Jill Friday – New Members Always Want to Send LESS Mail (LA 1538)
Jill Friday – New Members Always Want to Send LESS Mail (LA 1538)
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 the last time in this location in sweet Southern California. We are going to be moving the operation. We will be back in some capacity. We’re never going to always be fully out of California, but sitting in this exact seat with this [back 00:00:29] background, won’t be happening again and that’s okay.
Steven Butala:
Our background will be improving.
Jill DeWit:
As well, our mental health. What else?
Steven Butala:
And our general tax situation.
Jill DeWit:
Yeah. And our bank balances.
Steven Butala:
Today is Jill Friday. She talks about why new members always want to send less mail versus more mail. 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 if you’re already a Land Academy member, join us on discord.
Jill DeWit:
Mitchell and Heidi wrote, “While I didn’t make it to the last accountability group meeting, I have a question though. First, as to goals for the week, we made great progress this week and we’ll be sending our first 1,500 pieces out next week. Next goal is 1,500 more the following week from the same data set, but larger parcels this time. Leads me to two questions I hope to ask on the call.”
Steven Butala:
One second. We have accountability groups-
Jill DeWit:
This came from that?
Steven Butala:
As part of the membership of Land Academy and these two people missed the accountability groups. So when you miss a Weight Watchers meeting, you report in different ways, and try to make up for it. So that was the design with all of this, and it’s kind of a taste on what this is about, but in their case, these are really good. They’re really taking this seriously, which I love.
Jill DeWit:
Good. It’s kind of like, “Can we get the teacher’s notes? Because I missed the meeting.” That’s great.
Jill DeWit:
Here’s what they wrote. So number one, “Do you set a lower acreage limit when pulling data or set it at 0.1 to capture the most parcels? I did 0.1 as the lower limit, which surprisingly, there are a lot of 0.1 to 0.4 acre lots in this rural county. Which leads me to question two. Upon a random test for reason of the first 1,500 pieces, I found a lot of these smaller parcels are right next to land with the owners’ homes on them. I can’t think of a way to stop that when pulling data. So I assume those will just be wasted mail because they aren’t likely to sell the 0.1 acres right next to their home or that might be providing them access to their land. Am I missing anything?”
Steven Butala:
I put this in here because this saves so much time and mistake-making energy. This is a brilliant question. It’s very typical and totally understandable for a new person. Yes. You’re wasting your time. Especially if you’re getting that much responses from 0.1 to 0.4. That’s not part of the five A’s. We want acreage. Larger acreage properties sell much faster. And so, I would have to see exactly where you’re pulling it and the stuff that’s coming back. But in general, I don’t recommend buying, especially in the beginning, buying anything less than an acre, especially in an urban setting where it’s going to be really expensive.
Jill DeWit:
Thank you.
Steven Butala:
That’s it?
Jill DeWit:
Yeah.
Steven Butala:
Today’s topic, Jill Friday, new members always seem to want to send less mail versus more. This is the meat of the show.
Jill DeWit:
So I’ve got it down to three things. I think there’s three reasons why this happens and I want to talk about them. So what are we talking about? These guys are good. I want you to send 1,500 to 2,000, or more, depending what you could handle, units of mail to an area. Period.
Jill DeWit:
I don’t want you to waste your time with less mail. [Let’s say they’ll 00:04:04] come along and they’re like, “Oh, I’m just going to do a few here, a few there.” There’s a couple of reasons why. They might be sending 20 a week or something like that. I think that it comes from, “If I’m going to send 20 units a day, or 20 units a week,” I think that the mindset is A, “I heard it from somebody else,” which is not correct. Or B, they think it’s a way to test the area. It’s not a good test. You’re not going to get the response that you want.
Steven Butala:
Can I comment on this?
Jill DeWit:
Yeah.
Steven Butala:
Yet or not?
Jill DeWit:
Let me give you all three because it’s all going to tie together.
Steven Butala:
Okay.
Jill DeWit:
So I think that’s number one. Number two, I think they don’t want to send a lot of mail because they’re scared of the volume, while they’re learning. And then number three is, I think they’re afraid of the budget and how much they can afford to buy. And I don’t think… It’s not the mailing part. It’s the property part.
Jill DeWit:
Now let’s come back. So what do you think about this 20 units a week and testing an area?
Steven Butala:
Sending out mail is not a way to test the market. Testing the market, as we teach, that’s what the Red Green Yellow test is for, and testing your mailer for a reason. Transactions have happened in the market that you’re about to mail. Why not use that data to predict whether or not, with a great degree of certainty, predict what’s going to happen on your mailer?
