Think buying and selling land is as easy as HGTV makes it look? Think again. Today, we’re kicking off a myth-busting series on real estate investment, starting with the big one: Buying and selling land is easy. Spoiler alert—it’s not. Join Steven Jack Butala and Jill DeWit as they dive into why real estate success takes more than just enthusiasm—it takes education, strategy, and a willingness to put in the work. Along the way, they’ll share hard-earned insights and tackle your questions, including a deep dive into the murky world of title insurance. Ready to dispel the myths and get real about what it takes to succeed in land investing? Let’s get started.
—
Listen to the podcast here
Debunking The Myths On Buying And Selling Land
Myth Debunked: Buying And Selling Land Is Easy
This is episode 2074. We’re going to attempt to debunk or dispel the myths about real estate investment, and there’s a bunch of them. I chose my favorite five. Jill doesn’t even know what they are, I don’t think. In this episode, we’re specifically talking about how buying and selling land is easy. It’s a myth.
I have to admit. I’m looking down the list of the days that you have planned out and I’m excited. I’m going to prepare a little bit.
In this next episode, we’ll talk about improving real estate and how it’s theoretically the best way to create equity. That’s a total myth. You can do it by reducing your purchase price. On Wednesday, it’s a myth. It takes a ton of money to invest in real estate. On Thursday, it’s a myth. Real estate investment is risky. I don’t think so. Friday, finally, is my favorite. Real estate agents are smarter than you are.
I have a lot to say about this one.
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 popular request.
The Role Of Title Insurance In Real Estate Deals
Stephan wrote, “What is title insurance?? Why do we need it? Is it required in all properties?” Thank you, Stephan, because you are right. Title insurance is stupid. It wasn’t always a thing. It doesn’t always cover everything you want to cover.
If you’re a new lawyer and you would like to disperse or spread around your altruistic, “I’m going to save the world through the legal system,” I would like you to bring action against or put a simple insurance claim into a title company and see what happens. They call it insurance. I don’t really believe it should be called that. It should. Be called the transaction fee.
It’s a title statement that you paid for and you’re not getting anything out of it.
Every property has what’s called a chain of title, which, quite simply, is the transference of legal title as properties get sold throughout their history. Back in the day in the 1800s, properties were homesteads in this country, usually for agricultural purposes. The federal government gave people land in exchange for perpetual and infinite opportunity to tax it in the form of property taxes. It’s a pretty good deal for the person who got it.
Over time, Farmer Jones sells it to Jill, Jill sells it to me, and I sell it to you. That’s the chain of title, all those title transfers. Title insurance is supposed to insure against any incorrect or cloud on the title. Let’s say I deeded the property to Jill and Jill half-deeded it to one of our kids, so they’re both on the title. We didn’t get title insurance. That’s called a break in the chain or a break in the chain of title. Title insurance is supposed to insure against those types of things.
Maybe back in the day when courthouses burned down and there wasn’t anything like electronically stored files as we have now, there may have been something to the title insurance. Title insurance documents were kept offsite out of the court building so that in case it did burn down, there was something to it. It’s really silly now.
Back in the day, Grandpa could have deeded it to somebody else and it was never recorded. Grandpa dies. Grandma thinks Grandpa still owns it so Grandma’s doing everything. That could happen. Back in the day, that was a thing. Are you done?
No. I’ll end it on this. If you read your title insurance policy, what it says very clearly is, “The only thing that this title insurance policy guarantees is what we found in this document.” The very nature of title insurance is supposed to protect you against the unknown like homeowner’s insurance or flood insurance. We don’t know if there’s going to be a flood. The insurance company is betting that there’s not going to be, but if there is, I expect to get paid. It says right into my policy, “If it floods, you get money.” Title insurance says, “If something bad happens in the chain of title that comes up in the future that we didn’t find at this point, you’re not covered.” That’s not insurance.
Do you know what else? It’s not access insurance that they all try to get involved in. It’s not lien insurance. The same thing is they will do a search and try to find those things. If you read the policy carefully, it’s like, “Have we missed it? I’m so sorry.” I have had that happen. It was simply taxes. You would think that a normally established title company would thoroughly check not only the taxes for this year but all the years leading up to it. I bought it with tile insurance and we paid. Everybody walked away.
I went to sell the property. The new title company said, “You forgot the back taxes from 2 and 3 years ago. You owe those now. You got to pay for those.” I’m like, “The first title company should have caught that.” They said, “Sorry. We missed it. My bad.” That was it. No help, nothing. I feel bad. I try not to be such a hardcore whatever, but I have to say this is a scam.
All week, we call them myths but they’re going to be Jack and Jill rants. Title insurance is one of those things.
I have had issues. They missed it. It should have been covered and they won’t. If you try fighting it, don’t go over there. You’ll lose.
Here’s the thing. If you buy a house and get a mortgage, you are required by the lender, not the escrow agent or anybody else who’s involved in the deal, to have title insurance. Why? Does it cover you on anything? No. It has become this habit like many things in real estate. It’s like real estate agents and how they’re completely unnecessary and obsolete to the vast majority of transactions. I’m guessing 99.9% of the deals involve a real estate agent. It’s not necessary.
I don’t want to scare you. You have to play the game, and that ties into this episode.
