Jill Friday – We Have Hot Water! Starting my House Renovation (LA 1513)
Jill Friday – We Have Hot Water! Starting my House Renovation (LA 1513)
Transcript:
Steven Butala:
Steve and Jill, here.
Jill K DeWit:
Hello.
Steven Butala:
Welcome to the Land Academy Show, entertaining land investment talk. I’m Steven Jack Butala.
Jill K DeWit:
And I’m Jill DeWit, broadcasting from happening Paradise Valley, Arizona. It’s happening because we are here now. Everyone-
Steven Butala:
It’s-
Jill K DeWit:
Excuse me. Hold, please. I’m not done. All of you 80 year-olds that are listening that are my neighbors … Just kidding. Watch out. There’s new kids in town. There’s a reason we’re here. We have no HOA so we’re going to have some rocking parties.
Steven Butala:
We’re the young whippersnappers.
Jill K DeWit:
Yes, we are.
Steven Butala:
We’re the ones who are going to create the noise in the state.
Jill K DeWit:
Oh, it’s going to be good.
Steven Butala:
We’re the Gatsbys.
Jill K DeWit:
Our neighbors are going to wish we had an HOA. Just kidding. “Paradise Valley Police Department. Yeah, yeah, we know. Jack and Jill? Uh-huh, we’re on it.” Just kidding.
Steven Butala:
Today’s Jill Friday and she’s going to talk about how we actually have hot water in this monstrosity of a mess of a house that we just bought and how we’re starting-
Jill K DeWit:
How we’re starting some renovations.
Steven Butala:
Jill’s renovation, I call it.
Jill K DeWit:
I’d like to add, too … Here’s what realistically happened because this is what happened at the beach. When you call the police department you might get a voicemail because they’re at our party.
Steven Butala:
That’s true.
Jill K DeWit:
That really did happen at the beach.
Steven Butala:
That’s true. Those guys are great.
Jill K DeWit:
So, just be prepared.
Steven Butala:
Before we get into it, let’s take a question posted by one of our members on LandInvestors.com online community. It’s free and if you’re already a Land Academy member, join us on Discord.
Jill K DeWit:
Andrew W. wrote, “Hi, everyone. Question for you. We have a buyer who’s interested in one of our properties and he wants to purchase but he stated they want to meet us, the owners, in person at the property to confirm before purchasing. Has anyone experienced this and know what to say or do? The property’s out of state and if anything we could make the trip but wanted to see what others have done in the past. Thanks.”
Jill K DeWit:
Well, one easy way to get out of it right now is play the COVID card like, “Oh, I can’t. My wife won’t go.” Play the double whammy. “My wife is not into it and …” What were you going to say? You’re so serious right now.
Steven Butala:
I’ve done this …
Jill K DeWit:
Have fun.
Steven Butala:
Here’s why I’m serious, because this is a serious question.
Jill K DeWit:
Okay. I know that. You want me to answer? Because that’s … I believe it. I’m having fun but I wanted to lighten it up a little bit and [inaudible 00:02:30][crosstalk 00:02:30]-
Steven Butala:
I’m racking Jill’s time.
Jill K DeWit:
And then I can reel it … give a real.
Steven Butala:
This is not the first time.
Jill K DeWit:
You know what, Andrew. I accurately tell people I’m not there. I’ve had people say, “Are you going to show me around?” And I made a joke and I said, “Yeah, I’ll leave a key under the mat,” and then they didn’t quite get it and I had to … It’s okay. The right people get it. But there’s nothing wrong with that. You don’t need to be there. You don’t need to show the property. I’m just … You have a lot to say. I can tell you’re holding back.
Steven Butala:
I don’t have a lot to say.
Jill K DeWit:
I’m honest about it.
Steven Butala:
I’ve three or four sentences. I’ve done this a handful of times and every single time it’s a mess.
Jill K DeWit:
You show up there?
Steven Butala:
Yeah.
Jill K DeWit:
Oh, I’ve never done that.
Steven Butala:
And here’s what I’ve … This is way early in my career because we were dying for sales and it was never … I never went out of state or anything. It was somebody that was local and they said something like, “Hey, can you meet us for lunch? We’re right down the street at XYZ place and bring the paperwork and we’ll sign it.” And they never sign and they’re never … It was always some ridiculous thing.
