Self-Discipline 101 (LA 1455)
| Self-Discipline 101 (LA 1455) |
Transcript:
Steven Butala:
Steve and Jill here.
Jill DeWit:
Howdy.
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 sweet Scottsdale, Arizona.
Steven Butala:
Oh, that’s better.
Jill DeWit:
I don’t know. It just came off, just came out.
Steven Butala:
Today, Jill and I talk about self discipline 101. It is not something you’re born with. People think that.
Jill DeWit:
Oh, I have a ton of it. I’m happy to share. Just kidding. Could you imagine?
Steven Butala:
Yeah, we’ll use ourselves [crosstalk 00:00:27]. Before we get into it, let’s take a question posted by one of our members on thelandinvestors.com online community.
Jill DeWit:
Sure.
Steven Butala:
It’s free.
Jill DeWit:
You know.
Steven Butala:
If you’re a Land Academy member, please join us on Discord.
Jill DeWit:
Oh, I’m commonly going, “No, just put down the cookie. I got this.”
Steven Butala:
This is exactly what happened a half hour ago.
Jill DeWit:
Right.
Steven Butala:
Jill, will you please turn your phone off.
Jill DeWit:
Oh, yeah.
Steven Butala:
We need to record these shows. Because you’re going to California tomorrow. We’re not going to be in the same room. To her credit, she can’t put her phone down because we’ve got a very successful mailer going on right now.
Jill DeWit:
It’s so [inaudible 00:01:03].
Steven Butala:
And she’s like, “Listen man, you want to make money buying real estate today? Or do you want to record shows today?”
Steven Butala:
And I said, “We need to record these shows.” So you’re going to have like, 10 deals when we’re done.
Jill DeWit:
I know, the mail’s hitting, and it’s awesome.
Steven Butala:
It is. We got three properties out of this mailer already, and they’re …
Jill DeWit:
Mm-hmm (affirmative), phenomenal.
Steven Butala:
We’ll make six digits on each of them. And I bet, there’s probably like, 10 more.
Jill DeWit:
And nobody’s mad. I’m really going to up my game, by the way. Side note, we’re totally off topic.
Steven Butala:
Yeah.
Jill DeWit:
But I’m working on more content and to help everyone, because as time goes on, I’m getting better. And I can really help everyone here with these phone calls coming in. And winning them over in just a few sentences so they want to sell to you, and they’re not mad.
Steven Butala:
Here’s what I did on this mailer. It’s a very low volume mailer, about a thousand units-ish. But I went in at about 60 to 80 percent of the retail value, because I know the area very, very well. And I know that … I was just explaining this to somebody on Discord. I know how fast they’re going to sell.
Steven Butala:
So think of it in houses, from a housing standpoint. If you live in a neighborhood where there’s a lot of similar houses, and three of your neighbors sold like kind houses really recently for 300,000 dollars, would you pay 250,000 for the house across the street?
Jill DeWit:
Yeah, mm-hmm (affirmative).
Steven Butala:
Absolutely. And that’s a pretty high percentage. That’s 70, that’s 85 percent of retail value.
Jill DeWit:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Steven Butala:
Because you know you’re going to sell it really fast. And you know the neighborhood, and you know the whole thing. So, people were pretty surprised that I was talking about this on Discord, because there’s always somebody in the group that says, “Oh my gosh, you’ve been telling us for two years just to do it at 25 percent.” I said, “You know what? It’s not engraved in stone.”
Jill DeWit:
I know, it’s true.
Steven Butala:
Going into a new market like we are still buying property from an old mailer.
Jill DeWit:
Mm-hmm (affirmative). I got a couple [crosstalk 00:03:01].
Steven Butala:
We went in at 20 percent on that, and she’s still buying property.
Jill DeWit:
Yep. All right, Jason wrote, “I have an accepted offer on a parcel in Blank County. It’s under a thousand dollars. So it would be a self close situation. The owner, a deceased Canadian, left the property to his wife in their will.”
