3 Reasons Why Land Investment May Not Work For You & We All Have Access To Equal Resources (LA 1944)

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3 Reasons Why Land Investment May Not Work For You & We All Have Access To Equal Resources (LA 1944)

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Never Miss an Episode!

Subscribe to the Land Academy podcast

In this episode of the Land Academy Show, hosts Steven Jack Butala and Jill DeWit cover two important topics related to buying and selling land. They discuss how everyone has access to the same resources and identify three reasons why buying and selling land may not work for some people. Later, they answer questions from the Land Academy Discord forum. Join Steven and Jill for a deep dive into the world of land investment.

Transcript: 

Steven Jack Butala:
I’m Steven Jack Butala.

Jill DeWit:
And I’m Jill DeWit, and this is the Land Academy Show.

Steven Jack Butala:
This is episode number 1,944. And today, we are talking in depth about a couple of topics. The first one is how we all have access to the same exact resources. All of us have the same exact resource exposure to buy and sell land. And the second topic is three real reasons why buying and selling land may not work for you.

Jill DeWit:
It’s one personality flaws.

Steven Jack Butala:
No. It could be though. Well, I kept it to three.

Jill DeWit:
Oh, okay.

Steven Jack Butala:
Because there’s several.

Jill DeWit:
Okay. We’re going to talk about 30 reasons why. I’m just kidding. Good.

Steven Jack Butala:
No. Look, there’s some stuff you got to do to make this really work for yourself. And we’re going to spend the next hour, hour-and-a-half talking about it. This is not meant to be negative, it’s meant to be a real positive thing. And then at the very end, Jill and I, as always, we’re going to talk about our motivational. I’ve learned a lot in the last … It’s March, so the last couple of months about Land Academy members in a really positive way, what works and what doesn’t.

Jill DeWit:
Cool. What’s different? Why do you think you’ve learned more now than-

Steven Jack Butala:
I think it’s experience and age and for whatever reason. And we should talk to our marketing staff about this, the people that are joining Land Academy really recently are really, really experienced and want to be here. It’s called like there’s master … I call them the master’s degrees level of interest in learning how to do this.

Jill DeWit:
I think because you’d led that first accountability group up, maybe where it’s coming to you.

Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah, maybe.

Jill DeWit:
That’s it. That we haven’t done that in a while and now we brought them back. They are free for members, by the way. That could be what’s going on.

Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah, I’m sure that’s definitely part of it. Hope you’re also enjoying this new 2023 weekly show. We moved from a daily show to a weekly show, too, because people are asking us for more depth-

Jill DeWit:
Like what-

Steven Jack Butala:
… in a more in-depth look at exactly how to buy and sell land, or at least how we do it. Each week, we also answer questions from our Land Academy Discord forum. We review land acquisitions from our weekly Thursday member webinar, and we take a deep dive into two land related topics that are, for the most part, requested in some way by our members. Now let’s take a look, take a question actually posted by one of our members on the Land Academy Discord online community. If you want to sneak peek at our Discord channel, please go to landacademy.com. It’s free.

Jill DeWit:
Kevin wrote, hello, so I got a signed purchase agreement back in the mail and the seller left his phone number, no email. Multiple times calling the number, it says, the number you’re calling is not accepting your call. It’s like with these spam things. It sounds like they accidentally have it turned up too high. I found the guy on True People Search. He’s very old. I’ve tried five, six other phone numbers, family members, but they are all disconnected. Does anyone have any other ideas of contacting the seller before we starting just mailing him a followup?
I was going to say, you’re going to have to mail him now. That’s apparently how I replies. He responds. And you know what’s interesting? It’s not very common, but it does happen that I have sellers that don’t have email. They may not have great internet, they may have old school cable. Maybe it’s available in the area too. They just don’t do it because they’re 80, and that’s okay. But that could be the situation and you have to write them back, and that’s what I would just be doing right now, writing them back and just saying, I’m trying to call you from this number. Can you please show that as a recognized number so we can talk? Or can you please call me at this number? I will watch for you kind of thing.

Steven Jack Butala:
I think it’s really important to meet sellers from where they come. And everything in the world, they all come in different shapes and sizes. And I don’t think it would be appropriate to talk to somebody who’s 95 about selling their land as if they were 25 or 30. They both have really different access to different resources and tools and communication tools, specifically.

Jill DeWit:
Yeah. Did you try texting?

Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah, I could be wrong completely.

Jill DeWit:
Did you reach out on Snapchat? Maybe they’re there. Just kidding.

Steven Jack Butala:
All those little things like, darn, I wanted to buy the piece of dirt, he signed it and I’d love to do the deal. Those are all positive pathways and positive signs to buying a piece of property. This whole thing is no different than the classic sales funnel. If you send out 5,000 offers, you’re going to get all kinds of responses, positive, negative. It might be old people, young people. But you’re going to get some responses. If you send out 50,000 letters, as I’m going to talk about at the end of the show today, that funnel’s much, much bigger. And so things like this will happen.
You’re probably not going to spend as much time in the future because there’s other deals to do. Today’s first topic is, how we all have access to the exact same resources. You know what, I think a lot of this information is coming from the accountability groups because I get a chance now to once a week after our Thursday call for people who sign up for it to talk to new members and address their concerns. It’s more of like an office hour situation where the group of people that we have, it’s an open forum.

Jill DeWit:
Well, yeah, can you explain the whole format, the flow of these accountability groups-

Steven Jack Butala:
Sure.

Jill DeWit:
… for myself included? Because I only was there for one.

Steven Jack Butala:
Account-

Jill DeWit:
Not that I don’t have things going on. I’m like, I’m contributing, but I was only there for one of these.

