Steven Jack Butala:
Steve 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:
I’m Jill DeWit broadcasting from the Valley Of The Sun.

Steven Jack Butala:
Today Jill and I talk about how everyone I know is killing it in the land business. This topic came from-

Jill K DeWit:
A quote.

Steven Jack Butala:
A talk that Jill attended I think-

Jill K DeWit:
I was on.

Steven Jack Butala:
Clubhouse.

Jill K DeWit:
I jumped. I now and then just have some free time and I’m trolling Clubhouse. If I find a real estate-based or women in business community that sounds interesting, I’ll just jump in the room. This was a real estate one and they were talking about getting financing, financing for deals. I’m like, “All right, let’s hear how you guys go about it,” and it was comical. That’s a whole other show.

Jill K DeWit:
Anyway, I do not agree with the first hit up all your friends and family. That’s not what we do. Anyway, this was a quote. I jumped in and I gave some advice on how we do it. Three people jumped in after me and said, “Hi, Jill. We’re so happy to talk to you.” They said, “Oh my gosh, everyone that we know that does land is killing it right now.” Then, I’m going to go on in the media show here and tell you how the rest of the conversation went.

Steven Jack Butala:
Before we get into it, let’s take a question posted by one of our members. I can’t wait by the way.

Jill K DeWit:
Thank you.

Steven Jack Butala:
I love this kind of stuff. It’s so funny to see people in social media spouting off all this stuff that they know nothing about-

Jill K DeWit:
It was good though.

Steven Jack Butala:
By one of our members on the LandInvestors.com online community, it’s free and don’t forget to subscribe on the Land Academy YouTube channel and comment on the shows you like.

Jill K DeWit:
Steven wrote, “Thank you at.” Do you want me to say that?

Steven Jack Butala:
No, just thank you investor.

Jill K DeWit:
Thank you.

Steven Jack Butala:
Thank you investor.

Jill K DeWit:
“Thank you other investor for working with me on my first funded deal.” That’s awesome. “You were very cool and collected and helpful. You really did make this happen. This is a great way to start the year. This was a double lot like an infill lot with a double close. I had assigned a property to this buyer in the past and knew what his criteria was.”

Jill K DeWit:
“The deal came from my first mailer and I had written off the seller as a tire kicker, but a checked back with them every five weeks to see if they were interested. They wanted a more formal looking purchase agreement. That was all it was. So when you provided me one and told me about the availability on some site,” who knows what that is?

Steven Jack Butala:
Jill, you’re really interested in the site. Let me start it.

Jill K DeWit:
I’m not sure what I’m supposed to share and not share.

Steven Jack Butala:
Steven says, “Thank you, funder, for working with me on my first funded deal. You were very cool and collected and helpful. You really did make this happen for me. This is a great way to start my year. This was a double lot infill with a double close. I had assigned a property to this buyer in the past and I knew what his criteria was and that he was capable of closing.”

Steven Jack Butala:
“The deal came from my first mailer and I had written off the seller as a tire kicker, but checked back with them every five weeks,” which is something Joe would do, “To see if they were interested. They wanted a more formal looking purchase agreement. So thank you, funder, again for providing me one and it made them obviously feel comfortable to the point where they closed. I followed up with them.”

Steven Jack Butala:
“I had to followup with them repeatedly every step of the way, signing the purchase agreement, sending it back, scheduling a notary, managing the escrow company who were very busy with year end deals, but it was obviously worth the work. Thank you, funder. Thank you, Steven Jack Butala and Jill DeWit and everybody on Discord. You guys really have changed my life for the better.” My point in putting this in here, even though Joe wasn’t into it-

Jill K DeWit:
It’s not fair. You know exactly what’s going on. You read all the threads. You know where they’re coming from and you throw it at me like I’m supposed to know.

Steven Jack Butala:
Here’s the truth. Here’s the truth about this show. It takes me hours to prepare for all this stuff and to actually sort of pull it off. On my best day, I sort of pull this off. Jill can sit down and make it delightful and fun and energetic. It’s just once, and what is this? Show number 1,700 and something? Once in a great while, I read it better than Jill. This was my one time for every 1,000 shows that I read it better.

Jill K DeWit:
You knew what it was about. I didn’t know where it was going. All I saw was a long thing.

Steven Jack Butala:
Jill had no planning and no rehearsal. I need hours of help.

Jill K DeWit:
I don’t think that’s true, but anyway-

Steven Jack Butala:
My point is in including this, all kidding aside, is that there are people getting deals funded by other members in the group and it’s working out.

Jill K DeWit:
That’s what the point was?

Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah, what did you think the point was?

Jill K DeWit:
I have no idea.