Steven Butala:
Uh-oh.
Jill DeWit:
I know, “The property is deeded via Quick Claim solely to the deceased husband.” Oh, goodness, “Which was inherited from his aunt.”
Steven Butala:
You have a train going a hundred miles an hour.
Jill DeWit:
Oh my God, this is so awesome. And Jason, I get it. These things happen. And it’s like, Jeez, how more taped together could this be?
Jill DeWit:
“The wife, also in Canada, has the will listing her as the executor to the land. So the wife already is named as executor, does this property need to go through probate? Is the wife already considered to be the personal representative of the property, and allowed to sign the deed over to me? Thanks all in advance, J.”
Steven Butala:
It needs to go through probate, and it’s not worth it.
Jill DeWit:
Yeah. I’m sorry. Here’s why. So technically, somebody owned it. They gave it to the aunt. They passed on, because then the aunt inherited it. Then the aunt Quick Claimed it to the husband. He passed on, the wife thinks, “Oh, because I’m left … ” It’s almost like you’re throwing a ball around the room. Like, “Oh, I got the ball, now it’s mine.”
Steven Butala:
Yep.
Jill DeWit:
Hold on a moment. The ball really goes back three people as far as the county’s concerned. So yeah, so two things going on here. Number one, Jason, I would say … Or J, I would totally go through … They need to go back and probate this and get it done the right way. And if it was not a little property under a thousand bucks, maybe we’re talking a 100,000 bucks and you’re going to make 80,000 bucks or something … I don’t know, then it’d be worth helping the sweet little old lady and maybe hooking her up with an attorney, or asking her who was the attorney that handled when your husband passed? Can you call them? See if you can fix this the right way.
Jill DeWit:
But because of the disaster we’re looking at here with the ball going around the room, that’s one of your words. Now I picked up disaster. Anyway …
Steven Butala:
Tragedy.
Jill DeWit:
That’s right. And it’s not that much money anyway. Your time, J, is worth so much more. I would say, and I hope you’re in this group. Well, you are, because you’re in Discord. So he wrote this in Discord?
Steven Butala:
No, this is from Land Investors. I don’t think he is in the group.
Jill DeWit:
Oh, okay. Okay, well hopefully you’re sending out a good amount of mail. If you’re doing what we all do, you’ve got three more letters on your desk and two voicemails waiting for you, and one of those is going to be better than this one.
Steven Butala:
Here’s the deal with probate, if the estate was probated … Well, it wouldn’t have been probated, because the wife’s still alive. But if this woman was, there was no marriage and she passed away, and her heirs got the stuff, and the estate needed to be probated because the estate wasn’t planned properly and this is like, a year later …
Jill DeWit:
Yeah.
Steven Butala:
… you can add this asset on to the original probate for not a lot of money. A lawyer’s probably going to charge you about a thousand bucks to do the whole thing. I know this from personal experience, because my mom passed away and my sister and I are, 20 years ago, are still finding assets that she owned.
Jill DeWit:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Steven Butala:
And we’re still tacking stuff on. So that’s a way to potentially solve the situation. The good news is that, joint tenants, JTRLS, would have solved all of this. All she had to do was, if she owned the property, all she had to do is re deed it into her name and his name, John and Mary Smith, joint tenants with the rights to survivorship. And the minute he died, she would own the property entirely. That’s the way to solve this.
Jill DeWit:
Yeah, this is also assuming that, even though we say the aunt in here did it, did that even get transferred right?
Steven Butala:
Yeah, we don’t know.
Jill DeWit:
We don’t know for sure if the aunt got it the right way.
Steven Butala:
You got to walk away. Jason, walk away from this.
Jill DeWit:
There’s too many … You know why? Here’s what I can tell you too. Quick thing, Jason, if you find yourself spending more than a couple of hours sitting here figuring this out for a property less than a thousand dollars, then you need to move on.
Steven Butala:
Well I’ll tell you … Here’s an anecdotal story with a silver lining in it.
