Land Investing from the Road: Update four RV 101 (LA 1868)

Transcript:

Steven:
Steven, Jill here.

Jill:
Hello.

Steven:
Welcome to the Land Academy Show. Entertaining land investment talk. I’m Steven Jack Butala.

Jill:
And I’m Jill DeWitt, broadcasting from the country music capital of the planet.

Steven:
Couple days after Loretta Lynn passed too.

Jill:
I know.

Steven:
We’ll check that out tonight.

Jill:
Yeah, we’re in Nashville. In case you weren’t sure.

Steven:
Today, Jill and I talk about, we’ve started this land investing from the road Monday, and so this is land investing from the road update number four and we’re going to talk about RV 101 and how it applies to your land business.

Jill:
I want to know, can I look at your little calendar? Technically how many weeks has it been? So let’s see, we left on the second, hold on poopy. So it’s one full week, two full weeks, three full weeks, four full weeks. Tomorrow will be five full weeks that we’ve been gone. That’s kind of cool.

Steven:
And neither one of us want to go back at all.

Jill:
I know. This is the problem.

Steven:
Not at all. Not one bit. In fact, we’ll talk about it in the show.

Jill:
Okay, cool.

Steven:
Before we get into it though, let’s take a question posted by one of our members on the land investors.com online community. It’s free and I hope you know by now, today is Monday. Jill and I instruct a handful of existing Land Academy members and sometimes non-members in-

Jill:
Our new members

Steven:
Advanced class. Yeah.

Jill:
Yeah. We-

Steven:
Called career path. We’re recording this on Thursday. It airs on Monday.

Jill:
Career path starts in two days.

Steven:
That Wednesday. Yeah, there may or may not be a couple spots left. We’ll see what happens.

Jill:
Exactly.

Steven:
If there are, what should they do?

Jill:
Okay, let me back this. So Career Path is our top level training/mentoring ten week program instructed live by us. And it happens every Wednesday. And this next session starts in two days. It starts on October 12th. As we are airing, I don’t know if I have room, but if you’re dying to get in, please send a note to support@landacademy.com and then say, Career Path, like exclamation point kind of thing. And my team, Brooklyn or I will give you a call back literally on Monday and we’ll talk to you and see if we can squeeze you in. Let’s just say that. Thanks. Now back to the question. Go ahead.

Steven:
So, really quickly before we start. We’re outside because it’s a pure perfect day in Nashville here in an amazing RV park. You can tell they’re RV parks. If they cost $35, it’s probably going to be okay. If they cost $90, it’s going to be fantastic. And we’re in one of the $90 ones.

Jill:
Yes.

Steven:
Behind us is a lake. We’re right on the lake. All these spots are.

Jill:
Yes.

Steven:
And we’re, after this, going to take our bikes down.

Jill:
Isn’t that funny? Some people can’t handle it. Like wait a minute, wait minute wait. You’re spending a hundred bucks to sleep in your own bed and your own stuff and your own food and your own internet and your own this and your own that. Yeah. I’m paying a hundred bucks a night for a pad, a picnic table and a campfire ring. It’s exactly-

Steven:
So, gets you thinking. Because if you buy the right piece of land, you could slap all this stuff down.

Jill:
Maybe you could. There’s the thought. And last time I checked we know how to buy land.

Steven:
So most of you, vast majority are listening, not watching. But if you want to check us out on YouTube so you can laugh at us directly-

Jill:
You should.

Steven:
You should try that.

Jill:
You should see this. It’s a beautiful day. Hello, Steve wrote, now that the economic market seems to be experiencing a change in fundamentals causing increases in real estate inventories due to fewer buyers… I haven’t noticed that but I’m going to finish this in a minute. Are any of you considering creative deal structure instead of cash when buying and selling? Here’s what I’d like to say real quick-

Steven:
Sure.

Jill:
When at it. We just had the advanced call last week and there were at least two people. I think there were a couple that said September was the best months I’ve ever had.

Steven:
Yeah.

Jill:
Not ever had, I shouldn’t say that.

Steven:
Of this year.

Jill:
Of this whole year so far of this whole year, September was our best. And now they’re like, I think I’m going to chill, get October, November, December. So I’m not seeing these changes that he’s writing about. But I don’t know when this note was put in.

Steven:
So one of my jobs that I’ve given myself or roles in Land Academy is to track news and real specifically real estate news. So Steve, I know exactly what you’re talking about and if you’re in that group, in Land Academy, we hold a Thursday call every single a afternoon. And part of that is me talking about news events. So yeah, I agree with you Steve. In general, there are changes fundamentally in the national market for real estate. You’re getting a little pushback from Jill and believe me, I have personally experienced that.

