Jill Friday – Short Cuts (LA 1697)
Jill Friday – Short Cuts (LA 1697)
Transcript:
Steven Jack Butala:
Steve and Jill here.
Jill K DeWit:
Hi.
Steven Jack Butala:
Welcome to The Land Academy Show, entertaining land investment talk. I’m Stephen Jack Butala.
Jill K DeWit:
And I’m Jill DeWitt broadcasting from the Valley of the Sun.
Steven Jack Butala:
Today it’s Jill Friday and she’s going to talk about shortcuts.
Jill K DeWit:
How do you think I feel about shortcuts?
Steven Jack Butala:
I’m pretty confident that you’re not a big fan.
Jill K DeWit:
Nope, Nope. Not a fan. I’m going to give you … we got to talk. This is brutal truth week, right? Sorry. I have a tickle in my throat. So I’m going to talk about first of all, when it’s not okay, and then I’m going to talk about when it is okay.
Steven Jack Butala:
There’s a massive difference between shortcuts and laziness.
Jill K DeWit:
That’s usually what it is.
Steven Jack Butala:
Because laziness … I’ve driven by laziness at times. And I’ll tell you when I catch myself being lazy, the first thing I do is find somebody else to do this stuff, because I obviously don’t want to do it. That doesn’t mean I can’t get it done. If I’m taking a shortcut, I’m just trying not to do it all together.
Jill K DeWit:
We’re going to talk about this.
Steven Jack Butala:
That concerns me a lot.
Jill K DeWit:
Okay.
Steven Jack Butala:
Plus, well, it’s Jill Friday.
Jill K DeWit:
We’re going to talk about that.
Steven Jack Butala:
Jill’s going to talk and I’m going to listen.
Jill K DeWit:
There you go.
Steven Jack 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 liked.
Jill K DeWit:
Sandy wrote, “How do you come up with a price when there’s nothing else for sale or sold in the area on Zillow, Redfin or Realtor? Do you keep zooming out or do you have another method? Or just give up?”
Steven Jack Butala:
You just give up.
Jill K DeWit:
This is a shortcut day. Yeah. Yeah. Who cares? Move on to where you do have some data. Give up. Shortcut. Now wait, you asked somebody else to do it for you. How sad.
Steven Jack Butala:
Nobody’s … We’re not making fun of you, Sandy.
Steven Jack Butala:
Wait or copy someone. Here’s a even better idea. Just copy somebody else.
Steven Jack Butala:
We don’t give up on anything.
Jill K DeWit:
This is awesome.
Steven Jack Butala:
Giving up is not even a discussion.
Jill K DeWit:
You know, there’s other ways.
Steven Jack Butala:
There’s always data.
Jill K DeWit:
You got to dig.
Steven Jack Butala:
Yep.
Jill K DeWit:
You got to get in there Sandy. You can give me any zip code, any area and I’m going to come up with some numbers. I’ll find them.
Steven Jack Butala:
I agree.
Jill K DeWit:
And if I can’t find really good numbers, I can at least get a gauge in the area. For example: what if it’s somewhere that I’m really having a hard time pricing land, but I can get house prices and house prices are either starting at $4 million on the beach, because I’m trying to [buy 00:02:45] I got to cut a good idea how that’s going to go there.
Steven Jack Butala:
Yep.
Jill K DeWit:
Or I can buy a house for $4,000. I got a good idea how the line prices are going to go there. And so in both of those extremes, I at least know that I don’t want to play in that pool.
Steven Jack Butala:
Yep.
Steven Jack Butala:
There’s all kinds of alternative ways to find data. And I know we’re poking fun and stuff, but this is a real issue. Lack of data in certain real estate markets in a lot of real estate markets, especially if they’re rural is a, is an issue. So there’s a couple ways to go on this and all kidding aside, you can move on, and if you’re brand new, I would move on. If you’re brand new, this is senior in high school stuff. This is not, I’ve just started doing this. Housing values are a really smoking great indicator. Like Jill said on what land values will be. Or it might have to go further back. Instead of 12 months ago, back all the way back to see what’s what completed sales look like for land and farm land. Watch.com.
