Transcript:

Steven Jack Butala:
Jack and Jill here.

Jill K DeWit:
Howdy.

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

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

Steven Jack Butala:
Today, Jill and I talk about quite simply how to complete your first land deal. For the last couple of days, Jill and I are talking about taking risk and what’s the riskiest thing you can do-

Jill K DeWit:
What’s possible.

Steven Jack Butala:
… is not taking risk at all. And 90% of the people who are millionaires own real estate. That’s all great, thanks. How do you do it? What are the mechanics of actually taking the first step to getting a land transaction or a real estate transaction done? So we’ll take you through it.

Jill K DeWit:
Cool.

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.

Jill K DeWit:
And don’t forget tomorrow I will be live at 5:00 Pacific Time. Yep. 5:00 Pacific time, 8:00 Eastern time via YouTube and Facebook. So check out the Land Academy channels for the details. Ed wrote, “If I only send mail to two and a half acres to [inaudible 00:01:09] acre properties in my ZIP, the quantity is 609. For me to send out 12,000 mailers, conceptually I need to get around 10 to 15 ZIP codes. If I keep it targeted like that, am I thinking accurately? Why am I missing something? Thank you.”

Steven Jack Butala:
Ed, this is an amazing question, and you are on your way to being an incredibly successful at doing this, or really honestly, whatever you choose to do. Diversification is the pillar of success in anything when it comes to placing money and doing different types of equity creation for yourself. So yes, you are 100% correct, in what you’re doing. Wouldn’t it be better to send property to 10 or 15 ZIP codes than just one? It’s always better to diversify. And yeah, 12,000 mailers. Heck yes, you are setting yourself up to the chances of getting a one or two or three or five good great properties out of a 12,000 unit mailer and 10 or 15 ZIP codes, you’re setting yourself up to really, really succeed.

Jill K DeWit:
That’s like the dream, really. That’s the perfect way. The last thing you want to do is send out 200 mailers and you’re staring at, I hope something comes back this week. Could you imagine? Maybe I’ll get something, maybe I won’t. How long does that flipping take? And then maybe you get one trickling in here and another one there, and then you’re like, well, all right, I got five I collected now. Can I make any of these work? That’s not the position you want to be in. The way Ed is doing it is the best way, which is let it out there. Just blast it. And guess what? Ed got 10, 20, 30 responses, maybe more with 12,000, I’m going to argue, argue a lot more with 12,000.

Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah, me too. Especially in different ZIP codes.

Jill K DeWit:
Right. You’re going to have a lot of responses to play with, and especially with that many ZIP codes. This area worked out great. Over here, not so much. This is what I learned. I overpriced over here, I under-priced over here, but I fixed some. And you’re like, you’re overwhelmed with these deals coming at you. Imagine that. Right? Now Ed could sit back and go, okay, woo, take a number, folks. I only have, this is the whole thing. I’m only one person, so I’m going to pick the top three and I’ll get to those next three next week, and then next three the next week. And by then, I got more mail going out. So that’s the position you want to be in.

Steven Jack Butala:
I can’t wait to see what happens from … One of the hardest things that goes on in Land Academy for me is to listen to a reader and listen to a question like this. It’s a very, very intelligent question. And then I know that a very substantial number of people go off, do this stuff, do very, very well for themselves financially, and then I just never know about it. It’s very hard as a … We’ve spent a lot of time. This is now our, well, we’ve spent a lot of time on Land Academy, Jill and I have on the site.

Jill K DeWit:
Going on eight years.

Steven Jack Butala:
If you’re successful, will you please let us-

Jill K DeWit:
Eight years now.

Steven Jack Butala:
What I’m saying is, yeah, if you’re successful, will you please let us know? Will you send us an email to support or send it directly to Jill and I? Jill at Land Academy or Jack at Land Academy. Is that your email address?

Jill K DeWit:
You need some love?

Steven Jack Butala:
No, I just think that, I love these success stories and I know that if Ed here follows through on this a couple of times, it’s going to be wildly successful.

Jill K DeWit:
He’s probably posting some success in Discord right now, depending on when this mailer arrived.

Steven Jack Butala:
No, I don’t need love.

Jill K DeWit:
Okay.