Jill:
Yeah. You might get bored today.

Steven:
Because she’s not seeing it in our land business and all the reports that we’re getting from our Land Academy members are, this is great. And I actually agree with her and somewhat agree with you. There’s no deny on it, the housing market on a national basis is slowing down and we talk about that every week. So what does that mean to us? Which is what I think you’re asking or should we be looking at transactions creatively instead of just age old way of buying it, literally buying it and then literally reselling it. And I think the answer is hell no. There’s deal funding, our group is packed full of people who will fund your deals. And I think what you’re talking about is probably the current definition of wholesaling where you lock a property up, you resell it to somebody, you take $10,000 out of the deal or you get seller financing. Let’s say you convince the seller to sell it on terms, then you go mark it up and sell it and resell it.
And Jill and I have long, long been vocally against these situations. Can they work? Yeah. There’s just an air of getting away with something or you’re starting toward down that path of taking a fee out of a deal instead of being an actual investor where you and maybe a funding partner gets together as investors, buy a piece of property and then resell it because it’s a smoking deal.

Jill:
Do you know what it is for me? And this is one of the reasons I’m with you.

Steven:
You mean with me, with me?

Jill:
Yeah like, in life.

Steven:
Like biblically?

Jill:
Yes.

Steven:
Okay.

Jill:
Yes. One of the reasons that we’re a good couple and we connect is what you’re talking about and taking the triage in the middle and blah. I just, sorry, I just don’t want to work that hard.

Steven:
It’s a lot more work.

Jill:
Yeah. Could you imagine?

Steven:
Just buy the property.

Jill:
I hear you. What if I get the guy… Because I know people that do this. I’m buying it on terms, I’m selling it on terms. I get $29 in the middle of these payments. Isn’t this the greatest thing? I’m going to work up to a hundred people at $29. Look how great, I have $3,000 a month that I sit back and I’m like, okay now then it comes to, if anybody’s really doing that, you know what I’m talking about. Then it comes down to let’s talk, truth time. How hard are you working? They’d be like, oh my goodness, you wouldn’t believe how much hand holding I have to take. And every month there’s 10% of my people that their credit cards fail and I have to call and get a new credit card on file and then they’re paid. They need to change their days because their paychecks are, they got a new job or fill in the blank. I’m not going to work that hard. I buy it, I sell it. It’s done and done.

Steven:
Let’s wrap the question portion of the episode here up on this. And let’s just go straight down and look at the numbers. So we had somebody in the advanced group, the people in the Advanced Land Academy group have are Career Path alumni. And so everybody, it’s once a month we all get together, talk and everybody’s gone through career path. And so just said they paid $30,000 for a property and sold it for $100,000 in two weeks. So let’s look at that deal. If you wholesale that, you write a contract for $30,000. You resell it to somebody for $50,000. You take $10,000 out of it, that person goes and sells it for $100,000. Then the person you sold it to makes $50,000 and you make $10,000. That’s option number one.
Option number two, this is what we do. We go and buy it, we buy it close on it and own it for $30,000. Sell it for a $100,000, we made $70,000. Final option number three, you go get a partner somewhere in Land Academy, maybe it’s us, maybe it’s Jill and I because we fund a lot of people’s deals in Land Academy.

Jill:
I like where you’re going with this.

Steven:
Not all of them, but certainly not all of them and certainly not the majority. But we do a bunch of deals with members. You write a contract for $30,000, we agree on a 50/50 split. So there’s a net margin of $70,000 and we split that. So you make $35,000, I make $35,000 and there’s no risk.

Jill:
And you put in nothing.

Steven:
And you don’t risk a dollar and you gain a $35,000 and you do it ten times till you have three, four, $500,000 yourself and then you fund your own deals. That’s how this is set up.

Jill:
I would like to add, as far as deal funding goes. This is my last little point on this. We fund every great deal. If it’s not great, it’s not getting funded. That’s the only reason it’s not getting funded.

Steven:
And Jill and I are extreme. The truth is we’re really picky about the deals that we do and-

Jill:
I make sure it’s great.

Steven:
The people who we do them with. So very, very often somebody will bring a deal to us and we choose not to do it for any reason. The spread might not be big enough, that’s the biggest reason. And then you take it to the group in Discord and somebody funds it.

Jill:
There you go.

