Jill Friday – What to Do If You Are Not a Data Person (LA 1827)
Jill Friday – What to Do If You Are Not a Data Person (LA 1827)
Transcript:
Steven Jack Butala:
Steven and Jill here.
Jill K DeWit:
Hi.
Steven Jack 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 Jack Butala:
Well, today is Jill Friday, and she’s going to talk about what to do if you’re not a data person.
Jill K DeWit:
Like me
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.
Jill K DeWit:
Okay. Are we going to skip all that?
Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah.
Jill K DeWit:
Yeah, let’s just skip all that. Rolling. Rolling. Rolling. Rolling. Teleprompter. Rolling. Rolling. Rolling. Here we go.
Steven Jack Butala:
This is good. You’re going to like this.
Jill K DeWit:
Okay, good. Dave wrote, “For the new people here, a little cautionary tale for you on the importance of follow up. I received a purchase agreement back from a seller, where the only thing they did was write, add another $10,000, and we got a deal. My original offer was $59,000 in change. I did a very basic bit of research, but couldn’t find enough info to make me confident in the viability of the steel. On top of that, the seller didn’t leave any contact info at all. I made a note in my serum to make an effort to either skip trace the owner, to give him a call, or to just send another offer for $10,000 more, just to get it signed so I could move forward with real due diligence and have my land agent go check it out.
Unfortunately, I got too busy with other leads, and before I knew it, two months had gone by. I just pulled it up to see if any new comps were available and wouldn’t you know it, but this specific property, shoot, had just been listed four days ago for $150,000. My failure to follow up in a timely manner just cost me $80,000, because he could have bought it for 60 or seven days emails and sold it for 150 listed here. To be fair, just because it’s listed for 150, doesn’t mean it will sell for that. But still, don’t let this happen to you. Answer your phones, call people back as soon as you possibly can, follow up. If you’re doing enough volume, hire that transaction coordinator, don’t let deals slip through your fingers. And for the record, I’m usually much better about follow up, this one just slipped through the cracks, but it was a doozy.”
Steven Jack Butala:
Usually when they slip through the cracks, you don’t know it.
Jill K DeWit:
True.
Steven Jack Butala:
There’s been deals, Jill, and I have passed up, especially in deal funding where somebody else funds it and then everyone makes a million dollars.
Jill K DeWit:
I know. I’m like, well, good for you. They’re like, because it’s often like you didn’t get back to me in enough time. I’m like, sorry.
Steven Jack Butala:
I feel your pain, man. It’s just part of this.
Jill K DeWit:
You know what? Keep going. You got this.
Steven Jack Butala:
The other thing too, what happens actually more often for us it’s like, we just don’t like that type of property, so we’re not going to do the deal. It got in the mailer, it’s that type of property, we’re not going to do it, somebody else does it, makes 300 grand. Today’s Jill Friday, what to do if you’re not a data person. This is the meat of the show.
Jill K DeWit:
This came to me from our new customer management person. He’s like, a lot of people think they’re Jills. They say they’re a Jill, they want to be a Jill, that’s their forte. They can tell, but they don’t what to do about the data part of it. They’re freaked out by the data part of it. They don’t understand the data part of it. They’re overwhelmed by the data part of it. So, what do you do? And that happens often clearly, right? So, I could do it, not like you. I’ll never be as good as you. It’s very rare that you are good at both. And I mean, really stellar good at both.
Steven Jack Butala:
Or you enjoy both.
Jill K DeWit:
That too. So, we clearly partnered up for the right reasons. He is my data guy, I’m the talk on the phone person, it works out great. I love negotiating the deal, I live for that, and it’s the stuff that he hates. Even when we travel, I’m like, what price do you want to pay for that? What price do you want to pay for that silver ring, which is really me? And I love it. It’s kind of like fun for me kind of thing. And so, the question is, what do you do if you’re not that data person? So, what I want you to do is first, like we say, when you’re starting out with Land Academy, I want you to do a couple deals on your own. I really want you to know how everything works. So, I want you to give it your all, you’re not going to be as fast and you’re not going to be as good.
You might be doing Wall Street prep Excel stuff at 10:00 at night because you need to get good at doing stupid spreadsheets, and that’s okay. I want you to learn the steps, understand what’s involved, and know the process. I want you to get a mailer out. I want you to feel that. I want you to know you did a good job and what goes into it. Okay, great job, I did that. It still sucks, I’m not that good. I’m clearly not a data person. Yeah, I could struggle through it. I keep hearing everybody in discord, they did it in one weekend, it took me three weeks kind of thing. So, now you’ve got some options. You could either, A, use concierge data, because as always, you ask, we listen. There’s some things that we can do to help you. Still not going to pick a county for you, still not going to price it for you, the percentages, but that hardcore digging in, downloading the data, scrubbing the data, reading out the stuff we don’t want, like the county of fill in the blank. I don’t want to send them an offer.
