The Value of Selling Land with Home Made Signs and Neighbor Letters (LA 1874)

Transcript:

Steven Jack Butala:
Steve and Jill here.

Jill DeWit:
Hi.

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 Ozark Mountains.

Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah.

Jill DeWit:
We are technically in the Ozarks here in Eureka Springs.

Steven Jack Butala:
Today Jill and I talk about the value of selling land with homemade signs, the kind you put in your yard, and neighbor letters.
Before we get into it, let’s take a question posted by one of our members on the online community, landinvestors.com, it’s free. And I hope we have a full blown commercial printing company that Jill and I own exclusively called Offers2Owners, the number two, owners.com. All we do is send out blind offers for people who are buying real estate. Whether you remember or not, go to offers2owners.com and check it all out. We process between six or 700,000 units a month, maybe 1.2 million a month. It works.

Jill DeWit:
By the way, it also has other products there. If you need help with getting the data, downloading the data, scrubbing the data, all of that, there’s full service options there too that we can really help you out with.

Steven Jack Butala:
Exactly.

Jill DeWit:
So back to the question Thomas wrote. So I know Jack and Jill say not to use your home address, because those change, I’ve been to the [inaudible 00:01:24] for 28 years and I don’t have any plans to move. Is there any reason I can’t use it? I got one.

Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah. You choose life.

Jill DeWit:
Yeah. Do you really want to have all these offers going out there and have everyone know where you live, look up what your house is worth, that thing? I don’t think that’s the right-

Steven Jack Butala:
So yesterday I said there’s a theme to this week’s questions and the theme is-

Jill DeWit:
Do these questions.

Steven Jack Butala:
Please go through the Land Academy 3.0. Jill and I did not slap this program together and say, “Yeah, I don’t know, should you use your home address or should you go get a mailbox type address? I’m going to choose a letter.” That’s not what…

Jill DeWit:
We’re thinking of you.

Steven Jack Butala:
Years, I spent years using my home address and it’s all bad. And then I realized I should get or use a box that I’ve had for it during the same time instead and it made my life a lot more sane. So while we don’t explain all the reasons why we ask you to do stuff in these education programs, just please trust us because we know what we’re doing.

Jill DeWit:
And I get it. You know what’s funny, Thomas? Because we all know Warren Buffett still lives in the same house he lived in back in the fill in the blank day.

Steven Jack Butala:
Does he though?

Jill DeWit:
Good question. My understanding is he does. Well this is true.

Steven Jack Butala:
Can you imagine if he went home there every day?

Jill DeWit:
Rumor has it, here’s what I’d like, rumor has it his assistant every morning or every night at whatever, makes sure he has his $2.89. You know the story, right?

Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah. I just think this is all marketing.

Jill DeWit:
For the McDonald’s drive through that he gets?

Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah.

Jill DeWit:
Oh, you don’t buy it.

Steven Jack Butala:
First of all, a guy that age eating meal at McDonald’s is bad. It’s a bad idea.

Jill DeWit:
Well there is that. That’s true. So yeah, does he though?

Steven Jack Butala:
And a multi billionaire like that should have a few bucks in his pocket.

Jill DeWit:
And a few houses.

Steven Jack Butala:
So no, I’m sorry I don’t buy it for one second. I think the publicity and the media.

Jill DeWit:
That’s funny.

Steven Jack Butala:
Just the media. What if the other guy? Then more-

Jill DeWit:
You’re a little pessimistic today. You’re a little pissy today.

Steven Jack Butala:
I just don’t… I’m not pissy. I just know that if people know where you are, we have a tiny, silly little cult-like show called Land Academy with very… In the scheme of things, it’s-

Jill DeWit:
20 people.

Steven Jack Butala:
It’s microscopic and believe me, we run into people and I don’t think it’s that much of an accident. So I can’t imagine somebody with that notoriety saying, “Oh yeah, here’s my address and…”

Jill DeWit:
Come on by.

Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah, at 6:30.

Jill DeWit:
Well Mary Kay used to have people come to her house.

Steven Jack Butala:
6:30, I get my 2.89 and I go to the McDonald’s number 37654 and I’ll see ya. I just don’t think that happens.

