I’m Steven Jack Butala.

I’m Jill DeWit.

This is episode number 2057 and it’s Thursday. Case study number four all week. We are doing case studies. One each day. We profiled five very successful Land Academy members. This is number four. This is a first-generation European couple and business owner. Owners that generate legacy wealth by flipping land. They’ve been with us for a long time and they have a very interesting story.

I’ll put it like this. I want this to sink in. You are from America. Let’s say Ohio or California or Texas or anywhere. You moved to Central Europe. Choose the country. You might have a high school class or two in the language that is spoken there. You need to learn the language. You need to support yourself while you’re doing it. You need to learn the industry. The real estate industry and all the while, figure out all of that and geography and you name it. Start buying and selling real estate to support yourself and your family financially. It’s crazy.

Don’t forget, deal with the people that are struggling with your accent and struggling to understand you.

Your culture and whatever.

Exactly. You’re trying to win them over to buy their property.

These two people are doing that. I know why because they’re blasted Bureau. We’ve met them. Had them in our house and on the show. They’ve been to live events. They have dynamic personalities as do all these people this week. I have the least dynamic personality of all these people and Jill.

Stop it. It’s not true.

Land Academy Member Question

Each day on the show, we answer a question from our Land Academy member discord forum and take a deep dive into land related topics by your request.

Kema wrote, “Hello, all. I have several deals where the seller has stopped responding to my calls after they’ve expressed an interest in selling. What do you all do here?”

This is so on your sheet.

I know.

Why are you looking at me like that? Are you confused to answering this?

You know why because you like me to read the question and you like to answer first. I was watching you and thought you’d go first.

Jill doesn’t have a ready answer.

I have already answered.

Why would you look at me?

You knew what the look was. I’m going next.

Alright, Jill got our sales thing on. Keep your helmet on.

Kema, this is usually a case of you didn’t have this deal solidified and moving forward and/or you let too much time pass. If you had ended the phone call with, “Here’s what we’re going to do. I’m going to check this and this. I’m going to call you tomorrow and then I’ll have all my answers. I’ll confirm with the taxes are. I’ll double check access.”

Whatever it is that you need to do. If you had had that conversation with them on Monday. Told them you’re going to call them on Tuesday, confirm, where to reach you, and their number on Tuesday. Called back, followed up and said, “Great, now we’re opening escrow,” and moved on forward. This would not have happened.

What usually happens in the situation is, they change their mind. They start talking to people. They go to church and it comes up and then someone says, “Shoot. If you’re going to sell that for $5,000. I’ll give you $5,000.” That’s what happens. Time kills deals. Again, it’s often somebody else got involved or maybe in that church, you have a realtor that’s said, “I’m not going to let you see that for $5,000. You’re going to give it to me and I’ll sell it for $20,000.” Which is what you would have done. That’s another thing that happens. That’s why you don’t want to even give it out a chance of happening and get it going. The other thing is, maybe they get cold feet or get distracted.

Time kills deals. Share on X

Maybe they forgot.

Whatever was urgent then, is not urgent now. “I wanted $5,000 but it’s going to work out okay because now my job’s fine. I got the car working.” Whatever it is.” That’s it. Can you get them back? You could try. I might give them a time or two like, “I know I dropped the ball.” There’s a small chance that they had some life event. Maybe somebody passed and they’re out of town. It could be their job is busy and they have to whatever. They had to travel for work. A small chance. I won’t go dark, too, and I will do all.

I’m famous for calling. As soon as we hang up, I’m going to text them. “Hi, that was me.” “I’m calling to open escrow because I want this property.” Say something like that. They’re all like, “This person is trying to give me money.” Also, follow up with an email because you don’t know if their phones are not working or they’re traveling. You have all three ways and I would do that. Maybe hit that on Friday. Do it again on Saturday and then try them one more time on Monday.

Don’t let it just go and then you’re going to have to go, “Shoot. I blew it,” and let it go. If you want to circle back later, maybe but I often move on you. Usually, if you’re doing this right, you have so much deal flow, then you forget about it. Maybe they will come back to you in a couple of weeks if it is something like that.

Here’s the ENDOC hero silver bullet for these situations. If you have 25 deals going on, this will not matter. I disagree with Jill a little bit. Although, this is her side of the business. I don’t think you did anything wrong at all. They responded, “Yes, sure. I want to sell it.” Maybe they were just having a great morning and they forgot. I don’t know. Who knows? If you have 25 deals going on or what some number all the time. There’s going to be a certain number of situations just like this.

There’s going to be a few people that are going to respond and say on the other end of the spectrum, “Oh my gosh. Thank you for calling. How fast can we get this deal done? I do need the money and I want to sell my property. Thank you.” There’s a ton of stuff in between where they say, “Yeah, but I need a different price.” You’ve got twenty deals constantly going on.

It becomes very impersonal at that point, which is my happy spot. The seller doesn’t have a name. It’s just an APN and you’re completing the transaction because it’s part of a machine. These things happen when you’re upset about a seller not responding because you only have 1 or 2 deals going on. You’re trying to make the transaction happen.

Do you want to know the other thing too, Kema? Make sure it’s not you. Are you wishy-washy about doing the deal? I have every single person who calls me believing I want it and we have an agreed-upon price. I just need to check a couple things and we’re going to move to the next phase tomorrow or the next and whatever it is we figure out until I don’t. I don’t want them to be shopping. I don’t want him to be hesitating. I want to know I’m ready. I got to check two things but this sounds great.

