Simple Ways to Improve Your Land so it Stands Out Online (LA 1426)
Simple Ways to Improve Your Land so it Stands Out Online (LA 1426)
Transcript:
Steven Butala:
Steve and Jill here.
Jill DeWit:
Hello.
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 awesome central Arizona.
Steven Butala:
Today, Jill and I talk about the simple ways to improve your land so it stands out online. I was just thinking about Arizona and yesterday we were talking about how happy you are, because you’ve got a personal assistant and everything.
Jill DeWit:
Oh yeah.
Steven Butala:
I could be not be more happy in my life then right now. I know this is like the happiest I’ve ever been. Yeah.
Jill DeWit:
Really? Really?
Steven Butala:
Arizona rocks.
Jill DeWit:
Because you’re not in California?
Steven Butala:
Yes, that’s part of it. Yeah, Jill. That’s part of it.
Jill DeWit:
Okay.
Steven Butala:
And I just feel understood here. And I feel like there’s camaraderie and the people that are here want to be here and they believe in everything. In California, since March, half the people you talk to are disgusted and they can’t leave. We’re fortunate that we could leave.
Jill DeWit:
I know.
Steven Butala:
And it’s too bad because they have family and jobs or whatever or businesses. We have a really good friend who owns, two friends, who own a bunch of restaurants and they’re really struggling. And they’re real upset with the way the decisions that are being made. And we’re just so fortunate that we’re not subject to that. So I’m happy too. It’s not just you.
Jill DeWit:
Oh good. I’m glad.
Steven Butala:
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. And if you’re a Land Academy member already, please join us on Discord.
Jill DeWit:
Chris wrote, “I’ve been a member since July 2020, and I have yet to send out a mailer. I had several unforeseen events happen that drain the bank account, but I’m now at a point where I’m ready to send out a mailer and pick a county. My question is if I only have $5,000 to $10,000, would it be better to buy several cheap desert properties or send out a mailer in a more expensive, less competitive area and use LandTank to deal fund? By doing the latter, I would be using the $5,000 to $10,000 to solely send out mailers and buy data. But on the other hand, it may be better as a beginner to send out my first mailers to an inexpensive desert area and fund the deals myself so there’s less risk for my first few properties. Any advice or thoughts?” I know what my answer would be and I bet it’s the same as you.
Steven Butala:
We have the exact same answer on this. Go ahead.
Jill DeWit:
Go big. Use it on the data. You use it on the mail. Don’t worry about funding the deal. I’ll buy it.
Steven Butala:
You need to forget about… Think of it like this. You’re never going to pay for a property, but what you need to do then is find some great property at fantastic prices.
Jill DeWit:
Get to know the area.
Steven Butala:
Your job for the next six months, Chris, is to understand data, get into the whole mailer part and understand how to answer the phone and generate some great real estate deals. Forget about the money. I truly, truly mean that. I just had a consulting call with a guy that said they have limitless money for this. They joined the… they actually… He scheduled a-
Jill DeWit:
Consulting.
Steven Butala:
… consulting call with me and at the end of the call, and I said, “This is how you mail. This is what you do with urban counties.” The whole thing. And I said, “I got to tell you, man, I don’t believe we’re ever going to send out a mailer at all. I don’t think you’re actually paying attention. And I think you’re making so much money as a lender, as a partner to other Land Academy members, why would you?” And he said, “Thank you. That’s kind of what I wanted to get out of this because I’m feeling bad about I joined Land Academy and never sent the mailer out.”
Jill DeWit:
So what? You’re here for the access for people like Chris.
Steven Butala:
Chris, I’m telling… I have never been more serious about a topic on this show, ever. Forget about the money. Just find great real estate deals and call Jill and she’ll fund them all.
Jill DeWit:
There are tons of people in our group that are here just for the access to people who have no intentions.
Steven Butala:
More and more now. Right.
