Keeping up with Internet Technology in Real Estate Acquisitions and Internet Sales (LA 1002)
Keeping up with Internet Technology in Real Estate Acquisitions and Internet Sales (LA 1002)
Transcript:
Steven Butala: Steve and Jill here.
Jill DeWit: Good day.
Steven Butala: Welcome to The Land Academy Show, entertaining land investment talk. I’m Steven Jack Butala.
Jill DeWit: And I’m Jill DeWit, broadcasting from sunny southern California.
Steven Butala: Today, Jill and I talk about keeping up with internet technology in real estate acquisitions and sales.
Jill DeWit: Thank you.
Steven Butala: That was take four, in case you wanted to know, and Jill’s like, “Thank you for getting it right [inaudible 00:00:30].”
Jill DeWit: I’m glad to do this topic, actually. This is important. You know what’s funny? Surprisingly, being the chick here, this technology discussion is important to me.
Steven Butala: Oh, man.
Jill DeWit: Thank you.
Steven Butala: Learning how to read from a homemade teleprompter’s important to me today. Before we get into it, let’s take a question posted by one of our LandInvestors.com online communities. It’s free.
Jill DeWit: If it was a homemade … It’s funny.
Steven Butala: Here’s what it is-
Jill DeWit: If it was a homemade teleprompter, be our children holding up poster board. It’s not that.
Steven Butala: It’s a medical monitor for people that are hooked up to stuff at home, like later in life, on a Chinese Glide Gear. I mean, it all works great, and it’s not ultra-cheap, but it’s not a $40,000 teleprompter like in a TV studio. I only remembered this because, like Jill said, I sent a list of equipment to somebody once … Shit, recently. Because they asked me like, “What equipment do you guys use?” And I started thinking about it. I’m like, “How do I describe all this stuff? I taped it all together.”
Jill DeWit: There’s a lot that, when you really look around this room, there’s a lot that goes into this. It’s pretty darn funny. Yep.
Jill DeWit: Okay. The question is, Chris asks, “Hi, everyone. I’m about to send out my first mailer, and I’m scrubbing my list for unusable properties. I found several waterfront properties in eastern Tennessee that have oddly shaped parcels extending out into the lake. Is it possible that this is a mapping error, or are these actual properties that, perhaps, used to be dry land at some point? I have come across several of these in scrubbing this list and was hoping for some guidance.”
Steven Butala: This is a great question. And I love mapping, by the way. I personally love data. I’m not the biggest fan of sales, but I do love all the mapping that’s involved in this. For some reason just as a little kid, I loved maps, and I still go on Google Earth and fly around in that flight simulator thing and all of it.
Steven Butala: Maps, especially on the internet like on Google Earth and like on ParcelFact, the outline or the GPS coordinates on the Earth are not perfectly lined up inch by inch, because Earth is curved. That’s one reason. Number two, you mentioned erosion with water. That’s absolutely the case. When that partially was subdivided, there was more land than there is water.
Steven Butala: So here’s the what you do when this happens. You take the size of the property, let’s say it’s five acres, with a grain of salt. It might be a five-acre property originally. It might be four now. In some cases … Jill and I bought a property one time in Washington state that was in a river that was under water a certain part of the year, and then it wasn’t.
Jill DeWit: I was thinking … That was my first thought, too. I wondered, “Half the year, does it look different?” When was the image pulled? Was it pulled in February or January?
Steven Butala: Believe it or not, the people love that stuff. They love it. They’ll eat that up if it’s priced right.
Jill DeWit: Exactly.
Steven Butala: But here’s the way you can figure out if you should buy it or not. Is there something close by that fits on the lot that’s built on? Like if there’s a property next door, the outline … If you go into ParcelFact, you should be able to, by now, click around the property that you’re looking at. See who owns the other properties. See which properties are and how many acres they are, and if they’re like kind, and if somebody’s got a cabin or something like that next to the property you’re looking at. They’re making it work just fine. It’s not under water, then you’re probably going to be okay. I say “probably,” air quotes. You still have to get in there and find out what’s going on, for the most part. But waterfront property like that that’s got stuff going on around it, is great, man. I mean, it’s the greatest property ever. So that’s a great question. Don’t let it scare you. That’s my answer. Do you have …
Jill DeWit: No.
Steven Butala: Today’s topic: Keeping Up With Internet Technology and Real Estate Acquisitions and Sales. This is the meat of the show.