Jill DeWit:
All right, well I drank that Kool-Aid. So let me save this here though. No, and it’s just, you know what, Thomas though, the big pitch, back to the question, just in case you tick somebody off, what if you don’t mean to tick somebody off? Or maybe they want to just scope you out? I don’t know. You’re making a lot of money. It’s just to protect yourself. Just have a… And who knows? Yeah, you’ve lived there for 28 years, you bought it when you were 21, let’s just say.

Steven Jack Butala:
Or inherited it.

Jill DeWit:
Right?

Steven Jack Butala:
Congratulations by the way, that’s great.

Jill DeWit:
Things do change. Hey, what if you start making a lot of money and you do want to move? And now you got to do… You have no options. You are locking yourself into that address because if you want to move, you want to take some time, even if you take some, what if you start traveling, by the way? You’re going to have somebody to have to go get your mail, package it up and send it to you. But if you have a regular post office box, they can easily take care of it, open it, scan it for you, forward it wherever you want to be. Just makes your life so much easier too. Thank you.

Steven Jack Butala:
Boy, I agree with Jill.

Jill DeWit:
Thank you.

Steven Jack Butala:
Today’s topics, the value of selling land with homemade signs and neighbor letters. This is why you’re listening.

Jill DeWit:
So it’s funny, we have done this, the last time I did this, well, we’ve done it many times. I don’t know about the last time, but one that sticks out the most to me was with a house one. We were flipping a house, the House Academy away, which is put a sign on the ground that says investor special, not with a price on it because I’m going to change the price by the way, and I want them to inquire about the price. Just investor special, like Home Depot nailed to a piece of wood and stuck in the ground and then with a phone number. And watch what happens. And then the day we had to open house for it, I tied balloons to the sign and that got attraction too. So it was wonderful. I know you have a lot to say, you want to jump in?

Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah. I really think that this should be part of your regular scenario. I also think that in the back of your head, you’re going to buy better property. If you think about, well, how many cars drive by this piece of property every day?

Jill DeWit:
That’s good.

Steven Jack Butala:
Or every week? And if your answer is, “Well, 12 cars go by there every year.” I’m not so sure you should be buying the property anyway.

Jill DeWit:
That’s good.

Steven Jack Butala:
You should be looking at… And then maybe some properties we look at, especially during Thursday call when we do with our members, do the would you do the steal call. A lot of property it’s on a corner. And so it’s got traffic from coming from both directions or it’s near or adjacent to a church. So every Sunday there’s tons of traffic or it’s on a way out of a subdivision to a Walmart or on and on. So traffic patterns and car numbers, traffic numbers.

Jill DeWit:
Speed cameras or… That’s the traffic count.

Steven Jack Butala:
Traffic count numbers are very easy to find on the internet.

Jill DeWit:
Said speed trap.

Steven Jack Butala:
And if you’ve got 500, 600, sometimes it’s an hour, you had 500 cars a day down a county road taking a look at that sign with a phone number on it and wondering, and they live close by, you’re going to sell that property pretty fast. Especially if they also got a letter in the mail. It says, “Hey neighbor, I’ve just bought this piece of property. I’m in the business of buying and selling. I’m not going to let the whole market know about it for at least another month. So if you want first dibs at it, then my price is this. Give me a call.” You’re going to sell some property. I think you should roll it into how you buy real estate and then make it mechanical about, it’s a process that you do that before you list it while you’re listing it with the MLS, with a real estate agent.

Jill DeWit:
No, it just made me think about this. I have not yet had those conversations, but I should. I believe a lot of the people that I list properties with don’t go out and put signs in the ground. And I’m thinking I need to roll that into my conversation like, “Hey, when you go take a look at it, why don’t you put a stick in the ground with your phone number on it?”

Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah.

Jill DeWit:
I bet they’re not even thinking of that.

Steven Jack Butala:
I know they’re not.

Jill DeWit:
Mm-mm (negative). They just think, “Let’s get some pictures, let’s write something up and put it on the MLS and I’m going to sit back and wait for my phone to ring.” It’s not my property.