Jill DeWit:
Yeah, because they know how smart this group is. And they know this group will not fail. So that’s what I say. And here’s the reason why, Chris, because here are your two choices. Let me spell this out. You spend, I don’t know. So you have 10,000 bucks, right? You spend $2,000 all in to do the data and everything to buy eight properties, eight $1,000 properties. You’re going to flip them at least double, so 8,000 bucks. Now you have 16,000 bucks. Okay. And that took how long? Because you had eight properties that you had to market, sell, get the pitchers on, do the deals when you buy them, all that stuff. Versus you take the same amount of… You spend the $10,000 bucks-
Steven Butala:
Or 5,000. Whatever. Yeah.
Jill DeWit:
5,000. Let’s just say 5,000.
Steven Butala:
Five’s good.
Jill DeWit:
Keep five in the bank for the next mailer. Spend 5,000 bucks. You’re going to spend… You’re going to get out 5,000 units of mail.
Steven Butala:
10,000.
Jill DeWit:
Really. Exactly. And you’re going to pick up… And I want you to target like… Buy it for $10,000 to $20,000 because they’re worth $50, $60,000. You pick up three of them, if that, I mean, you do it… You go really conservative and you really be careful. And you’ve got the best ones on the planet.
Steven Butala:
Jill’s doing math. Watch out.
Jill DeWit:
Totally. Anyway, you buy three of them at 30,000… Actually, I fund them. There’s three that we’re buying, 10,000 bucks a peach, so it’s $30,000 in my money. We’re going to sell them at 50,000 each so there’s $150,000 and we’re splitting that. So what’s 150, 120… You’re making $60,000 minus your $5,000 investment. Instead of making $16,000, you made $45,000 or whatever it is. I did the math wrong. 55.
Steven Butala:
This is why we started Land Academy. This question. I couldn’t be more serious about anything. We started Land… People would say, “Why did you give up the secret? All you guys had to do is just never tell anybody.”
Jill DeWit:
Don’t tell anybody. Exactly.
Steven Butala:
“Don’t start the Academy, just go buy and sell property.” We have made a hundred times more money and done a hundred times more deals than we ever would have if we didn’t start Land Academy. Because it’s easier to leverage money than time. So now we have a bunch of people like Chris that need money, that are smart people. Send a mail out, we’re funding it. We can do 50 deals in a day. We can’t do 50 deals in a day, but you know.
Jill DeWit:
Exactly. And you know exactly what to do, Chris.
Steven Butala:
Yep.
Jill DeWit:
It’s awesome.
Steven Butala:
Submerge yourself into the education and the Thursday call. And eventually, in the second quarter, we’re going to release a program where we walk you right through the process, if you need it. Doesn’t sound like you do. Today’s topic, simple ways to improve your land so it stands out online. This is the meat of the show.
Jill DeWit:
What processes are you talking about that we don’t already share?
Steven Butala:
Like I said yesterday, we’re going to release a product called Land Academy Classroom. It’s not free.
Jill DeWit:
Oh, that different one.
Steven Butala:
If you need that, you know…
Jill DeWit:
If you really want your hand held. Yeah. Tight now, we have… Basically land Academy is self study. It’s 15 to 25 hours, somewhere in there depending if you watch them all, of content, then… Which you can do on your own like before. And then now we’ve started to do some accountability groups for kind of motivation. And then we’re going to do like a really whole handholding…
Steven Butala:
I wouldn’t call it that. It’s just an immersion. It’s an immersion if you really want to ensure your success and, again, some people are not self study people and that’s okay.
Jill DeWit:
And that’s it. That’s okay. You’re right. Okay. So simple ways to improve your land so it stands out. This is a result of a talk that we actually did yesterday.
Steven Butala:
Tell us the story, Jill.
Jill DeWit:
Okay. Last week with Land Academy Ladies we, at the end of every week we always pick what do we want to talk about next week as a group. And I put together some content or somebody in the group, if they’re better at, puts some content together and then we present it and we all talk about it. It’s great. So we picked for this week right now, as this is airing, we picked to do cheap and easy ways to make your property stand out. What can I do? What can I put on it? Is really what it is.
