Transcript:

Steven Jack Butala:
I’m Steven Jack Butala.

Jill K DeWit:
And I’m Jill DeWit, and this is the Land Academy Show.

Steven Jack Butala:
This is episode number 1,975, and today we’re talking about why we don’t have any trouble at all finding land deals. A little later in the episode we will talk about, well, I’m wondering if are you part of the rat race, the entrepreneurial rat race? We all know what the-

Jill K DeWit:
The regular rat race is.

Steven Jack Butala:
… the W2 rat race is.

Jill K DeWit:
Totally.

Steven Jack Butala:
I’ve learned recently-

Jill K DeWit:
Or the education rat race, like people who are just like non-stop college students. I understand. I mean, I don’t understand it, but I know that.

Steven Jack Butala:
I’ve learned recently and been researching, you’ll learn the result of all this, the fact that this rat race thing is real and it’s also primarily in our heads. So if you were running the rat race, here’s a spoiler alert. If you were running the rat race in a W2 environment and you become a startup expert or you attempt a startup or an entrepreneur, you need to check and see if you’re making that a rat race for yourself too.

Jill K DeWit:
I’m super curious. So is there going to be an entrepreneurial twist to this that you’ve done some research on?

Steven Jack Butala:
Yes, I have so much to say.

Jill K DeWit:
Well, that’s normal. That does not surprise me at all.

Steven Jack Butala:
Each week on the show, we answer questions from our Land Academy member Discord forum. We review land acquisitions from our weekly member webinars and we take a deep dive into two land related topics by popular request. If you want to sneak peek of our Discord forum, go to landacademy.com. It’s free.

Jill K DeWit:
Cool. By the way, if you would like some help getting started or you have a question that you want to see here, send a note to my team via support@landacademy.com. So Dave wrote, “Does anyone in the group have experience with raising and using private funds to purchase a large property? I’m looking at raising funds from a few acquaintances to purchase a good sized property over a hundred acres in a desirable mountain location that can be subdivided into 10 to 20 acre parcels. The preliminary numbers are pretty good, but I’m really just wondering about the logistics of how to structure the deal as far as setting up the fund entity, what kind of compensation I should build into the deal as the fund manager and anything else I should be aware of. I’m not soliciting for funds here, by the way. I already know who will be investing. I’m just asking for advices. I haven’t done anything like this yet. Thanks in advance.”

Steven Jack Butala:
This question goes to the very root of my soul. On around June or July of 2014, Jill and I were in a Los Angeles suburb on the beach wondering what we’re going to do with the rest of our lives because buying and selling land and everything was going great and is going great, and that has been unchanged in an uninterrupted manner. So we’re on vacation and I look at her and I say, “You know, what would you like to change in your life? What would make you happier next week versus this week? Where is this all going?” She said, “Geez, I’ll tell you.” She said, I’m obviously paraphrasing, “We have more deals than we know what to do with. Our kids are doing great. We have time on our hands. There’s food on the table. It’d be great if we had limitless capital.” I’m paraphrasing. She didn’t use that term. I think she said, “I’d like to spend as much money on buying land as I possibly can.”

Jill K DeWit:
Heck yes.

Steven Jack Butala:
Fast forward to now what the end of 2023 and we have limitless capital that taps right into this question. This question is why we started Land Academy so that we could have personally use private equity in a very effortless way. So if you’ve ever used private equity to redo a house, geez, simplest version of private equity I can think of is hard money. You go to a hard money lender. You’ve got a great house, you’re going to flip it. You’re buying it for 300,000. You know it’s worth 500. You got to put 100,000 in. You go to a private equity lender. They charge you 10% up front. They want you to put 20, 30, 40% of the deal up sometimes and on and on and on. Geez, by the end of it, you’re banging your head against the wall and the contract’s a quarter inch thick.
That’s not private lending. Private lending is Jill comes to me and says, “Do you have an extra $150,000? Because I’m going to buy a piece of land. I can probably converted to two or $300,000 in let’s say 60 days of some stuff goes around. What do you say?” And I shake her hand and we do a deal. That’s private lending to me. So we set up out in 2015 building Land Academy. We didn’t set up to be an educator. We created kind investors to do deals with. That’s what Land Academy is.

Jill K DeWit:
And then we showed them our way of doing deals.

Steven Jack Butala:
That’s exactly right. What we realized is that why don’t we show them how we do it and send their own mailers out so they can come up with amazing deals like we do? We can start funding other people’s deals. They fund our deals. We all have a sense of… That’s what the six As are. We analyze transactions in a similar way and we leave out the kinds of deals that we don’t want to do. Jill and I are not interested in developing anything. We are land people to our core. And so, people used to bring us all kinds of stuff as a funder and I used to get incredibly distracted at, I don’t know, some marina that was for sale. It’s silly. You can waste all kinds of time on that. The fact is we buy a piece of land, we do nothing to it. We don’t go there and we resell it for more. That’s our business model.
So the question here is has anybody had experience utilizing private funds? So I feel very qualified to talk about this. It’s because it’s in our souls. This is what we do. In the Land Academy environment, we do deals with each other all the time. What we don’t do, and I’m not picking on you Dave here, but I’m trying to set the stage for how much money we make, how many deals we do, and how it goes on within our group, buying properties that are over a hundred acres in a mountain location, and nowhere in here does Dave talk about the acquisition price and the potential sold price and the timeframe.

Jill K DeWit:
True.

Steven Jack Butala:
Those are the things that I don’t even want to have a conversation about it unless those things are right up front. “I’m going to buy this for $500,000. We’re going to own it for a year. After it’s converted, I’m going to sell it for $750,000. I’m out.”

Jill K DeWit:
Based on those numbers, you’re out. That’s why.

Steven Jack Butala:
That’s it.

Jill K DeWit:
But if he said, “Buying it for 500, I’m going to sell it for 1.2 in-

Steven Jack Butala:
60 days.

Jill K DeWit:
… 90 days,” now you have my attention.

Steven Jack Butala:
Maybe, maybe not. That’s kind of-

Jill K DeWit:
How much do you need?

Steven Jack Butala:
… on the higher end for us, but I’m still listening. And so, it can be that and should be that simple. If you’re brand new to this, you’re probably saying, “What the hell?”

Jill K DeWit:
“Why would you turn that down?”

