Transcript:

Stephen Jack Butala:
Jack and Jill here.

Jill DeWit:
Hello.

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

Jill DeWit:
And I’m Jill DeWit, broadcasting from the Valley of the Sun.

Stephen Jack Butala:
Today Jill and I, well, it’s Jill Friday, and she’s going to talk about how to make it as a female land investor. It’s an interesting topic choice, Jill.

Jill DeWit:
Why?

Stephen Jack Butala:
Because I really want to know this too. I want to know what the difference is between women, some of the challenges, the unique challenges. I think I speak for everybody. There are apparently unique challenges that women face to make it as an investor that I hope you just spell it out for us.

Jill DeWit:
I will.

Stephen 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. Back in the day, it was nearly impossible to find land anywhere on the internet without a mailing address. I mean, locate the actual parcel because you’re thinking about buying it. We solved this by collecting and regurgitating that 150 million unit database based on APN. So now-

Jill DeWit:
Regurgitating.

Stephen Jack Butala:
All you have to do is type in the state, county and… Jill makes fun of this because she didn’t actually, wasn’t involved in manipulating 150 million units of data.

Jill DeWit:
I did too. Just kidding. I did two of them. That’s what I mean. No, I’m just kidding.

Stephen Jack Butala:
We solved it. Go to parcelfact.com. It’s simple to use and tailor made for what we do.

Jill DeWit:
Thank you. All right. Dan wrote, Dan S. wrote, “Here’s a success story that’s a little different. I am celebrating the success I have finally had in establishing scheduled office hours for myself.” Good. This is hard for people. I get it. “I know I’ve been told over and over that keeping a schedule is crucial. This has been a challenge for me. We’ve been doing well enough the way I have been going. But by setting up two days a week of seven hours a day and then three days of two hours scheduled undeserved land time, it’s a little less chaotic. Thank you to my wife who was much better at organization for helping keep me on task.” That’s awesome.

Stephen Jack Butala:
Dan is a, this is Dan Smart, and he’s a long time now Land Academy member, Career Path alumni, and crazy successful and just a down to earth, really nice guy. So this was his Academy Award speech I think.

Jill DeWit:
Oh, that’s sweet. That’s really good. I love it.

Stephen Jack Butala:
All kidding aside, you have to have close the door time, don’t mess with dad time or mom, I guess in the case of this episode.

Jill DeWit:
And then even more, we’ve talked about it on another show you have to plan out, really plan out your week. So we have versions of that and then I have this is deed signing day and this day and that day. When you’re going to do your callbacks, have a set time for that. It just makes your life easier.

Stephen Jack Butala:
Closing day, research day, all of that.

Jill DeWit:
Due diligence time.

Stephen Jack Butala:
It’s not necessarily days but blocks of time.

Jill DeWit:
Maybe every day for an hour, it’s due diligence. Fill in the blank.

Stephen Jack Butala:
Took me forever to do that for myself. I went all through college and it was an absolute scheduling disaster. There was no schedule. It was just putting out a fire one minute to the next.

Jill DeWit:
Got it.

Stephen Jack Butala:
Today’s Jill Friday. She’s going to talk about how to make it as a female land investor. This is the meat of the show. But before she does, what makes female land investors different than male land investors?

Jill DeWit:
How we make decisions.

Stephen Jack Butala:
Oh, that was fast. Okay.

Jill DeWit:
Oh, I’ll tell you. Yeah, that’s just a no-brainer. So every man knows that. Come on. When we come to you and say, “This does not feel right in my gut.” You know we’re right. Or it does. You know what I mean?

Stephen Jack Butala:
I do know at this age, but 20 years ago I would’ve said, “Yeah-

Jill DeWit:
Took me a while to convince some [inaudible 00:04:01]-

Stephen Jack Butala:
“Something’s wrong with her.”

Jill DeWit:
It’s true. I have to say, “Doesn’t feel right.” So I want to start by saying, first of all, I’m proud… Can you think of any single couple or even in our space that has done more transactions than we have?

Stephen Jack Butala:
No.

Jill DeWit:
Okay. So had to get that out of the way first. That’s not possible. So we know that. And I know it’s funny, I found the old spreadsheet the other day because it was linked on our website, but we had to take it down because people would be like, “What happened on this deal? And we’re over here.” We had so much information out there.

Stephen Jack Butala:
We had 15,000 transactions with APNs and what we bought it and what we sold it for.

Jill DeWit:
Exactly. You can download it. It’s probably floating around out there because I’m sure people did. So we’re like, okay. It’s just like quit asking me about February of 2003 and that one transaction and why we didn’t exactly triple our money or whatever it was. I’m like, “Oh my god, I’m not going to answer these questions anymore.” So anyway, so we got that out of the way. So you know what that makes me? I’m the top female in my space. You think I’m kidding?