Steven Jack Butala:
I’m not-

Jill K DeWit:
Hold on. I got to just put the brakes on anyway. And I got to say, is that really the biggest issue that you face in Land Academy? Because I’m going to argue no.

Steven Jack Butala:
What’s the biggest issue you face?

Jill K DeWit:
Staffing. And I wish I could consult all day. All day. I wish I could consult 24 hours a day. It’s just not possible.

Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah. So you mean consult with members.

Jill K DeWit:
Huh-uh. I wish I could coach and be there a 100%, 24. Even 24 hours a day, I’d only get 24 people. That’s not effective. I need to hit more people. That’s why we do the show and all the things that we do and the Thursday call. But anyway, I just want to know what’s your … I answered mine. Mine’s staffing. What is your real biggest thing in Land Academy?

Steven Jack Butala:
Staffing.

Jill K DeWit:
Oh, all right.

Steven Jack Butala:
And I hate to be boring, but staffing’s a challenge now more than ever, but it always has been a challenge.

Jill K DeWit:
Got it.

Steven Jack Butala:
Today’s topic, how to complete your first deal. This is the meat of the show.

Jill K DeWit:
First land deal. This is big.

Steven Jack Butala:
There’s three components to completing a land transaction and if you’re like most people, including me, you really enjoy one or two of them and maybe not so much the third. It’s very unusual for somebody to enjoy all three components. So that’s why ultimately by default, Jill and I got together and so all three of them are covered.

Jill K DeWit:
No, that’s not the reason we got together initially, by the way.

Steven Jack Butala:
Yes. It was a little bit more-

Jill K DeWit:
Truth time.

Steven Jack Butala:
It was a little bit more biological than that.

Jill K DeWit:
Exactly. Just turns out I was good on the phones. I know how to sell things.

Steven Jack Butala:
Here’s the three steps. Number one, education. For some reason, people think that buying and selling real estate is just something that you learn.

Jill K DeWit:
Yeah, just wing it.

Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah, you just do it.

Jill K DeWit:
Can I wing it? Figure this out?

Steven Jack Butala:
I mean, you can, but you’re going to do it wrong several times like I did.

Jill K DeWit:
And take 10 years to catch up to us. There’s one way, that’s one.

Steven Jack Butala:
Step two is buy some property and step two is sell it. Step three is sell it. That’s broken up. It’s that simple. So where do you get educated? Everywhere. This is what, 2022, ’23. The internet is just chock full of places to learn to how to do this for free and how to do anything, by the way. I mean education is fast and cheap, if not free to learn how to do anything. So there’s no excuse not to really immerse yourself into be either buying, selling land, or learning how to own a convenience store or whatever it ends up being. So that leaves buying a piece of real estate, that first piece of real estate. That’s great, Jack. I don’t have any money. Yep, I didn’t either.

Jill K DeWit:
Join me on Thursday. I’m going to talk about it.

Steven Jack Butala:
Geez, what kind of plug?

Jill K DeWit:
I know, right?

Steven Jack Butala:
What kind of plug is that?

Jill K DeWit:
I had to. It’s a big deal. I haven’t done one of these in a while, and it’s going to be worth it. Trust me. Sorry. [inaudible 00:07:50].

Steven Jack Butala:
Lucky for you. Don’t you hate all that stuff out there that says no money down? You can do this with … No, doesn’t cost any. Well, it turns out the way that we do it, you really don’t need any money, but you got to still have to do stuff.

Jill K DeWit:
Oh yeah. There’s a lot of moving parts.

Steven Jack Butala:
So once you got yourself educated on how this whole thing works, you’re going to realize that your job, and this is, we’re in step two now, in buying a piece of real estate, your only job is to find a great deal. Forget about the money. Forget it. We have people in our group and there’s people all over the internet that would be elated to fund your deal if it’s a great deal and if they like you or you impressed them, let’s say professionally. Just like Shark Tank. And so you need to go through the education or our education or anywhere else or combination of education sources. And you need to learn how to generate a deal flow funnel for yourself.
We choose to do it by using direct mail. We send direct offers to owners in a targeted area that we have qualified for ourselves as being a likely candidate, a likely ZIP code, likely county, maybe even a likely state where we can buy land inexpensively or under its current value and resell it for more. That’s it. Learn how to send a mailer out or hire somebody like us to get mail out so that you’re getting your funnel of potential deals are coming back now on the phone via email or ever however else that you think is appropriate for you. When you find a great deal and you don’t have the money, or if you do have the money, great. When you find a great deal, seek the funding out.

