Member Travis Jenkins Interview (LA 1195)

I would like to think it’s entertaining and informative and in the end profitable.

And finally, don’t forget to subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts.

NARs Self Serving False Recession Predictions (LA 1191)

May 15, 2020 / Joey Chavez / Podcasts

NARs Self Serving False Recession Predictions (LA 1191)

Transcript:

Steven Butala:
Steve and Jill here.

Jill DeWit:
Hello.

Steven Butala:
Welcome to the Land Academy Show, entertaining land investment talk. I’m Steven Jack Butala.

Jill DeWit:
and I’m Jill DeWit, broadcasting from sunny southern California.

Steven Butala:
Today Jill and I talk about the National Association of Realtors, Self-serving, False Recessionary Predictions.

Jill DeWit:
Wow, that’s a long title. What the heck. Today we’re going to do a deep dive into the economic factors that have attributed to our current climate and then we will roll in-

Steven Butala:
Keep going, it’s kind of turning me on.

Jill DeWit:
We will roll in the unemployment ratio to the retail-

Steven Butala:
Oh, Jill.

Jill DeWit:
Climate and the political spin on what we’re facing in 2020. That’s what I heard.

Steven Butala:
It almost sounded like it made sense. You know what we won’t be talking about today? Politics. I’ll tell you that.

Jill DeWit:
This title’s like what the heck.

Steven Butala:
The National Association of Realtors has one of the largest, this is for decades and decades, one of the top five largest lobbyist groups in Washington-

Jill DeWit:
Which is why they get their way now, a lot.

Steven Butala:
… ever-

Jill DeWit:
and people listen.

Steven Butala:
And so why is that?

Jill DeWit:
Money.

Steven Butala:
It’s because they’re falsely propping up an industry that they know is just a has-been.

Jill DeWit:
For money.

Steven Butala:
And that will eventually get taken away. They’re in the business of collecting association dues. And it trickles up to them.

Jill DeWit:
And commissions.

Steven Butala:
So we spend a bunch of money perpetuating an antiquated way of buying and selling property, which Jill and I have been complaining about since we had started the show in 2015. And this episode is no exception. So if you’re a real estate agent, and you use a lot of hairspray and love yourself, now’s the time for you to turn this off.

Jill DeWit:
I would like to add, you know that reminds me of, which I really liked about, we used to live in Arizona. And the current governor of Arizona is Doug Doocy, and one of the things that I liked about back when we lived there, when he first took office, he stepped in and said, “What the heck are all these stupid licenses?” It’s like you have to have a separate license for this kind of a barber, and this kind of hairstylist. There were so many different licenses for everything. It’s almost like you had to have a license to be a dog groomer or if you do dogs over 50 pounds, if you do dogs under 50 pounds, you need this kind of a dog license. If you’re a street sweeper on the east side of the street, you need this license, if you’re a street sweeper on the left side of the street, you need this license. It was like that kind of nuttiness that, I like he came in and kind of said, “This is stupid. We need to pare this down.”

Jill DeWit:
So some of the stuff that goes on within this group or just some political groups, it’s just out of hand. And then we all know this, or maybe you don’t know this, every time there’s a new law that goes into place, the three other laws that this kind of supersedes don’t get taken off. They’re still there. So now that’s part of why it’s such a garbley mess. You have this new law that you’re looking at, but you’ve got to go back and go, wait a minute, how do the three laws leading up to this new law, do they still apply? What do we do with this? I would not make a good attorney. I probably would make a good attorney, because I know how to argue, but I don’t, but-

Steven Butala:
That’s for sure.

Jill DeWit:
But I don’t want to be an attorney, because it’s a flipping mess. So, sorry, that’s.

Steven Butala:
IF you ask a lawyer why this is, you bring this topic up, most of them, they’ll very seriously say, “Well, we’re saving the world.”

Jill DeWit:
“We’re doing a good thing.”

Steven Butala:
“We’re saving the-”

Jill DeWit:
“We’re looking out for everyone.”

Steven Butala:
“We’re altruistically…” Yeah, “because most people can’t make the rules for themselves. They really need us to make set rules and make re-rules and it’s an ongoing thing. It’s never finished. And I’m qualified to legislate how you do your real estate deals.” Which I couldn’t disagree with more.

Jill DeWit:
I know. We have to be careful. This is a slippery slope to go down, and I get mad.

Steven Butala:
It’s okay if you don’t use the P word.

Jill DeWit:
Okay. What’s the P word?

Steven Butala:
Politics.

Jill DeWit:
Oh no, I was just going into this long…

Steven Butala:
In a few minutes we’ll-

Jill DeWit:
Technical-

Steven Butala:
We’ll take it all out on the Association of Realtors. We’ll let it out for everybody.

Jill DeWit:
All right.

Steven Butala:
Before we get into it, let’s take a question posted by one of our members on the landinvestors.com online community. It’s free.

Jill DeWit:
Andy writes, “Hi, all. I sent in a couple of deeds to the County Clerk just now and I’m questioning whether I filled them out correctly. My question is here. In the part with the legal description, the seller’s deeds from the 80s says unit blank, lot, unit file.” I’ll just fill it in. “Block six, lot 23, in Sun City filled in the Maricopa County Clerk, May 1st, 1962.” I just made up that stuff, but that’s the gist of it. So he said, “This is from the seller’s deed, on the new deed I created…” Oh, he did make a mistake. “I copied the legal description exactly, but I changed the filed on date to match the one from the seller’s deed, which was July 5th, 1988 or so. My thought was that this was the legal description whereas what matters, and they filed on date is where the clerk can refer to the property easily. Was my thinking correct here? Or is there some reason I should have kept that 1962 date on there? Any help’s appreciated. Thanks.” Yeah, you don’t usually change of legal description at all.

Steven Butala:
Can you be real specific and give them, unlike most topics on the planet, this is a silver bullet topic, and there’s a right way and a wrong way to do it. And almost all of it’s really easy. You copy and paste the vesting deed when it comes to the legal description, and you submit it to the county.

Jill DeWit:
Exactly. Including the dates. So, because it’s referring to something way back when, and which is probably, that filed on date is not, because they’re usually not a date that goes with the deed. It’s a filed on date. Probably when they did the subdivision, right. And they came up with the units, and the blocks and all that. That’s when that was created. So it’s referring to that, not the day that that deed was recorded. So yeah, you know what Andy, you’re going to probably get that back.

Steven Butala:
Well, just to help everybody here, what’ll end up happening is that it’s not a big tragic thing. You’re going to have to do what’s called a corrective deed. And if you’re new in this business, don’t worry about this stuff. This is really kind of advanced stuff. And it doesn’t happen very often at all.

Jill DeWit:
Yeah, you’re okay.

Steven Butala:
Now the county is going to maybe catch it or maybe not, and-

Jill DeWit:
They might record it and then the assessor will catch it. That happens sometimes, too.

Steven Butala:
And they’ll call you and say, “Please issue a corrective deed.” So just redo it. The tragedy is that you’re going to have to get the seller to sign it again. And a lot of times they’re just not interested in talking. They got your money. They’re just done. But sometimes they’re super cool.

Jill DeWit:
Excuse me. Most of the time they’re just fine, because that’s how I do it. I’m not kidding. I’ve never-

Steven Butala:
Well they want to talk to Jill.

Jill DeWit:
I know, I’ve never [crosstalk 00:07:18] Let me go back. I don’t want to put any fear in anybody at all. I’ve never had an issue ever, not kidding, where I’ve had to say, you know what? I totally did a typo. I screwed up. I messed up something. Can I just resend your deed and you just go down to the bank next time it’s convenient for you, have them notarize and just pop in the mail back. I’m not going to do the whole notary thing, because it’s not that big of a deal. They’re like “Sure, no problem.” And that’s how it goes.

Steven Butala:
Everybody loves Jill.

Jill DeWit:
Thanks.

Steven Butala:
Today’s topic. The National Association of Realtors, Self-serving, False, Recessionary Predictions. This is the meat of the show. A couple of days ago, Jill and I were standing in the kitchen drinking coffee in the morning, and I brought this concept up to her. I said, “You know what? Remember when we were kids, there was a section in the newspaper called the opinion page,” and she’s like, “Oh yeah.” And then she said-

Jill DeWit:
The part I never read.

Steven Butala:
Yeah, people either read it, are interested or they don’t. And so I never thought of it that way, but I was never an opinion page reader either. There are some people just obsess about it, and it’s like a cult following for certain columnists. Back then for me it was Detroit. For you it’s probably Orange County. Anyway, my point is, is that every single news piece now is an opinion, regardless of the topic. And it’s just, we’ve gotten to a place as a country where, and it’s all because there’s so much competition for content, way more than. Detroit had two newspapers.

Jill DeWit:
It’s everywhere you look, it’s social media, it’s your Nextdoor app with your neighbors. Hey everybody, how did we get to this point, by the way? Used to be only the crazy ones. They were like you said, it was the same people. It was the crazy ones. And I never read the opinion page, because there were so far one way or the other. And it made me, it was frustrating, because what if I’m not that? Maybe I agree with 10% of it. I don’t have to be that far. I couldn’t stomach it.

Steven Butala:
And so the radio shows started back then in 60s and 70s are really on both ends of the spectrum radio shows. And now with the internet, unfortunately younger people, this is their only exposure, and they think it’s news. Or they think it’s information, more tragically. So it allows huge lobbyist groups like the National Association of Realtors to just hire people, tell them what to write about, or hire people that have the same opinion that they do, about whatever they’re trying to sell or prop up. And in their case, what they’re trying to sell, directly and indirectly, is getting more people to pay Association dues, which is licensed real estate agents, regardless if they do deals or not. So they perpetuate the fact that things are great. Just to complete their agenda, and it’s not a news article at all. And so right now and I laughed, because I read-

Jill DeWit:
Was it one in particular?

Steven Butala:
I know it’s a National Association of Realtors driven article. There was a senior economist, I don’t remember her name. She was about 12 years old, and she said the worst is over.

Jill DeWit:
Senior economist.

Steven Butala:
She’s Senior Economist for the National Association of Realtors.

Jill DeWit:
I bet she’s probably just out of college.

Steven Butala:
Yeah, she’s 20 years old. I don’t know, it doesn’t matter. But that title of the article is The Worst is Over, everything’s-

Jill DeWit:
Already?

Steven Butala:
Yeah.

Jill DeWit:
That’s what she said?

Steven Butala:
Yep.

Jill DeWit:
Oh that’s funny.

Steven Butala:
Then she backed it up with a bunch of data.

Jill DeWit:
That’s hilarious.

Steven Butala:
And it was all clicks. Because everybody’s sitting at home clicking through real estate stuff and so she’s like “Our clicks are up.” [crosstalk 00:11:02]

Jill DeWit:
How did her editor let this get out there?

Steven Butala:
Because that’s what they want, man.

Jill DeWit:
Because she’s 25 and her editor’s 30. Oh they just, is it the shock factor?

Steven Butala:
Yeah. They just want people to read the damn thing.

Jill DeWit:
Yeah that’s true.