And I said, “All right, I’m going to put this whole thing together and I’m going to come up with my ways.” And I have said, “Every single one of you need to come up with at least one cool, unique, cheap, fast way to make your property stand out. What would you put on it?” So that’s what we’re going to talk a little bit today. And you and I are… This came from you, by the way, and you kind of explained it going into this where when you scroll down the internet right now and you find, say, you’re looking in XYZ County in Texas-
Steven Butala:
Or Maricopa County. Where we’re sitting in right now.
Jill DeWit:
… Colorado, or whatever it is. Doesn’t matter. The pictures can all look the same. It’s like, “Wow. I can’t tell this lot from that lot. Is that the same mountain in a different picture?” Or like, “Yeah. I’ve seen that bush before.” Or, “Yep. I know what a cactus looks like.” Everyone kind of thinks you’ve got to have… You want to… It really, especially if you’re in a market where there’s a lot of like kind property, I would definitely pull this out. If you’re the only one that has… You’re one of three people that are selling property in this area, kudos to you.
You found a great county to work in. There’s three of you and you’re the cheapest, so we all know what’s going to happen. But what if you’re in an area and this is something too, what if you have a property you’re like, “Oh shoot. I did invest in some property. I didn’t realize how many people were… there’s what’s available in this area. How am I going to move this property?” Well, you might need to do something cheap and easy and fast to make yours stand out and then you’re going to sell it. Some of my ideas are… Do you want to add before I dive in?
Steven Butala:
No, you’re doing a great job. It’s like you drank a couple cups of coffee.
Jill DeWit:
You’re feeling good. No, it’s my new assistant. I’m a new person. I’m a new person because there’s a lot of crap that I don’t have to do. It’s the greatest thing.
Steven Butala:
I’m happier too, because Jill’s happy. We all know that saying.
Jill DeWit:
Well, here’s… So I’m going to give you my list and then I have a funny story and then we’ll talk more. So I made a quick little list of things and I am more than… I’m going to be adding. I know with my groups, what they come back with. So things like put a stupid shed on there. It may not be great. It doesn’t have to be brand new. Doesn’t have to be a beautiful $4,000 Tuff shed kind of thing.
Steven Butala:
Don’t, in fact, don’t do that.
Jill DeWit:
Yeah, not that.
Steven Butala:
Don’t do a $4,000 Tuff shed.
Jill DeWit:
Find one on Craigslist.
Steven Butala:
Yeah. And see if they’ll deliver it.
Jill DeWit:
Exactly. Someone on Craigslist for 500 to 1,000 bucks. Somebody’s got one. You could see one, maybe you could see it behind me. Yeah, you can. See what’s behind me right now in this picture? If you can tell. Something like that. Someone’s going to be selling one at some point and getting it out of their yard,
Steven Butala:
Go to the free section of Craigslist. There’s always sheds on there. Free if you pick it up.
Jill DeWit:
And you could TaskRabbit someone to pick it up. You could TaskRabbit it for a couple hundred bucks saying, “Dismantle this, put it in your pickup truck, put it over here, reassemble it, take a bunch of pictures.” Couple hundred bucks. Done. They would do that. They can do it in a couple hours. You get into it. You are so good about the mobile homes. I’ll let you explain that. Show an RV. Do you have an RV? Do you have a camper? Pull it on there.
Steven Butala:
There’s $1,000 RVs on the internet all over the place that are falling apart. Look, don’t put anything nice out there, because somebody will steal it. Put just an old RV, chain it to something if you need to and write the description, that’s like, “Hey, I bought this property. I just put this RV on it, to tell the truth, to make it look different. I don’t know if the RV works. Whatever is there, it’s yours-
Jill DeWit:
You get it.
Steven Butala:
… you figure it out.” You can put a container. There’s a person on the East Coast in our group who’s famous for putting containers on property. And this is her statement is, “There’s container on the property and I’m not sure what’s in it. Whatever it is, you can have it.” You’re going to sell that property in two days.
Jill DeWit:
Well, everybody loves a tiny house thing and a lot of people are turning containers into tiny homes. You can say, “I got you started. The container’s there. Show up and now make it a home. I got you going.” Someone will love that.