Stephen Jack Butala:
You’re the alpha female, Jill.

Jill DeWit:
Thank you.

Stephen Jack Butala:
Is that what this show’s about?

Jill DeWit:
Well, it’s leading-

Stephen Jack Butala:
Beating your chest a little.

Jill DeWit:
Well, just little bit, took me back. I took a, well, I just took a step back to go, “Nobody can say that they have as many transactions under their belt as I do, period. I don’t really… ” That’s it. That’s a no-brainer.

Stephen Jack Butala:
It’s just taking a funny turn here.

Jill DeWit:
I feel qualified to speak about this. This is my point. So there’s a couple of components about why female land investors should absolutely jump into this land space and can kill it and do kill it. Like my Land Academy ladies group, talk about rock stars and in 2023, I have some plans for you guys. It’s going to be really awesome. So the first thing is even just for every individual, not just women, getting into real estate is a very… Starting in land is a very smart place to get started in real estate. We’ve talked about it all the time on the show. If you listened to us before, you know that. It’s things I’m not having to think about. It’s buying the land and selling the land. I don’t have to go there. I don’t have inspections, I don’t have this, I don’t have that. I don’t have tenants, people I have got to move out. I don’t have to worry what mold might be under that floor, fill in the blank.
Land is a very, very smart place to start, number one. Number two, there’s a really low monetary barrier of entry in this. A lot of people can’t get into real estate, especially clubhouse. I hear people all the time like, “Oh, I need $180,000 to buy my first house and I’m going to rent it out with me and my buddy.” That’s great.

Stephen Jack Butala:
And can I play devil’s advocate here or just sit here? Either-

Jill DeWit:
Let me make my three points and then I’ll happily answer your questions. So that’s number two. And then number three, so that’s for any individual. But number three, this is women specific. It’s a fact, it’s a biological fact that we make better business decisions and acquisition decisions. We have it in our DNA. There’s things that we, let me just give you an example. We don’t have biological testosterone driving ego decisions. We just don’t. We might be more cautious. We are by nature more cautious and then I’m going to argue we make better decisions. When a woman comes to me with a deal funding deal, I look at it very differently than I do if a man comes to me with a deal. Isn’t that interesting? Because I know that by the time it got to me, she’s just done more and she’s looked at it differently and I don’t worry about it as much. So ask me some questions.

Stephen Jack Butala:
I don’t know how much that’s really that much different than how anybody does real estate deals. I think this is a strange path to go down because if the show is called Man Academy-

Jill DeWit:
Because come on, it’s still so many men in real estate. I’m trying to push women forward and women in business and say this is a great place to start because it is.

Stephen Jack Butala:
Okay.

Jill DeWit:
You don’t agree with that?

Stephen Jack Butala:
I completely agree. I don’t understand. I’ve never understood, ever, as a very young person, never understood why more women are not more assertive and more… Why don’t women embrace… This is one of the things I actually really like about you. We’re going to have to turn the comments off on the YouTube episode.

Jill DeWit:
Why? It’s going to be a lot.

Stephen Jack Butala:
The entire world is trying to do away with any gender difference at all.

Jill DeWit:
Well, I agree with that. So then yeah, so why do we somehow, I think we create our own barricades for some reason. I don’t know. Well, how about this? I know it’s better than it was. They used to say that’s a man’s world. We can’t get into it. That’s a man’s… That’s all different now, which I love. But there’s still reasons why we are getting together as women and having our own events and doing women in business and things like that. There’s, obviously… Well, I’m trying to, you know what? I’m trying to make that go away. And I agree with you. The more we promote ourselves and get out there and just do what we’re doing then I think we won’t have a need for that. But there’s, obviously, still a need for that.

Stephen Jack Butala:
That’s really what I’m wondering. That’s actually the root of my question. Why is there continually gender-based separation?

Jill DeWit:
There shouldn’t be.

Stephen Jack Butala:
I agree.

Jill DeWit:
That’s the point.

Stephen Jack Butala:
Why is there?

Jill DeWit:
So the point of the… You know what? It’s for the people who are… Because somebody’s, it’s mental. I think that there are people that still think that.

Stephen Jack Butala:
As evidenced by Jill and I sitting in these two chairs for, I don’t know, eight years now doing this show, I truly believe, I know this for sure. I have empirical evidence that you and I are better together than we would be separately. And that I’ve had multiple male business partners before you at separate points in my life and all of those partnerships got dissolved for a bunch of reasons. And this one’s not getting dissolved, you and I. And so it’s very evident.

Jill DeWit:
So you just tied in-

Stephen Jack Butala:
It’s very evident and clear to me that we’re way better together and that when two people decide that they’re equal, I don’t care where they come from or who they are, and they work together and listen to each other and make acquisitions and sales decisions together and decide that one person’s better at sales and one person’s better at the technical part of it, regardless of how that plays itself out. When they realize that, then there’s no need to have separation.

