Transcript:

Steven Jack Butala:
Rolling video. Three, two…
Jack 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 DeWit, broadcasting from awesome, awesome Texas. I love it here.

Steven Jack Butala:
Today’s Jack Thursday, and I’m going to talk about the phrase, “To what end?” Before we get into it, let’s take a question posted by one of our members, landinvestors.com, online community. It’s free. Please don’t forget to subscribe on the Land Academy YouTube channel, and comment on the shows you like.

Jill K DeWit:
I’m not laughing at you, I’m laughing with you.

Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah, we all know that’s not true. Okay. And to what end?

Jill K DeWit:
Okay. Yeah, I was laughing at you. So, truth time. Okay. Anyway, Eric wrote, “While trolling my areas in Zillow, I came across a for sale by owner asking $34,500 for 2.57 acres, with some nice road frontage, in a very rural county in South Carolina. It’s been sitting for 64 plus days, so I know that it’s overpriced. Sold comps in that zip code have gone for 13 to $14,000 an acre, so I offered him 40% of what he’s asking. So, 13,800 bucks. If he doesn’t curse me out, does this look like a good deal to you? Ever have any luck with for sale by owners that have been listed for a while?” I don’t like these.

Steven Jack Butala:
So, I can wrap this up quickly.

Jill K DeWit:
Please do.

Steven Jack Butala:
I really hope that he doesn’t accept your offer.

Jill K DeWit:
Right.

Steven Jack Butala:
Because I don’t want you to think that this is possible all the time. I don’t want you to pull the handle on a slot machine and win the first time and then spend the rest of your life trying, chasing something that probably shouldn’t have never happened.
What I want you to do is form great habits that you can habitually and consistently regenerate, that are recurring for you and get independently wealthy quickly. No one’s going to get independently wealthy by offering property that’s already been posted for sale, whether it’s for sale by owner or with real estate agents.

Jill K DeWit:
I agree.

Steven Jack Butala:
Unless you can magically send out 5,000 offers through real estate agents simultaneously, the way that we do with the mail. And even then, I don’t think that that’s going to work because it’s just a whole different situation.

Jill K DeWit:
Somebody got there first. There’s two things with the Asian thing. Somebody got there first, number one. Number two, it’s just a bad feeling for me. If it’s been out there for that many days and that many people looked it over, I would assume that somebody might have already picked up the phone and said, “I like your property. What’s the lowest you take?” And he passed on it.

Steven Jack Butala:
And so, what are you going to do if you get it for 13,000? Re-list it for the same number? And it still didn’t sell.

Jill K DeWit:
And now it’s going to look really weird.

Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah.

Jill K DeWit:
So, think about this too. So, it’s listed for sale. We all see listed, posted, de-listed, pulled down, and then when you repost it on Zillow, now it’s going to see it didn’t sell. And now your price, what are you going to do? Put it at 58,000? They’re going to go, “I think there’s a problem here.”
And by the way, what if it’s all… What if it gets updated on there showing that you bought it for 13,000?

Steven Jack Butala:
I think it will.

Jill K DeWit:
It shows, listed at 64. It didn’t sell. Sold $13,800. Re-list for 55. Okay, I’m not going to jump on that. I like the way we do it. No one sees anything until it’s-

Steven Jack Butala:
We used to say this a lot, and we haven’t said it a lot in a very long time. Get there first.

Jill K DeWit:
Yep.

Steven Jack Butala:
You need to get to a real estate transaction first. This person already… They’re already in a seller’s mindset. They already have done some thinking about the number that’s for sale. They decided they want to sell it. The only thing worse than this is having a real estate agent list it for sale. So, that said, maybe it does… Go ahead, Jill.

Jill K DeWit:
This is also chasing something. You’re one by one. This is exactly the opposite of Land Academy. We’re like, I could do this. I could one by one by one, call everybody. People do that. They have a whole business cold calling people. Do you want to sell? Do you want to sell? Usually it’s houses. Right? And then they see if there’s something there and they work them until there’s something. I’m not doing that. I’m just not going to work that hard.

Steven Jack Butala:
This is a-

Jill K DeWit:
I’m going to send them all offers-

Steven Jack Butala:
… A career corporate salesperson-

Jill K DeWit:
True.

