jill DeWit:
Parent.
Steven Butala:
… being a proud parent.
Jill DeWit:
I’m like, yay, I can’t wait. Welcome to the quitters club.
Steven Butala:
Yeah, exactly.
Jill DeWit:
So that’s so cool. We are very happy you could join us today. Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, we are on the Land Academy Show, Tuesdays and Thursdays, we were on the House Academy Show.
Steven Butala:
Next week, join us on the Land Academy Show for another interesting episode. You are not alone in your real estate ambition.
Jill DeWit:
Yeah, I love that.
Steven Butala:
I think we’re in the greatest business ever.
Jill DeWit:
Name was, but yeah. This is an interesting time because I think it’s probably happening more than we’re hearing right now, too. But in the past, people have had their own life things happen career wise, right, laid off, whatever. Not so much as now, but, and every time it’s like, God, thank goodness I had another way to put food on the table, I.e., buying and selling land. So I know there’s a lot of members right now that are like, thank goodness I had this before the whole thing started. I’m putting food on the table.
Steven Butala:
Yeah.
Jill DeWit:
I know it.
Steven Butala:
Absolutely. I mean, there’s multiple members in our advanced group that are there because they lost their jobs and they were members on the side and decided to step it up 10 notches because they needed to out of necessity not because they wanted to, and it worked out for them.
Jill DeWit:
Yeah, a huge majority of them, when opportunities come back around, they’re like, nah, Nope. They don’t go back. Is this too nice.
Steven Butala:
How could you go back?
Jill DeWit:
I know. I couldn’t. Could you?
Steven Butala:
No. No way.
Jill DeWit:
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Steve and Jill:
We’re Steve and Jill.
Steven Butala:
Information.
Jill DeWit:
And inspiration.
Steven Butala:
To buy undervalued property.
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