Real Definition of Homestead (LA 1299)
Real Definition of Homestead (LA 1299)
Transcript:
Steve:
Steve and Jill here.
Jill:
Hello.
Steve:
Welcome to the Land Academy Show, entertaining land, investment talk. I’m Steven Jack Butala.
Jill:
And I’m Jill DeWitt broadcasting from sunny, Southern California.
Steve:
Today Jill and I talk about, well, really, I talk about, the real definition of the word homestead.
Jill:
Why is it only you?
This came up because of a call that I had it. And this guy was nutty. Well, I’ll explain it. But this nutty seller was explaining to me how he got this property. He’s the first one to get the property. It was never properly, what was the word he said, what did he call it? Divided. It wasn’t subdivided. He said staked out or something like that. And I’m going along like a homestead and he’s telling me no. So we talked about it. Now we’re going to try to clear this up.
Steve:
That’s interesting. Because I chose this topic because I was reading a stream, an extremely lengthy stream in our Facebook.
Jill:
So they’re talking about it too.
Steve:
Yeah. It’s all over the internet man. And it’s so wrong. I have to be real straight here. There’s some really bad information about the word homestead. And I know why, because homestead means four or five things to different people. So I’m going to try to clear it up.
Jill:
It’s funny.
Steve:
And not in a boring way.
Jill:
[inaudible 00:01:22]. By the way.
Steve:
That’s okay.
Jill:
Okay, good. I got to say usually we’re recording this a few days before. Now pretty much today we’re recording on the day. This tells you a little bit about our weekend.
Steve:
We were late because of our social life interfered with our professional life recently.
Jill:
You should not let that happen. And we did, “Well, we can record tomorrow.” I’ll just record tomorrow, or we can record tomorrow. And then here, we’re like, Oh, you can’t. We have no more tomorrows.
Steve:
Remember back when we first started out, not with the Atlanta Academy, but just working together. And we were there every day and working hard and all into it. And now it’s just a lapse [crosstalk 00:00:02:03].
Jill:
[crosstalk 00:02:06] I guess so. Don’t do that.
Steve:
I hear radio radio switches clicking off all over the place right now. Before we get into it, let’s take a question posted by one of our members on the landinvestors.com online community. It’s free.
Jill:
Okay. So Austin wrote, “Hello. After a somewhat successful first round mailer, I have a handful of recorded deeds from the County,” as you should. This is great. “I haven’t sold anything so far. I focus in Northern Arizona and have five acre plus desert properties that I’m hoping to sell in the 2,500 to $3,000 range. For this price point, is it appropriate to hire a photo company such as WeGoLook. There’s others like that too, to shoot photos and or video, or should I use stock photos from the region and those will be adequate?” Thanks, Austin. And we put those in there for [inaudible 00:02:59] people. That’s one of the things-
Steve:
There’s 10,000 pictures in the original program of Northern Arizona.
Jill:
That we shared.
Steve:
[crosstalk 00:03:08] 10,000, maybe 8,000.
Jill:
When I say we, I mean, somebody else that worked for us or you.
Steve:
What do you think about this topic?
Jill:
I would, you know what? I think that back in the day, it was hard to get people and hard to tell them where to go. And for them to find properties, it was difficult for us alone telling photographer. But nowadays you could get a guy for 50 to 75 bucks off these companies or Craigslist, and you can give them GPS coordinates that they can pop in their phone and they can drive right there. So I think not hiring it I think there’s no reason nowadays to not hire a photographer, to go out there, hopefully see a couple… And you’ve got how many properties?
Steve:
A handful.
Jill:
Is there a way… Do all of them at the same time. Have your photographer pick the first sunny day with a perfect blue sky, and then send them out there too. By the way, with a checklist, I want you to have 10 photos that you want. I want you to face, North, South, East, West, I want the camera pointing this way, give him exactly what you want, so it’s easy and fast. And there’s just no question. So I’m a fan of, yes, do it
Steve:
Austin. Here’s where I think this is going. And it concerns me.
