Land Academy Show

Land Academy 1000 Free Record a Month Giveaway (LA 1424) Transcript: Steve: Steve and Jill here. Jill DeWit: Howdy. Steve: Welcome to the Land Academy Show, entertaining land investment talk. I'm Steven Jack Butala. Jill DeWit: And I'm Jill DeWit, broadcasting from awesome, cool Arizona. Steve: Rainy Arizona today. Jill DeWit: It is, a little bit. Steve: Today, Jill and I talk about Land Academy's 1000 Free Record-a-Month Giveaway. I was just informed, it's not a giveaway at all. Jill DeWit: It's not a giveaway. It's a new thing. It's not like it's a special thing right now. It's the way we roll, and I'll explain it. Steve: 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. And if you're a Land Academy member already, please check us out or join us on Discord. Jill DeWit: David wrote, "My latest mailer had sites zip code- Steve: Situs. Jill DeWit: Situs, excuse me. It was not spelled the right- Steve: I know. It's not you. Jill DeWit: Okay, got it. Steve: It's David. Jill DeWit: S-I-T-U-S zip code for about half of the 1000 records I downloaded. I got those all priced by zip code. Then there's the other 4000, and I don't know where they are in the county, unless I put them into ParcelFact. Pricing by zip code or subdivisions, always how I do it, but on this other half of the [inaudible 00:01:15], that that doesn't seem to have those. How would you price them? I have them priced by school district right now, which looks to be a reliable data set for the properties. But I haven't sent them out. My gut is that this won't be perfect, but the county's good enough that I think I'm willing to risk my mailer costs on pricing that may not be exact. Take it away, Jack. Steve: It's never perfect. Jill DeWit: Yeah. Steve: Jill and I went to a dinner with a bunch of our years and years friends last night. And one guy's a government contractor. And he owns a manufacturing company. They do all kinds of stuff, from jet engine parts to whatever. And we're going down the path, starting a company with him, which we will market some very specialty items that he will manufacture. And there was a guy there that has been in that business for a lot of years, but he's never been an entrepreneur. He's been a friend of mine for 25 years. And so, I started down the path with the entrepreneur buddy. And the guy who's a former CEO of a company, a government contracting company, couldn't keep up and didn't understand us. And I love these guys. I love them equally. But there's entrepreneurs who just won't take no for an answer. And then, there's former CEOs or former W2 employees that have never been truly through a startup, so they don't get it. So on my left, is this guy saying, "We're going to do this and we're going to probably fail at it 50 times before we get it right," which I'm saying, "Exactly. Is there another way?" And my former CEO buddy's just horrified. And he doesn't understand why. So look, so my point is here, yeah, it's not going to be perfect. The mailers I do are not perfect. I'm going to talk about failing all this week. Because we have a lot of new people, and there's a material percentage of these people... I'm not sure if David is one or not. I don't think so. He's not actually, now that I'm thinking about it, that haven't wrapped their head around the fact that they're going to fail a few times. Jill DeWit: What do you think about his thought process here? I think that was scrappy. Steve: I do too. Jill DeWit: I'm really impressed. You're like, "Okay, what else can I use?" Steve: That's geographic specific. Jill DeWit: School district is great. Steve: Yeah. Yeah. Jill DeWit: That's a great way to do this. I love it. Steve: Here's what I'd do- Jill DeWit: I'd love to... you can't... what David said in the beginning, I'm just going to explain real quick. There's no way, nor should anyone ever sit and one-by-one look up things.

Introducing Land Academy Classroom (LA 1423) 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, hot almost- Steven Butala:Hot? Jill DeWit:I guess it's not hot. Steven Butala:It's gorgeous out. Jill DeWit:It's nice. All right. Gorgeous southern Arizona. I don't have a good saying for this. We got to figure out the Arizona saying. Steven Butala:Yeah, it's okay. Might take a couple of weeks. Jill DeWit:It might. If you have any ideas, please put them in the links below and tell me what to say because I clearly don't know what to say. But Arizona's awesome. Steven Butala:Today, Jill and I talk about our introduction to Land Academy Classroom. Jill and I are real proud of this. About a year ago, people started to ask us for the next product. Great, you guys have a self-study product, but we really would like to be in some type of classroom setting where we can learn from you directly and we all go through it together, like a regular classroom. Jill DeWit:And it's not an accountability group. This is something very different. We'll explain it here in a few minutes. 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. And additionally, please join us on Discord. If you're already a member of Land Academy. Jill DeWit:Edgar wrote, "I read that it costs $800 a year." Did he really write this? Is this you but this is true? Steven Butala:This is all true. Jill DeWit:This is true. I happen to know this is true. Steven Butala:I did not make this up in any way. Not have a word of it. Jill DeWit:I thought you put this in here because of me complaining. Steven Butala:No. This is going to be a little bit of a rant. Jill DeWit:Okay, cool. All right. So Edgar wrote, "I read that it costs $800 a year to maintain an LLC in California. Specific to California, are there any other out of the ordinary LLC fees to be aware of in regards to establishing, maintaining and/or one day terminating the LLC?" And Frank wrote, I'm going to read Frank's thing, "Correct on the $800 flat annual fee. There's a $70 filing fee and $5 certified copy fee. Also, an operating agreement is not required, i.e. for single member LLCs between spouses or even multiple people. And it can be verbal, but it's not a good idea. So you may need an attorney to write up an operating agreement. Also, every two years, you have to submit a statement of information, which is a $12 fee." Steven Butala:$20. Jill DeWit:Excuse me, $20 fee. I'm just making up stuff here. "There's no termination fee." So is there more to this, or is that the end of this? Oh, okay. Cool. Happen to have [inaudible 00:02:37]. Inside information is true, and this is all true. It's expensive. Steven Butala:There's a reason we're sitting in Arizona right now and not California. And it's because of crap like this. They make everything from a business owner's perspective infinitely more complicated and expensive than it needs be. I don't know how it got to be this way, but Jill and I are fed up with it. And that's truth. There's no fee at all if you are willing to wait the right amount of time to file an LLC in Arizona. And they don't come after you with all these other little fees and all this stuff. I can tell these two guys are both from California and probably were born there because this is what has been my experience because I've lived in other states, a lot of other states actually, other than California. Oh, yeah. [Inaudible 00:03:30]. You got to do this. You got to pay the $800. You got to do this. You got to cut your toenails correctly. And you've got to make sure that you look okay and wear Vans shoes Jill DeWit:Okay. What Jack is nicely saying is they don't know better. They just grew up in it. And that's true. I understand that.

DataTree vs TitlePro vs RealQuest Pro (LA 1422)Transcript:Steven Butala:Steve and Jill here.Jill DeWit:Howdy.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 amazing, arid Arizona. I'm trying to think quickly, "What can I do that all starts with As?"Steven Butala:Today Jill and I talk about DataTree versus TitlePro versus RealQuest Pro. Those are the three best professional sources of data. We're licensed providers for all three of them, Jill and I are. And every member with us has access to all of them. And again, this, like all week this week, this topic came from our customer service department because they're getting a lot of questions on this.Jill DeWit:This topic is the very best way to get out of a conversation if you're approached by somebody boring in a bar environment. [inaudible 00:00:53]Steven Butala:Well, I think that if you say, "We're licensed providers of data," and then fill in the blank, you've already lost most of the people.Jill DeWit:There we go.Steven Butala:Just licensed providers. It's like, "Nope."Jill DeWit:"How was your day?" "Well here, thank you for asking. Here's what I did." And watch their eyes go, "And we're done."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. And additionally, if you're a member, join us on Discord.Jill DeWit:Tiffany asks, "I'm wondering has anyone experienced longer and longer lead times on getting deals closed through an attorney or title in the last several months? Or do I just need to get a new attorney? Laughing. Ha ha. Though this is the second one. And they have both been just swamped. I'm guessing it's across the board."I have, but it's not catastrophic. I seriously have. What I used to do in 10 days, might take... If I used to do it in 10 days, it maybe takes 15 or 20. But a 30 day escrow is not a 90 day escrow.Steven Butala:Here's why. Whether you're closing a deal through an attorney or you close it through escrow, they both have to get a, depending on the state, a preliminary title report back that says, "Okay, green lights. Everything's passed. We're now putting together the actual title insurance policy, or a title plant done in some cases. State to state is different. And sometimes the property is, there's issues. So we need to get plant work done." That's the holdup.There's a lot of escrow agents and a lot of lawyers that'll take your deal. And the best lawyers in the world can get deals done in days. They still are held out, this, right now. And this is a sign of the times in whatever it is, January of 2021. Because it's so busy, they're held up by title people.Jill DeWit:It's just volume. It's just the amount of deals getting done right now.Steven Butala:Title companies and escrow companies are different. Sometimes they have a title division, but they're usually just escrow companies. Lawyers never have a title component. They always go out to a title company. And title companies, they have a huge problem staffing. Because the title plant people don't get paid that much and they need to be really smart.So that's the real answer, Tiffany. That's really what's happening. There's a huge shortage of title people, not escrow people.Jill DeWit:Right. So anything you can do? Help them, always be available. Like the things that I would do to be different, check in with them. Don't wait for them to check in with you. I would call them a couple of times a week. Maybe twice a week is probably a good number. Because they're busy. And just say, "Where are you in the process? And what do you need from me?"I mean, this is what I do and I have my team do. I always make sure you're not waiting for me. If you're waiting on me, I'm on it kind of thing.Call, find out ahead of time before you open escrow, find out how backed up they are and how long they think it's going to take....

Cloudy Title Drama (LA 1421) 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 Arizona. Steven Butala: Today Jill and I talk about cloudy title drama. Jill DeWit: What the heck? All right. This, like yesterday's topic, came from our staff. Steven Butala: From our customer service staff. Jill DeWit: Our customers, actually. Because this comes up a lot. And I want to say, to quote you, Jack, "Everyone, everyone, everyone." There's things to get worked up about and things not to get worked up about, and this is not a thing to get worked up about, and a lot of people do. So that's the whole point here, it's like, "Oh my gosh, how do I uncover this?" It manifests into this big problem and it doesn't have to be that big of a problem. So we're going to talk a minute about the drama. Are you a drama person? Because that could be part of the problem there, number one, but we'll tackle that. Steven Butala: Oh, that was right in my whole talk today. Jill DeWit: What other drama is in your life? Steven Butala: The cloud on the title is not really the problem. Jill DeWit: That's not the problem, exactly. It's the problem right now, but it's not the problem. Number two, we're going to talk to you about, okay, what's really important here? And then number three, I have solutions for you. Steven Butala: Before we get into it, let's take a ... I was going to start down the path of defining a chain of title, but we'll do it in a minute. 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, and additionally, if you're a member, join us on Discord as a Land Academy member. Jill DeWit: For a lot of more exciting chat. All right, Dave wrote, "Two times now I've downloaded a bunch of what was supposed to be vacant land data from DataTree only to find out that 25 to 35% of records are actually the owners' residence and are not in fact vacant. What the heck am I doing wrong? This is super frustrating. Anyone else having this problem, or better yet, know what I need to do to avoid this? Steven Butala: Sure, I'm happy to help. 25 to 35% of a data download that you end up not using the data is not that bad. If you would download 10,000 records and you end up using eight or 7,500 of them, you're going to scrub that stuff out because ... And there's, that I know of, no way to really avoid it. In this case specifically, if you're getting data records that are residences with vertical construction on it, it's happening because ... And this is all in education. So Dave, I hope you remember. I'm not sure if you are, but if you go through all the education, Land Academy 1.0 and 2.0, it's in all in there about how to do this. And again, that's what Discord is for. And I think I actually pulled this question off of Discord. Anyway, there's two or three or four or five ways to make sure you don't get property that have vertical structures on it and that's through ... Every single property should have two types of assessments so that the assessor can tell the treasurer how much taxes, real estate taxes, to charge every year. The land value and the vertical value, or the improvement value is what it's called. If the improvement value is zero, then you know it's a piece of land. The problem is that not every ... There's no universal way to book data from assessor to assess her. You can imagine, an assessor in Arkansas that hasn't yet computerized their operation in 2021 versus an assessor in let's say Silicon Valley where computers were actually created. There's going to be a pretty substantial difference between how they contribute that data. So the answer is to be redundant. There's vertical assessment percentages that need to be zero. There's vertical or improvement assessed values that ...

Deal Funding with People who are Unfamiliar with Land Investing (LA 1420) 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 Arizona. I have to change that every time. You watching can tell my background is different. You probably have an idea that I'm not in Southern California. We're not in Southern California, but. Steven Butala: We're going through a back and forth. We're making some changes. Jill DeWit: We got some projects we're working on and it involves us spending a little more time here. It's all good stuff. Steven Butala: Exactly. Jill DeWit: What were you saying at the beginning? When we just were starting? Steven Butala: Our numbers were, on this talk show, we get all kinds of analytics back. We always have for five, whatever, six years that we've been doing this show. And our numbers have been incredibly well. They're doing very, very well. This last two months, I guess. Jill DeWit: Where did we record last time? Steven Butala: Because I think Jill and I are just having little bit more fun. I really do. Jill DeWit: Were we sitting here? I can't even remember. Steven Butala: Yeah. Jill DeWit: Okay, got it. I'm like, we've been traveling around, not traveling around, but you know, making changes in different, doing different things and trying to do stuff. So I'm like, I don't even know where I am. It's Friday, right? Steven Butala: It's actually Tuesday. Jill DeWit: I know. It's Monday. Steven Butala: Yeah. No, it's Tuesday when this airs. Jill DeWit: That's true. Steven Butala: That's what I meant. Today, Jill and I talk about deal funding with people who are unfamiliar with land investing. Jill DeWit: But before we get into it first, let's take a question posted by one of our members on the land investors online community. It is free. Jen wrote, got my first response today from my mailer. Yay. Lady inherited three parcels from her- Steven Butala: Mother-in-law. Jill DeWit: Mother-in-law, thank you. Steven Butala: M-I-L. Jill DeWit: I'm like, I see it. I'm like military. I'm like what the heck? Mother-in-law, okay, forty-five years ago. And recently quit paying taxes on them. She owes about thousand dollars so far in back taxes. There's access to only the first parcel, all three equal, and about two acres. So I'm thinking I'd have to sell them all together. Could probably get around $2,000 as I'm thinking she just wants out. Probably buy them around $2,000. Called the county to confirm utilities and access and found out the ground is rock hard, and to get utilities to it, they have to use explosives. They were very nice and actually going to call me back tomorrow with an estimate. Oh my gosh, I can't imagine. Thinking this one's dead, but good first learning experience. Steven Butala: I think, and Jen, we all know who you are. You're very new and very vocal in our group, and I appreciate that. Jill DeWit: You are. Steven Butala: But it seems to me, you're trying to find a way to kill this deal. I'm not sure why. How about we just look at the core economics of it. You can get it for 2000, 3000 with back taxes. I don't know what the value is. It's all economics for me. The hard rock thing, the hard rocks been that way for as long as that property has been there. And people, hopefully, have found a way around that or there's solar panels now and stuff. So I don't know enough about this deal to tell you, yeah, you should do it, or no, you shouldn't. But I do know you just found five reasons not to do the deal instead of maybe the one reason that you could do the deal that, and hopefully it's some version of, I'm going to be into it for three or 4,000 bucks, by the time it's done and it's worth 20. Jill DeWit: This made me think of what you took a picture of just yesterday.

Interview with Land Academy Members Mike and Joe Brusca (LA 1419) Transcript: ---------------------------------------- If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to email me directly at [email protected]. The BuWit Family of Companies include: https://BuWit.com https://offers2owners.com https://landinvestors.com https://landacademy.com https://landpin.com https://parcelfact.com https://countywise.com https://deedperfect.com https://ownersdata.com https://houseacademy.com 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.

Providing Information Instead of Directly Selling (LA 1418) Transcript: Steven Jack Butala: Steve and Jill here. Jill DeWit: Happy Friday. Steven Jack 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 Jack Butala: Today. Jill and I talk about providing information instead of directly selling. I always save the Friday shows for the week. The one that's my favorite. Jill DeWit: Oh, I like this. This is good. Cool. Steven Jack 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: Sandy wrote, "When analyzing counties, what is a good substitute for Redfin properties sold for the counties that are not listed on Redfin? Thanks so much." Sandy. Steven Jack Butala: Great question. Here's how it works. You can get data all over the place. Realtor.com is a great place to go to get visual data. They don't have a good download function at all, and that's for good reason. They just want you to look at it. They don't want you to manipulate it, which is understandable because they own the MLS. The real estate environment in the entire country is made up of about 344 separate little MLS's. So Phoenix has like two and then Arizona, I'm just picking on Arizona because I know, there's, I don't know, eight or 10 more in different regions. And some of them choose to participate with Redfin and some of them don't and inevitably, most of the urban counties that choose to participate. So what do we deal in? Rural real estate. So Redfin doesn't cover everything. Redfin has fantastic data and the download capabilities are amazing. And the data that they share is truly open source. We use it every single day in some capacity, I'm on there looking at analyzing counties or if we're buying stuff, whatever. So, but it's spotty. The coverage is spotty. Zillow has amazing data, but it's also, it's got holes in it. So what do you do? You use them all. And I can almost guarantee, and this is the takeaway on this, that two months from now and certainly a year from now, some other great source will pop up that's downloadable and fantastic. Jill and I are licensed providers. LandAcademy is licensed providers for DataTree, which is an amazing place to get data. It's not entirely free, but I'll tell you, when you get it, it's right. And TitlePro, which is Black Knight. And then RealQuest, the three major professional data providers, the ones that I mentioned before are applications on the internet that are kind of designed for everybody. So in some capacity, I use those all the time. As a LandAcademy member and I'm not selling anything here at all. It's providing information because that's the name of the show. We provide all that. And it's hard to lose when you have that much data power behind you. Jill DeWit: Yeah. You don't rely on just one source is the point. Even and we do that, like you talked about that often when you're picking counties, that's, I'm sure that's what Sandy is doing here doing the red, yellow, green test. So when you'll pull up this resource and you'll double check it with that resource. And I do that, even with doing my due diligence, I'll look a couple of different places sometimes to confirm what I'm looking at is right. Steven Jack Butala: When you look at two data sources in general, I'm asking you for real. How often do you find discrepancies? Jill DeWit: Not very often. Steven Jack Butala: Me, too. Jill DeWit: It just makes you feel good. Steven Jack Butala: And when you do, it's like, "Okay, well there's a problem." There really is a problem. Jill DeWit: Exactly. Steven Jack Butala: Today's topic, providing information instead of directly selling. This is the meat of the show. Jill DeWit: Okay. So this is about selling land and I would argue that it shouldn't be this hard.