Steven Jack Butala:
“Why would you turn it down?”

Jill K DeWit:
“Yeah. Are you nuts?”

Steven Jack Butala:
“Why are you being an a-hole about it?”

Jill K DeWit:
Gosh.

Steven Jack Butala:
And on and on and on, because that’s the way deals get done.

Jill K DeWit:
Because I can.

Steven Jack Butala:
That’s the type of people that are involved in these groups and we all do well.

Jill K DeWit:
And we do those deals. That’s my thing too. Every deal, “Oh, but if it’s that big, it should take that long.” No, it shouldn’t.

Steven Jack Butala:
No, no, no.

Jill K DeWit:
Doesn’t have… No, no, no. Find another one

Steven Jack Butala:
Exactly, Jill. If it’s grossly undervalued, I’m still listening.

Jill K DeWit:
Can we answer the question though?

Steven Jack Butala:
Go ahead.

Jill K DeWit:
Okay. So to answer the question though, I by design do not involve people that don’t understand my world. Sounds like you’re putting together five of your family members in this deal because you got the money and you’re trying to figure out how to structure it, make it fair. I would like to first caution you, we have many people in Land Academy that have given lovely stories of how awful this worked out like, “I can’t believe it. These people don’t understand it. It’s taken too long. They’re looking over my shoulder. They don’t get it.” Yeah, they don’t.
So for my first thing is careful who you’re taking money from because the majority of the planet I will not take money from. I really don’t. Honestly, I don’t need anybody else’s money, but the times I have used other people’s money, it’s because I knew them very, very well. They were in our world and it’s like, “Hey, let’s go in together on this. Done. That’d be kind of fun.” And then we split the profit and it’s all real. You know what you’re working on. I know what I’m working on. We have a good plan. Both of our names are on the deed and all that stuff. So this is what you’re asking is what you need to ice out. If it were me, I would want to be on the deed, same as everybody else. Say there’s five of us. There’s nothing wrong with five of us going on the deed. If there’s five of us, we’re all putting in $100,000 equally. I mean, this is the way I would love to see this done.
Let’s assume it’s half a million dollars. Everybody’s name is on the deed and you decide ahead of time too who’s going to be the manager. It sounds like it’s you, maybe one of the person too that you run things by, not make all the decisions or have a clear outcome like, “I’m going to be the manager of the deal. I will do all this, all this, all this,” all whatever roles you’re going to do, “and I will not sell it for less than,” fill in the blank kind of thing. And then the nice thing is the other four parties involved don’t have to talk to you. They know that they’re not going to hear from you until it’s done and they’re making at least fill in the blank that you agreed upon and spell it all out. Everybody’s going to be paid out of escrow. All that stuff should be clear and concise and easy, and it’s not that hard. You could do a two-page partnership agreement where everybody signs it and that’s really all you need.

Steven Jack Butala:
This is structurally a recipe for disaster.

Jill K DeWit:
Yeah, I’m worried about it.

Steven Jack Butala:
Actually, the way Jill simplified it, which she’s very good at, it makes me feel worse, not better, here’s what you want to do. You want to find somebody that you really understand the way that you would pick a girlfriend. We understand each other. The same stuff doesn’t seem to bug her. That bugs me. We compliment each other. We’re much better people when we’re together. Great. You got the personality thing down. The person’s got a bunch of money and no interest in sending a mailer out. So they have lots of money and you have tremendous amounts of talent in locating transactions, a perfect compliment to each other, or vice versa, you have tons of money and you’ve got a person that’s standing there in front of you saying, “We’ve got these 13 deals and let’s together pick one or two. I like these two, maybe these three, I’m not sure and here’s why. What do you say we do these deals together?” That’s it. That is private equity, private funding.
What you’d never ever want to do, and I’ll end it on this, we’ll get to the topic, is raise capital, raise $10 million, put it in a bank account from somebody because you can go… You’re a half hour away. Everybody listening to this is a half hour away from being in this position. “I know how to buy and sell properties. Look over here. Look at these deals I did. I did 10 of these deals. My return on investments, triple digits. I’m going to go raise some money. I’m going to raise 10 million bucks and I’m going to provide a 10% return on that 10 million. 10% return is nothing. I just generated 120% return on this last deal.”
Well, here’s what you’re going to find yourself doing. You’re going to be in a position where you’re going to pay 10% on that 10 million, whether it’s placed or not. So you are naturally going to start to make bad acquisition decisions to place that equity to get that return. Believe me, it’ll land in tragedy. There’s very, very, very few people that can make good decisions with tons and tons of money in their pocket. I’m quoting Warren Buffet on that. Worst decisions I’ve ever made is when I had a bunch of money in my pocket, and I absolutely agree with that. It first becomes a relationship. Jill and I, by the way, are related and we do business with each other pretty effectively because I stay out of her way, she stays out of mine. I respect her decisions and she about half the time respects mine.

Jill K DeWit:
Silly.

Steven Jack Butala:
Choose your partner really carefully and deal by deal by deal do deals together. Don’t get a big pot of equity and start going to spend it.

Jill K DeWit:
It’s funny. Well, at least he’s got a deal. He’s got a deal ice out, but it’s a few acquaintances. I got to tell you, Dave, this is a recipe for disaster. It really is. So let me know. Hey, you know what, Dave, please keep us posted as you go through this whole process because I got a pretty good idea how it’s going to end. You’re going to be mad at them and they’re going to be mad at you, so I’d be really careful.

Steven Jack Butala:
Well, let’s say it all works out. I’ve seen this happen too. Let’s say it all works out and everybody gets a check whoever’s involved.

Jill K DeWit:
Okay. How long is it going to take?

Steven Jack Butala:
Half of them are going to be really jealous. They’re going to be, “Well, Dave’s an expert at finding these deals. I’m going to go-

Jill K DeWit:
You should try to do this times 10.

Steven Jack Butala:
Well, that. And then the other half are going to say, “When’s the next deal, Dave?”

Jill K DeWit:
Yeah. Yeah, come on.

Steven Jack Butala:
“Well, you just made me $150,000 once. Are you good at this or not? Because I have to place the next money.”

Jill K DeWit:
That’s fair.

Steven Jack Butala:
“You suck, Dave. This all ends.” Thank you for letting us pick on you, by the way-

Jill K DeWit:
Yeah, sorry.