Steven Jack Butala:
See? It just didn’t make sense.

Jill K DeWit:
Nope.

Steven Jack Butala:
Today’s topic, everyone I know is killing it in a land business. This is why you’re listening.

Jill K DeWit:
I’m on this Clubhouse room and I jump in there. I’m listening and listening and listening and I’m like, “All right, I got to say something.” I raise my hand and they bring me on the stage. If you don’t know what Clubhouse is, please check it out and get on there. It’s pretty darn cool and follow me and join our land investing club because it’s really cool.

Steven Jack Butala:
21st century live radio, that’s what Clubhouse is.

Jill K DeWit:
It really is. I’m on there. I raise my hand. They look at my profile and they’re like, “Okay, you’re okay.” They bring me on stage. I share a few words and all everybody catches is, “You’re in the land business. You’re in the land business. You’re in the land business.” It’s so funny because the whole topic and everything they’re talking about, they don’t do land. I’m scratching my head going, “Hold on a moment. Every single one of you has just chimed in and asked me some questions and how cool it is and everybody is in agreement that, wow.”

Jill K DeWit:
I know the story you told, if you want to retell it, about how well most people do in the land business. I have to take a step back and go, “Why the heck aren’t you guys doing this?” I did ask one guy flat out on the thing. I’m like, “Why? You know you don’t have to change anything you’re doing, but you could roll this into it.” Pretty much 90% of the time it’s the same comment, which is it’s just not sexy.

Jill K DeWit:
Really? Really? You would rather run around trying to find workers and financing and deal with stolen appliances and tenants moving out and replacing tenants and all these other different things? There’s a laundry list. You know what I’m talking about. It was a combination of house flippers and commercial people and a healthy group of those that buy and hold and just rent these things out and all they had were horror stories. I’m like, “Oh my gosh.”

Steven Jack Butala:
How is that sexy?

Jill K DeWit:
I know.

Steven Jack Butala:
Getting called in the middle of the night from a tenant, how’s that sexy? How’s changing out toilets sexy?

Jill K DeWit:
You roll up on a Tuesday because they haven’t collected. They haven’t paid their rent by the way, which was due on the first, and you roll up on the 10th and you realize not only are they gone, so is your kitchen.

Steven Jack Butala:
How are construction permits sexy?

Jill K DeWit:
I don’t know what to say.

Steven Jack Butala:
Jill and I have spent decades and decades of going to bars and cocktail parties and have people walking up to us now because of the show, walking up to us on the street saying, “What do you guys do? What is that?” “Yeah, we buy and sell land,” and it’s that just the deer in the headlights look.

Jill K DeWit:
It’s funny and that came up just last week, this week, by the time the airs, last week. It was really funny because this came up from a member on our Thursday afternoon call like, “What do you tell people because I have a hard time explaining to people what I do?” I’m like, “Yep, you’re exactly right.”

Steven Jack Butala:
Welcome to the club.

Jill K DeWit:
It is confusing. It is hard. Most people don’t get it. There’s a simplicity to it. Yet, doing real estate deals itself is complex.

Steven Jack Butala:
Most of the time I can figure stuff out. I can get to the root of the problem, do some adjustments, and adjust, and figure it out. This is something I honestly cannot figure out. I don’t understand what is not amazing about buying and selling land. I just don’t get it. I think land is beautiful. I think the product itself, I love it.

Steven Jack Butala:
Every single chance Jill and I get, we jump in an RV and go look at some property somewhere and stay overnight and really get on the land in all different types of land, crazy vacant desert, tall pine trees, and everything in between. I love land and I love money and I love data. Those three things really, really work together to make us successful and I don’t understand not sexy. I don’t. I have a PhD in not being sexy.

Jill K DeWit:
That’s true. I’m just kidding.

Steven Jack Butala:
This is no exception.

Jill K DeWit:
I’m just kidding. One man’s trash-

Steven Jack Butala:
One woman’s, one woman’s, one woman’s-

Jill K DeWit:
One woman’s trash-

Steven Jack Butala:
Man trash.

Jill K DeWit:
One woman’s man trash is another woman’s treasure.

Steven Jack Butala:
Is another woman’s future man trash.

Jill K DeWit:
Yes, that’s true. That’s good. No, I’m happier with my man trash.

Steven Jack Butala:
For the time being, it’s working out good.

Jill K DeWit:
You’re my trash man.

Steven Jack Butala:
Here’s the other thing about land. It’s not visual. I think that’s where people get really hung up.

Jill K DeWit:
What the heck? What are you talking about?