Jill DeWit:
Well, it sounded like you just proved my point too.

Stephen Jack Butala:
I did. So that’s my point is why are there still, and I’m asking you very nicely, I don’t want to argue with you, but why is there a need for a Land Academy ladies?

Jill DeWit:
There shouldn’t be a need for it. I totally agree with you. There should not. It should just be Land Academy newbies. I don’t know what it is. Whatever we’re trying to do at that time. But I totally agree with you. I think that there’s just a mental, still a little mental something in there that we don’t feel we can do it. And I’m ready to tell you, you can. Just get up and do it and I’ll be right here with you. And I’ll fund your deals and I’ll help you.

Stephen Jack Butala:
This is Jack truth time on the Jill Show. Jill held a Land Academy ladies webinar for anybody who was in Land Academy, a lady, for about a year. It was every Wednesday or something. And so I would listen. I wasn’t on the camera, not all the time, maybe probably four times, maybe three times-

Jill DeWit:
I brought you in once in a while.

Stephen Jack Butala:
And how women talk to each other is very, very different than, talk to each other when it’s a closed, is very different than how they talk for, and I’m sure this is true of men. I mean is it true of men?

Jill DeWit:
Oh gosh, yes.

Stephen Jack Butala:
How men all talk to each other when they’re just by themselves is different. So the question is to what end is all that? To my end is, hey, I want to have an effective partnership and make more money and do more deals. I’m not in it, I’m not doing this because I like the process. I’m not doing it to get high off of some acquisition or there’s a lot of reasons why people do stuff. I’m in it to make money and get to an end. And I’m not sure what I learned out of the Land Academy ladies thing is that there’s a huge process that goes on with women about every minute of the deal-

Jill DeWit:
Some women.

Stephen Jack Butala:
And yeah, I’m not saying it’s bad. I’m just saying that, and I’m not saying it’s every woman or even 50% or whatever, but what I noticed on the Land Academy ladies discussion is that there’s a lot of talking through getting to some point.

Jill DeWit:
That’s interesting. Well, that again is just a mental thing we got to undo, I think. There’s no reason why every woman can’t and should do the same big deals just as fast and maybe even better than the next person, I’ll just say. See gender doesn’t matter. That’s the whole point here.

Stephen Jack Butala:
That’s what I think.

Jill DeWit:
So, and that’s my thing, how to make it as a female land investor. You know what? You take the female out of it and you just go for it And that’s it.

Stephen Jack Butala:
That would be terrible if I said that though. So for some reason, it’s okay that you can say that.

Jill DeWit:
Because I’m a woman. I mean, is that bad? You think I’m going to get hate mail now?

Stephen Jack Butala:
Yeah. Well, we are going to turn this, yeah, we’re going to turn the comments off.

Jill DeWit:
Well, I don’t want to get hate mail. I’m just trying to push… You know what? Look, I’m trying to push more women forward in whatever they want to do not just land investing. But if you want to deal in real estate, this is a great place to-

Stephen Jack Butala:
Again, devil’s advocate here. Why do women need to be pushed forward? What is it that, why don’t men need to be pushed forward?

Jill DeWit:
Some do.

Stephen Jack Butala:
That’s what I think. Now we’re getting somewhere.

Jill DeWit:
But you know what? I can, how about this? Some do.

Stephen Jack Butala:
I think some people need to be pushed forward and some people don’t.

Jill DeWit:
Well, how about this?

Stephen Jack Butala:
We happen to be equally not those people that need to get pushed forward.

Jill DeWit:
Correct.

Stephen Jack Butala:
We put ourselves in this ring leader position but it sometimes manifests itself through Land Academy ladies.

Jill DeWit:
Look, you touched on it a minute ago when you talked about how we talk to each other. Maybe that’s it. Maybe that’s a lot of it. It’s just how we communicate is different. We know that one. How many times have I, this is a daily conversation in our house, sometimes an hourly conversation in our house. That came out harsh. Can you reword that? You know how that is.

Stephen Jack Butala:
That’s not gender. That’s just roommates.

Jill DeWit:
Are you sure?

Stephen Jack Butala:
Yeah. It’s two people.

Jill DeWit:
Oh, come on. Guys talk I think by, I don’t know, maybe just me, but it seems like by nature men, you guys are a little rougher on each other than we are.

Stephen Jack Butala:
Men have conflict resolution in different, it manifests itself much differently. It’s very fast and violent and acute and over.

Jill DeWit:
Yeah. No, we need to, come on, you know how women are, we like-

Stephen Jack Butala:
Jill, you’re going to get in so much trouble talking like this. “You know how women are?” Can you imagine if I said something like that?