Steven Jack Butala:
… telling you that, don’t chase anything.

Jill K DeWit:
Yeah.

Steven Jack Butala:
Not some weirdo accountant. A career, lifelong, successful career corporate salesperson.

Jill K DeWit:
Put the word out there like we do. Whoever’s interested, let them come back to you. Then you see what’s going on there.

Steven Jack Butala:
Today’s topic, it’s Jack Thursday, and I talk about the phrase, “To what end?” I think to Jill’s dismay, this is why you’re listening.

Jill K DeWit:
This is going to be my new catch phrase now. Every-

Steven Jack Butala:
All kidding aside, I think that one of the things that can crush your mentality and your mindset, and ultimately your success is getting into a mechanical… I’ve done it myself in life, early on in a job where you just get into this mechanical aura of getting a paycheck, paying your rent or your mortgage, spending useless time with people that don’t matter. And without… And all this is because I never asked myself, “Well, to what end is this?” Right? I have this job. To what end? I’m in this relationship. To what end? And I’m buying this piece of property. But to what end? And so, a lot of this fits in… I realized this, I don’t know what I was listening to or read that prompted this phrase, but Jill and I, separately and together, automatically see what’s going to happen or make decisions based on how it’s all going to end.
We don’t do it to make that decision and just become part of a machine. So, to what end are you actually doing this land acquisition? For all we know, I’m going to buy this for 30 and sell it for 60. If it all goes south, maybe I’ll sell it for 45, get out of it, take the money and go do it again. We all know to what end that’s going to happen. Is there a bigger to what end? Yeah. I’m trying to make a million bucks this year. And I’m going to break that down. To what end? I’m going to break it down. Each month I need to do two and a half deals. It needs to generate a hundred thousand dollars net. I’ve got a funder over here. I picked out… I’ve got my using concierge for my data. And see where all this is going? You’re already answering, “To what end?”

Jill K DeWit:
What about the bigger picture?

Steven Jack Butala:
That’s what I mean.

Jill K DeWit:
Oh wait, wait. Well, let me back up here.

Steven Jack Butala:
That’s exactly what I mean. I think if you ask yourself-

Jill K DeWit:
To what end-

Steven Jack Butala:
Every time you make a decision-

Jill K DeWit:
… is your bank balance…

Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah.

Jill K DeWit:
That’s the only reason I would use this phrase. Where is the bitter end? Not this year, not the five year, not the 10 year.

Steven Jack Butala:
Let’s Play a little game.

Jill K DeWit:
Oh, uh oh.

Steven Jack Butala:
Hey Jack, I’m going to put up the $800 Christmas tree. It’s probably more than $800, isn’t it?

Jill K DeWit:
We’re going to go with 800.

Steven Jack Butala:
I’m going to put up this $800 Christmas tree on Thursday, the… I’m going to put it up at the-

Jill K DeWit:
December 1st.

Steven Jack Butala:
… end of July.

Jill K DeWit:
Oh.

Steven Jack Butala:
Jill, to what end?

Jill K DeWit:
What does that mean?

Steven Jack Butala:
Why are you putting up a Christmas tree?

Jill K DeWit:
Oh.

Steven Jack Butala:
I know the answer, because it makes you feel good.

Jill K DeWit:
Okay.

Steven Jack Butala:
And you feel… You like the season and you like the friends coming over. And we have a-

Jill K DeWit:
Not in July.

Steven Jack Butala:
… big Christmas party. I know. I’m just kidding about that.

Jill K DeWit:
Okay.

Steven Jack Butala:
Whatever it ends up being, in October, November. So, there is an end. You won or you’re winning. It’s a great… You’re like, “It’s pretty.” You want to show our friends, maybe we’re going to have a Christmas party and to… That’s a justifiable, “To what end?” It makes you feel good. So, it’s not just about money.

Jill K DeWit:
Okay.

Steven Jack Butala:
But to what end do I have this stupid job? Well, I’m going to pay the mortgage. Well, do you need a mortgage? Do you even want to live with the person that you’re living with. When you can’t really directly answer this question, “To what end?” – specifically to yourself that’s not good. You’re heading into a place that you shouldn’t be heading.