The Need For Education And Mentorship In Real Estate
In this episode, we’re talking about myth number one, which is that buying and selling land is easy. It’s not. Investing in real estate can be crazy profitable but it’s not easy. I really believe that there are so many things in life that truly require some education, starting with being a welder, a brain surgeon, an accountant, or anything. There’s formal training involved in the form of a four-year degree or even a PhD with hands-on training on top of the formal training. I don’t know why, but for some reason, we’re investing in real estate. Nobody believes that there should be any training. You buy the house and rent it out. My dad and my grandfather did it so I don’t believe that.
Do you think there should be formal training?
Yeah. Now, you can get a Master’s degree in real estate. Back in my day, you couldn’t.
If it’s my money, aren’t I allowed to spend it on what I want though?
Yeah. I don’t know why regular people say, “I’m an accountant but I’m really a real estate investor.” I’m like, “Who said that? They’re like, “I did. I bought a house and rent it out.” I’m like, “Maybe you should take a couple of classes or learn from some people like us who have been doing it for 30 years so we can show you and save you some time and money.”
That’s where you’re going. I understand that. I don’t think you need to run around with a card in your wallet that you slap out and say, “I’m an investor,” but you’re nuts if you don’t put some time, thought, and energy, and get some education. Follow somebody around, have a mentor, or whatever makes sense to you because it’ll shave 5 to 10 years off the learning curve and probably a whole lot of money and mistakes.
Plus, if you’re any good at it, whoever’s teaching you or whoever you’re exposing yourself to, they’re going to want to be your partner if you’re any good at it. Partners are the way that you skip 82 steps in getting wealthy.
Is the point of this episode that we all watch HGTV and say, “I can do that.” It’s that and YouTube where we’re like, “I have a degree in YouTube.”
Everybody who’s involved in real estate investment has been exposed to real estate agents. The vast majority of real estate agents have no idea what they’re doing. We’ll talk about that in another episode. That carries over in all kinds of different ways. It’s, “ It’s easy. I don’t have to know how to do anything. I have to get a listing. I’ll list my sister’s house, put it on the internet, and wait for somebody to send me a check.”
That’s another episode. This episode is about how buying and selling land is easy. There are a lot of moving parts. For me, that’s what I think of when I think of this topic. Tuning in to us, we’re like, “We bought this and sold it for that. It’s land. We didn’t do anything to it. We don’t fix it up,” and all these things. You’re like, “I can do that. Especially if these two ding dongs can do it, I can do that. I’ve listened to 1,000 other shows,” because we have 2,000 shows. You’re like, “I got this.”
There are some things that you might be missing. That, for me, was a goal. I want you to know that it’s not rocket science. You don’t need a PhD. However, it takes you years to get through mistakes, years to get experience, and years to get to where we are. Unless you jump in and have someone like us that can show you the ropes, that’s it.
We do make it sound easy. I know that we do. It’s only because it took us years to get here. Even with Jack, I’m going on sixteen years of learning from him. We have ten years of Land Academy. Even then, in year 1 and year 2, I didn’t even know if I could properly share what we do. I’m sure you did too. I didn’t have a teaching background, but I’m here to tell you that in year 10 of Land Academy in 2025, there are hundreds of people that we’ve watched get really wealthy. Apparently, we do know how to do that. We can get you there. It’s not that you can’t do it, but it’s not going to be an overnight hit. There are a lot of moving parts.
I had somebody come to me. This person is very successful. He came to me and said, “I heard about this Land Academy thing,” because I never told him about it. He said, “Do you mind if my kids enroll? They would be good at this.” I don’t know if he tunes in to the show or not. I’m not sure, but his kids are not setting the world on fire professionally.
They’re not entrepreneurs. They don’t have that spirit.
The Myth Of Low Effort, High Reward Real Estate Success
That’s what I said. This is a full-time job. You need to work in the beginning 40 to 60 hours a week to conquer the learning curve and to get the basic information about how to get the mail out and establish all kinds of stuff so you can win and make it worth your time. There are many people who go into real estate, especially real estate agents, who believe that they’re going to work a couple of hours a day and do 1 or 2 deals a month. It doesn’t happen that way. There’s a direct correlation between the time that you put in and the money that you get out of it.
It’s interesting now that I think about it too. When we first started Land Academy, if you tuned in to some of our really early shows, it’s true when I talked about how I would fit this job in around everything else I was doing. I couldn’t truly go at this and make the money because I had that other W-2 job for a while. I had two desks back to back. I could swivel my chair around and work over here and I could swivel my chair back and work over here. It was interesting. I did it.
Encouragement For Aspiring Investors: Success Is Possible With Dedication
It is accomplishable and it is incredibly profitable if you have the right mindset.
You have to like it.
Exactly. If you get organized, organize your time and jam it into your existing life until all the stuff that you don’t like about your existing life gets taken over by your land business. When I say it’s not easy, I mean that but it’s very accomplishable, especially if you’ve had success in other stuff. If you went to school and were successful at it, that’s great. You’re probably going to be successful at this.
If you had a business and you sold it or you’re done with it and were somehow successful in it, the odds of you succeeding at this, whether it’s land investment or anything else, are high. If you have another business and you’re doing well and you need to plow some money into stuff, you’re going to do great at this. Join us in the next episode. We’re going to talk about the next myth, which is that improving real estate is the best way to create equity. That is pure myth. You are not alone in your real estate ambition. We are information and inspiration to buy undervalued property.