Flip Houses 1 of 3 How to Choose an Area to Send Offers (CFFL 0171)
Flip Houses 1 of 3 How to Choose an Area to Send Offers
Jack Butala: Flip Houses 1 of 3 How to Choose an Area to Send Offers. Every Single month we give away a property for free. It’s super simple to qualify. Two simple steps. Leave us your feedback for this podcast on iTunes and number two, get the free ebook at landacademy.com, you don’t even have to read it. Thanks for listening.
Jack Butala:
S. Jack Butala here for Land Academy. Welcome to our Cash Flow for Land Show. We show you how to buy property for half of what it’s worth and resale it the next day. Great information and instruction from Jack, that’s me.
Jill DeWit:
And inspiration from Jill, that’s me.
Jack Butala:
Jill, here’s some funny stuff or Jill is going to tell us about some funny stuff that happened to us recently.
Jill DeWit:
Here we are back in town, back at our Scottsdale office. We walked in Steven’s office and the balcony is gone.
Jack Butala:
The balcony is missing.
Jill DeWit:
How long were we gone? This is really kind of weird. Steven has this great door that opens out overlooking a lake. It’s really pretty. I’m like, “Where did it go?”
Jack Butala:
That brings up a good point. I love construction. I don’t like while it’s happening. When it’s done, it’s just all brand new.
Jill DeWit:
I’m curious what’s going to happen. Is your office going to be gone when we come back? What’s coming? It’s the funniest thing.
It’s funny. It makes me think about … This construction project here is going pretty darn fast. We come back and … I’m pulling in the parking lot. It’s all changed. The bottom floor where we usually … Wused to go up these backstairs, gone. It’s some big changes. Yet-
Jack Butala:
Like structural changes.
Jill DeWit:
Right. Huge stuff. The sidewalk is removed. Everything is gone. There’s a big residential project going on near where we live in Scottsdale. That’s moving at a snail’s pace now. Right? I’m going, “I don’t really see any change.”
Jack Butala:
I think it’s all inside now.
Jill DeWit:
Maybe that’s it. We’ll go with that. I’m like, “This is kind of funny how some projects go.”
Jack Butala:
I think seasons are opposite here. I think they’re raising to beat the heat. I think they got it all enclosed inside. Hopefully, they’re going to … You know what I mean.
Jill DeWit:
Yeah. Well, you know what? That brings up something, too. It’s interesting how long some projects can take and some can go really fast. You and I, we had this one flip that we did. It was, I want to say, 45 days start to finish.
Jack Butala:
It’s 45 days money in, money out.
Jill DeWit:
We moved walls and we staged it.
Jack Butala:
That’s how we roll, man.
Jill DeWit:
I built a closet where there wasn’t one. I moved a bathroom. Major stuff.
Jack Butala:
We did some pretty serious stuff to that house.
Jill DeWit:
It’s interesting to me when I hear people … They’re like, “It’s six months.” I’m like, “What are you talking about? If you really push, you can do it.”
Jack Butala:
You’re all hippie, Jill. Sometimes you’re like a drill sergeant, too, and I like it.
Jill DeWit:
Thank you. You don’t want me … I am. That’s kind of funny. There’s a few projects that I get really involved in. If I’m packing a lunch and I’m spending all day there seriously because I’ve done that, we’re getting it done today.
Jack Butala:
That’s right.
Jill DeWit:
We are not messing around.
Jack Butala:
Well said.
Jill DeWit:
Thank you.
Jack Butala:
In this episode, Jill and I talk about flipping houses. We’re getting so many questions about our Data to Doorstep product and how to use it for flipping houses. It’s leading up to our next product release, which is coming here really soon. The episode is this. Let’s Flip Houses, episode one of three: How to Choose an Area to Send Offers? Great show.
Before we start, let’s take a question posted by one of our members on successplant.com, our free online community with construction in the background.
Jill DeWit:
Exactly. Stanley from Oregon wrote in. “You guys talk about AWeber all the time. What the heck is it and why is it important?” That’s good.