“After I check these two things, I’m going to call you tomorrow. We’re going to open escrow.” Again, I always have a step. Always moving forward and I follow through. If I can’t do it tomorrow because I know I’m going to be on the plane all day. I tell them, “I’m going to be on a plane all day. I’m going to call you on Wednesday morning. Where can I reach you? Is this the best number? What’s a good time?” I will do that.

That’s a good question. This is what happens. This is real world advice. Put yourself in the position of the seller. The seller has gotten in the last 60 or 90 days, four offers in a piece of property that the seller doesn’t no longer care about, maybe. They don’t care if they sell it or buy it. They get an offer for $32,000 from somebody across the country. In all cases, the seller picks up the phone and returns the call. “Hello, this is Kema and I do want to sell my property. Give me a call. I like your price.” Silence.

This is what happens. The second offer was from Jill for $14,200 and the seller calls. Jill picks up the phone and calls back and says, “I looked at the deal. We love this property and we’re going to resell it, by the way, or maybe not. I’m not sure. All I can pay is $9,000 dollars because of these reasons.” “Thanks very much.” The seller calls other people at different prices. This is the reality of 2024 and 2025 in this business. Sellers are getting multiple offers.

If the other two people respond or don’t respond or however they respond just like Jill saying with the wishy-washy. “I got to look at it. I’m not sure. I’ll give you a call next week. How’s that sound?” Without confidence, they’re not going to call back. That’s just the way human nature is. They’re going to end up doing the deal with Jill for a lot less money because she’s the one who’s a persistent and interesting person to talk to.

She follows through. Every tiny little step of the way, she’s earning that sellers trust. There’s a huge dynamic about why people aren’t calling you back. Some of it is just pure numbers as I mentioned earlier. Some of it is because they do want to talk to Jill and get a deal done. I would encourage you to join our Thursday call and ask Jill questions like this because I started this before it Jill.

Case Study #4

Her participation or her half of this business doesn’t get covered as much as it should. It’s all data and pricing and all of that. I’m glad you asked this question because there’s an art to what Jill does to convert these to create from nothing creative real estate deal. It’s Thursday. Our topic case study number four, two first generation European business owners that have generated legacy wealth from flipping land.

They came to us early, early days of Land Academy like a year maybe in. I’m trying to remember. Maybe it was a year or two and we had just started doing coaching. I remember them booking coaching sessions with you and this is good. When you all are reading, this is all real. This is true and we love you. It was funny, though. I’m going to tell you what happened at the beginning.

I remember you calling me and going, “I need your help. I have this coaching session. It’s a husband and wife. I’m having a hard time even understanding them. They are not good in Excel. I’m struggling explaining some of the processes and the things that we have to do because I’m moving so fast in Excel. I’m not understanding where they’re getting hung up.” I remember sitting there with you.

I remember you saying at one time like, “I hope they make it,” thing and did they. I remember you telling them that like, “Here’s you guys are going to have to do. The first thing you have to do is, you’re going to need to learn Excel.” It was just a sweetest thing and they did. He did especially. He’s like, “That’s what I’m doing. I’m going to Excel School.” He did and they had so much like, I don’t know if tenacity is the right word.

They kept coming back for more. We’re like, “Okay. Here’s what you need to do now.” They kept coming back for more and I’m like, “I didn’t think they had it in them,” and they did and just took it to the moon. What a sweet story. It was fun because they would come to our live events. We had them in California. We did have them. They were in our advanced group because they went from 0 to 100 like fast because they just bought in.

They live in the Midwest. They came to our home and we got to know them well. They were in our advanced group. Back then, we had that. We had a party at the house way back when. It was cool and got to meet them and hug them and hug her. A sweet couple. They’re doing amazing. They did a good job dividing up the responsibilities. She’s the phone person and he’s the behind-the-scenes person. It works out great.

My point in doing this whole concept this week is because there’s serious consistency in these examples. They were already successful that somehow getting into this country, getting citizenship, buying and selling land and learning all the stuff. I think by comparison, it’s way harder than buying and selling real estate. They’ve already successful doing that. They just apply it all that whatever that is. The reason that they got successful in buying and selling real estate. Those two are a pleasure. A pleasure to be around. They’re funny and they look good together. The whole thing.

They’re hilarious.

They have it all.

The thing about them as I noticed, they set out to do well enough. Their goal was to do well enough to afford the travel and fun lifestyle. I think they’re in Italy. Not kidding. It’s funny because we’re Facebook friends. She and I are Facebook friends. I see it pop up here and there where they are. They did it. They wanted to do this to have that lifestyle where they could travel and have fun and just have a fun life. It’s great.

Every month, Jill and I get thank you notes from members and former members. We have a whole slew of people that have done deals where that’s it. They’ve made enough money for the rest of their life.

It’s like, “Thank you.” Mic drop. I’m like, “Good for you.”

I personally can’t stop. I know Jill can’t either. We just can’t stop.

We have a problem.

This is how we’re spending our day recording episodes. We cannot stop.

Exactly.

Join us tomorrow where we take a look at another case. Case number five, the young outgoing Southern California who generates six digits flipping land in a single County. You are not alone in your real estate ambition. We are Jack and Jill. Information.

Inspiration.

To buy undervalued property.