State of Land Investment Education Online (LA 1369)
State of Land Investment Education Online (LA 1369)
Transcript:
Steven Butala:
Steve and Jill here.
Jill DeWit:
Howdy.
Steven Butala:
Welcome to the Land Academy Show, entertaining real estate investment talk. I’m Steven Jack Butala.
Jill DeWit:
I’m Jill DeWit broadcasting from sunny Southern California.
Steven Butala:
Today, Jill and I talk about the state of land, investment education out there online. Jill’s like, what the heck is this about? It’s shocking to see how many experts about buying and selling land there are out there lately.
Jill DeWit:
I know. I bet we’ve created about 99.9% of them.
Steven Butala:
I’m sure of it.
Jill DeWit:
Maybe 100% of them.
Steven Butala:
It’s not just land its everything.
Jill DeWit:
Right.
Steven Butala:
It’s just amazing how the internet obviously, is still super new. Facebook started in what? 2009? Not started, but became a thing?
Jill DeWit:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Steven Butala:
Eight or nine-ish, I think. So it’s not 10 years old, and it’s just amazing that-
Jill DeWit:
YouTube.
Steven Butala:
… it taps into like [crosstalk 00:01:00]. It just taps into some kind of some certain personality types, just their need to not only express their opinion, but be an expert on something when they’re not. I’m not complaining, I think it’s funny, I really do.
Jill DeWit:
The only thing that’s kind of frustrating, it’s kind of like, we’ve been watching the news a lot the last… For the last several weeks, we’ve all been watching a lot of news, right? Because of the obvious things going on. It’s funny how many there looks like seemingly 19 year olds talking about elections and history. I’m like, “What do you mean the last election when you were in middle school?” I have a real hard time swallowing that one, but it’s [crosstalk 00:01:47] funny.
Steven Butala:
I understand that. You know what? Let’s take a question and then we’ll talk about it.
Jill DeWit:
Okay.
Steven Butala:
I understand the issue is we have a niche company. A bunch of niche companies, actually, but it’s just funny when… I understand a new station being niche for people under 25.
Jill DeWit:
Yeah.
Steven Butala:
I have no issues with that, but when it starts to really seriously creep into the mainstream and it’s just funny. Before we get into it, let’s take a question posted by one of the members, our members on the landinvestors.com online community. It’s free.
Jill DeWit:
Lucas wrote, “I want to share with everyone my thoughts on my current state with my land business, mostly just to get stuff off my chest. I love it. I haven’t posted in a while because it’s been a roll in of activity.” Okay, usually that’s a good thing.
Steven Butala:
Yeah.
Jill DeWit:
It’s cool. “First the Land Academy support emails have been perfectly timed. I just got the week five email Sellers Calling Back, which covers handling inbound calls and hate. I’ve been amazed at the timing of these emails.” Thank you very much. I would like to take some credit for that. “They come into my inbox almost to the day, that is relevant for me. This has a huge boost because it tells me that I’m on the right track with where I should be. Moving along quickly, but not too quickly. My first week of inbound calls has resulted in numerous emails and roughly two dozen calls. About half of those have been hate, which has been awful to deal with.”
Steven Butala:
Yep.
Jill DeWit:
“Between email and phone, probably 12 sellers interested in accepted offers. I’m finding that my offers made sense from comp to comp standpoint, but I really didn’t factor in the rate of sales in that area. So I may not be able to sell as quickly as hoped. Also, learning a lot about the variance that can be seen between zip codes within a given county. In future mailers that will be definitely a big part of my pricing process. Simply overwhelmed with all these calls coming in over the last week, I just can’t process them fast enough.”
Steven Butala:
Good for you.
Jill DeWit:
Mm-hmm (affirmative). “Struggling to make good contact with title companies, attorneys in counties.”
Steven Butala:
We all are right now.
Jill DeWit:
“It’s tough because I work full time. So I can’t spend much time on the phone. Luckily, my wife has taken an interest and is willing to spend some time on the phone for me [crosstalk 00:04:09] need to establish a few good relationships here.” Hope he’s not talking about his wife. You want to keep that relationship really good, especially if she’s helping. “Having to go back and lore some offers with sellers who’ve already accepted my first offer, which isn’t fun but necessary.” Oh yeah. “Very lucky to have an advanced member take some time and share pro tips and some guidance with me. landinvestors.com is a lifesaver. Excited and looking forward to making an acquisition. Can’t shake the feeling that I’m going to mess up somehow.”