Steven:
Today’s topic, land investing from the road. Update number four, RV101. This is the meat of the show.

Jill:
Okay. So everybody wants to know, it’s not just you the listener, it’s everyone in our travels and even our friends. Like I said, we’ve been gone now five weeks and people are like, are you coming back? And we’re like, I don’t know. When are you coming back? I can tell you, I’m not sure. I’m like, we’re having so much fun and we’re in a little rig. We’re in a 24 footer by the way. So this is to answer questions for not only you but, Well the thing is too, people we meet on our travels. They’re like, what do you mean you’ve been gone this long? So many people are working remote anyway. Even if you don’t do what we do, you’re a remote person or you’re have the capability of doing that. You know, have to take a step back and look at your life and maybe you could do this. So what I want to talk about today is, I’m sorry, I was looking for the topic. What you call it?

Steven:
RV101.

Jill:
Oh yeah. RV101. So it’s like, okay, how can I do this and being in an RV from the road? So I wrote a couple things down here. Number one, I want you to think about and test by the way, how much driving you and your spouse want to do each day? This is good because this is real stuff.

Steven:
My answer is zero.

Jill:
No, oh I don’t know, you want to drive ten hours a day or none. And I’m like-

Steven:
That’s right.

Jill:
And that’s not the same for me. So this is why I’m bringing this up. You need to think about you and who’s with you because if you’re happy, guess what? Somebody else isn’t and then guess what? Now you’re not happy. Nobody’s happy.

Steven:
That was my number one thing on this list. RV101 is you better. I know what you’re getting at. You better get along with the person you’re RVing with.

Jill:
No, it’s not even that. No, it’s very specific. It’s not even, it’s really not that. It’s just how much driving. You guys have to decide what you want to do and if it’s just you, that’s even better. No offense, but I’m just like, that’s really important to consider.

Steven:
You’d rather just be on this whole trip by yourself.

Jill:
Well you know what’s funny? I would’ve pulled up, that’s going to be our next one. Tune in next week when Jill’s in one location and Jackson, another because we split up and then got there and we didn’t quite meet up. But that’s not a bad idea because I want to drive, I want to stop at every distillery on the way as we’re going through Kentucky. And he’s like, Nope, we’re on a schedule.

Steven:
Yeah, that’s not why. Well it’s not why I did not want to stop. Which leads me to one of my points. You need to test this equipment before you get out on the road as much as possible. As much as your work schedule or time commitments or schedule allows.

Jill:
And we did that.

Steven:
Because I’ll tell you, this is RV101, there’s two components to this. The RV part, which is made by a company, which is a big huge thing that’s put on a drive train. And then the actual drive train itself. In our case, the RV part is store, which I have a lot of good things to say about. And Mercedes-

Jill:
The House, it’s called The House.

Steven:
Yeah. The house and the Mercedes, which is on the chasse of the drivetrain. And we’re having some pretty, well, not substantial, we’re having engine light related problems with the Mercedes largely because we didn’t test it locally enough to force these problems quickly and address them when we’re still comfortable at our house and we’re not in the middle of the country.

Jill:
I’m going to argue that we did because we waited a full year.

Steven:
So we did a bunch of trips but we did not do enough. And so there were some [inaudible 00:13:36] issues that we worked out. All warranty work, worked out great and so far on this trip it’s been fantastic. But there’s some we’re addressing and it’s very, very difficult to find somebody to work on these Mercedes sprinters, especially in small towns, which is where we want to be. We’re in the Nashville area, but we’re certainly not in Nashville intentionally. We don’t want to live bunk in a big city. So do your research on reliability and all that stuff because I think in the end, and here’s been my whole point, the first RV that you buy or use or rent will not be the final one. You’re going to decide, doesn’t see what’s important or having a permanent workstation is real important and the rig that we have right now for me is not big enough.

Jill:
Well that’s going to be my number three and four.

Steven:
Yeah, go.

Jill:
Okay, good. Can I keep going?

Steven:
Just do them together.

Jill:
Okay, good. So I want you to get all your… That was your main point?

Steven:
Not at all.

Jill:
Oh, okay. Well you want to finish and then I’ll go?

Steven:
I don’t.

Jill:
Oh, okay.

Steven:
I would like to do them together.

Jill:
Oh, okay. Got it. All right. So that mine number one was think about the driving number two, bed size. I’m doing RV101, you’re talking about the mechanics. I’m thinking bigger picture. Bigger picture and having a happy life and getting a good night’s sleep.

Steven:
Livability.

Jill:
Yeah.