Jack Butala:
That is a great question. I would love to. This came from a forum in our Success Plant. The forum started, what email company should they use? Then several of our members piped in and said, “I tried MailChimp and it just didn’t work.”
Jill DeWit:
Yeah, I know.
Jack Butala:
You’re a perfect candidate to answer this question. AWeber, how much money do we make from AWeber-
Jill DeWit:
I use AWeber every single day. AWeber is such a valuable tool.
Jack Butala:
Please start from the beginning. Let’s say you have a 40-acre piece of property you purchase for next to nothing and you’re going to sell it, how do you use that?
Jill DeWit:
Let me back up and explain what AWeber is, and then I’ll tell. AWeber is a place to capture email addresses and then use it to send out emails whether it’s broadcast your blog, or broadcast your podcast, or broadcast when you have something for sale, property for sale. It’s a place to do that. It’s great because they keep you in check. Nowadays with email, there’s just a lot of rules, and regulations, and ways you have to do things. You have to have your unsubscribe and all that good stuff. You can’t just download a list like we all want to do and Steven has done in the past and just run with it. You can get in trouble for that.
Jack Butala:
Let me back up one more step. I learned this, too. In Gmail, and Hotmail, and even with the website email, there’s severe daily limits about how many numbers of emails you can send. The number hovers around 200. If you want to send more than 200 Gmail emails out per day, you’re going to start to run into some pretty serious problems. AWeber is a way around that trough the opt-in process.
Jill DeWit:
Right. It’s a legal way to send a bunch of emails and just capture them. That’s the bottom line.
Jack Butala:
The gist of it is somebody signs up because they’re interested in whatever your product you’re involved in. In our case, regionally, it’s land. People want to get notified when we get a new property in because they are land buyers. After a while, you accumulate tens of thousands of these things. AWeber is a system to allow you to safely and legally notify them.
Jill DeWit:
Here’s how it works. I have a form through various websites. I use one AWeber account to capture all of it. It’s wonderful. You don’t need six AWeber accounts. One AWeber account, you can divide them up by different groups like I have a form on our land selling site that is, “Hey, you want to be in my platinum buyers club. Sign up here.” I have created this huge list. They fill out their name. They fill out their email address. They get an email back acknowledging that they really want it so we know it’s all cool. Then they’re in my group. Then when these emails go out, when I send them out, I do specials and things like that or I’m updating what I have going on available, they have the option right there to unsubscribe. It’s all cool. It’s all legit. They love it.
One little tip that I’ve learned over the years, too. If you don’t bombard them … I can’t stand … I know you’re the same way, Steven. Some people send out three emails a day. Don’t do that. That’s just silly. If you want to unsubscribe your list right away, do that.
Jack Butala:
Once a week.
Jill DeWit:
Right. Once a week is great.
Jack Butala:
Sometimes once a month.
Jill DeWit:
It depends if there’s something going on. Depending on what you do, it may only be once a month, depending on what you have going on. Say, you’re a realtor and you only, just once a month, send out your updated newsletter. That’s what it’s for. Perfect.
What was the other half of the question? There was something about why is it important? That’s what AWeber is. That’s how I use it. I also use it for my eBook. We have … We call it our blueprint. You can go on our website landacademy.com. It’s right on the front page. Click here to get our … It says eBook but it’s really the blueprint. You click there. You put in your name and your email address. You confirm it. Boom. Then the whole PDF file of our blueprint pops in, which is great.
What’s beautiful about this, too, is it’s all automated. I have it all set up so no one is clicking there saying, “I just got one. I got to send this out to this guy.” It’s automated. When they reply, “Yes, I want it,” it automatically pops back into their email and you don’t have to do it. It’s a great tool. It’s a wonderful thing. We use it because it keeps you legit, I guess. You need to do the things right away.
Jack Butala:
You can run multiple lists. Several of our customers are very interested in learning how to purchase property really inexpensively. That’s the blueprint. That’s our blueprint list. Many, many, tens of thousands of our customers, because we’ve been doing it for so long, really want to be notified that we have a property. As soon as we buy a property, they want to take a first crack at it. Jill runs a Wednesday Hump Day Special to all the people who have signed up and want to use it.
