If I Were a Land Academy Member (LA 1753)
If I Were a Land Academy Member (LA 1753)
Transcript:
Steven Jack Butala:
Steve and Jill here.
Jill K DeWit:
Hello.
Steven Jack Butala:
Welcome to The Land Academy Show, entertaining land investment talk. I’m Steven Jack Butala.
Jill K DeWit:
And I’m Jill DeWit, broadcasting from the Valley of the Sun.
Steven Jack Butala:
Today, Jill and I talk about, well, what if we were Land Academy members? What if I was Land Academy member? How would I…
Jill K DeWit:
Approach this?
Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah.
Jill K DeWit:
What would I focus on?
Steven Jack Butala:
Jill took a lot of notes and it’s usually a much better show when she does, so…
Jill K DeWit:
Well, thank you.
Steven Jack Butala:
We’ll get to that in a second.
Jill K DeWit:
Thanks.
Steven Jack 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. Did you know that Jill and I personally instruct a handful of new and existing Land Academy members in a live class called Career Path? Hey, if this is your career, or you want it to be, check it all out. Please go to support@landacademy.com or just landacademy.com and do a little bit of self-research.
Jill K DeWit:
Career Path #4 is going on right now and we are having a ball. Okay, Dave wrote: “Hi all, my husband and I are brand new to Land Academy and getting systems set up. I had a call with…”
Steven Jack Butala:
Go ahead and say it.
Jill K DeWit:
I don’t know, is that…
Steven Jack Butala:
I’ll talk about it in a minute.
Jill K DeWit:
REI Conversion.
Steven Jack Butala:
That’s a thing.
Jill K DeWit:
Is it Seth?
Steven Jack Butala:
No.
Jill K DeWit:
No, that’s not Seth. Okay.
Steven Jack Butala:
No, I’ll-
Jill K DeWit:
It’s funny. Everybody takes everybody’s words and they put a spin on it, because they think, “Oh, it must be Seth.” No, it’s not Seth. Okay, good. He mentions soon to have a website with them and, “We’ll be required to have a membership to their CRM, which is Pebble, as well. I think it’s a great value, but it seemed like a big commitment just to get our initial website set up and our business started. I’d love your feedback from you on if there are other suggestions for an inexpensive web developers, just to get our business website set up, or if the entire package is worth it as a starter.” So he’s trolling our people?
Steven Jack Butala:
No, there’s no trolling.
Jill K DeWit:
Okay.
Steven Jack Butala:
He uses the Land Academy name on there. My point in putting this question in here today is this… And Jill didn’t read this question until just now. So I’m actually pretty, fairly researched on it this morning. There are a lot of people popping up in this space that are in their early 20s that are good at doing websites. And I’m not so sure they’re good at doing… Good at buying and selling land. In fact, I am sure they’re not good at selling land… Buying and selling land.
Jill K DeWit:
That’s okay. If they’re good at websites. That’s good.
Steven Jack Butala:
Right. There’s a ton… Like, everything. There’s a ton of places to go to get websites done and whatever tools that are needed, which we… Jill and I instruct all the time and talk about in all of our education, but there’s a lot of places to go that are popping up now that are land specific to get these tools. Like most people, I got this question out of Discord. A lot of people had a lot of stuff to say, and I’m going to essentially repeat what just about… well, everybody said, “This is silly.”
Jill K DeWit:
I was going to say they all Upworked and [Fiverr 00:02:50] and…
Steven Jack Butala:
These tools are… Well, there’s just no easy button to this. If there was, and it worked, and it was relatively flawless, Jill and I would create it, and we would release it to everybody. The best way to buy and sell land is by learning. And spending a tremendous time, amount of time on research. Do I think you need to know how to build websites to do this? Not at all. But if there’s very, very inexpensive places to do… to get a website done… As far as CRMs go in Pebble, Pebble’s like $200 a month, which is just silly. You need to start with Excel.
Jill K DeWit:
Seriously?
Steven Jack Butala:
Which is free. Yeah.
Jill K DeWit:
Oh, wow.
Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah. It’s crazy.
Jill K DeWit:
That’s a lot. And it’s for managing the website?
Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah, but I think maybe this guy, he’s on… These people come and go so often, it’s hard for Jill and I to keep track. But I think this person has a CRM setup to actually do it on a template, just like we use in your table to set up a system to buy and sell land. You got to look at it. If you go in there, it’s just a crack up the tools that they have. There’s people that offer transaction coordinators for $6,000 a week. You would have a blast.
Jill K DeWit:
Wow! Shoot. I’ll do it for $6,000 a week.
Steven Jack Butala:
Well, I’ll let the experience Jill and I have in the long-term Land Academy members, the Career Path people and all of that, if…. I’m sure they’re looking at that stuff going, “This is silly.” This is, you don’t need this. You don’t need this. You don’t need this. You do need a transaction coordinator after you’re doing about 20 deals a month. And you’re just tired of it. You want to outsource it to somebody who’s maybe even better. It’s so funny to see this on the internet, by a 20 something who is just good at doing websites.
