Number 1 Reason You May Not Be Doing as Many Deals as Possible (LA 1556)
Number 1 Reason You May Not Be Doing as Many Deals as Possible (LA 1556)
Transcript:
Steven Butala:
Steve and Jill here.
Jill DeWit:
Hi.
Steven Butala:
Welcome to the Land Academy Show entertaining land investment talk. I’m Steven Jack Butala.
Jill DeWit:
And I’m Jill Dewitt.
Steven Butala:
[inaudible 00:00:10]
Jill DeWit:
Full fit. Broadcasting from perfect Phoenix, Arizona.
Steven Butala:
Today Jill and I talk about the number one reason you may not be doing as many deals as possible.
Jill DeWit:
And no, it’s not answering the phone. That starts it, but that’s not the only reason.
Steven Butala:
And no, it’s not because your pricing sucks.
Jill DeWit:
That’s right.
Steven Butala:
It’s not those two.
Jill DeWit:
And no, it’s because your pricing was just too good and they don’t realize it. It’s so perfect. These guys are idiots. That’s not it.
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. If you’re already a member, you can use Land Investors if you want, but join us on Discord.
Jill DeWit:
Use both. Use both. Okay. Because there’s good information in both. I have to say, if you’re a brand new member, if you’re not using the search function and utilizing landinvestors.com you’re missing it because there’s so much information. There’s-
Steven Butala:
There’s 3,000-
Jill DeWit:
Six and a half years of information … Of comments, and people, and-
Steven Butala:
3,000-
Jill DeWit:
Situations.
Steven Butala:
Pages of questions.
Jill DeWit:
That.
Steven Butala:
To answer.
Jill DeWit:
There’s a lot of things that have already been addressed that can really help you that are in landinvestors.com and it’s a great resource. And it’s free to the planet so go get an account. Shannon and James wrote, “I spoke with a lady today who has two and a half acres on a road with access and another pair of 1.25 acres behind it with no road access. She responded to my mailer from the 1.25-acre offer. She’d liked to sell all five acres.” So two and half acre the payer and then the parent the 1.25, we got it, at one time. “And she’s made it known that she just doesn’t want to sell the two and a half acres with the access.” Totally agree. “Should I make an offer on all five acres?” Yes. “However, break up the pricing for the non-access pair on the 1.25 acre lots.”
Steven Butala:
Nope.
Jill DeWit:
I see where they’re going that whole place.
Steven Butala:
So do I.
Jill DeWit:
Or should I move on because she doesn’t want to sell me the two and a half acres that has the access, which is what I’d really like to purchase? Thank you, Shannon and James.”
Steven Butala:
Sell it yourself.
Jill DeWit:
You want the five acres? So if you need to say … If you need to … I don’t really need you to be this guy or this couple. Look. Or, I can’t … I’m not paying as much for the back acres as I am for the front acres because the access is here. So here’s my offer. You could do that but I don’t condone that. Just give her an offer for the all five acres. Love it. This is great. And down the road, if somebody else wants to do something with them, that’s on them. They want to create access to the back half that’s great they can do that too. I would just buy all five.
Steven Butala:
Or nothing. You’ll see if they’re a seller pretty quickly. You need access … Property needs to have access this day and age. There’s a … If you go back to last week, there’s a question in the topic about access that explains it. Why it’s so important? So there was a time in my career when I bought a lot accessless property very inexpensively and resold it, disclosing that it has no access. So there’s a whole business model there. But the time in our career right now is to buy property with access.
Jill DeWit:
Right. I look at it this way. She happens to have five acres on a road with three APNs.
Steven Butala:
That’s exactly how I would look at this deal, Jill. You’re my girl.
Jill DeWit:
Thank you.
Steven Butala:
Today’s topic, the number one reason you may not be doing as many deals as possible. This is the meat of the show.