Steven Jack Butala:
I set up the accountabilities groups based on my experience in going to college where professors would have office hours. And so it’s not an education, it’s not an hour of me talking about how to do a mailer or, Jill, about how to answer the phone.

Jill DeWit:
Because you have that

Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah, you have access to that and you have a textbook, you have a video textbook as a Land Academy member. And you would theoretically go to office hours in an educational setting, which is what this is. After you read the material or that was been assigned or did whatever the assignments were and you had extra questions. You had more questions. Yeah, I get this, but I don’t understand this. Well, we’re all adults now, so it ends up being whatever you want to talk about, we’re going to talk about it. It’s office hours. It’s not Weight Watchers or-

Jill DeWit:
No, it’s not that.

Steven Jack Butala:
… Alcoholic Synonymous. It’s not-

Jill DeWit:
Okay. It’s not how much weight did you lose or how much mail did you send?

Steven Jack Butala:
Yes, it’s not that.

Jill DeWit:
Okay. Is it going to stay like that or might change? Because some people need, how much mail did you send?

Steven Jack Butala:
It’s going to stay like that.

Jill DeWit:
Oh.

Steven Jack Butala:
That’s a different product. How much mail did you-

Jill DeWit:
Well, accountability, I think of like, what are you doing? Are you moving forward?

Steven Jack Butala:
Hey, I’ve done many, many of these accountability groups now over the years, so is Jill. We end up talking about whatever our members want to talk about. Like I just mentioned, we’re not here to … You have to hold yourself accountable and then we’re here to answer any questions that you have and provide these resources and tools, which is what we’re going to talk about resources and tools for you to accomplish this.
Jill and I have spent, since 2015, a tremendous amount of time and energy and resources in capital to convert the resources that she and I have developed over the years to buy and sell land for ourselves, in which we continue to use, to make them much more user-friendly and web enabled. For instance, we used to do our own mail. And we eventually graduated ourselves because we were tired of using companies, whatever they are now, they go in and out of business, actual printing companies to do our mailers and we were just never satisfied.
We started to do it ourselves and ultimately, people are asking, “Well, what mailing company do you guys use?” And we said, “We’re doing it ourselves.” And then we made that service available after we perfected it in the form of offers to owners. We have tons of resources like that. ParcelFact is one, it’s a website that we have. These are all dotcoms. It’s because we were having trouble finding the real estate that we were trying to buy. We created a resource for ourselves.
It was ugly and clunky and pretty awful to use, but ultimately, hired a tech team, myself included, to create the resource so you can find land much more easily. And the list goes on and on and on. Everybody always has wanted since minute one, since we started Land Academy, an easy to use now phone enabled online community. In the beginning, we called it Success Plant. In the middle, I will say we called it landinvestors.com, and now we’re using Discord, which everybody seems to love. And so that’s a real-time, 24/7 answer or ask questions from people.
It’s a good way to get deals funded. And so what I’m really saying here is that we have access to all the same exact resources. Is there a reason that Jill and I may or may not make as much money as you do buying and selling land? Yeah. And we’re going to cover that in great detail in the next topic, but it’s not for lack of resources. It’s for probably the greatest variable in all this as experience. And the only way you can get experience is to spend time with other people, like in Discord and on our Thursday webinars and all of that, so you can gain that experience.

Jill DeWit:
Exactly. I was thinking even other things like data sources and things like that.

Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah, go ahead.

Jill DeWit:
Well, I mean-

Steven Jack Butala:
I skipped along the top here.

Jill DeWit:
Oh, okay.

Steven Jack Butala:
There’s a ton of ton more resources that we have.

Jill DeWit:
Right. That’s the big picture. If you really want to do this, you could dig in and do this on your own. There’s people that have done that too. They listened to our … Because this is not the first year, this is what? Our eighth year of this podcast, and there’s people like, “I listened for four years and then I started doing it on my own.” I’m like, “Why’d you wait that long?” Because we can only deliver so much on every podcast. But if you sit and listen to all the podcasts, you could piece together everything that we do in Land Academy. If you want to fast forward that, you just join Land Academy, then you have that in one weekend kind of thing. But-

Steven Jack Butala:
You know what, that’s a great point. That’s a personality choice. And so I’m a big fan of doing an incredible amount of research on something that’s completely and totally free until I decide that, yup, I’m going to give-

Jill DeWit:
I agree with that.

Steven Jack Butala:
… this a shot. I’m not disagreeing with you at all.

Jill DeWit:
Okay, got it.

Steven Jack Butala:
I’m just saying, do as much research as you possibly can. But when you make a commitment, make one.

Jill DeWit:
But when you think about it, the data resources and mail resources and finding property resources and pricing, things that we need like comps to help us figure out pricing, the active properties right now and the sold properties, we all have access to all this stuff. It’s putting it all together. I think that’s important. And understanding what it is and how to use it, that’s the key. Acting on it and having the resources like the money, the money and the time to buy these properties and act on this stuff.

Steven Jack Butala:
I really think that money as a resource in a long list of resources, I think you need-

Jill DeWit:
Well, that’s a good resource.

Steven Jack Butala:
Money is something that we have so readily available, both Jill and I, personally. And just a ton of people in our group have a tremendous amount of money that it’s ready to be thrown at really good land deals. That’s also the most popular reason why I think people can’t move forward on this, is they think they have lack of funds or lack of access to money.

Jill DeWit:
Exactly.