Jill DeWit:
More than an afternoon. Not two days.
Steven Butala:
Right when Jill and I joined forces, a guy called me and said, “You sold some property to my father five, 10 years ago to me.” He said this to me. And I’m immediately like, uh-oh, what happened?
Jill DeWit:
Yeah, like, oh, he’s mad.
Steven Butala:
He said, “My dad passed away. And it turns out, he collected property. He bought some from you, he bought some from a lot of people. And it’s holding up our estate. So, I’m willing to give you all this property.” It was tons of property too, “if you can just please do all the paperwork.”
Steven Butala:
It’s not complicated. It’s in …
Jill DeWit:
Undo the mess a little bit.
Steven Butala:
Yeah, and so Jill did. Jill and I did. And it took … Well, when I say Jill and I, I mean Jill.
Jill DeWit:
Thanks. Truth time.
Steven Butala:
It took us … It took her a couple months to get it all straight, but man, we made a hundred grand on that.
Jill DeWit:
It was good. It was great. So it was worth it. That’s the numbers I want you to spend time on, and I’m glad you asked, J. That was an excellent question.
Steven Butala:
Today’s topic, self discipline 101. This is why you’re listening.
Jill DeWit:
I’m already ready for a game.
Steven Butala:
All great, everybody’s saying, “Great, Steve, go ahead and yell at us.”
Jill DeWit:
No, we should play a game first.
Steven Butala:
Yeah.
Jill DeWit:
Let’s rattle off … We’ll go back and forth about self discipline. You ask me one, and I’ll ask you one. Like, Steven, do you have self discipline over exercise?
Steven Butala:
Yeah.
Jill DeWit:
Okay.
Steven Butala:
On a scale of one to 10, it’s about a five, maybe a six.
Jill DeWit:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Steven Butala:
Ten being the best. Do you?
Jill DeWit:
Oh, over discipline? I need to work on my … I do. You know what? I’m making conscious decisions. I don’t know if this is the right way to play the game. I was trying to think of funny things to say about things that we know. How about this, give me three things that you know that you don’t have self discipline on, that you’re working on and only …
Steven Butala:
Number one, learning to play the guitar, which really makes me mad about myself.
Jill DeWit:
Got it.
Steven Butala:
Number two, I have very poor self discipline on tech projects. So like, there’s all kinds of stuff that I have to do. I run Land Academy and Jill runs all the land business. In general, that’s the case. It crosses over often. But in a big part of the education line of business that we have is these freaking tech products, like Neighbor Scoop.
Jill DeWit:
Yeah.
Steven Butala:
That, and offers to owners, and all the tech, the website and tech components to all of that. And I hate it. I hate it. It’s just like, pulling teeth with everybody.
Jill DeWit:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Steven Butala:
So no, I have terrible self discipline with that. And you know what? All my self discipline, I hate talking on the phone. That is truth time. So I don’t have good self discipline about that.
Jill DeWit:
Yeah.
Steven Butala:
I’m not that good at it anymore. I used to be great at it. I used to have a lot of patience and all kinds of stuff. But I met her, and she just, she does such a good job that it’s just silly. She can do her own mailers too, but she doesn’t, because I do a better job at it, quite honestly, and I can do it. And I like it.
Jill DeWit:
Exactly. All right, my three are, number one, I do need to up my game on exercise.
Steven Butala:
Yeah.
Jill DeWit:
I need to do better at that. I know, [inaudible 00:10:35]. Number two is working on content. I need to up my game there. I notice, I have 18 projects that I have half written that I need to finish. And I’ve got to up my game there.
Jill DeWit:
And you know what my third one is? I’m not good at taking down time. I’ll be on the phone. I’ll give up a Saturday night to answer the phone.
Steven Butala:
That’s for sure.
Jill DeWit:
Because it’s fun for me. You know, we had a discussion about this the other day about, “When are you thinking about retirement?”
