Jill Friday – The People Side of Real Estate Investment (LA 1478)
| Jill Friday – The People Side of Real Estate Investment (LA 1478) |
Transcript:
Steven Butala:
Steve and Jill here.
Jill DeWit:
Happy Friday.
Steven Butala:
Welcome to the LandAcademy show, entertaining real estate investment talk. I’m Steven Jack Butala.
Jill DeWit:
And I’m Jill Dewitt broadcasting from sunny Scottsdale, Arizona
Steven Butala:
Today. Jill and I talk about… Well, it’s Jill Friday, and she’s going to talk about the people side of real estate investment.
Jill DeWit:
What’s this thing on my head?
Steven Butala:
Before we get into it and talk about the thing on Jill’s head, let’s take a question posted by one of our members on the landinvestors.com online community. It’s free. And if you’re already with us, check us out on Discord.
Jill DeWit:
Dave wrote, all right, so I have a question and a comment, it looks like. Dave wrote, “Anyone downloading Redfin data for their red, yellow, green test and finding days on market data to be arbitrarily and incorrectly set to 19 or 22 days on market for 80 to 90% of properties in a county. Not sure what’s up with this, as I’ve tried several counties now, and I’m finding this for the listed data. When I go into an individual listing, they’re showing the correct date of the listing, which is often sometimes last year, but in the data I downloaded, it’s showing 22 days on market. Anyone else have this happen? At first, I thought it was just a bad county, but a few of them have been like this.”
Jill DeWit:
So Chuck replied and said, “Regarding days on market and Redfin-”
Steven Butala:
This is days later.
Jill DeWit:
Okay. “I have confirmed that the data shown on the Redfin data download is incorrect as posted here previously. It is days since the property sold, not days on the market to sell. I called Redfin and they confirmed this and say that they’re aware of the problem and it’s being worked on.” Got it.
Steven Butala:
Boy. This question could not be more inappropriate for the show title. There’s nothing people business about this. It’s all the tech side, the data side on mine.
Jill DeWit:
Well, I guess it’s people, because Chuck is helping him. Chuck’s like, “Don’t worry about it. I called Redfin and I can help to save you some stress. They know there’s a problem. And it’s coming.”
Steven Butala:
There’s a couple of points here and we’ll move on to Jill’s happy place. Number one, Jill just made my point. The people component is the fact that we’re in a community, we’re all interacting together and solving each other’s problems. I would have never caught this.
Jill DeWit:
And I wouldn’t.
Steven Butala:
You know, I check days on market through two to three sources before we make a decision on sending mail somewhere. So kudos to both of these guys for figuring this out and sharing with the group and saving us a ton of time and energy and potentially some money loss on sending mail out to counties that we didn’t have good data on. So thank you fellows. It’s awesome. That’s what this is all about.
Jill DeWit:
Tech support, Chuck.
Steven Butala:
Today’s topic. It’s Jill Friday. She’s going to talk about the people side of real estate investment. This is the meat of the show.
Jill DeWit:
You brought up a good point as we were sitting down to record. And you said, the reason you came up with this title was so many brainy tech people in our group, and which is, like you, and you were saying-
Steven Butala:
Not necessarily tech people, just people with technical backgrounds, counting, aerospace-
Jill DeWit:
Numbers.
Steven Butala:
Yeah. Numbers.
Jill DeWit:
Analytical, research driven, staring at computers in dark rooms, kind of things. And not necessarily working with customers, at least in person or on the phone and things like that. And it was really nice, you said, I wrote, “Are they missing it? Are they missing out on this?” Because you had said you… will you back up and preface your whole thing again?
Steven Butala:
I started this in the early 90s. Jill joined forces around 2009 and immediately… I all but ignored and neglected the people side of this. It was my philosophy back then was buy the properties as cheap as you possibly can, resell it on eBay and a couple of other auction type channels for years and years and years.
Jill DeWit:
And no talking.
Steven Butala:
And there’s no talking, there’s no communication.
Jill DeWit:
No phone numbers.
