Zoom Cities are the Present and Future (LA 1361)
Zoom Cities are the Present and Future (LA 1361)
Transcript:
Steve Jack Butala:
Steve and Jill here.
Jill DeWitt:
Hello.
Steve Jack Butala:
Welcome to The Land Academy Show, entertaining land, investment talk. I’m Steven Jack Butala.
Jill DeWitt:
And I’m Jill DeWitt, broadcasting from awesome Park City, Utah.
Steve Jack Butala:
Today Jill and I talk about how Zoom Cities are the present and the future. We’ll define what they are, which should be pretty self-explanatory. And why after talking to a lot of people on other people’s podcasts, and other real estate professionals, and credible sources, I think it’s one of the positive things that’s going to come out of this COVID thing.
Jill DeWitt:
I would argue that we’re sitting in a Zoom City.
Steve Jack Butala:
I would- that’s what this show’s about, or to talk about Park City, Utah, and why this might be one of the ultimate Zoom Cities.
Jill DeWitt:
But don’t come, you won’t like it.
Steve Jack Butala:
You know I haven’t gotten that from bartenders and stuff. I even- there’s a- you know, in Phoenix, everybody used to say, it’s terrible. You know, I got to Phoenix in 1994, in Scottsdale.
Jill DeWitt:
That’s like Seattle. Seattle used to be that way. They used to say, everybody used to worry about the weather and they’d- everybody would say, oh, it’s not that bad. And then you go, maybe we’ll look at this for our retirement location. And then they follow up with, oh, you wouldn’t like it.
Steve Jack Butala:
It’s exact opposite here.
Jill DeWitt:
Yeah?
Steve Jack Butala:
I haven’t heard anyone say [crosstalk 00:01:17] You’re from Los Angeles? You should never please don’t move here.
Jill DeWitt:
Yeah, right.
Steve Jack Butala:
Not a single person has said that. Have you heard that?
Jill DeWitt:
No, that’s true.
Steve Jack 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 DeWitt:
Joseph wrote, “Hi all, I’m looking at purchasing two properties in a state that starts with an M.”
Steve Jack Butala:
I think you can say the name. I think you can say it, yeah.
Jill DeWitt:
I wasn’t sure. Okay. Here’s what’s happened. I’ve gotten- a couple of times of like I’ve shared some stuff I’m like, huh? I wish I hadn’t shared that. So I’m kind of-
Steve Jack Butala:
Oh really?
Jill DeWitt:
Yeah yeah, seriously. So I was just being cautious. All right, so we’ll just say Maine.
Steve Jack Butala:
Well now you got to tell what you shared and regret [crosstalk 00:02:04] What are your regrets? Share with the show.
Jill DeWitt:
Oh and some counties. So, [inaudible 00:02:09] counties. Aw shucks. Anyway, the issue I’m having- but it’s like to the planet, I’ll share it with our people all day long.
Steve Jack Butala:
I agree.
Jill DeWitt:
That’s why we have such a small community.
Steve Jack Butala:
I understand.
Jill DeWitt:
I mean, and that’s timeout, truth time. In our community, I’m going to share everything. And I still share like big picture stuff, but some special stuff I’m going to keep for our people. Anyway, okay, so Joseph wrote on to say, “the issue I’m having is both properties have separate addresses, but are listed on the same deed. The two properties were purchased separately at a tax auction in 2009, with separate deeds and then sold to the current owner on one deed.” All legit, this is nothing wrong here.
Steve Jack Butala:
So far, so good.
Jill DeWitt:
“I want to split the properties up and sell them separately on two different purchase agreements and deeds. I’ve heard of this being done before, but I’m unfamiliar with the process. Is this more of a hassle than it’s worth or is it simply recording two properties instead of one with the County Recorder? Any advice or guidance given would be greatly appreciated.” Would you like to go? Would you like me to go?
Steve Jack Butala:
I mean, I can really simplify this in one or two sentences. What you are purchasing, you are purchasing APNs- assessors, parcels, numbers. That can be- Jill and I have literally purchased 1100 properties on one deed.
Jill DeWitt:
Mm-hmm (affirmative)
Steve Jack Butala:
1100 APNs. And then you’re welcome to sell them all separately.
Jill DeWitt:
One by one by one or two or three.
Steve Jack Butala:
Where the confusion comes is, and it’s a all ingrained in our brain with car titles. You can’t have two cars on a car title. You just don’t. You have a separate title for each one. You can have thousands of properties on a single deed and then sell them individually. There’s no issues. There’s not a person on this planet that’s going to disagree with what I just said.
Jill DeWitt:
Right. There’s nothing special about it. You just, if one buyer wants to buy them both, great, you do one deed. And if you have two different buyers, you do a deed for this one and a deed for that one. That’s it. My thing too is you want to- when you record properties, everybody wants to do it the right- if you’re buying multiple properties or selling multiple properties, you don’t want them on individual deeds anyway, because you don’t want to pay the recording fees over and over and over again.
Steve Jack Butala:
Right. It cost 15 or 20 or $25 to record a property, right? Are those numbers accurate these days?