Jill DeWit:
And you’re like, “Oh, I’m starting to think about it.” And I’m like, “That’s so funny, because I’m not at all. I’m still having so much fun.” I love what we do. I love talking to sellers. I love talking to buyers. It’s the silliest thing. But anyway.
Jill DeWit:
Okay, so self discipline 101.
Steven Butala:
Why do you?
Jill DeWit:
Why do I?
Steven Butala:
And everybody wants to know this.
Jill DeWit:
Because …
Steven Butala:
Because it’s very, very unusual, I think.
Jill DeWit:
Oh.
Steven Butala:
Because we did on our Thursday call last time, we did a poll. Are you the Jack? Or are you the Jill? Are you the data person or are you the sales person? And probably 60 percent, 66 percent, two thirds, said they’re the data people, the tech people.
Steven Butala:
And the other … So …
Jill DeWit:
Do you want to know why?
Steven Butala:
I really do want to know why. I’ve always wondered this, and I mean it. This is truthful.
Jill DeWit:
I’m a deal junkie when there’s big numbers involved. If you had me in a Sunglass Hut, I probably wouldn’t be so excited. I could do it.
Steven Butala:
It’s kind of attractive for some reason. Strange things are attractive [crosstalk 00:12:05]. Even working in a Sunglass Hut.
Jill DeWit:
Could you imagine?
Steven Butala:
Just walk up to you and ask you on a date.
Jill DeWit:
Here’s my new job at Sunglass Hut in the mall.
Steven Butala:
With the little dress on.
Jill DeWit:
But you know what? I wouldn’t do bad at that. See, I could be okay with it, but I would sell out of all the high end ones. Like, you’re buying Gucci today. You’re not buying those. That’s how it would go.
Jill DeWit:
And that’s the same with this. It’s probably an illness.
Steven Butala:
I’m sure it is. I have it too, I just don’t want to talk on the phone about it.
Jill DeWit:
I have a disorder that I need to buy great property very cheaply. And it makes me happy.
Steven Butala:
Yeah, I do, too. I’m addicted to it.
Jill DeWit:
And I don’t care about the bank … [inaudible 00:12:48] look at the bank balance. This is what’s so funny.
Steven Butala:
Yeah, me too, it’s an addiction.
Jill DeWit:
You’re like, “What just happened?” I’m like, “I don’t know, [crosstalk 00:12:53] paying attention. All I know is I got it for 10 grand.”
Steven Butala:
True definition of addiction.
Jill DeWit:
How great is that? So, that’s it. I don’t know what else to … So that’s just really where it comes from. It’s innate to me. I was definitely, it’s a nature/nurture. I was born with this condition.
Steven Butala:
You know, it’s interesting because in our past W-2 lives, scoring those deals was not part of really, what I was doing.
Jill DeWit:
Oh.
Steven Butala:
It was really talking on the phone and getting people to go in our direction. It was motivating them.
Jill DeWit:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Steven Butala:
I think you too.
Jill DeWit:
I do a little bit of both.
Steven Butala:
No, I think in your past W-2 life, there was no endorphin rush like that. You weren’t closing anything.
Jill DeWit:
Right.
Steven Butala:
Well, maybe you were sort of.
Jill DeWit:
No, I was.
Steven Butala:
Actually, you were.
Jill DeWit:
No, I was in all my other things. It might have been even selling things for a couple thousand bucks.
Steven Butala:
Okay, here’s the thing about self discipline, it’s not … You’re not born with it or not born with it. You need to take some classes. You need to … There are boot camps out there for this kind of stuff that resemble the military boot camp. Every person I’ve ever met who’s been in the military shines their shoes. Their house is neat. They speak in full sentences. I think the military is …
Steven Butala:
One of my biggest regrets, if not my biggest regret in life, is not joining the military and getting that experiences.
Jill DeWit:
Oh.
Steven Butala:
Because I just think that it has nothing to do with shooting guns, and everything to do with just becoming a citizen.
Jill DeWit:
Yeah.