Steven Butala:
We never put a phone number in the posting. And we only sold on price. And, I was a laissez faire, let the market set the price. Hopefully for me, more than half the time, we sell it for more than we bought it. And it worked out great. I did $20 million of profits during that time. And then I met Jill and I heard her on the phone with her regular job.
Steven Butala:
I think you had a sales position. I think you were recruiting people for college degrees or something like that. And super long story short, it just clicked in my head one day. I’m like, what if she sold real estate this way, and she talked to sellers? What if I sent a mailer out and she answered the phone and treated these sellers, our acquisitions, the same way that she talks to these people, their children and their kids parents about education? And then ultimately when the property gets resold, there’s someplace that the people that are interested in buying it could call. It was Jill back then. And we smashed it out of the park. She introduced me to the whole component, this people thing. I don’t know why or how I missed it. But when I wrote this title, said, “Hey,” my thought was, “how many other of these tech people are completely missing this component of the business?” So, it’s magical. That has some kind of magical components that I’ll never understand.
Jill DeWit:
That’s funny. I never realized it. I didn’t realize it until recently, in the last year or two, like what you just said, you put me in this position. I just did what I do best, which is, I don’t know. You want to get the deal done, I’ll get the deal done. I didn’t even realize what I was doing at the time. I didn’t like, “Well, how come you guys aren’t having the same yield I’m having?,” or, “How come this person… I can talk to them all. How do you want this to go?” I used to always come to you. I’m like, “All right, just tell me how you want this to go. I’ll make it happen,” kind of thing. And you would say, “I love it at this price. I can handle it at this price. This price is no go.” I’m like, “Done. That’s all I needed.”
Steven Butala:
We still do that. It’s a smash it out of the park deal at 10 grand. We can easily pay 20. And that’s okay. Anything above 30,000, it just isn’t going to work.
Jill DeWit:
Right.
Steven Butala:
We just did that this morning-
Jill DeWit:
Right.
Steven Butala:
… on a deal.
Jill DeWit:
So it’s so funny. And I didn’t even realize I was doing it. So fast forward to recently, now that our community… Because you know, I didn’t have anybody to compare myself to. That’s a lot of it, too. Back then, it was just me being the voice on the phone for a lot of stuff. And now fast forward to we have a bigger company and fast forward to all the other members of LandAcademy. They’re doing just like what I do. And then I’m like, “Wow.” I took a step back, and I realized how important relationships are, because I’ve talked to other people and they may not be the best on the phone. And they know that. So I’m going to tell you right now, if you know that about you, like Steven does about him. You need to get somebody on your team.
Jill DeWit:
You need to partner with somebody who is that person, because you’re going to get better deals and you’re going to get more deals and it’s going to come easier. Don’t try to reinvent the wheel. Don’t try to make it into something that you’re not. For example, if I was all by myself coming into LandAcademy, I know the part that I’m good at. I know who I am in this relationship. If I think I’m going to… Why would I try to spend a month in a dark room to do data as well as him? I never will. I don’t care how long it takes. I’m never going to be as good as him. It comes naturally to him. So, you know what? I need… If it were me by myself, I would be right now trying to, in our community, partner up with somebody who I’m their missing piece.
Steven Butala:
Or partner up with four people and choose the one you really get along with.
Jill DeWit:
Test it. That’s fine. Test it with some people. It doesn’t matter. Do a couple of deals with each person, whatever it is. Just try to find that person, because you’re just better together. Number one, you’re going to get more done. So, my thing is, though, that the people side of real estate is what this is about today. I had to take a step back and I’m really working on a lot of this. I have a lot of people that have been asking me for more content and talking like, “Can you teach some of this?” And you know, it’s almost, I can. I really can teach this.
Jill DeWit:
I can give you a couple of things to take a step back and have a different mindset and maybe you even need to work on your voice. Maybe you even need to work on your speech. Maybe you need to work on how you answer the phone. Maybe need to work on answering the phone. I know some people are afraid to answer the phone. So there’s a lot of little moving parts, but the basic thing is you have to connect with these people and fast. So, that’s what I’m really working on right now. I’m going to get five quick sentences. It might be three. I think in three to five sentences, you can establish rapport with a seller or buyer. And then the rest is easy.
Steven Butala:
It’s a first impression thing.