Why Test Mailers Do Not Work (LA 1417) Transcript: Steven Jack Butala: Steve and Jill here. Jill DeWit: Howdy. Steven Jack 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 Jack Butala: Today, Jill and I talk about why test mailers don't work. Jill DeWit: Do you want to describe a test mailer first? Or do you want to ... Steven Jack Butala: Yeah, sure. A test mailer ... Before we get into all of this though, will you please tell me the story? Jill DeWit: Oh. Steven Jack Butala: Jill was telling me a story about a deal we're doing, and the seller is ... Jill DeWit: Oh yeah, I came running downstairs. Steven Jack Butala: I said, "Save it for the show, save it for the show." Jill DeWit: Yeah, because this seller ... It's one of those run to the bank deals, but I had a talk with this guy and his background is amazing. I'm like, "I want to get to know this guy." This happens sometimes, you almost make friends with them. I remember one time I had this guy that was bugging me in Orange County, "Come over, my wife will make you dinner." It was so cute. Steven Jack Butala: So earlier in the week we had shows about building relationships with buyers and sellers, that's what this is. Jill DeWit: Exactly. So this guy, his name is Ed and he raised ... I don't know how we got on this topic but it happens. He would race motorcycles for 40 years, it was really cool. He was telling me the story about when he stopped racing. He was 60 years old, still racing, if you can believe that. He was of course ... It was his grandson's birthday, and Grandson wanted to race motorcycles with Grandpa. And then Grandma got on the phone too and confirmed this whole thing. And she's just so chill. So it was funny because- Steven Jack Butala: Got on the phone with you? Jill DeWit: Yeah, we were all talking on the phone. Steven Jack Butala: Jill, this is hilarious. Jill DeWit: It's the cutest thing. So anyway, Grandpa tells the story that he was racing with Grandson and he had an accident. He missed a jump somehow and tweaked his shoulder, but good. And Grandma's like, "Oh, that's just what happens." The reason I brought it up because I ... So we were talking, he's telling me this whole story, and then Grandma gets on the phone, because Grandma's the one who was doing the deal with me but Grandpa had some information. Anyway, Grandma gets back on the phone. I said, "You know what? I understand, because this one, Steven," I said, "My sweetheart used to race superbikes back in the day." And we were talking, I said, "And thank goodness, when kids came along he decided [inaudible 00:00:02:10]. She's like, "Oh yeah, mine didn't do that. No, I live that life." And she's like, "Yeah." And she just tells me, "Yeah, he didn't tell you he was doing it with his grandson because his grandpa wanted to do that with Grandpa on his birthday and that's the day that Grandpa had the big crash. But everybody's okay." Steven Jack Butala: The big crash. Jill DeWit: The big crash. And, "Grandpa's fine, but Grandpa took how many months of recovery and surgery for his shoulder." Steven Jack Butala: Oh geez, surgery? Jill DeWit: Uh-huh (affirmative). I'm like, "Oh, man." And Grandma's totally chill about it, it's like, "Yeah, this is what happens, that's my life." Steven Jack Butala: Well, that was ... For every big surgery there's a lot of falling off. Jill DeWit: Yeah. Oh, I can't even imagine, so what kind of life she led. It was so funny, because I'm on the phone with him, I'm looking him up. I'm like, "Wow, there he is." In Motorcycle World, I'm- Steven Jack Butala: Is he a BMX? Jill DeWit: No, motorcycle. Steven Jack Butala: Superbikes? Jill DeWit: Not superbikes. I want to say off-road stuff. Steven Jack Butala: Yeah, BMX. Jill DeWit: Yeah, okay, is that what that is? So that is not bicycle? Steven Jack Butala:

A Deal We Killed Yesterday (LA 1416) Transcript: Steven Jack Butala: Steve and Jill here. Jill DeWit: Hi. Steven Jack 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 Jack Butala: Today, Jill and I talk about a deal we killed yesterday. This is part therapy for Jill. Jill DeWit: Uh-huh (affirmative). Steven Jack Butala: Because she needs to vent, and an incredible source of entertainment for me. Jill DeWit: This doesn't happen very often. Usually, I'm killing a deal because we come across just a major title issue, or there're just liens that we miss, and it just now doesn't make sense. Access we thought we had, now we don't. There's usually some property-related reason why we have to kill a deal. It is very, very rarely that it's 100% the person involved in the deal, as in the seller, as the reason why we don't want to do it. I flat-out told this gentlemen- Steven Jack Butala: Before we get into it, let's take a question. Jill DeWit: All right. You're, "Hold it back, hold it back." Steven Jack Butala: Posted by one of our members on the landinvestors.com online community. It's free. I can't wait to hear this. Jill DeWit: Oh yeah. Is this really who this is? Steven Jack Butala: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Jill DeWit: Okay. It's written by- Steven Jack Butala: It's Steve. Jill DeWit: It's Steve? Steven Jack Butala: Yeah. Steve says... Jill DeWit: Okay. Steve says, "Happy New Year. We're looking for a few folks who need money partners. We like purchases between $5,000 and $50,000 typical splits. We're getting pretty good at creative financing." Whatever that means. Steven Jack Butala: It means because they're private lenders or private partners being very flexible to what the person, the deal finder needs. Jill DeWit: Sure. All right. "We also buy seller finance notes and we'll even lend on performing notes, small shop with deep experience in credit and collection." This is hilarious. Steven Jack Butala: So please, everybody, whatever you're doing, please stop and listen. I want you to never, ever worry about the money part of this ever again. Jill DeWit: Right. Steven Jack Butala: This is this, and then Steve leaves all his information and his cell number and all of that- Jill DeWit: Hidden in our group. Steven Jack Butala: Which I, yeah, there are probably a hundred people in our group that are like this and maybe 500 more that are lurking that are not part of our group, dying to finance our fund, your deal, starting with us. Jill DeWit: Beautiful example, today is Wednesday. The show that I did, the Facebook live and YouTube live show that I did eight days ago, we led the show with a survey about how many of you here are looking for money or how many are here to lend. And it was funny, because it was 100% the people that completed the survey were a 100%, I'm looking for money. And then halfway through the show, in comes all the lurking people. They didn't want to answer the question that I'm here to lend money. But when they heard someone had a good deal, here comes people's phone numbers, emails, contact information, "I'll help you, I'll help you, I'll help you." Just like Steve here. Steven Jack Butala: Many people are very shy. Jill DeWit: Yeah. Steven Jack Butala: They won't stand up in the front of the room. They'll stand up in the back of the room. Jill DeWit: That's where they are. Steven Jack Butala: But they will not stand up in the front of the room and say, "We would love to be your partner." They just don't. That's not their personality. Jill DeWit: They want to hear about the deal first. Steven Jack Butala: That's exactly right. They don't want to hear how great you are and how shiny your shoes are or any of that. They want to look at a deal. They want it to be presented easily and they want it to be an awesome deal.

Building Relationships with Buyers and Sellers (LA 1415) Transcript: Steven Jack Butala: Steve and Jill here. Jill DeWit: Hello. Steven Jack 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 Jack Butala: Today Jill and I talk about building relationships with buyers and sellers. Jill DeWit: And more. I threw in there and escrow agents and money partners, because it's all tied together. Steven Jack Butala: Yeah. Jill DeWit: Thank you. You need to have them all on your team. Steven Jack Butala: This is quite possibly the single most important thing to get deals done, or really anything done in life that I can think of. The data part of this, I'm a what I think as a pretty good data person and a pretty good statistical person. Jill DeWit: You're getting there, babe. I love, you're trying to be so, not have a big head and I appreciate that, but you should have a big head. Steven Jack Butala: But it would all be wasted if we couldn't sell anything. And every single one of the people that I know that are real good at this, every single one of the advanced members, the Land Academy advanced members, they can either do both data and sell, or they have partners like us and a situation like us. Jill DeWit: I think most of them have partners. Steven Jack Butala: Yeah, they do. Jill DeWit: Yeah. Steven Jack Butala: Actually most of them- Jill DeWit: I'm trying to think of one. Can you think of one? Maybe one that can do both, but even he is not as good on the personal part of it as he thinks he is. Steven Jack Butala: You know what, Jill? There's a couple I can think of, but I think they have lot of people surrounding them. No, there is none. There are no people ... Jill DeWit: Thank you. Steven Jack Butala: They either have a partner or they have a staff already ... Jill DeWit: Right. Thank you. Steven Jack Butala: ... that handles it, like a built-in sales staff from another company that just sells dirt. Jill DeWit: Right. Steven Jack 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: Brian asks, "Quick version. Is a higher or lower ratio of land postings like on Lands of America, et cetera, do total properties in a county preferable when identifying target county markets?" Steven Jack Butala: No. What he's saying is if there's a lot of properties for sale, tons of properties for sale, and then there's a bunch of properties that exist in that market- Jill DeWit: In that county. Steven Jack Butala: ... is it better if that ratio is higher, that there's a lot of property for sale? The answer is hell no. Jill DeWit: Right. Steven Jack Butala: Go ahead. Jill DeWit: And then the longer version, he said, "Longer context, in Land Academy 1.0, chapter three," I love this, "while Jack and Jill don't go into a great detail on this, they seem to heavily imply that a higher land posting total property ratio is a positive sign, since they format the four chosen counties in green with higher percentages. And then they offer two cities with lower percentages formatted in red is what you don't want to see." Steven Jack Butala: And he goes on and on and on here. This is an incredibly intelligent question. Jill DeWit: This is Jack's red, yellow, green chart that he ... Steven Jack Butala: Yes. So, what Brian's saying is how do I pick a county or how do I pick a zip code to choose mail? We have a, Jill and I, well, I devised this system a lot of years ago for myself and now it's in our programs of this three, it's a red, green and yellow test. It's three statistics that involve percentage of property that's for sale versus the universe of properties in that county, land properties. And you want that to be very low. All right. So, he's going through Land Academy 1.0 and asking questions.

How to Get a Seller or Buyer to Perform (LA 1414) Transcript: Steven Jack Butala: Steve and Jill here. Jill DeWit: Hello. Steven Jack 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 kind of sunny southern California. Steven Jack Butala: Not really, not sunny at all. You know what's good about when it's not sunny, though? Jill DeWit: Tell me. Steven Jack Butala: The lighting's great. Jill DeWit: You know, I got this. I will make sure on recording days, this is it, because we need it just like this. This is perfect. Steven Jack Butala: If you've ever shot any video, if you have a show or ever done a YouTube, even one YouTube video, or if you shot family pictures, it's a huge challenge to shoot into glass, and then into the outside. Jill DeWit: Right. Steven Jack Butala: And then on top of that, the ocean is reflecting the sun. Jill DeWit: It's awful. Steven Jack Butala: Yeah, so it's really in the morning right now, and it's a little bit overcast. And I'm enjoying some pretty good lighting. Jill DeWit: Exactly. Steven Jack Butala: It has nothing to do with real estate. Jill DeWit: Correct. Steven Jack Butala: Before we get into it, well, today Jill and I talk about how to get a seller or buyer to perform. Jill DeWit: We didn't already say that? Steven Jack Butala: I don't know, maybe I did. Jill DeWit: I don't know. Steven Jack 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: Buck wrote, "The buyer of one of my owner finance deals is asking what happens if he dies." You know, I was thinking about this. Let me pause for just a second. You know, I was explaining to someone in one of my ... I was in, I think I was in an accountability group. I was a guest on somebody else's accountability group the other day. And I was talking about the number of deals we've done. And I've pretty sure, you think you've had it all, right? You think that you've heard everything with the volume and the thousands of deals that we've completed, I feel good. But every now and then, something comes up when I'm like, "Wow, I actually have not had that one yet." And I actually have not had anybody say this to me. Maybe you have, but I have not had this conversation. Steven Jack Butala: I've had people die during a deal. Jill DeWit: Yes, I have had that. Steven Jack Butala: During an acquisition and a sale, but never owner finance. Jill DeWit: Well, and like pre planning it, like, "I'm in bad health," or something. I don't know. Steven Jack Butala: Yeah. Jill DeWit: So, "Does his paid interest in the land become part of his estate? And his estate can continue making payments? He wants to make sure his wife and kids don't lose anything. Thanks for your help, Buck." I just think it's how he sets it up. I don't know what I would tell him what to do. Steven Jack Butala: Totally, you nailed it. Jill DeWit: Yeah, I would say, let's just to make sure all the documents read, you know, buyer, as joint attendance with right to survivorship of his wife, and everything along the way. What all, I'm trying to think what other ... Steven Jack Butala: Well, if it's in a trust, then it's ... Jill DeWit: That, too. Steven Jack Butala: If the contract is in a trust ... Jill DeWit: Right. Steven Jack Butala: Because you don't get deeded. There's two ways to do this. Jill DeWit: That's true. Steven Jack Butala: I'm sure Buck's doing it the right way, which is just a land contract where the payments get made, the payments get made, nothing gets recorded until all the payments are made, and then the entity owns it. And the key word here is entity. So if the guy, the buyer, it's all in his name, there's going to be estate issues. But if Buck sells it at asset to the trust that he sets up, as long as the trust keeps making payments,

Failing Repeatedly is First Requirement to Stay on Course (LA 1413) 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 failing repeatedly and how it's the first requirement to staying on course. Jill DeWit: This is clearly a Jack topic. Steven Butala: In hindsight, it could have been a different title, but what it really means is this. You got to be comfortable with the fact that some stuff's going to go wrong and sideways. It does with everything in life. And if you just get through the parts where it's not working, it's not working, eventually it's going to work. If you try hard enough at it, or either decide that it was not for you. I talk about this really early on in the Land Academy years about I will never play the guitar. I just won't. And it's not because I can't learn how to do it. It's just that I don't enjoy the process. The end, it doesn't justify the means and all kinds of stuff. It's not that I'm not smart enough. I just don't, for whatever reason, make it a priority. Jill DeWit: On that note, if you look on OfferUp right now, you'll see four left-handed guitars for sale. Steven Butala: Yeah. It's true. Yeah, just because I bought a cool guitar doesn't mean I really know how to play it at all. Jill DeWit: Yeah. I know where you can get a great price on a guitar right now. Steven Butala: And I tried and failed and tried and failed and decided nope. Jill DeWit: Not for me. Steven Butala: You know what? I tried and failed in my land career, too. Tried and failed, tried and failed. Jill DeWit: Well, that sung to you. Steven Butala: Yeah. Jill DeWit: That made sense. Steven Butala: But I decided I was still going to try because I want to do it. Jill DeWit: Okay. Let's talk about this more than the show because this will be a fun thing to talk about, things that we thought about and then we didn't pursue. Okay. 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: Jessica F... Hello, Jessica, wrote, "Hello all. I'm wondering what kind of due diligence you do related to the neighborhood the property is in? Do you analyze, if at all, if the property is in a nice neighborhood versus a not so nice one? How do you know where the desirable areas of town are outside the prices of houses sold? Are there specific indicators you look for, either good or bad, that can tell you more about a neighborhood beyond just the numbers of properties listed and sold?" Thanks. Steven Butala: I can tell you that with extreme confidence, I don't look at this at all, not a single bit. And here's why, because if I look at days on market, if I look at date DOM, days on market, in a place, let's say, the Rust Belt is famous for having... I'm from Detroit. So there's terrible neighborhoods in Detroit. There has been since the 60s. But if the days on market in those markets was within a range where we actively invest, I would be buying there. I don't care why people buy property or don't buy property or what they're looking for. But if 50 properties sold in the days on market in any market, there were 50 properties... You have to take all the three statistics from the red, green, yellow test, and look at them together because... But I'll tell you what, if you don't have time to do that, or you don't have the interest or whatever, days on market is going to smoke it all out for you. Jill DeWit: So what I think you're saying is the numbers speak for themselves, which is I like this. Steven Butala: This is for land only. For houses it's a little different, Jill DeWit: Well, I was actually going to put it on houses a little bit too, because follow me on this here.

