I’m Steven Jack Butala.

I’m Jill DeWit finishing my tea, and this is The Land Academy Show.

This is episode number 2078 and today’s topic, this is the 5th real estate myth of the week, real estate agents are smarter than you. I do not think so. This is a fun topic for Jill and me. If you follow us at all, you know that we are not the kindest on the air at least to real estate agents. We’ll talk a little bit about that. Why? First of all, because it’s fun. Second of all, because it’s true.

It’s funny. I was going to pause and I made a note and I’m going to interject it here. I’ve worked with so many agents over the years and the good ones do listen to me. The good ones, we have conversations. I’ll tell them, “I may have done this many deals but I don’t know your area as well as you know your area. I’m just moving into this area. What’s been moving?” That kind of a thing. They go, “Thank you. Here’s what we found over this part of the county this or that part of the county that,” but then the conversation goes to, “Jill, I always want to know if my listings can be better. I always want to know what you found to move your properties all over the country.”

The good agents though, I want to make sure everybody is clear that there are some and I have some dear friends that are agents. It’s a conversation and they want to learn and they want to improve. It’s a test. I don’t mean to be braggy, but we have done more deals than they have. I can’t find any agent who’s done more transactions than Jack.

Discord Question

The sole purpose for the vast majority of real estate agents is to get in the way of your real estate deal and get paid for doing nothing. Each day on the show, we answer a question from our Land Academy member Discord forum and take a deep dive into land-related topics by popular request.

The sole purpose for the majority of real estate agents is to get in the way of your deal and get paid for doing nothing. Share on X

Frank said, “Hello, Land Academy. Until I joined this group, I thought you had to be licensed to do real estate deals. I now know that’s not true. Why do real estate agents need to be licensed and should I get my license to be better at buying and selling land?” Can I pause right there and then jump in here? I’m going to answer the question briefly and then I want to go into the topic because it’ll incorporate these. Should I get my license to be better at buying and selling land? I would not. You do not need it. You do not have to. The only thing it does is open you up to more rules, more regulations, other things you have to think about, the things you have to report. Let’s go into the show and I’ll explain our story and it’s going to lead into what we’re talking about.

You do not need to get a license to be better at buying or selling land. The only thing it does is open you up to more rules and regulations. Share on X

Real Estate Are Smarter Than You

Today’s topic, it’s the fifth myth of the week, real estate agents are smarter than you.

We all know what’s going on in Arizona. If you’re listening to this show, you’re into real estate and you have seen holy cow numbers coming out of Arizona, and then people that are moving here, how it’s growing, the industries, and things like that. Check out the Phoenix area, it is on fire. It’s insane. Even some of our own personal acquisitions, we’re looking at each other going, “Maybe we should sell this.” It’s hard to turn down that kind of dough. When we bought this three years ago, I didn’t think it would double like this. What do we do? It’s hard. That’s what’s going on.

It’s crazy. Arizona, you would think is great on top of things. You guys got it all figured out. Look how much money people are making. Why are all these investors in Arizona? It seems to be half of Land Academy or all these other people are in Arizona. It’s interesting and funny and true. There’s a lot you can do in Arizona. I want to back up a few minutes and explain a little story about our experience tiptoeing down the path of being real estate agents ourselves in Arizona.

A few years ago, we went together in person and did the I think it was 80 hours, I want to say 80 or 100 hours. You had to do in-person real estate education. You get out of that. You got to take a test, you got to do this, you got to do all the little things, and at the very end of it, then you can apply for your license. At the very end of it, we both chose not to because of the things I explained earlier.

For $500 or what is very small amount of money, you can learn tons on real estate in your state and never take the exam.

Let me say this one important topic that is my main point for today and it ties into everything. Remember, 80 hours in a classroom learning about real estate to be a licensed real estate agent in the state of Arizona. What percentage of that 80 hours of training time do you think was spent on analyzing data to make decisions to help sellers and buyers maximize profit and read the market and best guide them to a decision? Not one minute. This is all we do all day every day. That’s the part to me that’s frustrating. I am literally in a conversation right now with a real estate agent. I’m asking this question and he’s not even understanding the question.

I’m brand new in the market right now. I’m always not going to use this agent. It was to do some land, to sell some land. This person is not the one. I had some smart professional questions asking about this county, the area he services, and what’s going on specifically. He doesn’t even understand my questions. He knows what he bought and sold yesterday and he knows what the guys in his office are buying and selling, but as far as the market as a whole, he doesn’t read it every day.

He’s not looking at it this way. He’s looking at what he’s got on his plate, who he’s going to call, how he’s going to sell it, and get this dumb thing sold. The first thing is, I hate to say it because I feel so many agents, all they think is ‘Let’s drop the price.” How about your marketing changes? How about you reach out to more people? How about whatever?

I remember a couple years ago, a gal on Landing Academy said, “I can’t believe I did this but I taught my real estate agent how to use Facebook and post property to help get some business on Facebook.” We did another person in Land Academy, a nice guy. The first initial is B. You know who I’m talking about. He sent out neighbor letters and put his agents’ phone numbers on them.

