Jill Friday – Jillifying Year End Land Deals (LA 1662)
Jill Friday – Jillifying Year End Land Deals (LA 1662)
Transcript:
Steven Jack Butala:
Steve and Jill here.
Jill DeWit:
Hello.
Steven Jack 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 Valley of the Sun.
Steven Jack Butala:
Today is Jill Friday. She’s going to talk about identifying…
Jill DeWit:
I’m going to talk about-
Steven Jack Butala:
She going to talk about Jillification.
Jill DeWit:
Yep, Jillifying it over the holidays. We got this. It may not be written down, but I remembered, because I have that kind of an amazing memory.
Steven Jack Butala:
Someone did the script wrong.
Jill DeWit:
Like an elephant.
Steven Jack Butala:
I wonder. 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 DeWit:
Am I remembering that right? What the heck is going on over here?
Steven Jack Butala:
I don’t know.
Jill DeWit:
It’s just like, you know what?
Steven Jack Butala:
It’s right before Christmas is what’s going on.
Jill DeWit:
It’s Christmas Eve. This is airing on Christmas Eve. So am I remembering the elephant right? Does the elephant have a good memory or is that just a saying?
Steven Jack Butala:
Well, I don’t know if they do or not, but it is a saying.
Jill DeWit:
I’ve never actually sat down and talked to an elephant.
Steven Jack Butala:
You know what I learned?
Jill DeWit:
Tell me.
Steven Jack Butala:
Recently, that elephants can find groundwater. They have a sense, like a sense of smell for finding groundwater.
Jill DeWit:
That’s flipping cool. I did not know that.
Steven Jack Butala:
And so during a drought, they’ll dig. Altogether, they’ll dig and get down to the water and survive.
Jill DeWit:
That is so darn cool. Yeah, so it’s Christmas Eve. So yeah, I like that you’re sporting your Merry Christmas hat. And I’m wearing my Jillify hat for today. So back to the show. Matt wrote, “Can you still get a deal done at the end of the year?” And then [Lori 00:01:39], one of our cool people in Land Academy answered this. And then I’m going to talk more about it too.
Steven Jack Butala:
It’s a good little story.
Jill DeWit:
So Lori says, “Oh, it happens.” That was his question, then we’re just reading one of the responses, and then we’ll talk about it. She says, “I had a seven day close on my first house I put under contract on Christmas Eve day, and it closed on New Year’s Eve. That title company said it couldn’t be done. There were too many forms to get filled up by too many people. And yes, it was back then, by the way.” She’s like, not to tell you the year, or how old my children are, or how old I am. She said, “This was before email, but still exactly the same as New York is today.” That’s funny. “So I talked them into letting me deliver the forms and purpose. And I told everyone I was a courier for the title company, and I had to-”
Steven Jack Butala:
Isn’t that great?
Jill DeWit:
“I had to wait, and get the form filled out.”
Steven Jack Butala:
This is something you would do.
Jill DeWit:
I would do the same thing.
Steven Jack Butala:
Just get it done, man.
Jill DeWit:
This is brilliant. I’m a courier. I’ll wait [inaudible 00:02:32] in here. That’s awesome. And they said it was one of their easiest closings ever. That’s it. That’s perfect. That’s Jillifying it.
Steven Jack Butala:
This is perfectly on topic today.
Jill DeWit:
Mm-hmm (affirmative). Good one. Thank you.
Steven Jack Butala:
Today’s topic is… Well, it’s Jill Friday, Jillifying year-end land deals. This is the meat of the show.
Jill DeWit:
So that is one of them. Actually, that’s B. So I have three points to make here, and it’s going to tie into this question, which is awesome. So end of year, are we even working? Do people buy things? Do they sell things? Do I even need to answer the phone? Can I just do like other people do, and just close up for two weeks, and just enjoy the holidays? Not if you want to miss out on some great opportunities. I wouldn’t do that. Because stuff does happen in all kinds of real estate, not just what we do. I remember back in the day, years ago, my mom was a real estate agent in Orange County. And we did call that the lost years, because we didn’t see mom, because she was doing so well. But she’s like, it might be New Year’s Eve. And she’s writing up a contract.”
Steven Jack Butala:
Good for her, man. That’s great.