Steven:
That’s the Jill’s side of everything.

Jill:
No?

Steven:
You’re inspiration. I’m information.

Jill:
Okay. Well anyway, I think I’m doing information too. So number three for me is workspace, which is true. So think about how much time you want to do, make sure you’ve got a bed to get a good night’s sleep. And then think about your work schedule, how it needs to be set up, what kind of internet you need, all of those little things and have eight backups. We have everything including starlink and guess what? We’re about to go get a mobile hotspot too just to hit it home. So then I have all the bases covered. I’ll have my cell phone, a separate hotspot, maybe the RV parks place plus starlink and then I know we’re okay. But again, that’s only because we do the podcast and all this heavy data stuff. For just your land investing business, that’s overkill, you don’t need all that.

Steven:
Right.

Jill:
So I could be fine with my phone for my land investing business.

Steven:
So if you’ve never heard, some people are saying to themselves, what are you talking about? Hotspot? You guys have cell phones. So there’s a device, call it a professional hotspot that handles hot spotting and multiple devices in a small area much better and more efficiently than your cell phone. Your cell phone has a tiny little hotspot device in it. These mobile hotspots are serious.

Jill:
So my wrap up here for update from the road and RV101. Let me give you a few of the things that don’t matter. What does not matter is your fridge size, whether or not you have an oven.

Steven:
I love this.

Jill:
Whether or not you have a washer and dryer, which I think is stupid. Your TV size doesn’t matter.

Steven:
Never use it.

Jill:
Our TV’s not a smart TV. I’m like, ah, I could use a smart TV but I don’t really care for the five minutes I watch it now. And then fireplace doesn’t matter, recliners don’t matter. So that’s the end of my list.

Steven:
This Mercedes has a six cylinder turbo diesel in it. We are getting between 13 and 18 miles to a gallon. A regular Ford E450, which is a lot of what C classes are on get seven or eight.

Jill:
Do you think that matters?

Steven:
That matters an immense amount. So if you do the math, let’s just say it gets twice the gas mileage. So for every thousand miles you drive, you save $2 and 50 cents a mile, that’s $2,500 every thousand miles you drive. At 10,000 miles, you save 25 grand. So you’re putting a serious dent in the actual expense of the vehicle.

Jill:
Understood.

Steven:
So yeah, I really think that matters. Does diesel matter? Only if you’re going to use it and own it forever. Diesels are known for going and that’s the whole point. And for resaleability, they hold their value much better. Much, much better.

Jill:
I’m done.

Steven:
And then my last point is, do you want to tour the country towing something behind your truck or do you want to sit in the actual unit itself and watch Jill sleep?

Jill:
I wish that was the case. That’s funny.

Steven:
Driving a truck around a country is no fun for me.

Jill:
Wouldn’t that be great?

Steven:
I don’t like driving that way.

Jill:
You mean that’s an option?

Steven:
Oh please. I filmed you sleep.

Jill:
Oh my god, I wish. That’s hilarious.

Steven:
So for us, we’re in the cab people.

Jill:
That’s funny.

Steven:
We’re not towers. And then there’s ultimately the money. So if you tow something it’s way cheaper to tow it, a trailer, fifth wheel.

Jill:
Cool? Happy you could join us today. Five days a week. You can find us here on the Land Academy Show.

Steven:
[inaudible 00:18:32] the episode of the Land Academy Show is called How Much Energy have you actually put into your W2 jobs? Jill and I were in a Wendy’s of all places, watching some people put the people who worked there. I was really impressed to put some serious amount of energy and time into try to fix a soda machine. And-

Jill:
It was funny.

Steven:
We’re both looking at each other saying, they’re kids, if these people did this in their land deals…

Jill:
What would it be like?

Steven:
Smashing.

Jill:
Exactly. Hey, by the way, thank you for tuning in. Where am I going here? We’re talking about 3.0. I’m like, what’s our little after show thing here? 3.0, check it out. It’s the latest and greatest updated version of our education for 2022. This comes up often. People are like, okay Landi cam, you’ve been around from 2015. Is it the 2015 program? Oh my gosh. Heck no. We’ve updated, this is the fourth one. And we keep updating. So I don’t know if there’s going to be a 2023 because 2022 is so fresh. But there’ll definitely be a 2024 because things change. And that’s who we are. We make sure the changes we make in our business every day, you have at your fingertips just because you’re a member. We are Jack and Jill.

Steven:
Information…

Jill:
And inspiration

Steven:
To buy undervalued property. Out.

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