Why You should be Working on Acquisitions Only (LA 747)
Why You should be Working on Acquisitions Only (LA 747)
Transcript:
Steven Butala: Steven and Jill here.
Jill DeWit: Hi.
Steven Butala: Welcome to the Land Academy show, entertaining land investment talk. I’m Steven Jack Butala.
Jill DeWit: And I’m Jill Dewitt, broadcasting from sunny southern California.
Steven Butala: Today, Jill and I talk about why you should we be working on acquisitions only. This week, the theme is, so you’ve done a thousand deals, you’re past that thousand deal mark, what do you do now?
Jill DeWit: What do you do? What do you do? I would like to personally know.
Steven Butala: You know what I do?
Jill DeWit: Yeah. What do you do?
Steven Butala: Very little, because that’s what you should be doing. That’s what … Thank you, Jill. This is exactly what this show is about. You should only be working on acquisitions, because you figured everything else out. Everybody else is gonna do the heavy lifting for you. You know there’s a lot of places on this planet, in this country, where that gets frowned upon.
Jill DeWit: What?
Steven Butala: Like, here’s a cliche that I’d never understood. “Oh, you so you get other people to do your dirty work.” Yeah, I get other people do my dirty work.
Jill DeWit: It’s called staff.
Steven Butala: Why would I do my dirty work?
Jill DeWit: Exactly.
Steven Butala: Why would I do any work in fact?
Jill DeWit: Yeah, if I own the company.
Steven Butala: If I’m smart enough to do startup, I’m smart enough to look in the mirror and say, “I’m actually probably better than everyone else.” This has always just, this is what this show is gonna be about.
Jill DeWit: That’s hilarious.
Steven Butala: Is it conceded or cocky? I don’t know. I don’t think so.
Jill DeWit: No.
Steven Butala: I just, I’ve never struggled with this concept. Yeah. I’m smarter than everybody else or maybe I’m not. Maybe I’m not smarter, I just make different decisions that everybody.
Jill DeWit: That could be too.
Steven Butala: I’m not gonna do any work. I’m gonna price my mailers, and then I’m going to go out on the boat. That’s what I do.
Jill DeWit: I know that. I know that. I have a secret to share about you have, which is fun. Not only are you so good at doing your job, I mean you have it down to where, this is great, you spend a lot of time, like once a month-
Steven Butala: Once a month.
Jill DeWit: -and that’s it.
Steven Butala: I spend one day. I spend one day, once a month doing all the mailers for the whole month.
Jill DeWit: So I’m sure a lot of people, like Monday might be acquisition day, Monday might be getting their mailer together or something, I don’t know, pulling the data and everything for that next week and they do it every single week. Well imagine this, spend more time on it and do it once a month. Spend two days once a month, and then you’re really can coast, which is really fun.
Steven Butala: I spend more time on this podcast than I do on the mail.
Jill DeWit: That is true.
Steven Butala: And this podcast makes exactly $0.
Jill DeWit: I love it. That’s true.
Steven Butala: Before we get into it, let’s take a question posted by one of our members on the landacademy.com, online community. It’s free.
Jill DeWit: Okay. Dave asks, “I just want to say a big thank you to Jack and Jill, for doing what they do, and creating an atmosphere for people to succeed.” This is so nice.
Steven Butala: Yeah, Dave.
Jill DeWit: “I have used their products and services to start and maintain a consistent six figure side business.”
Steven Butala: Ding, ding.
Jill DeWit: “I’m on my way within the next 12 months, of doing this full time.” Wow.
Steven Butala: Good for you, that’s why we’re here. We need a bell.
Jill DeWit: This is so good. Where did our bell go?
Steven Butala: We used to have a bell, like a sales bell, or happy bell.
Jill DeWit: Yeah, I know. I think you’ve got … I don’t know where it is.
Steven Butala: This is what happens. Oh my gosh.
Jill DeWit: What?
Steven Butala: I have to share this with our listeners.
Jill DeWit: What?
Steven Butala: Jill believes, if you live with someone-
Jill DeWit: Oh, no.
Steven Butala: You know what I’m talking about. Jill believes, that I secretly walk around at the office and the house, and just generally everywhere in our life, and remove things.