Jill K DeWit:
So in our sweet little nichey space, word’s kind of getting out a little bit and…
Steven Jack Butala:
That’s what I think.
Jill K DeWit:
There’s a lot of people that are jumping in, saying, “I can take a piece of the pie,” and just come up with something?
Steven Jack Butala:
I don’t know.
Jill K DeWit:
I don’t know.
Steven Jack Butala:
I don’t know either.
Jill K DeWit:
Okay.
Steven Jack Butala:
I know that they don’t last too long. I know that…
Jill K DeWit:
It’s true. But it’s kind of funny.
Steven Jack Butala:
Jill and I were talking about this, I don’t want to go on and on. Well, this kind of ties into the topic. In fact, let’s do this. Today’s topic, If I were actually a Land Academy member, what would I do? And Jill, too, I guess. This is the meat of the show.
Jill K DeWit:
I kind of was one.
Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah, yeah.
Jill K DeWit:
I kind of was. If we call Mark [inaudible 00:05:12] member number one, we could… Seriously. We could legitimately say that. He would support that, too. Then maybe, who was number two?
Steven Jack Butala:
I don’t remember.
Jill K DeWit:
Was it employees or would it be me?
Steven Jack Butala:
It would probably be you.
Jill K DeWit:
Okay. I’ll be…
Steven Jack Butala:
Before there was a Land Academy, there was a lot of education that was provided to people that had asked for it. And if you don’t know the real story, that’s what happened. We got tired of answering this question, same questions over and over again. So we just decided to make it a thing.
Jill K DeWit:
Mm-hmm (affirmative). It was funny, because who knew that… I remember you thinking, “No one’s going to want this.” I’m like, “What are you talking about? We’re one by one, helping and teaching all of our buyers.” So I think there’s a healthy group out there, and here we are, seven, eight years later now?
Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah.
Jill K DeWit:
I have to keep up.
Steven Jack Butala:
So what’s the first thing you’d do if you’re a Land Academy member?
Jill K DeWit:
I have three things that I would do if I was brand new to this. Okay? Number one, I would commit and be 100% in it. I would be immersing myself into this whole environment. I would isolate the heavy hitters. It’s not hard to do, once you’re in our community and you get on Discord, and you see the chat, and you see the deals that people are doing, and you can really quickly figure out, “Wow, look what these guys are talking about.” So I would ice out those people and I would follow them. I would borderline stalk them.
Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah, me too.
Jill K DeWit:
That’s my thing, number one.
Steven Jack Butala:
That’s great.
Jill K DeWit:
Then my second step would be, I would perfect. I would spend hours, days, weeks, perfecting a… Just two things, trolling for new areas and pricing. Well, I should say there’s three parts, trolling, pricing, and being available to answer those calls. So then I know when a great deal comes in. I wouldn’t mess around, by the way, I would throw into escrow so fast, it’s not even funny, and find the money later if I didn’t have it. So that’s kind of my third thing is, once I know how to troll, price, and I’m available to answer these calls… Because I can’t tell you how many times I can listen to people, I understand that they’re not getting the deals they should get, because they’re not answering the phone or they’re not picking up on the juice that’s there. They’re a little bit afraid and gun-shy. Instead of having those conversations and getting to know those sellers, they dismiss them too soon. I’m like, “There’s a deal right there. And there’s a deal right there. And there’s a deal right there.”
Jill K DeWit:
They’re like, “Oh, I missed that.” I’m like, “Yep.” Getting those great deals, and jumping on them, and then quickly throw them into escrow. And then, if I didn’t have the money at that point, once I have an escrow number, now I’m shopping for somebody to fund the deal. Trust me, you did one, two and three, right? The money’s there. It’s no big deal and that everything else falls into place. I know you have heard us say this before, and maybe it’s been a little while, but you win when you buy it. If I found the smoking deal for $30,000, because the thing’s worth $95,000, maybe $120,000 to the right guy and people are all day long throwing these numbers around… Right now, it’s just crazy in this environment, it’s too easy for someone to say, “I’ll give you $30,000.” There’s people on our Thursday calls and in Discard that are scrambling and fighting over funding these deals for you. And then selling it is so easy. Thanks. What’s so funny?
Steven Jack Butala:
This is one of those times that I really disagree with Jill.
Jill K DeWit:
Sorry. That’s what I would do.
Steven Jack Butala:
If I were a new Land Academy member, the first thing I would do is absorb the concept.
Jill K DeWit:
So why are you smiling? Making me thinking that you agree with me when you really don’t.
Steven Jack Butala:
I don’t want to interrupt you. It’s a podcast. We’re not supposed to talk over. It’s not the kitchen table.
Jill K DeWit:
Well, all right. Some podcasts, they really try to be in alignment. Apparently, not this one.
Steven Jack Butala:
Jill and I have done a 180 degree role reversal over the years.
Jill K DeWit:
Oh, no.
