Jill Friday – Jack Reeled Me In on a Few Land Deals (LA 1598)
Jill Friday – Jack Reeled Me In on a Few Land Deals (LA 1598)
Transcript:
Steven J Butala:
Steve and Jill here.
Jill K DeWit:
Happy Friday.
Steven J 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 the valley of the sun.
Steven J Butala:
Today is Jill Friday, and she talks about how Jack reeled her in on a few land deals. I can’t wait to hear what this topic is about because I honestly don’t know. 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 don’t forget to subscribe on the Land Academy YouTube channel and comment on the shows you like.
Jill K DeWit:
Let me pause for just a second here about this topic today. It will come back to you because you got frustrated and you were correct. And I’m going to explain a little bit about what goes on. Okay. Back to the question. Chip wrote, “Does anyone have any tools or applications to decipher old deeds and retrieve the legal descriptions? I’m looking for actual meets and bounds legal, not the abstract. I’m using the deed check slash Subdivide 21 software application to map large properties and subdivide them, but finding legible legal descriptions for many of these properties has been challenging. Thanks in advance for any suggestions.”
Steven J Butala:
This is a very intelligent question, a very advanced question. I’ll try to put it in terms that everybody can describe. When you do a deed or when a title agent does a deed, there is what’s called the legal description, or the deed legal description, and then elsewhere in our title abstract, this is especially for agricultural property and larger properties, there’s a meets and bounds description that’s a lot longer and a lot more complicated. And it’s used for subdividing and a lot of other things. So vast majority of us aren’t going to need to know this, but I’ve included this question in this episode because I want you to know that there are two.
Jill K DeWit:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Steven J Butala:
And Jill’s famous for saying, and she’s right, when you go to do a deed, copy the vesting deed, the deed right before it and the chain of title, verbatim, even if there’s errors. That’s what you need to know. And so Chip’s going to do some subdividing here, and I’m going to follow up with him eventually and see how this went, because it’s very difficult.
Jill K DeWit:
Hmm. Well, here’s an easy example. So what are you guys talking about? Well, you know what, like a legal description might say Anderson Acres block three lot two. Well, that’s great. How am I going to find that? I can’t just Google Anderson Acres kind of thing and find it. So there’s a real description somewhere else that tells you.
Steven J Butala:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jill K DeWit:
And it might be a section, town, [inaudible 00:02:52] ship, township range, and then the Northwest 10 of the Southeast whatever, you have to read it all. There’s that kind of descriptions, these are meets and bounds, and then also there’s other, well, what they are, they’re real ways for you to actually stand somewhere and find the property.
Steven J Butala:
That’s correct.
Jill K DeWit:
You can go somewhere. For example, we just came back on a vacation. If you saw us on my Facebook stuff on Land Academy Facebook. You saw we were standing at Four Corners, right? Where Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, and-
Steven J Butala:
Utah.
Jill K DeWit:
… Utah meet. There’s actually a spot. People don’t realize there’s a marker on the ground. So when you’re in these sections of property, there’s a place to go. There is baseline Meridian. This is back to YouTube if you really want to get into it. This stuff’s not arbitrary, and there are places that you can really go and stand and be there. And like in Arizona, there’s a place down on baseline where you can find where it start.
Steven J Butala:
The entire country is organized from a lands perspective on a baseline and Meridian-
Jill K DeWit:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Steven J Butala:
… concept. And it’s 36 square miles-
Jill K DeWit:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Steven J Butala:
… of property that gets it. And then from there, as it gets subdivided [crosstalk 00:04:10]-
Jill K DeWit:
Each section. Yeah.
Steven J Butala:
… it gets down to a section which is one square mile.
Jill K DeWit:
Yeah.
Steven J Butala:
And again, Jill’s right. If you’re really into this-
Jill K DeWit:
Yeah.
Steven J Butala:
… go check it out on YouTube. There’s all kinds of videos. I talk about it in the first program a lot-
Jill K DeWit:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Steven J Butala:
… because it’s something you kind of need to know about.
Jill K DeWit:
Mm-hmm (affirmative). But I think what Chip’s doing is taking like, okay, well, I’ve got this description. I need this description. What are you guys using to, I’m sure there were a lot of good comments and tools and things in there helping him to get it done faster.
Steven J Butala:
There’s relational databases now based on APN.