Jill DeWit: You kind of do.
Steven Butala: To annoy her.
Jill DeWit: You hide ’em. You hide things. I leave things on the counter, that I’m going to come back in 10 minutes, and then they’re gone.
Steven Butala: Oh jeez, you crack me up. We should have a full blown relationship argument on the show one time.
Jill DeWit: No.
Steven Butala: Anyway, let’s finish the question before we started yelling at each other.
Jill DeWit: Okay. Silly. “We recently hit the 50 deal mark and are buying like crazy. We have also stepped up our deal value.”
Steven Butala: Good.
Jill DeWit: “I never had this kind of success, fixing and-
Steven Butala: Yeah.
Jill DeWit: flipping houses, or doing rental houses.”
Steven Butala: Yeah.
Jill DeWit: That’s the best. “If you are on the fence about the Land Investors Program, or Land Academy program,-
Steven Butala: Listen, you can’t pay for stuff like this.
Jill DeWit: This is amazing. Oh, I love this you guys. Thank you Dave. “Get off it, and get on the road to success. These guys are the real deal, and genuinely care about giving back and helping others to be successful. They are not bags of hot air like some of the so-called “REI Guru’s” out there. Thank you, Jack and Jill, or Steven and Jill. Keep up the great work.” That’s so nice.
Steven Butala: Thank you, Dave. I’ll tell you what, here’s what I love about our little group here, and our business actually.
Jill DeWit: I love it.
Steven Butala: It’s not like … So listen, Jill and I, a longtime ago, sat down to create Land Academy. My first gut instinct, was to create this it kind of a environment where you basically push a button and money starts coming back. In fact, several people have requested this and my answer’s always the same. Because, Dave wouldn’t appreciate it. The people in our group, you have to really create this yourself. All we’re doing is just, pointing you in the right direction, and kind of kicking you in the butt, and providing the tools for you, and a little bit of direction. Dave’s the guy doing these deals, not us.
Jill DeWit: Yeah.
Steven Butala: It’s a “teach a man to fish” kind of thing.
Jill DeWit: Exactly.
Steven Butala: So, that’s what’s great. So, pat yourself on the back, Dave, because not a lot of people can get to 50 deals, making 10, 20, 30,000 bucks a deal. I’m glad you’re still keeping your job. Just to make sure.
Jill DeWit: So, hang on here, let’s do the math. So he’s did … How long was it? He just hit the 50 deal mark. I don’t know how long it’s been. But my point is, he’s going to be sliding towards, he’s going to be one of those like this week. He’s gonna to turn around and go, “Oh my gosh, I hit a thousand deals.” Especially, when he kicks it into full-time gear.
Steven Butala: Yeah. He’s doing everything right. Like, he’s increasing his net margin per deal. Let’s say you make 10 grand a deal.
Jill DeWit: Right.
Steven Butala: You know, that’s half a million dollars a year. 50 times 10,000 is half a million bucks.
Jill DeWit: Right
Steven Butala: That’s a deal a week.
Jill DeWit: Can you imagine? What other place can you have a side gig, and this is not selling Tupperware, or any other insurance or something on the side, to make some extra money to pay for kids’ college. Six figures on the side is crazy awesome.
Steven Butala: On the weekend too.
Jill DeWit: Yeah.
Steven Butala: It doesn’t take eight hours a day to do 50 deals. It takes like two hours a week.
Jill DeWit: Not Funny. We have a lot of members that say that they go, “Wait a minute. I just realized I added it up and I did how much, not even trying? Imagine if I tried?”
Steven Butala: Yep.
Jill DeWit: Like, yeah.
Steven Butala: That’s kind of what this week is about.
Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative)-
Steven Butala: This is you’ve already done a thousand deals, now what?
Jill DeWit: Exactly.
Steven Butala: So, you clearly tried. Today’s topic, why you should be working on acquisitions only. This is the meat of the show, and this is actually pretty appropriate for the question to. At this point, after a thousand deals, you’ve figured everything out. Here’s a bunch of, here’s a list of things that you do in your regular land business.