Understanding Money in Life (LA 1412) 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 understanding money in life. And no, this is not going to be a lecture. Jill DeWit: Okay. Steven Butala: Jill said yesterday she's concerned this is going to be a lecture, no, it's not. This title came up for me, and it obviously made it to the light of the show because people ask me stuff, all the time, and I have been walking around the planet incorrectly perceiving a couple of things for quite some time. And I think it's funny that I've been misconceiving this, so we'll talk about it in a minute here. I think people understand accounting, just because I have an accounting background, and I think people understand real estate, and it's just not correct. People need to understand, or I need to be more clear, I guess I should say. Jill DeWit: Okay. Steven Butala: Are you taking notes? Jill DeWit: I am. Steven Butala: About what? Jill DeWit: Not about that. No, I'm just taking notes and thinking about some things I want to talk about with this. Steven Butala: Nobody understands money better than Jill, and I mean that. Most of the people I've ever had any type of relationship with are true cost center, and Jill is truly a walking profit center, and I'm amazed by her all the time. Whether it's at the grocery store, or buying a primary residence, or buying a trailer park, she just gets it. Jill DeWit: Thanks. Steven Butala: And I don't think there's any better compliment, well, there's probably some better compliments, but- Jill DeWit: Yeah, thanks. Steven Butala: For a former accountant, there's no better ... it's hard to find a person like that. Jill DeWit: Thank you. Steven Butala: Before we get into it, let's take a question posted by one of our members on the landinvesters.com online community, it's free. Jill DeWit: For the record, I think I learned ... there's some stuff that you taught me along the way, and really helped with, so thank you. I don't get all the credit, you helped. You're good, you're awesome. All right, James wrote- Steven Butala: This is a repeat question. Jill DeWit: Oh. Steven Butala: I made a mistake. It's actually from last Tuesday's question. Jill DeWit: Let's sub it with a different question. Or make up a question. Steven Butala: Yeah, make up a question is what I was going to say. Jill DeWit: Okay, let's make up a ... if I were going to read a question today, want to just read this one? Steven Butala: Yeah. Jill DeWit: Okay, I'll read this one. Steven Butala: Okay, sorry. Jill DeWit: Okay, Luke M. wrote, "Hey guys, I hope everyone had an amazing Christmas. I'm looking into Landmasters for helping me with mail merging and data scrubbing. I want to hear everyone's input if they have experience with them, or any suggestions on another VA service with these features to help me with the data part of the business. I've heard Jack and Jill mention outsourcing what you aren't good at, and focus on the strengths to be more productive. I suck at the data side of the house, and I was curious if anyone had a better company for these components, or if anyone's had a bad experience with Landmasters' services. Thanks so much, and happy new year." I want to add one little thing first real quick, don't worry anybody about mail merging, because O2O, offers to owners, will automatically do that for free. Now, that's- Steven Butala: Landmasters, here's the story of Landmasters. It's a group in the Philippines, run by an amazing person named Jillian. And she and her group, they contacted Jill and I years ago, at least two years ago, right? Jill DeWit: Oh gosh, more like four or five years ago. Four, I want to say. Steven Butala: And so, at first, I'm like,

Value of our Thursday Deal Review Webinar (LA 1411) 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 Value of our Thursday Deal Review Webinar. Jill DeWit: Webinars. Steven Butala: We just did some math, Jill and I, before the episode, and we calculated that between 2016 and 2020, once a week, we do between an hour and a half, usually two to sometimes four hours of webinars with our members. And the vast majority of it is taken up by us playing out the scenario called would you do this deal? And so there's just 500 hours of this in there. Jill DeWit: You're explaining the whole show. Should we [crosstalk 00:00:53] show? 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: Tom wrote, "We'd like to find the right accountability group with a good fit on pace and goals. I have preconceived ideas of my strengths and weaknesses,- Steven Butala: So do I, Tom. Jill DeWit: - but I may find out differently in practice. Excited to get going." Isn't that true? You don't know until you get in there. You don't know about any of those till you get in there. You're like, "Oh, I'd think I love to do this. No, I hate to do this" or, "Yeah, I'm good at paperwork. Oh my God, I suck at deeds." Steven Butala: I'm great at being single, not so much at being married. Jill DeWit: Anyway... Steven Butala: I have some preconceived ideas of my strengths and weaknesses, too. Jill DeWit: I'm good at practicing getting pregnant. I suck at being a mom. Just kidding. Steven Butala: Oh, my God, Jill. Jill DeWit: I'm just kidding. Steven Butala: Where does that come from? Jill DeWit: Not me. [inaudible 00:01:46]. You were giving some wild- Steven Butala: The perceived ideas about yourself. Jill DeWit: Oh, sorry. Steven Butala: Not in judgment of other people. Wow, that took a right turn. Jill DeWit: No, I [inaudible 00:01:59]. All right, everybody erase that. Okay. Yeah, there's no do-over button here, is there? Steven Butala: We're not going to edit that out, no. Jill DeWit: I know that. I'm well aware of that. You know what the last time you edited something for me, it's probably been over a year. Steven Butala: Yep, it's true. Jill DeWit: I was probably crying. There was probably something that made me cry. I was having a really bad day. Steven Butala: I have to say... And I'll tell you, you're right, edited out... probably a year. Jill DeWit: Yeah. Definitely a year. Steven Butala: But we have had to start and stop over several- Jill DeWit: You know what it probably was... truth time. I'm sure you and I were getting into it. I think the last time I said, "Oh, we got to do this over," because you and I were getting in to it about something, [crosstalk 00:02:44]. Nobody's going to want to hear this, including me. Steven Butala: I listened to a podcast once... I think it was with you... about two people trying to have a podcast together, and they were married [crosstalk 00:02:54] and probably not married anymore actually. Jill DeWit: They were getting into it. Yeah, I have to- Steven Butala: I have to say that was a lot of fun to listen to. Jill DeWit: Yeah. So next time I promise we won't cut it. We'll just let it roll. So if we get into it, you decide... If you think we're getting into it, you're the judge. Steven Butala: It's always fun to watch or listen to other people failing at stuff. So it makes you just feel better about yourself. That's what the whole premise of reality TV is I know I'm I got some weird things going on with me, but I'm not as bad as that guy. Jill DeWit: That's very true. Like those hoarder shows... I'm like, "It will never be me."

Where Do I get the Money and Who is Going to Teach Me (LA 1410) Transcript: Steven Butala: Steve and Jill here. Jill DeWit: Good day. 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; where do we get the money? And who's going to teach me? Came directly out of Jill's mouth- Jill DeWit: Why? Steven Butala: ... without any editing or without any polish. Jill DeWit: Thanks. Steven Butala: It went like this, "Hey Joe, what should we talk about today?" Well, somebody just asked me, "Where do we get the money? And who's going to teach me?" Jill DeWit: Yeah. There you go. It happens a lot. I see new investors, I alluded to this a little bit yesterday on the show, new investors in multiple forums, all kinds of social media accounts and these are the two big things like, "Do I get lending? Do I get financing? Do I take a loan on my house? Do I run up my credit cards? Do I sell something? Do I sell a child? Whatever it is, where do I get the money to get this started?" I'll talk about this more, but, "Who's going to teach me?" and they just throw it out there like you're just going to say, "Who will teach me?" And there's going to be a flood of mentors. That's the funniest thing too, but we'll talk more. 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: Paula says, 'Hi, all. I keep hearing investors say they won't touch a deal unless they see a potential for at least a hundred percent ROI, return on investment. Is there any reasoning to this other than just about maximizing profit within a range that will still accomplish high velocity sales, as in is this strategy directly related to my 1031 exchange in any way? Thanks." Steven Butala: No, it's not related to any 1031 exchange concept in any way. A hundred percent margin or return on investment in ROI, there's no direct association with that at all, but here's where it comes from. Very early on, I wrote a blog, ended up a little piece, a video piece on, "A 24 Month Millionaire." That's what I called it. As with everything, you do 20 of these things and one of them really stands out, well, that one stood out. I've gotten a lot of people over the years have asked me to do it again or talk about it more. So here's a total Cliff's notes version. You buy property for $4000 bucks. You sell it for eight. You buy two for $4000 and eight becomes 16, and 16 becomes 32 and if you do everything wrong under this scenario, you'll have about a million bucks in the bank profit, pure profit. Jill DeWit: Why do you say wrong? Steven Butala: Well, if you do everything wrong because in my- [crosstalk 00:02:57] Jill DeWit: Because you can't do better? Steven Butala: Yeah. No, it's just because it's so easy, I think this kind of stuff. That's what kind of desert property, which we don't talk about that much anymore because it's too easy to on a couple of deals the way Jill does these days to make a million bucks anyway. So at that return on investment, that arbitrary, it's doubling your money is where it comes from. In real estate, that's almost unheard of. Just don't do it. So the reason I included this, Paula, is because there's several people in Land Investors forum that are really, for whatever reason, I think they were bored this holiday season or something and they're just really active in it. Jill DeWit: That's true, by the way. I'm sure, "Hey, what do we usually do?" "We go to the mall." "Can't go there." "Hey, let's go to this outdoor activity." "Can't do that. That's closed too." Let's go to a movie." "Nope." That's why. Steven Butala: What it's become for me and Jill too, I'm sure I can speak for Jill is let's look at two simple deals. I buy a property for $10000. I sell it for $20000.

Why a Small Percentage of People Accomplish Their Goals (LA 1409) Transcript: Steven Butala: Steve and Jill here. Jill DeWit: Happy new year. 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 why a small percentage of people accomplish their goals. And I thought this was appropriate because it's January, well, it's the first real show in January. Jill DeWit: Well, it's the fourth. This is one of those rare occasions where we're recording on the actual day. Steven Butala: The same day. Why? Because we just got off of, like everybody, having some fun during the holiday season. Jill DeWit: Well, here's what's funny too. Last week was supposed to be with my ladies, Land Academy ladies group on Tuesday, which is the 29th or something. We were going to talk about work-life balance. And because I respect work-life balance, I needed some more life balance and not work balance. So I canceled our thing. So tomorrow we're going to pick up where we left on work-life balance. So this is partially why we're recording today too. We needed that work-life balance. Steven Butala: Awesome. Today's topic. Oh no... 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: You're out of your mojo, out of your groove. Aren't you? Steven Butala: We haven't recorded in quite some time. Jill DeWit: Yeah. It's a week and a half. It's nice. James wrote, "Hello and happy new year. Transitioning military member signing up and excited to get started. The member guide appears to focus on the tools first, but I assume we should review the videos, which are the same thing as reference, the YouTube courses also references DVDs." Steven Butala: Yes. That's how long we've been doing this. Jill DeWit: Yes. You're right. Steven Butala: Used to be in DVD form. Jill DeWit: We did. And they provide the basics. "I have some of my family working with me and my initial thoughts about how to organize to take care of the most important responsibilities would be useful. Like step one, build a list, tutorial, step two, sort the list, et cetera. Noted we need a name and a website but we didn't understand the purpose of the website upfront. Is the purpose of the website to list on the mailer so sellers have a website with all your information and documents? Question. Thank you." Steven Butala: So this is a very, very popular question that usually Jill and I don't answer it, but I think everybody can benefit from it. We have a pretty substantial number of new members that signed up over the last 90 days. So it's really important to watch the programs, Land Academy One and Land Academy Two. And the Cash Flow From Land, the original program from 2015. And if you follow it step by step, all this stuff will get answered. And you will, at the end of it, have a comprehensive plan and a calendar, or you should anyway, from which to start at that point. So you don't want to build lists or whatever you mentioned in this, I'm not even sure what that means. Because we use database driven data, not lists. So the best thing you can absolutely do is follow the programming in order. Jill DeWit: Well, that's great. That's great, Jack. Let me answer your question, James. Steven Butala: Really? Jill DeWit: Yes. What's the fucking point to the website? Yes. I do want you to go out and spend a couple hundred bucks. Even if you need to do it on... Pay $200 and get something on Fiverr to get your website, pick a name. And you could spend, don't spend a week on this, but spend a day on it and make sure you find a name you like. Steven Butala: Yeah, but it's [crosstalk 00:03:32] Jill DeWit: Short as possible- Steven Butala: It's addressed in the program. Jill DeWit: I know, but I'm helping the planet right now.

2021 Mindset for Success (LA 1408) Transcript: Steven Butala: Steve and Jill here. Jill DeWitt: Hi. Steven Butala: Welcome to 2021 and welcome to the Land Academy Show. Jill DeWitt: Yay. Steven Butala: Entertaining land investment talk. I'm Steven Jack Butala. Jill DeWitt: And I'm Jill DeWitt, broadcasting from sunny southern California. Steven Butala: Today Jill and I talk about the 2021 mindset for success. Jill DeWitt: I'm excited. Steven Butala: We made it. Jill DeWitt: We did. Happy New Year. Oh my goodness, glad that's behind us. Steven Butala: What a year. Jill DeWitt: I know. I can't wait. I have some things I'm going to talk about what I think ... I want to talk about first what I think everybody should do, and then let's talk about unique things for us, because I think that'd be fun. Steven Butala: Just a year packed with irony. In our case, it was a very good financial year, but a very sad one. It's sad to watch this happen to our world. Jill DeWitt: And our friends, and their businesses, and our community. Steven Butala: Right. Jill DeWitt: I agree. Steven Butala: It taught me personally a lot of humility and a lot of compassion. It's not just about money. For a lot of years, for years and years for me, it's just been about making sure my family's good, and making a bunch of money, and accumulating equity, and making good business decisions, but I'll tell you, what a new component that all was. Jill DeWitt: Right. Steven Butala: I can say was now. How weird is that? Jill DeWitt: Exactly. 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 DeWitt: John says, "Hi guys. I was curious if anyone's using a CRM to manage their mailers that they would recommend. I'd like to move away from Google Sheets if at all possible. Thanks, John." Steven Butala: Yeah, if you're using Google Sheets, John, it's time to move away. Jill DeWitt: Yes, it is, like today. Steven Butala: It's funny that you say that, and it's 2021. We are actively developing a dashboard that will help you organize everything. It's not going to come out overnight by any stretch, but we're working on it, and it will be the solution. Between now and then, I would highly recommend a CRM like Airtable, which is real easy to develop. It's not free, but it's pretty inexpensive. It'll get the deal flow correctly in there. I think Jill did it. Jill DeWitt: They actually have a free version. You can start with that and see if you like it. Yeah. Steven Butala: Didn't you do a webinar on this or something? Jill DeWitt: Not yet. No, but there is a free version that's pretty robust. You could test it out and see. It's pretty phenomenal. We love it. It's really good to manage everything from the properties, as you move them through the whole system, from the acquisition, to the engineering, to the sales. There's places in there you can keep track of customers, and keep track of title agents, keep track of documents. We use it for everything, so I would do that. Having known all that now, like what you're saying, John, so now we also know its limitations. Here's what I would tell you. Get the free version of Airtable right now. Use it, and be ready for what we're going to develop because it'll solve all your problems. Steven Butala: Yep. Today's topic, the 2021 Mindset for Success. This is the meat of the show. What do you think, just without thinking about it too much, because I know you took a bunch of notes for this, what do you think is just the difference between people that just have the right mindset to get something done, to become successful at something like this, or don't? Jill DeWitt: What's the difference? They have an innate drive that they won't stop. Steven Butala: Me too. Jill DeWitt: It's nature more than nurture. Steven Butala: I agree. Jill DeWitt: That's the thing. Steven Butala: I can write volumes on this,

2021 Market Update (LA 1407) 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 really may... Not Jill, give you a 2021 real estate market update. Jill DeWit: Here's the reason. When we were sitting, writing the topics, I asked for this topic. I said, "Babe, we talk a lot in the confines of our bathroom," early in the morning when we're getting ready, which is very true. Fortunately, we have a large bathroom. It's not like a closed door situation. Don't worry about that. Steven Butala: Fortunately, Jill has a large bathroom that she lets me into to talk to her, once in a while. Jill DeWit: We have a large bathroom. No. And there's actually places to sit in the bathroom, which is very nice. So often one of us is getting ready, usually it's me, not him and he sits down with his cup of coffee and we have these really great in-depth conversations. And lately, as I'm sure you are probably doing this also... I can't wait for 2021. Steven Butala: Yeah. Jill DeWit: What do you think is going to be possible? What do think is going to happen with this, X, this kind of real estate and these situations and all of that? So I said, "Babe, can we move the bathroom discussion to the podcast," which we are doing now and I'm lovingly calling it The 2021 Market Update by Steven. Steven Butala: Boy, that's like truth time effect. Jill DeWit: It is. Steven Butala: That's the most true thing I've heard with great detail. Jill DeWit: Yes. Do you want me to describe our bathroom more? Steven Butala: If you need to. Jill DeWit: Okay. It's Okay. All right. Before we get into it, let's take a question posted by one of our members on The Land Investors, online community. It's free. Pete asks, I'm new to Land Academy but not new to real estate or investing. Steven Butala: Good. Good for you. Jill DeWit: I sent out my first 10,000 piece mailer... Nice... last week, and I'm waiting for the calls to come in. I'm in the middle of setting up my processes for when that does start happening next week. In a lot of businesses, I know that most of the money's made in the follow-up not the initial contact with a prospect. In this business, the money's made when you buy it at the right price. Of course. Buy it right, what we say. So it makes sense to me that my focus should be on acquisitions and I'm confident that the rest will fall into place much easier. Is it typical for most of the sellers to agree to a deal on their first phone call, or is there a lot of, let me think about it. Steven Butala: These are good questions. Jill DeWit: And then you never hear back from them. If the latter is true, I'm thinking of having an extensive, automated follow-up campaign that were really help. By this, I mean putting these automated tools in place, emails, texts, ringless voicemails, Facebook retargeting ads, triggering them to visiting my website that I advertise on my offer letters. When I get a seller that's not ready to commit right away, I would just drop them into my CRM and the rest would be completely automated until they respond again. It's not too hard to build up something like this that will follow up for a year. It would focus on a lot of contact within the first two weeks, then gradually get down to about one contact attempt a month. Has anyone built something like this out and does it bring a lot of deals that you may or may not have happened? Thanks in advance. Dying to know, did anybody comment on this yet? Steven Butala: Oh, there's a bunch of comments on this but I'll tell you, I just had this conversation with my tech team, like three days ago, that these tools are becoming prevalent, where somebody calls you, it goes into a CRM. You either took the call, hopefully. Jill and I just had in the bathroom,