Jill DeWitt:
30.
Steve Jack Butala:
It’s 30?
Jill DeWitt:
Yeah [crosstalk 00:04:23]
Steve Jack Butala:
God, when I started doing this, it was five bucks.
Jill DeWitt:
Yeah.
Steve Jack Butala:
Three and $5.
Jill DeWitt:
Yeah it’s not that cheap anymore, but it’s still not, it’s not expensive. But if you’re selling 10 properties at someone, times 30 bucks, that’s $300. We can just put them on one deed.
Steve Jack Butala:
Yeah.
Jill DeWitt:
There you go.
Steve Jack Butala:
Today’s topic. Zoom Cities are the present and the future. This is the meat of the show. What’s a Zoom City, Jill?
Jill DeWitt:
A Zoom City is a city within a day’s drive or couple of hours outside of a major city. So you can easily access your office if you need to, kind of thing. That’s how I describe them. Like, like we were just saying, Park City, Utah would be a Zoom City for Salt Lake. What if my company that I work for is in Salt Lake, but I’m remote now, I can be Zoom.
Steve Jack Butala:
You’re on Zoom.
Jill DeWitt:
I’m on Zoom all day long, doing my thing. And if anything happens, there’s a meeting I have to be present at, heaven forbid, my Internet’s down, something like that. I can hop in the car and drive to the office.
Steve Jack Butala:
I wonder why you looked so much better in all these videos than I do. Like, the lighting we took- we literally took, Joe found this fantastic Vrbo here in Park City and they’re using track lighting for their decorations and stuff, which I reversed to use lighting for the show, and Jill looks all pretty and like, her hair is nice. I look like I aged.
Jill DeWitt:
I don’t see that!
Steve Jack Butala:
It’s just too bright for me. I got to change it.
Jill DeWitt:
Okay. We’ll turn your lights off for a little bit.
Steve Jack Butala:
So park city is a fantastic example of a Zoom City, which is one of the reasons we came here to check it out. So you can access- it’s 30, maybe 20 minutes to the airport. So if you need to go somewhere for meetings, even a couple of times a week, no problem at all. Check. It’s a less than a day’s drive from the following cities, that I bet these are just a shortlist, San Francisco, San Diego, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, obviously Salt Lake.
Jill DeWitt:
Less than a day’s drive?
Steve Jack Butala:
Denver.
Jill DeWitt:
Okay. I thought you said an hour’s drive.
Steve Jack Butala:
Oh day, sorry. Less than a day’s drive. Jeez. Denver. Probably Boise, and I can keep going. I don’t know about Portland and I don’t know about Seattle. Seattle might be kind of far, but it’s a lot.
Jill DeWitt:
I think you get the idea.
Steve Jack Butala:
And another example is Lake Tahoe. Lake Tahoe has almost virtually no inventory right now from a housing standpoint because everybody fled San Francisco.
Jill DeWitt:
You could say Sedona is a Zoom City for Phoenix.
Steve Jack Butala:
Or Flagstaff.
Jill DeWitt:
All kinds of things like that.
Steve Jack Butala:
So it’s these second home cities that are now becoming- you know, people traditionally had second homes here in these places, now they’re becoming primary homes. I just read an article about how people are moving into their second homes and selling their primary houses.
Jill DeWitt:
With their kids. And I don’t think they necessarily like that.
Steve Jack Butala:
Yeah. And doing like major updates. Did you see this thing about there’s a run on refrigerators?
Jill DeWitt:
I had not read that, no.
Steve Jack Butala:
So in the beginning it was toilet paper and paper towels and stuff.
Jill DeWitt:
For refrigerators?
Steve Jack Butala:
Yeah, there’s backlog, like two months.
Jill DeWitt:
That’s hilarious.
Steve Jack Butala:
Can’t get a refrigerator.
Jill DeWitt:
I did not know that.
Steve Jack Butala:
Because everybody’s-
Jill DeWitt:
Are they buying bigger refrigerators?
Steve Jack Butala:
Bigger refrigerators [crosstalk 00:07:38].
Jill DeWitt:
Deep freezer, maybe?
Steve Jack Butala:
Working at home. Kids are staying at home from school.
Jill DeWitt:
They’re cooking more, that’s for sure.
Steve Jack Butala:
Yeah.
Jill DeWitt:
That’s really true.
Steve Jack Butala:
It’s not just refrigerators. That’s the example they use, it’s all appliances.
Jill DeWitt:
That’s wild. That’s really funny. I did not know that. So I love it. I mean, I would argue that this needed to happen and COVID just spread it up.
Steve Jack Butala:
That’s what I would argue.
Jill DeWitt:
Or sped it up not spread it up. Sped it up, excuse me.
Steve Jack Butala:
It was going to happen anyway, COVID just timestamped it.
Jill DeWitt:
It did. And I’m glad, we used to say that in our own office, oh we’ll never be remote, there’s no way this would work, or people need management-
Steve Jack Butala:
I remember that.
Jill DeWitt:
They need attention.