Steven Jack Butala:
It’s a hard thing to swallow from anyone. Because as you go through life, you have limited money. That’s just how it is. And in a group like this, there’s just limitless money, if the deals are good. My entire life, except for recently, I’ve been strapped for money in some one way or another. I don’t know, probably the last four or five years, I think that it’s really gotten to a point where we’re good.

Jill DeWit:
Mm-hmm. I was just thinking in other world, it’s the same thing like, okay, access to the same resources. Say like going to college and business classes and things like that, there’s so much you can get out there online right now and so many great books you can get your hands on. Then I’m going to argue that I may not need a degree, it depends on what it is, obviously. But to learn the knowledge, to learn what I need to know just to be a great leader, what if I want to be a business manager? Fill in the blank. There’s so many great leadership books and managerial courses and things that you could take that we all have access to.

Steven Jack Butala:
I mean, I think it all starts with just a natural interest. And it’s very, very hard. There’s a lot of moving components to this to buy and selling land. It’s very hard to be interested in all of them.

Jill DeWit:
That’s true.

Steven Jack Butala:
There’s a Jack and a Jill.

Jill DeWit:
That’s good. I’m interested in answering the phone, you are not.

Steven Jack Butala:
But the stuff I am interested in, I’m really interested in doing it right and following through. And so Jill’s got access to me, I have access to her, and you have access to all kinds of people in our group that are going through the same thing at some level.

Jill DeWit:
Exactly.

Steven Jack Butala:
Now we’re looking at success as defined by constants and variables. We just reeled off a tremendous number of constants that we all have, we’re all the same. There’s only a few variables, and the biggest one I think is it always ends up being money. But where your interest starts and stops in doing this is how successful you’re going to be, not for lack of money or any real other resource.

Jill DeWit:
I agree.

Steven Jack Butala:
Let’s take a look at one of our favorite land acquisitions from our weekly Thursday webinar.

Jill DeWit:
Thinking. I am very happy to announce for the first time ever, I mean, ever, because you … It’s timely too, because a few minutes ago, we talked about money and that being a variable sometimes. Well, just getting started, you do need to have some cash just to get the education. And guess what? We now have payment plans. Check it out. To join Land Academy, we now have some payment plan options. Check it out. Just go to landacademy.com. Under join, I think there’s a join here tab. It’ll take your right to it and you’ll see it. I’m really excited. It’s the first time that we’ve ever done this, and I think it’s going to help a lot of people out.

Steven Jack Butala:
Let’s take another question posted by one of our members on the Land Academy Discord online community. Again, if you want a sneak peek of our Discord channel, please go to landacademy.com. It’s free.

Jill DeWit:
Okay. Peter wrote, good morning, everyone. We have a good deal with a signed purchase agreement that we just applied to get deal funding for this morning. Timing question, do you guys wait to set things up with the title company until after you confirmed that you have funding for your deal? Or do you set things up with the title company immediately? I’m a lock it in person, so put it in for deal funding because you know it’s that good. If this is the thing, Peter, I’m assuming it’s that good. You’re like, we’re buying this, we got to take this deal down.
Put it in deal funding and then immediately open escrow and then just say, I’ll let you know later. Give me a couple hours or a day and I’ll get to you what name it’s going to go in, who’s going to be my funding partner and that kind of stuff. And I would do that, totally.

Steven Jack Butala:
I agree with Jill completely, every single part of what she said. There are a lot of comments about this because there’s a lot of deal funders in our group. And some prefer to approve the deal very quickly and then work in escrow with you. We don’t necessarily do that. I think I agree with Jill. I think tie it up and tell the escrow agent right away, here’s the purchase agreement, here’s the terms of the deal. The way that we fund these deals is through private funding. And so we may have to change the name where the deed recording name and all of that. If this freaks them out, then it shouldn’t at all because it’s real-

Jill DeWit:
No, they’re fine with that.

Steven Jack Butala:
… standard and simple. They’re the wrong escrow agent.

Jill DeWit:
No big deal.

Steven Jack Butala:
It serve a couple of purposes here. But you will have to change almost, I think, with all of us, the original purchase agreement and then the two parties that are buyers and sellers that it’s going to change.

Jill DeWit:
Some people have had updated wording on their things that it says and assignees or something like that, and then that’s been fine. And then it’s no big deal. That depends on what the PA says and it also depends on that title agent. No matter what, worst case scenario, the title agent says, we need to do another purchase agreement, what to put that name on as a buyer. Done. No problem. You can DocuSign that in five minutes.

Steven Jack Butala:
A really material percentage of deals get assigned like that during the process. If the escrow person that you’re dealing with has done more than five or eight deals, they’re going to say, “Oh, no problem.”

Jill DeWit:
Well, you know what’s funny? This is a no big deal thing too. We have done this ourselves. We have actually bought go open escrow on properties that we’re buying. And then Jack will come along and go, “Oh, wait a minute. You know what? I want you to put that one in that entity’s name.” “Okay, no problem.” Just get a new purchase agreement signed by the seller. We’re going to put it over in this company name. That’s all. You’re doing the exact same thing-

Steven Jack Butala:
Unfortunately-

Jill DeWit:
… as far as they are concerned.

Steven Jack Butala:
… if you read about this on the internet, and maybe even in Discord, about assigning to a new party within your group, there’s always one or two outlaying strange examples of why people freaked out about it or it didn’t work.

Jill DeWit:
Yeah, nobody cares.

Steven Jack Butala:
Just don’t pay attention to it.

Jill DeWit:
Your seller doesn’t care.

Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah. It’s the same old thing with all of the internet. 90% of it’s awesome, but the 10% of it with bad stories and just bad, everything seems to rise to the top.