Jill K DeWit:
Isn’t that funny? You and I instantly, you can ask me at any moment. I’m like, “Oh, I’ll tell you exactly how I was going to go, and exactly what I want, and exactly what I am going to calling it.”

Steven Jack Butala:
That was very much what I hoped, what you would get out of this. Because it’s… You think it’s silly, but it’s not.

Jill K DeWit:
No, no, I don’t. I just think of it as… I automatically push it as a big concept. I personally don’t look at the little things like that. I only look at the big things, and the little things add up to that, to the big thing.

Steven Jack Butala:
You know what, it’s late. It’s late in the year. I’m running multiple scenarios for taxes, and making decisions for the next few months, based on what I’m going to ethically and of course legally, goes without saying, manage our tax situation to minimize our tax liability. To what end? To minimize my tax liability. It’s not because I’m doing it. It’s not fun. But there is a direct result for that. So, I think I’ve made my point.

Jill K DeWit:
No, no, I agree. I think you did. I had an another-

Steven Jack Butala:
Why did you buy the sports car you just bought? Because it’s a blast, and it was an amazing price and value for what you got. And I truly believe, and this is why I think you bought it, but maybe it’s a different answer for you, there’s an extremely good chance you’re going to sell it for a lot more than you bought it.

Jill K DeWit:
You know Why I bought it?

Steven Jack Butala:
Because it’s pretty and fast.

Jill K DeWit:
That’s perfectly yes. Because I had one… You know what it was? It was just to agree with your phrase, “To what end?” I told you I had one more in me. I’m like, I think there’s an age limit where you look kind of dumb, rolling, rolling around.

Steven Jack Butala:
I don’t even think about how I look at a car.

Jill K DeWit:
I do. Seriously. I had one more in me and I’m not ready for that car, the old lady car. If I’m going to do it, I need to do it now.

Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah, I understand that.

Jill K DeWit:
And I do love it. I’m like, “I got one more in me.” And it stopped it. So, that was for me, “To what end?” I knew it. And then I found it. I bought it. It’s in the garage. I love it. And that’s it. I don’t need to talk about it anymore. I admire the people’s fast cars. I think it’s great. I don’t want another one. I’m good. So, happy to join us today. Five days a week. You can find us here on the Land Academy show.

Steven Jack Butala:
Tomorrow’s Jill Friday. She’s going to talk about, “What makes the perfect land deal?” You are not alone in your real estate ambition. See, the topic wasn’t that silly.

Jill K DeWit:
No, no, no, no. You know, it was kind of interesting as I was going to share a little personal nugget about us. I thought that with our investing in Land Academy, that was it. I really thought going into this-

Steven Jack Butala:
Well, that was before we knew each other.

Jill K DeWit:
No, no. Well no, no. I mean, going into this trip, let’s just say.

Steven Jack Butala:
Oh.

Jill K DeWit:
On the road. I was thinking about… Well, just in life even. I real- Well, no. Yeah. Get to know your… Yeah, no, that’s true. I’m eating my words right now.

Steven Jack Butala:
It’s endless.

Jill K DeWit:
Yeah, it is endless. So, as I say this, here I am eating… I’m eating my words and I’m going to make a statement that’s going to make me eat my words three years from now.

Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah.

Jill K DeWit:
Because we have a really good thing that we’re starting to work on right now.

Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah.

Jill K DeWit:
I’m so flipping excited and I cannot share anything with you yet. I apologize. But trust me, when we do, you’re going to be blown away with what we come up with here.

Steven Jack Butala:
A new way to sell land.

Jill K DeWit:
And it’s not going to change anything that you’re doing right now today. It’s going to add to it.

Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah.

Jill K DeWit:
So, don’t worry about what you got going on. This is going to make it great. But my thing is, I thought, “Okay, that’s it. That’s going to be the end. We’re going to end on that and that’s going to be making our mark. It’s better than a book. It’s better than any of this stuff.” But no, I don’t know. No, he just reminded me. I’m just going to do something again later. So, we’re all good with that. So, 3, 2, 1, We are Jack and Jill.

Steven Jack Butala:
Information-

Jill K DeWit:
And inspiration-

Steven Jack Butala:
To buy undervalued property.
Out.