Offer Campaign Saturation Fact of Fiction (LA 1406) 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 De Wit broadcasting from sunny Southern California. Steven Butala: Today Jill and I talk about offer campaigns. Is it a saturation? Is it fact or fiction? Jill DeWit: I- Steven Butala: What is offer campaign saturation? Jill DeWit: Well I think it's both. Hold on a second. The fact and fiction, is that fair? Can I say that? Steven Butala: Yeah. It's not fiction on our part. Jill DeWit: Right. Steven Butala: Well, I'm going to give the facts. Jill DeWit: Okay, yeah. Yeah. Steven Butala: And then you're going to decide whether or not it's fiction. Jill DeWit: Okay, wait. There is a number to the properties, kind of. People always say they can't make more property, but you could subdivide, but we're not going to get into that. I'm not going to start a little argument about that, right? Steven Butala: Me either. Jill DeWit: Okay. Thank you. And there are countries that are making more land, like Holland. We're not even going to go there. That doesn't count. But so there is a fact to the numbers. But when you really take a step back and look at how many of us are doing it and doing this well, and actually doing mail and sending things out and buying property, the number gets smaller and smaller and smaller and smaller. So, do I worry and panic about it, is kind of the fiction for me. Steven Butala: Yeah. Jill DeWit: So, that's where I'm at. We all have life insurance. We all have all kinds of insurance. I have fire insurance. I have flood insurance. Look where we live, you guys. By the way, I have to get tsunami insurance because of what's behind me. It's the weirdest thing. We're technically in a tsunami zone because of the water behind me. Do I really worry that I'm going to use a tsunami insurance? No, but I have it. So it kind of ties into this too, you know? I'm like, all right fact, or fiction? Fact, I have to get tsunami insurance. Fiction, is it really going to happen? Probably not, hasn't happened yet. Steven Butala: I don't think it's ever happened here. Jill DeWit: I know. Steven Butala: Is there ever been a tsunami in Los Angeles? Jill DeWit: No, but we're in a tsunami zone. We have to call it that. Steven Butala: So if there's never been a tsunami- Jill DeWit: Yeah. Steven Butala: Off of LA's coast, wouldn't it be awesome if you were the insurance company who sold insurance? Jill DeWit: I want that job. Yes. Steven Butala: That's something that's probably never going to happen. Jill DeWit: New business model being formed right now. Steven Butala: That's what side of this thing you're on. Jill DeWit: Yep. Steven Butala: That's what side of this real estate mailing thing that we're all on. Jill DeWit: Exactly. Steven Butala: We're on the blackjack dealer's side. Jill DeWit: Ooh, I like that. Steven Butala: The odds are way in our favor that it's going to go the way we want it. Jill DeWit: But the blackjack player still thinks they're going to win. Steven Butala: That's right. 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: That was a really good analogy, by the way. I like that. That's good. Leonard wrote, "Hello, Land Academy members. Most of what I've heard about from the weekly calls in regards to improving property follows the thinking. "Don't look at it, don't touch it. Don't breathe on it," in quotes. Then occasionally Steve suggests dropping a mobile home on it. How is this possible? When researching comps for some acquisitions in California, all of the realtors asked about if the lots had wells and if not, could I get one installed, suggesting that the property price would increase 60 to a 100% just because there is a well on the prope...

3 Levels of Employees (LA 1405) Transcript: Steven Butala: Steve and Jill here. Jill DeWit: Happy holidays. 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 three levels of employees. Jill's going to talk about building her dream team. Jill DeWit: Yup. As we are counting down the days that we can all kiss 2020 big, fat, whatever goodbye. I'm trying to be politically correct here. I want to say some stuff about 2020, but there might be children around, so I won't say how I really feel about 2020. But as we're looking forward to 2021, this might be something that you're working on. I know a lot people are in our group. We talked about the side hustle yesterday, and when Jack ended the show yesterday, talked about, if it all goes well and you're into it, your side hustle is probably not going to be your side hustle anymore. At least you could make the decision. If you want it to be a side hustle or you want it to be your full-time gig. We have a lot of people in our community that... It seems like every month, it's fun, because I'm revisiting this information. Every month there are people meeting that level and they're like, "Uh-oh, now I'm taking it. Now this is a company. Now this has been paying our bills for a long time. Now I'm ready to build a team and a staff, and make this even more than just a small family business." So that's what I've been talking about in our women's group, and I'm happy to share this with you here. Steven Butala: I've long said, "This is for me, the hardest component of having any company is building staff." Jill DeWit: It is hard. Steven Butala: Jill's going to make it easy for us, I think. 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: It is hard, but at least I can tell you what you need and put you in the right direction and give you a lot of help. Steven Butala: Yup. Jill DeWit: Again, boy, I wish I had us. That's okay. That's why we're here. Jeff says, "I'm closing on a deal to buy a nice six acre lot with great access next to a highway. I sent out a photographer and the lot has a lot of junk going on, like old tires and a destroyed mobile home. I think I could sell it as, buy this great property for an extra low price, because there's a bit of cleanup to be done. Or perhaps just hire a company to clean it all up for me. I don't feel like I want to pass on the deal, but I wanted to get some opinions. It is in blank County blank, which doesn't have many comps, but seems to support a greater than $20,000 sales price. Maybe even higher, because it's a unique position right along the highway." I'm excited. I know what I would do. Steven Butala: Go ahead. Jill DeWit: Not clean it up. Steven Butala: Me too. Why? Jill DeWit: Someone's trash is someone else's treasure, sorry. Steven Butala: There's a million titles that come to my head, like, buy some land and a built-in garage sale also. Or somebody's trash is your treasure or finder's keepers. There's all kinds of stuff. Jill DeWit: I know. Steven Butala: And I'll tell you what, the fact that it's on a highway, it needs one or two signs, at least where it can say, "This trash heap can be yours. Give me a call." Jill DeWit: Right. I'm wondering too, you never know what you're going to find on somebody's property. There could be a classic car under a tarp in the back. Steven Butala: Yup. Jill DeWit: That is dreamy and awesome for somebody [crosstalk 00:03:37] Steven Butala: There's all kinds of- Jill DeWit: Like this one. Steven Butala: So I'll tell ya. I mean, anything and I mean, anything that separates your piece of property with the other five that are for sale that are just vacant land or they have trees on them or something is positive,

What's Possible Land Side Hustle Math (LA 1404) Transcript: Steven Butala: Steve and Jill here. Jill DeWit: Hello. Steven Butala: And 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 what's possible in your land side hustle, specifically the math. Jill DeWit: Oh. Steven Butala: Like these shows. Jill DeWit: You didn't tell him it was going to be math class today. I did not prepare for that. Steven Butala: There's going to be some math in this. Not going to be math, it's just going to be ... You don't have to do any math, you just have to listen to the- Jill DeWit: All right. Good thing I have a notepad and a pen. Steven Butala: Listen to the good and the bed and the ugly about what's possible and what's not possible. I'll tell you, here's a hint though, it all starts with getting a mailer out. Jill DeWit: You want to know something realistically? I loved math in school. Steven Butala: I know you did. Jill DeWit: Did you like math? Steven Butala: Did I like math? Jill DeWit: Yeah. Did you know that about me? Steven Butala: Yes, I did. Jill DeWit: Okay. How did you know that? Steven Butala: I'll tell you Jill, you're a pilot and you have that natural ... I don't think we ever sat down and said, "Hey, how'd you feel about math in high school?" How boring would that be if we did that? Jill DeWit: I did like math. My favorite teachers were my math teachers. Math and physics, I loved those. What was your favorite subject? Steven Butala: Math, physics. I liked home economics a lot, because- Jill DeWit: Is that where the girls were? Steven Butala: Yes Jill DeWit: Oh. Steven Butala: You know what? I liked all. There's not a class that I didn't like. Jill DeWit: I'm trying to think. You know what was one of my least favorite classes? That I did it, and I went through the whole thing and I was even president of the club at the end, it's a French club. Steven Butala: Oh, you know what? I don't like languages either. Jill DeWit: There we go. That was hard. Steven Butala: I can get through Spanish, because it was a requirement. I like it now. I like speaking it or trying to speak it. Jill DeWit: Yeah, you're good at it. Steven Butala: I think I'm great at it after two beers, but ... Jill DeWit: You are. Steven Butala: But I think I'm great at a lot of things after two beers. Jill DeWit: Don't ask me to speak French. Steven Butala: No, I don't even ... I can't count to 10 in French. 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: Herbert S, "Hello all, I'm seeking information/guidance on what I should do with the first deal that I have here. I bought this lot with a very old dilapidated double-wide fixed mobile home on the property that has been there for more than 30 years. According to Steve and Jill, this is normally a good thing, but I've been having troubles trying to sell it because I purchased it without having title to the mobile home and many of the buyers calling in would like to have that, which is understandable. We purchased this lot in an attorney state and did not have any problem buying it without the title. Has anyone dealt with this kind of situation in the past? What would you say are my options?" Steven Butala: Yes, so let's take two steps back. Herbert, you're in a great situation. There are two components to buying a mobile home on a piece of land. The land real estate deal, like we're all very used to, and then the personal property aspect of buying a mobile home, which is in most of the states, maybe all states, the exact same as buying a car. It has a ... You go to the DMV, it's all ... I think Texas might be different. There's one state, in fact, it might be California. But the vast majority of states, again,

Getting that First Customer (LA 1403) Transcript: Jack Butala: Steve and Jill here. Jill DeWit: Merry Christmas. Jack Butala: Yeah. 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. Jack Butala: Today jill and I are talking about getting that first customer. If you're listening to this on Christmas, congratulations, you are dedicated. Jill DeWit: I got a pain in my eye real quick there. Sorry about that. It was really weird. Jack Butala: It's being in relationship with me pain in my eye. It's from lack of entertainment, lack of laughing and lack of... Jill DeWit: I have these sharp pains all over my body. Jack Butala: ... familial happiness. Jill DeWit: Just kidding. Oh, that's hilarious. You're funny. All right. Getting that first customer. This is- Jack Butala: Well, before we get into it, I know you have a pain. Let's take a question posted by one of our members on the landinvestors.com online community. It's free. Jill DeWit: I have a pain, and it's not the kids. Jack Butala: Big, huge pain to your left. Jill DeWit: Yes, I do. Jack Butala: You know how it is. Jill DeWit: My eyes are burning. Okay. Kathy Roe, "We have a property that has many people looking in the first weekend." Wait, "We have a property that has many people looking in the first weekend." Jack Butala: I think she has a property for sale on Zillow. Jill DeWit: On Zillow. Okay. Does anyone know if it's possible to have people bid up, if a few offers come in and if so, what do you say to get people calling? Okay, she doing Watchers, I guess you put in Zillow and you could see- Jack Butala: Savers. Jill DeWit: ... people who save it, or like it, or whatever that thing is, and then you want to... Okay. I'm a first come... I don't want to play games with people. Let's back up. First of all, congratulations. You got a property. You got it on Zillow. It's there and you got people interested. Yay. Now, do I need to have you reach out to them and talk them into something? Mm-mm (negative), because if you are like us, Kathy it's priced right, and I want you to be there, and available to... You're not liking my answer. Jack Butala: No, I love your answer. I have some stuff to say. Jill DeWit: Okay, and when they call- Jack Butala: I love your answer. Jill DeWit: ... or reach out, you're just ready to go and make it easy. And, if you have any people that are tire kickers, get them off the phone, number one. The real people that are interested are going to... You'll know they're interested. Like I said, it's a first come first serve. Here's the price. When you're ready to go, let me know, and if you're ready to go right now, let's do it. Jack Butala: Please remember that, as a property's for sale in any venue, except eBay, as you go, and as you're getting questions, and stuff's happening, you got a lot of whatever, you can change the title. You can change the description specifically the first sentence of this description. I would say something like, "We now have..." Right in the first sentence so that you can see it without clicking on the whole thing. "We have 480 people watching this, and we're sure it's going to sell this weekend. First come first serve. We haven't gotten a full price offer yet, but that's what we're looking for, and it's all cash, so call this number, and it can be yours." Make it a call to action. Jill DeWit: You want to put it in the posting? Jack Butala: Yeah, or even in the title. You can change this stuff as the- Jill DeWit: You could say, "Hot property, checkout views." Jack Butala: Yeah. Jill DeWit: Yeah. Hot property. Jack Butala: Or all kinds. You can do all kinds of stuff. Jill DeWit: You know what, some of the sites will even do that. Have you ever looked on Zillow, and seen on the map? It does say, "Hot." Jack Butala: Right. That's not good enough. I think that you should really...

So You're a Land Academy Member Now What (LA 1402) Transcript: Jack Butala: Steve and Jill here. Jill DeWit: Hi. Jack 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 sunny Southern California. Jack Butala: Today. Jill and I talk about, so you're a Land Academy member now, what's next? Jill DeWit: It's beginning to look a lot Christmas. You don't like that, I'm sorry. It's Christmas Eve. Jack Butala: I mean, I just said there's the reason there's two of us. Jill DeWit: All right. One of us is in vacation mode. Jack Butala: One of us is a happy person in general and one of us is not. You guess. Jill DeWit: Goodness. I promise I will take this topic seriously. I wrote down five notes. I have things I want to cover, but I thought just for a moment, I wanted to celebrate that it's Christmas Eve. Can I have that? Jack Butala: Do you think that all our kids are going to get what they want? Jill DeWit: Oh my gosh. Yes. I know they are. Jack Butala: Have they ever not? Jill DeWit: Oh, I'm sure. I'm sure. But usually they get what they want. It always works out. Jack Butala: You think any of them are in therapy over their parents? Jill DeWit: Oh, I'm sure. Yes. That is a gift that keeps on giving. Okay, this year kids we're giving each of you a bundle of 10 therapy sessions to the counselor of your choice. Jack Butala: Can you buy that? I will buy that. If you can't buy that I'm going to start a company for that, ready for next year. Jill DeWit: Prepaid therapy for your children, for your spouse, for your best friend. Whoever's driving you nuts, buy them therapy. This is a Saturday Night Live skit. Jack Butala: You can buy a subscription legal advice like this. Why not therapy? Jill DeWit: Yeah, why not? Hey, we're doing it for Land Academy stuff now. We're doing bundle, work and bundle consulting things. We're just going to roll in counseling. Jack Butala: That's what this is anyway. A lot of it. Jill DeWit: Exactly. That's awesome. Okay. Jack Butala: Before we get into it, let's take a question posted by one of, which won't top Jill's comments there, posted by one of our members on the landinvestors.com online community. It's free. Jill DeWit: Anthony wrote, "My understanding is that raw land qualifies you or qualifies for a 1031 exchange." Jack Butala: Any type of real estate does. Jill DeWit: Thank you. "Anyone here ever use this?" Jack Butala: Yes. Jill DeWit: "It seems like you could roll up some very expensive ranch or something and delay the taxes owed on the flips that you've got there." And then John wrote, are there more than one comments or just one? Jack Butala: No, it's just John because he answered the question perfectly. Jill DeWit: So I'm sure there's plenty in there, but we picked you, John. John wrote, "We've done a ton of 1031s, but mostly in the apartment space. The basics you need are define a 1031 intermediary. You have 180 days to close on the transaction, 45 days to identify and then 135 days to close. And there's a specific way you have to identify the properties." Jack Butala: That's right. Jill DeWit: "When you 1031, you need to have a whole intermediary hold the funds. You can never touch the money or it will blow up the exchange." At the end of the day, it's more complex than this, but it can be a great tool for deferring taxes. They do have costs associated, so depending on the profit or may or may not make sense. You can always reach out= if you have any questions. That was very nice of John to share. Jack Butala: At least 1031s, I haven't done one in a lot of years, they cost at least $1,500 to do. So here's the idea, you buy up, in Anthony's case, you buy a ranch, you take $200,000 out of your savings and you buy it and you sell it for 400,000. You don't want to pay taxes on that $200,000 gain at all. So you do a 1031, you identify another ranch and now your money's...