Steven Butala:
And click through it.

Jill DeWit:
You know what, that’s it. That’s all it is. It’s going to get your attention, and you’re going to read it, and you’re going to go, “This is a bunch of baloney.”

Steven Butala:
So now more than ever, and if you’re a House Academy or a Land Academy member, I don’t need to tell you this at all. Close your ears. Now more than ever, please think for yourself. Please use some common sense. Don’t listen to what all this crap, this just noise everywhere. Not just about real estate, about everything. And Jill’s right, how extreme it gets on both sides. It’s really silly and unfortunate. Because it’s very, very difficult to get real information about real data. And I pride ourselves on really leaving all that noise out, and just looking at data, and buying and selling real estate where the data tells us to not these. We don’t write blogs about our opinions.

Jill DeWit:
Exactly.

Steven Butala:
Even thought that’s what this show is right now, sorry.

Jill DeWit:
Not only that, but it’s sharing our experience though. We use data and our experience. And we have proven it, we have posted it in the past. We put all of our transactions online. Took it down because it was 15 or 30 pages or something ridiculous, and people would go through it and ask questions, and it was just kind of a pain. But we put it out there, we have the experience and she doesn’t have the experience. I’d have a hard time trusting an article from someone like that. She might be the greatest analyst on the planet, but if you’re a great analyst plus you’ve lived through it and you can show me history and experience, then it’s even that much better.

Steven Butala:
Here’s the other thing too that, and this is really, really important regardless of how experienced or inexperienced you are. Real estate is very, very, very micro. What happens in one zip code doesn’t happen in another zip code. What happens in one census tract, once you do find an attractive zip code to buy and sell real estate in, land or houses, doesn’t necessarily happen in the census tract right next to that. Think about where you grew up when you were a kid, and what was going on three blocks away was probably completely different than what actually went on in your block.

Jill DeWit:
Excellent point.

Steven Butala:
So you can’t make a statistic about the national scenario of what’s happening based on the recession/virus with any degree of accuracy at all. And if you do, which is fine, I please do that, if you want. Just say what it is. What she should have said is this, “The national click through rate for single family houses is up 22% over last month, which indicates,” and then she should warn us, “this is my opinion as an economist, this indicates that this recession is not as bad as everybody thinks.” And then you can’t complain. Guy like me can’t complain about that. But when the title is, “It’s Over, Everything’s Fine.” And people are buying and selling houses the way they were before this. And it’s because there’s this pent-up demand, that’s just should go on the opinion page.

Jill DeWit:
I love it. That was good. Thank you sweetheart. And is that your opinion or is that a fact?

Steven Butala:
No, this whole episode is all opinions. But you know that.

Jill DeWit:
I know. Happy you could join us today. Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday we’re right here on the Land Academy Show. Tuesdays and Thursdays we’re next door on the House Academy Show.

Steven Butala:
Next week, join us for another interesting addition to the Land Academy Show. You are not alone in your real estate ambition.

Jill DeWit:
So I was thinking as you were telling that story about every little micro market. I was thinking about when I was 18. I know you have a version of that too. Because where you grew up in Detroit, talk about different areas right?

Steven Butala:
Extreme.

Jill DeWit:
Right? Well even in where I grew up, we moved from Garden Grove to Laguna Hills, and I remember telling my friends, they’re like, “Oh, you moved to Laguna Hills.” All they knew was Nellie Gail. I’m like, “Well that’s the top of the Hill.” We lived at the bottom of the hill. So I let them all think that. Yeah, I didn’t live up there, we lived down here.

Steven Butala:
That’s hilarious.

Jill DeWit:
So that proves your point.

Steven Butala:
We live in a market now, right this minute, where if you go half a block away, the prices are half.

Jill DeWit:
Totally. It’s crazy.

Steven Butala:
Because of the ocean. And if you go a mile away, a mile in, it’s 10% of the price.

Jill DeWit:
It’s nuts. The Land Academy Show remains commercial free for you, our loyal listener. So wherever you’re watching, wherever you’re listening, please subscribe and rate us there. We are, Steve and Jill.

Steven Butala:
Information…

Jill DeWit:
and inspiration…

Steven Butala:
To buy undervalued property.

If you enjoyed the podcast, please review it in Apple Podcasts . Reviews are incredibly important for rankings on Apple Podcasts. My staff and I read each and every one.

If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to email me directly at steven@BuWit.com.

The BuWit Family of Companies include:

I would like to think it’s entertaining and informative and in the end profitable.

And finally, don’t forget to subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts.

Drive up Access is More Important Than Ever Now (LA 1190)

May 13, 2020 / Joey Chavez / Podcasts

Drive up Access is More Important Than Ever Now (LA 1190)

Transcript:

Steven Butala:
Steve 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 DeWit broadcasting from sunny Southern California.

Steven Butala:
Today, Jill and I talk about how drive up access is more important than ever right now. We said it yesterday just a little bit and Jill, in perfect form, I’ve put her on the spot, tried to trick her, and in perfect form, I said, “Why? Why is this drive up access situation more important now than ever?” She said-

Jill DeWit:
Because…

Steven Butala:
Okay, go ahead.

Jill DeWit:
… we have a different group of buyers now that are looking at land.

Steven Butala:
Yep. Yep. We can back it up with personal experience, tons of personal experience right now. People are flocking to rural areas and-

Jill DeWit:
That would have never considered it before.

Steven Butala:
That’s right.

Jill DeWit:
That’s what’s so cool.

Steven Butala:
Before we get into it, let’s take a question posted by one of our members on the landinvestors.com online community. It’s free.

Jill DeWit:
Rebecca wrote, “Hi, Land Academy, I have a lot with a storage shed on it. When I send a purchase agreement, does a contract have to include any info on the shed?”

Steven Butala:
No.

Jill DeWit:
Yeah. You are-

Steven Butala:
Is it good to have stuff on the property when you buy it or a bad?

Jill DeWit:
Great.

Steven Butala:
It’s great.

Jill DeWit:
Anything on the property, aside from an old refrigerator, a stacked up thing like that, but for stuff like this, any kind of a structure we love. Even if it’s an old rundown mobile home, you get excited about those especially. Love it.

Steven Butala:
Jill and I are launching a mobile home empire this month actually, based on the recession times. We’re going to also launch, not really super soon but shortly, as part of the House Academy program, Mobile Academy. Having anything on your property that makes sense, first of all, sets it apart from everything else that’s on the Internet next to it is great. Second of all, if it’s tenantable in anyway, even a detached mobile home, it’s a really, really, really good thing.

Jill DeWit:
It shows you, well a couple of things are, the utilities are already there, shows you what’s possible, and it just stands out. We, at times, have done things to properties like that just to make them stand out.

Steven Butala:
Yeah.

Jill DeWit:
So, none of that’s crazy. I think it’s the greatest thing. So that’s great, but her question is, “Do I need to put it in the purchase agreement?” No, you don’t. It naturally conveys with the land. It’s like you hear people buying houses and then they open up the garage and there was a bunch of junk in it, and they went through and said, “Oh my gosh, there was a cool classic car in an outer shed under a tarp. Yay, I won,” kind of thing.

Steven Butala:
Yeah. I mean, that’s a perfect example. So, the car’s in the garage, probably everybody’s deceased, “Do I write it in the contract?” No, you’re going to have to go through a whole thing with the DMV. It’s a whole separate thing. If you want to get real technical about this storage shed, you should have a bill of sale, but it’s not even worth the time to do the paperwork. I would just have a conversation. Well, I wouldn’t, Jill would.

Jill DeWit:
Yeah.

Steven Butala:
Have a conversation with the seller that says, “You know, there’s a shed on the property. You’re not going to remove it, are you?” “Oh no, I don’t even know what’s in there. There could be anything in there. I have no idea, I just want to get rid of it,” that’s what they’re going to say.

Jill DeWit:
Exactly. Okay, perfect.

Steven Butala:
Then, make sure you take great pictures and tell some story about it.

Jill DeWit:
Yeah.

Steven Butala:
It’ll sell fast.

Jill DeWit:
Hang some cute curtains. It’s probably a dusty mess inside, but put some cute red checkered curtains in it and shoot some great pictures and that’s all you need.

Steven Butala:
I’ll tell you what, along these lines-

Jill DeWit:
And a new doormat, a floor mat.

Steven Butala:
If you have property, especially out West that’s got a clearing or it’s clear, it’s not crazy at all to go buy the worst, cheapest RV you can find.

Jill DeWit:
Oh.

Steven Butala:
Just make sure the zoning provides for this and make sure it’s not in a ghetto type area where it’s going to get vandalized and put it on the lot, take pictures of it, and sell it.

Jill DeWit:
Right. Yeah.

Steven Butala:
This is your answer to the virus. You’re going to sell it that week.

Jill DeWit:
It’s true.

Steven Butala:
We have never done the RV thing. We’ve done a mobile home thing. Detached mobile with no utilities or anything, just drop it on there, and it just sells that day. So, we just got to make sure the numbers make sense.

Jill DeWit:
Yeah.

Steven Butala:
You also have to explain very clearly. Not me, Jill has to explain it.

Jill DeWit:
Do you love how he does this? Sounds like I’m your assistant.

Steven Butala:
No, no, Jill. Hey, by the way, Jill has way more money than I do.

Jill DeWit:
Oh, okay. It’s so funny.

Steven Butala:
I just have a little more-

Jill DeWit:
Because I earned it.

Steven Butala:
I have a little bit more free time, that’s it.

Jill DeWit:
Yeah.

Steven Butala:
You really need to explain it. We’re all a big huge fan of telling the truth here. Just if you’re going to drop a mobile home from the sixties on a piece of property, say that. Say, “This property-”

Jill DeWit:
Say, “I’m not sure anything works, but here you go.”

Steven Butala:
Yeah. I mean, it’s detached. It’s not attached, there’s no utilities, it probably needs a septic system. I don’t really know, I don’t care.

Jill DeWit:
I found it.

Steven Butala:
Yeah, I’m just telling you.

Jill DeWit:
I found it and pulled it over.

Steven Butala:
Or an RV, same thing. We got it there, but the tanks could be full. I don’t know. That’s how bad it could be. Expect the worst when you go out there.

Jill DeWit:
That’s so funny. That is not how to get a girl.

Steven Butala:
I know.

Jill DeWit:
Expect the worst.

Steven Butala:
Yep. I say these things knowing full well that I already got the girl.

Jill DeWit:
Okay.

Steven Butala:
So, there’s a little bit of leeway, there but not a lot. If it’s three quick comments in a row from me, then she’s out. She’ll walk off the stage.

Jill DeWit:
Yep, that’s true.

Steven Butala:
Drive up access, we’re all set. Oh, no-

Jill DeWit:
Today’s topic.

Steven Butala:
Oh, today’s topic: drive up access is more important now than ever. This is the meat of the show. Why? Well, we kind of answered it in this question. If you have drive up access particularly with a state road or county road drive up access, which is all maintained and you’ve dropped something on-

Jill DeWit:
Meaning paved.