Jill DeWit:
Here’s the scoop. I have found a number of individuals that are frustrated with their deal flow. I ask how many offers I send out and that’s not the problem. I don’t even really talk about … And if you notice, if we’ve done consulting and we’ve talked about this, I don’t ask you how did you price it? I want to know how many got out there. That’s really all I care about. I’m sure if you learn from this guy, you did a good job or a good enough job that these offers all went out. You didn’t send an offer for a dollar to everybody and put a perfumed letter in there with your lip print on it. If you did that, that wasn’t us, and don’t do that. But you … So you sent a solid offer. Maybe it was too high maybe it was too low. Who cares? But you got thousands of offers out and you’re scratching your head going, “Why am I not doing more deals?”
Jill DeWit:
Well, guess what? There’s an easy fix and it’s not just answer the phone. You got to work them. You need to go at … Because I just had a consultant call with this very recently. And this person was trying to throw in the towel after days not weeks. After days going “Shoot, I think I had a bust there.” And I’m like, “Well, hold on a moment. What was their response?” And the reason that they were not staring at many deals right now is they were too quick to hang up the phone and not work them.
Jill DeWit:
So here’s what needs to happen. You need to take every single call that comes in and do your best to make an opportunity out of that. Out of this. What does that mean? When they say, “I don’t like your number,” your next thing is, “I get it. What’s your number?” That’s it. Find out what their number is. And if … And it’s not too late to go back too, by the way. This was another conversation that we had.
Jill DeWit:
But first I want you to do them when they come in. Every single call that comes in good, bad, or otherwise, all you need to find out is if they want to sell. Great, got that out of the way. What’s the number? Is it mine? … And hopefully it’s mine. If it’s not mine you don’t just go “Darn,” and just hang up and give up. No. Find out what their number is. There’s some that have … Sure they’re going to have a retail number and those really don’t want to sell, that’s just another way of saying, “I don’t want to sell,” but they didn’t want to admit it. When they give you twice what the next-door neighbor paid or sold for, that’s another way of I don’t want to sell.
Jill DeWit:
But ask what really there is. Explain who you are, explain how you roll, explain you’re an owner, tell him how easy this is. I’m not … We buy ugly houses, this is not a corporation, it’s you and me making a deal. And I just trying to find out what number works for you and I’ll get some money in your pocket. That’s it. The other thing is … Where was I going? My other … I just … Not the little thing about … What was my other comment I said I’ll get to that in a second? Sucks I lost my own train of thought.
Steven Butala:
Here’s what she’s really saying. Sell. And I don’t mean used car salesman in the middle of the night jumping up and down in a chimpanzee suit. That’s not what I mean. There are books, and books, and books, and videos, and seminars, and all kinds of things about winning friends and influencing people.
Jill DeWit:
Avoiding friends.
Steven Butala:
No. I’m really serious about this. I’m not joking. You need to teach yourself or get a partner like this that I have.
Jill DeWit:
You can.
Steven Butala:
To have a dynamic personality. You’re going to get everything you want out of this business and out of life. So if that’s … If you haven’t done that yet, you’ve just hid in a hole like me in a dark room and … I had to teach myself to have a dynamic personality when we started Land Academy. This is not who I used to be.
Jill DeWit:
I truthfully believe-
Steven Butala:
And probably failed at it.
Jill DeWit:
Over 75% of the calls that we get … I’m being very conservative here when I say 75%. But 75% of the calls that come in off every mailer, there’s a deal there.
Steven Butala:
That’s what I think.
Jill DeWit:
You are just not getting the number out of them. And it’s not too late, by the way.
Steven Butala:
Powerful. Powerful as hell, Jill.
Jill DeWit:
Thank you. It’s not too late to call them back. And I’ve talked to people about this. Who cares? Hey, I know you called me a month ago. I know you didn’t like my offer. We had a conversation. I understand where you’re coming from. I thought about it more. I realized it might be worth more because it has X, Y, and Z, but I’m not a retail person. Do you really want to sell? And what is your … What’s your bottom number? What really would work for you that you think would work for me and I’ll try to make it work? That’s not nuts. You can do this. And that’s … So that’s my number one thing. Think about that. 2/3 of your phone calls you better get a number out of them. And if you’re not getting a number out of these, work on your phone calls. Get comfortable. Practice.