AWeber is a survival tool in my opinion. I think the sooner that you can start AWeber and provide some good content and start to get a following, the better that it’s all going to go. I can’t imagine life without it.
Jill DeWit:
Right. Basically, it’s a list of your customers. It’s the best thing ever. They’ve opted in. They want to be your customer.
Jack Butala:
Yeah. Exactly, Jill.
Jill DeWit:
Do it right. Capture all those email information and give them what they want. They’ll follow you. What’s great, too, is they may not be in … It’s interesting how some people like that, they want to be on my property list. They may not buy this [one or next one 00:09:24] but they want to be notified. They want to know what’s going on and it’s really kind of cool. It’s a great tool.
Jack Butala:
Exactly. Hey, this is the meat of the show, why we’re here today. Flip Houses, episode one of three: How to Choose an Area to Send Offers? I get this question on a daily basis about flipping houses as well as flipping land or selling land on terms.
Jill DeWit:
Do you think this comes up more than … I almost think this first step comes up more than the actual process. What do you think?
Jack Butala:
Yeah. It’s hard to say right now what comes up the most and what doesn’t. I know that this is a huge … You know what? Everybody is different. I’m glad you brought that up. Everybody’s got a concern, including me. I did in the beginning, too. My big thing was I don’t really want to talk to people who call me. A lot of people really need to know extra detail about how to choose an area. The way that you choose an area to flip houses is much different than the way I choose an area to buy land. I’ll explain houses here in detail. Jill, stop me if it gets too boring.
Jill DeWit:
I promise I will. I see it coming. No, I’m just kidding.
Jack Butala:
We choose-
Jill DeWit:
This is really a hot topic. Look at all the TV shows. There’s way more HGTV shows about flipping houses. I really want you to be specific on this, Steven. Take the land part out of it because,
Jack Butala:
Okay. That’s great.
Jill DeWit:
… there’s not a lot of HGTV on flipping land but there sure are on houses.
Jack Butala:
Great. Actually, that’s a great suggestion. I’d take it. Those HGTV shows concentrate on the actual renovation portion, but they never talk about how they found a house. Isn’t that funny?
Jill DeWit:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jack Butala:
Here’s how you find a house. You select an area of town where you feel comfortable working. It doesn’t even have to be your town. It can be somewhere else. Jill and I choose to use master-planned communities. If you’re not familiar with that term, please look it up. It’s pretty simple stuff. It’s a community where all the houses are built at the same time. It’s not back in the ’30s, 40’s, and ’50s, and ’60s where houses were purchased or built on a one-off scenario. We choose master-planned communities. Find one. There are very large ones out west. Out east, there might be 20 or 30 so you’re going to need to find more than one master-planned community.
Once you do that, you can get a real good sales comparison about what houses sell for because they’re so similar, what they sell for in that neighborhood. Great. Now you find a similar sales comparison. You get the data for that area and hopefully it’s thousands and thousands and thousands of homes. You manipulate the data to remove all the houses with mortgages. Then you give them an offer.
How do you really choose an area? How do you know which ones are going to buy and sell the best? The thing with master-planned communities, it takes a lot of the mystery, not only for you, but the guy who’s going to actually fix and flip. We don’t fix and flip. We never have. We’ve done it a few times and decided that just wasn’t for us for a lot of reasons.
To answer the question directly, you need to find an area very specifically where you can find consistent sales comparison values. What you don’t want is a house here that’s worth 30,000 and right next door is worth a 130. Some people love that but I don’t. We have much better luck purchasing and wholesaling houses where there’s consistent [comps 00:13:14] because, again, I’ve said it a million times, it’s not about the piece of real estate at all. It’s about the transaction that you negotiate. It’s about the deal.
Jill DeWit:
You know what’s funny about that? I was just watching a show on HGTV just about this topic. It was this cute couple in Orange County. I think we all know who they are. Tarek and Christina, I think there name is.
Jack Butala:
You will know who they are.
Jill DeWit:
Yeah. Now you know.
Jack Butala:
I have no idea.