Jill:
Uh-oh.
Steve:
There’s all kinds of, look… This is going to be your career, theoretically. People join Land Academy to change their career and change their life. It’s not a side hustle or a side gig or all the stuff you hear on the internet, or you see it in here. So don’t just, don’t skip on it. The undertone in this question is, do I really need to do it? Yeah. So serious [crosstalk 00:04:49].
Jill:
You’re asking?
Steve:
Do I need to take pictures? Do I need to have a website… this is all these questions we constantly get. I’m not picking on you. I’m just, this is for everybody. Do I need to take this really seriously? Yes. Yes, you need to take it seriously. Every single aspect of it until you’ve got 25 million bucks in the bank. Yeah. You need to take pictures of the property-
Jill:
And your people take it seriously.
Steve:
I can’t emphasize this enough. I can’t emphasize it enough. How your property looks on the internet will make or break you financially.
Jill:
Well, it makes- [crosstalk 00:05:23].
Steve:
You need to stand on [crosstalk 00:05:24] I’ll tell you what, the first time I went and took pictures of desert property, this is way, way back, a very long time ago. This was before there was a camera on your phone and you stand there on the property.
Jill:
That was a while ago. Everybody, I don’t know about you. Everybody’s like pausing going. When was that? Huh? I forgot.
Steve:
Want to hear something awful about how old I am.
Jill:
Uh-oh.
Steve:
I used to have a dark room in my basement.
Jill:
That’s cool.
Steve:
That’s when I started taking pictures. And that’s not-
Jill:
High school?
Steve:
Not recently. No, it was like, after college,
Jill:
You can tell you’re from Michigan when you say college.
Steve:
Oh, yeah.
Jill:
Yeah.
Steve:
Well, yeah ah?
Jill:
Uh-huh (affirmative). All I’m saying. All right, go ahead. I didn’t mean to distract you.
Steve:
You have to take your internet presence seriously, but I’ll tell you the first time I went out to take pictures, I learned this very quickly. I could have traveled five miles in my car in Arizona and taken a picture of what that desert property looks like. And it’s going to look exactly like the same property.
Jill:
That’s hilarious.
Steve:
The property that I actually just bought. So you have to make a gauge, but I’ll tell you what. If you’re going to drive-
Jill:
Don’t do that.
Steve:
If you’re going to travel five miles and take a picture of the desert, and I’m not saying you should or shouldn’t, it just needs to look good. It needs to look amazing. And the descriptions need to be amazing. And you need to tell a little story. We haven’t talked about this lately.
Jill:
No, we haven’t.
Steve:
Just needs to be, you need to paint a picture of how the person who’s going to buy this piece of property, how their life is going to change. Actually, that’s what this topic is about, Homestead Today. That’s one of the definitions. It’s The Little House on the Prairie. You remember it. Well, I’m dating myself again. There used to be a television show called Little House on the Prairie. And the picture of that house and that lifestyle that they had, is what we’re selling.
So yes, you need to get somebody out there, take some pictures. Maybe it’s the first few, if you’re brand new at this, congratulations, by the way you bought a bunch of property. That’s awesome. And you’re going to mix them [inaudible 00:07:34] and learn about the process and learn about the whole chain of events and you know.
Jill:
Yep.
Steve:
So that’s all good.
Jill:
Yep.
Steve:
What’s going on with you?
Jill:
Well, like you answered the question. Do you want to answer the question one more time, a different way?
Steve:
This topic, the real definition of homestead. This is the meat of the show.
Jill:
This is probably the difference between Steven and I. I’m a, “Okay, I got it. Can I go now?” And Steven’s like, “Let’s just really dive into this and let’s [crosstalk 00:08:10] really think about this.” And I’m like, “Why, why, I got it.” I don’t really need to-
Steve:
I’ve been thinking about this lately-
Jill:
Just dive into it.