You manipulate data and price it correctly and send out offers, blind offers to a group of people that own real estate, that you’ve identified as potentially wanting to sell for lots of reasons. That’s really what we teach. The mail goes out, and your phone starts to ring. Some people call you, or they mail back the offer signed. Some people are real angry because you offer too little, and some people want to just hug you and kiss you, because you saved their life, because you’re about to send them a cashier’s check. Then the real work starts and then that’s where I shove it all over to Jill.
Jill DeWit: And that is the truth.
Steven Butala: Then what do you have to do, Jill? In a typical real estate deal.
Jill DeWit: Complete the transaction. If it’s under $5,000, traditionally we’re doing it ourselves. Meaning we’re contacting the seller. We’re doing the deeds. We do all our own due diligence. We have all the tools and resources that I can check and pulling reports if I want to, any last little detail I want, I can do it. Check the back taxes, all those little details ourselves. Then we send out the notary, send out the cashier’s check, arrange it all with the seller. Then once we have that done, it comes back to us and then we send it in for recording. Now we own it.
If it’s more than $5,000 traditionally, or something funky, then we’re going through a title company. We have a great relationship, we have many great relationships, with many different title agents for different things, in different areas a little bit. But, basically it’s nice because they do all the work. Still, even when you’re going through title, you still have to kind of babysit a little bit-
Steven Butala: Yeah.
Jill DeWit: -because often a title agents, you’re not their only deal.
Steven Butala: Yeah.
Jill DeWit: And so you kind of have keep it moving forward sometimes. If I don’t hear from my title agent and my team doesn’t, in two days they’re instructed to call and find out where’s the bottleneck.
Steven Butala: Yeah.
Jill DeWit: It’s often as simple as, “Well, I didn’t get a call back from the seller the other day.” Well then they didn’t even try to make another call. So, we do that and just keep it moving forward. That’s it.
Steven Butala: As a real estate pro, you’re exactly right Jill. I’m sorry, go ahead. Finish that.
Jill DeWit: No, no.
Steven Butala: Then you sell it, alright? So then the acquisitions done, and then you post it everywhere on the internet and make sure you can accept credit cards on your website.
Jill DeWit: That’s the best have. Have a beautiful description.
Steven Butala: Then you wake up one morning and it’s sold.
Jill DeWit: Right.
Steven Butala: The difference between the difference between a novice, and let’s say a homeowner, when they sell their asset, or by their primary residence, and us, is that we’re professionals at it. So, you do whatever it takes to get the deal done. I’ve made this mistake many, many, many times in my life. You can’t just shove it all on an escrow agent. I see real estate agents do this all the time. Shove the deal, “Oh, my job’s done.” and their aspirations going to do all the paperwork and all this stuff. No, they’re not. You have to really, really be involved. Check the lean reports yourself. Contact everybody. Get involved and stay involved in. It’s your real estate too.
Jill DeWit: Because it’s so easy for us, we have all the information ahead of time. We often do that. I’m often like, by the time I hand it over to the escrow agent, I have a lot of the documents ready for him to go. “Here you go.”
Steven Butala: Yeah, they love us.
Jill DeWit: “I already have all this done.”
Steven Butala: So, my point is with this topic, why you should only be working on acquisitions. None of that stuff happens, unless you’re buying a property cheap.
Jill DeWit: Right.
Steven Butala: You can summarize our whole business model, and you can tell yourself this is in the mirror, “You are good at buying property undervalued.” What’s better than that?
Jill DeWit: Exactly.
Steven Butala: What better skill is there than that?
Jill DeWit: Exactly.
Steven Butala: Being good at an engineering, or accounting, or great in your marriage? No. Who cares about that stuff?
Jill DeWit: Steven.
Steven Butala: What matters is, you can buy undervalued real estate, and consequently sell it immediately.
Jill DeWit: I cannot believe you are going there.
Steven Butala: Did you ever hear that …
Jill DeWit: Can you imagine?
Steven Butala: I’ve heard a psychologist say this,-
Jill DeWit: Oh my gosh.
Steven Butala: “If to be successful in your relationship, you have to work at it. It doesn’t just come easy.” To which I say-
Jill DeWit: I’m going to start doing this.
Steven Butala: “Why the hell?” Because, I don’t feel like I work at our relationship. It’s probably obvious, isn’t it?