Reframing Your Money Making Mindset (LA 1401) Transcript: Jack Butala: Steve and Jill here. Jill DeWit: Howdy. Jack 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. Jack Butala: Today, Jill and I talk about reframing your money making mindset. I think everybody's got a preexisting condition about money, like a healthcare pre-existing condition. And some people can get out of that if they make some changes in their life, eat better, exercise, whatever. You can change that mindset and go on and- Jill DeWit: Like learn to save money. Jack Butala: Yeah. I mean, that's part of this. Not really, but okay. That's why I want to hear your perception though. 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: For the record, I didn't learn to save money until I was an adult. Way into being an adult. I would save up whatever money I had and then blow it all on a fun concert weekend and then start saving up again to do it over and over and over again. Jack Butala: I'm going to honestly argue I think you're supposed to live your childhood. Jill DeWit: Yeah. My account would go from $600 to $20 and like whatever. And where I sat at the concert was just a direct relationship to how much money was in my account. I can afford these tickets. I can't afford those two goods. Jack Butala: I think you're supposed to do stupid stuff when you're a teenager like that. That's what you're supposed to do. Jill DeWit: Sure. And by the way as a girl, even though I could only afford those tickets, don't think I didn't end up down front. Jack Butala: I don't even want to know how you got down there. Jill DeWit: Okay. Joys of being a girl. Okay. Thomas wrote, "I'm buying a property right now. And my title company sent a 14 page for sale by owner document for me and the seller to complete. A fellow investor asked why I'm doing that. And he's never done one before through a title company. Is the title companie pushing off their work on me to do? I'm already a month into this deal possibly. And I just want some progress. It's a large well-known company, so I just assume this is normal and that they know what they're doing, but now I'm not sure." Jack Butala: May I? Jill DeWit: Please. Jack Butala: What they're asking you to do is sign a purchase agreement that's non real estate agent driven. And so the purchase agreement that we use for all of our deals and everybody in Land Academy uses is a single page. I want to buy it. You want to sell it? Here's the price. Here's the timeframe. There's a few conditions in here. If I change my mind or you changed my mind before it closes, the deal's off. So why that document needs to be 14 pages Thomas baffles me as much as you. The reason is it's not the baffling part. There's a bunch of lawyers got involved with the national association realtors and made this complicated for everybody. And it's been accumulating since the fifties in this country and the contracts Jill and I are doing a large deal right now through a realtor, which is unusual for us. A few of them actually, but one in particular, on a very urban area, there's a document after document after document to sign, and it gets worse and worse and worse as time goes on. Our way's better. Our Land Academy way is the best way to do this. Jill DeWit: Here's usually what happens Thomas. Betty, 20 years ago, learned to do this somewhere. It's usually how it goes, right? And then she'll never change the way she does it. Nevermind, the person sitting at the desk over for her at the same office doesn't require that document. Betty might. There's a little things like that that just happened because that's the way they learned them. So here's what I do. So what do you do? You could either say, "I'm not doing that." And they might say,

People Who Create Change are Overwhelmingly More Content (LA 1400) Transcript: Jack Butala: Steve and Jill here. Jill DeWit: Happy holidays. Jack 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. Jack Butala: Today jill and I talk about the people who create change are overwhelmingly more content. I read an article a couple of days ago. I don't know if you call it article anymore. What do you call it? A piece. Jill DeWit: That's true. Jack Butala: It was by a pretty ... It was like CNN or something. Jill DeWit: I think it's still an article. Jack Butala: It was a credible source that somebody did a study and I'll talk about it more in the content of the show, but people who make some serious change in their life end up happier, a lot happier. And what better time to make change when the world's on fire, right? Jill DeWit: That's true. Oh, boy. Jack Butala: Before we get into it, let's take a question posted by one of the members on the landinvestors.com online community. It's free. Jill DeWit: Lucas wrote: Hi folks. Land Academy posted an ad on Instagram today about assessed value. I have a question about the usefulness of assessed values when pricing a mailer. I understand that the assessed value doesn't reflect the actual retail value of a property. However, does it make sense to use the assessed value as an indicator when the property doesn't fit the normal data? Jack Butala: Yes. Jill DeWit: For example- Jack Butala: This is a very good question. Jill DeWit: Imagine a scenario where a bunch of properties have an assessed value of 30 to $40,000 with retail values close to $100,000. Jack Butala: Excellent example. Jill DeWit: Most of them are wooded and undeveloped. Then I see one property with an assessed value of $400,000. When I check it out, I can see that it's cleared, there's a road, and it's in a high-end neighborhood with an excellent view. This makes me think that the assessed value can at least help me distinguish between the extreme spectrums of a given county, very valuable versus very useless. So I'm thinking, can I use this column to manage the outliers in my dataset and hopefully get more accurate and a precise mailer. Does this make sense? [inaudible 00:02:11] Lucas. Jack Butala: Lucas, you're 80% of the way there. Jill DeWit: Great. Jack Butala: So let me clarify what he's saying. You take a dataset, it's got, what did he say, 30 to $40,000 retail values. Let's say there's a real consistent assessed values of 30 to $40,000 with retails of 100,000, right? This is long after we've gone through the process of collecting data on for sale and sold property in the area. Jill DeWit: And picks the county and now we're going down. Jack Butala: Yeah, in a perfect world, the assessed values would be consistent with the price for acres and you would look down a dataset of let's say, I don't know, I'm going to just use an example of a thousand lines of data and everything's peachy. It's like, oh, it all ties. It's great. And then at the top, there's properties that have an assessed value of zero, a bunch of them. Why? Because they're probably non-profit properties. And then at the bottom, there's assessed values. I'll use his numbers of 400, 500, 600,000. But they're all at that same county, same APN scheme. What the hell? They're outliers. They're data exceptions. In the world of data, that's what they call it. So what do you do? Do you increase your price per offer in that like he suggests? No. What you do is you lop them off your data set because it's screwing up your averages. If you have in a thousand unit data set, if you have 25 to 50 with zero on the top, and then at the bottom, you have, let's say 50 or 80 that are in the millions or the hundreds of thousands or the 50,000 even, it's going to throw your data way off. So you terminate them.

Scraping Data for Mailer Pricing Pros and Cons (LA 1399) Transcript: Jack Butala: Steve and Jill here. Jill DeWit: Ho, ho, ho. Jack Butala: Welcome to the Land Academy Show, entertaining land investment talk. I'm Steven Jack Butala. Jill DeWit: And I'm Jill De Wit, coming to you this Christmas week from sunny Southern California. Jack Butala: Today. Jill and I talk about scraping data for mailer, for your mailers, the pros and cons. Jill DeWit: You're all business and I'm all into the holidays. Jack Butala: Yep. For the last decade, that's how it's been. Jill DeWit: Yep. Jack Butala: I think holidays- Jill DeWit: Careful. Jack Butala: ... disrupt- Jill DeWit: Oh. Jack Butala: ... revenue streams. Jill DeWit: Well, in the old days, this would be a high retail year and it would make revenue streams. Jack Butala: There's something about this holiday at the end of the year, it just becomes a two week thing. Versus, I don't know, whatever other holidays that you're into, Easter or Thanksgiving. It's that day, and maybe if you're a cool employer like us, it's you take the day off after that so it becomes a long weekend. But this just, it's a two week thing. Jill's right, it starts right about now. Jill DeWit: You know the good thing is? If you haven't experienced before in our business flipping land, when people are home on their computers with nothing to do and they're tired of their family, sometimes they spend money on dirt. Just saying. Jack Butala: Yeah, well. Jill DeWit: It has happened. Jack Butala: Okay. Jill DeWit: It has happened. Jack Butala: December is not historically our best month by any stretch. Jill DeWit: It has done okay. Jack Butala: Today's topic. Oh, we already talked about it. 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: Ellen S. "Hello, everyone. On a recent episode of the land Academy podcast, Jack mentioned something about how investors shouldn't be buying land in Apache County, Arizona. Would he or anyone else be able to give some more information about why? I'm a virtual assistant, one of my clients is a land investor." Jack Butala: Okay, hold on. Jill DeWit: This is funny. Do you want me to keep going? Jack Butala: She, Ellen, is a virtual assistant for one of the land investor or Land Academy members. Jill DeWit: Right. Jack Butala: She handles sales and ... Go ahead. Jill DeWit: Okay. Okay. "I handle sales and marketing for him. I've been doing this for almost a year and a half [inaudible 00:02:16] success selling his properties in another state, but I struggled with selling these in Apache County." Jack Butala: Okay, one second. Jill DeWit: Okay. Jack Butala: Ellen has success selling properties for the person that she works for. So if you need a virtual assistance that's successful at selling property, why not contact Ellen? She's right there in landinvestors.com. Jill DeWit: May I continue? Jack Butala: This is how you use land investors. It's not just like a newspaper. Jill DeWit: Okay. Jack Butala: It's huge resourcing. Jill DeWit: Listen, Captain Obvious. Okay. "They're in Holbrook, right by the Petrified Forest National Park. I've never been to the area." Jack Butala: Good for you. Jill DeWit: I would appreciate any tips on how to sell these properties here, and I would love to know why Jack doesn't like it. Any help is appreciated. Also, I love the podcast." That's funny and cool and sweet. Jack Butala: If you apply the red, green, yellow test, like we talk about in our education programs, and you look up Apache County or Navajo County, you will see that it doesn't in any way pass the red, green, yellow test. There's three components to it and it doesn't pass any of them. Jill DeWit: And once upon a time it did. Jack Butala: Yes. Jill DeWit: So that's a point here, so there's still leftover properties. I probably have some leftover properties.

The Right Questions to Ask (LA 1398) Transcript: Steven Butala: Steve and Jill here. Jill DeWit: Good day. 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 right questions to ask versus the wrong ones. Jill DeWit: Can I give a few examples? Is this a good question? I can't find the Land Academy dashboard. Steven Butala: I will let the listener answer that to themselves. Jill DeWit: How do I price waterfront property? Steven Butala: That's a good question. Jill DeWit: Thank you. Steven Butala: That's a great question. Jill DeWit: Okay. I wanted to give a little good one ... Steven Butala: That's the right question to ask. Jill DeWit: Thank you. Steven Butala: Does Land Academy work at all? Great question. Jill DeWit: Do you recommend my mom quitting her job to answer my phone at night? Steven Butala: That's not a question I can answer for you. Is that a good question? Jill DeWit: I don't know. Steven Butala: First of all, here's what Jill's getting at: you know this whole thing about, there's no such thing as a stupid question. [crosstalk 00:01:19] I am here to tell you, there's absolutely such thing as as stupid question. In fact, probably 70 or 80% of the questions in life that get asked are stupid. Jill DeWit: Right. Steven Butala: And could be answered ... what's the definition of that? It can be answered by yourself. You can answer that yourself. Jill DeWit: Right. Steven Butala: Or with a tiny bit of research. You know what? Every single answer to every single question, with very, very few exceptions, is in your pocket or in your purse right now. Jill DeWit: I told this couple I had a call with a week or so ago, they said, "How do I know if I hired the right person?" I said, "You're going to know real fast. Real fast, based on the questions that they ask you and if they repeat the same questions, if they're getting it or not." 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: That's Jack's way of moving this along. Steven Butala: I'm going to be the let's not watch Jill deteriorate moderator today. Jill DeWit: Why? Oh. Steven Butala: Because of this- Jill DeWit: Because I can go into a dark, dark place? Steven Butala: Yes. When I'm the voice of reason in this relationship, watch out. Jill DeWit: That's funny. Yeah, I can go dark. Steven Butala: It's not going to be [crosstalk 00:02:33]. Jill DeWit: But she seems so nice. Not this topic. Nope, nope, no. She's done. She got worn down. Okay, Rich wrote, "This is mostly a mindset question. As I am still trying to"- Steven Butala: Then it's a good question. Jill DeWit: Okay. Steven Butala: I think. Jill DeWit: Okay. "I'm still trying to learn to buy and sell vacant land using these tools, not homes. A friend of mine just sold his house in Phoenix and is buying one in Idaho." Gee, interesting. Him and how many other people? Steven Butala: The whole Western part of the country is all exchanging houses right now. Jill DeWit: Totally. That's exactly what's happening. Steven Butala: Some are moving north, some are moving south, most of them are moving east, not west. Jill DeWit: You know what, everyone should've just got into their cars, and then in Nevada, Vegas or so, just toss each other the keys. That would've been a lot easier. Steven Butala: Yeah, cut the real estate agents out. Jill DeWit: Yeah. Steven Butala: Just change houses. Jill DeWit: Meet there and hand keys and move on. That would've been so much easier. Steven Butala: That's hilarious. Jill DeWit: Thank you. Okay. "When I look at the house in Idaho on Neighbor Scoop, I can see the owner bought the house in 2017." Rich, you're like me. This is how I ... I'm liking Rich.

No Such Thing as a Failed Mailer (LA 1397) 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 how there's no such thing as a failed mailer. Jill DeWit: What? Steven Butala: Yep. Jill DeWit: What? Steven Butala: I really think this taps into a lot of people's concern about their capability of pricing mailers and there's all kinds of things that can happen after you send a mailer out. I've only ever had positive experiences, including, "Wow, nothing really came from that," but I know I'm never going to mail that state again. Jill DeWit: Oh, that's a positive too. We did that just recently. Steven Butala: That's what I'm saying. We'll talk about it in a second. Jill DeWit: Okay. 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: David asks, "Hey, all. I was wondering what key metrics you all find most important and are useful to monitor and run your land business for acquisitions, sales, profitability, whatever you think are the most important ones." Thanks very much. I know what mine is. Steven Butala: Go ahead. Jill DeWit: I monitor our bank balance. Steven Butala: You know what? I used to do that way before you. Jill DeWit: I do. Steven Butala: I think that's dangerous. Jill DeWit: I know, but I do know if it's going to the right direction or not. Steven Butala: I was fully prepared and I'm going to answer the question the way I was going to answer it anyway, but I didn't know how much money I'd make. I have an accounting background, so I tend to complicate things just like, "Yeah, there's a lot of money in there. More than yesterday. I'm going to go have some fun now." Jill DeWit: Exactly. I think we're doing okay. Steven Butala: In this business, like a lot of businesses, but in particular this business for some reason, there's this relationship between how much cash you have, like Jill said, and how much real estate you have. And they're constantly going up and down. What's the value? So I'll directly answer your question, David. I look at the number of properties that we own based on have we spent the money on. So if they're in escrow and we've already purchased them, but they're not yet purchased, so there's cash that's out. So how much cash is out and what's the sale value of the real estate that we own? So right now, Jill and I own literally about $2 million, this is sale value of property. And we have generated this year so far ... I don't know what the numbers are, it doesn't matter. A lot, millions of dollars in sales, sold property, and how much money did we make on it? But I really, really focus, hyper-focus. If I'm in a hurry I only look at one thing, how much property, what's the sale value, the whole sale value of the property that we have already paid for? And then I can sleep at night, because I know there's a million dollars worth of property in there, it's constantly being cycled through. And then secondarily, I look at what's under contract, which means in layman's terms that pipeline's jammed full enough so that we've got a million dollars for sale property, we've got a couple million dollars of property that's being worked on. Not all of it's going to close for a lot of reasons, I'm sleeping good. What I don't look at, and I probably should after Jill just made that comment, is how much cash that we have in reserves or ... I'm not happy when there's too much cash. Jill DeWit: I know, that's true, but I do keep track of that. On the first of the month I write it down. What I don't look at is, I look at the big picture, I don't look at the number. I don't have a bottom number, like I have to buy 10, I have to buy the good ones.

Great Marketing Generates Sales (LA 1396) 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 great marketing generates sales. As I said yesterday, at the end of the show, marketing for regular people was unattainable until around 2009, 2010. You had a choice of print marketing, radio or television, and it was crazy expensive. It was unreachable and unattainable for regular people like us. And so everything changed from a marketing standpoint from 2010 until nowish. Maybe there was some opportunity before that, mostly because of Facebook. Jill DeWit: I think people are still using those billboards along the freeway. I just thought about it. I don't even notice them anymore. Is that still a thing? Steven Butala: It is a thing. It is and I think it is what it is. Jill DeWit: What? Steven Butala: No, I mean signage. I think we did a show recently about putting a sign on your land, it really works, but there's no replacement for Facebook marketing to a very specific group or a specific zip code about a piece of property that you have in, I don't care, I'm just going to say central Arizona, that the property's good for fill in the blank, recreation, building a cabin, taking a dune buggy or a sand rail or whatever. And I think those specific groups are extremely isolated and quantified, especially when they're geography based, and it's Facebook. We have an incredible amount of success both through the Facebook backend business marketing and Facebook Marketplace, as do a tremendous number of our members. And I also think, and I know, that the way the MLS does now, the multiple listing service, used to be in a book like a phone book and it would come out every month. And you would find out way after the fact, if a property was sold or not sold, but selling property on the MLS or places like Zillow or Land And Farm is extremely affordable for people like us. And you hit the right people. Jill DeWit: Sweet. Steven Butala: Before we get into it, we did really pretty much right then. Let's take a question posted by one of our members on landinvestors.com online community, it's free. Jill DeWit: Jessica asks, "Hi, I mailed a row of parcels owned by different members of one family. One by one, I've received three contracts now. Two parcels are side by side, and I'm going to sell them as package. The third parcel is separated from the other two by one vacant parcel. Would you attempt to sell these three parcels together or just sell the third lot separate by itself? Thanks." I know what I would do. Steven Butala: Go ahead. Jill DeWit: I would mark them individually and then also say as a package. I would put each one would have three different postings, a little bit unique photos, make them look a little different from the views. And then I would say in the posting, "By the way, this is one of three available. Here's the one directly next door. And then here's the one over here too." And just have a visual showing all three parcels and let them know it's priced this way for a single, this way for a double, and if you want all three of them, this price. And it should go down, the more they buy it should be a little bit less to entice someone to go, "I'll just buy all three." Steven Butala: Perfect synopsis. Jill DeWit: Thank you. Steven Butala: All right. I couldn't agree more. I will tell you this, in my however many years and 16,000 deals, I have never, ever in a single circumstance, made more money because I consolidated property. Never. If you buy these properties right, you're going to sell them individually to three happy people. Is it going to be harder? Yeah. Are you going to make more money? Yup. Sometimes twice as much. This notion of consolidating property,

