Current Changes We Have Made in Our Land Business (LA 1838)
Current Changes We Have Made in Our Land Business (LA 1838)
Transcript:
Steven Jack Butala:
Steven 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 the current changes that we’ve implemented in our Land business.
Jill K DeWit:
This year.
Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah, this year. Our hope is that you may consider making these changes too.
Jill K DeWit:
Yep.
This is a continuation, or a reprise, I should say, of the live YouTube Facebook talk that I gave last week, last Wednesday, which was awesome by the way. I had so much fun. It was me sharing the things that we’ve been doing differently this year, because my whole point is, if I’m doing it, you should be doing it too. That’s what we’re going to talk about today.
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. I hope you know by now that Jill and I teach a class, an advanced class, called career path. For a small group of people, it goes about 10 sessions, two or three times a year. If this is your career, or you want it to be, check it out. Land academy forward slash career path.
Jill K DeWit:
It’s our top level version of coaching. Everybody wants to have that real personal coaching experience. That’s what this is.
Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah.
Jill K DeWit:
So cool. Mitchell and Heidi wrote, one of the reasons we started this Land journey was to raise money, to buy and hold vacation property in other countries we like to visit. We like to own our own CR… I don’t know what that is. Yucatan will probably be the first. There are possibly… Excuse me. There are absolutely risks, but one could argue the risks like that are growing everywhere, even here and having diversified foreign holdings, especially if they can give you access to multiple passports, are a good idea. A Mexican passport for instance, was the best one to have during the height of COVID, and had access to something like 186 countries, when a US passport wouldn’t be allowed entry anywhere.
That’s very interesting. I haven’t thought about it for something like that.
Steven Jack Butala:
This prompted me. I’ll say it in a second. Go ahead, and finish it here.
Jill K DeWit:
We think there’ll be some opportunities in the next few years, but this whole fourth turning thing seems to have some legs. Perhaps if governments fall, who knows what happens.
Steven Jack Butala:
I love the way that you’re thinking out of the box here. I really respect it. Honestly, this prompted me. This question prompted me. This is in Discord. One of our new members. To look into getting a dual passport situation in Mexico for Jill and I. I actually have started down the path of doing that. Do I ever want to own any Mexican real estate? Absolutely not. This is my opinion, and this is why you post things in Discord to get other people’s opinions. I think this is a crazy risky endeavor. I think it’s something that could be a really cool hobby.
Jill K DeWit:
Owning a property?
Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah.
Jill K DeWit:
Not the passport part?
Steven Jack Butala:
No, the passport’s a great idea. Brilliant idea.
Jill K DeWit:
Not the hobby part? The whole property part.
Steven Jack Butala:
Owning real estate in other countries immediately exposes you to a different legal system that I’m not familiar with. I’m pretty familiar with the American legal system, and there’s a lot of recourse within that system if something goes wrong.
Jill K DeWit:
Sure.
Steven Jack Butala:
If you are wronged somehow. Owning foreign real estate, I think might be a great idea. Once you have a massive American land machine, like we do, and then you can go off, and do this maybe for yourself, or have a couple of rentals. It might be a great tax situation. Maybe it does open the doors up for dual citizenship, and a lot of other things. As a primary, I know there’s people out there. I know exactly. I cut this question off because it was a lot longer. I know that people have groups like Land Academy, where they own property…
Jill K DeWit:
Ex paths.
Steven Jack Butala:
… All over the world. That’s the business.
Jill K DeWit:
Yeah, because you can be a US citizen… I’m thinking, what if you’re a Mexican citizen, and you own Mexican property?
Steven Jack Butala:
Yep.
Jill K DeWit:
That’s different. It’s a whole different ballgame now.
Steven Jack Butala:
Yes, or if you have a Mexican partner as an American. That can open a lot of doors too. Especially if it’s a lawyer, a Mexican lawyer, or a notary, they have… Notaries are completely different in Mexico. They’re very well paid, and they don’t just… They’re called Notarios, but they’re really lawyers. Again, I think this is a great idea, but I think it would… My personal opinion, and this is how I’ll answer the question is get the land machine, the American land machine moving, so it’s really cash flowing. And then…
Jill K DeWit:
When you’re bored…
Steven Jack Butala:
Dip your toe in the water.
Jill K DeWit:
When you’re rich, and you’re bored.
Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah. Perfect.
When you’re rich and bored, this will be a great idea.
Jill K DeWit:
That’s all I can think about. The thing too, I researched this a long time ago, and what I came up with is not all, but some, other countries allow and recognize dual citizenship. The United States is not one of them. They want you to denounce your citizenship.
Steven Jack Butala:
That’s correct.
Jill K DeWit:
If you’re going to be a US citizen, you are a US citizen, and that’s it. You can’t be Canadian in US, Mexican US. Their thoughts are our thoughts here in this country is pick one kind of thing. You have to be sneaky about it too.