Jill K DeWit:
There was one guy at a college. Remember that? That worked out fine. It was a guy-
Steven Butala:
That was an acquisition.
Jill K DeWit:
I know. He did buy.
Steven Butala:
For acquisitions, if you need to meet people, happily.
Jill K DeWit:
We bought them.
Steven Butala:
Absolutely go for that. That’s fine.
Jill K DeWit:
Yeah, because he was really close by. We’re like, “Yeah, I’ll just zip over and sign it,” and we have a notary right here so it’s no big deal.
Steven Butala:
Yeah.
Jill K DeWit:
So, that’s kind of funny. For me, it’s so funny. This doesn’t come up. Very, very rarely, Andrew. Totally truth, I’m having fun, it’s Friday. But really, truthfully it doesn’t come up very often and if it does I say, “You know what? That would be so cool. I would love to do it but I’m actually traveling right now.” If they ask where I am, I’ll just say, “Yeah, I’m in Arizona right now.” And I’ll just say right now even though maybe I haven’t left in six months. “I happen to buy property all over the country, I’m not able to get out there for a little bit. I wish I could meet you. That would be great. But in the meantime, here’s what we’re going to do. I’m going to send a notary, we’re going to do this. Do you want them to come to your house?” And that’s really how you handle it and just get it done. And they go, “Oh, okay.” They asked and it’s fine.
Steven Butala:
Today’s topic, it’s Jill Friday, we actually have hot water and we’re starting Jill’s house renovations. This is the meat of the show.
Jill K DeWit:
Why is it Jill’s house renovation? Is it Jill’s house?
Steven Butala:
Yeah.
Jill K DeWit:
Oh, no. No, no, no.
Steven Butala:
I’m on the deed.
Jill K DeWit:
No, no, no, no, no, no. Let’s talk about the numbers. Let me tell you why this is not Jill’s house. Like everything we do, this was a numbers situation or we would not be here. Correct?
Steven Butala:
Correct.
Jill K DeWit:
Thank you. THat’s everything. And I made a comment about that the other day. I don’t remember what show we were doing but I said, “Look, once you join Land Academy you’re never going to buy property the same way again, including your primary residence.” Correct?
Steven Butala:
That’s for sure.
Jill K DeWit:
Thank you. And maybe other things, not just property.
Steven Butala:
Yeah.
Jill K DeWit:
But definitely property. You’re going to always now know how to buy good property, even … whether it’s your dream house or a cabin or just for investment purposes like us. Having said that, we came into this in a … it’s a really hot market, too. We were looking to invest some money, let’s just say that, into a great situation where we could make a profit, obviously, and we happen to be habitating here in the meantime. For how long? I’m not sure. I’m waiting for Steven to let me know how long I can stay. So, that’s what’s going on. It’s cute because the first couple … we are so excited. You know how it is. This is a bigger purchase for us. We haven’t done in a long time.
Jill K DeWit:
And I was just so excited to get in that we moved in without hot water and we made it for a weekend without hot water and fortunately, it’s Arizona and it’s 100 out so the water’s not that cold. You can take a cold shower. I did several. It was funny because I think the team gave this topic because it was so darn funny that the day I got hot water I’m telling everybody, “We have hot water!” It’s great now. And now we’re starting to do some renovations. Do you want to give some numbers?
Steven Butala:
Yeah, here’s-
Jill K DeWit:
Okay.
Steven Butala:
I can give the history, too.
Jill K DeWit:
Okay.
Steven Butala:
We actually bought this property off the MLS, which we never do. And the only reason that was acceptable at all is because we saw the property pricing history and the whole thing and then on top of that, we made an offer that they accepted, the same way that we do with these letters. And I would have offered about the same thing if we sent the letter out. But anyway, this is not the only property we made offers on, just the rest of them were accepted.
Jill K DeWit:
Right.
Steven Butala:
This property was sold for about four million bucks I think in 07, 08, 09; some number like that. At which time, they completely dismantled it and renovated it. And I mean they renovated it. These people were serious. They pulled out the stops like price was no object. Grossly increased the square footage. Every single thing that they put into this house was the best thing that you could buy at the time. Home automation and all of it.