Steven Butala:
I still have that.
Jill DeWit:
“Trying to keep focus on the goal, and determined to push through this process. Mailers and data were easy for me, dealing with the people is where I get stressed, need a team. Thank you to this community.”
Steven Butala:
You’re doing great.
Jill DeWit:
Super cool.
Steven Butala:
Yeah.
Jill DeWit:
That was awesome.
Steven Butala:
Thanks for sharing.
Jill DeWit:
Lucas. Right? I think it was.
Steven Butala:
Let’s see. Every week I sit down and I look through Land Investors to do the questions and the topics, and there’s a staggering number of entries in the landinvestors.com website this week. So it’s a good thing.
Jill DeWit:
Exactly.
Steven Butala:
Next topic, the state of land investment education online today. This is the meat of the show. I almost never go on Facebook, really on most of the social media, not intentionally. It’s just not my generation. We have an active presence out there mostly because we have a great team that, that manages it for Jill and I. Jill’s a little more active than me. But I’ve been on the recently because of recent news events and current events. It’s shocking to me that when we started this, there were two or three education sources for buying and selling vacant land. It was a huge struggle for Jill and I to communicate in the first year or so, maybe two years, that this is a viable business model that was very questioned.
Jill DeWit:
Sure.
Steven Butala:
Whereas flipping houses was something that was incredibly accepted and everybody loved it. Now it’s the opposite, right? So my whole point in this whole topic is just like with anything, do some research and make sure you’re comfortable and feel good with the group that you’re in, if you’re going to buy and sell land. That’s really my whole point to all of this. Because there’s a lot of noise out there. When Jill and I started this, there was not a single book on Amazon about buying and selling land as an investment. Now it’s just, you have to wade your way. I always say this, it’s unfortunate for our children although, I think we’re over it now. That they have to sift through so much crap in their lives. We grew up in the ’70s and ’80s and there just wasn’t all this stuff that we had to sift through to find out what’s right for us, and what’s real.
Jill DeWit:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Steven Butala:
So I’m not complaining here, I’m just sharing. I’m just saying, now you just have to do an extra amount of research to find a group that fits for you.
Jill DeWit:
That’s what I think is the most important thing. I just did a consulting call the other day with a really sweet guy, and he’s in Texas. He comes to us like a lot of people do from another group. It was interesting because at the end of the call, I was talking about deeds, and my staff, and sometimes things go wrong. That’s why you’re a good person, you are having good relationships with your sellers and your buyers and everything. Because you never know when you need to go back to them and go, “We goofed, I need to redo this deed. It just got returned.”, kind of thing. No big deal. It’s going to happen.
Steven Butala:
Yeah.
Jill DeWit:
He said, “That right there is why I’m in this group.” I’m like, “What?” He’s like “Just, I need to be part of a group that I feel good about my business.” This shocked the heck out of me, by the way, I feel good about what I do. I feel good about my business. I feel good that I’m helping people, meaning sellers. I’m like, yeah that’s the whole point here.
Steven Butala:
Yeah. Me too.
Jill DeWit:
When we’re doing our day-to-day thing, it’s not just about our community and our members, but the people that I buy and sell land to. I want everybody to feel good about it. I want my sellers to feel good about it, and they do. They’re like, “Thank you so much. You solved a problem. I didn’t know how I was going to put food on the table next month. I can’t wait to get rid of this property.” That way, if I needed to, right? Like the situation I was explaining, we had to go back to the seller and say, “Yea, we goofed, we’re going to send you a new deed. Do you mind going to the bank? Or when you’re in the bank next time, just get it notarized, no big deal, kind of thing. And just mail it to us.”
They’re like, “Sure. How can I help? No problem.” Then all the way to my buyers, when I’m selling the property, I’m properly portraying what it is, with beautiful pictures and telling them. I want them to feel great about the purchase knowing that they’re not getting raked over the coals on. I’m not selling it at retail. I’m not buying a retail and I’m not selling it retail. So everybody feels great. He said, “That’s a lot of this group.” I’m like, “That was really interesting to me.”
Steven Butala:
Over the years. I’ve described just talk to people, whether they’re members, non-members, some former members, some people that are thinking about joining us. Then finally just people that are in the real estate industry and have no interest in Land Academy, but we’re sitting there over a beer talking about it. You get the myriad of reactions when you talk about this. I can tell immediately when somebody will fit well in our group, because they take a huge interest in a data component to this. Just like the person who wrote this-
Jill DeWit:
Lucus.