Jill DeWit:
There’s nothing bad about … Unless they’re making it bad. That would be-

Steven Jack Butala:
Well, sure. No, I think, and if you’re new. This is for really new people.

Jill DeWit:
You know what, it’s-

Steven Jack Butala:
And if you’re really detailed about what you want to try to hedge off or not, you’re going to run into stories about why you can’t assign purchase agreements and it’s-

Jill DeWit:
That’s ridiculous.

Steven Jack Butala:
… all not true.

Jill DeWit:
It’s not true. It’s like, “I know I was going to give you a cashier’s check and now I’m giving you cash.” And they’re like, “No, no I want cash.” Okay, really? Really? We’re going to go back and forth about this. That’s the same level of that, who flipping cares?

Steven Jack Butala:
And it’s not just land, everything on the internet is like that.

Jill DeWit:
It’s silly.

Steven Jack Butala:
Today’s second topic is the three real reasons why buying and selling land may not work for you.

Jill DeWit:
Now this has my attention. Seriously-

Steven Jack Butala:
Jill and I took notes and we each came up secretly and separately of our three reasons, and Jill’s going to go first.

Jill DeWit:
Okay. I think that three reasons why this would not work for you is, number one, you don’t take any action at all. You’re stuck in the still doing your recon. Even if you join Land Academy and you’re just spending way too much time watching everything, pricing and overpricing and pricing and overpricing. And so the mail never goes out, but just basically no action at all. That’s one reason. Number two, this won’t work for you if you don’t have the confidence to trust yourself in everything that we teach you and make these acquisition decisions. That is going to be a problem too. That will keep you from moving forward, and then won’t work. You’ve got to make a decision, period. And by the way, you have all kinds of resources to help you like-

Steven Jack Butala:
Well, all of them.

Jill DeWit:
Well, all of them too. I know. Well, first of all, no mail, no action. Well, join the accountability group. I think accountability groups are there to help you be accountable. And you can make it that for yourself, just showing up and holding yourself. Tell the group, by next week, I’m going to have a mailer out. And then come back to the group and tell the group, I did send my mailer out. Make it your own thing that you want, even if it’s not being led that way. But you have to take some action. And then number two, so there’s one way to solve that.
Number two is, gosh, with the confidence in these acquisition decisions, do the best you can. And then if you’re still not sure, bring it up to us on the Thursday call, drop it in Discord with your peers. You have people here that will help you to make sure that you’re not making any fatal flaws and buying good property until you don’t need it. Then you won’t need it. And by the way, too, you can also go back and watch, well, A, read in Discord, look at some of the deals people are doing like, okay, would I have bought that? Would I have made that decision?
And you’re going to learn from those examples. And on our Thursday member calls, if you go back and watch, as we discuss in great detail every darn week, why I would buy it or why I wouldn’t buy it? And if I still would buy it, but I need this to change or I need this price or I need to know there’s access or I need to know this. You will start to pick up and you will gain that confidence. You will gain that knowledge, so you can make these decisions. And so that takes care of number two. And then the third reason that I see that people, this is not working for them.
They may have started out okay, but somewhere along the way, they lost motivation. And often it’s like things take too long or maybe they’re doing a lot of things they don’t want to do kind of thing. If things take too long, then you need to get yourself on a schedule. You need to give yourself a calendar and stick to it. Because I might lose motivation too if I’m like, okay, I just got Land Academy, I spent a month picking a county, then I spent a month getting in mail, and now I’m waiting and I’m watching for the offers. And I’m afraid now to pick one. I might even lose that.
You’ve got to really get yourself into the flow, into our system. And when the mail goes out, okay, two weeks later, I need more mail going out. And two weeks later, I need more mail going out. Because by doing that and keeping everything going forward, you’re going to constantly be working on things and you’re going to be constantly be watching properties being sold. That’s motivation for me. When I see my bank balance going up like, oh, that one’s sold, and then 10 days later, that one’s sold, and then two weeks later, that one’s sold. Great. And you’re always moving forward. That, to me, is a great way to solve your motivation problem. But that’s how I look at it. What are your-

Steven Jack Butala:
Well, first one is general follow through. But you’ll notice that three things Jill talked about were very personality driven. And so my three are a little bit more technical, but I don’t want to distract or take away from her points because I really think that they’re extremely valid. If you had experience in follow through, here’s some real core life examples about successful follow through. Like it or not, believe it or not, believe in it or not, spending four years to get a stupid freaking degree is a real good example. I’ve learned later in life. Jill and I hired a lot of people.
I never look at their education. I want to meet them and talk to them. I can tell you that that four-year degree experience as an employer, what they’re looking for, most employers not talking about Google or the top three law firms, because that’s a whole different thing. I’m talking about regular people and regular jobs and like us. I want to see that they spent four years. They had what it takes to deal with the minutia and all the BS that is associated with sitting there for four years on a college campus and actually having a follow through to finish it.
It’s not what grades they got, it’s not what degree they chose. Did you finish it? Did you follow through? We have a disproportionate number of people in our group who are the real successful ones, specifically in career path, who have come from or right now, own other businesses. Because that’s all this is. This is a startup with all the tools. And we couldn’t, I don’t think, make it easier for that type of personality type. I think follow through is the number one scenario. Do business owners really enjoy anything about doing payroll?

Jill DeWit:
Yeah, right.

Steven Jack Butala:
But you do it. If you want to get an accounting degree, you have to suffer through, two years of stuff that has nothing to do with what you’re there for. And so whether or not that business model, that bachelor’s degree business model is going to be viable in the future, that’s a whole different topic. It’s just all follow through. And if you started a business and it didn’t work, there’s some follow through to that. There’s some huge value in that. I’ve started many, many businesses that haven’t worked. Jill and I have failed at several together. And do I look at it like we failed at something? Not at all. It’s just all it did was in the end, and Jill now says this pretty loudly anytime anything else comes up, “No. Why don’t we just buy in some more land?”