Jill DeWit: Oh, it’s obvious. No.
Steven Butala: No, honestly, all kidding aside, do you really work hard at this relationship?
Jill DeWit: Every day.
Steven Butala: Come on. Seriously?
Jill DeWit: No, I don’t. I don’t.
Steven Butala: This comes pretty naturally to me.
Jill DeWit: No.
Steven Butala: I don’t know.
Jill DeWit: It’s all good. No, I’m just thinking of the next time at a cocktail party, someones gonna ask me, “So, what is it about you two? Why are you guys together? And how have you been together so long?” “Guy knows how to buy cheap property. That’s it. That’s it.”
Steven Butala: Yeah.
Jill DeWit: “Is there anything else about him?”
Steven Butala: “And she knows how to sell it.”
Jill DeWit: “Nope. Nope. That’s it. That’s the only reason I’m here.”
Steven Butala: Oh my God. I’ll absolutely pay you to say that.
Jill DeWit: Could you believe that? I might have the opportunity tonight. We have a house party that we’re going to. I’m gonna test this. See what people say.
Steven Butala: That’s awesome.
Jill DeWit: Thank you.
Steven Butala: “What’s your secret Jill?” “I have a high threshold for man dumbness.”
Jill DeWit: “You know, the fact that he can buy properties so well, erases any other flaw.”
Steven Butala: You know, that’s how men think.
Jill DeWit: Really?
Steven Butala: Oh yeah.
Jill DeWit: Really?
Steven Butala: This is what men think.
Jill DeWit: Uh-oh
Steven Butala: Men think that, this is how men walk around the planet.
Jill DeWit: This is awesome.
Steven Butala: “Yeah, I know the garage is a mess, and I know that we’re over leveraged on everything. But, I’m really good at this one other thing over here.”
Jill DeWit: But I buy her nice things?
Steven Butala: No, like I work really hard, and we get the bills paid or something.
Jill DeWit: Really?
Steven Butala: It doesn’t work for women at all that way. And here’s how women walk around the planet. “Oh, how’s that make me feel?”
Jill DeWit: Hold on a moment. That’s what you think.
Steven Butala: “How does that shade of white make me feel?”
Jill DeWit: Oh, Steven.
Steven Butala: “Doesn’t make me feel good.”
Jill DeWit: That’s not true.
Steven Butala: How do they walk around?
Jill DeWit: Well, it might be true.
Steven Butala: I know it’s true.
Jill DeWit: For a lot of people, I’m just not that way.
Steven Butala: “How does this dress make me feel today? I feel fat.”
Jill DeWit: Oh, you’re so silly.
Steven Butala: It has nothing to do with anything. It’s just a feeling.
Jill DeWit: Do you know what it is? I need to accomplish, I’m kinda like you. I don’t if I was always this way, or if I’ve changed. But, I walk around going, “I need to accomplish something.” I understand that I have to accomplish something every day, because I have that too.
Steven Butala: I have that.
Jill DeWit: I can’t give myself a day off,-
Steven Butala: I know, me too.
Jill DeWit: -until I accomplish something.
Steven Butala: Why is that? I have that too.
Jill DeWit: I don’t know. Well, I think I got it from you.
Steven Butala: Oh jeez.
Jill DeWit: I think it’s spreading. I might see a doctor about it.
Steven Butala: Don’t be like me, whatever you do. That’s what I tell the kids.
Jill DeWit: I know it’s too late. It’s all right. So, the next thing that’s going to happen though, is you’re going to wake up and going, “You know, I just don’t feel like cleaning out the garage today.”
Steven Butala: Right? No, that’s not gonna happen.
Jill DeWit: I feel like getting a manicure.
Steven Butala: Yeah, what if your stuff’s spread to me?
Jill DeWit: Right? That’s what I mean. Wouldn’t that be funny? What was this topic again?
Steven Butala: I haven’t said it in a long time, but I am truly, truly addicted in probably an unhealthy way, to doing deals.
Jill DeWit: You are.
Steven Butala: I am a deal junkie. Just like sticking a needle in my arm. I’m addicted to that, the acquisition feeling of, it happened several times this week at a bunch of infill lots in Arizona and then in some houses to. Where it’s like, that feeling when you, it comes into the spreadsheet, I get notified and I will look it up. Because I priced it, right? It shouldn’t be surprising to me. If someone signs an offer that-
Jill DeWit: Isn’t that funny?