All of that hard work and serving it up on a platter where I can just look at the spreadsheet, because now I understand spreadsheet’s a little bit better. So, now I understand where these numbers all came from. So, then I can go in and price it, and then sit back and let my team do the mail merge and get it in the mail for you. So, that’s one way to do it, which is awesome. And then the other way is, if you really, really want to… So, that’s the best way, by the way, I think concierge data is still the best way because it’s your money and it’s à la carte, you’re just paying as you use it.
Steven Jack Butala:
We use concierge data.
Jill K DeWit:
Right, right. The second way is that people have done this, and it just happened again in this most recent career path, career path four, partners are finding each other. You get especially in an environment, it happens in discord, when you get to know people there and you’re involved in the community, and it happens in things like career path. People realize, oh, this guy’s a data person, but I can even hear his voice series knocking on the phone. He probably hates the phone, we should talk kind of thing. And you can find within Land Academy, we’ve talked about it off and on over the years, putting together a partnership program where we would help pair people up, but it’s happening organically on its own. You don’t need me to do it, it’s happening.
Steven Jack Butala:
That’s right.
Jill K DeWit:
And do some deals together, do one mailer together. Now, think about this, you’re bringing in a partner, now I’m sharing the profits, but it’s a great solution. Would you like to add anything?
Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah. You know what? You’re not going to do stuff you don’t like for any real amount of time, you’re going to quit eventually.
Jill K DeWit:
Yeah, good point.
Steven Jack Butala:
I did this for a lot of years. I had employees before Jill and I ever met. And we almost accidentally joined forces because we’re watching each other do what our jobs are. She had a different job, I had a job, and when I realized, it just hit in a light bulb moment, I’m like, what if Jill just did this for-
Jill K DeWit:
You put this together?
Steven Jack Butala:
She had a job selling education or something, I don’t remember what it was. And I’m listening to her for weeks in her office at home, selling people… I don’t even remember exactly what it was and it doesn’t matter, but I had a light bulb moment. I’m like, what if she sells this land that I have? And so, she did literally put some stuff on another desk where she would swivel over and sell land and then go back to her regular job. And she sold it all. So, fast forward, whatever, a year later, I’m like, you need to quit your job, because this is going well.
Jill K DeWit:
Yeah.
Steven Jack Butala:
And then I didn’t have to do it anymore, so I could focus on finding new markets, sending out mail the way that I was born to do, and it just worked out great. So, I would heavily encourage you to consider that.
Jill K DeWit:
That’s a perfect way to end this. So, the end result is, you know what you’re doing and then you find the right solution, because you can’t let it hold you back. So, whether you go with concierge, you find a partner, you hire somebody, you could even hire somebody, whatever.
Steven Jack Butala:
Nothing is going to happen in your land career if you don’t get a mailer out.
Jill K DeWit:
Yeah. There you go. Happy to join 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, you are not alone in your real estate ambition.
Jill K DeWit:
Happy Friday.
Steven Jack Butala:
Good show, Jill. Sometimes the simplest stuff-
Jill K DeWit:
Is worth talking about.
Steven Jack Butala:
You just have to take a few steps back and get grassroots on it.
Jill K DeWit:
You know what? I think for me too, this show is about, you’re not nuts. I think some people go, what’s wrong with me, I should be able to do this. There’s nothing wrong with you. Who cares?
Steven Jack Butala:
Or if you’re from the Midwest, you’re used to punishing yourself because that’s how… I’m from the Midwest, so I know what you’re going through. I know the self punishment culture. If you don’t go through terrible times and awful stuff, and then you don’t deserve it, and that’s just not the case.
Jill K DeWit:
Right. And it’s actually, I think it’s harder and kudos to you for realizing that I suck at this. I need to make some changes and I will make more money in the end. I just have to do it.
Steven Jack Butala:
Southern California here was born to have fun.
Jill K DeWit:
This is true.
Steven Jack Butala:
I was born to just be in pain.
Jill K DeWit:
No, no, I hope you always have fun. Can we go now? Can we go now? Can we go now? And on that note, we’re Jack and Jill.
Steven Jack Butala:
We’re Jack and Jill, information.
Jill K DeWit:
Inspiration.
Steven Jack Butala:
To buy undervalued property.
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