Steven Jack Butala:
All those companies. I have a lot of completed sale data that lingers for a long time. Is it going to be as accurate? And just like the stuff that we teach for realtor or Zillow? No, but it’s going to give you a gauge. Here’s the good news nobody’s been playing in that sandbox, because there’s no data. And so you can look at it both ways. I love we’re doing a deal right now in a very rural area that it’s not that rural. We have no data and I know exactly how this is going to go. Cause I’ve done this before. Jill and I both agreed, “wow, this is a great deal.” It was a real funny deal. A Land Academy member brought it to us.
Jill K DeWit:
My final point is find a local guy. There’s a pretty good chance you can make some phone calls and find someone that knows more about that area that you don’t and they can answer some questions.
Steven Jack Butala:
There’s always a way.
Jill K DeWit:
Yeah. You just got to keep digging. Don’t give up. This is perfect for shortcuts. You’re right. Well I tried all three and they don’t have one. So I just stop right here. Right? Hold on the moment. No, you don’t. Keep going
Steven Jack Butala:
Jill has called a convenience store owner and asked about the property adjacent to them in the past and gotten a ton of information. Because we didn’t know if we wanted do the deal. And we didn’t do it because of that.
Jill K DeWit:
Right.
Steven Jack Butala:
There’s all kinds of ways to do it. Got to get real creative.
Jill K DeWit:
Yeah.
Steven Jack Butala:
Today’s Jill Friday. She’s going to talk about shortcuts. This is the meat of the show.
Jill K DeWit:
Why do you think people take shortcuts and are they ever good?
Steven Jack Butala:
I’m sure there’s a few circumstances that they’re good.
Jill K DeWit:
And they will, and I’m going to cover that. That was actually kind of a philosophical
Steven Jack Butala:
Oh it was rhetorical? I thought I was supposed to answer something.
Jill K DeWit:
Sorry. Next time I’ll put Jack in front of it.
Steven Jack Butala:
Okay. That’d be good.
Jill K DeWit:
Okay. Excuse me. Listen.
Steven Jack Butala:
This is my life. She walks around asking questions and I don’t know if they’re real questions …
Jill K DeWit:
Actually that is true. He’s like, “are you talking to me?” I’m like, “Nope.” “You know, no one else’s here. Right?” “Yep. I’m just thinking it through. Thank you.” So it’s in those situations. It’s a good thing you can’t hear.
Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah.
Jill K DeWit:
Why are people doing this? Usually there’s, there’s a lazy component. That’s that’s my number one go-to. If you’re trying to make a shortcut right now, out of the gate … I guess let’s just say this. There’s a time to do it and a time not to do it. The time not to do it, I’m going to start there, is because you’re lazy. You don’t have the energy. You don’t have the experience. You don’t know where to go. There’s got to be a work around. Oh look, I just Googled the list.
Jill K DeWit:
Oh my gosh. I Googled ‘list of sellers in X, Y, Z state.’ What? And I only have to pay a couple hundred dollars for this list. Done. That’s what I’m doing. I don’t have to do what they do. I don’t need to go to learn the data and pick an area and everything. I got a list and hey, it’s kind of cheap. Great. I’m just going to do this. Nope. Wrong. That’s not the way to do it. You know? The way that you do ask? How do I say this? I’m reading my notes and I’m not making sense to me right now.
Steven Jack Butala:
Probably because you took a shortcut.
Jill K DeWit:
I did take a shortcut.
Steven Jack Butala:
Because she’s not that interested in this show.
Jill K DeWit:
I am, but that’s usually you’re lazy or you’re not trusting your experience. Oh, I know what it was.