Steven Jack Butala:
… because I’m sure you’re going to… I know who you are. He’s an active member here and successful. I don’t mean to imply in any way that you’re new at this. It’s just people are unpleasable unless you’re in a situation where you’re in it, both of it, like Jill and I.

Jill K DeWit:
And they’re going to understand it.

Steven Jack Butala:
That’s been my experience.

Jill K DeWit:
I hope that people right now are in Discord replying to that like, “Let me tell you about the last deal I did-

Steven Jack Butala:
It smashed. There’s 20-

Jill K DeWit:
… with an acquaintance.”

Steven Jack Butala:
There’s 20 responses in Discord.

Jill K DeWit:
“We don’t speak. I’m out of the will.” Whatever it is because that more often has been the stories that I’ve heard.

Steven Jack Butala:
If you buy a piece of property, double your money and somebody else’s moneys involved, they’re going to be liquid jealous that you did it or they’re going to expect you to immediately do it again.

Jill K DeWit:
True.

Steven Jack Butala:
They’re not going to give you a kiss on the your cheek.

Jill K DeWit:
Or it’s going to take too long. That’s my other thing.

Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah. Yeah, that’s right.

Jill K DeWit:
It’s going to take too long.

Steven Jack Butala:
Or you can do it right. That’s right.

Jill K DeWit:
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. They need to be there too. “I want to be around for that. You’re going to a zoning meeting? Well, I want to go.” Sorry.

Steven Jack Butala:
It’s just another-

Jill K DeWit:
It’s kind of funny.

Steven Jack Butala:
… real world real estate investing Wednesday. That’s what we should call this.

Jill K DeWit:
It is.

Steven Jack Butala:
Meanwhile, by the way, everybody’s getting wealthy as hell.

Jill K DeWit:
Totally.

Steven Jack Butala:
They’re just unhappy wealthy.

Jill K DeWit:
I don’t know, Dave.

Steven Jack Butala:
Those two things shouldn’t go together.

Jill K DeWit:
Do you know what the bottom line is, Dave? Why?

Steven Jack Butala:
Wealthy happy.

Jill K DeWit:
You know what, here’s the bigger picture, do you feel a financial obligation to these acquaintances?

Steven Jack Butala:
I love this, Jill.

Jill K DeWit:
Why are you helping out acquaintances?

Steven Jack Butala:
Yep.

Jill K DeWit:
You could get one phone call in Land Academy and have one partner who really understands you and says, “I don’t want to be involved anyway.” I’m not promoting us, but I’m just saying there’s a lot of us in there. I’ll say the heck out of the way, I don’t want to be around for it. You do all the work. Call me, Dave, when it sells. That’s it.

Steven Jack Butala:
We’ve had tons of equity partners. The only equity partner that I’ve ever chosen to continue doing business with is Jill.

Jill K DeWit:
Thank you.

Steven Jack Butala:
And it’s because we have separate talents and stuff goes sideways and she says, “Yeah, I get it. That went sideways.” I say, “Yeah, I get it and it went sideways. And so, whatever happens here, let’s just keep moving forward. We’ll do another deal and figure it out then.”

Jill K DeWit:
No big deal.

Steven Jack Butala:
Resentment gets going on with partners.

Jill K DeWit:
I’m going to really follow Dave on this one. It sounds all great right now. I’m just trying to save you, Dave.

Steven Jack Butala:
You know what, I don’t mean to be negative because private equities, partnerships are the greatest thing. Again, I come back to this whole full circle.

Jill K DeWit:
But it has to be the right people. That’s it.

Steven Jack Butala:
It has to be the person who you understand and understands you.

Jill K DeWit:
Who is in your world, that’s the only way it’s going to work.

Steven Jack Butala:
Today’s first topic is why don’t we have any trouble finding land deals? Geez, this taps right into that question.

Jill K DeWit:
Mm-hmm. Totally.

Steven Jack Butala:
Why don’t we, Jill?

Jill K DeWit:
Oh my gosh.

Steven Jack Butala:
I know why.

Jill K DeWit:
This topic is… This is never going to go away, ever, ever, ever, ever, that people are like, “What do you mean you create deals?” We create deals that aren’t there. “Oh, like on the MLS?” No, no, no. That’s already there. Somebody else created that deal, not me. People just don’t get it and it comes up so often. I was talking to Christopher on our team about some of the people that he’s spoken to recently and a few investors I spoke to just last week, and they’re like, “Huh, they still can’t wrap their head around this.” And so, I don’t want to sound like a broken record, but I want to hit it home, everyone, we are creating deals and have no trouble doing it in any market of any size of gosh darn near any dollar amount and any type.

Steven Jack Butala:
Why?

Jill K DeWit:
You told me tomorrow.

Steven Jack Butala:
Why?

Jill K DeWit:
Because we know how to-

Steven Jack Butala:
It’s a secret.

Jill K DeWit:
Let me back up it. What is the secret? No.

Steven Jack Butala:
What’s the secret?

Jill K DeWit:
Oh, well, hold on a moment, let me back up. He was like, “What are you talking about? Do you mean, Jill, I could come to you and say, ‘I need a 10-unit apartment building in this county in one of these two zip codes kind of thing and I want it. This is what I need’? ” I’d be like, “Okay. Give me a couple weeks.”

Steven Jack Butala:
I’d say, “Give me 45 days. I’ll have three for you to choose from. Don’t expect the price to be perfect.”

Jill K DeWit:
And they aren’t on the MLS.

Steven Jack Butala:
“Expect one of the attributes about whatever order I’m trying to fill for you to fail.” So if there are three or four, and this goes with land deals too, I absolutely agree, I have 100% confidence in myself in sourcing a transaction-

Jill K DeWit:
Oh, I’ll do it.

Steven Jack Butala:
… just like that.

Jill K DeWit:
Well, you know what though, the money will make up for it. So hold on a moment. You say, “Jill, I need a 10-unit apartment building in LA County in these two zip codes.” Done. What else do you want? What else? That’s it. I’d be like, “Okay.”

Steven Jack Butala:
And what are the variables? And so, that would be my question.

Jill K DeWit:
Well, it has to be-

Steven Jack Butala:
This isn’t about us

Jill K DeWit:
… at 80% or less of current market value. Well, I could really do that, by the way.