Steven Jack Butala:
She’s talking about real estate agents, they innately-

Jill DeWit:
That’s what they do.

Steven Jack Butala:
Especially a time like this because we’re coming off of, and I think probably by now, full blown have come off of a whole real estate cycle. And so they’re mentally still in a mode where well, I’m going to list it on the MLS if it’s rationally priced, it’s going to sell the same day or the same week or the same month and we’re just not in that situation anymore. I read a statistic and we can end it on this unless you have something else to say?

Jill DeWit:
No.

Steven Jack Butala:
I read a statistic a while ago, and I believe it that 50% of the real estate that sold in the country-

Jill DeWit:
I know that one.

Steven Jack Butala:
Is sold to people who live or work within a mile away of that property. And so you want to reach those people and it’s crazy inexpensive to do it. How much is a sign at Home Depot? Nothing. And you’ve got somebody going out there to take pictures anyway or drone shots. They can pop couple signs in really easily.

Jill DeWit:
That’s how you do it.

Steven Jack Butala:
And then, neighbor letters, let’s say, I don’t know, let’s say on a stretch, there’s two-

Jill DeWit:
You spend 100 bucks. Big-

Steven Jack Butala:
500, maybe two or 300 people that live within a mile. Yeah, it’s going to spend 100 to $150 just for a whole mailer.

Jill DeWit:
For a couple 100 bucks. For under $500, here’s your whole marketing budget. Follow me here. For under $500, I could probably get healthy amount of neighbor letters out, a photographer out there, taking drone shots, and putting a sign in the ground.

Steven Jack Butala:
Yep.

Jill DeWit:
How’s that for your marketing budget per property? And it could be a, “I’m hoping this is a buy for 30. Sell for 70.”

Steven Jack Butala:
Hey, by the way, I’m unaware of any ethical reason why you would not do this or legal reason why you would not do it while it’s under contract, when you’re buying it.

Jill DeWit:
Well just make sure the seller knows.

Steven Jack Butala:
Or the day that you close and you own it and it’s recorded then it’s all happy.

Jill DeWit:
All you have to do is have a conversation with the seller. I would have no trouble with that. “Hey seller, Escrow’s going to close on Tuesday. Today is Friday. This weekend I’m going to have a photographer out in the area. Just so you know, I don’t want any surprises, and to scare you, I’m going to have them put a sign in the ground with my phone number on it.” “Oh yeah, knock yourself out.”

Steven Jack Butala:
They don’t live there anyway, so they don’t care.

Jill DeWit:
And they’re the only one that would complain. So you just covered yourself, so you are good. Happy you could join us today. Five days a week, you can find us here on the Land Academy Show.

Steven Jack Butala:
So now the episode of the Land Academy show is called How to Make a Million Bucks a Year. That’s the career path, number five, this is the fifth career path. That’s their number one request.

Jill DeWit:
Why did you change the title on my show?

Steven Jack Butala:
What was the title?

Jill DeWit:
Oh man, my show title was going to be What is the Number One Request for Career Path Number Five? Then everybody’s going to want to listen.

Steven Jack Butala:
Oh, and that’s it?

Jill DeWit:
Yeah, that’s okay. I’ll help you. But you know what? How about this? There are actually two topics. I’m going to say this right now. There really were two things that everybody wanted to know. One of them is the million dollars a year. There’s one more that everybody wanted to talk about and that I will say for tomorrow.

Steven Jack Butala:
Aha, perfect!

Jill DeWit:
Thank you.

Steven Jack Butala:
You’re not alone in your real estate ambition.

Jill DeWit:
That’s funny. It’s all good. Hey, thanks for tuning in. By the way, Jack and I are very aware that not everyone has 100 grand or give or take, lying around to fund your own deals. So don’t worry about it. Every week we and many of our members are funding deals for other people. So if you want to find out more, go check out land, is it Land Fund? There we go, Land Funding. landfunding.com or send a note to support at landacademy.com for some more information and my team will make sure you get to the right place.
We are Jack and Jill.

Steven Jack Butala:
We are Jack and Jill. Information

Jill DeWit:
Or an inspiration.

Steven Jack Butala:
To buy undervalued property.

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