Jill DeWit: This is so important. This is a little bit of what we talked about on Monday. Monday, we really talked about data and, man, you got to be involved, and stay on the cutting edge, and keep learning. So that’s the data side of it. Today it’s just about internet technology. Back when we were making websites, we weren’t trying to look at them, “How do they view on your mobile? How do they view on a tablet?” There’s so many … That’s just one little teeny example of changes in the last 10 years that you’ve really got to pay attention to going forward. So internet technology, and then how it … You want to say more, and then we’ll talk about how it applies to us?
Steven Butala: I mean, go ahead, love, because I have a lot to say about this. I’m going to be really age-specific, and there’s some brutal honesty …
Jill DeWit: Go ahead.
Steven Butala: All right.
Jill DeWit: Okay.
Steven Butala: Jill and I have friends that are exactly my age or in a few cases slightly older … I mean, like six months older or a year older, which is insignificant, as we all know, at our age … who do not know how to use a computer. They just got email. Anything that they need to do on their phone, they hand to their kids. They hand their phone to their kids and say, “Can you fix this?” In general, if you were born after 1970, you probably won’t have this problem. Maybe after 1975. For whatever reason, Jill and I really understand computers. I’ve always wondered that about you.
Jill DeWit: Isn’t that funny?
Steven Butala: I know why it is for me. I mean, that’s just who I am and all that. But I’m going to ask you now. What is it with you and computers that mix so well? Because most of the people I know that are your age just … It’s Facebook and that’s it.
Jill DeWit: It’s that funny? For some reason, there’s something deep down in my soul that makes me want to learn it and want to know how it works.
Steven Butala: Yeah, that’s what I mean.
Jill DeWit: You know what? I think there’s something back to my childhood. I mean, totally honest. If you ever say, “You can’t possibly do that,” look out. I will do that. You know? Like flying a plane. For me, it’s a little bit of a secret accomplishment that I have my license, and I know other people in my immediate family that couldn’t do it. It’s just a little bit of a, “Yay.” I don’t know. I want to personally tackle and do stuff. It’s funny what you said, now. I’m so the opposite with our children, especially child Number Three. I’m teaching him stuff, and he’s in high school right now.
Steven Butala: I know.
Jill DeWit: I’m like, “Let me show you how this works.”
Steven Butala: I noticed that, too.
Jill DeWit: “Here’s what you need to do. You need to do this, this, and this, and this, and switch this, and …” whatever it is. But you know what? When I was a kid, I used to set up … This is going back a ways. But I got my turntable. I had my speakers. I had my amp. I took it upon … I really wanted to learn how to do that. You would see me setting up my whole stereo, including the little things [inaudible 00:07:51] put the wire in for the speakers and wrapping it around, and I did the whole thing. This is who I am, so it’s the same with technology.
Steven Butala: I came up with show title, because we were all sitting around eating dinner a couple nights ago, and we were talking about how much of a technology family we are. In fact, Number Three said it. He said, “Of all my friends, we have the most technology around us and use it the most and talk about it a lot.” It never occurred to me that I was like a tech person, but we are. I mean, the amount of tech … Just the hardware we have, when you really think about it company-wide, is silly.
Jill DeWit: People walk into our offices and go, “What the heck?”
Steven Butala: Yeah. And our house is, and so all of us are … So for some reason … I’ll say it like this. You know how we always say, “If you’re not a data person and spreadsheets really kind of concern you, this might not be for you”? If you are not … Just like Jill described it perfectly … really interested in finding new ways to do stuff more efficiently on the internet instead of spending hours in a dark room somewhere exploring the internet and looking at ways [inaudible 00:09:02] contact offers to owners more efficiently, or what a mail merge is, or how to do a mail merge more easily, or how’s …
Jill DeWit: New ways to sell things.
Steven Butala: If that doesn’t innately interest you, like if you have … Our number one customer service issue in this whole company is … guess.
Jill DeWit: It’s people can’t log in. It’s little technology things or some other things-
Steven Butala: They can’t log in to our websites.
Jill DeWit: Yeah.
Steven Butala: They can’t log in to ParcelFact or Infill Lots or Offers2Owners.
Jill DeWit: And it’s them. Unfortunately, they’re not that savvy.
Steven Butala: What it ends up being is they used a different email address, or they forgot their password. And all that stuff’s automated. 99% of the people listening to this have forgot their password. You click on, “Oh, I forgot my password. Thanks very much. I went through it.” And that’s it.
Jill DeWit: But some people need their hand held with that.
Steven Butala: Again, I agree with you, Jill. I agree with you, but it’s frustrating for me to watch it happen.
Jill DeWit: I know that.
