Transcript:

Steven Jack Butala:
Steve and Jill here.

Jill K DeWit:
Jack and Jill here.

Steven Jack Butala:
Jack and Jill. Sorry. How could you not know your own name?

Jill K DeWit:
That’s okay. I’m here to help you. Don’t worry. That’s why you have me.

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

Jill K DeWit:
I’m Jill DeWit, broadcasting from Tarrant County. Tarrant County, Texas, for those of you who know where that is.

Steven Jack Butala:
Today, Jill and I talk … Well, it’s still Friday, and she’s going to talk about what makes the perfect land deal. Is it buy for 40, sell for 80? Buy for 50, sell for 200? Is it buy for 5,000, sell for 20? Is faster better with less money, or slower better? I want to know.

Jill K DeWit:
This is like asking me what’s the perfect man.

Steven Jack Butala:
I know.

Jill K DeWit:
Or the perfect date.

Steven Jack Butala:
We could turn it into that.

Jill K DeWit:
Or the perfect dinner, or the perfect jewelry.

Steven Jack Butala:
Or the perfect episode of The Bachelor.

Jill K DeWit:
Oh, there we go. The perfect ending. There we 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 I’ll have to … I got to tell you, Jill and I released a few years ago a company called ParcelFact, F-A-C-T.com. It allows you to find real estate within seconds, any property really in the country, with the very few exceptions, by just using the state, the county, and the APN. There’s no mailing address because that’s the kind of property that we buy.

Jill K DeWit:
It’s what I use for all my due diligence.

Steven Jack Butala:
ParcelFact.com. Check it out.

Jill K DeWit:
Oh Jemay. Jemay wrote, “I have a question regarding the deal funding process. When an investor funds a deal, what protections do they have so they don’t lose their money? I’m assuming they’re on title. Thanks.” Yeah, that’s what I do.
So if I go 50/50 with somebody, we’re both on the title, if I’m … But usually it’s me. I’m putting up all the money funding the deal for other people, and so my name’s on the title, and that is my protection. It’s all in my name.
I do look at them too, by the way. I make sure, as best I can, when you submit it to me and say, “Hey Jill, we got to buy this. It’s $30,000. I think I can sell it for 60, maybe 90.” I’m going to look at it and I’m going to make sure it passes my test too, because I’m going to make sure neither one of us make a mistake. I’m another pair of eyes for you.
Then when we do the deal, we have … It’s a simple little two-page agreement that you can find on landfunding.com or on other parts. I know you’re in Land Academy, that you can get access to that little contract to check it out and you do the work.
I’m your bank, I wire the money in. I’m here to tweak and help you with little questions along the way. But then you’re running it, you’re the manager of the deal. And then when it closes, we each get paid out of Escrow, whatever we agree upon going into it.

Steven Jack Butala:
I like to describe it like this, when you buy a house, you go get a mortgage. You find a bank that’ll lend money to you. You put 20% down on a $100,000 house. You put $20,000 in. The bank lends you 80,000. And then you make payments until it’s over. That’s lending. If something goes wrong, the bank’s got a lien on the house, and they foreclose on it and they take the real estate back.
With deal funding or land funding, we give you all the money. We’re the investor. The property … We take all the steps out of that. We own the property, so does the bank really in the lending case, they just call it a lien. And then if something goes wrong, we own the property and we go decide what we’re going to do with it at that point.
So, it’s really a no-lose situation because we as investors don’t ask you for any money down. You find the deal, we fund it. If it doesn’t work out, then we take the property and do what we’re going to do with it, which doesn’t happen very often because we don’t make bad decisions.
Today’s topic, it’s Jill Friday, What makes the perfect land deal? This is the meat of the show.

Jill K DeWit:
My perfect land deal is six foot two, brunette, sparkling blue eyes. Oh, I’m sorry. Wrong. Okay.

Steven Jack Butala:
Wow. I have none of those things.

Jill K DeWit:
You never said true. Come on. I’m not perfect too. It’s all good. This is the perfect-

Steven Jack Butala:
What I lack in aesthetics, I make up for in …

Jill K DeWit:
Bank balance.

Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah. Or I was going to say entertainment.

Jill K DeWit:
That too. That too. So, okay, the perfect land deal for me. I love this. The perfect land deal is … I’m going to dream it up here. I’m going to dream it up and then you’re going to ask me questions, and we’ll get serious. 10 acres, rolling hills, half forest, half grass. There’s a barn left over.

Steven Jack Butala:
Oh Jill, this is good.

Jill K DeWit:
You like this?

Steven Jack Butala:
She hasn’t talked about money yet at all.

Jill K DeWit:
No.

Steven Jack Butala:
I would’ve started with money.

Jill K DeWit:
I’ll get to that. Oh yeah, I’ll get to that in a minute. It’s 10 acres. It’s in the middle of the country. It’s 10 acres in … I’m going to say outside of … I’m going to say … I like Arkansas lately. I’m going to go with northern Arkansas. It’s 10. It’s rolling hills. It’s got an old barn on it. It’s beautiful. There’s lots of lakes around there.
It’s not on a lake, but there’s a lake nearby. You can get to the lake. I have access, I have legal physical access, but it’s a dirt road. It’s not right on the main highway.

Steven Jack Butala:
This episode’s way better than I thought it would be.

Jill K DeWit:
Okay. Thank you.

Steven Jack Butala:
Painting a nice picture.

Jill K DeWit:
Yeah. And the husband passed on. Sweet little old lady. He put it in her name. Well actually it was JTWROS, so we don’t have to talk about it. He thought that through ahead of time. And she’s been happily paying taxes on it for the last 20 years since he passed on because her heart was in it too. And she’s got our letter and she’s ready to sell it. And we just offered $32,000 for it and it’s worth 90. And she’s like, “I like you Jill. Let’s do this.” That’s my perfect land deal. I buy it.
We are now pen pals and the lady and I are pen pals now because we hit it off that well. And she wants to know how it’s going to end. She hopes it goes to another great family. So I have a great local agent in the area. I’m not doing any of the work. My attorney, my Arkansas attorney closed the deal for us by the way. And he knows the sweet little old lady, so that was even easier.
This is my perfect … You asked for my perfect land deal. I’m telling you this is my ideal land deal. He’s actually the one that did the probate for her when her husband passed. Anyway, so we’re all on the same page here and everybody wants everybody to win here. So she gets her money, she’s very happy. I’m turning around marketing it. I have a great agent in the area and it takes about 29 days and I got a great offer. And it’s all cash.
They’ve already done their due diligence. They’re ready to go. And they love that falling down barn and they’re going to keep it, and they’re going to put something next to it. I don’t know what they’re going to do.

Steven Jack Butala:
Condos.

Jill K DeWit:
No, I was actually … Actually, they’re excited because they can roll their tiny house up to that, or their RV, and live there for a little bit. They haven’t decided. Anyway, the attorney closes it and I end up selling it for 79,000. What do you want to know?

Steven Jack Butala:
That’s a mic-drop answer to what’s the perfect land deal.

Jill K DeWit:
Great.

Steven Jack Butala:
Because here’s how I would answered it. Buy for 60, sell for 120. 45-day gestation period. 45-day period cash in, cash out.

Jill K DeWit:
Cash in, cash out? Okay.

Steven Jack Butala:
That’s a whole answer. Here I have no … I don’t care one bit about the story or the people involved.

Jill K DeWit:
Well that’s the difference. You asked me.

Steven Jack Butala:
No six foot two, blonde-eyed blonde, none of that.

Jill K DeWit:
Wait, you didn’t find an old Corvette on it under …

Steven Jack Butala:
No.

Jill K DeWit:
In the barn. Oh, I should have said that, in the barn under a tarp.

Steven Jack Butala:
All that ends up being as a distraction. I went down the road with old cars on land too many times and none of it ever worked out.

Jill K DeWit:
Never worked out. I know. Very disappointing. Yeah.