How Accountability Groups Work (LA 1395) 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 accountability groups work. Seems like a basic thing doesn't it? It's not at all. Jill DeWit: Accountability. Steven Butala: It's incredibly- Jill DeWit: We know what that means. Steven Butala: ... confusing. The feedback that we're getting from members and non-members alike is either the people are either dramatically requesting it, like, "Wow, where's your accountability group? How can I join one? What's the deal?" Or they're saying, "What's an accountability group?" Jill DeWit: Or, "Don't pick me because I can't be held accountable." Steven Butala: Or I just think... At my age, accountability just went along with being a- Jill DeWit: A grown-up. Steven Butala: Growing up. I don't know how old Jill is for real, but I'm guessing it's the same with her too. 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: Age, it just changes every day, doesn't it? Steven Butala: I don't understand this whole age thing. Jill DeWit: I know. Steven Butala: But I'm not going to talk about it. Jill DeWit: It's a girl thing. Come on. Guys have a thing. Steven Butala: What's a guys thing? Jill DeWit: Probably bank balance. Steven Butala: That's for sure. Jill DeWit: Okay, there we go. We can put that to bed now. Herbert wrote, I would like to join or create an accountability... Gee funny, you found this in our thing... slash, mastermind group to grow and learn faster with some individuals. Steven Butala: To grow and learn faster. I'm going to pick that apart in a minute. Jill DeWit: If you're part of one now and are looking for another member to bounce ideas off of, let me know. Also, if you're interested in creating one, let me know. Thanks. Steven Butala: So like a lot of things with social media that I am completely unaware of- Jill DeWit: Social media in general? Steven Butala: ... this thing trickles up to me. I know all about [crosstalk 00:00:02:03]. Jill DeWit: I'm just kidding. I'm joking. Steven Butala: It's not that bad. Jill DeWit: I know. I'm teasing you. Steven Butala: It trickles up to me. I'm sure that the prevalence on this topic is probably... Maybe even in regular school, they're having accountability groups. I don't know. It's just it's a new name for something that's been going on with successful people forever. So you know what? Let's just go right in. Jill DeWit: This is a study group. Steven Butala: Yeah. The answer to this, it isn't a topic, so I'm just going to do this here. Today's topic, how accountability groups work. This is why you're listening. So let's take a look at some of the oldest most successful, been around forever, accountability groups. There's three of them. Jill mentioned the first one. A study group. "Hey, I can't study on my own. I'm in school, high school, college," whatever. "There's three other people in my group that seemed to be interested in getting a good grade. Let's all meet at the student union at 8:00 every Tuesday, right after the class and get all of our stuff done." Hopefully some of the people of the opposite gender are attractive because that's a great way to meet people. Then I'll leave it at that. Jill DeWit: Was that the point of the study group? Steven Butala: Sometimes. Jill DeWit: Okay. Steven Butala: Note two: Alcoholics Anonymous. Everybody sits in a circle or at least they do in the movies. "Hey, did you drink today?" "No, I didn't. Did you?" "Nope. Tell us a story." Okay. Jill DeWit: I like the Weight Watchers version. Steven Butala: And number three is Weight Watchers.

People are Getting Rich (LA 1394) Transcript: Steven Butala: Steve and Jill here. Jill DeWit: Happy Monday. Steven Butala: Welcome to the Land Academy Show, entertaining land investment talk. I'm Steven Jack Butala. Jill DeWit: And I am Jill DeWitt, broadcasting from sunny Southern California. Steven Butala: Today Jill and I talk about how people are getting rich. This whole title, and show, and episode came up because Jill had a consulting call with a couple of people, and they're getting rich. They're in our group, getting rich, and they want to know how to get, I guess- Jill DeWit: Richer. Steven Butala: Better. Jill DeWit: It's so funny. It was just like, I hung up the phone ... Or, wasn't on the phone. It was a Zoom call. I got off the call, and I'm like, "Holy cow." It's just a sweet couple in our group about to quit their jobs. Those are good jobs, by the way. I'm like, "Do they even realize what just happened?" Then what we were talking about is what's possible. That's what's ... They're ready for it. They're like, "Yep, we get you." They weren't even shocked, as we talked. I know we'll share more about this. Steven Butala: Yeah, we'll get into it in the episode, because we haven't talked about it at all, except for the title. I want to know what they said and what their situation is, and how they got there, and all of that. Jill DeWit: It's funny. Yeah. 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: [Pete 00:01:23] wrote, "Hi, all. I'm new to Land Academy and loving it all. I just approved my first batch of 10,000 units of mail, 10,000 mailers, with offers to owners. I can't wait until the activity starts." Steven Butala: Yikes. Jill DeWit: I know. I wonder if Pete's going to send it out all at once, been there, done that, or he's going to sparse it out. I'm guessing he's going to sparse it out, but we'll see. "In my opinion," here we go, "I'd rather send a large quantity of mail and be a little picky instead of moving forward with marginal deals that will take longer to sell. I'm hoping to get on this schedule, this amount of mailers per week as a base, and then build up from there. Am I setting myself up to be overwhelmed, or is this a level that I can manage as long as I delegate as much as possible? I'm planning to use PATLive, and I've got a couple assistants already that work for me for other businesses." Steven Butala: Oh, okay. Jill DeWit: That's good. Steven Butala: Here we go. He's got other businesses. Jill DeWit: "It should be pretty easy for me to get them up to speed on some of the other tasks." Steven Butala: Excellent. Jill DeWit: "Is there anyone out there that sends 100,000 mailers a month? From the response rates I've heard just reading here, this type of volume could be really lucrative as long as you can turn your system into a well-oiled machine." This ties into what we talked about yesterday. "If any pros out there have some advice or tips on anything, I'm all ears." You want to go first? Steven Butala: No, you go first. Jill DeWit: Okay. This ties into ... It was last week, actually, the call that I had with this couple that we're going to talk about today, and just what's possible. To answer Pete's question, see what you can do. I personally ... We talked about this in the last couple weeks, those people that are go-for-it people that just jump off the cliff, there's people that, "I'm going to stand over here and watch you guys," and there's some that can't get out of the car. Pete's clearly a "jump off the cliff", and he's a "run off the cliff" person. Steven Butala: Just like Jill. Jill DeWit: I'll figure it out. You're either going to sink or swim. You're going to figure it out. It sounds like Pete has other companies and things going on. This is not nuts for him. I think it's great. Steven Butala: I do too. Jill DeWit:

Restarting Life with a Plan (LA 1393) Transcript: Steven Butala: Steven and Jill here. Jill DeWit: Howdy. 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 restarting life with a plan because it's Friday. Jill DeWit: It is. Steven Butala: It's a little bit lighter. Topics are a little bit lighter. Jill DeWit: Are they? Steven Butala: But just as informative. Jill DeWit: This could be a very deep topic. Steven Butala: It will be actually. I don't know what to day. Jill DeWit: I know. Steven Butala: I'm sure you did too. Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative). 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: Grace wrote, "Any suggestion what website or Facebook groups I should post wholesale requests? I have a buyer who would like a waterfront lot in Travis County, Texas near Austin and Travis Lake. Thank you for your advice." Do you want to go first, or you want me to go first? I'm going to try to be really gentle. Steven Butala: I'm not. So let's go gentle first because I'm going to... Let's good cop, bad cop this. Jill DeWit: Okay. Steven Butala: You're a good cop. Jill DeWit: Okay. I have done this, Grace. I thought years ago when I had these buyers that were looking for property that call in and I didn't have exactly what they wanted, I would take notes. "Well, what kind of..." They were wholesale guys too. "What are you looking for? "Okay. I want anything in the West part of Texas. I want anything from 10 to 20 acres. I want this kind of access, this kind of zoning," and I started to keep a list. I thought, "All right, I'm going to try to do this." What I found out was, huge waste of my time. Steven Butala: Biggest waste of time in any real estate career ever. I don't care if you're a real estate agent or if you're a loan officer. I don't care. Jill DeWit: Because I really tried, Grace. I said, "Okay." I would get a deal and I go, "Oh." I go look at my list and I'd send it to the guy. "This is perfect. You asked for A, B, C, D and E and I've got them all. Here you go. How do you want to do this?" "Shucks, I didn't want that much of a... That's a little too close to the city than I wanted. I wanted to be a little further out." I'm like, "This is exactly what you said," but there was just something that didn't work. So my point is it was such a time killer. I eventually... I have a solution. Do you want to talk about that, and then I'll give you my solution? Steven Butala: Yeah. Please keep going. Jill DeWit: Okay. [crosstalk 00:02:29]. Steven Butala: What I have to say, this is not pretty. Jill DeWit: Okay. He's going to get it off. [crosstalk 00:02:32] I'll finish my whole thoughts on this, Grace. I'm all good cop, and then he'll come along and give you his truth. So what I found was, "Hey, that's great. I have all kinds of properties." This is how the conversation ended and how I saved it and what we do today. Anytime someone is in a situation, they want this thing. "You know what? I get awesome properties all over the country all the time." Here's what I would suggest. "I send out an email once a month, once a whatever with a list of the properties. If you are really serious about this, get on my... I'll even do it for you. What's your email? Okay, Bob Smith, [email protected]. Awesome. You are now on my platinum buyers list. You will be notified when I get properties in. Scan the list. If you see something you like, give me a call." Done. Steven Butala: First rule in any investing scenario, it doesn't have to be real estate, just any type of investment plan is to control an asset at a cheap price. I don't care if you're buying stock or buying Apple stock at X because you believe it's going to go up.

Scaling at Your Own Pace (LA 1392) Transcript: Steven Butala: Steve and Jill here. Jill DeWit: Good day. Steven Butala: Welcome to the Land Academy Show, entertaining land investment talk. I'm Steven Jack Butala. Jill DeWit: I'm Jill DeWit, broadcasting from sunny Southern California Steven Butala: Today, Jill and I talk about scaling at your own pace. If there's one thing I've learned from all the successful people in the Land Academy Advanced Group, is that they had a plan, they executed the plan. Some of it worked, some of it didn't. They stayed on course. They hit a plateau. They set another goal, scaled up, did what they needed to take, scaled up. They had a plan. We talked about this yesterday just a little bit. You hit that ceiling. Now you understand what you're doing, make some mistakes, healthy mistakes, and you just keep scaling. And you have to do it at your own pace. I think it's really important, when you're ready, that's the time to scale. There's very rare Type A personalities that can just barrel through this and just become successful at it- Jill DeWit: True. Steven Butala: ... in a couple of months. I'm not that person. I have to do research. This one, maybe. You barrel right into everything. Jill DeWit: Feels like a bull. Steven Butala: It's important to have a plan and execute, and that's all this is. Jill DeWit: It's true. 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: Tyler wrote, "Hi, all. I'm looking to outsource work and I'm curious to what work you outsource initially with a VA that was easy to pass off, if you've used VAs before. I'm trying to free up more time to focus on other areas of the business. I appreciate a response." Steven Butala: This is a fantastic question and incredibly appropriate for the topic today. Jill DeWit: I say the best thing to start with with VAs, are the very mundane tasks that don't involve talking on the phone and don't involve email. They involve looking up things and inputting them into a column and you need a hundred of them or a thousand of them or 10,000 of them. That is a perfect place to start. Do you want to add to that first? Steven Butala: No, keep going. Keep going. Jill DeWit: Then from there, you can start assessing what you want done. You could actually go from there to having them do deeds. Basically, these are all my favorite things you use with VAs. It's just really, no phone, no email, but they're very, very smart so there's lots of things they can do on website. Say you need pictures uploaded, you can do 10 properties at a time. You could have the pictures in a folder, they can grab them, have them already in the order that you want them, and give them those tasks. The best thing that I have learned with this from Steven, which is, excuse me, it's one of the many great things that I've learned. Steven Butala: Oh my goodness. For every one thing she's learned, there's six things she has to undo. Jill DeWit: That's true. There is that. The best way that we have found to communicate with the VAs is via videos, because sometimes it's not the same person and they have questions. It's hard, there is a little language gap, but there's a video. They see where you put in the website where you're going and they see you on the camera, on the video where you're getting the information, how you're putting in state county [apn 00:03:44]. It's usually maybe back tax information, copying it, putting into the column here. That, they can do. That's it. Steven Butala: If you can video it and it's repetitive, that's tier one VA stuff. Video yourself doing it a few times and talking to them, and then send the video out- Jill DeWit: Screen capture. Steven Butala: By the way, if you need, we have a full-blown company in the Philippines. We probably have six people that work for us full-time in this group,

2 Types of Land Academy Members (LA 1391) Transcript: Steven Butala: Steven 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 two types of Land Academy members. Who do you think they are? Jill DeWit: Hold on a moment. Let me think of some funny things. The ones over five feet tall, the ones under five feet tall. Just kidding. Steven Butala: The ones over East of the Mississippi and West of the Mississippi. Jill DeWit: The ones in the Northern hemisphere and the Southern hemisphere. Steven Butala: Yeah, that true. Jill DeWit: The ones that are in team Jack, the ones that are team Jill. I like that too. The ones that like social media, the ones that hate it and do it because they have to. Social media, how's that? Those that are computer savvy. I could go all day. Computer savvy or shoot, I'm still trying to figure out what alt-P is. Steven Butala: What is alt-P? Jill DeWit: Print. Steven Butala: Print. The ones who love data and the ones who love sales. Jill DeWit: There we go. Steven Butala: None of these are what this is intended for. Jill DeWit: This has been fun though, I like this. The ones that love the snow, the ones that hate the snow. I know where you fall. Steven Butala: The ones who really love land and money is secondary, or the ones who love money first and land is just a vehicle to get there. Jill DeWit: That's valid too. That's good. 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: Anthony wrote. Hello there. One of my first land contract deals has gone bad. The buyer cannot continue making payments. This happens. Boy, does this happen. One problem is that I recorded the contract with the County. I know. It was my first contract deal though. For a small inducement, the buyer will sign a notarized quick claim deed. My question, will having this quick claim deed recorded remove the buyer from the deed? Will this negate the contract? Is another form needed? I would really like to avoid court here and the buyer's flexible. The state of Oregon, if that makes a difference. Any input would be greatly appreciated. Thanks guys. Steven Butala: May I? Jill DeWit: Yes, please. I was going to say, "all you." Steven Butala: I'm going to start this off with an anecdotal professional story failure on my part. Jill DeWit: I like this. I may get comfortable for a minute now. Steven Butala: When I started in this business, I went to a tax auction a lot of years ago, many years ago in the 90s, and bought a ton of property and sold it for cash on eBay. And it had a false sense of security. I had a ton of on my chest. I felt great and made a ton of money. So I went and bought. All this is in our ebook, and I don't know. These stories are all over our education material. So I got that sense of security. Some of it false, some of it not, for cash sales and auctions and all of it. Buy it at an auction, sell it at an auction for more, how hard can this be? I said, "I'm going to try something new. I'm going to go, I'm going to contact a bunch of real estate agents in the rural areas of Arizona and see if they have any real cheap property like this. I'll just buy it for cash and sell it on terms." Because I'm flushed with cash now, after these tax auction sales. Too much cash, actually. Just like today. Jill DeWit: Yeah, don't get me started. Steven Butala: I go and buy a bunch of property just South of grand Canyon, really high quality properties, super cheap. $175 a lot. And I packaged them up, because of local laws, in six packs. Which makes pretty nice five or six acre property. And I start selling them on terms. I use, because I don't know any better,

Using Yard Signs and the MLS for Land Postings (LA 1390) 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 using yard signs and the MLS for your land sales postings. Jill DeWit: What? What? Hold on a moment. Thought the whole point was not to see the property and not use MLS and agents and all that. I'm so confused. Steven Butala: What year is it? Jill DeWit: What? Are we going back to 1980? Steven Butala: Is it 2020 or 1920? Excuse me. Jill DeWit: I love it. We'll explain. Don't worry. I promise we're not eating our words here. We're tweaking them. 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: This is a shining example of just got to roll with it, man. Things change and you got to roll with it. Okay, Austin wrote, "Hello. I have run into a concern with a few buyers recently. They are hesitant of buying property from me due to the possibility that it may be a scam. The properties I'm currently selling are sub $5,000. So I'm selling with credit card processing on my site with a notary close. I have a clean and professional looking website. On the phone, I'm polite and answer questions in a knowledgeable manner. Any thoughts on how to set up my legitimacy game? Thanks, Austin." You want to go first? Steven Butala: Sure. This has been a problem since the beginning of notary close, and since the beginning of credit card sales, and since my days in the '90s on eBay. It's a legitimate problem. I would be concerned with it too. When I started this business a long time ago on eBay, long before I met Jill, I would explain what I do for a living to people socially. And they would just say, "That's got to be a scam. No one can buy property that you can't see." If you talk to a real car person, they're going to say the same thing about cars. "How can you possibly buy a car online that you haven't seen? You need to take a look under the hood. You need to look at it. You need to go through with all things." So by and large, that's like the professional view. So we have a challenge, all of us, to establish credibility. If you're listening to this, you obviously believe that Jill and I are a credible source for this kind of information. That didn't happen on accident. It happens by us doing five years of shows like this and talking in detail about stuff. Jill DeWit: It's true. Steven Butala: So online, you have to make yourself credible and actually be credible. Jill DeWit: That's true. Steven Butala: It takes time. If you're talking to them on the phone, all you have to do is talk to Jill on the phone for three minutes, and you're going to know that this is all credible. I chose this question, a ton of questions on LandInvestors.com, because there's so many responses. There were probably 10 or 15 responses from members and non-members that this is a concern and it's a daily or weekly issue. So that's good. It's a great start. Your site looks good. You've got the credit card processing pieces in place. But in the end, and I think the consensus on Land Investors was need to sell the property with title insurance and you need to ask them to pay for it. That should soothe all of it. Jill DeWit: That's true. Steven Butala: Do you have any Jillify advice? Jill DeWit: It sounds like he's doing it. When you always answer the phone, you're available, you have a company phone number, like you answer, "Austin's Land Company," something like that. You're consistent. You're available. Then a lot of it's just going to take time to- Steven Butala: What's the first thing you do when you question somebody's credibility? The first thing I do is- Jill DeWit: Google them. Steven Butala: ...