Steven Butala:
Fast forward to today, they lost interest in the house probably 10 years after that and moved to a much larger house north of here. These people are not hurting for money and that’s the kind of seller you want for what could be a primary residence. This is not a primary residence, by the way; it’s a renovation project, for technical purposes. We bought it for about … the purchase price was 2.9 but five days before we signed the deal, they leased it to a local surgeon here for a tremendous amount of money. Long story short, fast forward six months, the lease ran out so we netted about 150 thousand on that over what we were paying form a mortgage standpoint. So, rates here for like a million seven five. It’s easily worth … Why didn’t it sell to someone else quickly? Because-
Jill K DeWit:
It was marketed wrong.
Steven Butala:
It was marketed ridiculously. The real estate agent can’t spell her own name.
Jill K DeWit:
Correct.
Steven Butala:
And there are things-
Jill K DeWit:
Changing agencies at the time, too.
Steven Butala:
Just from a decorative standpoint … This is where Jill’s going to knock it out of the park. From a decorative standpoint, everything’s top notch here but it’s just outdated and so people … In this market there’s so much competition and everybody wants a turnkey house. Just watch two episodes of HGTV and see the price difference between a renovated and … I don’t mean renovated. I don’t mean knock walls down and stuff. I just mean …
Jill K DeWit:
Updated.
Steven Butala:
Updated, decorated.
Jill K DeWit:
Right.
Steven Butala:
You just need to be decorated. No infrastructure, nothing.
Jill K DeWit:
Right.
Steven Butala:
So here we are, sitting on probably a million and a half dollars of equity with smiles on our face.
Jill K DeWit:
And I’m not done. Yeah, I’m not done. I’m going to make it great. It’s going to be really, really cool. I was going to say, too, we knew going into it … We even looked at prices … We were talking earlier about this price per square foot. We could walk away now probably and make a million not doing it.
Steven Butala:
We’re going to do this for about $400 a foot and there’s tear downs that are being sold within a mile of here for …
Jill K DeWit:
I thought six, seven.
Steven Butala:
… $700 a foot. Six to seven hundred dollars a foot where you have to tear the whole house down. We’re feeling pretty … Jill and I are patting each other on our backs for the last couple weeks.
Jill K DeWit:
And it’s going to be fun. It’s going to be a long process. We’re going to live here and live through it as we go back and forth to the beach, so you’ll see us next … Actually not next week. In a couple weeks you’re going to be seeing us pop up at the beach.
Steven Butala:
Yeah.
Jill K DeWit:
Because we’re not done there. We’re having a great time. This is good. And I’ll show some pictures. I should. I should show some pictures. You probably think … want to know. I put a pre-renovation picture of the bathtub the other day on my Facebook page. It’s not for the planet but I’m making notes so I’ll show you before and after because, hey, at least the girls. We love that stuff.
Steven Butala:
I’m sure Jill’s going to walk us around the house at some point and show before and after and all that. Right now we don’t have … This house is too-
Jill K DeWit:
Oh, I should do that.
Steven Butala:
-big to have rational internet connection.
Jill K DeWit:
It’s fine.
Steven Butala:
But we’re working on that.
Jill K DeWit:
That would be cool. That’s a good idea. People would love that. Happy you could join us today. Five days a week you can find us right here on the Land Academy Show.
Steven Butala:
Join us next week for another interesting episode. You are not alone in your real estate ambition.
Steven Butala:
That’s great, Jack. What does that have to do with buying and selling real estate for us as the listener? Here’s what this was and is. It’s motivation. This is how this ends if you can effectively buy and sell land. That’s what this is. Everybody needs a little motivation.
Jill K DeWit:
I love that. Thank you. Thank you for tuning in. We hope you find our content valuable and we really appreciate your support. If you haven’t already, please zip on over to our YouTube channel, hit the subscribe button and leave us feedback on the shows that you love. We are Steve and Jill.
Steven Butala:
We are Steve and Jill, renovating …
Jill K DeWit:
And proudful to buy undervalued property.
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