Steven Butala:
Paved, it could be a lot of places rural-

Jill DeWit:
Be real specific, if you would.

Steven Butala:
Paved is better in a lot of cases.

Jill DeWit:
Okay.

Steven Butala:
In some cases, even now, especially now, people don’t want to have that good of an access. They want to get to their property, but not everybody else. They want everybody else to not get to the property. So especially out West, there’s a lot of state and county road properties that are, I call them 55 mile an hour dirt roads, not paved.

Jill DeWit:
But, there’s not a lot of gravel.

Steven Butala:
No, you can go 55 on a dirt road, really, year-round.

Jill DeWit:
Right, and not destroy your car. In a real car.

Steven Butala:
Yeah.

Jill DeWit:
Because, I want to be specific with this. Okay, everybody has a different version of drive up access. Some people think drive up access is curves in a driveway.

Steven Butala:
Oh. Geez, not that.

Jill DeWit:
So, that’s what I want to clarify. So, the point of the show is there’s a lot of people right now that are considering rural vacant land because they want to get the heck out, right? We have virus stuff going on, and they don’t need to be in that city anymore. Now, they can, they’ve all tested it and figured it out that, “I can work for my company. They sent me home. We’re now talking long-term. Then, why am I going to pay for this mortgage? Why am I going to pay to be in the city? My kids are being homeschool right now too, by the way. We don’t have to be here. We have all these more options.”

Jill DeWit:
So, we land people are all talking to these people now and they’re going, “What’s out there?” So, what I want you to think about is they don’t have four wheel drive and you need to kind of properly paint the picture and let them know really what’s possible. I want to ask you, I want to talk with you, so drive up access to them when you say, “Sure, has drive up access,” we land people think, I even think of it sometimes it’s a dirt road. Me, drive up access is I don’t need an ATV, or I don’t necessarily need four-wheel drive. Because if I do need four-wheel drive, I let them know, “Do you have four-wheel drive and a GPS when you,” we all have GPS on our phone, but do you have four wheel drive to get out there?”

Jill DeWit:
There’s two buyers. Some will go, “Uh-oh, I don’t,” or the hunters and the people that really want to be out there are going to go, “Yes, good. That’s going to keep my mother-in-law out, it’s going to keep my friends out,” whatever. I-

Steven Butala:
Yeah. The virus, it’ll keep the virus out.

Jill DeWit:
The virus people out. I don’t want those people coming up. Heck, the mailman can’t even get to me. This is great. I’m going to get a P.O. Box because the mailman can’t find me. I love this. So, you’ve got to properly convey what it is, and jump in here.

Steven Butala:
Drive Up access means you can drive right up to it. It doesn’t mean you can drive right up to it in a Pinto.

Jill DeWit:
Right.

Steven Butala:
It’s so-

Jill DeWit:
Pinto?

Steven Butala:
In a car that famously doesn’t work in a two-wheel drive, or really in Pinto’s case, one-wheel drive.

Jill DeWit:
How about Prius? Let’s use Prius.

Steven Butala:
Okay, Prius.

Jill DeWit:
Prius. We should probably do Prius access or non-Prius access. So, that would be good.

Steven Butala:
Yeah, there’s Prius access, there’s Ford F-150 access, that’s a little bit more rough. There’s-

Jill DeWit:
Right. Polaris access.

Steven Butala:
There’s Ford F-450 access.

Jill DeWit:
Oh, okay.

Steven Butala:
That’s really rough. Then, there’s monster truck assets, which is…

Jill DeWit:
Jeep.

Steven Butala:
Yeah.

Jill DeWit:
Jeep Polaris, I’m thinking, what else?

Steven Butala:
You want it Prius access right now.

Jill DeWit:
Right, but he doesn’t have to be. I mean, I think with us, with land people, we have to just properly convey it. I would actually even put in the posting, really put it in there what you need now to get to this property because you don’t want to waste anybody’s time and you don’t want to waste your time have someone in their Prius going out there.

Steven Butala:
Yeah.

Jill DeWit:
Prius from San Francisco, going to look at this property and they can’t get to it. You want to make sure they can.

Steven Butala:
If that’s your customer for rural vacant land, you have to ask yourself some questions.

Jill DeWit:
But, it’s happening. So, what I want to say, too, is it’s not only we have these new customers, right? They don’t have four-wheel drive, but they have a bit to learn. So, I want to add too that it’s a little bit difficult for some of us right now as land people because we have to up our patience level. This is another reason why-

Steven Butala:
Well, I don’t. I don’t, you do.

Jill DeWit:
Exactly. This is another reason why we don’t allow Steven to answer the phone.

Steven Butala:
Thank you for answering the phone, by the way. Can’t thank you enough.

Jill DeWit:
You’re welcome. Steven is not allowed near the phone-

Steven Butala:
For a hundred years. For a hundred years if I said it every day, we could-

Jill DeWit:
We could have 10 phones ringing and people answering it left and right and Steven is still not allowed to touch any phones.

Steven Butala:
I couldn’t thank you enough if I said it every day for a hundred years.

Jill DeWit:
You’re welcome. Because we do have people. I’m just now thinking of this too, you might want to change your listings a little bit. Just make sure you’re in the mindset of, “Who’s my buyer right now? It used to be the majority of our buyers were wholesale people, land people, investors in our business,” right? That’s, for us, has been our customer forever. Because the other buyers, they were very few and far between. Those that did get to us, they’ve done their homework, they know their kind of seasons. Now, we’re seeing a lot of people, their minds are now open to this whole thing like I described earlier, but they don’t know what they’re getting into.

Jill DeWit:
So, it’s your job to take your postings to maybe to a little bit to the next level, because it’ll save you a lot of time. The more you put in your postings that spells out what the property’s really there, what they need to be thinking about. Instead of just saying, “No utilities,” maybe have a few suggestions in there, maybe have a few links in there, even if it’s just to the county website because it’ll save you some time from them calling you and going, “What does that mean, and how do I solve it?”

Steven Butala:
Usability is what I’m getting at here.

Jill DeWit:
Right.

Steven Butala:
For years and years and years, 25 years, we were selling property other people that are probably going to resell it, or non-use people, people who aren’t going to really use the property. Now more than ever, they’re looking at this real estate saying, “You know what? I’m going to use this. I might build on it, I might put a mobile home on it, but I am going to get out of this city,” because of what Joe said earlier, “there’s no reason for me to be here anymore. That cost of living silly.”

Jill DeWit:
Yep. Yep.

Steven Butala:
“I can go live out there for next to nothing and have a happy life and not have all this stress and make the exact same amount of money as long as I have an Internet connection.”

Jill DeWit:
You know what I just think is funny? All the people, they’re not in the cities, that have been out in the woods are now going, “Yep, told you so. Now, you wish you were with me. Right? Not had a bunch of neighbors.” For all you people who lived in downtown whatever, that thought I was nuts to be on my 20 acre branch, you’re now going, “Uh-huh, don’t you wish you had this?”

Steven Butala:
So, I grew up in Michigan, and so I obviously talked to people and we talked to people all over the country constantly, Jill and I because of Land Academy and everything else.”

Jill DeWit:
Yeah.

Steven Butala:
I’ve never not once, ever heard the sentence out of someone’s mouth, “Oh, you live in Los Angeles? Congratulations, man. I bet you love it there. I always wanted to live in L.A.”

Jill DeWit:
That’s true.

Steven Butala:
It’s exact opposite, and they’re not wrong.

Jill DeWit:
True, yep.

Steven Butala:
I can talk about these shows with confidence because I’m one of these people.

Jill DeWit:
Yeah.

Steven Butala:
I’m not sure this is worth it anymore either. All my companies are all online. What are we doing?

Jill DeWit:
That’s another show that we need to talk about as a family first.

Steven Butala:
Yeah, it’s called Couples Therapy.

Jill DeWit:
Exactly. Oh boy, I don’t want to hear, “I told you so,” again. Happy you could join us today. I won’t say I told you so to you. The Land Academy, or excuse me, you can find us right here on the Land Academy Show every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Tuesdays and Thursdays, we are next door on the House Academy Show.

Steven Butala:
Tomorrow, the episode on the House Academy Show is called, A Step-By-Step Instruction on how to Double Your House Money in This Environment. You are not alone in your real estate ambition.

Jill DeWit:
That’s going to be good.

Steven Butala:
Yeah.

Jill DeWit:
I like it. That’s funny. Thank you, baby, for not rubbing it in too much.

Steven Butala:
No, it’s okay.

Jill DeWit:
Okay.

Steven Butala:
You know what? No, you’ve earned it, Jill. I know you want to live here and it’s fine, and that’s the truth of it.

Jill DeWit:
You know.

Steven Butala:
But as far as forever goes, probably not.

Jill DeWit:
Things change.

Steven Butala:
This is just another kitchen conversation for you and I.

Jill DeWit:
It is, things change.

Steven Butala:
It just happened to happen in front of the camera.

Jill DeWit:
Exactly. We all know that things change, especially it’s interesting now for a lot of us, it’s not voluntary. These are forced changes, and so you have to adapt and make the best of it as we all are.

Steven Butala:
Yep.

Jill DeWit:
The Land Academy Show remains commercial-free for you, our loyal listeners. So wherever you’re watching and wherever you’re listening, please subscribe and rate us there. We are Steve and Jill.

Steven Butala:
We are Steve and Jill. Information…

Jill DeWit:
And inspiration…

Steven Butala:
… to buy undervalued property.

If you enjoyed the podcast, please review it in Apple Podcasts . Reviews are incredibly important for rankings on Apple Podcasts. My staff and I read each and every one.

If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to email me directly at steven@BuWit.com.

The BuWit Family of Companies include:

I would like to think it’s entertaining and informative and in the end profitable.

And finally, don’t forget to subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts.

Good Investors Will Make Fortunes in the Next 24 Months (LA 1189)

May 11, 2020 / Joey Chavez / Podcasts

Good Investors Will Make Fortunes in the Next 24 Months (LA 1189)

Transcript:

Steven Butala:
Steve and Jill here.

Jill DeWit:
Hello.

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 how good investors will make fortunes in the next 24 months.

Jill DeWit:
What else should you be doing? I’d be like this. That’s like a drop everything and run title. You know what I mean?

Steven Butala:
Mm-hmm (affirmative). Now is the time. There may never be another time in our, certainly in our lifetime, but if you’re real young you might get another shot at it, and I’m not saying you can’t make money during great times, but now it’s just kind of a perfect storm. I have some indications about why. Before we get into it, though, let’s take a question posted by one of our members on the landinvestors.com online community. It’s free.

Jill DeWit:
Roland asks, “My partner and I have a beautiful 2.5 acre property in Twentynine Palms, California, near Palm Springs, that we have listed on eBay. This is the first time we have listed on eBay. We have had two bidders so far. One seems legit based on his buyer’s history. The other, who is leading right now, has no buyer history. We’re kind of concerned. So, the question is, what scams should we look out for? Thanks, Roland.”

