What Would You Do with Limitless Capital (LA 1576)
What Would You Do with Limitless Capital (LA 1576)
Transcript:
Steven Butala:
Steve and Jill here.
Jill DeWit:
Howdy.
Steven Butala:
Welcome to the Land Academy Show. Entertaining land investment talk. I’m Steven Jack Butala.
Jill DeWit:
And I’m Jill Dewitt broadcasting from pretty Scottsdale, Arizona.
Steven Butala:
Today, Jill and I talk about what would you do with limitless capital? I love this topic. I love talking about money.
Jill DeWit:
Oh, man the shopping I could do.
Steven Butala:
See? That’s where it starts.
Jill DeWit:
Oh, oh, that’s not what you meant? Oh, shoot.
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 if you’re already a Land Academy member, please join us on Discord.
Jill DeWit:
That’s an honest mistake. I just kidding. Marianne wrote sometimes it’s a blessing to have a full-time job that’s a bit of a game delay in getting back to sellers. I was slammed at work and three callbacks stacked up from the same area. The pattern was a flag, and I was able to do some digging.
Steven Butala:
Red flag.
Jill DeWit:
Red flag. Okay. The subdivision originally sold 5 and 10 acre parcels that the county only allowed buildable at 20 acres. Interesting. It left a bunch of people unable to build their retirement homes and stuck with desert land in this state. My offers were based too high. My offers were too high based on this for purely recreational land, and I didn’t even want them at all. I think if I had called the first seller back right away, I would have taken the deal. If anyone is into this sort of thing, please direct message me, perhaps one woman’s trash, dot, dot, dot. That’s good. So how do we learn to get better at finding and understanding legal descriptions and zoning codes? That’s a part of this question, too?
Steven Butala:
Yeah. And so what she’s getting at here is-
Jill DeWit:
Because she missed something and she might not have, I think.
Steven Butala:
What she’s getting at here, this is my opinion, is chill out. Just chill out. Let your mailer do the work. These mailers do a ton of work for you. They don’t just find sellers for you, which is amazing in its own right. They also tell you, hey, if there’s 25 people responding to you immediately and signing your offers in one little area, that-
Jill DeWit:
There could be a problem.
Steven Butala:
It might be priced too high. And that’s okay because you can go in and reduce prices and review it and whatnot. You have complete control over what properties you buy, entirely and completely. So let the mail do its job and chill out a little bit. Let them come back and choose the best one. It’s like dating. Choose the best one.
Jill DeWit:
I was waiting. I’m like let him go. Let it go. He’ll hang himself. It’s fine. I don’t need to get it on this.
Steven Butala:
And she says, how do we-
Jill DeWit:
Well, can I comment on this?
Steven Butala:
Oh, sure of course. Of course.
Jill DeWit:
I want to comment, too, that I love it. She quickly figured out on her own… People, this happens often. The first one comes back. We’re scrambling to try to make it because it might be my only one. No, it won’t. Hold on everyone. And the best thing I could say, too, is I’m glad you let hours and/or a day go by. I like to let a bunch of them come in. I want to review 10 deals at once, and I want you to review 10 deals at once. So then I know you’re going to pick the best one. Don’t try to make every deal, especially the first two or three, work because as she uncovered, there could be some problems. And I don’t want you to try to see something that’s not there. That happens. Now, on to the second part.
Steven Butala:
How do we learn to get better at finding and understanding legal descriptions and zoning codes? Google, YouTube, and Land Academy Discord. This was off of Discord, and this is a perfect place to start. And I didn’t put it in this context, but there’s all kinds of responses to this.
Jill DeWit:
We talk about the legal descriptions in Land Academy. We don’t tell you how to do the math backwards. If you’re listening and you know what metes and bounds is, we don’t talk about how to read it backwards. We discuss it, but we don’t sit and dive into it because like I said-
Steven Butala:
We did in career path a couple days ago.
Jill DeWit:
Right, but there’s a lot of things online to help you understand how to read metes and bounds. Because it starts with a section and you’re working backwards to the size of the property. I’ll leave it at that.
Steven Butala:
Really quickly, there’s two types of legal descriptions for land. There’s property that’s been subdivided, and so when you read the description, it says, “This is lot 14 of block 21 in section 23.” That’s been subdivided. Or there’s the northeast quarter of the southeast quarter of the north half of section 15, range 12, township 13. That’s not been subdivided. That’s property that… I love those types of properties. That’s why we’re here.
Steven Butala:
So this is a very good question. And it’s not that hard to dig, probably take you 10 or 15 minutes horsing around online to figure it all out.
Jill DeWit:
Once you get it, you get it.
Steven Butala:
Zoning codes are entirely and completely unique to wherever you are. GR, which is general residential, might be appropriate in California and non-existent in Vermont. In fact, I’m sure that’s the case. It’s not might be. They’re completely different. Whoever set them up in the state or the county or even the city, the city takes over zoning if it’s incorporated. So the city is its own legal entity that handles zoning, but there’s property in a county that is unincorporated, doesn’t have a city, then they take over the zoning. So you have to call them and figure it all out or go on a website.