Jill DeWit:
Uh-huh (affirmative). She did. And she was always busy in the evenings and the weekends, because that’s when people could get stuff done. We just didn’t see mom, but mom killed it. So it was great. So the things that I have to say about Jillifying it over the holidays, number one is answer the phone, answer email. You might be the only one. There are other people out there that might be saying, “Oh, but I’m traveling. I’m with my family. Not today.” And you know what? They might hang up and call somebody else.
Jill DeWit:
And if you’re the one that answers the phone, ding, ding, good for you. My number two thing is, this ties into Lori’s thing is, be creative about closing and grabbing these opportunities at the end of the year. One of the things that people don’t know is about title insurance. And they don’t know that it doesn’t have to happen concurrently to the whole escrow process. What the heck are you talking about Jill? So I can go through escrow. I can get a deal done. I could even get a deal done outside of escrow and pay someone.
Steven Jack Butala:
Yep.
Jill DeWit:
Pay them what they want.
Steven Jack Butala:
Yep.
Jill DeWit:
Have a deed done. We could all do this in 24 hours, right?
Steven Jack Butala:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jill DeWit:
And have a deed done, have them cashed out, then go open escrow, and get title insurance, and the other pretty stuff I want to, before I go sell it to somebody, because it’s worthy of that.
Steven Jack Butala:
You can do a real estate deal in half hour.
Jill DeWit:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Steven Jack Butala:
Write a check, hand it to the person, they sign the deed, and hand it back to you. That’s five minutes.
Jill DeWit:
If you really trust them, maybe it’s one of your repeat buyers or sellers, whatever it is, I don’t know. I mean I could wire money over.
Steven Jack Butala:
Yep.
Jill DeWit:
I can Venmo money over. Think about it, everyone. I don’t have to hand him a check even. How many online options that we have to send money? And I could have a deed done. The guy could print it out, and go to his bank, go to his UPS thing, send me a picture of it, and have it overnighted to me. I mean, that’s all I need. I mean, really can be done that fast. So I know that a lot of you are comfortable with that. And you do need to do your homework. Don’t just run off and do this, right? You do need to make sure everybody’s real and legit. And I have years of experience, and you will too.
Jill DeWit:
I can know how to do my own due diligence and feel great about the property. And I can confirm it’s the right guy, and he really has owned it for 35 years kind of thing. So all that comes into play, but just be open too, and creative, and know that you can do some of this stuff really fast like Lori did, which is awesome. Excuse me. My third point in getting these deals done, and having everybody happy, and grabbing great deals, and Jillifying it over the holidays is, be very open, and transparent, and clear about what you’re able to do and your timing, and all of that, and be flexible with them too. So what if somebody calls you on Christmas Eve today? You know what? If you can do this by the end of the year.
Jill DeWit:
My wife wrote so many checks and charged up so much stuff. My kids are going to love Christmas, but I’m like, “Uh, I’m going to have to sell this property. Thank you for answering the phone. Can you do this by the end of the year?” Then your thing is, “Okay, so here’s the deal. I’m traveling. I’m going to be in my office on Tuesday. Where are you going to be on it?” The answer is, “Yes, let’s see if we can do this on Tuesday, Wednesday next week.” Okay, done. And be very clear on what you can do, and then follow through. And they’re good with that. And like I said, be flexible with what they can do. “Oh, you’re not going to be around until Wednesday night. Okay, I can make that work. I’ll send it to you. You get your email, you review it,” whatever you work out. “I’m going to have a notary come to you Thursday morning.” That’s fine, however it works out. And just be really clear, and honest, and parent about what you can handle.
Steven Jack Butala:
The more money you make, the more taxes you pay.
Jill DeWit:
Listening.
Steven Jack Butala:
And managing things at the end of the year and running trial scenarios for how much taxes you’re going to pay is a way of life now, for us. It has been for a lot of years, for decades, since we’ve known each other probably. And so this last week of the year, stuff always goes down, always.
Jill DeWit:
Just a lot.
Steven Jack Butala:
And title companies are no stranger to this tax-driven fact. This is maybe one of the greatest problems you can have is managing taxes. And so, they’re not a stranger to this, title companies. And people in general are no stranger to, I need to close this, this year.
Jill DeWit:
Get this done.
Steven Jack Butala:
So you might pay double in fees to get it done, which is a good tax situation anyway. So if you call a title company, and say, “We need to get this done on Tuesday, because I have to buy this for tax reasons.” They get it.
Jill DeWit:
And it goes the other way too. Sometimes we have a couple deals now, and we’ve done this too, where we all want to close on the first week in January for the same reasons. There might be reasons that I need to hold off moving money until January. And they’re good with that. And I promise it’s the first week in January, and everybody wins there too. That’s great.