Steven Butala:
Practice.
Jill DeWit:
And just say it. You just have to just … I know it’s … They’re mad, calm them down, agree with them. Oops, I may have goofed up. You never have to say I’m a … It’s just … Just I may have made a mistake. You’re not really admitting it because maybe you didn’t. Sometimes I’ve said … I’ve had these conversations too. Why don’t you just get them talking? I may have made a mistake. And then in the very end of the conversation, my number’s lower than what we started. I did. But we’re over it. They just have to get over that initial heat, whatever you want to call it, that they’ve got going on right now. And then when they talk to you and they find out you’re a real person, you’re just trying to get it out of them.
Steven Butala:
I would argue this just from an hours in the day standpoint. I bet Jill spends twice as many hours in the day as I do in each of our roles. But yet we talk about all this data and they’re spraying stuff all the time. The fact is, she probably works … I know she works twice as hard and she probably spends twice as many hours, or she and her staff do, then me and my staff do with what I’m responsible for. I know that she does because I’m responsible for all the Land Academy companies and all that other stuff because I have time, she doesn’t, she does deals. And she’s on the phone all day.
Jill DeWit:
This is great information.
Steven Butala:
I don’t think that people understand once that mailer goes out-
Jill DeWit:
Your work’s not done. You don’t just sit back and go, “Okay, watching the mail.”
Steven Butala:
If you have a half hour … Look, if someone calls up and says, “You’re an a-hole and I can’t stand it, and this is the worst offer I’ve ever gotten, and I really have no respect for you any longer.” What do you say?
Jill DeWit:
I may have made a mistake. I apologize. I was not … My goal was not to set out to offend you. That calms everybody right down.
Steven Butala:
And do you want to sell?
Jill DeWit:
And do you want to sell?
Steven Butala:
Okay, I get it I get it.
Jill DeWit:
I get that this is not the right number.
Steven Butala:
This is not but I-
Jill DeWit:
What is your number?
Steven Butala:
Yes.
Jill DeWit:
Okay. Let’s talk.
Steven Butala:
You offered me $30,000, this is ridiculous. I know my property is worth 50,000.
Jill DeWit:
Okay. Well, hold on a moment. I’m not retail, that’s not who I am. I’m not an agent. I’m not going to be doing this … Spending however much time on this transaction.
Steven Butala:
And then this person’s thinking, okay, she’s not that much of a crazy person. All right. Then they’re going to say something like this. Then maybe 45,000 I could live with. So their anger … What’s not being conveyed and this is my fault, is that angry people want to sell their property it’s just they have an issue with price. The people who sign the offers and say, “Oh my gosh, thank you, you’re signing’s perfect,” also want to sell their property they just want to do it cheaper. So the more deals you do that average gets better, and better, and better. And your profit margin gets better, and better, and better.
Steven Butala:
So maybe in the case of the $45,000 angry guy, Jill looks it up or she asks me to because now it’s in our CRM and says, “I really think this thing’s worth 70,000 bucks. I know we’re not doubling our money, but it’s got access, and it’s got this, and it’s got that. And I know we can turn it because we turned a property like that three weeks ago.” That’s making a deal. The vast majority of people I think would just say, “Oh my God, that person’s so angry with me. I’m sorry, sir, goodbye.”
Jill DeWit:
Right. Take me off your list. Okay, well hold on a moment. It becomes more about look, now you know how I roll, what is your bottom number I’ll see if I can make that work? And then let them come up with a number. And sometimes they might go, “Let me talk to my wife and get back to you.” I love that. Great. Okay. You want me to call you tomorrow? Do you want me to call you tonight after dinner? What’s the best? When can we chat again?
Steven Butala:
And please know this. You’re 1,000 times better at this than the seller is. You do deals all the time.
Jill DeWit:
Right.