Jill K DeWit:
This whole topic came up for this one reason. This is going to bring it home. Someone was reaching out to me to fund a deal, and I found out they had already talked to somebody else about the deal and they didn’t even know what they were doing. And they have two of us reviewing a deal. We’re both actually giving the same feedback. And I’m a little ticked off that this person, A: didn’t trust the peer and B: now it’s getting to me and it’s wasting my time. This is lazy. You need to do more work on the front end, have us all locked in and have a really good like is best that you can. I spent three hours on this this week. I feel great about this. Would you fund this deal? That’s how it should come to me. And then I’m the last pair of eyes.
Jill K DeWit:
Not that you send it to somebody. And they’re like, no, I don’t like it. Here’s what you do. And then it gets to me and I’m like, no, I don’t like it either. Now they’re now that, that you don’t know that we both talk behind the scenes by the way, because we’re peers and we trust each other and they have more experience in that area. By the way, I have more experience overall, but they know that area better than I do right now. And that’s why we’re communicating. I’m like, why are you not trusting us? It’s just a shortcut. They’re just waiting for us to say, to do or not do it. And they’re going to get another no. You need to learn and you need to do the homework and you need to dig in a little bit more and you need to just figure it out on your own a little bit. Don’t be lazy. I have one more example of a bad thing that drives me nuts. And it just came up recently in a group we were working with, it was priced and I’m sorry, there’s going to be things out there forever that people are going to solve stuff for you …
Steven Jack Butala:
That’s a classic shortcut. I didn’t think about that.
Jill K DeWit:
And they think that they are going to help you like a list. You know, there’s lists that you can get on there’s companies that provide lists that you think that they’re doing what you think they need to do, but you don’t understand it enough before you get to that point to even know if it’s right or wrong. So this is my whole point. You need to learn this stuff yourself, first. You need to understand it. You don’t have to be a pro. You don’t have to have a PhD in Excel, but you need to know how to go all the way through the red, yellow, green test. You need to know how to look at the data you need to know to do all the stuff that Jack talks about. Picking the county. And the trolling. And all the things that go into it.
Jill K DeWit:
And then again, run your yellow greed, yellow, green tests, and then pull the data, scrub it yourself, know all of that, that goes into it. And so you know how to drive the car, you know, what’s going on under the hood. It’d be like me buying a Ferrari and not knowing a thing, and oh, “hi, where’s the start button>”. Oh, that’s really sorry.
Steven Jack Butala:
You’re right.
Jill K DeWit:
Yeah. It’s a pet peeve of mine. In a minute, I’m going to hand the mic over to you. I need you to not be lazy, and once you do all that though, once you can come to me and say, “Jill, I did this, this, this, this, and this. I feel confident. I know how to do this. I know how to do this. I’m too busy though. I’ve been doing deals. I need to use something like concierge.” I’m okay with that because you know what’s going on and you can tweak it. And by the way, they’re not a one stop, “Hey, give me this county.” They want to know what do you need out of this county? What size do you want? And that’s how you know, you’re working with somebody. That’s the right people too, by the way, when they give you a list of 10 questions before they go do anything for you and you understand what all those 10 questions are, that’s a good relationship. And that’s a good solution.
Steven Jack Butala:
If you get a traffic ticket, and you have to go to traffic school, that is a circumstance if I look into myself where I’m going to take the most shortcuts I can take. If they said you could either have to go to school for four hours to traffic school, or you can donate $500 to this charity. I couldn’t get out my checkbook fast enough. I’m going to take every shortcut if possible. And, and here’s why I don’t respect it. And I don’t care about it.
Jill K DeWit:
Oh.
Steven Jack Butala:
If you have five college courses going on at one time, this is before you major, you’ve got an accounting class, a communications class, an English class and whatever. You name them. I can almost guarantee you two of those you’re going to really be interested in and you’re going to show up for it, and you’re going to actually learn the material, take the test and get an A. And the other ones I’m going to look around for every shortcut I can possibly find, because I don’t care. And I don’t have a lot of respect for it. That’s what’s going on. The same thing applies to Land Academy.