Steven Jack Butala:
Just stick with me for a second. You can very easily in 15 minutes film somebody renovating a house from a pile of crap to the most amazing thing there ever was. It’s very visual and there’s a lot of things that visually stimulate you like new cabinets and all that kind of stuff.

Steven Jack Butala:
With land, there’s just, “Yep, that’s a piece of land over there. What’s the big deal? What do you mean? What do you mean you bought it for 30 and sold it for 60? Why would you do that? You didn’t improve it. You didn’t really do anything with your life. All you did was buy it and resell it.” That’s what I did.

Jill K DeWit:
We got to do our own time lapse camera.

Steven Jack Butala:
We see the leaves move and the snowfall. Then, the sun rises and now it’s $60,000, not $30.

Jill K DeWit:
Exactly.

Steven Jack Butala:
Five for $30 and then time lapses-

Jill K DeWit:
Exactly.

Steven Jack Butala:
Sold for $60.

Jill K DeWit:
That’s what we’re going to do or, wait, it gets better.

Steven Jack Butala:
That’s a whole show.

Jill K DeWit:
Here’s another time lapse where we buy it. We have one big square and then now we have four squares and that’s our time lapse.

Steven Jack Butala:
Minor division.

Jill K DeWit:
Exactly, we didn’t do anything, but on paper we did.

Steven Jack Butala:
Buy for $50. Sell for $300 because you replanted it.

Jill K DeWit:
Exactly, that’s our time lapse and showing one guy one day going out walking it.

Steven Jack Butala:
The surveyor.

Jill K DeWit:
Measuring and that’s it, putting four stakes to the ground.

Steven Jack Butala:
You know what? That would work.

Jill K DeWit:
That would be funny. We got to do that now.

Steven Jack Butala:
That’s a whole show.

Jill K DeWit:
That would be awesome. That’s our HGTV.

Steven Jack Butala:
If anybody has an idea about why this is misunderstood after 30 years, please write it in the YouTube here. Write it down there in the comments, people misunderstand it because. I would love to, I will read your stuff on the show. All kidding aside, I don’t understand what’s bad about buying land and reselling it for more.

Steven Jack Butala:
I almost feel like every time we do it, and this is the kind of feedback we get from the buyers. We get this from the sellers. We get all this feedback like, “Thank you, I didn’t know what I was going to do with this property. I inherited it 10 years ago. I’ve been paying the taxes, don’t even know where it is. Of course I want to sell it to you. I don’t care.”

Steven Jack Butala:
From the seller, we get comments like, “This is my dream property.” I mean from the buyer, “This is my dream property and we’ve spent time. Thank you so much. You made it affordable and my kids are little and we’re having a blast here.” I just don’t understand the mystery. Some people get it I guess. I don’t know.

Jill K DeWit:
Here’s where we’re going to end. We’ll end our video on, have Tawny Kitaen on the hood of a car.

Steven Jack Butala:
I don’t know what that is.

Jill K DeWit:
Laying on, laying on, here I go again. Wait, you don’t know?

Steven Jack Butala:
Jill watched a lot of MTV when she was young and-

Jill K DeWit:
I did.

Steven Jack Butala:
I’ve seen MTV maybe four times my entire life.

Jill K DeWit:
I’m sorry. I lived on MTV. I pretty much saw every single one of those 80’s music videos and I can replay them in my head at a moment’s notice. I was going to say trying to put a supermodel on a piece of dirt.

Steven Jack Butala:
Let’s not do that.

Jill K DeWit:
I know.

Steven Jack Butala:
I would actually put-

Jill K DeWit:
What would you put out there?

Steven Jack Butala:
Some really handsome lumberjack type guy or a cowboy or something.

Jill K DeWit:
How about our new, the sheriff down south of us?

Steven Jack Butala:
Right.

Jill K DeWit:
He would look good out there. I’m with you.

Steven Jack Butala:
Before Jill sings-

Jill K DeWit:
Happy you could join us today. Five days a week you can find us here on the Land Academy Show.

Steven Jack Butala:
Tomorrow, the episode on the House Academy Show is called Renovation Nightmares. You are not alone in your real estate ambition.

Jill K DeWit:
Do you have some new ones you’re going to share?

Steven Jack Butala:
I have personal stories that you’re aware of, but no, I want to talk about why it makes absolutely no sense to renovate a house. Build a new one, totally get that. Improve property with other types of things, totally get that, but renovating an existing house and I’ll tell you why. It doesn’t make any sense financially.

Jill K DeWit:
Knowing what we know and how, better way to spend your time and money, there you go. Thank you for tuning in. By the way, don’t forget if you’re a Land Academy member, join us on Discord. We are Steve and Jill.

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

Jill K DeWit:
Inspiration-

Steven Jack Butala:
About undervalued property.