Steven Butala: -“Oh yeah, we’re going to make ton of money.” Because, I set the price. But I still look it up. I get a picture of it, if it’s a house or an infill lot, and I’m like, “We just made $80,000.”
Jill DeWit: Can’t lose.
Steven Butala: Yep. Next.
Jill DeWit: Right.
Steven Butala: And it’s like, I want to stick the needle in my arm two hours later.
Jill DeWit: I know, it’s okay. I will help you.
Steven Butala: You know what? This actually ties to the topic.
Jill DeWit: Yep.
Steven Butala: Because, it’s that acquisition, why you should be working on acquisitions only. That’s why this all happens.
Jill DeWit: Exactly. You should be, and that’s one of the things too, this is the last point that I have is, and I’ve talked to people about this too, they try to sub everything out. I say, “Hold on one moment, be careful. This one you don’t want to sub out.”
Steven Butala: No, you don’t.
Jill DeWit: “You really need to be that very front person, because this is where the deal is made.” This is when you buy it, you know what your offer price is. They accept it. That takes care of the rest of the transaction. You don’t have to think about the selling it part. You don’t have to think about the posting. You know all that other stuff you can sub out.
Steven Butala: That’s right. Well, you’ve done it again, you’ve spent another 15 or so, I guess 17 minutes listening to Land Academy show. Join us tomorrow for another episode where we discuss diversifying your real estate investment company.
Jill DeWit: And we answer your questions posted on landacademy.com. Go there, find our online community and it’s free.
Steven Butala: You’re not alone in your real estate ambition. It’s you’ve done a thousand deals, week. Now what?
Jill DeWit: I was also thinking, what else would be funny if we rubbed off, if girl stuff rubbed off on guys.
Steven Butala: I know.
Jill DeWit: Like, how about this, we were at an event a couple of nights ago, and these girls walk in, like the total peacock-
Steven Butala: Yeah, right.
Jill DeWit: -kind of thing. The way they walk into the room and judge every other woman in the room quickly assess how they look and what they’re wearing compared to every other woman in the room.
Steven Butala: Right, and how it makes them feel.
Jill DeWit: Can you imagine? Usually it’s like, “I did well. Oh, I like hot.”
Steven Butala: Right.
Jill DeWit: That’s how they’re hopefully doing. Or like, “I need to run home and change.” Or, “I knew I should have wore those shoes.” Whatever it is. Can you imagine if a man did that? I’m trying to imagine, if you would walk into a room what it would be like. “Ah, I knew I should have wore the baseball hat. Everybody here’s wearing a baseball hat but me.”
Steven Butala: No.
Jill DeWit: “I’m going to run out and see if I have one in the car.”
Steven Butala: No. You know what men do?
Jill DeWit: What?
Steven Butala: They say, first of all, they look for some guy that they know. Then when that doesn’t happen, or even if it does, it’s like “How long is this gonna take?” and “Is it not going to suck really bad?” and both of those things are always awful. Almost never, never works at those events. I try to buy my way out of them. Like, if it’s a silent auction, I up-bid everything like a thousand dollars. Then it’s usually centers around raising money, I just get the checks out, and then get out of there.
Jill DeWit: Oh, I can’t decide it if that’s a good giving thing, or antisocial thing.
Steven Butala: I don’t know.
Jill DeWit: You’re so social. It’s so funny. You do great in those environments. I think you secretly have fun and you don’t want to admit it.
Steven Butala: It’s just if there’s an initial sting no matter.
Jill DeWit: Sometimes.
Steven Butala: The initial five minutes, or three minutes, are really rough. Then you have to just either decide to bail, or just start to act. Like, I’ll turn on Jack.
Jill DeWit: I know.
Steven Butala: Jack comes out.
Jill DeWit: Oh, okay. Share the fun by subscribing on iTunes, or wherever you’re listening. And while you’re at it, please rate us there. We are Steven and Jill. Information and inspiration, to buy undervalued property.
Steven Butala: To buy undervalued property.
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