Jill K DeWit:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Steven J Butala:
That’s what a NeighborScoop is. I developed NeighborScoop. We didn’t have that before. The only way we could find properties what Jill’s talking about, which is why I know way more than I ever wanted-
Jill K DeWit:
Yeah.
Steven J Butala:
… to know about this because long ago, that’s just the only way you can find property.
Jill K DeWit:
It’s amazing that we have, because really, NeighborScoop, it’s pulling the information where, when it was translated into now degrees and GPS coordinates-
Steven J Butala:
Yeah.
Jill K DeWit:
… and using that. And that’s how we can take it from NeighborScoop and overlay it into Google Earth Pro and all kinds of things.
Steven J Butala:
So I was talking about capital yesterday. This is a great example. NeighborScoop is an amazing source of capital for you because-
Jill K DeWit:
Yeah.
Steven J Butala:
… you can find any property. I mean, 99% of the properties that do not have a mailing address on NeighborScoop in seconds.
Jill K DeWit:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Steven J Butala:
Which that used to take me in some cases days.
Jill K DeWit:
Oh, yeah. I would give it a couple hours. There were times when I was first starting, we didn’t have this stuff, right? So I would try a couple hours and do my best. And I would often do okay. I could at least get in there close enough. I could see the roads, figure out where it was. But there were some times and I’m like, “All right, I can’t find it now. I’m not going to spend four more hours on this.” I’d come to you and find it. So…
Steven J Butala:
And then we’d fail together.
Jill K DeWit:
Yes, exactly. Again, this is why you’re here. We’re going to fail for you. We’re going to fail faster than you could on your own.
Steven J Butala:
Two years before you ever heard of Land Academy, we were failing.
Jill K DeWit:
Yes. Exactly.
Steven J Butala:
Actually, 20 years.
Jill K DeWit:
Land Academy, one big failure so you don’t have to.
Steven J Butala:
That’s a great tag line.
Jill K DeWit:
All right. So today’s topic is mine. It’s Jill Friday. And this is about what happened last week where I said, “All right, I got it.” You were reeling me back in on a few land deals. And let me paint the picture. Here’s what’s going on. So beautiful staff, beautiful systems that usually work well, but now and then you get derailed. And I got derailed and Jack had to reel me back in. And it was pretty much like, what the heck are you doing and why are you doing that? So here’s a couple of examples of what just happened. And here’s why. First off, explain the why. I hate-
Steven J Butala:
You’re getting jaded, Jill.
Jill K DeWit:
No, no, no. This is good. No, you’re going to appreciate this.
Steven J Butala:
Never heard you just say the hate word.
Jill K DeWit:
I will. I hate letting a deal fail when there’s something that I could do to save it. So that’s what started all this. And it’s impossible. I know. And this is how you reeled me back in. It’s impossible for me to do every deal that comes across my desk, personally, is what I’m saying. And so if something goes a little sideways, I hate it. And so I find myself getting involved. So an example is this. We had a really big mailer hit all at once. My staff is overwhelmed and I’m watching going calls aren’t getting returned fast enough, and things are going, open escrows not open fast enough. So what do I want to do? I take it personally. I find myself jumping in there and helping them instead of maybe giving them more tools, hiring another person, there’s other things we can do.
Jill K DeWit:
And then sometimes even just sitting back and going, “We did the best we could.” No, I don’t do that. And you have to reel me back in like, what are you doing? I’m like, “Oh, you’re right. You’re right.” And my other thing is, is that I fall into a trap of this where I feel like I could have done that deal better. If it was me on the phone, I could have got that price, not this price. And I find myself, I even have to pull myself back in. Usually it’s, you pointed out, you usually spot it before I do. Then I’m like, “Let it go.” I don’t let things go enough.
Steven J Butala:
Boy, that’s true.
Jill K DeWit:
Uh-huh (affirmative). What do you want to add?
Steven J Butala:
Here’s a bigger picture concept. You need to, at a certain point in your career, and I’m more showing up for life than anything. Not just land career, but in an any career if you’re moving forward and moving up, I don’t care if it’s in a W2 job, you’re going to replace-
Jill K DeWit:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Steven J Butala:
… yourself multiple times. You’re going to hire people to do the job that you’ve been doing. For me, it’s because I don’t want to do it. Like I enjoy doing mailers, so I do.
Jill K DeWit:
Right.
Steven J Butala:
I don’t want to try the sales piece, Jill does it. I replaced myself. I used to do the sales, but Jill replaced that part of the entire business. And it worked out better to structure is as a partnership than an employee employer situation. So you have to, when this happens, look yourself straight in the mirror and say, “I know this person. Chances are, they’re not going to do it as well as I am.”