Jill DeWit:
You can say, “You know how guys are.” Here’s an example. You know how you say, “Come on, guys are idiots.” And I go, “Yeah.” I don’t think there’s anything wrong with this. I’m not talking politics and I’m not talking religion. And I do-

Stephen Jack Butala:
Yeah, we’re not going to talk about that today. So that’s good.

Jill DeWit:
That’s another show. So come on. Anyway, this is not where I thought this show was going to go.

Stephen Jack Butala:
It’s exactly where I thought it was going to go.

Jill DeWit:
Because you made it go there.

Stephen Jack Butala:
And I’ll tell you because she’s going to release, Jill will release Land Academy ladies in 2023 at some point. And it was wildly successful the first time she did it.

Jill DeWit:
Yeah. All the guys wanted to be in it.

Stephen Jack Butala:
Now we have a lot more members, just a lot more members in general. And we have a lot more female members than we used to also, which I think is great.

Jill DeWit:
And couples.

Stephen Jack Butala:
And so it will be crazy, crazy popular, I know. And couples, yeah. It’ll be very popular. But no one, not a single person, has come to me and said, “Hey, can you do a man academy?” Not a single man has come to me and said, “I want to separate myself from the rest of the group and I want to talk only with guys because I feel like men understand me more.” None of this has ever happened.

Jill DeWit:
Well, why is that? But no, but every man said, “Why can’t I be in Land Academy ladies?” I’m like, “Because you’re not a lady.” Why is, you want to be in our group-

Stephen Jack Butala:
I’m asking.

Jill DeWit:
You want to be in our group, but you don’t want to start your own group.

Stephen Jack Butala:
I have no answer for that. None. This is a fascinating separation, fascinating voluntary separation that goes on in Land Academy that I will never, and if you’re a psychiatrist and you’re in our group, seriously get on Discord and I would like to-

Jill DeWit:
Please explain it to us.

Stephen Jack Butala:
Open a topic. Please explain it to us.

Jill DeWit:
Here’s a new thread. The new thread in Discord is the mind getting, how does the condition, land investing, I don’t know, condition explained.

Stephen Jack Butala:
I’ll tell you this. And this is a fact. The minute that Jill and I joined forces and she started answering the acquisition phone, we started making piles of money buying and selling land over what I used to make by myself or when I was having a different team handle acquisitions. Men and women and everyone alike, for whatever reason in my world, respond much better to a female. And that disarmament that goes on with that about doing a real estate deal much, much better. And I’m not talking about female real estate agents versus male real estate agents or any of that. I’m talking about, I hear Jill now all the time, “Oh no, I’m the owner and I own the property,” or, “I own the company and we do want to buy your property for that and here’s why.”

Jill DeWit:
So that’s it. I’m not trying to divide us more in any way.

Stephen Jack Butala:
I think the world would be a lot better off if we just said, if we all just settled on maybe there’s some innate biological differences. And here’s the stuff that makes men better at fill in the blank in general, not everybody.

Jill DeWit:
Like hunting. You’re stronger.

Stephen Jack Butala:
Women are better, look how many female CEOs have there been in the last 20 years that just-

Jill DeWit:
Killed it.

Stephen Jack Butala:
Yeah. Smashed it. Meg Whitman completely turned around eBay. Look at Carly Fiorina. I mean, there’s all kinds of examples over and over and over again of female-led businesses that are great. So I know this is going way over in time, but I still would like an answer about why women feel a need to have their own group.

Jill DeWit:
Well, we’ll answer that another day. Happy you could join us today. Five days a week, you can find us here on the Land Academy Show because this’ll be an hour show and it’s already a 20-minute show. We’re not doing that.

Stephen Jack Butala:
Join us next week for another interesting episode. You are not alone in your real estate ambition. We are going to get so much mail over this. I can’t describe it.

Jill DeWit:
Why?

Stephen Jack Butala:
We just are. This is a very, very hot topic. And unfortunately, talking about it like this makes people angry instead of like, “Oh, I’m glad those guys are talking about it because it needs to be discussed a little bit.” That’s just what happens.

Jill DeWit:
Well, too late. I went there. Good, better, or otherwise, I went there.

Stephen Jack Butala:
You know what could have gone on?

Jill DeWit:
What?

Stephen Jack Butala:
Is that you could sit here and tell me about why men suck.

Jill DeWit:
I could. I could do that next Friday.

Stephen Jack Butala:
And if I say, “Well, that’s great, Jill, because this is why I think women suck.” And then I get murdered in the street and you get a trophy.

Jill DeWit:
No, you’re silly.

Stephen Jack Butala:
We are Jack and Jill. Information-

Jill DeWit:
And inspiration.

Stephen Jack Butala:
To buy undervalued property.