Steven Butala:
And doing the right thing, and behaving not like a criminal.
Jill DeWit:
You don’t behave like a criminal.
Steven Butala:
No, I know. And I never have. But I’m just saying, I think for most people, well, after raising three children, Jill and I together, people need …
Jill DeWit:
Direction.
Steven Butala:
They need to be kicked out of bed, and eventually, they’ll get out of bed themselves. But they need to be kicked out of bed in the morning.
Jill DeWit:
Right.
Steven Butala:
Right, and they need to fail a few times before they … And to see how it feels before they can succeed at whatever [crosstalk 00:15:03].
Jill DeWit:
Like, being late to school and having to walk in the office and deal with it on their own, and not wanting to do that after a few times.
Steven Butala:
So, step one, get yourself an Outlook account, Microsoft Outlook, if you’re part of an organization like we are. Get Microsoft 365, which gets everybody connected, and their calendars all connected, and start scheduling out your day. You have to have a schedule, period. That’s really, that’s the meat of this show. You absolutely have to have a schedule, and you have to stick to it. And it takes all the mystery out of, “Wow, should I be doing this or not? What should I be working on right now?”
Steven Butala:
Jill and I, we don’t do it so much anymore, schedule in our free time together. Like last night, we went out and celebrated a real estate deal. And it was all scheduled in the computer.
Jill DeWit:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Steven Butala:
Stayed out too late, but …
Jill DeWit:
Yeah, paying for it a little bit today. We won’t go there.
Steven Butala:
That’s how you get this started.
Jill DeWit:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Steven Butala:
And then, you’re either going to stick to it or you’re not. And if you’re not, then you just seek help elsewhere.
Jill DeWit:
You know …
Steven Butala:
I’m really, really serious about this.
Jill DeWit:
This is such a good topic. There’s nothing wrong with you if you’re not there. You just have to get yourself there. And I think that’s what you’re trying to say.
Steven Butala:
Tomorrow’s a new day.
Jill DeWit:
And the easiest way to get yourself there is to schedule it out. It’s very hard when you say, “I’m brand new. This is great. I hear you guys. I’m going to get a mailer out this weekend.”
Jill DeWit:
Okay, hold on everyone.
Steven Butala:
Yeah.
Jill DeWit:
There’s a lot that goes into that. Let’s not overwhelm ourselves.
Steven Butala:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jill DeWit:
So, as part of this process, I would say great. The goal is to get a mailer out. What do we have to do that goes into it? Well number one, I got to pick a county. Number two, I got to download, then scrub the data. Number three, I got to learn to price the mailer. Number four, I got to get my stuff all right pretty and send it to offers to owners to get it in the mail. And now, you can sit back and say, “I got it done.”
Jill DeWit:
So, you need to put those four steps in the calendar. And maybe Friday afternoon …
Steven Butala:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jill DeWit:
Maybe it’s Friday night. When you’re staying home, this is your goal this weekend. There’s not a lot of places to go still anyway, so this is not hard. So Friday night, you’re picking a county. Saturday, you’re downloading the data and scrubbing it. And then Sunday, you’re pricing it. And Monday, you have it all pretty and sent off to the printer.
Jill DeWit:
And then, let me follow up with this, please. So break it down into steps that are bite-size for you. Maybe it’s a two hour project. What if one of these is an eight hour project? Then break it into two hour projects. Whatever you can do. Put it on the calendar, and here’s the hardest part, you have to force yourself to do it.
Jill DeWit:
You’re going to be tired. It’s going to be 8:00 at night, you’re on the couch watching a movie. And you have to say, “I need to do this. If I don’t do this, I’m going to be pissed at myself tomorrow. I’m going to do this.”
Jill DeWit:
And you know what? We’ve done this. I’ve done this. So if you haven’t done this, get uncomfortable and do it. You need to, maybe 8:00, oh, all right, I’m not going to watch a dumb movie. I’m going to get my computer out, and I’m going to sit here and pick a county, put some time into it.