Jill DeWit:
Yeah. Last time I checked-

Steven Jack Butala:
Did we know how to do it? We’ve got all the access to a tremendous amount of capital. We’re not going to make bad decisions, and she’s right. Follow through is my number one reason why I don’t think that this … You have to really ask yourself, do I have a follow through type personality? There is nothing wrong with not having a type A personality like both Jill and I have. Because we have to follow through on everybody, probably to our own fault. There’s nothing wrong if you’re not into that. I’m just saying, this might not be the best career choice for you.
Number two is you are not honest with yourself about where you’re good at something and where you’re not. I was extremely guilty of this, and I was finally wised up and hired somebody who was good at answering the phones and a good salesperson. And it changed my business overnight. This is a lot of years ago before Jill and I joined forces. And then ultimately, the best thing that ever happened is Jill and I joining together, when she’s just a natural on the phone and really enjoys it. In her pastime, she doesn’t sit around and try to create better Excel skills or find different ways that we can apply trolling, let’s say, to find a new market, but I do. In her spare time, she’s reading books about how to sell stuff or how to buy things or how to be a better investor-

Jill DeWit:
Investor.

Steven Jack Butala:
… or how to be, what’s the new climate of how women are running things now. Which is becoming more and more and more and more popular and in my opinion, rightfully so. And so, that’s just who she is. No one’s sitting around asking Jill to do something that she doesn’t want ever at work. And the same thing with me. Please be honest with yourself. And you have some phone skills or not, I know I don’t. If I had to, I could do it, but I don’t have to.
The third thing is, and I can’t say this enough, I’m going to talk a little bit more about this in a few minutes, is sending the mail. We have people that, for whatever reason, have proven this to themselves and send a tremendous amount of mail every month and they reap the rewards for that. And so if you’re getting hung up on, which I understand, not getting a mailer out or, and I think this happens way more than it gets discussed in our group, is you just can’t bring yourself to spend 5,000 bucks on a mailer. I understand that. But then be honest with yourself about, is this going to happen or not? Those are my three.

Jill DeWit:
I love it. It’s good. And again, it’s not a black and white like, you don’t have money. That’s not it. You don’t have a degree. That’s not it. You don’t know Excel. That’s not it. You don’t have whatever, because you can learn all that stuff. You really can. And we watched it. That’s one of the nice things about Land Academy now. People don’t ask us the same questions now that they used to ask us in the beginning, because we have such a strong community that people can see the results and they know that it works. They don’t have to even ask that stuff.
And I’ve watched over the years, people overcome a lot of these little hurdles, like Excel, either gotten a partner or really, they just got down and learned it. That’s really what happens. They get Land Academy, they start watching it right away, it’s Excel. Now they got to pause, spend a weekend, take a couple courses, and then come back, pick up where they left off, and then they can go with it. And you can do that. That’s it. There’s no real thing like, I’m trying to think if there’s any fatal, fatal, fatal thing that has kept someone from being successful. And I don’t have one.

Steven Jack Butala:
No, it’s all-

Jill DeWit:
Not one.

Steven Jack Butala:
… the only one that I … Well, I am forced to come up with one. It’s really a combination of just three things. It’s just you don’t want to do this in the end.

Jill DeWit:
Yeah. You don’t like it.

Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah, you don’t like it.

Jill DeWit:
That’s it. And that’s okay. Then don’t do it.

Steven Jack Butala:
Or you like it and you like the idea of having money and you like all that. Just right when we started Land Academy in 2015, we had a few built-in customers because they were our regular customers who were selling them land. And they were really into it. They didn’t question it. When we opened it to the public, the number one question for probably the first 12 months, and I’ll have to tell you, Jill and I traded off opinions about whether or not we should continue because we were spending too much time explaining to people-

Jill DeWit:
How this works.

Steven Jack Butala:
… that it works. Their question was, does this work? And you guys are probably crooks. And so I had to look inward and see how we’re presenting this and because there wasn’t anything at the time on the market like that at all. There are a couple other buy and sell land programs, but they all had to do with back taxes and financing. And we were real adamant when we released this. That isn’t the right way to do this. You got to send a mailer out, you got to send a ton of mailers out. And by the way, it costs some money to do that, which people are like, wait a minute, it cost money.

Jill DeWit:
And you have to pay for data, really? Yeah.

Steven Jack Butala:
But after a year or so of watching us and watching other people taking a chance and doing really well with it, I’ve never have answer to that.

Jill DeWit:
We don’t have questions anymore.

Steven Jack Butala:
For years and years and years-

Jill DeWit:
Exactly.

Steven Jack Butala:
… I haven’t answered that question.

Jill DeWit:
Mm-hmm. That’s good.

Steven Jack Butala:
Let’s take a look at another one of our favorite land acquisitions from our weekly Thursday member webinar. Jill, you have something inspirational to share.