Steven Jack Butala:
80%?

Jill K DeWit:
80% or less.

Steven Jack Butala:
That’d be tough, Jill.

Jill K DeWit:
Give me a moment. Come on.

Steven Jack Butala:
It might be empty then.

Jill K DeWit:
Yeah, that’s okay too. I’m going to find you something. So let me back up. Let’s not focus on that part yet, but just focus on what I’m trying to get across.

Steven Jack Butala:
I’ll stop interrupting you.

Jill K DeWit:
Thank you. There you go. Let’s not focus on my words. Let’s not focus on letting me get out some words. Just kidding. But the whole point is we know how to source these deals and let me back up and tell you why. I’m sitting next to a data acquisition machine. Nobody is better than this man at digging into these counties, understanding what’s going on in there, really looking at the values, picking up with the nuances and putting together artwork, mailers that’ll go out and say… You want LA County by the way. Let’s be honest here. You want three apartment buildings, one to three apartment buildings, 10 units. So we’re going to send out, I don’t know, 40,000 units of mail.

Steven Jack Butala:
That’s a good number. That’s a great number.

Jill K DeWit:
Thank you. That’s what we’re going to send out to try to find you those three. Not nuts at all. By the way, that costs us 20 grand.

Steven Jack Butala:
How many phone calls are you going to have to take on those 4,000?

Jill K DeWit:
Well, I’m going to take a lot of phone calls.

Steven Jack Butala:
How many really? What do you think?

Jill K DeWit:
A couple hundred.

Steven Jack Butala:
That’s what I think. 200 is the number in my head.

Jill K DeWit:
A couple hundred phone calls and I’ll get them, man. So it’s a two-part. Why would I have any trouble finding these deals? This guy’s a machine. I don’t care what you need, we will find it. And then you got me that when they answer the phone, if there’s a deal there, I’m going to get it. I will find it. I will get to the bottom of it. If they want to sell and maybe they don’t love our price, but there’s some really good price and some compelling reason why adding a little bit makes sense, but it makes sense to us on the end, okay, now I get you. You’re close to the Galleria. All right, I’m in. That is worth a little more value, but we’re still going to make our same spread on it. I can do that and I will uncover those deals and I will get them in escrow, period. They will make them hug us.

Steven Jack Butala:
Why do you have so much confidence?

Jill K DeWit:
Years of experience and I have you. It’s experience.

Steven Jack Butala:
What if you don’t? What if you’re-

Jill K DeWit:
Good question.

Steven Jack Butala:
What if you’ve only done five or 10 deals?

Jill K DeWit:
I know. You know what, this is a very good question because-

Steven Jack Butala:
Because I’m allowed to talk now.

Jill K DeWit:
… I will help people. I will show you. I will coach you. I tell people this all the time. In a perfect world, you come to Land Academy and you’re already a successful investor. I’m just going to say it right there. This is really who we are, and I’m going to make your business better. You’re like, “You know what, Jill, I’ve been trolling the MLS, trying to find these stupid things. Every morning I get up at 5:00 AM.” You know who you are. “I get on the MLS going, ‘Am I going to be the first one to call?’ ” You know what, somebody got there. You’re already paying a commission. You’re doing this. You are running around chasing deals. You know what, that’s the wrong way. We can show you how to do this better.
So back up to who the perfect landing campers is, that’s been your mornings and you come to us, “Thank goodness, I work for A, B, C home buyers or whatever REIT kind of thing, and I’m struggling to find deals. I got to place all this money. I don’t know what I’m doing.” And then that’s who we are. I’ll help you and that’s who I want to help, and we’re here for you.

Steven Jack Butala:
That’s what I was going to say. Here’s the thing, we’re not going to show you how to do this. What we’re going to do is mechanically explain to you the steps to take to be successful. There’s about a 10-step process that starts with finding an area that looks like it might be conducive to making the type of profit margin than you want. “I want to buy a piece of property for 30 grand. I want to sell it for 60. This is what you do. You do this, this and this.” You look around on Zillow and Trulia. I’m not going to go through our Zillow and Redfin realtor. I’m not going to go through the steps. If you want to learn all about this, it’s all-

Jill K DeWit:
That’s what we are.

Steven Jack Butala:
… within our content on Land Academy. Step one is that. Then you get the mail out and you have… There’s a right way and a wrong way to do that. But then there comes a time where the people who receive these offers in the mail are going to pick up the phone and it’s that moment. It’s not even a minute, it’s a moment where they’re going to decide if they’re a real seller or not and that is where Jill comes in.

Jill K DeWit:
That’s why they picked up the phone, I’m going to argue.

Steven Jack Butala:
First of all, they got a rationally priced offer and it looks professional and all that. That’s my job. But that moment where they talk to Jill or whomever, whatever Land Academy, whoever they are, her years and years and years of corporate sales experience come out. They either have a great conversation and a little euphoric moment at the end of that conversation or they don’t. It comes back to a couple of things and this is a real answer to the question, why we don’t have any trouble finding land deals and really you need to ask yourself these questions. If you have a dynamic personality like Jill does on the phone, you’re going to be great at this. In fact, you probably already know that. You probably were voted most likely to succeed in high school or some kind of corporate sales situation. If you’re older like us, you’ve been getting rewarded for doing something or selling something or having that personality, some other professional environment and this would just be a logical extension for that.
The people that can’t find or have trouble finding these land deals, it’s not because they can’t price the mailer because I can teach you how to do that. I can teach almost anyone who knows Excel or has a flare for database or a script. I can teach that. What I can’t teach, and Jill likes to think she can teach it, but she can’t is having a dynamic personality. You can fake it.

Jill K DeWit:
I can help out.

Steven Jack Butala:
If you’re an actor, you can fake having a dynamic personality on the phone or you can learn how to do that, but do you really have one? I don’t know.

Jill K DeWit:
Or partner with someone.

Steven Jack Butala:
We don’t have trouble finding great real estate deals because I have the data piece done and Jill’s got the personality piece done. I used to do it. I will tell you factually, before Jill and I joined forces, before whatever it was, 2008, I used to do this all myself and not half as well. I got through it.