Jill DeWit:
I was going to add one thing too. You are not wrong in your concerns, because sometimes that happens. People do, unfortunately, are not legitimate. With a buyer’s history, they may or may not be a great buyer. They could be good but you don’t know. We have a lot of experience in this, and I’ll tell you truthfully, I have gone… and when you go into the settings and you’re setting up your eBay account, you can even restrict it ahead of time so people that have less than X amount of transactions can’t even bid, or people who have less amount of dings on their account, things like an unpaid history or they’ve already had some negative feedback, you can also restrict those buyers from your account. You have a lot of control. There’s a lot that you can choose from.

Jill DeWit:
It’s a tough one, because you don’t know who could be good, who could be bad, until you really get rolling. You don’t have a lot of history too, by the way, so let’s put the shoe on the other foot. Is that okay-

Steven Butala:
Yeah.

Jill DeWit:
Is that the right kind of a-

Steven Butala:
You’re answering the question for me.

Jill DeWit:
Okay.

Steven Butala:
Total two-way street.

Jill DeWit:
Exactly. As a buyer, I don’t really know you too, Roland, so you want to give… I’d say give him a chance. What you could do, because you’re starting out, they’re starting out. If you see two guys going for it and you do like we do. It’s one dollar, no reserve, 30-day auction, going to close on a Sunday around dinner time. Those are things that we’ve learned over the years that worked the best. I would start having a dialogue with these guys. Make sure that you say, “Hey, you’re one of the top bidders. Don’t forget when it closes. I’m going to send you an invoice. This is how the process goes just to give you an idea. Do you have any questions for me now,” things like that. Then maybe too, if you have some interaction with these buyers, both of them, it’s going to help you feel good and know that they’re real and legit.

Steven Butala:
EBay’s a double-edged sword. Jill and I have sold tens of millions of dollars of real estate on eBay. It’s only conducive for really one product type when land is concerned, so the people that buy stuff on eBay are the absolute biggest bottom fishers there ever was, ever. It’s not just for land. It’s for cars and anything else that you can find on there. It’s way, way lower, from a price standpoint and an acceptable behavior standpoint, than a lot of other venues on the internet like, let’s say, Amazon, Craigslist or offer upper… Choose one.

Jill DeWit:
This is all true.

Steven Butala:
You need to go in with an expectation that you’re dealing with maybe the worst customer there ever was, number one. Number two, they’re not going to buy a real nice [info lot 00:04:10] that you spent five grand on for [chen 00:04:12]. They’re going to buy very, very inexpensive rural vacant land. They’re going to expect an amazing customer service experience. They’re going to expect zero fees associated with the transaction.

Jill DeWit:
A crazy price, yeah.

Steven Butala:
I’m talking about 500 bucks. Five hundred to a thousand sales price is where you want to be for eBay. So, that means you have to buy it for 2- or $300 to make any real money consistently. That’s not inconceivable, especially if you buy huge bulks of property in multiple locations all at once, which is what… We’ve done this for years and years.

Jill DeWit:
Right.

Steven Butala:
The big problem with eBay is it turns a lot of people who are really intelligent off. That’s the problem… or Land Academy people. When people hear the word eBay, very intelligent people, and they say, “What? That’s what this is about, buying real cheap property for a few hundred dollars and selling it for 700 or 800 on eBay 10 or 15 times a week,” no, that’s not what this is about at all. It’s a tiny little part of it.

Jill DeWit:
Right.

Steven Butala:
Ninety-eight percent of the time we talk about data and smart stuff. This is not one of those times. This is just the eBay little portion of it.

Jill DeWit:
Yeah, if you’ve got a good property, I wouldn’t put it on eBay. If you’ve got something that’s in your inventory you just want to get rid of and you don’t care about it and maybe drive traffic to your website, then I would use eBay. Use it as a marketing tool.

Steven Butala:
I want to go out on a limb here and say, I bet you and I have sold more real estate on eBay than anyone.

Jill DeWit:
I bet that’s true. I’m sure-

Steven Butala:
I bet we’re the most qualified people to talk about this little tiny subject.

Jill DeWit:
I’m sure of that.

Steven Butala:
We don’t sell very much, if any, at all anymore for a reason. If us, we’re saying, there’s just better ways to do it, I feel very confident that that’s the case.

Jill DeWit:
You know, Roland, I would rather you have this on Facebook and doing maybe even some paid ads and getting in front of the right people.

Steven Butala:
Me too.

Jill DeWit:
Then you’re going to get a lot more Instagram. Dream it up.

Steven Butala:
Fifty percent of the people that buy property on eBay and the auction closes, and you either send them a bill or there’s automatic checkout, will pay. Fifty percent won’t. It costs 100 bucks to run an auction, so there’s a lot of stuff that goes on. There’s a lot of moving parts to it. You have to have an incredible amount of patience, so you can remove me in that. But it’s very profitable. People who do well on eBay, I’ve been to these eBay conferences, national conferences, not necessarily with real estate, but anything, have figured it out. They’ve figured out a way to create a machine.

Steven Butala:
I met a couple guys at a conference that, they sold packaging, like cardboard boxes and stuff, for other eBay sellers on eBay, and they were just printing money. I don’t want to knock it, but really what it is is you’re an online retailer who happens to sell… fill in the blank. For us, it was land. For them it was boxes. For some people it’s Beanie Babies. For some people it’s Corvettes.

Jill DeWit:
Thanks.

Steven Butala:
Today’s topic, good investors will make fortunes in the next 24 months. This is the meat of the show.

Steven Butala:
I was inspired to write this title by an article/video that Suze Orman did where she kind of just yelled at everybody. That’s what she does. She’s a branded financial planner, and she just got in front of this camera like she always does, and famously just started yelling at us saying-

Jill DeWit:
Isn’t that funny?

Steven Butala:
I’m applying it to real estate here. She said, “Now everybody’s kind of at home. We didn’t request it, but we have this chill period, let’s say-”

Jill DeWit:
Chill period.

Steven Butala:
It’s like a cooling off period.

Jill DeWit:
Paid time off. You know what it is? What do you call it when it’s your… a career decision. I worked at a company, and before they fired you, you would get a career decision day. Not kidding. It’d be a day off with pay. This is like at the very, very bitter end of the whole thing.

Steven Butala:
After you already got all the black marks on your record.

Jill DeWit:
Oh, yeah. You’re like, it’s just not improving. We’ve coached and counseled you to the fullest extent. Then this last one time, do you really want to work here, because then they could say we did everything we could. So, this is a career decision 90 days or 260 days for a lot of people.

Steven Butala:
Now is the time to make a fortune. If you’re a Land Academy member or a House Academy member already and you’re just in the middle range of, “I’m lukewarm about it, we’ve done a couple of deals,” now’s the time to do 100 deals.

Jill DeWit:
Yeah.

Steven Butala:
I couldn’t be more serious. We joke around a lot on the show just to try to make it bearable to listen to or watch. I am not joking around about this. Now is the time. There may never be, like I said earlier, another time in our life that is so conducive to this. We have record unemployment. We will have record unemployment. We will probably have record… Go ahead.

Jill DeWit:
Well, we have record an audience. The audience is huge right now too, by the way. What a great time. If everybody was doing great and it was Superbowl time, where everybody’s stuck on Superbowl, I’d say this is not the time, but right now everybody’s home, and a lot of people have money.

Steven Butala:
This virus has created an environment of fear of big cities, so any kind of heat map you look at, that’s fantastic for rural vacant land or mobile homes or any property. It’s just a universal real estate rule. The further you go out, the cheaper it is.

Jill DeWit:
Drive till you qualify.

Steven Butala:
Now everybody wants to go further out.

Jill DeWit:
Yeah.

Steven Butala:
Number three, this is like a perfect storm. Number three, there are more people now than ever that are successfully working at home. I don’t think a lot of that’s going to change, because it’s so much more affordable for employers. We’re employers in many, many companies, and we have a lot of people working for us. I never would have signed off voluntarily to send… All my greatest assets as a business owner all just went home. I don’t know what they’re doing. It scared the heck out of me, and I think probably 95% of them just passed with flying colors. They’re doing great. Their numbers are great. They’re probably happier, which means I’m happier. I see that trend continuing.

Jill DeWit:
Exactly.

Steven Butala:
And it’s more affordable. So, all of this is a perfect storm of buying rural, vacant land, or if you’re into houses, buying houses that are further out, for really inexpensive amounts of money. Then finally, and I alluded to it with recessionary unemployment, we will have… I think we do now have the largest amount of unemployment.

Jill DeWit:
Isn’t it one in five? I think I read one in five.

Steven Butala:
The Great Depression in 1929 wasn’t, not that high. We’re in the middle of it. What is it? We’re recording this on May 7th. It will air I guess next week. All those things add up to a huge, huge opportunity. Why? People need money too. So, this mail campaign scenario that we’ve developed in the Land Academy, House Academy members know all about, your yield, your mailer yield should dramatically increase. It should double at least because people just want money. Go ahead, Jill.

Jill DeWit:
And the old buyers are coming back. The old sellers, I should say, the people that told you to go jump in a lake six months ago are coming back. Now they’re like, “Ooh, maybe I should call that guy again.”

Steven Butala:
If you don’t have a specialization, you should find one and get serious about it. Put it as schedule, get the mail out, pick a location that you think make sense. If you’re in Texas and you like Texas, getting the outskirts of some of the bigger cities. I just used Texas as an example. Now’s the time to really, really specialize and really do it.

Jill DeWit:
I was going to add what we talked about the other day at the kitchen table, which is if you’re not working on something right now, you’re nuts. If you’re not using this time off opportunity to really come up with another way to put food on the table, what better use of your time?

Steven Butala:
Yeah.

Jill DeWit:
For a lot of people, they have the ideas, they have the knowledge, it’s all in their hands, they just can’t act on it.

Steven Butala:
Yeah.

Jill DeWit:
I’m just going to say you’re going to have to do whatever it takes to act on it. We were all there once. We were all afraid of making that first decision about buying that first property. So, my answer to that is buy a great property. Don’t make a wishy-washy decision. Don’t have any doubts in your head. Make sure it’s a fantastic property. How do you do that? You have a lot to choose from. Like Steven said, get the mail out there. I see a lot of people doing this right now, by the way.

Steven Butala:
So do I.

Jill DeWit:
Even in the last week, I was blown away at our-

Steven Butala:
Me too.

Jill DeWit:
We have a direct mail company called Offers 2 Owners. It’s offers and the number two owners.com, and I’m looking at the numbers of the mail that’s going out, not individually, but as a whole. I’m like, “Holy cow.” People are like, and they’re listening and they’re doing it and they’re getting properties, and that’s the best way and the easiest way to do this right.

Steven Butala:
Yep. I don’t have anything else to say. You said it the nicest way you could possibly say it. I had an old boss tell me one time, “This either happens to you by the time you’re 40 or not.” It was a guy-to-guy. I was young, really young. I don’t think that it’s by 40 by any stretch. I think now you can be 60 because of the way the internet is, but I do think that this is the sentiment from what he said applies here. You’re either going to do this right now or you’re not, and if you don’t do it right now, you’re making excuses for yourself. Jill’s just said it the nice way. I’m not going to be that nice.