Jill DeWit:
Well, I was going to talk a little bit about the return of Land Academy ladies, which I’m so excited. We had our first meeting last week. We meet on the first Tuesday of the month. And it is open to any female/female partner of a current active Land Academy member. I think there was only one person … Trying to think here. It’s a whole new group. It was so fun and so exciting. We’re still getting the word out here too, because I know I’m going to have some more alumni come back and rejoin this reprise of Land Academy ladies.
But it was so fun and it was just so many fresh ideas. It was amazing. We went for about two hours. I got to tell you, our first session was I shared, I think, something in inspirational. And then I opened it up to the group like, “Okay, let’s all get to know each other.” And we’re all on camera, we’re all mic’d up. So it’s really fun. And we all talked about who we are, where we are, our experience up to this point. And we had a wide variety of experience too.
Everything from brand new, not done a deal yet to I have 100 seller finance deals, I’m getting out of this to I’ve done this many land deals and I’m looking to triple that, all over the map. People in different spaces in real estate that had come to us, maybe some were agents that were still active and some were like, I turned that off. We had attorneys. We have everything in this group, was just amazing. There are a couple things that we talked about that just rose to the top that I thought I’d share. And if you think this is something that would sing to you, please reach out.
We’d love to talk to you about that. Even if you’re not a Land Academy member, just you want to learn more about the ladies group and what goes on there. Because that might be what you need to get you here, get you going. That’s totally great. I’ll stop, send a note to support@landacademy.com, and they’ll give you more information. But the three things, so we talked about … I said, “Okay, who are you, where are you, and why are you here right now? What do you need from this group?” And the three top things that really popped up were, one, is “I can’t find a group like this anywhere on the planet.” And I’m like, “You are right. There is not one.”

Steven Jack Butala:
That’s great, Jill.

Jill DeWit:
They’re like, “I’m here because nowhere can I be in a group of female like-minded people doing what I do, which is buying and selling land.” I’m like, “You’re right. It doesn’t exist.” And I’m so proud of that. So, yay. The second thing that rose up that people talked about there, like in confidence, it’s a woman thing. Everybody, I’m sure most people, have trouble with confidence at some point in their life. Because even if you’re a little boy showing up for the baseball game, am I going to hit the ball or not? You’re a little nervous about it. We all have times like that.
But for us, we’re still women in a man’s world doing these real estate deals, which I personally love. And so we talked about things that we’re going to do to help each other and get even more confidence. There’s several strong women in this group, by the way, too. But to get even more confidence going forward, doing these deals, doing bigger deals, and working in this space. And then the third thing that came up, which I did not even think it was going to be this popular, but they’re like, oh, this is why we’re here, is big picture wealth generation. These women are not here selling Tupperware. This is the whole thing. The women in this group are not here to sell Tupperware or have a fill in the blank home party because we’re just making ends meet.

Steven Jack Butala:
That’s great.

Jill DeWit:
I’m just here to make sure we can afford our vacation once a year, something like that. They’re like, oh, no, that’s not what this group is and that’s not who we are. We here to retire our husbands and make this a family business, starting with me as a woman. I’m like, that was awesome. We had a really, really good time. And again, if that interests you and you’re like, that’s me, Jill, I want to be in a group. That’s what I want. I want a group like that. Please reach out to my team and they will get your message to me and we’ll get you in there. Jack, what would you like to share?

Steven Jack Butala:
My topic.

Jill DeWit:
You have something informational to share with us today?

Steven Jack Butala:
I do.

Jill DeWit:
Thank you.

Steven Jack Butala:
My topic is called reckless mailing.

Jill DeWit:
Oh.

Steven Jack Butala:
Part of what I do, part of what my responsibilities are in our land business and all the other companies we have offers owners and land, all of them, is to analyze and complete financial statements at the end of every month. And so I completed a year to date scenario in offers to owners where, for the first time, I calculated … Well, I reported and regurgitated the top 10 customers that we’ve had in offers to owners, which tells us who has been sending out mail and how much mail they’re sending. And the top slot was over $900,000.
Somebody spent over $950,000 on mail the first few months of this year. Which is like, there’s always a bell curve to these things. That was extraordinary enough. But then I looked at the 19 after that, the top 20, I think I said top 10, but top 20, it went to 400,000 from there, 300,000, and then a lot of 100,000. The rest were in the hundred thousands before it dip below. I had to go 20 people down before … This is only the first two months of the year.
So then I got to thinking, every career path we have, I ask everybody on the call, what is it that really makes you … You make $6 million a year doing this, you make $600,000. What really is the key? What’s the real success, the secret? Tell me your secret. And everybody says, reckless mailing. They don’t say that phrase, but that’s what they mean.

Jill DeWit:
I like that. That’s a good phrase.

Steven Jack Butala:
Not looking at, well, should I send a 5,000 mail?

Jill DeWit:
Mailer yield per this and I’m going to analyze that. Just get it out.

Steven Jack Butala:
It’s very, very natural. A lot of people that join Land Academy, or at least the ones that are exposed to me, are Jacks. They are very analytical. They have chosen careers like accounting or mechanical engineering or software design or very technical degrees, and they need something quantifiable. And I completely understand that. It’s very popular for those types of people to hang their entire theoretical success doing this on a number like, how many mailers do I have to send out to buy a piece of property? To which I have answered, “Since 2015, I don’t know.”
There’s tons of variables involved. Did you price the mailer right? Did you choose the right county and run the red, green, yellow test correctly? Are you consistently sending 5,000 out or just sending 5,000 out to see if you can get one? What’s your real attitude? And then most importantly, which is the hardest thing for them to digest because they have my personality type, who’s answering your phone? And are they taking deals that could have probably slipped through the cracks or theoretically thought there’s no deal there and had them be transferred into a successful real estate deal by somebody like Jill?
The older ones tend to understand. Younger ones, we always have people in our group that believe that, and we had a question like that today, believe that texting and email are somehow going to get a real estate deal done for you. And I’m here to tell you, and I would’ve believed that years ago, I am here to tell you, these people want to hear a friendly voice on the other end of the phone.

Jill DeWit:
That’s true.