Jill K DeWit:
The thing about what you just brought up about knowing who you are and everything, you could partner with someone too, but my whole point today is I just want to hit it home, everyone, you don’t have to be hitting your head against a wall like that. Again, if you’re a professional investor, you’re buying some kind of property type because there’s so many people out there still driving for dollars, still trying to be the first one to call when the sign goes in the ground. Breaks my heart that you’re spending so much time and energy and money that you don’t need to be doing. I mean it. It’s so easy for me.
Yeah, it’s a lot of mail. Sure, it’s a lot of mail that goes out, but you know what, the percentage of calls that come back compared to the mail that goes out is diminished. It really is. It’s a really good… We have it down to really good system. Think about it, we’re talking 40,000 units go out, two, 300 calls come in, big deal. Out of those two, 300 calls, I’m going to get 40, 30, 40 that, all right, we might be in this. We might have something here. You’re liking my number. I’m liking your building. Let’s go down that path. And that’s how I could say, “All right. We’re going to buy these three and it’s going to fit your criteria.”

Steven Jack Butala:
If you have been or are really successful at whatever you’ve chosen to do in life, there’s chances are you’re going to be really good at this. If you’re here because you want to find out if you have a dynamic personality and see if this is right for you, this isn’t the place for you.

Jill K DeWit:
Right. Or you’re here because you’re just like, “I see Grant Cardone driving around in a Rolls Royce, in a jet and he’s doing real estate deals.”

Steven Jack Butala:
What is it about Grant Cardone?

Jill K DeWit:
I don’t know.

Steven Jack Butala:
I do.

Jill K DeWit:
Oh, do you? What is it?

Steven Jack Butala:
He’s got a dynamic personality.

Jill K DeWit:
Oh, that’s true.

Steven Jack Butala:
He’s a formerly trained accountant.

Jill K DeWit:
Where is that?

Steven Jack Butala:
Grant Cardone has twice-

Jill K DeWit:
Is he really?

Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah.

Jill K DeWit:
Oh, I didn’t know that.

Steven Jack Butala:
This big three accounting firm.

Jill K DeWit:
Did not know that. He does have a dynamic personality. That’s true.

Steven Jack Butala:
He has a dynamic personality 10 times what Jill and I have.

Jill K DeWit:
Well, thanks.

Steven Jack Butala:
He does.

Jill K DeWit:
I know, but yeah.

Steven Jack Butala:
Let’s take a look at one of our favorite land acquisitions from our weekly Thursday member webinar. Hey, it turns out Jill and I were real frustrated several years ago about the commercial printing company that we were using to send out our offers, so we created our own. It’s called Offers2Owners.com. We will get your mailer in the mail. Let’s take another question posted by one of our members on the Land Academy Discord online community. Again, if you want to sneak peek, go to landacademy.com. It’s free.

Jill K DeWit:
Okay. So Sid wrote, “I’ve mailed about 30,000 letters so far this year. This is kind of great-

Steven Jack Butala:
This is not Sid. You know what, I made a mistake.

Jill K DeWit:
Oh, it’s not Sid.

Steven Jack Butala:
No, it’s somebody else. I’m sorry. I’m sorry, Sid, and I’m sorry if whoever asked this question.

Jill K DeWit:
Okay. Whoever wrote this question, we will give you credit later. Thank you very much for sharing it. Okay. So this person mailed about 30,000 letters this year. This is great because these are real numbers. “I’ve purchased 11 properties including one I did deal funding for someone else and I have four more under contract to purchase.” How great is this? This is wonderful numbers. “So I’m buying something on an average each 2,000 unit mailers. Okay. But it seems like been nothing to buy for several months and then a pile of them. I go for a few months and then I have a bunch. I go for months and then I have a bunch.”

Steven Jack Butala:
Absolutely normal.

Jill K DeWit:
“I’m not sure why. I’m aiming for doubling my money and it doesn’t always happen. Sometimes I get less, sometimes I get triple.” That’s perfect. I think there’s a lot of luck in this model, at least until you get it figured out. Oh, I think that’s perfect.

Steven Jack Butala:
Sounds like you made a bunch of luck for yourself.

Jill K DeWit:
Well, I’m like, “Is it so bad if you…” Let me just think about this one. If I buy for 100,000, I sell for 180,000, did I fail? I’m going to go with no. If I buy for 50,000, I sell for 150. Yay, we love that. But these numbers, sometimes I think that you come into our world and you get a little bit desensitifized, if that’s the right word, to our returns and you’re like, “Oh, I screwed it all up.” What are you talking about? “Oh, I paid 50 for it and I only got 100. I was going for 150. That’s all I got.” I’m like, “Stop right there.”

Steven Jack Butala:
There were 20 responses probably. Probably 20 responses to this in Discord.

Jill K DeWit:
You did great.

Steven Jack Butala:
And every single one of them are just like that.

Jill K DeWit:
Yeah. Think about Costco, what do they make? 5% maybe.

Steven Jack Butala:
Why is it that as entrepreneurs, as business people, especially in this country, we expect everything to be so consistent?

Jill K DeWit:
True.

Steven Jack Butala:
We look at our first month, but we look at February and we look at March and then we look at the first quarter. Okay.

Jill K DeWit:
That’s good.

Steven Jack Butala:
Let’s line it up against what happened last year and first quarter. Let’s line it up against month over month, year over year and on and on and on, and you expect it to be consistent and better. I have to tell you that that’s not what most companies do around the world. Toyota has a 200-year plan. The people who started Toyota are or will be long gone before it actually materializes in what it’s supposed to be. Every single person in career path, which is the pretty severely advanced class that Jill and I teach, the ones who are there making millions of dollars a month, they all say some version of what this person just said, “I don’t understand it. I sent all this mail out. I did a bunch of deals, then it’s real drive for a couple months and then I had nine deals that came in.” That’s just the nature of this.

Jill K DeWit:
This is normal.

Steven Jack Butala:
The only way to solve this, in my opinion, is to send out so much mail that you’re in a frenzy all the time choosing which deals you want to do and people do that.

Jill K DeWit:
I like that.

Steven Jack Butala:
So the experience that this person is having, so do I.

Jill K DeWit:
I like the frenzy. That’s going to be my new thing, frenzy.

Steven Jack Butala:
The experience that this person is having is exactly the experience that you can expect. Sometimes we smash it, sometimes we don’t, and then all of a sudden I’m doing a bunch of deals, maybe I should send out more mail and more mail after that.