Steven Butala:
Look, dream with me for a second. You go out fishing. Are you going to put 20 lines in the water or 1,500 lines? What’s your chances of catching something?
Jill DeWit:
Or one line.
Steven Butala:
You can’t… This is not how to test it. I don’t understand this. Well, I’m understanding it more now, after this episode. I don’t understand this sentence, “Send just a few mailers out.”
Jill DeWit:
So that’s where I think that comes from. They think they want to test it. Don’t do that.
Steven Butala:
Here’s what’s going to happen, very likely, you’re going to send 20 or 30, or even 200, mailers out, you’re not going to buy a property, and you’re going to throw in the towel.
Jill DeWit:
Right. That’s what can happen. Let me cover it. Let me go back and talk a little bit more on each one. I’m going to tell you the big picture reasoning here and why, and get you on my team. And I’ll tell you why this is best. No, seriously.
Steven Butala:
It’s not Jack Friday.
Jill DeWit:
No, it’s not. So get yourself a cup of coffee and give me a minute here.
Jill DeWit:
So that’s number one, they think it’s a little cheap task, you just said, that’s not a task. Number two, I think people are scared of the volume. And I get that, so turn on PATLive. And they’re like, “I’m learning.” You know what’s the best way to learn? Turn it up, babe. After 10 phone calls in one day, you’re going to sound like a pro the next day. Don’t, “One here, one there,” and then agonize over it. Nope. That’s not the way to learn. And then the third one is, I think people are worried about not so much the cost of the mail, they’re worried about the cost of the properties. “If I send out 2,000 units, what if 20 people come back and I don’t have the money to buy 20 properties? I can’t handle it.” Yeah, you can. Because we help with that. And there’s so many people in Land Academy, that’ll help you find those deals. Don’t even think about it.
Jill DeWit:
The reason I wanted to talk about this today was to tell everybody to A, knock it off. And B, know that you’re making it harder for yourself by only sending out the few mailers, all the things we’re talking about, you’re not going to have that much juice.
Jill DeWit:
I want you to have 20 deals to look at on Friday, because you know what’s going to happen then? You’re going to collect them all week, you’re going to be. Your phone’s blowing up. You’re getting through the phone calls. You’re like, “Wow.” You’re learning. You’re going to be putting them in your spreadsheet while you’re going to get more and more efficient. So on Friday, or whatever day you dedicate as, the day I sit down and look at them all and really put the time and figure out what I’m going to buy, on Monday, call those people back and how I’m going to handle this.
Jill DeWit:
I want you to have 20 to look at because two or three of them are going to be no brainers. You’ll be like, “Oh, this is great. I know exactly what I’m going to buy.” “These five don’t have access.” Don’t want them. “These four are way too expensive, these want too much.” Don’t want them. “These two people are dead.” Don’t want them. You’re going to have a couple there that have the five A’s, you know what I’m talking about, and you’re going to go, “Ding, ding, this is easy.”
Jill DeWit:
I know what I’m going to buy and I’m not going to fail. If you send 20 units out here and there, you’re going to be waiting for that one call to come in, and the two calls to come in this week, and you’re going to go, “Darn. Shoot. Well, between the two, which is the lesser of two evils?” You’re going to be doing that kind of thing. And that’s not how you’re going to win. And like Steven just said, you’re going to fail. You’re going to make mistakes because you’re buying something that’s not that great, instead of having a bunch to choose from.
Steven Butala:
Here’s what Jill just described. So not 1,500 offers, versus the other way, you’re going to get a bunch of back. Let’s use her number, 10. 10 properties that are [sign 00:09:09] properties that come back. Some are going to have fatal flaws, some aren’t. What’s the worst thing that can happen? You get 10 or 15 properties that come back without any flaws. You have no idea how to fund them all, so what are you going to do? You’re going to pick. Of those 10 or 15, you’re going to pick the one that you’re absolutely sure you’re going to make a bunch of dough on. And so the worst thing that can happen is you pass on a few deals in that mailer or you sell the options to somebody else in our group. It’s not going to go to waste.
Jill DeWit:
Get somebody to fund it. Or you tell the other seller, “Hey, can I hit you in a month? How fast do you need to sell?”
Steven Butala:
The other way, the alternative, send out 200 letters and five or six people call you back. They’re really angry and you don’t get anything back, and you say, “This doesn’t work.” Sending out a mailer, a small mailer, to test a market is absolutely wrong. Do I understand why you’ve come to us with this notion? Yeah, I totally get it. It’s old-school real estate stuff.