Jill DeWit:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Steven Butala:
Here’s what I used to think, for a lot of good reasons and I’ll explain it. I thought that people with your talent, I don’t know what to call it, but the word sales is always first and foremost, for some reason. Jill’s, it’s always, you end up being a salesperson with your personality type, but I don’t think sales is accurate.
Jill DeWit:
No, I’m not trying to sell anything. I’m just trying to get someone on my team.
Steven Butala:
Yeah. I think it’s more like customer management or account management.
Jill DeWit:
I just think it’s building rapport. Here’s the thing, too. It’s not even like I’m trying to buy something. Let’s just say I’m dealing with sellers all day long.
Steven Butala:
Let me finish this point real quick.
Jill DeWit:
Okay.
Steven Butala:
And then, because I do want to hear this. I used to think that people on your side of this and not necessarily in real estate, this is all you could do. So you just defaulted to it.
Jill DeWit:
Say that again.
Steven Butala:
And then the fact is, Jill was absolutely born with this. She was born with this talent. It’s very natural to her. So when I hear you say things like, “Hey, maybe you need to change your voice. Hey, maybe you need to do this. Maybe you need to do this.” That starts me down that old school, mental path of, you weren’t born to do this. You’re just putting yourself through it for some reason, because you don’t want to do the technical part.
Jill DeWit:
Me?
Steven Butala:
No, just anybody. Can you clarify that? Because I really think that you’re either born with one or the other. Some people have both, but they just hate one or the other. They want to do only one thing.
Jill DeWit:
Right.
Steven Butala:
Now, because of LandAcademy, you can partner up with somebody pretty effectively, or multiple people, and get that other piece done.
Jill DeWit:
Right. I hate the term people person. I think that’s overused, but there are definitely people that can quickly engage and quickly connect and have a meaningful conversation with others. That’s what this is all about. And, what I started to say was, it’s not necessarily that I want to get every seller on the phone and like get my price, whatever it is. That’s not what I’m doing, at all. My number one goal is to, in three or five sentences, connect with that person on the phone and just find out if we’re a good fit period. Do I have what you need? Or do you have what I want. And, maybe you do, maybe you don’t, and if you do have something I want, are you in a position to sell it? And if you’re not, I wish you the best.
Jill DeWit:
I’m not going to sit here and talk you out of it. That’s what’s the funniest thing too. We talked about earlier this week, about calling people on their pain points and [inaudible 00:11:41] stress property. That just makes me… That’s the funniest thing on the planet. Do I really want to talk somebody out of their property that they love and I’m going to tell them why they can’t possibly… Could you imagine, “Oh, you can’t possibly afford to live there for rest of your life. What’s going to happen when this happens and what’s going to happen when you get sick.” I’m not going to do that.
Jill DeWit:
If they’re interested and you want to sell great, “Let’s work this out. And if the number works for me, awesome. If it doesn’t, I wish you all the best.” It’s like… What’s so funny is, it’s like your front end. You go, you send out a lot of offers. And by you sending out so many offers, it gives me so many great people to talk to. I need to be efficient. I need to find out if it’s going to work or not.
Steven Butala:
You’re not going to change anyone’s mind. They’ve already decided that they want to sell the property by the time they pick up the phone and call us. What they’re checking for is how easy it’s going to be. Is the person a ass that I’m talking to? Is the price for real? Is this person for real? So you need to answer their questions and you’re not going to change their mind.
Jill DeWit:
Well, hold on a moment.
Steven Butala:
You need to… They’ve already made up their mind, maybe they don’t know about price yet, but they do want to sell it. So that’s what Jill does. This is a tech person’s opinion of why this works so well for you, is you don’t get them to change their mind. You just get them comfortable with the process and make it even slightly fun and interesting. And then, they’ll eat out of your hand.
Jill DeWit:
Well, hold on a moment. I want to say this though. There are some people that are slimy and good, and they might get you to change your mind. They might… [crosstalk 00:13:17] Hold on a moment. Let me finish that. They might talk you into something that you don’t want. That’s the last thing you want to do, because you know what’s going to happen. That person is going to realize it in two days and go dark. And you’ve wasted all that time, all that energy.