Jill K DeWit:
The bottom line is you take your numbers at the end of the year, you added up divide by 12, that’s how you did, how well you did.

Steven Jack Butala:
I love that. Jill, That’s so smart. Now it’s not January versus February.

Jill K DeWit:
No.

Steven Jack Butala:
If you have a convenience store, you might expect month over month 5% increase. I don’t know. If there’s a snowstorm, there might be less. If there’s some pandemic, it’s going to dramatically affect your year. Those things happen. I really think divide by 12 and make sure… Because that’s actually what I do. Now that you mentioned it, I really look at our year. That’s it.

Jill K DeWit:
You do. I know you do.

Steven Jack Butala:
In six months I’m like divide by six, multiply by 12, I’m not satisfied with that, I’ll slam the mail out, just slam it out to make sure that we hit that year end figure. That’s exactly how to look at this, Jill.

Jill K DeWit:
Mm-hmm. That’s really how well you did.

Steven Jack Butala:
Today’s second topic, are you part of the entrepreneurial rat race? We all know what the rat race is, I hope, and we all sit around and say, “I can’t stand away. Get out of this rat race. My commute sucks. I drive an hour a day. I don’t make as much money as I should. I’m constantly wondering where all my money’s going. My taxes are too high. On and on and on, the rat race, I got to get out of this. I got to start a company. I got to buy and sell some land. I got to do something. My wife’s never happy.” I know all of these things because I went through all that.
My question to you is do you transfer that mindset into your startup? So now you’re an entrepreneur. Now you’ve got this startup. Do you transfer all this? “Well, I didn’t, but mailer didn’t come out how it should. The deals that I’m buying or don’t have any access. This is a problem. This is a problem. This is a problem.” Now you’re a part of the entrepreneurial rat race and so the real problem is inside of you. That’s the problem because we have packed members that have disassociated themselves with the regular W2 rat race, there’s two of them right here, and have not repeated that.

Jill K DeWit:
It’s true.

Steven Jack Butala:
Here’s how you separate yourself, in my opinion. When you have control over your destiny, you don’t have a boss anymore, it’s a lot like college. It’s up to you. It is up to you and you only to get a grade in a class. It’s not, “Well, the teacher’s teaching it wrong” or “This textbook is written all wrong.” We all know people like that. “My boss sucks so bad, I can’t even do my job.”

Jill K DeWit:
That’s funny. You’re right. Stepping away from a W2 position, like we both have, into this life, I did a 180. I know you did too. It was a 180 and I feel like free.

Steven Jack Butala:
Me too.

Jill K DeWit:
I’m free now and it wasn’t too long in, right? I know for some people, some people it’s kind of a scary thing. For me, I was like-

Steven Jack Butala:
Me too.

Jill K DeWit:
I was like, “Finally I was free. I could run and do what I knew I could do and wanted to do.” Never looked back. And it’s interesting because I now see that in some of our employees, no matter what age they are. I had 17 years of American Airlines, not counting other corporate positions, but even just that one company. So you could see that, all right, breaking some habits after 17 years, that’s a little bit, not really. We have employees that maybe have one or two years even and they are having trouble with it.
So I’m constantly even telling our staff sometimes like, “Hold on a moment, everybody. Let’s all keep in mind you don’t work at fill in the blank anymore.We can do what we want. There’s not a big corporate checklist that we have to go down. We can pivot. We can change things. We can make decisions, all kinds of good stuff that we can do because this is now our little company.” Within our little company, within our little land company too with my transaction coordinator and our people doing mail and things like that like, “Hey, you got a better way, let’s do it.”

Steven Jack Butala:
If you’re the kind of person that takes responsibility for everything and if you’re in a job, you’re constantly saying to yourself, “Yep, I’m going to do it your way, boss. Yep, I just got the memo. I’ll change this,” and you’re frustrated by that, if you’re saying some version of, “If I could have control of this whole department and freedom to do this, this and this, I would make it 14 times more productive actually to the point where I probably wouldn’t have to work as hard or at all. I would just oversee this whole thing,” this is for you. You are a born entrepreneur. If you’re the kind of person who is going to look for some vehicle, some type of entrepreneurial opportunity like buying and selling land or owning a convenience store or anything that’s going to escort you out of the problematic scenario that you’re in, this is not going to work for you.

Jill K DeWit:
I can see possible people in our group, is this where this is coming from, that you see them carrying-

Steven Jack Butala:
It’s coming from my dream catcher.

Jill K DeWit:
Aw, that’s awesome. Steven’s dream catcher right here.

Steven Jack Butala:
Jill’s a Cherokee Indian so I can harass her about some Native American Indian stuff.

Jill K DeWit:
That’s awesome. All right. I thought maybe you were picking up on nuances from people within our group that are carrying over are some mindsets that they need to let loose.

Steven Jack Butala:
No.

Jill K DeWit:
Okay.

Steven Jack Butala:
Well, you know what, this will really help. This will really help make my point. I quit my final W2 job because… And I’m not the gauge by end of this. I’m just giving you a circumstantial situation that it’s almost no one can fail in this circumstance. I had a W2 job. It was a very, very, very good job in investment banking. I went to an auction, bought a ton of property and at the same time a tax deeded auction. And then I bought a bunch of property from a real estate agent in northern Arizona, tons and tons of property, probably two or 300 properties in a tranche, and then I started selling them off on the internet. This is all while I’m going to my regular W2 job complaining and saying all this stuff that I just described.
And so, six months later… This didn’t all happen in six months, it happened over years, but the final last straw is what I’m describing. So I’m selling all this property on the internet after 6:00 PM every night or on the weekends and I liquidated almost all of it and there’s six or $700,000 of cash in there. Honestly, I wasn’t really looking at it that much. I was just concentrating on the sales part of it. I remember sitting down with myself one weekend saying, “It’s now or never. I mean, can I replicate land acquisitions like this to sustain it so I don’t have to work?” So I quit and I did and I did replicate it and here we are. This is many, many, many, many years ago.
So I took the pressure off of myself. I didn’t know it at the time. I thought I was doing it all wrong. There was no instruction manual. I don’t know. I just had to believe in myself I guess, which I honestly didn’t back then, but I took the financial pressure off of myself entirely, a huge massive financial cushion, and it allowed me to mentally say, “If I fail at this for a while, I still will ultimately succeed because I can screw a lot of stuff up financially and still be okay.” This is the scenario, and Jill, the same situation. Jill and I went to an auction, geez, a lot of years, many, many, many years ago we bought properties. We bought probably 10,000 properties that day.