Steven Jack Butala:
That’s usually on the sell side. You want to buy it in the current tax year to get that.
Jill DeWit:
It’s the perfect thing.
Steven Jack Butala:
And then, sell it in the next year.
Jill DeWit:
Do you want to feel good about this? So I was having trouble sleep last night. Why? I don’t know. Everything’s great. I don’t know why, but I couldn’t sleep. Don’t read my notes. So I’m up in the middle of the night between 3:00 and 5:00 AM, and I’m watching the news. I don’t know why.
Steven Jack Butala:
Why would you ever do that?
Jill DeWit:
I know. Well, I’m going to tell you I learned some cool things. I’m going to just tell you one though. But one of the things that I learned about taxes is Elon Musk shared what he expects to pay in taxes-
Steven Jack Butala:
I read that too.
Jill DeWit:
… for 2020. 2 billion dollars is what he thinks he’s going to pay. So everybody’s like, “What?” But hold on a moment. How much money you need to make to pay 2 billion dollars? That’s the side people forget. You’re like-
Steven Jack Butala:
He’s still a California residence, so the answer is-
Jill DeWit:
He’s wrapping that up.
Steven Jack Butala:
The answer is 4 billion. You’re going to have a 50% effective tax rate in California.
Jill DeWit:
I know.
Steven Jack Butala:
It’s closer to 20 [crosstalk 00:10:05].
Jill DeWit:
But now he’s in Texas, even that will change. But I thought when you brought up taxes, I’m like, “Oh, I got to share that.” So anyway, just have fun. Also, this is the time of year when I make friends with people, we laugh about stuff. I’m like, “Of course, you don’t want to be doing this on Christmas Day. I don’t either.” We can have fun with it. What about Saturday? I’ll be like, “Yeah.” Everybody’s going to be gone, and they’re shopping. They’re out for the Christmas sales. We’ll absolutely get this done on Sunday or whatever it is.
Steven Jack Butala:
So much shopping in this world.
Jill DeWit:
Oh, no.
Steven Jack Butala:
Shopping, shopping, shopping.
Jill DeWit:
This is Jill Friday. This is not Jack Thursday. Just have to remind you, by the way. And happy you could join us today, five days a week. You can find us here even during the holidays on The Land Academy Show.
Steven Jack Butala:
Join us next week for another interesting episode. You’re not alone in your real estate ambition.
Jill DeWit:
This is so cool. It’s Christmas Eve. I hope you are where you want to be, and weather’s good, and you’re wrapping up a phenomenal year. I know a lot of you are. I see a lot of people in Discord talking about taxes and end of year stuff, because you had very profitable years. And I’m really happy about that.
Steven Jack Butala:
For some reason, it’s really, really important to me to get a bargain on real estate acquisitions, but I could care less about getting a great price on a watch, or a TV, or-
Jill DeWit:
It’s true. A car.
Steven Jack Butala:
… or any of that stuff.
Jill DeWit:
It’s funny.
Steven Jack Butala:
Or groceries or any of it. I don’t care.
Jill DeWit:
Isn’t that funny?
Steven Jack Butala:
I don’t understand all this shopping, the day after Christmas shopping.
Jill DeWit:
You call it revenue justification sometimes.
Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah.
Jill DeWit:
That was funny. I accidentally over ordered something, and it was like $30. And he’s like, “Why would you even bother returning that through Amazon?”
Steven Jack Butala:
Two hours out of her life to repackage it all up, I’m like, “Just forget it. Send it to Goodwill.”
Jill DeWit:
Yeah, you know what? You’re right. That was good. That is kind of funny. Cool. But you have a great, great Christmas. Merry Christmas, everyone. And thank you for tuning in, of course. We hope you find our content valuable, and we appreciate your support. If you haven’t already, please check out our YouTube channel. Hit the Subscribe button. We are Steve and Jill. I’m sorry, I’m too old to [inaudible 00:12:26] down. [inaudible 00:12:27]. I’m Christmas Steve goofy.
Steven Jack Butala:
You’re staring at the camera.
Jill DeWit:
Christmas Steve goofy. Okay, ready? Three, two, one. We are Steve and Jill…
Steven Jack Butala:
We are Steve and Jill. Information…
Jill DeWit:
… and inspiration…
Steven Jack Butala:
… to buy undervalued property.
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