Binge Listening to Podcasts (CFFL 546)

Binge Listening to Podcasts (CFFL 546) Transcript: Jack Butala:                         Jack Butala with Jill DeWitt. Jill DeWitt:                          Hi. Jack Butala:                         Welcome to the show today. In this episode Jill and I talk about binge listening to podcasts. Is that they way you learn how to do this or not? For some people, yes, for some people, no. Before we get into it, let's take a question posted by one of our members on a landinvestors.com online community. It's free. Jill DeWitt:                          Okay. Pete asks, "Hi everybody. I'm looking at purchasing some properties in a subdivision that is fairly hilly. My question is, How much slope on a property should be considered too much? Let's say the property had a 15% slope. Would that make it difficult to sell? Thanks for any help that can be offered?" Jack Butala:                         Pete, this is a great question. We all want to buy property next to E.T.'s house. Where it's all gently rolling and beautiful, and you have views and stuff. But that's not how, in reality, when you subdivide property, a developer subdivides a subdivision, that's not ... What happens is they have to grade it all out and make sure it's okay. What happens with that is just like when you bake a cake, there's some stuff left over. There might be a couple of eggs left over and some stuff on the counter before the end product's done. Same thing happens when you subdivide real estate. There's usable property and unusable property for the reasons that you're talking. Maybe the slope's different. There's all kinds of things. Easements that need to go in. The trick is when you look at a plat map to find out what is usable and what's not. While unusable property is certainly not valueless, there is some value to it, it's a lot less than usable property. One of the things that can kill it is slopes. I've seen, I literally purchased a property, this was long before Google Earth was an option, that was on the inside of the Grand Canyon. It was subdivided and it eroded away. Man, it took me two years to sell that property. This is among 25 properties a day that we were selling back then. Finally, I sold it to a rock climber. He just wanted to tell his friends that he's rock climbing on his own property in the Grand Canyon. Which, when you think about it, if you're part of that kind of social network, that's pretty freakin' cool. He's got pictures of himself and the whole thing, climbing on his own property. As far as a slope goes, 15% is really pushing it. What you want to do is make sure ... Go to Google Earth Pro, which is now free. It's been free for a few years. Make sure your terrain is turned on, and then make sure the property's usable. If it's subdivided property versus 40 acres somewhere, make sure that it's usable property and that you can, I don't know, get to it, and the regular 4A scenario. If you're not familiar with the 4As, listen to some other podcasts. Which brings us to our topic: Binge listening to podcasts. Jill DeWitt:                          I have two things to add to this, if I may. One is we've ... Remember that 40-acre property? There's one that we had that was half-flat, to rolling, to a slope. I remember you describing it as a protective ridge and the people loved it who sold it. That was cool. So properly describe the property, and even though it has a slope, there may still be a pad or something there you could work with, depending on the size of the property, number one. Number two, even more importantly, what's around there? Because there's so many people that have properties and acreage, and homes, and things. You know what? That slope might be their view, believe it or not, and they might love to have that property just to know ... We have a family member who just did this recently. Bought the lot next door so no one would build on it. That's it. It wasn't the best property to build on anyway,