Jill K DeWit:
I remember that.

Steven Jack Butala:
And so, on the way back in the car, she’s like, “I think this is about it.” This is after probably a full year of you smashing it on the internet selling property that I had left over. And so, it was just the right time. This is not bragging. This is informational to you. There was no pressure on her. She put herself in a situation where she had all this inventory to sell now and that’s her forte. She knew she was good at it. So she’s staring at a potential balance sheet, a balance sheet between converting assets, land into cash in the millions, and so she made a logical decision, “This is it. I’m going to quit my job.”

Jill K DeWit:
We have a stack of Dzus thick and you’re like, “You got to quit your job.”

Steven Jack Butala:
What we didn’t do-

Jill K DeWit:
“Once that done, I’ll sell this stuff.”

Steven Jack Butala:
What we didn’t do is try out buying and selling land with $13 in our bank account, expecting that that vehicle is going to save us somehow.

Jill K DeWit:
True.

Steven Jack Butala:
So I’m not-

Jill K DeWit:
Was it a year or two in?

Steven Jack Butala:
Set yourself up to succeed is my point. Don’t expect that something is going to… This is not the lottery or a casino. You’re not going to find something new about yourself. It’s only going to go the other way. We were already successful at it. We were just converting that talent to work for ourselves and each other.

Jill K DeWit:
That’s perfect.

Steven Jack Butala:
Let’s take a look at another one of our favorite land acquisitions from our weekly Thursday member webinar. Jill, you have something inspirational to share?

Jill K DeWit:
Yes, I do.

Steven Jack Butala:
I’m scared.

Jill K DeWit:
No, it’s good. Actually, you’re going to love it because I’m going-

Steven Jack Butala:
This is usually when I find out what’s wrong in my life.

Jill K DeWit:
No, no, this is the opposite. This is going to be me throwing myself under the bus for you.

Steven Jack Butala:
What?

Jill K DeWit:
Hold on. Jack has sometimes in the right way and sometimes in the less than desirable way brought something to my attention this week-

Steven Jack Butala:
Oh, geez.

Jill K DeWit:
… that I can improve upon.

Steven Jack Butala:
Oh my gosh, I’m going to put a plastic bag over my head.

Jill K DeWit:
I would like to let Jack know and you know that message received, you are correct, and I want to bring it up here because it’s important for not only myself, but for everyone. Whatever you’re doing, wherever you are, you need to be present.

Steven Jack Butala:
Oh, that’s good advice for anyone, me, first of all, geez.

Jill K DeWit:
It has been pointed out there’s times that, “Hey, we’re over here. We’re having a meeting. Are you here?” Because I’m doing two things like, “Oh, I could have used your input on that. You missed the question,” whatever it is because I was not focused. And so, I’m really good at it on the phone. What’s really funny, there’s times… You know how to do it and you know what I’m talking about. There are some situations where I do dig in. If I’m on the phone with a seller, I block out everything else and that’s the right thing to do. The point-

Steven Jack Butala:
Which is why you’re so successful at it.

Jill K DeWit:
I know. Thank you. But I let it slip in other parts of my life, so I want to remind everyone, we all, especially as a woman, there’s a lot of female investors in my group, yay, so this is for you guys, but in particular because women are so good at multitasking, sometimes we take it too far. I think that’s what I was doing. I think I was multi… I’m like, “I can be in this meeting, I can do an audit and I can solve this problem all at the same time.” Not really. I mean, even though I am and I’m getting things done, there’s times where you need to show up and be present for someone or something and that is more important. Even though you could do both, you’re delivering the wrong message.

Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah, that’s for sure.

Jill K DeWit:
That’s, I think, what I was doing more than anything.

Steven Jack Butala:
You just forgot.

Jill K DeWit:
Even if I was really part of the meeting and I was really there, I’m like, “Oh, I got this.” And I really did. I heard everything everybody said, but the appearance was I was not present and that’s not what I want. I want everyone to feel that If I’m sitting here in the room with you, it’s because I want to be here and you deserve it and I want to give that. So that’s it. Just decide throughout your day, as you’re planning your day, be really mindful and detailed. I have even a little note here and I’m checking off things and my phone’s not with me. You have very nicely called me out and you are correct, I was slipping. I want you to show up and be present or don’t be there at all.

Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah, don’t show up.

Jill K DeWit:
It’s okay to not be there. If you’re like, “I have something-

Steven Jack Butala:
That’s the answer.

Jill K DeWit:
… I have to do,” that’s totally fine, and then you’re present for that and then you come back for this.

Steven Jack Butala:
That’s the greatest advice ever. I wrote it a lot of years ago. I read a technical paper about multitasking and it was cited all kinds of resources. I don’t know if it came from somebody’s dissertation or what. This is a lot of years ago. The title was There’s No Such Thing as Multitasking, which I agree with. It’s too bad that there’s this cliche out there that women are good at multitasking. The fact is what I really think that came from is women have been, I’m not so sure it’s as true today as it was in the past in the 1950s, let’s call it American 1950s, where women were expected to do 42 things and men were expected to go to work. And so, there’s no such thing as multitasking. You can’t do two things at once, period. You’re not better at it or worse at it than male or men or women or any of that stuff and I absolutely believe that. If you’re doing two things at once, you’re spending half of your capacity on each of those things.

Jill K DeWit:
You know what I think is really happening honestly is that I think women are really good at jumping back and forth.

Steven Jack Butala:
I think women are really good at that.

Jill K DeWit:
I think I can jump into this file, got it, got it, got it. Oh, and I answered the phone. On it.

Steven Jack Butala:
That’s what I think. I also think women are hardwired for appearance more than men, so they can make it look good. They can fake it and they can say, “Yeah, I am paying attention.” No.

Jill K DeWit:
Faking, it is a whole nother conversation.

Steven Jack Butala:
It’s not a gender thing. It’s not a gender thing. It’s really not. Let’s just say people, some people are better at presenting themselves and care about their appearance and some people it’s not as important. There’s no such thing as multitasking, period. You’re either showing up or you’re not.