Steve:
I’ve been thinking about this lately. I treat money very, very seriously and with a tremendous amount of respect and I put it, very often, I’ll put making money and just the whole topic of money or saving it, or how it’s managed, way before my own comfort or myself or a lot of stuff. I put it pretty high up and talking to people recently, especially with the COVID, I don’t see that certain people are just, don’t put it, have the value of the money, the way that I do. There are certain people that are getting a check from the government right now and that’s fine. And it’s just kind of like the fact that it’s coming from the government is less important to them than making it on your own. There’s just something not right about it. Do you have that gut feeling? This is serious. We sit and joke on this show. [crosstalk 00:09:19].
Jill:
How did you want to go into this?
Steve:
See? See what I mean? [crosstalk 00:09:22] See?
Jill:
I’m trying not to go deep into this. Do you see what I mean? I’m trying not to go deep into this and you’re like, no you’re going-
Steve:
My take on this whole show. What is this? This is episode number 13. Tomorrow is going to be episode number- [crosstalk 00:09:36].
Jill:
1299. All right.
Steve:
And I just take this very, very seriously.
Jill:
I do too. What is it I have to do-
Steve:
I’m not saying that you don’t, but should we take pictures of her land? Yeah.
Jill:
Wait a minute. Wait a minute. I just talked about how you want to really talk about everything. Does that, and I don’t. Does that mean that I take it less seriously?
Steve:
I don’t know.
Jill:
Ah-ha.
Steve:
And I’m not actually talking about you. Just other people that we know.
Jill:
Do you think I-
Steve:
What if I have to… if I say… Here’s my point, if I say it three times, it’s probably important.
Jill:
Okay.
Steve:
It’s because I’m taking it seriously.
Jill:
So have I. When I repeat things three times, it doesn’t go like that.
Steve:
Here’s the thing. One of the reasons I think the show-
Jill:
Who is Jill, I heard you the first time. That’s the difference.
Steve:
One of the reasons I think the show works is because there’s just a give and take or a push back or push and pull between the two of us. I’m the information, you’re the inspiration. And I think you’re trying to make light of it. I think that there recently, Jill… Jill and I are starting a new show. It’s called the Jack and Jill Show Better Together. And soon. I don’t know exactly when it’s going to air, but what are the reasons that… And the people that are producing this show are telling us, you guys do great together because of this push and pull. And so that didn’t happen on accident, I guess. I take this buying and selling real estate very, very seriously. And I think [crosstalk 00:11:02] I take the posting seriously. I take the show seriously. And so maybe a result of that, or the outcome of that, is me overexplaining.
Jill:
Well, again, do you think that anyone like me who doesn’t overexplain it, take it any less seriously than you because then we have-
Steve:
Yes.
Jill:
Now we have a problem.
Steve:
Yes, I do. I don’t think you do, but I think it’s possible. And I know this because of the live event and meeting some of our members and it’s like, some people are serious about it and some people aren’t.
Jill:
Okay, we’re going to let you have that opinion. We’re going to agree to this- [crosstalk 00:11:45].
Steve:
Definition of-
Jill:
Moving on-
Steve:
Of homestead.
Jill:
Go for it.
Steve:
Here’s what I see on the internet on Facebook. And this is why I actually wrote the title. Oh, no, all you got to do is just homestead it. You should go homestead. You don’t have to go buy property, just homestead it. [crosstalk 00:11:59] What they’re referring to is the Homestead Act that went on in I think in the early thirties, and it ended in Alaska in 1976ish, where you could go put a fence around some property, government owned property for a certain amount of time and own it eventually. Not for zero, for like five bucks an acre, 10 bucks an acre, a hundred dollars an acre. It depends on the time. And then there was a land grab before that where you… So it was all an effort. And I explained this in the original program in great detail, apparently too much detail, according to Jill.
Jill:
Totally.
Steve:
That’s the Homestead Act. It all started where the whole the business model for the American government was, “Hey, we’re going to take all this land. We’re going to cut it all up into 36 one square mile properties, and we’re going to give it away or sell it incredibly inexpensively so we can tax it so we can have revenue. So this notion of property taxes infuriates people on the internet, for some reason. Does it infuriate you? I’d love to know.