Interview with Advanced Members Katherine and Michael Aillon (LA 1389) Transcript: Steven Butala: We're on audio and video, love. Jill DeWit: Cool. Steven Butala: Oops. (silence) Jill DeWit: Silencing everything. Steven Butala: What about everything? Jill DeWit: Oh, I'm just silencing all my phones and... Hi [inaudible 00:00:52]. Michael Aillon: Hello. Hi. Steven Butala: Hi. Jill DeWit: I got to hang out with Katherine yesterday. Steven Butala: Oh, she was on the call? Jill DeWit: Of course she was on the call. He asked me earlier today, he's like, we were recording some shows, and he's like, "Well, will you fill us in on what you guys talked about at the girls call?" I said absolutely not. That is not what that is for. I will not share that with you. It is not recorded and posted anywhere. Nope, nope, nope. Michael Aillon: I can't start my video for some reason. It says [inaudible 00:01:43]. Steven Butala: Oop. Jill DeWit: Co-host will do it, except I hung up on him. Steven Butala: Ooh. Jill DeWit: [inaudible 00:01:52]. There we go. Steven Butala: This way. Jill DeWit: [inaudible 00:01:54], and then co-host. You have to bump him up one more. It's crazy. Co-host. There you go. Now you should be good. Steven Butala: Should be able to do it yourself now. Jill DeWit: Yay. Steven Butala: Yeah. Jill DeWit: Hello. Michael Aillon: Have some video here. Steven Butala: There we are. Yeah. Audio and video. Katherine Aillon: A little adjustment. Jill DeWit: Perfect. Michael Aillon: How do we sound? Katherine Aillon: Jill and I are doing the same thing. We're like, okay, our hair. Jill DeWit: Exactly. [crosstalk 00:02:32]. Michael Aillon: How do we sound, Steve? Jill DeWit: Had a busy day. You'll cut all this, right? Steven Butala: It's fine. Jill DeWit: I know. Katherine Aillon: Cool. Michael Aillon: Steve, how does our audio sound? Can you hear us? Steven Butala: Yeah, it's in a little bit in and out, but let's let Zoom catch up for a second. Michael Aillon: Okay. Yeah. I'm trying to think here if there's anything I can do on my end. Steven Butala: You know what, it sounds fine now. Michael Aillon: Okay. You know what? I am still attached to my corporate VPN. I'm going to disconnect here. Let's see. That might be helpful. Does that sound any better? Steven Butala: Yeah, sounds good. Michael Aillon: Does that sound any better? Okay, good. Jill DeWit: Yeah. Michael Aillon: Well, hey. Jill DeWit: It was tinny. Now it's good. Michael Aillon: Good to see you guys. Jill DeWit: Hey, nice shirt. Look at you. Steven Butala: Oh, nice. Jill DeWit: Oh my gosh. You are wearing that, and Katherine and I are wearing black. It's like we totally coordinated this. Steven Butala: It's uniform. Jill DeWit: I love it. This is the Land Academy uniform. Steven Butala: You know that black light behind you, it's perfectly positioned. I thought you guys were in separate rooms or separate buildings. It's right in the center of the screen. Jill DeWit: Right. It's like two rooms. Katherine Aillon: Oh. Steven Butala: Did you think that? Jill DeWit: For a minute I did think that they were in two different rooms. I'm like, wait a minute. Katherine Aillon: That now is a lamp from the '80s. Jill DeWit: I love it. I remember those. Steven Butala: All right, so you guys know the drill. We're just going to ask you a bunch of questions. You can ask us stuff, and horsing around's fun. Jill DeWit: Totally. Michael Aillon: Yeah, I know. Steven Butala: You want to MC the show? Jill DeWit: Are you going to do intro? Are you going to do a normal intro, after show, or- Steven Butala: No, not really. Nah, we don't need to. Do you want to? Jill DeWit: You just MC. Steven Butala: You want me to MC. Jill DeWit: I want you to intro and extro. Steven Butala: Okay. Now I got to pull the script up. Jill DeWit: You don't have to do the script. All right. Michael Aillon: Is our audio catching up correctly?

Achieving Balance in Work and Life (LA 1388) Transcript: Steven Jack Butala: Steve and Jill here. Jill DeWit: Hi. Steven Jack 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 Jack Butala: Today. Jill and I talk about achieving balance in work, in life. You guessed it, this is a Jill topic. Jill DeWit: Thanks a lot. It's hilarious. Do you struggle with this? Steven Jack Butala: Not at all. Jill DeWit: Really? Steven Jack Butala: Never have, never. And that was actually what I was going to talk about that a lot. Jill DeWit: I have a lot of questions then. Steven Jack Butala: I think this is going to be a real interesting episode. I think it's going to be half family meeting, half therapy session, and half... Not three half, there's three halves. Jill DeWit: Half information. Steven Jack Butala: There's three accounts, right? Jill DeWit: I like that. Yeah, that's very nice. Thanks babe. Steven Jack Butala: That reminds me- Jill DeWit: Five quarters. Good. Steven Jack Butala: ...of another famous Yogi Berra quote. Jill DeWit: Uh-oh. Steven Jack Butala: Baseball is 90% mental and the other half is physical. Jill DeWit: Thank you. Steven Jack 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: Wonder how much times... I want to have many people that are going, "Who is that?" Steven Jack Butala: Yogi Berra? Jill DeWit: Yeah. Steven Jack Butala: Oh, please look it up. Jill DeWit: Okay. Well, I know. My point is- Steven Jack Butala: Oh, I know you do. Jill DeWit: You just separated yourself... Steven Jack Butala: Yeah, from an age standpoint? Jill DeWit: Yeah. Steven Jack Butala: I don't think... Actually, I don't think Yogi Berra... Jill DeWit: I think [crosstalk 00:01:30] he's your dads generation, not really ours. Steven Jack Butala: Yeah, I don't think we were alive at the same time. Jill DeWit: It's funny. Okay. Brad wrote, "Howdy. I'm looking for a mastermind or accountability group to meet online or by phone?" Huh, funny. We can help with that. "I'm in the Sacramento area. If you know anyone doing land deals nearby, please let me know. I would happy to take them to lunch." Well, if you're in Sacramento area the restaurant may not be open. Just kidding. Steven Jack Butala: It won't be open in 2023. Jill DeWit: Right. "Sending the second mailer in December. I appreciate the community, Brad." That's great. Well, I mean, I'll just say real quick that we're doing that. There's two levels. Steven Jack Butala: You don't have to say real quick. I put this in here for you to plug our accountability group. Jill DeWit: Okay. There's two levels of- Steven Jack Butala: Shamelessly. Jill DeWit: Okay. There's two levels of accountability. Jill continues to speak, just kidding. Two levels of accountability group coming. One is the... Is it free? There's a free version forming and then there's a next level version forming. And it varies based on, I think experience? Am I correct here? Because one you're going to be involved, really heavily involved in. Steven Jack Butala: And we're launching this month, December. Jill DeWit: Yeah, on how to describe them the best. Steven Jack Butala: A series of accountability groups that are based on your level and how that actually gets released, I'm not sure. There are some people that have doing this for 10 years and they just can't hire an assistant, that's ultra advanced. There are some people that are brand new and they need help just getting that first mailer out or even picking a County, and then everything in between. So it's hard to mix those people. It's hard for me as a potential instructor, and I use that term lightly, loosely, to teach to somebody who's got 10 years in and somebody who's brand new. You just can't.

Hiring Your Land Staff Dream Team (LA 1387) Transcript: Steven Jack Butala: Steve and Jill here. Jill DeWit: Howdy. Steven Jack 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 Jack Butala: Today Jill and I talk about hiring your land staff dream team. Again, this topic came from Jill's debut ladies... What's it called? Jill DeWit: Land Academy Ladies. Steven Jack Butala: Jill identified through a popular request to start a women's closed investment group. So if you're a Land Academy member and you're a female, you are welcome to join. Jill DeWit: Yup. Steven Jack Butala: How would they do that? Jill DeWit: Send a note to [email protected] and you will get the email invite. It's a closed zoom meeting that we do every Tuesday afternoon. Steven Jack Butala: So I have to say on this women's group thing, more than just being a woman's group, I think it's a celebration and a reward system and a motivational system for people who are like-minded. And I think that this day and age, that doesn't get enough notoriety or enough credits. I think if you surround yourself by people who are like-minded, who share the same opinions and views and aspirations, or let's say values that you do, I think it can be an incredibly powerful and incredibly empowering tool. So if it happens to be gender, great. If it happens to be education level, great. If it happens to be... Whatever it is, I think that surrounding yourself with people... And I'm not saying close your mind. I'm saying learn from people that are of like-mind. That's it. And I don't know what you guys talked about. I mean, well maybe you can summarize what you guys talked about. Jill DeWit: Nope. That's the whole point. No. And I'll tell you right now too. Right now we are not showing those recordings. They are not posted anywhere. It's for that group. We're there and we have our cameras on, and we're smiling and laughing, and there's kids in the background, and it's fun. Because people are... We're getting work done. We all have busy lives. And it's just for us. So no, I'm not going to paraphrase it. Steven Jack Butala: Wow. 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: Josh wrote. Hello. All I have a lot that I'm purchasing for $15,000. Title report came back with three issues, with issues, excuse me. A deed that appears to have been filed incorrectly. The grantor and the grantee were switched. Hilarious. And a quick claim deed later in the chain of title. The title company has said that needs to replaced with a general warranty deed. The title company's working to fix these issues and appears we'll be able to do so. Well that's cool. I'm going to pause right there should just say it's kind of- Steven Jack Butala: Congratulations. Jill DeWit: Yeah. You found the one title company. Just kidding. An agent willing to do this. This is really good. People think that when you get a deed recorded that they double check it all. That it's good to go. Just because I got a stamp on it and got it returned with the date on it, and a book and page number that I did it right. I'm good to go. No. You could hand them your laundry list and they will record it and send it back to you. They don't check the stuff. And this is a perfect example. It goes from... They just they're literally just the recorder. That's it. I got this certificate, I recorded it, and it went into the books. And until it makes its way to the right person, which is kind of the assessor, down the road to go wait a minute. And they may or may not catch it. Usually they will catch it. At some point, it gets to the assessor and they go, well this isn't the right person to... I'm not going to change the tax rolls because this isn't right. And then it will eventually make its way back.

Pushing Past What's Holding You Back (LA 1386) 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 pushing past what's holding you back. This is a direct result of a conversation that Jill had with her... Well, you described where you got this topic [crosstalk 00:00:24]. Jill DeWit: It's the Land Academy ladies group. This is actually an upcoming topic that we're going to talk about. I think it's next week in our meeting. So, what it is, is if you don't know, I'll tell you. You can get in on this. For all the women, whether you're the primary person in your company or your secondary in your company, it's you and your husband or you and your brother or you and your sister, or you and your friend, whatever it is, it's for the women of Land Academy, we call Land Academy ladies. We have a weekly, closed zoom call where we get together. Guys are not allowed, sorry. And we talk about things that are unique to us. And this was one of the things that we talked about this week, and we're going to cover more in depth next week. Steven Butala: Awesome. How did it go? It was the first time, right? Jill DeWit: Oh my gosh, it was awesome. So much fun. And we had people there from Sydney, Australia. We had Hawaii, we had all over the U.S., you name it. And it was just a really... And we had all different backgrounds and all different ages and some with little kids and some way retired, almost. And this is just another thing they're doing. It was great. Steven Butala: That's great. Jill DeWit: Yeah. Steven Butala: It's always coming up with something new Jill. Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative). It was really fun. I was inspired. Steven Butala: Awesome. Jill DeWit: What's so funny... That's the whole thing. I kind of... This came about because people were asking about it and I wanted to do it. And then I walked away with like, wow, I can't wait to do that again. I'm inspired. And I had an aha moment. It was awesome. Steven Butala: Good. Before we get into it today, let's take a question posted by one of our members on the landinvestors.com online community. It's free. I'm going to read the question today. We're going to answer the questions as we go, because this is a very, very, very positive, very good, realistic experience, I think, for what happens, even now with us today, when we buy land. Thomas asks, "I would like to know some strategies that others are using. I sent my second mailer in October. A couple of weeks, went by with no responses, so I sent another one out in November to a different county in the same state, when my lack of patience bit me." Every single time this happens to us. Jill DeWit: It does. Even to us. Steven Butala: "I began getting several calls and sign agreements for my second mailer. I have one purchase in title right now, and another behind that one and possibly a third. I have had a massive response on my third mailer, where I can't even keep up with the calls, emails, and sign agreements. Many I pass over because of the lack of the five A's." Jill DeWit: Yay. Steven Butala: "I have several deals lined up with my third mailer. Many sellers are in no rush, but I don't want to put them off. I can't handle the volume. What are some of you doing to delay purchases without seeming like a 'novice'", in quotes, "which I am." Jill DeWit: I think this is so great. Well, first, I want to say, thank you, Thomas, for picking up on the five A's or used to be four, and now there's five, because I added, alive, because that often comes up. Steven Butala: We should say what the five A's are. Jill DeWit: Okay. They are access, attributes, acreage, affordability, and alive. So, when you're doing your due diligence and deciding if a property is worthy of purchasing...

Leave Your Land Alone (LA 1385 rerun LA 785) Transcript: Steven Butala (00:00): ... Jill here. Jill DeWit (00:00): Hi. Steven Butala (00:00): Sorry, hi, Steve & Jill. Welcome to the Land Academy show, entertaining land investment talk. I'm Steven Jack Butala. Jill DeWit (00:01): And I'm Jill DeWit, broadcasting from sunny southern California. Steven Butala (00:01): Today, Jill and I talk about leaving your land alone. We've been talking about her all week. Jill DeWit (00:10): There's a lot of things I'd like to ... just leave it alone. I feel like I say it a lot. Steven Butala (00:10): Yeah, why do we as people have to mess with stuff, you know? Jill DeWit (00:20): That's true, and get our hands all up in everything. Leave it alone. Steven Butala (00:20): I bet that's been going on since the beginning of time. Jill DeWit (00:28): I'm sure it has. Steven Butala (00:28): I more than anybody love the concept of messing with stuff to improve it, or constantly moving forward, or you know- Jill DeWit (00:33): It's true. Steven Butala (00:33): For me it's all data driving. Finding better ways to analyze data to make decisions and stuff. Jill DeWit (00:43): That's true. Steven Butala (00:43): But actually physically changing a property, like a contractor does or a developer does, and I understand all that, too. The world needs people like that, for sure. Jill DeWit (00:49): There's a ton- Steven Butala (00:49): I'm just not one of those people and I think if you're gonna maximize money, you know, for us at this level, there's no better way for us to maximize money than what we do. Jill DeWit (01:01): I agree. Steven Butala (01:01): You know- Jill DeWit (01:01): I was gonna say, the whole point to me about leaving it alone is you already won, so why mess with it? You bought it at the right price, that's when you know. You should buy these assets knowing that if I do nothing, it's just gonna be fine. Steven Butala (01:13): We're all in the business of creating equity, right? You know what, before we get into it, lets take a question from one of the members in the Land Ambassadors online community, it's free. Jill DeWit (01:32): Brandon asks, "In our last mailer campaign, I suppose some properties zoned for multi-family were included and someone just signed an offer and sent it back-" Steven Butala (01:43): Good. Jill DeWit (01:43): "... to buy their multi-family zoned vacant land in a city for 8 grand." Steven Butala (01:43): That's what we're in the business here for. Jill DeWit (01:43): What? Steven Butala (01:56): I love how this is going. Jill DeWit (01:56): "The property across the street, also vacant, is asking $50,000. The market in this area is fairly hot and we've sold property in this subdivision before, but not multi-family.” Steven Butala (02:01): This is good stuff. Jill DeWit (02:01): "However, the town is currently embroiled in a lawsuit against the city or department of water resources over the prohibition of drilling new wells. I'm quite certain, though, based on city planning maps, that this property has access to public water lines. I've called the water company several times in the past, but they're never helpful with vacant land.” No kidding. (02:14): “They won't tell me if they service a particular area. Only if they service an address that already has a house on it. So my question is, is this a run to the bank situation?” Steven Butala (02:38): Yes. Jill DeWit (02:38): "Or are there troubles buying multi-family zoned vacant land? Oh, and I almost forgot to mention that across the street and two parcels over, there's already a thriving apartment complex constructed. Also, SFR land in the area is asking $18,000 to $20,000 and up. So what would you guys do?” Steven Butala (02:48): I would run to the bank. Jill DeWit (02:48): Totally. Steven Butala (02:48): You know, I don't know what to say. I understand and respect your quest for, like I said,

How to Stay Motivated by Jill (LA 1384 replay 934) 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 how to stay motivated, by Jill. Jill DeWit: You know what’s funny about this today? I’m not feeling very motivated. Steven Butala: What? Jill DeWit: We’ve been traveling. It’s been busy. Steven Butala: I have never seen you not motivated. Jill DeWit: Oh, thank you. Steven Butala: I’ve never seen you not with a ball of energy unless you’re like dead asleep. Jill DeWit: Well, you know why? Here’s the truth. I am internally, right now, a little bit … I’ve had a lot going on. I’ve been traveling. I’ve been a little sick, I will share, so I’m not my best. But you know what? I rally. I guess that’s what today’s about. I’m going to help other people. I get it. I know it and there’s lots of days I feel like poop, but I’m here anyway. Steven Butala: Man, you hide it well. Jill DeWit: Thank you. Well, and I can help you. Hey, wait. Before we get into it too, by the way, I want to say one quick thing since I’m just apparently taking over the show and it’s kind of about me today anyway … Steven Butala: Staying motivated is not what I’m going to talk about today. It’s perfect. Jill DeWit: Uh oh. You’re going to talk about ways that you try to mess with me? Steven Butala: I’m going to talk about taking on a partner who’s really motivated if that’s not what you are. Jill DeWit: Oh. I got it. Steven Butala: Then I don’t have to stay motivated. Jill DeWit: Got it. Steven Butala: I can stay in a dark hole and do data stuff. Jill DeWit: Yes you can. But here’s what I want to share real quick because this is super, super, super important for everyone listening. From now until Friday, you can save 10% on your entire order through Offers To Owners. Steven Butala: Oh. Jill DeWit: Right? Steven Butala: That’s brilliant. Jill DeWit: I’m reading this verbatim from my team and they are awesome. If you’ve been waiting to send mail, this is your chance. If you know us, by the way, you know what we’re all about. Sending out mail, getting offers in the mail to get there first and get these properties cheap. If you’ve already sent mail, this is still your chance. The coupon code is available to everyone, so it’s not just new people. It’s members as well. Visit OffersToOwners.Com and use the code MarchMail, so altogether, MarchMail, at checkout. More details are on the site. Thank you for that public service announcement. Steven Butala: What made you guys decide to give everybody a break? I know it too well because I look at the numbers, you know? They go up every month. Jill DeWit: You know, honestly … Steven Butala: This whole company’s a nonprofit entity, you know what? I have to express some concern once in awhile. Jill DeWit: That’s true. 10% off of what? I know. Well, I have to be honest with you, Steven, our team right now is taking over some departments by design. They just actually now just hand me things and say, “Read this. This is what we’re doing right now.” I think it’s the greatest thing ever.