Steven Jack Butala:
They want to have a relationship and they want to sell you their property, but they don’t this to be any type of insincere. They want to believe that you’re going to pay them $32,541 at the end of escrow, which we do and our members do. It starts with reckless mailing. I’ll tell you, after your-

Jill DeWit:
And ends with success.

Steven Jack Butala:
… 5 or 10 deals, you’re not going to care about mailer yield ever again. You just do a huge mailer. You buy 14 or 15 properties. This is what the way Jill and I do it. The mailer might have been 80,000, it might’ve been 50,000, it might’ve been 15. But we’re busy running around doing deals and we make a lot of money doing it. I stopped calculating mailer yield, if we ever really calculated it.

Jill DeWit:
I never calculated it.

Steven Jack Butala:
Many, many, many-

Jill DeWit:
You know how I am.

Steven Jack Butala:
… many years ago.

Jill DeWit:
I just look at the bank balance going, yup, keep going. Don’t stop, send more.

Steven Jack Butala:
And to bring this full circle, that’s what the people in career paths said, “Oh yeah, I worried all about that right when I started and I did five deals and made-

Jill DeWit:
Then I forgot.

Steven Jack Butala:
… $182,000. And I think I spent 15 grand on mail, or maybe it was 20. I don’t remember.”

Jill DeWit:
Yeah. Who cares?

Steven Jack Butala:
That’s how our conversation always goes. And most of them don’t even know that’s their secret sauce because they go about things in their life like that. Which I have to tell you, Jill and I do too. It’s responsible. But a lot of stuff we do is just reckless barrel forward until we’re going to die doing this or it’s going to work out great, figuratively dies.

Jill DeWit:
Hilarious. Oh, boy.

Steven Jack Butala:
Join us next Wednesday for another interesting episode. You’re not alone in your real estate ambition. We are Jack and Jill.

Jill DeWit:
We are Jack and Jill.

Steven Jack Butala:
Information.

Jill DeWit:
And inspiration.

Steven Jack Butala:
To my undervalued property.

 

Thanks for listening, and finally, don’t forget to subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts.

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LA1997WP

Respond To Change in Real Estate 2024 (LA 1997)

Jack Butala and Jill DeWit explore the real estate market, discussing the anticipated stagnation in 2024 and offering valuable insights for investors. Jack shares three crucial strategies to thrive in this shifting market: increasing offer volume, recognizing the rise in rental demand, and predicting demographic

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No need to hire staff - we did it for you.

Land Academy PRO is the brainchild of founders Steven Jack Butala and Jill DeWit. Designed at the request of Land Academy members who are ready for a higher level, we’re excited to continue to provide the tools and support needed by professional investors.

Each level comes with a preset amount of included data, Concierge Mail service, and postage. For example, the Green level includes 6,000 units of completed-for-you mail completely out the door at no extra cost to you.

All levels include a PatLive introduction and preset script (we will set up your phone answering for you), use of Land Academy’s personal Transaction Team to manage your deal flow, an AirTable (CRM) base setup managed by our (and your!) Transaction Coordinator, personal consulting, regular office hours, and includes your Land Academy subscription cost.

If you’re making this a business, Land Academy PRO takes the work off of your plate so you can focus on the things that matter – like running your business.

Green

$10,060

per Month

Silver

$14,590

per Month

Gold

$19,120

per Month

Platinum

$23,650

per Month

Black

$28,180

per Month

Concierge Data+ (with data) Included mailers each month (data + concierge + mailer + postage). Our team will do your data for it and get it out the door.
6,000 mailers 9,000 mailers 12,000 mailers 15,000 mailers 18,000 mailers
PatLive introduction at no cost We will help you establish your first script and get PatLive set up on your behalf to answer your phones.
$500 value $500 value $500 value $500 value $500 value
Transaction Coordinator Use of our personal Transaction Coordinator team to manage your deals. Trained and ready to go!
$7,500 value $7,500 value $7,500 value $7,500 value $7,500 value
AirTable Ready-for-you CRM managed by your personal Land Academy Pro Transaction Coordinator
$100 value $100 value $100 value $100 value $100 value
Personal Consulting 1 on 1 personal consulting with our Transaction Coordinator each week.
- - $1,000 value $1,000 value $1,000 value
Regular Office Hours Regular office hours with Jack and Jill + our staff. Private for LA Pro Members Only. (Think Career Path Office Hours)
$2,500 value $2,500 value $2,500 value $2,500 value $2,500 value
ParcelFact ParcelFact is included in your LA Pro membership with unlimited pulls.
$150 value $150 value $150 value $150 value $150 value
FREE Career Path Access
$23,000 value $23,000 value $23,000 value $23,000 value $23,000 value
Land Academy No more separate charges - Land Academy is included with LA Pro Membership. This includes all education, tools, support, and future releases.
$300 value $300 value $300 value $300 value $300 value
Subtotal: $8,550 value $8,550 value $9,550 value $12,050 value $12,050 value
Mail Value: $7,500 value $11,250 value $15,000 value $18,750 value $22,500 value
Total Value: $39,050 $42,800 $47,550 $53,800 $57,550
Apply Now Apply Now Apply Now Apply Now Apply Now