Steven Butala:
This person’s going to do one or two deals in their entire life so they don’t know about the property, they don’t … They probably never seen it. Maybe they inherited it. Maybe it’s all riddled with terrible memories for them and they just want to get rid of it. You don’t know. But if you talk to them for 20 or 30 minutes and they calm down and they start talking about pricing, and you’ve got it pulled up on your computer screen and it’s within reason, it’s not … It’s below retail still, you’re going to do a deal with … Jill will do a deal with that person, what I just described.
Jill DeWit:
It’s funny. I’m going to end it on this. You would be surprised how many people when I have this conversation, they come back with a number, it’s not far off. It’s maybe my number … Maybe I offered 18,752. After a few minutes of talking and everybody’s calmed down, I find out about the property, they realize you’re right there’s … That road floods a couple times a year. I’m never going to use it. My wife’s hated it. I wanted to build, she thought I was nuts. And then they go, “All right, Jill, would you take?” “Jill, I would sell it for 25.” I’m like, “Come on 18 to 25, I can easily swallow that.”
Steven Butala:
And I’m pricing these letters at 20 to 30% anyway. So now let’s say the property’s at 35 to 38% of what we know we can sell it for, for retail.
Jill DeWit:
I can make that work.
Steven Butala:
There’s still a huge margin in that.
Jill DeWit:
And don’t dig in too. Don’t be that guy to go, “Nope, nope that’s not what I’m doing.” You don’t want to be like, “Oh, I can’t go a dollar over 20.” When you’re … You know what’s a good deal. And if you needed to hang up and take some time to look it over, do that too.
Steven Butala:
I would heavily recommend, and I never do this, to never take a negotiation class. Negotiation classes are how to get the most out of somebody. That’s the headline. And that’s not what we do here.
Jill DeWit:
I don’t think I like that.
Steven Butala:
How to get a deal done is what we do.
Jill DeWit:
I just need a number.
Steven Butala:
And still make some money within reason, not squeeze every penny out of somebody. And this whole notion of, are you happy? No. Are you happy? No. Good, we got a deal. I hate that. That’s not … That’s a bad marriage is what that is. And it’s going to end.
Jill DeWit:
It’s like the people that walk around with the trophy because they reset the market. I do not want to reset the market.
Steven Butala:
On the high and the low.
Jill DeWit:
On the low. No, I don’t want to reset the market at all.
Steven Butala:
On the low she means setting … Buying the most expensive house in the … Or piece of land in the neighborhood. Or on the other side, the cheapest. No, that’s not who we are at all.
Jill DeWit:
No.
Steven Butala:
On the lower end you’re taking advantage of somebody. On the high end they’re just-
Jill DeWit:
You’re still taking advantage of somebody.
Steven Butala:
They’re buying countertops. They’re not buying … They’re not thinking about math. You don’t want that either.
Jill DeWit:
Thank you. It was a good show.
Steven Butala:
To be there for you.
Jill DeWit:
Happy you could join us today. Every day 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 Jack Thursday, and I talk about Land Academy members with personality disorders. You are not alone in your real estate ambition.
Jill DeWit:
I clearly did not have any say in the topics that were chosen this week or those titles. There’s some interesting ones that were thrown in here. So this ought to be … I’m just as excited as you are for tomorrow’s show.
Steven Butala:
I’m going to tell some stories.
Jill DeWit:
That’s going to be good. If you need access to any sort of ownership or property details including owner phone numbers and FEMA flood map overlays, check out neighborscoop.com or parcelfact.com created by investors, that’s us, for investors like you.
Steven Butala:
We are Steve-
Jill DeWit:
And Jill.
Steven Butala:
Information-
Jill DeWit:
Inspiration-
Steven Butala:
To buy undervalued property.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
If you enjoyed the podcast, please review it in Apple Podcasts . Reviews are incredibly important for rankings on Apple Podcasts. My staff and I read each and every one.
If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to email me directly at steven@BuWit.com.
The BuWit Family of Companies include:
I would like to think it’s entertaining and informative and in the end profitable.
And finally, don’t forget to subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts.
