Jack Thursday – Unique Ways to Improve Your Land (LA 1497)
Jack Thursday – Unique Ways to Improve Your Land (LA 1497)
Transcript:
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 Scottsdale, Arizona.
Steven Butala:
Today, Jill and I talk about unique ways to improve your land. It’s Jack Thursday.
Steven Butala:
There’s so many things, simple things that you can do to a piece of property that will set it apart from the five or eight or 10 other pieces of property that are maybe listed for sale in the area. We’ll talk about simple, fast, cheap ways to make your property stand out on the internet against all those other properties. And keep you legal, if we can. Like meth labs, that will make you stand out.
Jill DeWit:
That’s true.
Steven Butala:
But that’s not the best thing to do, I don’t think. Although, it might sell fast.
Jill DeWit:
The caution tape and all the stuff from the police, that will make your property stand out.
Steven 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, and please join us on Discord if you’re already a member.
Jill DeWit:
You should have called this, Unique and Legal Ways to Improve Your Land.
Steven Butala:
Yeah, but we’ll address some of the illegal ones just because it’s fun.
Jill DeWit:
Got it.
Jill DeWit:
Where’s my question? Here we go. Lee wrote, “Hi all. I just turned down a deal that wasn’t for me, but the seller has other property that could be for another Land Academy member. How do I go about it? Where do I post it? Thanks.”
Jill DeWit:
You know what? That was a thing for the deal board. That was the original intent of the deal board. I was passing on so many deals that I’m like, Somebody should get this. I don’t want it. It might be for somebody else because it’s too small to … fill in the blank. I don’t know the area that well. Whatever it is. Usually it was too small money-wise and I’d throw them up there. I wouldn’t use LandTank because that’s not what that’s for.
Jill DeWit:
What would you suggest?
Steven Butala:
I think this is chaos waiting to happen.
Jill DeWit:
There’s that, too.
Steven Butala:
I think that if you go post it on a deal board, which I’m not recommending at all … In fact, we need to stop talking about it on this show.
Jill DeWit:
That’s true. It is going to go away.
Steven Butala:
We’re decommissioning it. If you have another person in the group that you like, maybe you know their name. Kevin Farrell, who’s our moderator, would be a perfect candidate for this. He does this all the time. He marks it up a certain amount and just passes on the deal. Marks it up a very small amount of money, less than a thousand dollars regardless of how large it is. At least that’s what he reported to me the last time we talked about it, which actually several months ago. It’s always better to go with somebody with a sentence like this, “Hey, Kevin,” just like this, “I got this deal in. It’s not for me. I know it’s a good deal …”
Steven Butala:
We get great deals in all the time, for some reason we just don’t do it.
Jill DeWit:
I gave one to Aaron the other day to give to somebody.
Steven Butala:
Okay, good.
Jill DeWit:
We do do it.
Steven Butala:
Great example.
Jill DeWit:
Yeah, I did. I don’t want any money for it.
Jill DeWit:
On Land Academy. I just gave it away. I just said, Hey Aaron, here you go. Give it to somebody you like.
Steven Butala:
Jill, what was wrong with the deal? Everyone-
Jill DeWit:
Too small dollar-wise.
Steven Butala:
Excellent. That’s a perfect example.
Jill DeWit:
I’m not going to run up and down for $4,000, but somebody else would.
Steven Butala:
Excellent.
Steven Butala:
What I would do is personally reach out to somebody that you have some respect for in the Discord or the Land Investors, and somebody who’s going to give you a real straight answer, straight private answer on it. Chances are, somebody like Kevin will know. He’ll know where, “Oh, this is a perfect deal for XYZ,” because he’s been involved in Land Academy for so long and with a lot of success.
Steven Butala:
What I wouldn’t do is just post it somewhere. We learned that from deal board. You can’t just say, “I’ve got this 20 acres in Texas. I’m not going to buy it. It’s 3000 bucks. Here’s the owner’s phone number.” That owner then gets 20 calls.
Jill DeWit:
Exactly.
Steven Butala:
It’s just a mess. We learned that the hard way.
Steven Butala:
That all said, you can’t let these deals go to waste because they’re great for new people. It’s very nice of you. Most people, Lee, would just say, I’m not doing the deal. So I appreciate paying it forward.
Jill DeWit:
That’s sweet.
Steven Butala:
Today’s topic, it’s Jack Thursday. Unique Ways to Improve Your Land. This is why you’re listening.
Jill DeWit:
Can we start with the don’ts first? Let’s make it more fun.