Jill DeWit:
In other words, get off your rear and do it.

Steven Butala:
Yeah, get the mail out. As Luke Smith, one of our advanced members who has a show on YouTube, constantly says, “Just get the mail out. Then everything else falls into place,” because you don’t have a choice. If your phone’s blowing up, you’re going to have to pick some deals and do them.

Jill DeWit:
Exactly. Happy you could join us today. Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday we are right here on the Land Academy Show. Tuesdays and Thursdays you can find us on the House Academy Show.

Steven Butala:
Tomorrow the episode on the House Academy Show is called We Will Never Know the Very Bitter Bottom of This Recession. Why does that matter? It’s just another reason to sit around and wait to pull the trigger on something. You don’t need to know where the bottom is. It’s going down. Let’s just say that. You are not alone in your real estate ambition.

Jill DeWit:
Cool.

Steven Butala:
Yeah.

Jill DeWit:
That was good. We got our point across. I hope we got our point across.

Steven Butala:
You know what’s going on in our life right now? We’re doing a lot of real estate deals, and so that leaves a little less time and energy for Land Academy.

Jill DeWit:
Everybody should have that, to be like, “I’m doing so many deals, that leaves a little less time for family.” Just kidding. “Or eating.”

Steven Butala:
Yep, exactly.

Jill DeWit:
“Or binge-watching.” There we go. That’s good.

Jill DeWit:
The Land Academy Show remains commercial free for you, our loyal listener. So, wherever you’re watching, wherever you’re listening, please subscribe and rate us there. We are Steve and Jill.

Steven Butala:
We are Steve and Jill. Information-

Jill DeWit:
And Inspiration.

Steven Butala:
To buy undervalued property.

If you enjoyed the podcast, please review it in Apple Podcasts . Reviews are incredibly important for rankings on Apple Podcasts. My staff and I read each and every one.

If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to email me directly at steven@BuWit.com.

The BuWit Family of Companies include:

I would like to think it’s entertaining and informative and in the end profitable.

And finally, don’t forget to subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts.

Investors Newsletter – Volume 13

April 28, 2020 / Joey Chavez / Newsletter

Happy Birthday – to me!

This newsletter marks ONE YEAR of publications, and it sure has flown by! We love all of the positive feedback we’ve received over the past year, and we have no plans of slowing down.

Advice Current Members Have for New Investors (LA 1134)

January 3, 2020 / Joey Chavez / Podcasts

Advice Current Members Have for New Investors (LA 1134)

Transcript:

Steven Butala: Steve 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 advice current members have for new investors. Jill and I did a survey. Well Jill did a survey. I did nothing. I just learned about that there’s a survey.

Jill DeWit: Yeah, we do this every year by the way.

Steven Butala: And one of the questions is what is your best piece of advice for anyone just starting out, and more than a hundred people piped in, so which is a pretty good number. So we’re going to take some of the highlighted answers and the advice that some of our successful members have and share it.

Jill DeWit: It’s really good.

Steven Butala: Before we get into it though, let’s take a question posted by one of our members on the landinvestors.com online community. It’s free.

Jill DeWit: I peeked and saw this really isn’t kind of a question. This is kind of an update and I think it’s cool. And I remember you guys, Eric and Abby said, “Hi Jack and Jill. I just want to give you guys a quick update. My wife and I joined Land Academy a year or so ago and we just completed a 100 deals, 74 for cash, 26 on terms and then there’s a report here. We can go in and see what they did. We feel grateful and wanting to thank you so much for sharing this business with us. We’re also looking forward to Car Academy. Please keep up the good work. Best, Derek and Abby. Thanks you. Yeah.

Steven Butala: A hundred deals in a year.

Jill DeWit: Isn’t it amazing? This is people don’t, people look at me like I’m nuts and it comes, it’s going to come out and this, this, the surveys are reasonable results. But I’m like if you can do one, you can do 10 and if you can do 10 you can do a 100 and Abby and Erica just have proven that.

Steven Butala: Car Academy’s going to come out in the first quarter of 2020 and what’s taking so long as we’re building a website. so you can go in there and very simply it’s a very simple website. The backend is very complicated, but it looks simple like Google where you can say in zip code eight five two five eight I would like to know, all the information for make and a model.

Steven Butala: So let’s say a Honda Civic from the years, model year 2015 to 2017 and how many are there? Click the button. It says there’s 471. Do you want to download the data? Yes I do. And you download it just like a Land Academy and House Academy and you have all their information including their phone number. And so you can send them offers and you do the research. It’s very, very simple. It’s just like the other House Academy, Land Academy. You do the research on what you want to send an offer and use offers to owners to send it or call them. All the data’s there. It’s actually pretty cool. It’s just taking a while to build out the website. The education part’s not hard.

Jill DeWit: Thank you for that plus.

Steven Butala: Today’s topic, advice current members have for new investors. This is the meat of the show.

Jill DeWit: I love this. This makes me so happy. We do this at the end of the year and it helps us. A, figure out what training and things. I mean a, it’s, well two parts. A, we know we’re on the right track and then B, it helps us plan for the next year on what training or what new programs or what new tools or resources people need to grow their businesses.

Jill DeWit: And I love this question and it’s so it’s, it’s just wonderful. So let me just dive in. Okay. So the question is what’s your, flat out, what is your best piece of advice for anyone just starting out. And it was a free field. You could type in anything you wanted. And some of these are funny too. So I, I’ve got several. Once you decide to move forward, do not give up, make it work. Just start mailing and figured out as you go.

Steven Butala: I love that, you know, that’s, I’m a big planner. But man, I have, I believe that, the sooner you fail, the sooner you succeed. Then I, whenever we start something out new, whenever I personally start something out new, I usually start stuff new. Get in there, shake the cage, see if it passes all my tests, kick it around it, really abuse it to see if it, whatever it is. Whether it’s buying a company or buying a piece of real estate. And when it passes all my tests and it’s actually going to be viable and this is like one out of 10 times usually. Then Jill starts to hear about it and so I think that’s a good-

Jill DeWit: It’s true.

Steven Butala: A good model to use. Well it works for me anyway.

Jill DeWit: Thank you. Watch the videos more than once, but don’t hold off too long on the first mailer, have a good understanding, but on the job training, is the best type of training. I believe in that too.

Steven Butala: There’s hundreds of these, Jill’s just highlighted the ones-

Jill DeWit: I’m just picking up my favorites here, but you’ll start to see the theme here. Do your pricing research and get your mail out. Everything else will take care of itself.

Steven Butala: That’s true.

Jill DeWit: I love this is a different one too. If capital constrained, use deal funding. Yeah.

Steven Butala: If you send a mailer out and you don’t have any idea what you’re doing, but you price it right, that meant the calls and the mail is going to come back. And then you have no choice.

Jill DeWit: Right.

Steven Butala: You have to deal with it.

Jill DeWit: Exactly.

Steven Butala: You have to answer the calls and get those deals done. And again, maybe you screw it all up the first time. Who cares? Who cares?

Jill DeWit: Well, right here, watch the videos. Do what it says. Send loads of mails. Listen to, watch the podcast, read the forum posts. Gain confidence that this really works, and it does.

Steven Butala: That’s good adice.

Jill DeWit: This is my favorite, one of my favorites. Send mail. Do it. Pick a damn county and send mail. That’s the only way to start. lol.

Steven Butala: That’s true.

Jill DeWit: I love it. So many people overthink it. Yep. And like this one. Educate yourself and learn the process, but don’t overanalyze. Get the offers out. That’s so true. Accomplish something every day.

Steven Butala: That’s true.

Jill DeWit: Set goals to get a mailer out within one month.

Steven Butala: Maybe one week.

Jill DeWit: Read the forums, write down questions. Perfect. Stay focused. Just do it. I knew zero of real estate two years ago. One year only with Land Academy and just constantly learned every day and make the leap and do it. Just follow the system. Don’t try to change it and just get offers out. Use the Land Academy community and experience investors for advice.

Steven Butala: Heck yes.

Jill DeWit: That’s huge. Who has that? I mean that’s what’s so nice and it’s free. I mean you can go on our online community right now on landinvestors.com and ask any question you want.

Steven Butala: There’s bigger pockets too. Biggerpockets.com. If you don’t know about that, it’s a, it’s a large-

Jill DeWit: Great for houses.

Steven Butala: Landinvestors.com yeah.

Jill DeWit: Listen to as many podcasts and episodes as you can. Take notes, start making an outline of what it will take to go from having no properties to selling your first one. Add each step that will need to happen and watch the videos related to that step and then when you feel like you could handle that, handle it, send them, send the offers. I love it. It’s your business. If you’re not sure how to start, learn from others, podcasts, forums, etc cetera. But do something to get started aside from learning. Do something every day.

Steven Butala: This is a business.

Jill DeWit: Yeah.

Steven Butala: You know, you could buy a convenience store.

Jill DeWit: It’s true.

Steven Butala: Or he could do this.

Jill DeWit: Right. Send mail, send mail, send mail. This is so good. I’ve told this, I’ve told this to so many people that have asked me, including current members, I’ve recommended if you follow the program, do exactly what it says. There’s absolutely no way you can fail. That is a powerful statement. Only a lack of trying or personal excuses prevent you from making money using this program. That great. These are anonymous. By the way. This survey is totally anonymous, so we don’t know who this is, who wrote these things. So, and that’s why I think too, we get real answers. People can really speak freeware freely and I love it. Great.

Steven Butala: There’s a lot of people, especially like you listen to this podcasts and we answer questions, obviously, on every episode. And so people like one a couple of days ago was, a, hey, you know, you guys ever consider sending out emails instead of mail? What the hell is that?

Jill DeWit: Right. I know.

Steven Butala: This is exactly what this person just said. Really the for the first time out, get a deal done, my way, trust, trust me on this.

Jill DeWit: It’s true.

Steven Butala: Get a deal done my way, and then get as creative as you’d like.

Jill DeWit: Once, once you learn, complete the program, go on every Land Academy weekly call, watch a ton of their podcasts. Start. Mail Trust. The process is exactly as Steven and Jill describe it so you’ll have proof of concept in no time after you mail. It’s a numbers game. Send mail.

Steven Butala: It’s a numbers game.

Jill DeWit: Yep. Just do exactly what the course says and send out mail. Stop asking questions.

Steven Butala: See a trend here?

Jill DeWit: You don’t know this business model yet. The course works, sit down, shut up and do what it says. That’s what he said.

Steven Butala: How do you know it’s a he?

Jill DeWit: Oh, that’s true. I don’t know if it’s a guy or a girl. But I think it’s awesome. I like this one too. This is not a hobby. Make a plan and hit your goals. There will be setbacks. Make sure there are way more successes than setbacks.

Steven Butala: All right. Here’s some fun, non-highlighted ones. Ready. Fire. Aim. Don’t worry about it. Your homework. Do your homework and follow the program…. Know your why. I, wow that’s good advice too. Focus on one thing. Read the fine print. What’s read the fine print?