Steven Butala:
That’s my point.
Jill DeWit:
And, you’re not a good person. So let me back up. So I carry this through to every part of our company. Anybody who’s a member of LandAcademy knows how we are. We don’t sell anything. Anybody who calls in and asking for information, we provide information. I don’t have my sales team. I don’t really have a sales team, but I don’t have them say like, “Find their pain points and are they not putting food on the table? Did they lose their job, because of COVID, and sell them. You need to hard sell LandAcademy.”
Jill DeWit:
Oh my goodness, no. No, but I’m serious.
Steven Butala:
That’s awful.
Jill DeWit:
But there’s companies and things out there that do that, and that’s wrong, because all you can do is… What are you going to do? You’re going to have all the wrong people mad at you. And this is not a good fit for them. And they don’t know what they’re doing. They’re getting in over their heads. And then, 80 refunds later, that’s not what you want. And so, that’s always been our underlying theme in everything that we do. And I would, at the end of the day, argue, it’s the best. I know it’s the best. Sure, do I have to answer twice as many phone calls? Yep. So flipping what? I get the right people and we go off and have a wonderful business relationship together. Thank you.
Steven Butala:
You want to take a bow.
Jill DeWit:
Yeah, exactly. [crosstalk 00:14:53]
Steven Butala:
I have gray hair, so I’m going to just kind of call it like I see it. And, if somebody said this to me, when I was really young, I would have said what an idiot. I really just think you’re born with one of these. You’re either a Jack or a Jill. I got through the Jill part with reasonable success, because I sat down and devised and schemed a way about how I could sell a piece of real estate without talking to anyone, both on the buy side and the sell side, which is unheard of at the time. The internet was just getting rolling. And there were sites like eBay, those original ecommerce sites.
Steven Butala:
So, I wasn’t born with that part. I schemed my way out of doing this and very successfully. And I’m not saying I scammed anybody. I shouldn’t use the word scheme. I just built a business based on a foundation of no talking.
Jill DeWit:
Right.
Steven Butala:
And so I don’t think you can learn this stuff. You’re either one or the other. And if you’re… I can get my way through it. But I do think you need to partner with somebody to get the ball rolling.
Jill DeWit:
Nature/nurture. I hear you. And I believe that too. There are people it just comes easily to, but there’s a lot of people that they can tweak it and do a darn good job and I can help them.
Steven Butala:
Yeah. And you know what I’ve seen Jill do a mailer, and she gets through it great.
Jill DeWit:
I can do it.
Steven Butala:
You know, maybe-
Jill DeWit:
Not as good as you.
Steven Butala:
And I could never-
Jill DeWit:
Not as fast.
Steven Butala:
… have the relationship-building skills that you have. I have them. We went to a dinner party a couple of days ago and I might-
Jill DeWit:
You do. You were on.
Steven Butala:
My stand-up comedy thing was on that night. And, I had everybody in tears for a while, for more than an hour.
Jill DeWit:
That was funny. The waiter was laughing. It was hilarious.
Steven Butala:
It’s not that it’s not in there. I’m not going to do that all the time. And Jill can do it all the time. And it’s just natural. She’s got multiple examples of childhood experiences in grade school where she had to sit at the back of the room and face the wall, because she was making everybody laugh, including the teacher. And then she made a business out of it. So, and I’ve gotten multiple experiences about why I had to get up and teach math to people, because the teacher was like, “You know what? I think you should teach this right now.” And then I did.
Jill DeWit:
Yep. That’s true.
Steven Butala:
So why fight it?
Jill DeWit:
Thanks, babe. Happy you could join us today. Monday through Friday can find us right here on the LandAcademy Show. Join us next week for another interesting episode.
Steven Butala:
You are not alone in your real estate ambition. I went off script a little bit, because I was thinking about you when you were little and I think it’s just really, really funny to me.
Jill DeWit:
Oh. Yeah, you can just imagine
Steven Butala:
How much fun would we have had.
Jill DeWit:
Oh, man. That would have been good. 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 get on over to our YouTube channel, hit the subscribe button and please leave some comments on the episodes that you love.
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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