Steven Butala: Hey, look, I’ve been the victim … I personally love when kids just … Like in a bar or something like that, just say … They look at my like their grandfather and say, “Yeah. Well, there’s this thing that goes on on the internet, but just forget about it, because you’re not going to understand it.”
Jill DeWit: That’s hilarious.
Steven Butala: To which I say, “Really? Have you ever developed Visual Basic in System 36?” And they look at me all cross-eyed, so … It a form of age discrimination that I experience constantly that I love. I can’t wait till it happens.
Jill DeWit: Oh, I know. It’s true. It’s like, “Oh, watch.”
Steven Butala: Because I can just [crosstalk 00:10:31] 13 seconds.
Jill DeWit: Well, hey, I think it’s even more for a girl. I get it two ways. I get it like, “You’re a girl. Oh, how could you possibly know?” And then I get it another way like, “Oh, you think you’re an investor? That’s so sweet.”
Steven Butala: Do you really get that?
Jill DeWit: Not as much anymore.
Steven Butala: That’s horrific.
Jill DeWit: But we haven’t gone to an REI meetup in a while, but whenever we used to … It’s been a long time, but … Now and then, years ago, we’d go to some of these investor groups, and it looks like I’m just your assistant walking around with you. I think that’s what’s going on.
Steven Butala: Oh, I see.
Jill DeWit: They couldn’t imagine that I’m actually doing some of the work behind the scenes, and I might actually be doing some of the deals, and I might actually be making some of these big decisions. It’s really funny.
Steven Butala: I think, technically, you have more money than I do.
Jill DeWit: Technically, I probably do. More property.
Steven Butala: That’s for sure.
Jill DeWit: Yeah. It’s hilarious. This is the way we think, and for me, this is what this show is about. If you’re not constantly online and surprised by something, and then immediately your first thought thinking, “How can I use this in my business today to make either buying property better or selling property better?” You need to get onboard quickly.
Steven Butala: And enjoy it. I think that’s a perfect summary, Jill.
Jill DeWit: Thank you.
Steven Butala: Perfect way to end this. Enjoying making stuff more efficient on the internet and the internet itself. I sit around and say, “What if we started this 30 years earlier?”
Jill DeWit: Right.
Steven Butala: Or maybe 30 years later. Even 30 years later, the data might be so prevalent that too many people are doing it. We’re in a perfect time to it this.
Jill DeWit: Who knows? Yeah.
Steven Butala: We’re still at that … The wave hasn’t crested yet on both real estate and the internet.
Jill DeWit: I think it’s going to change even more, too. Because I really am curious how it’s going to go. No matter what happens with real estate agents in the future, and brokers in the future, there’s already some changes that are happening. People are figuring out that you could do it on your own, so it’s good. It’s a good time.
Steven Butala: Yeah. Hey, we know your time’s valuable. Thanks for spending time with us today. Join us in the next episode called It’s Not About the Money, But It’s About the Money.
Jill DeWit: And we answer your questions posted on our online community, LandInvestors.com. It is free.
Steven Butala: You are not alone in your real estate ambition.
Steven Butala: It’s always about the money.
Jill DeWit: I know. Exactly. Hey, by the way, I have a little note from my team here. If you haven’t checked out LandTank … If you got some deals and you need some help funding your deals, check out LandTank. We can help you. LandTank.com.
Steven Butala: We never talk about LandTank.
Jill DeWit: I know.
Steven Butala: LandTank is like Shark Tank for land.
Jill DeWit: Exactly.
Steven Butala: You throw up a piece of property. A bunch of money people in our group go and fund you.
Jill DeWit: Right. Then-
Steven Butala: Why don’t we ever talk about that?
Jill DeWit: I know.
Steven Butala: It’s totally free with the membership.
Jill DeWit: Yeah. Then free to everybody is our own personal Land Academy deal funding. You don’t even have to be a member. So if you got some great deal staring at you, and you want us to partner with you, go to LandInvestors.com, and go to Deal Funding, and you could submit it there, too. So a couple different ways. Good stuff.
Steven Butala: You what we could say in the future? “Today’s episode …” This is just me thinking out loud.
Jill DeWit: Okay. Got it.
Steven Butala: “Today’s episode of Land Academy is brought to you by LandTank.com, where you get your deals funded for free if you’re a member.” Then launch into it.
Jill DeWit: I like it.
Steven Butala: I can roll that into the script.
Jill DeWit: All right. I think that’s cool. All right.
Jill DeWit: Wherever you are watching or wherever you are listening, please subscribe and rate us there. We are Steve and Jill.
Steven Butala: We are Steve and Jill. Information …
Jill DeWit: … and inspiration …
Steven Butala: … to buy undervalued property.
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