Jill K DeWit:
Well, you know what, my point is even if you are good at it, because there’s an art… We can talk all day about that.

Steven Jack Butala:
I can take this a step further, and I don’t mean to interrupt you, but what I think is really going on and it taps into the entrepreneurial rat race, do you want to be there?

Jill K DeWit:
Well, that’s why I just said, plan your day, be mindful about what you’re doing and be there or don’t. It happens with us. There’s some meetings. I know you had a meeting at 9:00 or 9:30. You had a meeting before our big group meeting and I used to be a part of it and I don’t know, somehow I’m uninvited and I’m happy to be uninvited. I don’t want to be there.

Steven Jack Butala:
No, that was unintentional.

Jill K DeWit:
Oh, good.

Steven Jack Butala:
Because we were wondering where you were.

Jill K DeWit:
Oh, I’m not even on it for some reason.

Steven Jack Butala:
Do you want me to leave you off of it?

Jill K DeWit:
Yeah, because I don’t want to be there. It’s your team.

Steven Jack Butala:
Done and done.

Jill K DeWit:
It’s like I think you used to include me in your team meeting so I’d just be in the loop. No, I don’t need to be in the loop. I’m totally fine. You guys go do your thing. That’s kind of funny. You thought I was putting my middle finger up to you guys?

Steven Jack Butala:
No, no, it was an oversight or something like that.

Jill K DeWit:
Oh, no, that’s totally fine. No, I hear you guys. I’m like, “No.” So like I said, be present. If you want to be there, be there. If you don’t, don’t, and think about the message that you’re sending.

Steven Jack Butala:
Yep.

Jill K DeWit:
What do you have to share with us today? Something informational?

Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah, mine’s called when to quit and I mean this at all levels. That’s a universal question that we all ask ourselves. “Well, I don’t like my job. I haven’t liked it for 15 years, but I’m in it now. Do I quit now or not?” I don’t have the answers here. It has to do with when to quit anything, when to quit a relationship, when to quit trying to buy and sell land if it’s not working for you and on and on and on. When do you actually quit? I always quit things way too late. And so, as I get older, I’m trying to constantly improve in decision-making and performance and all of that for whatever we’re working on and one of my things is to not wait as long to… And I don’t mean quit at life, I just mean I’ve been working with this person to do a deal for how long and it’s just not going to work. Should I quit sooner or later or do we wait it out? Give everybody that benefit of the doubt. This is kind of a-

Jill K DeWit:
This is interesting.

Steven Jack Butala:
… philosophical question that… And it came up because I’m not good at it. I quit too late. Do you quit too late?

Jill K DeWit:
17 years in American Airlines. Did I not say that enough?

Steven Jack Butala:
I mean, quit your job.

Jill K DeWit:
10 minutes. Yeah, exactly. No. It’s funny that you’re right, we… Here’s what’s funny about this, I wonder if you listening are the same. We both wait. We quit too late. We give stuff like I like to think I gave it every possible chance to work. I fire too late. I gave them every possible chance to redeem themselves, but what we don’t do is we don’t sit around saying, “Let’s start this company.” We are like, “Ready? Go.” Isn’t that funny? We’re the opposite when it comes to that. We’re slow to stop something, but we’re very fast to start something.

Steven Jack Butala:
This all came up because I have a really good friend who’s pushing 80. He’s in his mid to late 70s. He’s been a government contractor from a manufacturing like CNC machinery manufacturing standpoint.

Jill K DeWit:
He’s pushing 80?

Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah.

Jill K DeWit:
Really?

Steven Jack Butala:
Mm-hmm.

Jill K DeWit:
Wow.

Steven Jack Butala:
He’s mid-70s, let’s just say. His business has slowed down substantially for a lot of reasons and he knows what they are. He knows exactly. It’s largely stuff’s got outsourced overseas and he’s got a massive, incredible difficult time hiring CNC machine operators and for that stay there for any amount of time. And so, he’s selling his business. I’ve known this guy for a lot of years and he’s like, “I wish I would’ve sold this five years ago,” which falls into when to quit.
So how to translate that to us and to you as a land investor and a company owner? He has and soon will have had a single point of failure, we don’t have that. We have this deal over here that’s going to work in Tennessee and it worked or it didn’t. We have one in Texas and on and on and on. So we are self-diversified. And so, the real question is, all right, I’ve got 16 million bucks in the bank or eight million in the bank, or even two, when do you quit? You don’t want to quit when there’s no money left because you didn’t quit at all. That forced you to quit. You don’t want to be in a situation where decisions are being made for you now, which I think he’s kind of in that situation. So I don’t want to be all depressing here, but the moral of the story is you have complete control.

Jill K DeWit:
Oh, good.

Steven Jack Butala:
Generate tons and tons of money-

Jill K DeWit:
Save us here.

Steven Jack Butala:
… but have the intelligence or the foresight to say, “You know what, I’m going to quit while I’m on top.” I just remember seeing an interview, this is a great example and I’ll leave it at this, with Jerry Seinfeld because he said, “People come to me all the time and say, ‘Where’s the second series? Where’s the Seinfeld reunion?’ ” It was so successful. Everybody loved it so much. His answer is, “Remember the Lucy Show, I love Lucy, and one in that’s black and white with Ricky and it’s funny, and then everybody’s just… It’s gut-wrenching laugh and was all live.” You remember the show after that, Lucy does something? Not really.

Jill K DeWit:
They were a couple.

Steven Jack Butala:
Do you remember the show after that where she’s single and it’s all in color? No, I don’t. I never saw those shows, by the way. I only saw the first one because she didn’t know when to quit. She smashed it with that first show.

Jill K DeWit:
It’s interesting. Why doesn’t you just pick a number? Can’t you just pick a number and say, “When I hit this goal,” like for us.

Steven Jack Butala:
You know when to quit then.

Jill K DeWit:
I do know when to quit, except the number changes. That’s a whole nother show. Hey, don’t forget, you can reach us for questions or for help just by sending a note to our team at support@landacademy.com.

Steven Jack Butala:
Join us next Wednesday for another interesting episode. This is where we buy land cheap and sell it for more on the internet. We are Jack and Jill.

Jill K DeWit:
Oh, I’m sorry, there was a little sentence. I missed that. I was waiting for that last sentence. Okay. Ready? Three, two, one. 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.