Steve Jack Butala:
In about February of this year, we were saying that.
Jill DeWitt:
Mm-hmm (affirmative). And then we all went remote and now it’s kind of, it’s really optional.
Steve Jack Butala:
You know, what really happened is we were focusing on one or two people, and turns out they couldn’t handle it. We sent everybody home, just like everybody else, every other employer. And there were two specific people who could not handle working at home. They couldn’t, they weren’t responsible enough and they’re not with us anymore. And everybody else is killing it.
Jill DeWitt:
Some people do need interaction. But the point is our whole business can run this way. I wasn’t sure about it. So we’re spending a couple thousand dollars a month that I know we’re going to look at in 2021-
Steve Jack Butala:
For office rent?
Jill DeWitt:
Uh huh, after we’re a year into this or less, when we kind of regroup and see, do we need this office? This is what I would like to see, since we’re talking about Zoom Cities, this would be my business model. You know, we have all these, We Work, kind of situations? I don’t want a monthly commitment, but I wouldn’t mind a once a month optional boardroom that I could rent. I might even, I’m sitting here brainstorming myself. It’s like, okay, so let’s just say we’re a hundred percent remote. We shut down our office, everybody works from home, Zoom City situation, I don’t care where they are. It might be- I think it would be really beneficial, I know our people and I know us, we’re all very social, that we would benefit greatly from having an in-person meeting occasionally.
Steve Jack Butala:
Yeah.
Jill DeWitt:
I might even just- I’m throwing ideas out there, if you’re in my shoes, this is something to consider. I might even just rent a hotel room or a hotel conference room [crosstalk 00:09:56] for a day or a couple of hours.
Steve Jack Butala:
I was going to say the same thing. Our primary residence is pretty large and is set up on floors. So we could actually do it on our bottom floor.
Jill DeWitt:
We may not even be there though. [crosstalk 00:10:07] So there’s a lot of things that you can do. I just love this remote thing and I just love how lucky are we that our business allows us? What if, we could be- we could own a restaurant. We could own- there’s so many things we could be doing with our lives right now, and thank goodness for us that we are real estate people. We’re investors, we’re traditionally buying three States over. That’s what Land Academy is all about. I’m going where the numbers make sense. I’m not going where I’m sitting, necessarily. So I don’t have to be it. I don’t have to see it. We already have all the tools I can do all my due diligence, no change.
Steve Jack Butala:
So what does this mean, Zoom Cities are present and future for us as land investors and real estate investors? If you look up the zip codes where these cities are like, Truckee, California, or Park City, or there’s like Traverse City, Michigan’s a Zoom City, and look- just apply the regular red, green, yellow test in the zip codes in that area. And you’re going to be blown away at how the prices that are- how low the inventory is, how much the prices have risen in the last 12 months. Month over month, year over year. And so, those are always great places to buy property and resell it quickly because the demand is continually going up. The only issue is, and this is always an issue, not just during these strange positive times slash negative times, whatever they are. You don’t want to be caught with too much inventory if it all goes south. So I’m just saying, look into these places. I would heavily suggest that you invest in them, but don’t have too much inventory in case some stuff goes south.
Jill DeWitt:
Or maybe even in one place.
Steve Jack Butala:
I would also argue that these Zoom Cities are packed full of people that have jobs that have weathered this COVID thing. And so, they’re people that their income is pretty stable, they can work remotely. And usually these types of jobs, computer type jobs, are not low paying jobs. So I think that worse things get out there the better shape these Zoom Cities are probably going to be in.
Jill DeWitt:
Mm-hmm (affirmative). Super interesting.
Steve Jack Butala:
Hey Jill, are you happy that they could join us today?
Jill DeWitt:
I am happy. I was just about to say that. Thank you. Monday through Friday, you could find us right here on the Land Academy Show.
Steve Jack Butala:
Tomorrow the episode of the Land Academy Show is called Fear of Success Defined by Jill: You are not alone in your real estate ambition.
Again, this topic came from, Jill and I were a guest on a show and the guy’s saying, why- he kept asking us in different ways, why don’t you think everybody- why doesn’t everybody get it? Why don’t they just run out and start buying and selling land or real estate or whatever?
Jill DeWitt:
[crosstalk 00:12:54] What’s the one thing you say that thinks holds people back from doing something like this?
Steve Jack Butala:
She immediately said, fear.
Jill DeWitt:
[crosstalk 00:13:02] Hands down, fear. And I’ll explain more tomorrow.
Steve Jack Butala:
I was really surprised by that answer. I look forward to talking about it.
Jill DeWitt:
Thank you. I’m happy.
Steve Jack Butala:
The fire is fine this time.
Jill DeWitt:
It’s gorgeous. Thank you for tuning in. We really appreciate your support. If you haven’t already, please zip over to YouTube and check out our channel and please hit the subscribe button. We are Steve and Jill.
Steve Jack Butala:
We are Steve and Jill. Information-
Jill DeWitt:
And inspiration-
Steve Jack Butala:
To buy undervalued property.
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