Steven Jack Butala:
That’s a great answer, Jill.

Jill K DeWit:
Thank you.

Steven Jack Butala:
But what about in the real world without the soap opera version, do you want to buy for 30, sell for 60 or 70 four times a month?

Jill K DeWit:
All right. In the real world?

Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah.

Jill K DeWit:
Okay. Here’s real world. Real world is offer comes back, I look at it and go, “Holy cow.” And everybody’s on the same page and nobody sees it, there’s nothing on it. I don’t even care. I can tell. I can tell What’s going on in the area. I can see things moving. My due diligence is easy.
I’ve got three brokers that all are on the same page about what it’s worth. I pick the guy that I like because we connect, and he follows through and he texts me a week later saying, “I got it.” You know what I love too, it’s a perfect land deal. It’s the right broker that says, “I think we can get 80 for it. Let’s list it for 86.” And then he gets an offer in a week for 79 because he’s that good.

Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah. I like that too.

Jill K DeWit:
I know. And I have guys like that.

Steven Jack Butala:
So helpful.

Jill K DeWit:
And I love that.

Steven Jack Butala:
Let’s keep moving. Then you just go buy property from the guy all day.

Jill K DeWit:
Yeah, and that’s it. And then yeah, this is the perfect land deal because I’m going to get 10 more after this because now the guy … We’re all on the same page. So my broker’s saying, “How many more of those you got? And by the way, if you get them a little bit closer to this part of the county, I can sell them even more and faster.”

Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah. That’s what I like.

Jill K DeWit:
I’m like, “Dawn, give me five minutes, I’m going to find some more.”

Steven Jack Butala:
“Now we’re on the same page.”

Jill K DeWit:
That’s a perfect land deal.

Steven Jack Butala:
No drama. Makes really, really, really helpful in most land deals to have no drama.

Jill K DeWit:
You brought that up on clubhouse last week.

Steven Jack Butala:
Most house deals, all house deals are very dramatic.

Jill K DeWit:
Houses often have drama, whether it’s the paint color, or the condition of the house, or what you might find, or financing, or not selling. I don’t know. There’s just fill in the blank. There’s so many things that can go wrong. You’re setting yourself up a little bit.

Steven Jack Butala:
Means.

Jill K DeWit:
Yeah.

Steven Jack Butala:
I raised my kids there. All kinds of stuff.

Jill K DeWit:
Yeah. Not land. Land is … That’s why I love it. You know what, I didn’t know. I knew growing up in Orange County, California, the value of real estate clearly. And watched my dad do deals and my dad’s friends and my dad was a charter pilot and the people he flew for like Don Cole and stuff. I knew what was going on. And so I always had it. It was in my soul, kind of thing. But I didn’t know I was really a land person until I met you.

Steven Jack Butala:
I’m sorry.

Jill K DeWit:
I love … No, it’s good. No, I really do love land. I love driving around. I love. It doesn’t have to be … I don’t care. It’s pretty. Look at the pretty trees in the view in the water. Pick up your folding chair and sit down and crack a beer and enjoy it, and start a fire and enjoy your land.

Steven Jack Butala:
That’s what we do.

Jill K DeWit:
I know.

Steven Jack Butala:
I love it. I also love that.

Jill K DeWit:
That’s what I’m saying. I don’t need the dreamy cabin.

Steven Jack Butala:
At all.

Jill K DeWit:
I don’t need that. I don’t need the all-white, new French country kitchen kind of thing. I don’t want that. I love land. So happy you could 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’re not alone in your real estate ambition.

Jill K DeWit:
I hear you. I

Steven Jack Butala:
I heard all-white, French country kitchen.

Jill K DeWit:
Right?

Steven Jack Butala:
And I was just about to end the episode. But I didn’t have to, you did it.

Jill K DeWit:
On that note … Exactly. All right. We are Jack and Jill.

Steven Jack Butala:
We are Jack and Jill. Information.

Jill K DeWit:
And inspiration.

Steven Jack Butala:
To buy undervalued property.