Steven Butala:
Go ahead.
Jill DeWit:
Let’s start with the ways that you don’t want to improve your land.
Jill DeWit:
Number one, anything illegal. When I mean illegal, not just, it’s a meth lab. You put an RV on there and RVs aren’t allowed. You put a mobile on there and mobiles aren’t allowed. Don’t make it a problem for somebody. You move a junky car, you move your trash on there. You got a new fridge and you put your old fridge out there. Don’t do anything like that. Make it positive.
Steven Butala:
Staging a murder scene.
Jill DeWit:
That’s right. Exactly. Or just pretending, “This is where X movie was filmed.” That would be really funny.
Jill DeWit:
I think we got that out of the way. What are your great newest and latest? Or do you have more bad ones?
Steven Butala:
Well, no. Let’s just cut to the chase and I’ll tell you what I think the best answer is.
Steven Butala:
I defy anyone to tell me where any property is not in an HOA, that a shed is illegal. I don’t mean illegal criminally. I just mean against the county rules, you can’t put a shed. Everyone can put a shed in their backyard unless it’s HOA property, then I’ve seen really severe-
Jill DeWit:
Has to be a certain color, certain height.
Steven Butala:
Severe issues.
Jill DeWit:
I may or may not have lived that life.
Steven Butala:
If you’ve got a Tuff Shed, which is a relatively new company and they started in the late ’80s, they caught onto this and this whole tiny house movement, they have sheds in there for five grand. New ones. You can probably find them way cheaper used that look like a tiny house, it’s just not finished on the inside.
Steven Butala:
We’re experimenting with that right now. We’re putting $5,000 Tuff Sheds on property to see if we can justify another $10,000 increase in the property that’s already making 10 or 20,000 net anyway. If we can get some extra juice out of it and it sells faster and it’s a feel-good thing, and we’re disclosing everything, “Look, this is a shed. We enclosed it. This is how we had it installed. This is when we did it. Here’s the receipt. This is what it looks like inside. It’s completely unfinished.”
Jill DeWit:
There’s no water. There’s no power. You have to do all of that. That’s the point, I think you’re right. You got to be very clear with these properties, what it is and what it isn’t.
Steven Butala:
The properties where we’re doing this are in unincorporated areas. They’re in county land properties that are zoned specifically in a certain size. I’ve researched and researched and talked to people, and they’re not going to say anything about this. In fact, the people at this specific county are going to be happy about the fact that we’re improving the property.
Steven Butala:
I think that this is a dinner bell for DIYs, do-it-yourselfers. They might finish the thing. It gets other juices flowing. Your whole point to doing this exercise is to, now it’s not just a piece of vacant land now. Now it starts to get you thinking. It’s like, I could go out there, I don’t need a $400,000 cabin. I could go buy a $30,000 piece of property that’s an hour and a half out of town and have a couple of beers and hang out.
Jill DeWit:
I have one other thing, too. What is so important here is getting eyes. Properties with more views and more eyes on it sell faster, period. And what better way, other than having that beautiful shot, I’m going to use the word dreamy, from the ground looking up? Big, puffy white clouds and a blue sky and this gorgeous mountain in the background, and then there’s a structure on it? Who even cares. I’m going to click on it because now I’m all curious. You’re going to get way more eyes on it if you have a lead photo like that going out, not a 3D image from a VA in the Philippines on a Google earth topography map. That’s not going to get you the views that this is going to get you.
Steven Butala:
And it’s not your grandfather’s shed. These sheds have windows and French doors. They have porches. They’re made out of incredibly durable material, composite material from recycled plastic. They anchor it to the ground.
Steven Butala:
Jill and I just went to a home show and we got sidetracked. We intentionally sidetracked ourselves with the Tuff Shed representative in this area. We’re starting down the path there.
Jill DeWit:
Not your grandfather’s shed. That’s funny.
Steven Butala:
It looks like it’s out of a postcard.
Jill DeWit:
They’re cool. They have lofts in them.
Steven Butala:
Granted, it’s a finished exterior frame.
Jill DeWit:
It’s technically a shed.
Steven Butala:
That’s anchored usually on dirt. There’s no concrete involved which makes it so cheap, but it’s the greatest photo op ever.
Steven Butala:
Hollywood’s been doing stuff like this forever.
Jill DeWit:
True.
Steven Butala:
They build shells of buildings for perfect shots.
Jill DeWit:
True.
Steven Butala:
This is just an extension of that. If you get a bigger one, you really can see yourself-
Jill DeWit:
Camping.