Jill DeWit:
Yeah, you can Google. I often go onto their county website, and you can find in a document section and download the zoning codes and just look at that and read through that. It’s a little time consuming, but it’s kind of cool. I learned a lot. Especially some of the counties are really good, like LA county. You can dig down, download this document-
Steven Butala:
Great example.
Jill DeWit:
… go through, and it’ll tell you what R4 means. And it’ll tell you, too, what the setbacks are. Everything is really in there, for the properties this size or more, here’s what this means. If it’s this size or less, here’s what this means. And I appreciate that, and I’m sure the county does, too. So let me tell you, when you’re digging and trying to understand zoning codes, my first thing is I would try to find the answer myself. And often it’s because the county’s closed anyway. It might be six o’clock at night and I can’t get them on the phone.
Jill DeWit:
And I don’t want to wait until tomorrow morning. So dig and see what you can find. And then tomorrow morning when they are open and you’ve got all the answers, you’ve got everything you could but you have one last little question, call them and go, “Hey, I found the website. I understand this. I saw the document. This means this. And this means this. I have one little clarification on this part.” They will love you for that. By the fact that you tried to solve your own problem, you’re knowledgeable, you know what you’re doing. They’re going to go, “Oh, well that 200 means this.” “Okay. Thank you very much. That’s all I needed to know.”
Steven Butala:
Well said, Jill.
Jill DeWit:
Thank you.
Steven Butala:
Today’s topic. What would you do with limitless capital? This is the meat of the show.
Jill DeWit:
Well, let’s see, I’d buy an island. Just kidding. Subdivide it.
Steven Butala:
Keep going, keep going. Subdivide an island.
Jill DeWit:
I’d buy an island. Cut it in half.
Steven Butala:
Which half do I get? Oh, am I even involved in this little fantasy?
Jill DeWit:
You’re on my half.
Steven Butala:
Oh, good. Okay.
Jill DeWit:
No, you’re on my half. I’d buy an island, cut it in half. One half is for us and the other half is a part that I sell to pay for the lifestyle and how we’re going to live like rockstars on our half.
Steven Butala:
Jill, I love how you put it.
Jill DeWit:
Done. That’s my whole plan.
Steven Butala:
When I was very young, Ross Perot ran for president. And I was just at voting age, and so I voted for him because I loved what he said. He said this, “Do what you love, what you’re passionate about, and what you’re good at, and the money will find you.” And that’s absolutely true.
Jill DeWit:
I like that.
Steven Butala:
And it’s hokey. And it sounds like something that you put on a poster in your office, and everybody laughs at you.
Jill DeWit:
From a Texas guy, which he is.
Steven Butala:
There is limitless capital for something that’s good. Here’s the problem. There’s too many people sitting on the hood of a Ferrari telling you that there’s limitless capital. If there’s a Ferrari involved in anything, run the other way.
Jill DeWit:
Can you imagine? We need to do this. You just put an image in my head. I’ve got to say this. Okay, Land Academy people, we should do this. I’m going to have Jack take a picture of me on our RV. How’s that?
Steven Butala:
We should find like a Breaking Bad RV, like a really nasty one.
Jill DeWit:
That’s it, and I’ll hop on up there.
Steven Butala:
And say, “You, too, can have this.”
Jill DeWit:
That’s right. Perfect. I’m going to do that. I’ll have my hat on and my cowboy boots. I’m going to do that. I’m going to climb up on a Breaking Bad RV and take a picture and go, “This is Land Academy.” Perfect.
Steven Butala:
Money and capital is not for buying stuff. It’s not for buying a new dress or a new motorcycle at all. Those are the spoils of making money.
Jill DeWit:
Darn. Just kidding.
Steven Butala:
Children, here, I’m going to tell you a story. Like three years ago, when we lived at the beach in California, this guy came to us and said, “Hey, you guys are obviously successful and smart. You’ve got this big house right on the water. Do you mind if I buy you a couple of drinks and pitch you this idea?” And I said, “I love this.” I’m like, “Are you kidding me? I’ll get pitched ideas all day long.” So he did. And he said, “I’ve got this great idea. I travel all over the place for my job. I’m in IT, and I would like to start this app. I would like to start an app that knows where you are and as soon as you land, tells you what’s going on with soccer.” Wherever there’s local soccer games and all this.
Jill DeWit:
I remember this.
Steven Butala:
And I just, I longingly stared at him and said, “Who’s the customer? And how do you get your customer?” And he didn’t want any part of that. All he was thinking about was this app and how cool it is, not customers and marketing and money.
Jill DeWit:
And didn’t you ask a question about testing it? And he was like, “What do you mean testing it?” Do you have some people already working on the…
Steven Butala:
There is no capital for him.
Jill DeWit:
Using it. No.