Steven Jack Butala:
I’ll tell you from an exercise perspective, I show up for that. When I exercise, I set the timer, I do what I’m supposed to do. I give it every inch that I can possibly give, because I respect it. And I know what the outcome’s going to be if I do it and what the payout is. And a relationship with her is the same thing. I respect it. I respect Jill. I don’t try to find shortcuts in my relationship. That’s insane. I know people that do that.
Jill K DeWit:
That’s right.
Steven Jack Butala:
I know people that are trying to get out of the house to go do whatever they want because they can’t stand it there. That’s not what we have at all. That’s not what land is for me.
Jill K DeWit:
This is brilliant. Thank you for saving the show for me.
Steven Jack Butala:
Well Jill. [inaudible 00:12:45] Well, she’s emotional about it. You did. And, and, and you should, and I love when you do that, by the way. Because it’s usually me that’s all miffed about it, but I can take a couple steps back and look at myself and say, “oh yeah, I take a shortcut over there. I take a shortcut over there.” I try to do that as fast as I can. There’s a bunch of stuff that I can’t stand doing, and I’ll look for every way to get out of it. That’s consciously or subconsciously.
Jill K DeWit:
We know what I do for my version of … if I’m not into it, I find someone who is, and I hire them to do it. For example, landscaping, gardening. You know, it’s funny as we’ve been sitting today, I’m looking outside and I’m noticing it’s springtime and I’m noticing these beautiful red flowers out my window and they’re gorgeous. And the most I want to do is go cut some and put them in a vase.
Jill K DeWit:
I didn’t put them there.
Steven Jack Butala:
It’s springtime for in Jill’s mind.
Jill K DeWit:
That’s true.
Steven Jack Butala:
In Jill’s fictitious little mind.
Jill K DeWit:
Well, the sun’s out it’s pretty today.
Steven Jack Butala:
It’s February.
Jill K DeWit:
It’s true. Exactly. I’m not good at it and I won’t get good at it, but I’ll hire the right people. And by the way, our right guy doesn’t take shortcuts. He is out there in it, making it beautiful.
Steven Jack Butala:
There’s people in discord. I have a bunch to say about this.
Jill K DeWit:
Go for it.
Steven Jack Butala:
All through my career, people have asked me and now with Jill and I, “what do you guys do for a living?” “Oh, we buy and sell land.” And there’s this disappointed, slash weird look like they don’t even know what that is. First of “wow, I kind of expected more of you.” And so they don’t respect it. That’s fine. [crosstalk 00:14:15] And they just don’t have any interest in that. If you say the word acre to them, they don’t even really know what that is. I had somebody say that to me. “I don’t know what an acre is. What’s an acre?” Yeah. Recently, “oh, how big’s an acre?”
Jill K DeWit:
43, five, six, oh.
Steven Jack Butala:
Right. I mean I dream about land literally. There’s a ton of stuff I don’t dream about and would try if I had to do it, take a shortcut.
Jill K DeWit:
That’s interesting.
Steven Jack Butala:
There’s people in discord that are trying to figure out how to do this faster and cheaper. There’s people in career path right now that are constantly questioning every single little thing that we say.
Steven Jack Butala:
“Well, why don’t you consider doing this?” And so here’s why. That’s not because of lack of interest. They just don’t … They think our way’s too expensive. This program’s not the cheapest you can get. And it’s not the most expensive by any stretch, but it is the most comprehensive and our souls and our staff’s souls are in this business, both education and land.
Jill K DeWit:
Right.
Steven Jack Butala:
And so shortcuts … there’s all kinds of people in Land Academy, and some of them don’t have real respect for it. I’ve had really seasoned, extremely successful real estate professionals stand there and look at me and explain to me that there’s no money in land.
Jill K DeWit:
Yeah.