Steven Butala:
… question. Yeah. So the reactions that you get are just hilarious. Like, “Well, that sounds like a scam too.” One of my favorites is, and it’s very prevalent. Probably half the people that I say this to, they respond and say, “Well, can I just give you $10,000?”
Jill DeWit:
Oh that’s funny.
Steven Butala:
That’s my favorite because then I know there’s no chance that they’re ever going to do anything ever with anyone, with any group. Let alone Land Academy. They’re just not interested in learning about what this is. The best possible reaction you can get is, “Now wait a minute. You sent blind offers by thousands to specific custom offers to people, that own property. Then for what? You said, a $1,500 to $2,000, everyone signs it and sends it back regardless of the…”, within reason, “regardless of the price that you put on there? Okay, we’ll wait a second.”
Then they put their drink down or whatever, and they say, “Tell me how you do this again.” That person who wants to know what the next step is, and immediately understands that this is predictable and consistent, and there’s a data component too. What they’re doing is working out the details in their head. That is the person that’s going to do well.
Jill DeWit:
Well, I was going to finish my example earlier. I was talking about the person that said, “That’s why I’m in this group.” So what’s interesting and I think ties into the… This is my point of this whole episode here is that I told this person, “Please don’t feel bad.” I said, “You know what? I came from a group that was costing me a fortune.” And I’m a explain this in a minute. “Then I found your group, and not only are you not like… I can’t believe this is you don’t charge anything like this, number one. Number two, you guys are the right people. You’re a good fit for me.” But I always made a point to tell the person that don’t ever feel bad. I don’t want anybody to feel bad. I’m sure you got some good addict education out of it.
Steven Butala:
Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
Jill DeWit:
No matter where you go or what you learn, if you learn something that’s good. Right? This person said, “Yeah, I came from an environment where they weren’t as helpful. There’s a whole lot of money.” Like $10,000 for a first plan, a step-by-step checklist. First you have to buy a program. Then you’ve got to spend $10,000 for this. Oh. Then wait, there’s more than if you want to really take it to the next level it’s like $49,000.
Steven Butala:
Oh my gosh.
Jill DeWit:
I’m like, okay, this is getting… He’s telling me how much he’s spending a month right now. I’m like, “That’s your mailer money?” He’s like, “Yeah, that’s exactly what that is.” So we talked about, ways to… I don’t know if he can get out of it, but I’m like, “You got to come up with some mailer money, that should be your money spending on your properties and stuff. At this point, he said, “I know. And I’m, going to do that”.
Steven Butala:
The person’s perception, what you said earlier about having some respect for the seller and the buyer and all that. You can tell that that educator doesn’t really have a lot of respect for the people who they’re teaching-
Jill DeWit:
A little bit of that.
Steven Butala:
… just blindly. That’s the same amount of respect they have for the people who they’re buying real estate from.
Jill DeWit:
Right.
Steven Butala:
If they’re going to grossly overcharge and constantly trying to upsell you on something, then that’s not respecting anything.
Jill DeWit:
I’ll end it on this for me. I can’t believe I have to make this statement. It’s important to do the right thing.
Steven Butala:
Yeah.
Jill DeWit:
You know what I mean?
Steven Butala:
No matter if you’re really helping someone help them.
Jill DeWit:
Right. It comes through that’s… Hey, I’m convinced, I’m sorry. I am flat out convinced, and I know this to be true. That some of the deals that I get, I’m like making friends with a woman right now. I may or may not buy her property. It’s so flipping funny. It’s North of us, in a state, not too far North of us right now, that I’m dealing with her. She had a cabin on there and burned down and she’s showing me pictures. She’s like, “I’m sorry, I’ve been so busy. I didn’t get back to you.” Because I’m reaching out to her one last time saying, “Do you want us to sell or not?”, kind of thing? “I thought we were kind of going that way. I liked the property.” Of course, obviously my business is not dependent on this property, but I was reaching out to her one more time. She’s like, “I’m sorry, Jill, I’ve been so busy.” She sent me a picture of what she’s been busy with this beautiful horse.
Steven Butala:
Aw! How great is that.
Jill DeWit:
I’m like, “Holy cow, it’s gorgeous.” What’s funny is she’s a broker. She’s a real estate broker, but she doesn’t do land. She does other stuff. She said, “The reason I could buy this horse is because of the cabin on the property that you and I are talking about, which is 60 acres. The cabin burned down. I took the insurance money. Didn’t rebuild the cabin, but bought a horse.” I’m like, “That’s funny.”