Jill DeWit: I don’t know. I think that’s funny.

Steven Butala: I think that’s somebody’s joke.

Jill DeWit: Yeah.

Steven Butala: Just start. Just dive in. Be patient and diligent and believe in yourself. That’s probably a woman.

Jill DeWit: Why do you say that?

Steven Butala: Because they don’t have patience. Patience is not part of this. Barreling through it. Like a, you know, a hundred miles an hour as part of this. Just do it.

Jill DeWit: Just fricking mail it already. At least for me, I wish I had started sooner. I want to know everything. Well I don’t, and it’s okay. I’m learning along the way. Buyers and sellers are understanding if you’re honest and yeah, be honest and transparent.

Steven Butala: That’s really good advice.

Jill DeWit: Thank you. That was good. Somebody really listened to me on that one.

Steven Butala: Patience and consistent effort.

Jill DeWit: Send mails early as possible.

Steven Butala: Do you think this patience? This never considered, I never considered that. That’s two people now that has said patience.

Jill DeWit: Well sweetheart, that’s my day is filled with patience.

Steven Butala: I mean there’s a lot of moving parts to this.

Jill DeWit: There are. But you got to be, because you know there’s, there’s a lot of things you’ve got to figure out. I mean, it’s not just, I mean, you’re picking and counting. There’s a lot that goes into that. You’re pricing it that a lot that goes into that. It goes out in the mail. You got to think about the calls coming in, gotta be writing for them. Picking and then selecting the right ones to buy and then posting it for sale. That’s you could, there’s a lot of little things. We have a total roadmap for you, obviously, and help you and we’re here to help you literally, you know, we’re here all. We’re not going to let you fall that far all the way. But you’ve got to have patience and get through some stuff. Some of the stuff doesn’t come easy to everybody. I think that’s where the patients comes in.

Steven Butala: There’s a lot of moving parts. It takes a while to learn. But you know, I don’t think this, this requires patience. There’s a lot of, it’s, you know, it’s probably complicated for somebody who’s brand new. I don’t know.

Jill DeWit: But you know what, every time I say that we are, we are pleasantly surprised. We know people that were brand new, they didn’t know Excel and they’re in the advanced group. So I’ve stopped questioning and I, and I never really did. But if you, if you’ve got the motivation, you can, you can do anything.

Steven Butala: Buy as much as you can. Say yes to every deal and get outside money if you need to complete the transactions. Everything sells eventually and it’s best to make 25% of a bunch of deals rather than 0% of none. If that makes sense, also take time to get a professional web presence.

Jill DeWit: So many people have blank-

Steven Butala: Poopy.

Jill DeWit: Poopy websites. That’s kind of funny. Stick with it. Dedication.

Steven Butala: Find a mentor. This is good stuff Jill.

Jill DeWit: It’s really good. So I hope you get, you get, you get the, you get the gist of it here. It’s really, Hey, and you know, that was one of the things we talked about I think a week ago on one of our shows. When we talked about the results. The majority of the people did dive in. Like we suggest get a mailer out within the first month or the first like 60 days and that’s huge.

Steven Butala: There it is-

Jill DeWit: Once you get going.

Steven Butala: We have a little bit of time left. Here’s another question. If you’ve completed a deal, how long did it take for you to complete your first deal. Within a week? 0%. Within the first month? 16%. One to three months? 55%. Three to six months? 17% Six to 12 months? 4%. In a year plus? 6%. The vast majority of the people, did it, vast majority, in the first one to three months. So what does that tell you? You got to get a mailer out. You have to get a mailer out, hopefully like the third week. We have really successful members get it out the first week.

Jill DeWit: Well, I have to say too, by the way, how many, look how many were comfortable enough like ready to go?

Steven Butala: Right.

Jill DeWit: It’s great. I love this stuff. This makes me happy.

Steven Butala: Here’s the, this is pertains to exactly what I just said. If you sent a mailer out, how quickly did you send out your first mailer after signing up? Within the first week? 7%. Within the first month? 47%. One to three months? 33%. And then it dramatically goes down. We could do this all day.

Jill DeWit: We could. I think we’ve made our point.

Steven Butala: The point is send some mail out.

Jill DeWit: Yeah. And, and, and it, it’s unanimous. This is 2020. Congratulations. We’re all here. We’re here. We’re here to help you. Happy You could join us today. Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. You can find us right here on the Land Academy show. Tuesdays and Thursdays, zip on over to catch us on the House Academy show.

Steven Butala: You are not alone in your real estate ambition. I missed the line.

Jill DeWit: You did great. No one’s going to notice. The Land Academy show remains commercial-free for you, our loyal listener. So wherever you’re watching, wherever you’re listening, please subscribe and rate us there.

Both: We are Steve and Jill.

Steven Butala: Information.

Jill DeWit: And inspiration.

Steven Butala: To buy undervalued property.

If you enjoyed the podcast, please review it in Apple Podcasts . Reviews are incredibly important for rankings on Apple Podcasts. My staff and I read each and every one.

If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to email me directly at steven@BuWit.com.

The BuWit Family of Companies include:

I would like to think it’s entertaining and informative and in the end profitable.

And finally, don’t forget to subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts.

Investors Newsletter – Volume 6

September 13, 2019 / Joey Chavez / Newsletter

It’s September already?

If you’re like us, the month change came as a HUGE reminder that we’re getting close to 2020! Now is a great time to reflect on where you are in your year, reassess your goals, and most importantly – send out mail!

I know we sound like a broken record, but so much has happened in the past month and we have so much great information to share here, including new templates and things to help you on your journey to financial freedom.

Read it, bookmark it, share it (please, share it!) and feel free to let us know if you have any feedback, content suggestions, or questions!

Run to the Bank Notary Close Title Insurance Afterward (LA 1063)

September 6, 2019 / Joey Chavez / Podcasts

Run to the Bank Notary Close Title Insurance Afterward (LA 1063)

Transcript:

Steven Butala’: Steve and Jill here.

Jill DeWit: Happy Friday.

Steven Butala’: Welcome to the Land Academy Show, entertaining land investment talk. I’m Steven Jack Butala.

Jill DeWit: And I am Jill DeWit, broadcasting from gorgeous, sunny southern California.

Steven Butala’: Today, Jill and I talk about a run to the bank, notary close, and then going to get title insurance afterward, after the property’s in your name.

Jill DeWit: This sounds so weird, but you can do this.

Steven Butala’: And it’s not-

Jill DeWit: It’s okay.

Steven Butala’: Yeah, it’s not complicated.

Jill DeWit: Right.

Steven Butala’: It’s just a step-by-step process, and it accomplishes one of the most important things in a real estate transaction that you could ever hope for, which is speed.

Jill DeWit: Yup. Also, just getting it done.

Steven Butala’: Time kills deals.

Jill DeWit: Yes, it does. Sometimes you have to be scrappy.

Steven Butala’: Especially with certain personality types. Certain personality types, meaning sellers, really need to get things done quickly. They need money and there’s a lot of different reasons, but it’s a such a good property. It needs title insurance.

Jill DeWit: Right.

Steven Butala’: This is a little product that Jill and I together devised. I’m not afraid to say it over a pretty nice bottle of wine.

Jill DeWit: Thanks.

Steven Butala’: Before we get into it. Let’s take a question posted by one of our members on the landinvestors.com online community. It’s free.

Jill DeWit: About that bottle of wine, by the way, just pause, I’m not so into wine anymore. But you know what? I’m developing a good taste for this tequila.

Steven Butala’: Oh my gosh, Jill.

Jill DeWit: I’m not kidding. I never-

Steven Butala’: You’re my dream girl.

Jill DeWit: Oh really? But I’ve been learning. We have a new neighbor who has a strong affection for good tequila. And I thought all tequila was bad, because we all have bad experiences and bad hangovers and bad party situations and doing stupid shots of tequila. Well, I didn’t know until recently you don’t have to drink all tequila that way. I didn’t know you could put a nice ice in a nice glass, pour tequila in there and just enjoy it and sip it.

Steven Butala’: Yeah.

Jill DeWit: And I like the caramel-y ones. I’m here to tell you I’m not a smokey tequila one. I’m learning that too. How funny and why I love that. This is my version of being … I can’t be a wine snob, but I can like tequila.

Steven Butala’: Here’s the new name of this show.

Jill DeWit: Uh-oh (negative)

Steven Butala’: Jill goes to a tequila tasting.

Jill DeWit: That’s right. That is the new name of the show.

Steven Butala’: Gets carried home.

Jill DeWit: Thank you.

Steven Butala’: Steve carries her home.

Jill DeWit: That was good. Okay. Alright, so back to the question. Robert wrote, “I purchase a parcel in the Joshua Tree area last year. The previous owner had purchased a parcel from a tax deed sale. I sold the parcel double what I bought it for a short while later.”

Steven Butala’: We do this all the time. Exactly this situation.

Jill DeWit: Yep. A few months later after the sale, the person who bought the parcel from me asked if he could have the previous owner sign a notarized affidavit so that he can get title insurance. The question is, do I need do this? I would prefer not to bother with the previous owner, but I would if you all agree I should.” And that looks like some of our members … I know we’re going to have our own opinion here in a second, but-

Steven Butala’: Kevin nails it here.

Jill DeWit: Kevin-

Steven Butala’: Kevin our moderator.

Jill DeWit: Our moderator already re-wrote in and gave him a really good answer. Kevin wrote, “Rob, this happens sometimes in the property that we self close as resold. The title company can request the affidavit, and I let them handle it. I think it looks more official, et cetera, when it comes straight from the title company.” I agree. “I would avoid doing their legwork for them.” There’s another good reason. “Provide them the contact information and let them do the rest. Good luck on this.” And that’s perfect. That’s exactly right. That’s how we do it.

Steven Butala’: Somebody buys a property at a tax sale, they sell it to you, good for them, mark it up a little bits, resell it for twice what you paid. Good for you. The person you sell it to, even better. Sell it to somebody else for probably retail value and that person expects title insurance, which I understand. The title agent, if they’re good, is going to send you a tiny little packet, probably requires two, maybe three signatures, that just says, essentially if you really read it because we get these probably once a month … You can imagine on almost 16,000 properties we get stuff from 2004.

Jill DeWit: All the time, right.

Steven Butala’: And if you really read the fine print, and I have, what it says is you are signing this affidavit agreeing that you own the property and that you own this company that owns the property during this time. So, I’m not a big sign without reading person at all. I read everything, and that is well within my risk threshold to sign.

Jill DeWit: Just I promise I owned it from the day to this date, and that’s me done.

Steven Butala’: As you’ll see in a second this, this question is very tied to this topic. Today’s topic, run to the bank, notary close, and then get title insurance afterward. This is the meat of the show. Big smile on her face when I read her this title and what I really thought it meant. Jill, like this going on right now, you want to fill us in?

