Distinguishing Between “Need” & “Want” In Decisions

This is episode number 2231. Jill and I are talking about why need drives real estate decisions, not want, and why it’s predictable. This is not a universal concept. There are some people who buy things that they want and don’t care what the right price is, but that’s not our business model.

It sounds like need is responsible and want is not responsible or irresponsible. Is that where you’re going? Maybe I need a watch, but I don’t need the watch.

Maybe I want a larger diamond ring.

I don’t need a larger diamond ring. I understand. We could go on a bit for this. I’m not going to say where the worst is, but we’re in the middle. I’m going to go with a healthy balance of needs and wants. We’re in the middle of it.

You’re in the healthy balance.

That’s what I think. Some people would say, “Hell no. You guys are a wreck.”

Some people, or maybe our parents.

“Do you need that?”

Some people may have children.

My mom told me about what you need. One of the things is like, “Mom, I need this.” There are funny sayings you remember. As a kid, I’m like, “Mom, but it’s free,” and stuff like that. I always remember, “Just because it’s on sale doesn’t mean it’s a good deal or you need it.” I’m like, “She’s right.”

Just because it's on sale doesn't mean it's a good deal. Share on X

I never had that materialistic drive.

You weren’t a girl, and stirring with fashion, and all your friends looked great in school. High school is a fashion show for girls. It’s awful. You go to college, and everybody’s in a ponytail and sweatpants. You’re like, “What just happened?”

Why is there a change like that?

I have no idea. It’s the funniest thing. I’m like, “What?”

Men couldn’t care less about any of this.

It’s not about you.

You would think, especially if you’re a young man. Women are getting all dressed up and stuff so they can attract men. It has nothing to do with that. They don’t care about that. You’re dressing up for each other.

It is for each other. That’s a whole other discussion.

What happens? You dress up. You have an outfit on. It’s Monday morning. What’s the desired effect? Other girls come up to say, “You look so cute.” That’s what you want.

Yes. It’s like, “Where did you get that? How cool.”

I have a single example.

Hold on, Mister. I remember the kids. Guys, back in the day, there was a tennis shoe thing.

We never had that.

It certainly was where I grew up. There were the latest shoes.

I remember our kids going through that.

Maybe a jacket, but for us, it was the brand thing.

Most men are trying not to look stupid, and they need help doing that. They’re not trying to look great. If you know a man, consistently attempts to look great all the time, then I want you to think about why that is and what that man’s priorities are, and if they’re in line with their own. Whether you want a woman or a buddy.

I like your comment, though. It’s funny, and I understand that. I think it transcends age.

What does?

You’re just trying not to look stupid. That explains so much. That’s a revelation for me.

It’s like, “See that guy at the end of the bar?” “No. What do you mean? What guy?” That’s what I want. “Which guy?” They all look the same down there.

I understand.

Do you mean the one who looks like a hobo? You don’t want that. Do you mean the one who looks like a movie star? You don’t want that.

We’ve got to have some shopping to do, Sir. Now, I know how to do this, too. I don’t mean to pick on you, but I’m going to. We’re about to take a little getaway, and I’m pretty sure what you’re going to pack is going to make you stand out. I’m going to point out, “Do you want to stand out in this environment because you will?”

This is what happens. Women glam onto something you say, then hold it against you for months.

That is not true. Do you know what it is? How you look is sometimes a reflection of me. It’s like, “She let him go out like that.” Usually, I have to walk around, but I didn’t pick it up.

I know what we’re doing. I want to be there this time, so I know that dressing like a lumberjack on an ocean dock is not appropriate, but that’s what she’s getting at. I changed my whole thing.

I know and I like it. It’s appropriate for the situation.

I plan on wearing this exact get-up for five days straight.

That’s what’s going to happen.

I’m just joking. What is this even about?

Kia was like, “You need a uniform,” and I understand that.

I just need to not think about stuff. We mentally check it off. There are a bunch of clothes I’m supposed to wear that are in this pile. If we’re going to Whitefish, Montana, here’s my pile. If we’re going to the Pacific Ocean, here’s my pile. That’s it. If you want to be involved in that, that’s okay.

I got to say that’s a little bit tripping into my space, which is, “I have an outfit for that.” That sounds like the guy version, “Here’s a pile.” Mine’s like, “I got the right outfit.”

A little too much. I don’t know where that went. What’s the title?

It’s why need drives real estate decisions, not want, and why it’s predictable.

Each day on the show, we answer a question from our Land Academy Member Discord Forum. We take a deep dive into land-related topics, by your request.

Lisette wrote, “Everyone, I got a lead from another investor. What would be a typical finder’s fee?”

Let’s dig into this. This happens a lot when you get pretty successful at this in any capacity in real estate. You have properties. Jill has made a fortune for us doing this exact thing. You always have properties that you know are a good deal, but they’re just not your acquisition criteria or maybe you sent a mailer out and somebody’s responding to one of the letters that you sent and they say, “By the way, I’ve got these fourteen other properties in this different state. Maybe we can put a deal together on all of them.”