Steven Jack Butala:
It doesn’t generate any cash flow the way commercial real estate does. There’s nothing. Unless you improve it, you’re not going to make any money. “Good luck, son.” That’s what they, stuff like that to me, even though I’m older than them.
Jill K DeWit:
Yep.
Steven Jack Butala:
“Yeah. You really missed the mark on this one.” Okay. I guess I missed the mark.
Jill K DeWit:
I love it. See you later.
Steven Jack Butala:
So shortcuts are for people that don’t care and don’t have any respect for it. I have no respect, none, for residential real estate agents. And with the last time we did a residential real estate transaction, Jill and I, for our primary residents, that was evident.
Jill K DeWit:
Yeah. And she, we didn’t …
Steven Jack Butala:
And she said to me, I had never …
Jill K DeWit:
She didn’t have any respect for us.
Steven Jack Butala:
I had never been so disrespected in my life to which I said, you’re a real estate agent. Tell where the respect is in that. That is a true story. and Jill saved the deal because she was done.
Jill K DeWit:
Oh, I was … I got the deal done.
Steven Jack Butala:
You did.
Jill K DeWit:
Once again, I got in and closed the deal. I’m like, step aside, lady, I’m going to do this. And I did.
Jill K DeWit:
Enough about that. It’s Friday, and I want you to have a good weekend. I want you to leave here feeling positive and good.
Steven Jack Butala:
I feel like we just lost half half of our listeners.
Jill K DeWit:
Geez. Usually Jill Friday’s inspirational. That’s why you just got chewed out.
Steven Jack Butala:
But just ask yourself half your ask yourself. I grew up in a household where my dad would say this all the time.
Jill K DeWit:
Yeah.
Steven Jack Butala:
He said, “if it’s worth doing, do it.”
Jill K DeWit:
Yeah.
Steven Jack Butala:
“If it’s not worth doing, don’t do it.”
Jill K DeWit:
By the way, this is all coming full circle. We’re going to end on this. You know why your teenage son kind of half blanks cleans out the garage? Because he’s not into it.
Steven Jack Butala:
He’s not into it. He doesn’t want to be there.
Jill K DeWit:
He doesn’t care. He doesn’t respect having a clean garage. He doesn’t care. It’s not his thing.
Steven Jack Butala:
Take a shortcut out of that day.
Jill K DeWit:
Oh yeah. And why he just shoves things under his bed. There we go.
Steven Jack Butala:
That’s perfect, Jill. That’s outstanding.
Jill K DeWit:
Oh, don’t be that guy. Happy you joined us today. Five days a week, you can find us here on the Land Academy Show.
Steven Jack Butala:
Join us next week for another interesting episode. I promise we’ll try harder. You are not alone in your real state ambition.
Jill K DeWit:
We do not take shortcuts with the show. We don’t take shortcuts with our staff. We don’t take shortcuts in any of our companies. I’m trying to think here. We do take, what else? What do we take shortcuts in?
Steven Jack Butala:
I’ll tell you what, this is the truth.
Jill K DeWit:
Well, the stuff you don’t care about out. If you got a parking ticket, you’d be like …
Steven Jack Butala:
It just gets subbed out. We used to have to do payroll, Jill and I, we don’t do that anymore. I have no respect for doing payroll.
Jill K DeWit:
But, you know what? I wouldn’t take a short cut. I’d make sure it’s done right.
Steven Jack Butala:
Me too.
Jill K DeWit:
That’s why I hire professional companies to manage it.
Steven Jack Butala:
Yep.
Steven Jack Butala:
I hate doing taxes. That’s all subbed out. No. Yeah. But I do respect that.
Jill K DeWit:
I’m sure there’s some stuff. Thanks for tuning in. We hope you find our content valuable and we really appreciate your support. If you haven’t already, please check out our YouTube channel. Hit that subscribe button.
Steve and Jill:
We’re Steve and Jill.
Steven Jack Butala:
Information.
Jill K DeWit:
And inspiration.
Steven Jack Butala:
To buy undervalued property.
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