So we’re kind of making friends. So, if you go into everything like that, especially if you run your business like that, your life is going to be so much easier. It is transparent that you’re a good person doing the right thing. You’re going to get sellers that say, “I just want to do business with you.” And buyers that say, “I just want to do business with you.” Everything’s going to be easy.
Steven Butala:
Yep. I’m happy-
Jill DeWit:
You like that.
Steven Butala:
Yeah.
Jill DeWit:
Happy you could join us today. You don’t have anything [crosstalk 00:15:19] to follow up with.
Steven Butala:
I don’t know what else to say? I think that all of us have had multiple math classes over our lives and I’m sure… I’m just choosing math because I liked it. But I can, I can think of two teachers that I really connected with, of the maybe 20 or so math teachers I’ve had over my life.
Jill DeWit:
Good example.
Steven Butala:
For that reason, I don’t remember the other ones at all. I just didn’t connect with them. Or I don’t think that they cared or didn’t show up or, or whatever. I mean, it’d be hard to show up as a regular teacher, hard for me anyway. Half the people don’t care to even be there. So you connect with that person and that’s what you remember. So the importance is this, wherever you choose to get educated because it’s not cheap just to make sure that you’re connecting with the people that are in the group, and the instructors. For me personally, and I think Jill too, it’s just when somebody is a 19 years old teaching a class, there’s a lot of credibility that gets lost there.
Jill DeWit:
Teacher’s aid. I know. It’s pretty hard with the teacher’s aid like that. Like my news example gets up there and talks about past elections. I’m like, “How do you know about past elections? This is your first election. Look how old you are. This is the first time you could vote.”
Steven Butala:
Look, there’s always exceptions. I’m sure when I was at edge, I was probably mad at people saying what I’m saying right now. But there there’s no replacement for experience.
Jill DeWit:
Ding. Ding. Happy you could join us today. Monday through Friday, you can find us right here on the Land Academy Show.
Steven Butala:
Tomorrow the episode on the Land Academy Show is called Self-study Discipline Sets You Apart from Everyone Else, You Are Not Alone in Your Real Estate Ambition. Self-study’s not for everybody.
Jill DeWit:
It’s true. I like it. I-
Steven Butala:
[crosstalk 00:17:15] I love it too.
Jill DeWit:
When I first took a college online class, and I got the syllabus and I found out self study meant I can work ahead. [crosstalk 00:17:28] I coast. I work ahead and coast like, done, done, done, done, and done. That’s what I do. I’m like, “This is awesome.” But I know for a lot of people, they’re like, “I can do nothing. I’ll just throw it together at the end.” Which that just makes me panic and sweat. But I get it. I love to hear what you are.
Steven Butala:
I love self-study.
Jill DeWit:
Yeah, but are you a work ahead, get the assignments done? Or are you a, “Oh, just leave it. Those are all due on the 30th Well, I’ll look at it on the 29th.”
Steven Butala:
I can very honestly, and very clearly state that my level of interest in the topic or the subject dictates exactly how I’m going to deal with it. I can list down with you all the academic subjects that I will never have any interest in and probably not crack a book on. I’ll just show up for the tests and get a C, and that’s it.
Jill DeWit:
That answers my question. Not even the 29th, maybe on the 30th.
Steven Butala:
Yes. [crosstalk 00:18:27] on the 30th.
Jill DeWit:
The chips fall where they may.
Steven Butala:
However, if you have to write a paper, I’ll write the paper the first day, if it’s a paper thing.
Jill DeWit:
Oh, interesting.
Steven Butala:
But if it’s a reading a book and learning it that way and all that, no I’m not going to do anything, I won’t even read the book.
Jill DeWit:
That’s hilarious.
Steven Butala:
I will get a C in the class and I’ll be happy about it.
Jill DeWit:
I should show the book that I’m reading right now. And you said, “Jill, I’ll be happy to, when you’re done with it, you please let me know.” I’ll show my book. All right. Thank you for tuning in. We hope you find our content valuable and we really do appreciate your support. If you haven’t already please zip on over to our YouTube channel and hit the subscribe button.
Steven Butala:
Your comments and suggestions, help us to create the type of content you’re here for. Hitting the like button helps to support our channels algorithm, engage your interest in future shows. We are Steve and [crosstalk 00:19:18] Jill information-
Jill DeWit:
And inspiration-
Steven Butala:
To buy undervalued property.
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