Jill DeWit:
I know who they are. Anyway, what’s so funny … We’re just back from … We’re in South Bay area when we’re out there but they’re down in Orange County. Anyway, I was watching one of their shows. They were pulling their hairs out because they actually stepped out of their comfort zone and they went into a very custom home. I want to say it was Pasadena. To make it work, we’re talking getting involved in learning about the architecture because the people who buy these homes … It was a really niche project even within what they do. It was kind of funny. They made it work but at the very end they said, “We didn’t make as much money as we normally do. We had to put a lot more into it than we normally do.” There’s a lot more work. I think, at the end, they decided, “Okay. We’re not going to do that again.” They really had to …
It’s one thing to … You’re just talking about a subdivision. If you know an area and you feel really good about it, that’s what you want to do. You know the subdivision. You know most of your buyers. We don’t all know. You want to sing to as many people as possible. If you’re into this, you have a good idea what colors work, and what flooring works and neutral colors, what most buyers want. When you get into a custom thing like that, there’s a lot more involved. I just was using that as an example of what you just talked about where they’re,
Jack Butala:
It’s actually-
Jill DeWit:
… hitting their heads on the wall.
Jack Butala:
A perfect example of how to choose the right area and how to not choose the right area. If there’s one takeaway, here’s the takeaway from this whole podcast, choose an area where the house values are similar. I happen to catch part of the show with Jill that she’s talking about. She’s exactly right. The problem with that whole scenario is that a house across the street could sell for half.
Jill DeWit:
Exactly.
Jack Butala:
They’re going for the top of the market.
Jill DeWit:
It was that one builder at that one lot.
Jack Butala:
Just because you’re a wholesaler like we are doesn’t mean that you … It’s not someone else’s problem once you wholesale the house out. Your customers who are the people who do fix and flip like the people that Jill is talking about, like the people on HGTV, the reason that they work with you and they die to work with you after they’ve done it a couple of times successfully is because you choose the right houses in the first place. You can’t buy junk and just say it’s a great deal, and then shove it off on somebody else, and let them deal with it. You want to get a house that’s 50 or 60% of what it’s going to sell for and turn it over to this guy so he makes more money than you do. That’s the whole key to this. That’s the takeaway from how to choose an area.
This is the if then segment of the show. If you do X, then Y will happen. If you choose an area properly and made all the owners in that area an offer properly, you’ll buy a house or two and wholesale them each for 10,000 plus per deal. That’s the what Jill and I make.
Hey, if you have a question or you want to be on the show, call 800-725-8816. Jill, my favorite part of the show. Do you have some inspiration for us?
Jill DeWit:
I do. Here is my question. How do you motivate yourself when everything seems to be failing?
Jack Butala:
Wow, man. You know what? This is Jill Day. You know what? I can tell the kind of mood you’re in.
Jill DeWit:
Thanks.
Jack Butala:
I love when you’re just all down to business.
Jill DeWit:
Thanks.
Jack Butala:
Even the philosophical portion of the show is like down to business.
Jill DeWit:
I can’t help it. Sorry. I am all business today. It’s funny. I don’t know why. Steven, how do you … Let’s be honest,
Jack Butala:
We all have those days.
Jill DeWit:
… a lot of people-
Jack Butala:
I’ve had decades like that.
Jill DeWit:
Right? Well, think about starting out when you’re starting something new. There’s going to be failures. There might be multiple failures. How do you motivate yourself to not just throw in the towel?
Jack Butala:
You know what really, really helps me is to not … If there’s some stuff that I have a real tough time handling and there’s some stuff that no matter what happens, I will just barrel through it, and I don’t care how many times I fail. If I have a lot of bills hanging over my head or some really big, big, big picture stuff like somebody is nagging at me all the time about my little micro choices I’m making, that tends to really stand in my way. If I got the big picture stuff worked out and all the business things that I’m working on day after day after day just don’t seem to be working, I can still get through it pretty easily.
Jill DeWit:
That’s good.
Jack Butala:
The other thing, too, I think, to tie back to a show we did a couple days ago, is if you’re going to have any emotion at all, you’re setting yourself up for some problems. I just think if you’re … I think it’s okay to celebrate but that’s about it. If you’re all going to go down in the dumps because somebody called you and said, “I would never sell my house to you for that amount,” then that’s not a failure. That’s funny.