Jill DeWit: Yeah. So, basically long story short, have a seller come to me. And she needs the cash. And I looked up the property, and we agreed on the price and everything’s good to go. So, I’m doing my due diligence and bless her heart, I found out she owns two properties she didn’t even know. And again, she needs the cash. So normal circumstances, she’s in a hurry, her husband passed on, I’ll tell you right now. And she’s actually ill herself, and I really want to help her out. That’s why she’s reaching out because of the service we’re providing. And I will follow through and I will pay her cash and I’ll get it to her quickly cause she really needs it. So, I looked at the property, did all my homework. It was like several calls of the county too just to confirm. I need to make sure because on the deed … I’ll get into deed … Well, let me give you the big picture, then I’ll get into the details.

Jill DeWit: So anyway, she needs a close. I found the other property. I called her, let her know that I’m happy to buy both. I’ll double the price, because that’s who I am. She’s like bless you, child kind of thing. That’s really kind of it, because she’s really elderly. And I said, “All right, we’re going to do it on Friday.” By the time it airs it’s like today, and we’re going to get it done right away. Pay her the cash. Now, behind the scenes, what’s really going on is I want to title insurance, because these are really good properties that I would normally want to run them through escrow and spend the time and get title insurance. So when I go to sell them, I’m good to go.

Jill DeWit: But you know what? I made a commitment to her, and she really needs the money. So I’m following through with what I am doing, and it’s taken a little more time, a little more work and it’s going to cost me more in the end. But I’m falling through, again, with my commitment to her and making it easy. So, we’re doing our own self close on these properties. Then, I’m going to go … Once it’s all done, I’ll go back and open up a official title, escrow, and get a policy issued on both properties.

Steven Butala’: And so what will end up probably happening is that when we seek this title policy out, the affidavit that we were talking about earlier in the question there, that will get sent to this to our seller, and she’ll sign it.

Jill DeWit: Sign one more time.

Steven Butala’: And because Jill’s being so nice about this … You know, you have a choice when you get these affidavits. You can put them in the shredder. You can say, “I sold the property.” It’s what we were talking about yesterday. There’s crooks all around you. You don’t have to … You can choose to be not a stand up guy and shove that stuff in the shredder. You already made your money. You doubled your money on a piece of property. That’s extraordinary. And you only put yourself at slightly more risk by signing this thing, so everything that you would ever really truly be taught in Wall Street Business School is you have nothing to gain to sign this document except doing the right thing and being a good standup person. And so she will sign this because probably Jill’s established her trust to the point where Jill’s asked her to do it, and she’s got a cashier’s check.

Jill DeWit: Right. What’s interesting that people don’t realize is that you can do it this way. And this is one of the reasons that you would. Maybe it’s like run to the bank situation too. She needs her money more than I need to acquire the property. She’s not going anywhere. There’s some special circumstances. I had to jump figure out some of the title issues and make some extra calls. There’s some special things that I’ve got to do that I know how to do. So, it’s not problem for us to do it this way. But a lot of people, they might like go, “Holy cow.” You get these calls, and then I need to go buy this property right now before this guy changes his mind.

Steven Butala’: Yeah.

Jill DeWit: That would be a reason that you do this too. You know it’s a property that you would do all your dull and due diligence. You feel really good about the ownership. You don’t think there’s anything unusual going on. You can verify it all. So, you might really quickly do your own self close and then go back. That’s what a lot of people do. And then get tile insurance later on. The thing about the title insurance is these two particular properties, they are set up to be built on someday. Do I think that my buyer is going to be that kind of a person right out of the gate? I do not. Most of my buyers, we still do primarily wholesale, so most of my buyers are not the end user. I price them that way. I want them to make even more money. It’s great. But it will make the property more valuable, when I’m all done when I put it out there for sale, it has title insurance. That’s the reason why.

Steven Butala’: Oh, way, way, way more valuable. Probably twice as much, twice as valuable.

Jill DeWit: Right.

Steven Butala’: I would say close to that.

Jill DeWit: Exactly. So, I’m buying these two properties. I’ll tell you my numbers right now. I’m buying each total for $4,000. So, I will probably sell them for probably $10-12,000 each. You think lower? Eight?

Steven Butala’: No, I think they’re … One property in particular is worth $80,000 wholesale.

Jill DeWit: Well, my 10 to 12 is pretty good then.

Steven Butala’: No, it’s 80,000 wholesale.

Jill DeWit: I don’t know about that. Okay. Okay. I didn’t like that. If you think so, I get it.

Steven Butala’: Yeah, I’ll support that if you’d like.

Jill DeWit: Okay. Anyway-

Steven Butala’: I have to ask you, how did you come up with that number?

Jill DeWit: My offer price?

Steven Butala’: No, I came up with the offer price number.

Jill DeWit: Well, I backed it into your … the way you usually price things.

Steven Butala’: Yeah. I was just jumping up and down and when these came in.

Jill DeWit: Oh, okay. I was just jumping up and down to sell them for …Ii knew 10 to 12 easy, because I know the area.

Steven Butala’: 10 to 12 each?

Jill DeWit: Yes.

Steven Butala’: All right, so … All right, so-

Jill DeWit: We’ll talk.

Steven Butala’: I think we’re good.

Jill DeWit: Excuse me while we have a business discussion.

Steven Butala’: We got to wholesale these out to our existing group, I think, and net 30-40,000 and feel great about the fact that they’re easily worth 80, probably wholesale on top of that. And I’d walk away happy.

Jill DeWit: Okay. You know what? This should be a show.

Steven Butala’: This is a show.

Jill DeWit: No, seriously. It is a show. I’m just saying, here’s what we should do another time for a show. You and I should both sit down together and look at a property and talk about it, about what we think we are going do with it, what we’re going to sell it for, why, justify it, look at our numbers. That’s a show.

Steven Butala’: I’m taking notes right now.

Jill DeWit: I think that would fun.

Steven Butala’: Once these are purchased, we should do it in this venue.

Jill DeWit: That would be good.

Steven Butala’: Hey, we know your time is valuable. Thanks for spending some of it with us today anyway. Join us next time for another interesting episode.

Jill DeWit: And we answer your questions posted on our online community found at land investors.com. It is free.

Steven Butala’: You are not alone in your real estate ambition.

Jill DeWit: We could do that.

Steven Butala’: Every time a mailer goes out that’s a regular mailer for this, for what we do for this type of product, which was a regular mailer for this, I expect a tremendous amount of anger and hate. And then I expect someone who says, “You know what? I got to close this deal today.” And couple of people, not one, but maybe three to five people that are in this situation where they’re like, “Yeah, your timing is perfect. I just want to get out [inaudible 00:12:07]. Just let me know.” And then there’s a few negotiation deals. It’s really consistent. And this mailer’s been … we hit our numbers perfectly.

Jill DeWit: Yep. It is-

Steven Butala’: Are you happy with it?

Jill DeWit: I’m very happy. Wherever you’re watching or wherever you are listening, please subscribe and rate us there.

Steven Butala’: We are Steve and Jill.

Jill DeWit: We are Steve and Jill.

Steven Butala’: Information.

Jill DeWit: And inspiration.

Steven Butala’: To buy undervalued property.

If you enjoyed the podcast, please review it in Apple Podcasts . Reviews are incredibly important for rankings on Apple Podcasts. My staff and I read each and every one.

If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to email me directly at steven@BuWit.com.

The BuWit Family of Companies include:

I would like to think it’s entertaining and informative and in the end profitable.

And finally, don’t forget to subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts.

There are Con Artists All Around You (LA 1062)

September 5, 2019 / Joey Chavez / Podcasts

There are Con Artists All Around You (LA 1062)

Transcript:

Steven Butala: Steve 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 how there are con artists all around you. And here’s the show that Jill and I talked about right before we started.

Jill DeWit: Yep.

Steven Butala: This has that potential to be so negative and we won’t let that happen.

Jill DeWit: Because that’s not who we are.

Steven Butala: We’re going to just give you our take on our industry and the land industry and the education industry and we’re going to laugh about it. And it’s not negative.

Jill DeWit: Nope. But we want you to be aware.

Steven Butala: Yeah.

Jill DeWit: And we’re going to talk about that.

Steven Butala: A couple of days ago, we had an interview with Travis Jenkins.

Jill DeWit: Yesterday.

Steven Butala: Yeah. Yeah. Yesterday. And he flat out said, I don’t know if it was in the after show or in the actual show, he said, “I think that you guys have an obligation to do the show like this to really, because you’re the ones who have the experience at all of it.” So we’ll get into it in a second, but-

Jill DeWit: I forgot that part.

Steven Butala: It was a good compliment.

Jill DeWit: It was nice.

Steven Butala: And this is my way of relieving my obligation to Travis Jenkins.

Jill DeWit: Nice.

Steven Butala: Before we get into it, let’s take a question posted by one of our members on the landinvestors.com online community. It’s free.

Jill DeWit: Jim W. wrote, “Hi, all. I’ve been selling lower-cost properties on terms without title. I’m closing my first larger sale with title and they are preparing a payoff deed to be recorded. I have heard we do not want to use a deed of trust as then you need to go through foreclosure to recover property if there’s any default. Is anyone familiar with a payoff deed and what is necessary if the buyer defaults? Thanks, James.” This is all your thing.

Steven Butala: A payoff deed? So he’s exactly exactly right. What he’s going down the path of doing a deed of trust. There’s two ways to sell property on terms with with seller financing. A deed of trust, which is very similar to how you would buy a house. The property gets recorded in your name. There’s a mortgage on it, and they have a lien. So in the case of a deed of trust here with land, it’s the exact same thing. That property goes into the new buyer’s name and you, the seller, are essentially acting as the bank and in between you is a trustee. And the deed of trust outlines all of this. In fact, it’s just like a car title. They’re actually on the actual deed so that when the property gets all paid off years from now, that pay off deed, just like you get a new title to your car, the Toyota Financial or whatever’s on there gets removed and would get removed as a seller and you get a pay off deed.

Steven Butala: That’s the mechanics of it. The other way is a land contract where I’m a seller. I sell a property to Jill. We sign a contract, the deed, property stays in my name until she pays it off. Then I deed it to her. And that way if you’re out of compliance, if she’s out of compliance in any way during the course of the deal, there’s terms and conditions in there and procedures about what happens. And essentially it’s if she’s 30 days late-

Jill DeWit: Whatever you outline.

Steven Butala: … for any reason, it’s over. I own the property and it’s all done. So you have to be real careful. If you’re listening to this, please pay attention to this. Every state and some jurisdictions like counties have rules about this and they have very, very strong opinions and a lot of cases they have case law to back up these opinions. So what I just described may work in some states, but what I described may not be appropriate at all. These are just the basic concepts of the two types of ways to deed property to people and provide seller financing. So please check your-

Jill DeWit: Check your state.

Steven Butala: And the contracts. Some states even go so far as to say you need to use this contract.

Jill DeWit: We prefer the latter and and we would only do them in the states that accept the latter because on the first part, right, you like that, which is true. Well, because the first part, if there’s so much to undo, that’s the whole thing.

Steven Butala: It’s expensive.