Steven Butala:
Here’s another thing. There’s always… In these rural markets, I’ve never purchased property in a rural market where there hasn’t been a used mobile home dealer somewhere close by. Call that person, tell them you want to buy the worst mobile home that they have, the one that’s in the back that they can’t get rid of and you want them to deliver it and you’ll give them a thousand bucks.
Jill DeWit:
Somebody’s got somewhere they’re replacing it.
Steven Butala:
You’ll sell it. You’ll sell the property in a week. And make sure you tell him and you’re loud about it. It’s not in the fine print. That you put it on there intentionally. It’s not connected to anything. You don’t know if there’s water there. You don’t know how the septic situation is. All you did was just drop a mobile home on there. It is not connected to anything and nothing probably works in there.
Jill DeWit:
Someone’s going to love that.
Steven Butala:
They love that. It’s a challenge. If you’ve ever talked to a man in your life that… I will take that challenge.
Jill DeWit:
Totally. The harder it is, the more I want it.
Steven Butala:
And if it’s cheap and all that, then it just makes sense to them. It stops that question of what’s wrong with it. It’s so cheap.
Jill DeWit:
I was even thinking of like you have a beautiful property that has a stream in the back. Hire somebody to go out there to pitch a tent, take some pictures, build a little fire. How cool? That would be dreamy to me to go… If I pulled up a property and I saw the tent there and the fire going and a chair and maybe even someone’s feet, with the fishing pole in the water. I’d be like, “Oh, I got to have this property.” And it didn’t… I mean, I just hired someone to go out there with their own tent. I didn’t buy anything. A couple hundred bucks to do that. So what I was going to share-
Steven Butala:
A woman in a bathing suit wouldn’t hurt either if you’re going to do that.
Jill DeWit:
Floating on a raft.
Steven Butala:
With a Budweiser in her hand.
Jill DeWit:
Cowboy boots on. A bikini and cowboy boots.
Steven Butala:
Keep going, Jill.
Jill DeWit:
Now, we’re going… Now, that might be over the line. That’s not… Oh my gosh. A bikini, cowboy boots, sitting in a canoe with like…
Steven Butala:
You’re doing this, not me. I just said one phrase.
Jill DeWit:
Yeah. That might cost more than a couple hundred bucks. I can’t believe you. Oh gosh. All right. That’s what I hadn’t thought of.
Steven Butala:
I don’t see that on your little notes there.
Jill DeWit:
No, that’s not on my list. No, but here’s my story I was going to tell you. I want to paint this picture. The girl that I have found locally to that, truth time, who does my hair. She’s the cutest thing. She’s in her twenties. She has a horse. She loves horses. She’s just doing this on the side until she figures out what her grand plan is. And she was talking about driving around the horse in the back of her trailer and our truck and what she’s doing. And she’s like, “I’m about to buy…” She doesn’t really know much about me or what I do. So I thought this was so funny that she’s sharing this story.
Steven Butala:
This is a good story, Jill.
Jill DeWit:
Wow. So she said, “My friend just did this.”
Steven Butala:
I’ve never heard this either.
Jill DeWit:
Yeah. “My friend just did this and I’m going to do it too. I’m looking for a cheap, rundown, crappy camper. I know I can go up to 27 feet. Something like that because that’s what I can tow behind my truck. And I’m going to just gut the thing and make it my home. That’s what I want to do.”
Steven Butala:
I mean we should film this.
Jill DeWit:
She’s like-
Steven Butala:
Can we film this?
Jill DeWit:
“My friend just did this, am I…” I’ll ask her. Yeah, of course when she gets…
Steven Butala:
Would she film okay?
Jill DeWit:
I don’t… Yeah, she’s cute.
Steven Butala:
Okay.
Jill DeWit:
Well, we have different definitions of cute apparently. So leave it at that.
Steven Butala:
If we didn’t, I’d be worried.
Jill DeWit:
Okay. So she said, “My friend just did this. She gutted it, painted it all white. Had to redo… Put these cool new black fixtures in there, all this stuff. And it’s adorable.” She’s like, “I want to do this and I want to make it my own.” I’m like, “Good for you.”