You don’t like that state for whatever reason. It’s just not part of your acquisition criteria. I’m going to go over here and try to find somebody who loves the state and who operates there regularly. It’s because maybe they’re good deals or maybe they’re not. What do you do? How do you negotiate a deal that way?

What do you do?

I do a 10% finder’s fee. There are two ways. Upon acquisition, I want 10% of the value or upon the sale, which means I’ll take the risk with you. I want a higher percentage. I’m an upfront 10% finder’s fee person. I got 10 or 15 pieces of land, which are worth $100,000. Pay me $10,000 and I’ll turn the whole deal over to you. Good luck. That happens in our group all the time. In fact, for some people, that’s their entire business model because Jill is talking about clothes and dimes and stuff.

The Predictability Of Real Estate Responses

I didn’t bring up diamonds. I was talking about gloves. Let’s continue to this topic, why need drives decisions and not want, and why it’s predictable. I am going to go back to our experience, and I’m going to dig into your experience. That’s where the predictable part comes in. The predictable part of it varies. Let me give you an example. When Jack first started doing this many years ago, the whole time when he was just thinking outside the box, “How can I reach more people? What do I do?” If you’ve listened to us for a while, it started on a different tangent of this business, if you will, and involves fax machines.

No one was doing it back then. Nobody thought of sending out 150 or 200 or 500 faxes to buy a property, but guess what? It worked. It evolved into direct mail and all the things that we’re doing now. The reason I say predictable is because he knew that if he sent out 150, somewhere between X and Y percent would respond. He knew that if he doubled that, he’s going to get double the response. If he cuts it in half, he gets half the response. The same holds true now. There is going to be a response.

Granted, the response that we’re getting in 2025 is not the same response Jack was getting in 2005 when he was sending out direct mail offers, which he was. In 2005, it was probably a 30% response from these sellers. Now it’s more like 1% to 3%. Things have changed, but there’s still a number you can count on, and we can still say, “First five months of the year, we send out an average of X amount of things. How many calls did that result in? How many properties have we bought?” I can still loosely say that.

I don’t track much that way. It’s about money for us, but I can go back and look at it and see the numbers. I have a gauge. I can say, “Here’s what 2025 is looking like.” I can go back and look at 2024 and 2023 because we’ve been doing it that long. We can keep going back if I want to. The point is, Jack and I both know what is going to happen in the next month if we double it and what’s going to happen next month if we cut it in half within reason. There’s some seasonality that creeps in once in a while, but again, we’ve got the experience, so we know that. That part is predictable. Now, why need is a separate topic. Do you want to talk about that?

I’ve been in the real estate industry my entire professional life, and here are some of the sentences I’ve heard from people over the years, and some of the sentences I’ve said, “You’re new in that. You’re X, Y, and Z company’s new acquisition guy.” “Yes, that’s me. I need to buy fourteen buildings, and I need to fit these criteria.” Need, not want. Nobody walks around saying, “I want another office building.” They don’t say that. They say, “I need to buy an office building that’s performing just like the one that I have in Jackson Hole or something like that.” There is always a need there. How many properties do you need to successfully buy and sell every year to meet your personal success criteria? Need, need, need.

Applying “Need” Vs. “Want” To Sellers & Business Goals

“Seller, do you need to sell this property or do you want to?” “I want to. I want to sell it for $300,000.” “Seller number two, do you need or want to sell this property?” “I need to sell it. I am moving back to Massachusetts.” It’s need and want, two very distinctive, separate things. Your job is to find out and define what you need, and then talk to your seller and define what they need. If they’re the same thing, you’re in business.

Your job is to find out, define what you need and then talk to your seller, define what they need. If they're the same thing, you're in business. Share on X

Why is it predictable? It’s because, exactly what Jill and I just said, there’s a seasonality effect in all of real estate. You can watch it on any annual graph in almost any statistic days on market, available inventory, and on and on. What you want is to predict that. You want to buy properties in most seasonal environments in the winter because they’re cheaper and sell them when demand is high in the summer. If someone lists a mobile home on an acre and a half in Northern Michigan in February, trust me, they need to sell that property. They’re not sitting around. They don’t have the luxury, like us, of saying, “Let’s wait a few months.”

We’ll get in there in May or April, get it all cleaned out, take some amazing pictures, and we’ll post it for the season. That’s want, then we want to get our price. Maybe in a lot of cases, and certainly in our case, we’ll go in a whole extra season on our property like that just to wait for our price. There are two things that happened in real estate. That’s the takeaway from this. You decide if your seller wants needs or wants to sell the property. You decide how much property you need to buy and sell a year, so you can quit your job or whatever you want to do.

That’s it. That was perfect. Thank you.

Join us in the next episode where we have an interview with long-time successful Land Academy member, Michelle Bridger. It’s always a blast to talk to her. I always learn stuff.

It’s so fun.

You are not alone in your real estate ambition. We are Jack and Jill. Information and inspiration to buy undervalued property.