Steven Jack Butala:
The rules are really changing. World travel, and the internet, and things like Starlink behind us are really making us so much more mobile than we ever have been. Governments are not stupid about collecting taxes. The American government, for instance, this is really not the topic at all anymore, but as I understand it, you can live anywhere in the world, but you’re filing an American tax return if you’re a US citizen.
Jill K DeWit:
Makes sense.
Steven Jack Butala:
There’re many countries in the world where let’s say, if you’re Italian, and you moved to Spain permanently, you no longer file a tax return in your origin country. I’m just using those two countries as just… That actually may not be completely accurate with those two countries, but I know there’re many countries where…
Jill K DeWit:
That applies.
Steven Jack Butala:
You really make that work for you.
Jill K DeWit:
Got it.
Steven Jack Butala:
Also, there’s a lot of places where if you’re making money in that country, then you file that. That’s where you file a tax return. This is not one of those places. You get dually taxed.
Jill K DeWit:
Okay. Now we’re going to… I mean, how far do you want to talk about this now? You lost me.
Steven Jack Butala:
Today’s topic. Current changes we’ve made in our Land business. I hope that you take them for what they are. Consider making some changes too. This is the meat of the shelf.
Jill K DeWit:
The whole point of the topic today, and why I covered it last week was, every year there’s always things that you need to be doing differently. We do it. Even right now, we’re all looking at the market. We’re all looking at this. We’re all like, “What if this slows down? What if that changes? What if prices go down as interest rates go up?” Now, interest rates are coming back down. What do I do? What should I plan for? It’s that kind of a thing, right? You can’t go into this business, or probably any business, and just set it up, and let it run an autopilot, and never adjust.
Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah.
Jill K DeWit:
Never raise your prices. Never redo your menu. Never fill in the blank kind of thing. You should be… There’re annual changes. There’s probably, but depending on your business, monthly changes, annual changes. Five-year game plan changes.
All that stuff needs to happen. We wanted to share some of the tweaks that we’re doing right now this year. We’re halfway through 2022. We’re more than halfway through 2022. We’re coming in the back end of 2022. Boy, did that go fast. I want you to know what we’re doing, because if I’m doing it, you need to. You should probably be doing it, or at least you need to be aware of it, so you’re ready for it. Some of the things are… The way that we’re picking properties, there’s no dart board, there’s no secret county, nothing like that.
Steven Jack Butala:
Let me interject to you real quick before you run down your list. Every time… Every career path there’s one, or two people that are pretty vocal about this. I used to send mail to this fill in the blank place. Once every two months, I would buy 52 properties, and my life was great. I did that for years. Now, I’m only buying 48. The last time I sent it, I only bought 32. To which I say, to which I chuckle, and to everybody’s benefit… The other Atlanta career path members.
I mean, maybe you went to the well so many times that you need to try a different place, or they’ll say something like, “I send a mailer over here. I buy all this property. I send a mailer over here. I don’t buy any property.”
Jill K DeWit:
I know.
Steven Jack Butala:
This is the way this works. Ask a convenience store owner. They have good months, and bad months. The good news is that, and I’m going to talk about this tomorrow in great detail, this business really allows you to make those on the fly changes to be successful. So, go ahead, Jill.
Jill K DeWit:
It’s funny you bring that up because we’ve had whole mailers where West Virginia, where I said, skip it. Drop it. Don’t even go there. Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb. You know what it was? It was so many undivided interests, and the properties turned out to be not that great. We didn’t even bother. I felt bad.
Back to the topic though, one of the things that we’re doing differently is really getting strategic about where we’re sending mail, and it really is changing even more rapidly. Little pockets pop up. Then, as things get busy, people move, and then it’s over here, and it moves. This may be hot this month, and cold next month. Maybe has to do with the season. Kids starting school, vacation time, weather, all kinds of things.
You have to do, what we call trolling, and we do real strategic trolling. We don’t just like… We don’t sit back in January, and pick all the counties we’re going to mail for the rest of the year. We’re doing it every single mailer.
Steven Jack Butala:
Constantly adjusting.
Jill K DeWit:
Every single time. I wanted you to know about that. We are also developing more partnerships, more strategic partnerships with unique individuals. We could all be doing more deals, and have our hands in more areas, and learn more about those areas. That’s the best way I think to do it.
Steven Jack Butala:
Yep. Me too. I think this is a key point that Jill’s making here. We send our own mailer out. That’s a lot. We send a mailer out with a partner who’s answering the phones, and utilizing some of our staff, the way that we do to their benefit. We also fund other people’s deals. We have three strong proven income streams with Land. It’s not going to end there. As soon as we find the right person where we all understand each other, we’ll partnership with them too. So, go ahead Jill.
Jill K DeWit:
The third thing, I have four things here. The third thing is we, in the advanced group too, are leaning heavily, really heavily on somebody else pulling our data. You need to be on the front, like we are. Being strategic about where you want to mail, how much you want to offer, what you’re going to sell these for, the sizes that you’re going for, because you know how to do this.