Jill DeWit:
Exactly.
Jack Butala:
What do you do?
Jill DeWit:
I agree.
Jack Butala:
I’ve never seen you fail at anything so I don’t know. Maybe you’re not qualified for this.
Jill DeWit:
That’s right. Well, you know what’s funny? You said something that’s the same as how I do it. It’s on my list here. For me, my god, everything is failing. I can’t seem to do anything right. What am I doing wrong? Geez. We’ve all had those. I feel like everything I touch breaks. What the heck. My IT problem is … Now I can’t even turn the lights in my office. What have I done?
For me, I take a step back. For me, really I remove myself. I had to physically remove myself from the situation. I realign my goals. You know what? Then I remember the big picture. Then I rally. Sometimes it’s hard but you got to push yourself. You just got to do it. Remember why you’re here. Your goals are still there. You said big picture and I still think about you have to remember about the big picture. I hate to say suck it up but sometimes you have to suck it up and rally.
Jack Butala:
Hey, the other thing … That’s triggered something for me, too. If you’re proactive instead of reactive like if something comes into your world, a customer is upset or somebody calls, whatever happens and you’re reactive to that constantly, that’s a pretty sure fire way to fail.
The first two or three times something like that happens, you have to address it. What you got to do then is put a system in place to where you’re satisfying the customer in a more automated way. If you’re just constantly reactive, for me anyway, that sends me down the failing spiral.
Jill DeWit:
Exactly. Good stuff.
Jack Butala:
Join us in another episode where Jack and Jill discuss how do use information, that’s me.
Jill DeWit:
And inspiration, that’s me.
Jack Butala:
To get just about anything you want.
Jill DeWit:
We’ll use it everyday to buy property for half of what its worth and sell it immediately.
Jack Butala:
Get there first. Great show, Jill. You are all business today. What’s going on?
Jill DeWit:
I am. I’m sorry.
Jack Butala:
No, I love it.
Jill DeWit:
[inaudible 00:20:55] silly, happy fun. Today, I’m like …
Jack Butala:
I know what it is.
Jill DeWit:
Do you know what it is? What do you think?
Jack Butala:
We’re just in California for a month. We just took a one-week vacation and we stayed a month. Now we’re back in our offices and it’s time to do some work.
Jill DeWit:
Yeah. Where it’s down to business. I have to say our staff did a fantastic job about keeping the wheels on the bus.
Jack Butala:
They really did.
Jill DeWit:
They really did. Mom and dad are back. The party is over. That’s what’s going on. We’re cleaning this place up now.
Jack Butala:
See what I mean?
Jill DeWit:
That’s what going on. Do you know what it is?
Jack Butala:
I want to come over there and kiss you.
Jill DeWit:
Do you know what it is? Mom and dad are back and I just found a beer can in the corner and heads are going to roll. That’s what’s going on.
Jack Butala:
What you find?
Jill DeWit:
I didn’t find a beer can in the corner.
Jack Butala:
If you find a beer can in the corner, it might be mine. [crosstalk 00:21:50]
Jill DeWit:
I think I would know. Actually you would be the first person I would look. Exactly. That’s just where I’m at right now. Okay, everybody. I hope you had your fun. Now, let’s get some serious … You and I know what happens. You and I take off. What do we do? We come back with 16 new fantastic ways,
Jack Butala:
Yeah, like new businesses.
Jill DeWit:
… to grow our business, add businesses, help customers, side projects, all these things that were like, “Awesome. We’re going to do all these stuff.” We come back. We’re like, “What do you mean you guys are busy? No, no, no, no.”
Jack Butala:
I know.
Jill DeWit:
We have more things that we’re going to do now. That’s what’s going on.
Jack Butala:
We’re hiring new people.
Jill DeWit:
We are hiring. That’s true.
Jack Butala:
I can feel it.
Jill DeWit:
It’s coming.
Jack Butala:
Hey, let’s go buy something for half price today and resell it. Jack and Jill, information and inspiration.
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