Green

$10,060

per Month

Concierge Data+ (with data) Included mailers each month (data + concierge + mailer + postage). Our team will do your data for it and get it out the door.
6,000 mailers
PatLive introduction at no cost We will help you establish your first script and get PatLive set up on your behalf to answer your phones.
$500 value
Transaction Coordinator Use of our personal Transaction Coordinator team to manage your deals. Trained and ready to go!
$7,500 value
AirTable Ready-for-you CRM managed by your personal Land Academy Pro Transaction Coordinator
$100 value
Personal Consulting 1 on 1 personal consulting with our Transaction Coordinator each week.
-
Regular Office Hours Regular office hours with Jack and Jill + our staff. Private for LA Pro Members Only. (Think Career Path Office Hours)
$2,500 value
ParcelFact ParcelFact is included in your LA Pro membership with unlimited pulls.
$150 value
FREE Career Path Access
$23,000 value
Land Academy No more separate charges - Land Academy is included with LA Pro Membership. This includes all education, tools, support, and future releases.
$300 value
Subtotal: $8,550 value
Mail Value: $7,500 value
Total Value: $39,050
Apply Now

Silver

$14,590

per Month

Concierge Data+ (with data) Included mailers each month (data + concierge + mailer + postage). Our team will do your data for it and get it out the door.
9,000 mailers
PatLive introduction at no cost We will help you establish your first script and get PatLive set up on your behalf to answer your phones.
$500 value
Transaction Coordinator Use of our personal Transaction Coordinator team to manage your deals. Trained and ready to go!
$7,500 value
AirTable Ready-for-you CRM managed by your personal Land Academy Pro Transaction Coordinator
$100 value
Personal Consulting 1 on 1 personal consulting with our Transaction Coordinator each week.
-
Regular Office Hours Regular office hours with Jack and Jill + our staff. Private for LA Pro Members Only. (Think Career Path Office Hours)
$2,500 value
ParcelFact ParcelFact is included in your LA Pro membership with unlimited pulls.
$150 value
FREE Career Path Access
$23,000 value
Land Academy No more separate charges - Land Academy is included with LA Pro Membership. This includes all education, tools, support, and future releases.
$300 value
Subtotal: $8,550 value
Mail Value: $11,250 value
Total Value: $42,800
Apply Now

Gold

$19,120

per Month

Concierge Data+ (with data) Included mailers each month (data + concierge + mailer + postage). Our team will do your data for it and get it out the door.
12,000 mailers
PatLive introduction at no cost We will help you establish your first script and get PatLive set up on your behalf to answer your phones.
$500 value
Transaction Coordinator Use of our personal Transaction Coordinator team to manage your deals. Trained and ready to go!
$7,500 value
AirTable Ready-for-you CRM managed by your personal Land Academy Pro Transaction Coordinator
$100 value
Personal Consulting 1 on 1 personal consulting with our Transaction Coordinator each week.
$1,000 value
Regular Office Hours Regular office hours with Jack and Jill + our staff. Private for LA Pro Members Only. (Think Career Path Office Hours)
$2,500 value
ParcelFact ParcelFact is included in your LA Pro membership with unlimited pulls.
$150 value
FREE Career Path Access
$23,000 value
Land Academy No more separate charges - Land Academy is included with LA Pro Membership. This includes all education, tools, support, and future releases.
$300 value
Subtotal: $9,550 value
Mail Value: $15,000 value
Total Value: $47,550
Apply Now

Platinum

$23,650

per Month

Concierge Data+ (with data) Included mailers each month (data + concierge + mailer + postage). Our team will do your data for it and get it out the door.
15,000 mailers
PatLive introduction at no cost We will help you establish your first script and get PatLive set up on your behalf to answer your phones.
$500 value
Transaction Coordinator Use of our personal Transaction Coordinator team to manage your deals. Trained and ready to go!
$7,500 value
AirTable Ready-for-you CRM managed by your personal Land Academy Pro Transaction Coordinator
$100 value
Personal Consulting 1 on 1 personal consulting with our Transaction Coordinator each week.
$1,000 value
Regular Office Hours Regular office hours with Jack and Jill + our staff. Private for LA Pro Members Only. (Think Career Path Office Hours)
$2,500 value
ParcelFact ParcelFact is included in your LA Pro membership with unlimited pulls.
$150 value
FREE Career Path Access
$23,000 value
Land Academy No more separate charges - Land Academy is included with LA Pro Membership. This includes all education, tools, support, and future releases.
$300 value
Subtotal: $12,050 value
Mail Value: $18,750 value
Total Value: $53,800
Apply Now

Black

$28,180

per Month

Concierge Data+ (with data) Included mailers each month (data + concierge + mailer + postage). Our team will do your data for it and get it out the door.
18,000 mailers
PatLive introduction at no cost We will help you establish your first script and get PatLive set up on your behalf to answer your phones.
$500 value
Transaction Coordinator Use of our personal Transaction Coordinator team to manage your deals. Trained and ready to go!
$7,500 value
AirTable Ready-for-you CRM managed by your personal Land Academy Pro Transaction Coordinator
$100 value
Personal Consulting 1 on 1 personal consulting with our Transaction Coordinator each week.
$1,000 value
Regular Office Hours Regular office hours with Jack and Jill + our staff. Private for LA Pro Members Only. (Think Career Path Office Hours)
$2,500 value
ParcelFact ParcelFact is included in your LA Pro membership with unlimited pulls.
$150 value
FREE Career Path Access
$23,000 value
Land Academy No more separate charges - Land Academy is included with LA Pro Membership. This includes all education, tools, support, and future releases.
$300 value
Subtotal: $12,050 value
Mail Value: $22,500 value
Total Value: $57,550
Apply Now

Disclaimer: *We have a monthly “use it or lose it” policy with mail and data – Land Academy PRO is designed to keep you on-track and consistent.

To cancel, all packages require a 30 day notice to move you back down to regular Land Academy membership.

Office Hours Schedule

Scheduling a Career Path interview call is currently on hold and will resume closer to Fall 2024 as we approach Career Path 10.

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