Steven Butala:
Is there some way we can go see your friend’s… The next time you talk to her?
Jill DeWit:
Oh, and see what her friend did?
Steven Butala:
And just take some pictures and share them with everybody.
Jill DeWit:
Yeah, yeah.
Steven Butala:
Talk about the… No big. Just interview her in front of it and just talk about the numbers.
Jill DeWit:
Yeah, just talk about all the [crosstalk 00:16:15]. No problem.
Steven Butala:
Probably didn’t cost her 5,000 bucks for the whole thing.
Jill DeWit:
Right. She’s like, “I want to do this.” And so then my head is going, “Well, okay. She’s going to need a place to put her camper. And that’s where I come in.” That’s what we do. We are Land Academy. We have the land, you bring the camper kind of thing.
Steven Butala:
You know what? I’m going to do a show. I just read a very lengthy detailed article that the state of Arizona put out called Boondocking and it’s legal here. If you did that in California, they would run you in the prison system.
Jill DeWit:
Oh my gosh. Yeah.
Steven Butala:
But boondocking is legal… There’s some serious rules, you can only be in one spot for a certain… I’ll do a whole show on it.
Jill DeWit:
I do know that usually there’s restrictions. I shouldn’t say usually. I don’t know. Sometimes. Because you’re proving me wrong. But sometimes you just have to… No matter what, you just have to check with the county and find out how long can I put something out here? Sometimes it’s indefinitely. Sometimes they’re like up to whatever six months is, you have 179 days. And my joke… Like at a time. So I’ve talked to people about this in the past with buyers. I’m like, “Here’s the deal. 179 days. So you need to move it off. Take some pictures that you moved it. And then we can put it back on for another 179 days.” You think I’m kidding? It’s like at a time like, “Well that’s easy.” So there’s ways to work around that. And if no one’s complaining, you’re fine too. What’s so funny?
Steven Butala:
You, because you have to work around everything. It’s not a… I’m telling you the rules are so attractive in Arizona that, I mean, maybe you could just follow the rules and everyone’s happy.
Jill DeWit:
I did follow the rules. At a time. You just talked about how the men want the crappier the better. I want the more rules… No it is, I actually like working around rules because that’s my sense of accomplishment. I’m like, “Just tell me I can’t do something. Watch me.”
Steven Butala:
Jill, you can’t make a million dollars this month.
Jill DeWit:
Oh. That ship sailed a long time ago. Uh-huh,. All right. I think I’ve made my point. Happy you could join us today. Five days a week, you can find us right here on the Land Academy Show.
Steven Butala:
Tomorrow the episode on the Land Academy Show is called the good, the bad and the ugly about land sales on terms. You are not alone in your real estate ambition.
Jill DeWit:
That’s going to be fun and funny because I have an in-depth thing because we did that on my Land Academy Ladies group, we talked about this. We have two gals who’ve been doing terms deals. One of them has 92 on her books right now, 92 properties.
Steven Butala:
Oh my gosh.
Jill DeWit:
Uh-huh (affirmative). And I’m not going to share any more than that, but-
Steven Butala:
I want to hear about this.
Jill DeWit:
Yeah. So they had a lot to say about this. Like I didn’t even have 92 at a time-
Steven Butala:
92.
Jill DeWit:
… because I couldn’t stomach 92.
Steven Butala:
That’s a lot.
Jill DeWit:
It is.
Steven Butala:
That’s a lot of money coming in. It’s like owning a 92 unit apartment building.
Jill DeWit:
Uh-huh (affirmative). Oh yeah.
Steven Butala:
That you don’t have to pay any expenses on.
Jill DeWit:
Exactly. So we’ll share about that. If you need any sort of access of ownership or property details, including owner phone numbers and FEMA flood map overlays, check out neighborscoop.com. Created by investors, that’s us, for investors, that’s you.
Steve and Jill :
We are Steve and Jill.
Steven Butala:
Information-
Jill DeWit:
And inspiration.
Steven Butala:
… to buy undervalued property.
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