Steven Butala:
… camping in there or living in there just for a weekend. It opens the property up to a whole different class of buyers.
Jill DeWit:
There you go. I’m all about the eyes on it. That’s my thing. I want the views. I want the eyes. You want your property to stand out. Even you did everything right and you’re one of five properties for sale of like-kind in this area, why would you still not want to be the one that everybody looks at? Yours will sell fast.
Steven Butala:
There’s a big topic of the junk. On our Thursday webinar, Jill and I talk about … we review people’s deals in our group. There’s always somebody on there that says, “I got this property back. They signed the purchase agreement,” or, “The numbers really work on it. It’s a great property, but it’s got an old semi on it. It’s got a junk yard filled with … fill in the blank. It’s got old tires on it. Somebody’s been using it as a dumping site.” To which we say …
Jill DeWit:
I don’t know. What?
Steven Butala:
To which I almost always say, that’s a good thing, not a bad thing. It differentiates your property from the property that might be next door.
Steven Butala:
There is a line to that though.
Jill DeWit:
Depending what it is.
Steven Butala:
Old tires might be problem from an EPA standpoint. You got to make sure that the environment is environmentally sound. I turned away a huge deal one time because it had old refrigerators on it. The coolant, the Freon is very toxic.
Jill DeWit:
We had one where we had a big shed on it. Remember it had a bunch of old cars on it and big stuff? It was sending the wrong message of what could have been inside that thing.
Steven Butala:
If there’s 20 or 30 55 gallon drums in the back that are rusted out, that’s really a bad sign. If there’s an old semi on there, that’s not so bad.
Jill DeWit:
Having on old mobile.
Steven Butala:
Old mobile homes are great. You can detect pretty quickly if a house has ever been built on the property. Those are all really good things.
Jill DeWit:
Even just a pad. A pad and you could see, I think there’s a well. That’s great. Something like that’s awesome.
Steven Butala:
There’s a difference between an EPA Superfund site and a former house. For new investors, they tend to be treated the same way, and they’re not. A former house on a property is … I don’t know, I’ve never looked at a property like that and said, “Oh, darn, there used to be a house there.” Usually everybody’s jumping up and down because it gets you thinking somebody can put another house on there.
Jill DeWit:
And some of the stuff’s already done. The work’s already done.
Steven Butala:
Old RVs can be successful. You can get in some trouble. You got to check with zoning on that.
Jill DeWit:
What else are you thinking?
Steven Butala:
Containers. Shipping containers, I’ve heard that are very inexpensive. Like Jill said yesterday, that if you put in your posting, “There’s a 20 foot container on the site, I don’t know what’s in there,” that’s going to get attract a lot of attention. Some of it may be unwanted attention.
Steven Butala:
My point is, just start to think about how you can improve your land. Maybe you have a bunch of stuff in your garage or in your shed or in your barn that you’ve been looking to get rid of anyway. You’ve got an old car, maybe you just throw it out there. I’m not saying break the law. Check the rules and all that stuff before you do that.
Jill DeWit:
It’s kind of funny.
Steven Butala:
It’s going to make a difference.
Jill DeWit:
You can get creative.
Steven Butala:
If you put an old Model T that you don’t think it’s worth too much money out on the property, you’re going to attract a huge amount of attention.
Jill DeWit:
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 in the Land Academy show is called … well, it’s Jill Friday. She’s going to talk about how one-third of our members have quit their jobs.
Steven Butala:
You are not alone in your real estate ambition.
Jill DeWit:
Even that number I didn’t expect. When our team came to us and shared that, I’m like, What are you talking about?
Steven Butala:
It shocks me.
Jill DeWit:
I’m like, what?
Steven Butala:
I still can’t get over this.
Jill DeWit:
What?
Steven Butala:
I really mean it. I can’t. Gosh. Can you imagine? I would have never thought that that was a possibility when we started Land Academy.
Jill DeWit:
I didn’t think that either. It makes me happy.
Steven Butala:
Actually, I feel pride.
Jill DeWit:
Me too.
Jill DeWit:
Hey, you need to send out a few thousand offers like we do to property owners? Check out offers2owners.com. It’s offers, the number two, and owners.com. No set up fees, free mail merge, and exceptional service. We should know because it’s our company. Give Offers 2 Owners a call today.
Jill DeWit:
We are Steve and Jill.
Steven Butala:
We are Steve and Jill. Information …
Jill DeWit:
And inspiration …
Steven Butala:
To buy undervalued property.
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