Jack Thursday – Challenges of the Times We Live In (LA 1641)
Jack Thursday – Challenges of the Times We Live In (LA 1641)
Transcript:
Steven Butala:
Steven, Jill.
Jill DeWit:
Happy Thanksgiving.
Steven Butala:
Oh my gosh. I hadn’t thought about that.
Jill DeWit:
Yep.
Steven Butala:
Welcome to the Land Academy Show and welcome to Thanksgiving. If you’re listening to this, shouldn’t you be doing something else right now?
Jill DeWit:
You are sick of your family. Aren’t you?
Steven Butala:
You’re obtaining land investment talk. I’m Steven Jack Butala.
Jill DeWit:
And I’m Jill DeWit broadcasting from the valley of the sun and hosting a big meal.
Steven Butala:
Today is Jack Thursday. I’m going to talk about the challenges of the times we live in, Thanksgiving style.
Jill DeWit:
This is the biggest one I’ve ever done.
Steven Butala:
Shouldn’t you guys have something better to do than recording a show and talking to us on Thanksgiving. Ah, we recorded that way weeks earlier.
Jill DeWit:
I know.
Steven Butala:
Right Jill?
Jill DeWit:
But I’ll post something. I’ll do some stuff on social media today. So you can see our little bash in our event. This is the biggest bird we have almost 26 pound bird. It’s awesome.
Steven Butala:
That’s one of two.
Jill DeWit:
That’s true.
Steven Butala:
She’s got a, Jill’s a pilot. So she’s got –
Jill DeWit:
Backup.
Steven Butala:
Redundancy.
Jill DeWit:
Oh, I do. Yeah. There are backups.
Steven Butala:
There’s two of everything in case one fails.
Jill DeWit:
That’s true.
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 don’t forget to subscribe on the Land Academy YouTube channel. Comment on the shows you like.
Jill DeWit:
Greg wrote. So listing on eBay question here, when I’m listing land for sale on eBay, what is the best day of the week and time of day for the auction to end? This is awesome.
Steven Butala:
Here’s my actual response. This is a question in discord. I’m going to, this is what I typed in. I’m going to read it to you and then Jill’s going to make fun of it.
Jill DeWit:
You have decades of, you have a lot of, years of experience.
Steven Butala:
It said, hello, eBayers. Yeah. If you post or schedule a $1, no reserve 30 day auction on any Friday, any given Friday, it’ll close on 30 days later on a Sunday. For a point of reference, we posted about at about 6:00 PM Eastern time or scheduled it. So it would close at that same time on a Sunday, 30 days later. With a decade long strategy, we sold about $20 million of property at an overall 60% gross margin. It took a staff of about eight people working full time and all that’s associated with that, the expense and the drama. You can imagine. As a simple reference point now, and I’m going to make the, this is the point of the show. Fast forward to this year as a simple reference point, we’ll generate about $2 million net, that’s net, not gross this year, buying and selling land with a part-time staff of two, 10 and 90 nines, happily working at home.
Steven Butala:
I’m not bragging here at all, but all of us in this land academy environment have all the tools, including all the money you would ever need and all the relationships to make millions of dollars a year with very little effort and risk and commitment.
Jill DeWit:
I hope Justice you saw that post and read that, because that ties into what we were talking about last week on clubhouse.
Steven Butala:
I spent decade –
Jill DeWit:
That’s really cool.
Steven Butala:
We always had food on the table, Jill and I. I’ve always had food on the table, but we spent collectively and individually a lot of time failing at real estate and other stuff in life, so you don’t have to. It’s Thanksgiving, so that’s what I want. I want to send that, convey that I hope you’re as thankful whether you’re Land Academy member or not, for everything, how this works. Today’s Jack’s Thursday. I’m going to talk about the challenges of the times that we live in. This is why you’re listening.
Jill DeWit:
I like the thankful conversation. Are you going to talk about that more?
Steven Butala:
Yeah. I’m going to list some stuff. Some of the challenges that we have in our world right now, and I want you to think about as a land investor or hopefully a person that maybe buy and selling land is a side gig for you. Maybe it’s a full time gig and you got, you’re staring at a big turkey because you had a good year. But I want you to think about, I’m going to list the stuff that I think is going on in the world and think about whether or not you are subjected to it, personally or professionally. We have a dramatic lack of workers right now. Do you? I don’t think so because you don’t need that many. We are subject to hyperinflation. The entire world is, specifically this country. You know what the greatest hedge for inflation is? Land.
Jill DeWit:
Cool.