Jill:
No.
Steve:
Because it doesn’t me either. You know what infuriates [crosstalk 00:13:13] me about taxes? It infuriates me about taxes are taxes that are not related to use. So if I go buy a pack of cigarettes, I should get taxed. If I use a gallon of gas, I should get taxed. If I go to a job and get a wage, I shouldn’t get taxed. Don’t tax me on my payroll. By the way, payroll taxes started because of World War II in this country. Before that it was all just property taxes. If I choose to own 55,000 acres in Wyoming, I should get taxed, but I should not get taxed for making $72 million a year.
Jill:
Welcome to Steve rant Monday.
Steve:
I’m serious.
Jill:
Okay.
Steve:
So property taxes, that’s how [inaudible 00:13:59] the history of this brief history. I can talk about it for four or five hours.
Jill:
I know you could.
Steve:
So let me. So homesteading- [crosstalk 00:14:08]
Jill:
Probably over there.
Steve:
The homestead act was the way that a lot of the rural vacant land started. There’s another definition of homestead. So if you ever have to file for bankruptcy as a person, there’s a homestead exemption. And I think this gets all jumbled on the internet. All you got to do is Google it. And it’s real simple. Don’t take my word for any of this, by the way. The homes you can homestead… There’s a homestead exemption you file for bankruptcy. It’s specifically in Florida and there’s no top on it. So if you have a $20 million house in Florida and you filed bankruptcy, that’s protected and every state has a different cap on it.
It’s usually $300,000, $400,000, $500,000. I don’t really know exactly what the laws are on it. So that’s part of the word homestead is appropriate there too. And finally this Little House on the Prairie notion of homesteading, which I think is the best, that’s how… when I say homestead, that’s what I mean. It’s this story or this concept of you and your pretty wife, buy a little house, pay cash for it, hopefully. It’s nothing special. Maybe it’s a tiny house even. You living off the grid. You’ve got a garden, maybe it’s one to five acres, you’ve got a garden and a water source and everybody’s happy. And you wreck your life eventually by having a child. What’s that cute little saying… You and me and babies three or something like that.
I just want to jam that down someone’s back down someone’s throat when I hear it.
Jill:
I forgot that one. And that’s weird. Yeah.
Steve:
Because we have teenagers and stuff and that’s not… It didn’t improve our life. Anyway, that’s the third definition of homesteading. But here’s my real point.
Jill:
Oh good.
Steve:
You cannot [crosstalk 00:15:57]… let me make this crystal clear for everyone. You can not homestead property, government property and get it for free anymore. It’s over. And I hear everyone on the internet. What you can do, here’s the good news, what you can do is do a lot of research and a lot of municipalities are giving away land. They will tax you and they want you to move to their little… If you look it up on Google right now, there’s lists and lists of property that’s free or extremely cheap. And almost all of them come with caveats about time limits to build. What they’re trying to do is entice you to move there and increase their tax base. So there’s cheap ways to get real estate. It’s almost free, but not free. Homesteading is not one of them.
Jill:
Hope that answered the question and happy you could join us today. Every day, Monday through Friday, you can find us right here on the Land Academy Show.
Steve:
The episode on the Land Academy Show tomorrow is called A Quick Land Sale Versus Retail Price. You are not alone in your real estate ambition. Jill wrote that title. What she means is I’ve got a piece of property I paid 30,000 bucks for. I’m going to sell it really fast for 60 or really slow for 90.
Jill:
Right.
Steve:
Which one?
Jill:
We’ll talk about it tomorrow. The Land Academy Show remains commercial free for you, our loyal listener. So wherever you’re watching, wherever you’re listening, please subscribe and rate us there.
Steve:
We are Steve and Jill. Information to buy undervalued property. Wow. Was that preachy?
Jill:
No, no, no, no. It’s all good.
Steve:
Okay.
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