Jill DeWit: It really is. And I’ll tell you, truth be told, this is why we do not do this really at all anymore. I’d rather buy for cash, sell for cash, than have to babysit payments. Because it’s true. There’s a lot that goes into it. It sounds great. A lot of people like it because they feel they can sell property faster and higher. And probably, yes, at some point, you get in the end more money, but I’d rather have it double my cash right now and move on. I don’t need to wait three years to triple my investment at a hundred dollars a month and babysit the deal because there’s always something. “Oh, it’s Christmas. Can I move my date? Oh, I lost my job.” It’s a lot of work.

Steven Butala: It’s not passive by any stretch.

Jill DeWit: This is true. Yeah, there isn’t anything passive about it.

Steven Butala: I mean, here’s some Steve and Joel reality. Here’s some reality checks on this, on term sales. The default rate for rural vacant land is between 50 and 75%, sometimes 95%, in certain cases. The difference between rural vacant land and infill lots is that there’s an intended use and like we said it earlier in the week, the use of this property has already been mapped out. So people usually, when they buy property on terms, they go use it and so that they want to pay it off.

Jill DeWit: Right.

Steven Butala: People who buy rural vacant land for all different types of reasons on terms might lose interest in the whole thing in six months and you don’t want to get stuck holding… To have to spend… To foreclose on a property through a trust deed is on a low end, 1200. On the high end, 35 to $5,500. So in a lot of cases that’s more than the whole property’s worth.

Jill DeWit: And a lot of steps and a lot of work.

Steven Butala: Yeah.

Jill DeWit: Thank you.

Steven Butala: Yeah, that’s the whole deal. Stick to cash in the beginning. We could have just said that in the beginning.

Jill DeWit: This is true.

Steven Butala: Today’s topic. There are con artists all around you. This is the meat of the show. In this space that Jill and I have put ourselves into, for better or for worse, educating people about how to buy and sell real estate, there’s just a lot of crooks. And you have a choice. I’m making this as positive as possible and I would encourage you heavily to do this. What separates us and just about everybody else that I’m aware of it in this space is our experience and our education and our commitment to doing a daily show and our advice. And the fact that we do every single Thursday, multiple webinars for our members and on and on and on.

Jill DeWit: Transactions.

Steven Butala: And the services that we provide and the 16,000 deals that we’ve done should tell you, and I’m not selling anything here, that we’re serious about this. And we’re here to stay. I mean, we’re on episode 1100 almost now. And we have just as many weekly webinars. We started doing it in 2015. I think we missed one week, one or two weeks because of holidays. So there are other people who take this concept unfortunately and make it not legit. And in every case that I’ve seen this happen and it never ends up being a real threat to us, by any stretch, or our members. Because the type of members that we have see right through this stuff, anyway.

Jill DeWit: Good point.

Steven Butala: But what it ends up doing is for newer people, who really need the most help in a lot of different ways, confuses them.

Jill DeWit: It’s true.

Steven Butala: And in the worst case thing that can happen is they start down the… New people might start down this path, get some bad information or some information that from people that are just doing it halfheartedly and it ends their career because they don’t have a good experience with their first few deals. Or they get sold some stuff that’s too expensive, not land but education and all of it. So there are con artists all around you. And it’s not just this industry. It’s every single industry.

Jill DeWit: Everywhere. Exactly.

Steven Butala: I bet you a dollar wherever you work, you could sit there. If you really sit there, sit around and think about who’s basically a crook that I work with. Who’s a great person and who’s a crook?

Jill DeWit: This is true. Exactly. Exactly. And we’re only bringing it up because we’ve had a recent, a reminder to be on our toes about this and we just wanted to bring it to your attention. So I was going to say, be aware, like you just said, Steven. We all know where… You all kind of know. You have a sense. And like I said, it came to us recently and I thought I saw it, but I missed it, man. So I’m going back to my own instincts and trusting my gut a little bit more. I want you to trust your gut. And not just, just even in transactions, I’m even talking dealing with buyers, dealing with sellers. Everything. No matter what you’re doing, please trust your gut. You’ve got to do this. Do your homework. Take action before it’s too late. Don’t squash it down. I really want you to-

Steven Butala: Don’t see something that’s not there.

Jill DeWit: Yes, exactly.

Steven Butala: Women are famous for having this sixth sense about, no, something’s off, man.

Jill DeWit: Exactly.

Steven Butala: Men are famous for the exact opposite. Let’s just barrel through it and see what happens at the other end.

Jill DeWit: Right.

Steven Butala: And then it’s all ends in a fiery ball of tragedy. And the woman that’s standing next to him is going…

Jill DeWit: I tried to tell you.

Steven Butala: This didn’t feel right for me from the beginning. How many times you ever heard that sentence?

Jill DeWit: Right.

Steven Butala: This didn’t feel right for me from the beginning. And even men have it and they just try to see something that’s not there, both in real estate deals and then in dealing with various business partners and things like that. So just tread cautiously. Ask yourself a lot of questions. In a perfect world, if I were, I’ll tell you, here’s an example. Way earlier in my career, way before Land Academy was even a thought, I took almost a week long seminar on tax lien foreclosures in Las Vegas. It was very expensive, extremely expensive.

Steven Butala: It’s the only time I’ve ever kind of taken any online education that way. And the reason that I chose to do it and chose this guy, he’s a former owner of taxellis.com, was because I did, I don’t know, two or three months of research. I listened to, he had a show. He wrote a very, very intelligent blog as a writer. It was incredibly intelligent. And had crazy, crazy amount of experience. He had an airplane collection, which didn’t hurt anything, because he’s a serious pilot. So that’s lends itself some credibility. And he did tons and tons and tons of deals. His first name was John. I don’t remember. So I’d go to the seminar by myself.

Steven Butala: There’s probably 10 or 15 people in there. It’s not.. Just like our live events. I think there’s what, 20 or 30 people at our live events? It’s not a stadium full of people and I learned so much. I would’ve paid twice or what I… So that’s how Jill and I have set Land Academy up. We want you to feel like you are-

Jill DeWit: It is. Part of a tight community.

Steven Butala: It’s like I got so much value for my money, it’s silly. It’s silly. I would’ve paid twice as much for that. If that’s what you think at the end of all this, then I did my job.

Jill DeWit: Yep.

Steven Butala: And that’s how seriously I take this.

Jill DeWit: I agree. Thank you. My other thing I was going to say, my last point is, don’t be that person. And you might find yourself staring at a deal that you kind of scratch your head going, huh, I could probably get away with this. Or someone might bring you something that’s a little bit borderline, in your gut, let’s just say it, unethical. Don’t. Please don’t do that. Don’t be that person. I look at every deal, every transaction that way and there’s things that we flat out, we will not do. We will not. I’ll make half the money and do the right thing. We mean it when we say it, too, with our team. We’re like, “All right, everybody. We’re always going to do the right thing. Even if it cost more, whatever it is.”

Steven Butala: Here’s some red flags for me. This is just me. Other people do fantastic. They build a career on this. When someone asks me for money, “Hey, you want to put 50,000 bucks into this?” It sends out a massive red flag for me.

Jill DeWit: Right.

Steven Butala: Here’s the way around it. And here’s what Jill and I do all the time. “Hey, I’ve got this great property. Here’s the APN. I’ve got it under contract for this. I know we can sell it for Y, but I’d love your opinion, Steve. Do you want to invest in it with me? It’s just a one time deal. If it works, maybe we’ll do some other deals together.” So now I have control over the deal and they’re not blindly asking me for money, which for some reason it just sends me to the moon and everybody’s role’s defined. Maybe I’m the money person. Maybe they’re the manager on the deal. Maybe it’s the opposite. And so I’ve done a lot of deals on both sides that way and it seems to work out great. Do you have any immediate red flags when people come to you?

Jill DeWit: Well, yeah, I do. A lot of it is just kind of that. I need to see a deal. I need to really see a deal. Yeah, like you just said, don’t come to me like, “Hey, I need X amount. Don’t worry about it.” Well, I am going to worry about it.

Steven Butala: Here’s another really good example where there’s a guy in our group who is an accomplished Los Angeles County employee. And he has a tremendous amount of experience in the zoning and all kinds of stuff in there. So he came to us and said, “I’ve got several clients who are trying to find this property type.” So now I’m really sitting up straight and listening because he’s got a ton of experience. He’s actually got some real clients and he needs our expertise to locate properties that are very strategic. And he’s got it all spelled out in a spreadsheet and he wants to split it 50/50 and together we’re better.

Jill DeWit: Bingo.

Steven Butala: And so we’re immediately better and we both are set up to succeed based on what we bring to the table. He brings something that’s so unique to the table and I’d like to think we do, too. And it’s all based in experience.

Jill DeWit: Exactly.

Steven Butala: So we have several lines of business like this, and now’s not the time to bring it up, with members who have proven themselves-

Jill DeWit: It’s true.

Steven Butala: … and it’s cash flowing and they’re happy and we’re happy and they’re using their resources. We’re using ours. And in every case they brought something to the table where they’re already better at it than we are.

Jill DeWit: Right.

Steven Butala: And I’d like to think we did on our end, too. That’s not a red flag situation.

Jill DeWit: I would, for me, I’m going to end it on this. Our group is 99.999% awesome, trustworthy, fantastic. And I feel great about them.

Steven Butala: Yep. Next, we’re going to introduce-

Jill DeWit: And I’m very lucky.

Steven Butala: Yeah. I’m proud. I’m proud to be the ringleader.

Jill DeWit: Yeah.

Steven Butala: Next week, we’re going to do a show about the typical Land Academy member profile and I can’t wait. We’re going to interview some of our staff because they’re on the front lines. And I have a lot of questions. Some of the questions I have are like even with brand new members, what’s the difference in their personality type? And I think it’d be really interesting.

Jill DeWit: That’s a good show.

Steven Butala: Hey, we know your time’s valuable. Thanks for spending some of it with us today. Join us next time for an episode called Run to the Bank, Notary Close, and Then Get Title Insurance Afterward.

Jill DeWit: Interesting. And we answer your questions posted on our online community found at landinvestors.com. It is free.

Steven Butala: You are not alone in your real estate ambition. That crazy title that I came up with there. We’re going to talk about it tomorrow is based on an actual deal that Jill is doing that’s closing. Well, it’ll be closed by the time this airs, for sure.

Jill DeWit: Yep.

Steven Butala: It’s a really, really interesting deal. This doesn’t happen to us very often, but once in a while we do deals that are… This deal happens to be very financially feasible for us, but it also is really helping to seller out and it’s ensuring that… It’s just a little bit unorthodox the way we’re doing this deal, but we’ll share all the details. I find these deals extremely interesting.

Jill DeWit: Exactly. Wherever you’re watching, wherever you are listening, please subscribe and rate us there.

Steven Butala: We are Steve and Jill.

Jill DeWit: We are Steve and Jill.

Steven Butala: Information.

Jill DeWit: And inspiration.

Steven Butala: To buy undervalued property.

If you enjoyed the podcast, please review it in Apple Podcasts . Reviews are incredibly important for rankings on Apple Podcasts. My staff and I read each and every one.

If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to email me directly at steven@BuWit.com.

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