Steven Butala:
Because everybody wants to work from home. Congratulations. That’s where we work. That’s what this business model is all about. We have a decimated supply chain. Well, we don’t need anything except a couple of computers and a chair to sit on and a cell phone. There are companies like Ford who have billions of dollars in inventory that they can’t release because it’s not done yet. They still need chips. We don’t have any of those issues at all. Future uncertainty. I’ve never felt future uncertainty in my entire life in this career. Have you?
Jill DeWit:
Nope.
Steven Butala:
I know exactly how many letters we’re going to send out next month. I can tell you plus or minus 10%, how many transactions we’re going to get back and depending on Jill’s mood, how many deals we’re going to do? That’s the uncertainty in my life. Jill’s mood.
Jill DeWit:
It’s hilarious. I love it.
Steven Butala:
COVID. Does COVID affect us? I don’t think so.
Jill DeWit:
If anything, it helps us because people are on their computers and they’re online. They’re seeing our properties and our home.
Steven Butala:
It’s driving everybody to the rural scenario.
Jill DeWit:
They want to buy the dirt. They want to make their dream ranch.
Steven Butala:
Polarity in politics, we’re all subject to it whether we like it or not. Does that have anything to do with what we do? Do we have any politicians deciding that what we do? Not really. Not in the immediate future. No. Last time I checked buying and selling land, it’s probably not going to be come illegal or politicized, like many things. So Happy Thanksgiving. You chose the right career.
Jill DeWit:
Yeah. I love how you work things. It sounds bad. But then you’re like, no, but it’s good. I’m like, okay, got it. Is that it?
Steven Butala:
Yeah.
Jill DeWit:
Oh, okay. Well…
Steven Butala:
You want to talk about Thanksgiving or? I just feel very, very, very fortunate and the truth is when this COVID thing hit and everything that followed it including inflation and all kinds of stuff, work at home. I honestly thought it was over. I thought and if you go back and listen to those podcasts or of that time or just batting the hatches down because we’re in for a 2010 like recession and the exact opposite happened.
Jill DeWit:
And then we bought a pizza place to add insult to injury. We’re like, okay, now what’s going to happen with this?
Steven Butala:
Yeah.
Jill DeWit:
So, and it all worked out.
Steven Butala:
Right?
Jill DeWit:
It did work out. I want to have more of these conversations between now and the end of the year. So let’s talk. I want to, just a minute. It’s Thanksgiving. This is a time to be thankful and really appreciate what we have. Even if you’re just getting started in this, hey, you found us you’re here. You have something to look forward to. You got oodles of people that can show you the way and that will help you and loan you money. If you really want to do this and they’ll get you there because it’s happening, we’re all doing it. I’m very thankful for our team. I’m thankful for you. I’m thankful for you. I’m thankful for Land Academy members, the whole community.
Jill DeWit:
What an amazing group that we have. We did it and we’re doing it. And we, I can’t, I don’t want to jinx anything, but I think we’ve got this.
Steven Butala:
I do too.
Jill DeWit:
And I’m excited for next year. All I keep hearing is people running out of inventory.
Steven Butala:
Me too.
Jill DeWit:
That’s our only issues.
Steven Butala:
Me too.
Jill DeWit:
Shoot. I wish I would’ve bought five more of those kind of thing. I’ve even done that. Like recently we go, we’ve I’ve gone back and looked at some deals. I kicked to the curb and I might go back and buy that. Now that price that they said is not so crazy. I can make this work because I need more dirt because now I see what’s possible and I see what’s coming. So I hope you have a great holiday. This was good. Thank you. And I’m happy you could join us today. Five days a week. You can find us here on the Land Academy Show.
Steven Butala:
Tomorrow is Jill Friday. And she’s going to talk about what Joe learned from her CEO club. You are not alone in your real estate ambition. It’s funny thinking of you in a CEO club, in a good way.
Jill DeWit:
Thank you. Why is it funny?
Steven Butala:
I don’t know.
Jill DeWit:
I don’t get it.
Steven Butala:
It’s just, it’s, you know what? Funny is not the word. It’s like I feel pride, is what I mean.
Jill DeWit:
Oh, thank you. Thank you very much. And thank you for tuning in. We hope you find this valuable and boy, do we appreciate your support. If you haven’t already, please. I know it’s a broken record, but check out our YouTube channel. Hit the subscribe button. We are Steven Jill information and inspiration to buy
Steven Butala:
Undervalued property.
Jill DeWit:
Happy Thanksgiving.
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