I showed that, by the way, check out the YouTube video I did last week, because I showed you a little example if you don’t know what I’m talking about. Showed you an example of trolling, and how you can really quickly, in a few minutes, get a good idea about where you should send mail. What we’re leaning on our concierge data people, this is for Land Academy members, because that’s all we can handle right now. We know who you are, and how smart you are. You know what you’re doing. I don’t need you to… We don’t want, no offense, I don’t want people calling concierge saying, “What’s this whole direct mail thing?”
Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah.
Jill K DeWit:
That’s not what concierge is about. They cannot help you with that at all.
Steven Jack Butala:
We know where you got educated, if you’re a current academy member.
Jill K DeWit:
When our members, who as they should, call concierge, and say, “I need you to go into this area. These are the four zip codes. I want all the five to 20 acre properties.”
Steven Jack Butala:
Exactly.
Jill K DeWit:
And, “How fast can you get it to me?”
Steven Jack Butala:
That’s right.
Jill K DeWit:
That’s really what it is. We’re doing that too. You know what? It just keeps you on track. Even for us, it’s easy to get mailer out there, and get sidetracked with other things you’ve got going on in your world, and your family, and your business. If you don’t have a consistent mail schedule, it’s going to mess up your bottom line. Concierge is a huge benefit for that. My team will pull the data, scrub the data, get it ready for you to price, and get it in the mail.
Then, the last thing is prepping for houses. People ask about, what do you guys think? What’s going to happen? It’s true. We’re going to crank back up. It’s still there. It’s open, and live, and running, which is House Academy. We’re going to redo some stuff early in 2023 with the stuff that we’re figuring out right now.
Steven Jack Butala:
Think about where you are right now, and whether you’re in your car, or you’re in your office, or home, or whatever. Think the next time you troll, I want you to think about, and back the map out, and look at some of the rural small towns that are in your area. That you’re probably looking down your nose at. Everybody else is like, “Who would want to live there? There’s nothing there.” There’s just a bunch of a couple of convenience stores, and what… Those places, the Starlink behind Jill and I, the Starlink box, and it’s… We got Starlink. We are testing it, actively testing it.
Jill K DeWit:
For the Army.
Steven Jack Butala:
It’s going to change. Just please trust me on this. Will change the entire landscape, and world real estate market. It allows you to high speed connect from just about anywhere in the world. These rural areas, that almost always have been farming communities, could be amazing places to live. In the very near future, and very affordable.
Jill K DeWit:
Exactly.
Steven Jack Butala:
Those are the houses that I would… I think that we are all going to buy. Jill and I have a company called House Academy, and I’m really going to… We’re going to revamp that program in 2023, and relaunch it because rural houses can be a great way to make money.
Jill K DeWit:
Do you know I just said that whole sentence? Do you zone out when I’m talking?
Steven Jack Butala:
I said [inaudible 00:15:17]. No, no, no. Not at all.
Jill K DeWit:
I just talked about House Academy, and the revamp.
Steven Jack Butala:
Oh no, I’m sorry.
Jill K DeWit:
I’m like, “Are you painting your nails?”
Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah, maybe I was.
Jill K DeWit:
Yeah, okay. Happy to join this today. Five days of geek, you can find us here on the Land Academy Show.
Steven Jack Butala:
Tomorrow, the episode on the Land Academy Show is called, “How does your land business compare to other small business types?”
You are not alone in your real estate ambition. Here’s a hint. We have so much flexibility it’s amazing.
Jill K DeWit:
Right.
Steven Jack Butala:
And such low risk from a money perspective in all of that time perspective. I’ll talk about it tomorrow.
Jill K DeWit:
In investment. The time, and the money invest. You could do this. It’s like… What do you call it when it’s like transaction based?
Steven Jack Butala:
Variable cost.
Jill K DeWit:
That’s it.
Steven Jack Butala:
We’re able to fix cost ratio is pretty stunning.
Jill K DeWit:
Hey, thanks for tuning in.
By the way, it’s still new, and fresh, and awesome. 2022, we rereleased Land Academy’s program. It is called Catching Up with Land Academy 3.0. That’s the version you want to start with too. By the way, let me just throw this in here too, I have a deal going right now. I have the biggest deal so far this year happening through the end of August. Go to landacademy.com, click on the join page at the top, and you’ll see the details there. Not only you’re going to get the current program 3.0, you’re going to get all the past programs. There’s a rocking deal, which does include a free 10-acre, well not a free, it’s a drawing. Excuse me. A drawing for a 10-acre property in Haskell County, Oklahoma. It’s worth like… I talked about it on the live thing the other day. If you do it all wrong, it’s worth about 10 grand. Check it out.
We are Jack and Jill.
Steven Jack Butala:
We are Jack and Jill.
Information…
Jill K DeWit:
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Steven Jack Butala:
It’s about undervalued property.
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