Steven Butala:
So when I say you already have limitless capital, there’s a big but at the end of that. However, you have limitless capital for a great real estate deal, limitless capital. You have limitless capital for any great idea that’s already been proven. You’re out of that phase of testing for reason and proving the concept. And so the vast majority, watch episodes of Shark Tank. If you’ve never had, please do that on, I guess it’s on a regular network now. It used to be on CNBC. Well, you can find it all over YouTube and all that. Shark Tank destroyed the concept of limitless capital, just like HGTV destroyed the concept of buying a house and reselling it. It’s all fiction. And I think that Shark Tank is real, and I think HGTV for the most part is real minus the actual money. I think those houses actually did get renovated, but the numbers aren’t right.
Steven Butala:
So yeah, you have limitless capital for a great idea and a proven concept. If you live in Northern California, you have limitless capital for anything that’s on the internet. And we have people in our group that work in those environments and they can’t wait to get out of them. Jill had a conference call with the guy who’s in IT. You can tell the story if you want.
Jill DeWit:
I want to save it for Friday.
Steven Butala:
Okay. So you need to know who your customer… You need to do a bunch of work before you access that capital is my point. You can’t just say, “I’ve got this great idea for a new kitchen knife. Fund me, pay my salary-
Jill DeWit:
We’ll test it together.
Steven Butala:
… in two years.” Yeah, we’ll test it together. “And in two years, pay me out for two years, and we’ll go to market with it.” Never going to happen.
Jill DeWit:
The Shark Tank example is a good one because if we all pay attention, the people that get… And it’s the same as us. I’m going to want to fund and get in bed with, theoretically, other than only you, but-
Steven Butala:
No, I get it.
Jill DeWit:
… financially, the person that says, “Look, I’ve been doing this for two years. I know I’m doing it all wrong, but I accidentally made 1.2.” All right, now you’ve got my attention.
Steven Butala:
Our best Land Academy members by leaps and bounds came to us from other land investing environments. And they left those environments because they knew there was more. They wanted this to be their career because we’re geared for that. This is not a side hustle. We’re very serious about this. And so if you’ve done a couple of land deals and you know that this, then this is very logical for you. And there is literally, literally limitless capital for great real estate deals.
Jill DeWit:
Absolutely.
Steven Butala:
So money should never be a reason that people don’t do things in real estate. Being an idiot is a reason not to do stuff in real estate. And that happens. I used to be an idiot. I know this. I did.
Jill DeWit:
That’s hilarious.
Steven Butala:
I learn everything the hard way.
Jill DeWit:
Fortunately, I didn’t know you then.
Steven Butala:
I learn every single thing of value the hard way by failing and doing it all wrong. And Jill’s the exact opposite. She just sails through stuff.
Jill DeWit:
Well, you know what? No. There’s failures there. I just choose, I just move on. I don’t let them bring me down. I don’t let them break me. I figure it out and move on. That’s really the thing. There’s a lot of failures that I’ve made, too. Boy, yes.
Steven Butala:
So here’s my whole message, and I’ll leave it on this. There’s tons of people that I’ve come across in my life, who are no longer in my life, who sit around and say some version of this, “If I only had X, if I only had 22,000 bucks to move forward on this thing, my life would be awesome.” Well, you do have $22,000, but you got to do a bunch of stuff. You have to do a bunch of stuff to make sure that the $22,000 is going to become 44,000.
Jill DeWit:
Mm-hmm (affirmative). Remember back in the day when people, they would just come forward with a good business plan? They would think that’s it.
Steven Butala:
That’s what I’m talking about.
Jill DeWit:
I haven’t heard that. Maybe because it’s our community, we don’t roll that way. I haven’t even heard of anybody talk about like that. But it used to be, I have a great… You just have a business plan and it will sell itself.
Steven Butala:
No.
Jill DeWit:
No, no, no. I need more than a good business plan.
Steven Butala:
It’s pure fiction. Pure fiction.
Jill DeWit:
I need a track record. I need you doing this product out of your garage and you sold them anyway. You tested the concept. You found the customers. You know how you’ve tweaked it. Now you’re ready to take it to the next level. Call me. That’s the limitless capital I think.
Steven Butala:
Could not agree more.
Jill DeWit:
Thank you. Happy you could join us. 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, well, it’s Jack Thursday. Constant change. I talk about constant change, personally and professionally. You are not alone in your real estate ambition.
Jill DeWit:
Good show.
Steven Butala:
So cliche-ish.
Jill DeWit:
What is?
Steven Butala:
One thing is for sure, everything’s going to change. How many times did your dad say that to you?
Jill DeWit:
No, my dad never said that.
Steven Butala:
Well, you’re lucky.
Jill DeWit:
No, he just said all you need is a bowl of Cheerios and a walk around the block. That solves everything. That’s what my dad said. Oh boy. If you need access to any sort of ownership or property details, including owner phone numbers and FEMA flood map overlays, please check out parcelfact.com and neighborscoop.com created by investors, that’s us, for investors like you.
Jill DeWit:
We’re Steve and Jill.
Steven Butala:
We’re Steve and Jill. Information.
Jill DeWit:
And inspiration.
Steven Butala:
To buy undervalued property.
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