Jill K DeWit:
Correct.
Steven J Butala:
In our case, that’s why we’re partners and not, because she is better at it than I am, than I ever was or ever hoped to be. So if your first reaction when stuff starts to go sideways is to put your gloves on, roll your sleeves up, and get in there and do it, that’s not the right thing to do.
Jill K DeWit:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Steven J Butala:
You need to draw on your capital, whatever sources there are, and put a system in place-
Jill K DeWit:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Steven J Butala:
… to get that stuff done so you’re not only just solving that one. Because if you get involved, you’re solving that problem.
Jill K DeWit:
Right.
Steven J Butala:
If you get involved to put a system in place to solve all the problems, that’s-
Jill K DeWit:
That’s the way to do it.
Steven J Butala:
That’s what you want.
Jill K DeWit:
And know that they’re not going to do it as good as you. It’s not going to go as great as you, but if you don’t do it, you’re never going to grow. I watch a lot of new people doing this.
Steven J Butala:
Me too.
Jill K DeWit:
I see two things I see. I’ve seen both extremes now. It’s kind of funny. I’ve seen people that they want to start a system from day one so they never have to learn that stuff. I’m like, “Ah.”
Steven J Butala:
That’s not good.
Jill K DeWit:
Right. You need to know a little bit about this, but I like where you’re going with it. I love that better than the other extreme, which is, I’m going to be a one man show forever. And you’ll burn out. I don’t want you to burn out. I want you to enjoy this and do bigger and better deals and build a great team.
Steven J Butala:
I just want to do one deal a month, make a hundred thousand dollars on every deal.
Jill K DeWit:
Maybe.
Steven J Butala:
You and one assistant, one full-time personal assistant, whether they’re virtual or not, could pull that off.
Jill K DeWit:
Well, that’s what I’m saying. And, again, you brought in some help.
Steven J Butala:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jill K DeWit:
Even if you’re a one man show because we have a lot of people doing this one, I love this. They’re a one man show, they do everything but sell property. They give it all to agents and brokers. I think it’s brilliant.
Steven J Butala:
I love that too.
Jill K DeWit:
Mm-hmm (affirmative). There’s nothing wrong with any of that. There’s a lot of ways you can slice this up. Happy you could join us today. Five days a week you can find us right here on the Land Academy show.
Steven J Butala:
Join us next week for another interesting episode, you are not alone in your real estate ambition.
Jill K DeWit:
Was that what you thought? Did it now make sense?
Steven J Butala:
Yeah, it makes complete sense.
Jill K DeWit:
Okay, good.
Steven J Butala:
I feel bad when it happens because I’m seeing it happen. It doesn’t happen that often.
Jill K DeWit:
I know.
Steven J Butala:
You don’t really only, now that you presented it this way, it really happens when we send too much mail out.
Jill K DeWit:
It’s what happened.
Steven J Butala:
[crosstalk 00:11:46] was.
Jill K DeWit:
That one actually that kind of did. We thought we were staffed up for it, we weren’t.
Steven J Butala:
Yeah.
Jill K DeWit:
Because we’ve got so much back.
Steven J Butala:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jill K DeWit:
In a good way. This is a really good mailer. So that was, maybe we didn’t do anything wrong. It just was a really good mailer.
Steven J Butala:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jill K DeWit:
And it was like, wow. And the other thing that happened too, we were traveling together-
Steven J Butala:
Yeah.
Jill K DeWit:
… and we were in close quarters.
Steven J Butala:
We were in an RV together.
Jill K DeWit:
You wouldn’t have known. If I was in my office over there, you wouldn’t have known-
Steven J Butala:
That’s right.
Jill K DeWit:
… what was going on [crosstalk 00:12:15].
Steven J Butala:
Boy, that’s true.
Jill K DeWit:
And you wouldn’t have seen me frustrated or you wouldn’t heard me talking, any of that. All of that would have been better too. So we had a, what can you do? Thank you for tuning in. We hope you find our content valuable. And again, we appreciate your support. If you haven’t already, don’t forget, check out our YouTube channel and hit the subscribe button. We are Steve and Jill.
Steven J Butala:
We are Steve and Jill. Information.
Jill K DeWit:
And inspiration.
Steven J Butala:
To buy undervalued property.
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