Steven Butala:
Here’s the thing I do when I get a computer is take off all the games.
Jill DeWit:
That’s good.
Steven Butala:
There’s been times in my life, now is not one of them, where I’ve unplugged the television, taken it off the wall, and put it in the garage and covered it, and left it there for a year.
Jill DeWit:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Steven Butala:
This happened … College is what changed me. Because I was a mess. And like a lot of kids, you know? And I figured out that if I don’t have a schedule … Back then it was on paper … that I won’t graduate. Because there’s way too much fun stuff to do in college, versus study.
Jill DeWit:
Totally. Oh my Gosh, there’s so much more fun stuff to do. Yeah, yeah.
Steven Butala:
You know what else helps me is, especially along the lines of exercise, if you can walk somewhere, walk. It might take longer, but if it’s scheduled in, then that’s fine, instead of driving. Or whatever.
Jill DeWit:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Steven Butala:
Work that stuff into your … Somebody told me a long time ago about exercise, they said, “I don’t exercise at all.” This is somebody who’s in perfect shape. “I play. I go and play. I play racquetball, I ride a bike with my friend.” It’s a little bit more difficult in the snowy weather, but there’s gyms everywhere. So you can go play racquetball or basketball or any of that stuff with people.
Jill DeWit:
Mm-hmm (affirmative). And then, I would like to end on this for me, if you’re not doing it, this is what you need to have a conversation with yourself. You’re like, “Okay, this is great. I got all the two things. I just can’t get it there.” Well, for some reason, you’re not motivated, and you need to sit down and have a talk with yourself, and decide what it’s going to take to get you motivated and to follow through.
Steven Butala:
I’ve said this a million times on the air, I’ll say it again. I have some really expensive guitars that I will never learn how to play. And it’s just for exactly what Jill’s saying. There’s something stopping me. I’m not sure what it is. It’s not lack of interest.
Jill DeWit:
No.
Steven Butala:
I’m just not, I just don’t do it. I’m not disciplined enough to do it with that specific thing.
Jill DeWit:
You’re not excited about it. And that’s okay.
Steven Butala:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jill DeWit:
So you need to make a decision. You’re either going to do it, or you’re going to cut it off and do something else.
Steven Butala:
Yeah, but do something.
Jill DeWit:
Do something, that’s true. And this isn’t for everybody, and I totally understand that. That’s okay. But if it is, that’s how you get there.
Steven Butala:
You’re not a criminal. Where’d that come from?
Jill DeWit:
I didn’t say that. No, just kidding.
Steven Butala:
You said that.
Jill DeWit:
You said something about being a criminal or act like a criminal. I’m like, “This is very interesting. Like, what does that mean?” I’m just kidding.
Jill DeWit:
Happy you could join us today. Five days a week, you can find us right here on the Land Academy Show.
Steven Butala:
Tomorrow, the episode on the Land Academy Show is called A Breakdown of How To Hire Staff. You are not alone in your real estate ambition.
Jill DeWit:
We’re picking all the hot topics.
Steven Butala:
This was a long request …
Jill DeWit:
This is [crosstalk 00:21:02].
Steven Butala:
… from our customer service people. They know we record on Thursday, so on Wednesday afternoon or Thursday morning, they email me stuff, like, “Can you please talk about … ” because they get a lot of questions on it.
Jill DeWit:
Yeah, we did this in my Land Academy Ladies Group. We had a week scheduled that we talked about this, and it went into two weeks because we had so much to talk about.
Steven Butala:
Oh, really. Well, good then. You can carry the show then tomorrow.
Jill DeWit:
Oh, thanks. Hey, if you’re interested in learning more about us, or what we do, check out landacademy.com or houseacademy.com. We provide the education, tools, and support you need to be flipping property like the pros.
Jill DeWit:
We are Steven and Jill.
Steven Butala:
We are Steven and Jill. Information …
Jill DeWit:
And inspiration …
Steven Butala:
… to buy under-valued property.
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