Steven Butala:
I think that doing a bunch of stuff, at 10 miles an hour versus a hundred miles an hour, just to see what’s going to happen, is a personality type thing and I get it. I had a high school football coach that said, “If you forgot to play, I want you to make a mistake at a hundred miles an hour.” And that’s it. And that’s the same thing here. We want you to succeed. We really do.
Steven Butala:
Jill and I have made almost every single… Me specifically, have made almost every conceivable mistake in any of this, and that’s one of them. Testing the market is for the Red Green Yellow test, and looking at completed sales, and running all the stuff that’s in the education. And when you’ve got all these things, flares going off, about why you should send certain property mail to a certain zip code, go for it, man.
Jill DeWit:
So I have one final thing and I want to hit this home too, make sure you know this. That’s why you have us, by the way. Whatever these issues are. “I don’t know if I did this,” or, “Is this a good deal now? I’m afraid of this,” whatever, you have us.
Jill DeWit:
If you’re in Land Academy, you have examples of my calls. You know what to ask them. You have a cheat sheets left and right. You know what to do. You’re going to get good. You’re going to get better at it and be a pro really fast. And you know what? You have all of us right here. You have Steven and I, and you have everyone in the Land Academy community. You have my staff. We’re not going to let you fall that far. So you need to put your helmet on. Once you make the decision, this is what you’re going to do, all right? Put your helmet on. I want you to go at it like a pro. And when you come up in six months, you’re going to go, “Wow, I guess I’m a professional investor.” Yeah, you are.
Steven Butala:
And “Wow, was that a mess?” Everybody looks back on their first one or two mailers and they’re like, “Wow. I wish I could get that back. I probably passed on that and I shouldn’t have. I did this all wrong. That guy yelled at me and he made me cry,” and there’s all kinds of stuff. You look back and just laugh and say, “Yeah, but now who’s laughing?”
Jill DeWit:
I had a notary here at the house yesterday and she arrived at the end of my Land Academy Ladies call. And she’s like, “Wow, what a valuable thing that you’re doing for all these people and helping them.” And I said, “Yeah.” I said, “Believe me, we are still saying, boy, I wish I had a version of us when I was starting out,” because it really is nice. I have people that I can go to and ask for. So use our advice, by the way, you’re not winging it here. We are really telling you and giving you the examples and the reasons why. So take the advice and send out a bunch of mail.
Steven Butala:
I don’t care who you are. I don’t care where you are in your real estate career. How much money you have or don’t have. Your first mailer’s going to look like a huge pile of mess. That’s it. That’s just how it is. And then your second one’s going to look a little better. And the third one, a little better.
Jill DeWit:
You’re going to make mistakes. Who cares? That’s the point. You’re going to make mistakes and it doesn’t matter. You know how to recover because we help you with that too. 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. Are you sad or happy about the Pacific Ocean?
Jill DeWit:
I’m always sad. But I’m excited and happy for all our changes.
Steven Butala:
Me too.
Jill DeWit:
It’s good.
Steven Butala:
I cannot wait to return often to California as a tourist.
Jill DeWit:
I’m not sure you ever were not a tourist here. You never changed your ID, never changed your health insurance. There’s a couple of things that’s so funny that he never changed. I’m like, “Oh, I should’ve done that too.”
Steven Butala:
Those would be red flags for most women.
Jill DeWit:
Right? “He’s not that into me. He’s just not that into me. He never really moved in.” Could you imagine? “I knew it.” That’s so funny.
Jill DeWit:
Hey, I want to leave it on this little note too. We’re wrapping it up, I may or may not by the time this airs, have spots left, but if you’re really interested in working directly with us, and getting that one-on-one attention to either start this business on the right foot with a lot of help, or take your business to the next level, no matter where you are, check out Career Path. So go to landacademy.com/careerpath and check it out.
Jill DeWit:
Currently we’re doing it… We were doing it once a quarter, we might roll it back. I’m going to make that official too, so you know. Because we really want to give the attention, and the focus, and the energy that we need to the folks that are in Career Path.
Steven Butala:
Who want to make it a career.
Jill DeWit:
So I’ll say, it’s probably not going to be once a quarter. We have one right now for the second quarter this year, coming up. Starts at the end of June. Probably starting right when this airs. So anyway, if you were waiting for the next one, you might be waiting a little while, but keep an eye out.
Jill DeWit:
We are Steve and Jill. I threw you with that because that was my little ending. I was going to skip that.
Steven Butala:
Oh, we’re so far off script. We are Steve and Jill.
Jill DeWit:
Yes we are. And he’s information-
Steven Butala:
And she’s inspiration-
Jill DeWit:
To buy undervalued property.
Steven Butala:
Goodbye, California.
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