Jill K DeWit:
Yeah, you have to have the money. Call me.

Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah, call us.

Jill K DeWit:
Yeah.

Steven Jack Butala:
We fund a lot of deals.

Jill K DeWit:
Sure.

Steven Jack Butala:
That’s why we created Land Academy, to do deals with people. And then how many years now it’s been?

Jill K DeWit:
Oh, for Land Academy?

Steven Jack Butala:
13 years. Well, no, it’s been eight years I guess.

Jill K DeWit:
Land Academy, eight years. But gosh, overall is, are you going on 30 years now? No. I don’t even know.

Steven Jack Butala:
Yes, it’s 25. It doesn’t matter. It’s a lot. My point in saying it’s a lot of years and it works. There’s a lot of other people out there. This is their first year doing this and teaching it. And that’s too bad because I’m not sure they’re doing it correctly. So you found a great piece of real estate. You found a person to not lend you the money, to partnership the deal with you.

Jill K DeWit:
Right.

Steven Jack Butala:
So you’re in it together.

Jill K DeWit:
Good point.

Steven Jack Butala:
And now you’ve got a money partner and an operations partner, which is you, and you’ve got it purchased and the two of you own it. You contract out the best person you can possibly find to sell that piece of real estate, that local piece of real estate you can find, which is usually a land specialized real estate agent.
So now the numbers are like this. You found a piece of property to buy for $100,000. It is worth, let’s say $200,000. You get your money partner to fund 100% of it. You’re still in it for zero. And then you go and sell it for $180,000, below its retail value. Everybody at the entire transaction makes 80 grand. You take 40. The money guy takes 40, and you go do it again. That’s how you got your first real estate deal done with no money at all. And the money partner’s never going to leave you alone now. If you can turn his money or her money like that, they’re going to say, “Let’s do this for life.” And they’re probably going to say, I’ve done it over here with these other two guys and I would love for you to be number three. So we’re good at this. So now you’re part of a group of people. You’re 60 days away from this. I’m not blowing smoke and I’m not here. This is what zero down real estate is the right way.

Jill K DeWit:
Yeah, not borrowing, not making payments.

Steven Jack Butala:
Now you’re 60 to 90 days away from being in a group of people that are experienced with a ton of money who are buying and selling land really, really effectively. And you have one single job, to locate property that’s undervalued. Not raising capital, not dealing with tenants or become hiring a contractor to renovate a house or any of that stuff. You’re just sitting in front of your computer getting mail out, answering the phone. You’re very quiet.

Jill K DeWit:
You are on a roll, baby. I’m letting you go. There’s a few times I tried to interject and I realized, nope, don’t go there.

Steven Jack Butala:
Anyway, so what do you think?

Jill K DeWit:
What do I think? Do you think it would work?

Steven Jack Butala:
She’s snotty.

Jill K DeWit:
I know. I’m being joking. Of course. I have nothing to add other than happy you could join us today, five days a week. You can find us here on the Land Academy Show.

Steven Jack Butala:
It’s rounds Jack Thursday, and I’m going to talk about how there’s only six ways to get rich. You are not alone in your real estate ambition.

Jill K DeWit:
Well, I look forward to that.

Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah?

Jill K DeWit:
See, that even has my interest piqued there. You think I’m kidding? No, I think it’s a awesome.

Steven Jack Butala:
Since when have you been interested in anything I say at all, ever?

Jill K DeWit:
Since the day I met you. You know that.

Steven Jack Butala:
Geez.

Jill K DeWit:
Totally. Don’t forget tomorrow night. You can find me live on YouTube and Facebook at 5:00 Pacific, 8:00 Eastern Time. Check it out, YouTube. Check it out on Facebook. There’s some other things that you can, I’m sure might be popping in your email by now. But hope to see you there.

Steven Jack Butala:
We are Jack and Jill.

Jill K DeWit:
We are Jack and Jill.

Steven Jack Butala:
Information.

Jill K DeWit:
And inspiration.

Steven Jack Butala:
To buy undervalued property.