Steven Jack Butala:
Jill was all the spiritual one in the… Looking to ask yourselves some questions in the mirror in the beginning. And I was like, “What? Get a freaking mailer out and to be… and answer the phone.” If I were a new Land Academy member, the first thing I would do is self-assessment, while I’m researching. We have a massive, massive library of content. And starting with this podcast, this is episode number 1500 and something… 1753. Five days a week, we do this since 2015. So every single one of those episodes is available. We’ve been doing a Thursday call, which is two… Sometimes more than two hours every single week, since 2015. It’s 500 or 600 plus hours of content, that’s ready for you to review and listen.
Steven Jack Butala:
The vast majority, if not all the time we spend on that call, is reviewing people’s deals. We call, Would you do this deal? There’s no replacement for that kind of content and that level… Our level of experience, helping people, regular members doing real deals. So self-assessment and research, huge amounts of research. We’re also weekly adding to that library. Most of it is in trailer form or in complete form, in the form of a one hour clubhouse discussion, an audio only clubhouse discussion that’s on YouTube. The recording’s on YouTube, every week that it gets added there. So if you enjoy this podcast, you’re going to enjoy all this other content that’s out there. Or maybe you don’t enjoy it, but it’s instructional. Enjoy’s a real strong word here.
Jill K DeWit:
Exactly.
Steven Jack Butala:
And then, in addition to that, we’ve got trailers for all the Career Path, which is a real advanced course for people that are… This is their career. There’s trailers weekly, that are being added to…
Jill K DeWit:
Our library.
Steven Jack Butala:
Our library of information. So that should keep you… And then, of course, if you’re… You’ve joined Land Academy, you’ll have access to the programs, Land Academy one, two and three.
Jill K DeWit:
This is if I were a member. So you want to say here, “I’m a member. So how much time do I spend on this?” Because you decide…. It’s [crosstalk 00:11:23] three years.
Steven Jack Butala:
If you go through Land Academy 3.0, which is where you should start, I would listen to what I say in those early chapters or early episodes… Yeah, chapters. And get, like, the earlier with the caller… Or the writer and the question, there’s a bunch of stuff that you have to do while you can… To get your company started, while you’re taking in the content, and going through the course, and attending the calls, and listening to the recordings. This is the most important thing you can do as a very new member, self assessment.
Jill K DeWit:
Well, you know what? I have Sedona weekend and I can book you out right now. [inaudible 00:12:08] have said, we have done a 180.
Steven Jack Butala:
What the hell is self-assessment, by the way?
Jill K DeWit:
I’m saying, get the stupid mailer out and you’re talking Sedona, spiritual assessment.
Steven Jack Butala:
Look, I’m going to tell you this just flat out, I’ll flat out say this. We have amazing results with people who are new to land investing, but not new to owning a company, or not new to using Excel, or not just brand new, which is why I think it takes a little bit of life experience to be good at this, in most cases. So if you already have a company and you’re just one of those people that on the weekends, always trying to look to buy a new company or start something on the side… Which is me, by the way, even at this point in my career, I’m like, “What else can I start? What can we buy that’s [crosstalk 00:12:52]-
Jill K DeWit:
Pizza.
Steven Jack Butala:
I would love to have had the chance to be a Land Academy member in 1994.
Jill K DeWit:
Well, we’ve said that a lot. I wish I had us. That’s true. Happy you could join us today. Five days a week. You can find us here on The Land Academy Show.
Steven Jack Butala:
Tomorrow, the episode on The Land Academy Show is called, Accurate mailer pricing in this hot 2022 real estate market. You are not alone in your real estate ambition. I have a lot to say about pricing.
Jill K DeWit:
So you didn’t totally disagree with me.
Steven Jack Butala:
No. No.
Jill K DeWit:
We were both kind of saying education and that’s kind of what I mean by immersing yourself, like, take it all in, spend all the time that you can. I talked to somebody the other day who is in Career Path now, they said, “I don’t get in the car without having you guys on.” That’s his way of immersing himself. Not weirdo. It’s just, “I’m in this. So I’m really trying to soak it up and take in all the knowledge and experience that I can. So I’ll do well.” I appreciate that.
Steven Jack Butala:
I think that the underlying point here is that, absorb this content, however you deem appropriate. Everybody’s gone to high school. So however you absorbed content in high school, bring those old habits back, because it’s a self-study, just like high school.
Jill K DeWit:
Mine was flashcards.
Steven Jack Butala:
I know I’ve learned that. I actually learned that from you, believe it or not.
Jill K DeWit:
You know that of me. Hey, thanks for tuning in. By the way, we recently reduced our newest, and latest, greatest educational product for Land Academy. It’s called Land Academy 3.0, Catching up with Land Academy. Jack and I spent, gosh, six months, creating, writing, recording, and getting this out and available to you to help you succeed in buying and selling land. It’s five hours of how to video and it’s free to existing Land Academy members. If you have any questions, reach out to support@landacademy.com and see if this is for you. We are Jack and Jill.
Steven Jack Butala:
We are Jack and Jill. Information…
Jill K DeWit:
And inspiration.
Steven Jack Butala:
To buy undervalued property.
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