I sold the property.

There are times I do pick on them. This time is not one of them. I want you to know that it’s not the training. It’s rare to find them that think like investors.

Let us take a couple of steps back. Why would anybody get a real estate license? What’s it good for? You need a real estate license in all 50 states in this country anyway to represent somebody in the acquisition or sale of their property. If that person doesn’t want anybody to represent them and they want to go off and sell it themselves, they’re entitled to do that. No one knows that.

That’s all it does. It allows you legally to represent somebody. How the hell did that come up? A very long time ago in the early ‘40s and ‘50s, there was no such thing as a real estate license. What ended up happening was that the big social butterfly busy bee in the town where someone was thinking about selling the house found out about it, and realized that Sally Smith over here wanted to sell the house.

This busy bee knows everybody in town. She goes and says Sally Smith is selling her house. Mr. Jones, over here, she finds out needs a house. She put those people together and life went on grand for a long time just like that. Maybe she got some money. Maybe she got some brownies. I don’t know. Somebody and I don’t know exactly who realized that there’s a lot of money in this.

The National Association of Realtors, NAR, is either the largest or number two largest lobbyist group in Washington, DC, of all the lobbyist groups in the world for anything. Larger than petroleum, larger than labor, and larger than anything. Why? Because they’re falsely propping up the notion and perpetuating this false sense of I need a real estate agent. The National Association of Realtors is in the business of managing all the lower associations below them. I think there are like 300 or 400 MLS, multiple listing services, with little tiny regional ones all over the country. They report to the National Association of Realtors and they have to pay them.

Why don’t we call it a union? Because that’s what it is.

Hold on a second. I’ll explain the facts first. These associations’ business is to attract schmoes to go to these schools for 40 to 80 hours, depending on whatever the rules are, and spend dues every year. When you start down the path of being a licensed real estate agent, you have to pay about $5,000, all total, in various associations all the way up the chain before you can hang your license on a real estate brokerage.

Real estate brokers in the business have recruited you also because you’re going to split the fuse with you. You are the schmo. You’re the one doing all the work, paying all this money up for all the transactions, and what? They have a huge financial motivator to convince the government that real estate agents are needed. They’re not at all. It’s what you said. They’re not helping anything. They’re getting away in the way of the transaction. Jill is exactly right with this example. All the stuff that you need to know about making money in real estate, has nothing to do with being an agent.

Everything you need to know about making money in real estate has nothing to do with being an agent. Share on X

I’m going to make Noly. We could do this the same way by the way. It’s the National Association of Land Investors that just decided.

What’s sad is that just like Jill had explained in her example earlier, they were promised riches. They should never. I’ve never met a real estate agent in my life who couldn’t multiply 6% by any number. It’s because 6% of a $2 million house is a lot. It’s a lot of money. Please help me understand. Is there any more work in selling a $2 million house or a $200,000 house? It’s probably less worth on a higher-end house. Is that real estate agent adding that much more value? It’s a $120,000 fee versus a $12,000 fee. That’s insane.

To end this on and not mean vibe.

Why? You know the truth. My point is I want the audience to start thinking about what the heck?

Here’s what I hope your takeaway is. Know that going into this, when you’re choosing like, I do. I often choose land-focused agents to sell my property. Now it sounds crazy, but I do. I put a lot of thought into it and I asked them intelligent questions and if they can’t answer them, I move on to someone who can. That’s it. If I can’t find someone, then I might have to do it myself and I’m good with that because I want to make sure it goes well.

I want to make sure I’m maximizing what I can get out of it. I want to make sure that I get the right buyer and that it happens quickly. That’s reality. Please don’t assume just because they have something posted on the internet and they have a company behind them that they know more than you. Because most often and I’ll tell you, if you’re in Land Academy, you’re not like we are, they don’t know more than you.

The real value I find is they’ve got a photographer ready to go. They have a team that can make good listings. They know how to use AI because they’re all using it now to write their descriptions. We all know that and that’s good. I’d rather do that. It’s probably better for property descriptions, what it used to be versus two sentences.

Sometimes two sentences are like, “You’re selling my property and that’s all you got?” Paint the picture, please. They hopefully have a list of buyers that they’ve worked with over the years or someone who didn’t get the property. They just sold last month. That’s like mine. That’s the value and that’s what I’m seeking when I ask these people. I don’t ask a lot of what you think’s happening in this area questions.

I asked more, “Based on what you sold, how did it go? What do you think? How does mine compare to that one? How fast can you sell this one? Do you have buyers lined up? Those are the questions and that’s what I want you to do and that’s a good. Use of how we work with them.

I have more things to say but I’m not going to say it.

All right, thank you. Say it for the NLAI.

Closing Words

Join us in the next episode for five more interesting episodes. You are not alone in your real estate ambition. We are Jack and Jill, information and inspiration to buy undervalued property.