Selling Land Fast and Efficiently (LA 1383) Transcript: Steven: Steve and Jill here. Jill: Hi. Steven: Welcome to the Land Academy Show, entertaining land investment talk. I'm Steven Jack Butala. Jill: And I'm Jill DeWitt, broadcasting from sunny, Southern California. Steven: Today, Jill and I talk about selling land fast and efficiently. Jill: This is so great. This is what everybody wants. And this is, I would argue, why we are here. That's the whole point of all this, aside from the buying it, right? Yeah, we got that part. I'm just joking. I'm not trying to minimize it, but that's what you are the best at Steven, and this is the part that I can really contribute. Steven: I agree. 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: Kevin wrote, "Thanksgiving is just around the corner and Christmas is right behind it. Every year the question comes up. Should I send offers during the holidays?" The answer is yes. Heck yes. "I have never noticed much difference in response to my offers during this time of year." Sales work, even better. Get some land in your inventory so that while people are home for the holidays, they can shop for your land while digesting their pie. Steven: This is Kevin, our moderator, who wrote this. She's kind of, I'm sure hedging off the 300 questions you're getting about, "Hey, do I take a week off?" No. In fact, if you're a real land person, you don't take the week. You don't take any time off. I'm in Arizona, scouting properties out. Jill's... We both check in with each other around 10:00 pm. We're just never taking the time off. Jill: This is something too, that we've even discussed back and forth. It took us years for us to be on the same page, and now we are finally on the same page. Am I correct, Jack? Steven: I think we are. Jill: Okay. I used to argue this because your phone will ring the day after Christmas, your phone during the day after Thanksgiving. The family's done, and in past years, like the day after Thanksgiving, everybody's out shopping and what's dad doing? Trolling the computer to do something and finds a land deal, and I would do a lot that weekend. So Kevin's right, sharing our experience and his experience, and don't change a thing. Steven: Today's topic selling land fast and efficiently. This is the meat of the show. Jill, this is one of those topics where it's like... It's really good to exercise, or I like making a lot of money, or everyone wants to be skinny. It's like so... It's just one of those things. You want to sell your land fast and efficiently. You want to have it... Jill's going to tell us about it a second here. You want to have it set up in a machine. Yeah. You know what, Jill? How do you sell land fast and efficiently? Jill: Some of this stuff starts before you close. This is one of the things that I see people do wrong. They wait until they own the property and the deed's back, and they're staring at it on their desk to get a photographer, and think about the posting, and get it all set. No, you should be pushing the button the day that the signature, if you're doing a self-close, the day that the notary is getting it signed and in your name, number one. Or, the day that you're set up to close if you're doing a notary close. It should be done. We have a process in our office, and it's 10 days in. If I'm 10 days into escrow, I now feel comfortable enough. No one's changing their mind yet to invest in the money of getting the photographer ordered and on their way, drones, if it's worthy of it, and getting my team putting the posting together. This is for an escrow close. Nowadays with COVID times, they're taking a little bit longer. They traditionally take two weeks to three weeks, depending on the property. Like I said, 10 days in by the time now at let's just say, realistically, it's going to be three weeks of a close in escrow, if it goes right.

AH-HA Moment in Every Acquisition (LA 1382) Transcript: Steven Jack Butala: Steve and Jill here. Jill DeWitt: Hello. Steven Jack Butala: Welcome to The Land Academy Show, entertaining land investment talk. I'm Steven Jack Butala. Jill DeWitt: And I'm Jill Dewitt broadcasting from sunny southern California. Steven Jack Butala: Today Jill and I talk about that aha moment that every good acquisition should ... topic, and it's, I think ... Yesterday we talked about title insurance and stuff. This is what separates people, this type of topic, or really it's the specific topic, what separates people from being great at acquisitions and people who just are probably either brand new or just don't have a real knack for it. So we'll do a question and then we'll get into the topic. Jill DeWitt: I was going to add real quick, the reason this is important is for sales. It's not just thinking about, do I buy it, not buy it? You know when you look at it like, "Oh." But this is the beginning of how you're going to sell your property because whatever jumped out at you is going to jump out at your buyer, and I'll tell you all about what to do with that. Steven Jack Butala: I also think it applies to everything in life that's important. Every one of us ... a dress. You know what? I need to have this. And it makes me have a feeling like I've looked at a hundred dresses before, but this one, wow. And if the shopkeeper has got that dress in the window, they're smart. They know that it's going to bring you into the store. It happens with cars. It happens with girls. It happens with children and real estate. Jill DeWitt: Here's a problem with the dress analogy. Over 50% of the time, I'm here to tell you right now, this is true. Any woman listening will back me up on this. The dress looks better on the model than it does in life. So we won't use the dress anymore. Steven Jack Butala: Okay. Okay. I have a lot to say from- Jill DeWitt: All right. Is it for me to read the question now? Steven Jack Butala: ... a man's standpoint. I have some stuff to talk about. Take a question posted by one of our members on the landinvestors.com online community. It's free. Jill DeWitt: Jessica wrote, "Hi. I've only done a few micro mailers and I'm ready to scale up. I'm curious how people send multiple thousands of mailers to the same county. Are people who are doing this sending mail to all vacant parcels across a very wide range of lot sizes? For instance, in my last data poll, I requested all vacant land with no improvements and property sizes from five to 15 acres. This resulting record count was 876 records. This is not an overly rural area. So am I not searching for the data correctly or are other members sending to a larger variety of property sizes or something else? Thanks." This is you, Steven. Steven Jack Butala: Yeah, for sure. What I want you to do, Jessica and everybody else, is go into DataTree, go into the advanced search option, choose your state, choose your county and then start clicking the button for count requests. This is much more laborious and much more difficult and painstakingly slow to do in RealQuest Pro. So DataTree's the best place to do this. Even if you end up downloading the data from RealQuest, that's fine, but this is an almost immediate ADD type way to see what's going on. As far as the problem with Jessica, what's going on, it's not a problem. You're learning is with no improvements. So some of these data sets the way that they're put together by the developers, there's a real big difference between zero and null. Null is just an empty space. Zero is the value zero. So sometimes the way that the assessors send their data to these aggregators, like DataTree, they might have a zero in there. If they're accountants, they have zero in there. If they're artists, they have null. Jill DeWitt: [crosstalk 00:04:21]. Steven Jack Butala: Everything has to have a value. Go ahead, Jill, make fun of me. Jill DeWitt:

Self-Close vs Escrow Close (LA 1381) Transcript: Steven Jack Butala: Steve and Jill here. Jill DeWit: Hi. Steven Jack 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 Jack Butala: And I'm sitting in sunny Central Scottsdale, Arizona. Today, Jill and I talk about self close versus escrow close. Actually, a couple of days ago, Jill, we hit on this a little bit because of that title company question that, I think Thomas asked, but you know what? Let's take a question before we actually talk about it by one of our members on the landinvestors.com online community. It's free. Jill DeWit: Eraldo wrote, Hey guys. Before I joined Land Academy, I had a signed agreement to buy an infill lot. Before I knew about Land Academy pricing, I was buying it for $12,500 and selling it at full market value for $30,000. So here's the seller's story. Gloria is the owner/seller. The county shows her name, mailing address, and she's made a few payments of taxes. Oh my goodness. She's 30 years behind, but making payments on that. Okay. Since she didn't even know that she still owned it. That's hilarious. Steven Jack Butala: You're usually good things, by the way. Jill DeWit: The story went on that her mom bought it back in around 1969, 1972, and then put it in Gloria's name who was about eight or 10. Nothing showed up. So the county says the documents before 1989 would need a physical search. Called the county and they searched and found nothing. Previously, the first search was in the 80s, wasn't right. The search, they did it again. They couldn't tell me how they put the property in her name. Isn't this shocking? Our records show it's owned by her, but we don't know how it got there. That's the craziest thing. She's getting the tax bills and she's been paying the current ones, but not the very, very old back ones. I gave him Gloria's mom's name and her maiden name, father's name, brother's name just in case, and still nothing. The title examiner at the tile insurance company couldn't find anything online or physically at the courthouse. So this is a first for me. I'm at a loss. What do you think can be done? Steven Jack Butala: Jill, what do you think? Jill DeWit: What do you think, Steven? Steven Jack Butala: I'd run away. Jill DeWit: That's what I was going to say. Even typing this, typing this question to me and to us and the online community, it tells me he's got, okay, let's just say, if we're lucky, five hours into it, maybe more like 10 hours into it. At this point, I don't know what to say, other than I kind of would move on and I'm concerned. I'm concerned about somebody taking [inaudible 00:03:18] back. Steven Jack Butala: In the beginning that, he didn't price it right. Situations happen like this once in a while. If you're brand new at this, I'm trying to give you the real... how it really works in the real world. Once in a while, something like this happens. Most of the time, [inaudible 00:03:40] But once in a while you get a property where it's like, you know what? I can buy this thing for five grand and it's worth $500,000 if I solve these problems. That is in a situation where you figure it out. It might be even worth you to go to the courthouse, but if you've got a title examiner... Title examiners, if you've ever been in a county building, there's usually a big type of conference room, and there's 20 people sitting at the conference table. None of them work for the same company. One works for First American, one works for a mom and pop title company, and they're all having a blast. They're laughing with each other and drinking coffee and asking each other questions and working together. Those people are title examiners and they know that county. They live there. If they're sitting there in the county building, they know where all the books are, the pages,

How Land Academy Deal Funding Works (LA 1380) Transcript: Steve: Steve and Jill here. Jill: Hallo. Steve: Welcome to the Land Academy Show, entertaining land investment talk. Jill: And I'm Jill. And I am broadcasting from Sunny Southern California. Steve: I'm actually in Sunny Central Scottsdale, Arizona. Today Jill and I talk about how Land Academy Deal Funding works. We get these show topics from our customer service, Volume. And so these are many. Many people were asking about this last week, so we decided to do yet another show on how Deal Funding works. But 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: Thomas wrote, I've got a couple of thousand mailers out and looking for my first deal. An investor friend of mine who flips houses recommended Blueprint Title. They are an online title company. I called them and they said the only thing they cannot do with land transactions is the new deed and its recording. Isn't that the only thing we really kinda need, but we won't go there. Steve: I put this in here for you. Jill: This is hilarious. Steve: Just when you think it can't get any worse, they say, "Oh no, we can't do the deed." Why would they do that? Jill: I'm gonna start a company like this, it's hilarious. [inaudible 00:01:23] can handle is you give me a check and I'll make sure it gets to them. And then everything else you got to do. Steve: Which is Escrow, that's the definition of Escrow. It's not- Jill: What the heck? Steve: It's classic. I would run away from this. Go ahead. Jill: This is so funny. This made me ask the question. If I close a deal through a conventional title company, like First American, do they take care of the new deed and then the recording? Thanks. Oh yes, heck they do. Oh my goodness. Okay, let's back up right now, everyone. First of all, every real title slash Escrow, it's the same thing, Escrow company out there is online. I'm gonna just say it right now. Everything you can do with a phone call and submitting documents with DocuSign, except for the majority of the states that wanna wet signature on a deed, okay. We got that. So how do you get around that? No big deal, it's called a mobile notary. And they come to your house, they come to your office. If you're the person who's buying it, they'll come to your house, [inaudible 00:02:38] office, whatever they prefer, know that's very, very easy and that's it. So nobody has to walk into a title company and do all that anymore, it'd be right there. This whole notion of not doing, I can't believe they even call themselves a title company when they say, "I'll take care of the money, but am not gonna put the deed in the recording." For a renter, that's why you're paying them to do the deed. I mean, maybe they're just saying... maybe they're doing money and title policy, but man, that's only getting me 50% of the way there. I need the other 50%. So I don't know who that is, but I would pick up the phone and call somebody else. And then, don't even have to go with a biggie, Thomas. Don't think that you have to, that it's only a first American or something like that can do a big close like that. There's a lot of great mom and pop title companies. I would argue they're even better, 'cause I would argue they care more. That can do the whole thing for you. And what I do is an attorney too by the way. There's a lot of attorneys out there that can do every title, that can do it cheaper and faster. So call around. I have two questions for title people, and this is what I do. How fast can we do it? How much do you cost? And I'm looking for an investor rate, because if this works out between the two of us, as you talking to them, Thomas, you're gonna do ten more maybe this month or this year, 'cause you just blasted that area to try and find someone with a good relationship. And you wanna tell them that. Steve: This is like taking your [inaudible 00:04:24] o...

Why Our West Virginia Land Acquisitions Failed (LA 1379) Transcript: Steve Jack Butala: Steve and Jill here. Welcome to the Land Academy Show, entertaining land investment talk. I'm Steven Jack Butala. Jill DeWitt: And I'm Jill DeWitt, broadcasting from sunny Southern California, but you are not. Steve Jack Butala: Sunny Central Scottsdale for me. Jill DeWitt: Very cool. Is this the first time we've done this? No. Steve Jack Butala: It's the first time. Jill DeWitt: It can't be the first time we've done it like this. Steve Jack Butala: I think it really is. Maybe, you know what I think we've done in the past? Is we've just done audio only from separate places. Jill DeWitt: This is cool. Steve Jack Butala: [crosstalk 00:00:33]. Jill DeWitt: The power of technology. Steve Jack Butala: Jill booked us a fantastic place in Scottsdale Resort. This hotel room's like 3,000 square feet. It's got its own pool table and everything. Jill DeWitt: Yup. It was so cool. There's a mirror behind you, and I can see my reflection on the mirror behind you. It's really kind of weird. Steve Jack Butala: Oh my God. Jill DeWitt: Behind the pool table and the bar. Steve Jack Butala: You guys sit and talk about yourselves. Aren't you going to talk about land? Jill DeWitt: Sorry. Steve Jack Butala: Today, Jill and I talk about why our West Virginia land acquisitions failed. Jill and I sent out a pretty substantial mailer to buy land in West Virginia. And tragically, they have what I call a multi APN system, and Jill's going to tell us all about it, which it precluded us, and probably, anybody in our group from buying dirt, right? Jill DeWitt: Mm-hmm (affirmative). I'll fill you in. Steve Jack Butala: Is that the whole show there? Jill DeWitt: Pretty much, but I'll fill you in. Steve Jack 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 DeWitt: Lucas wrote, "Hi, everyone. One of my goals for Land Academy is to someday return to my home state of Vermont. Is there anyone in this community that's experienced in the state of Vermont? If so, I would really appreciate some pointers. I had looked into purchasing property for myself over the last few years, and I was stunned by the high cost of septic to design and build. It's not uncommon for people to spend $35 to $45,000 on a septic system. I'm told that mining and new quarry activity has been halted in Vermont, so all the mound systems need to be transported in from out-of-state, and that drives the cost up." That's making me not want to live there. That's a hassle. Aside from that, land can be... Steve Jack Butala: Where do you want to live, Jill? Jill DeWitt: We'll get to that in a minute too. Land can be expensive there anyway. Welcome to our club. "I'd love to speak with someone who has success buying and selling in Vermont. I have a feeling they are a non-solicit state." You know what's funny? This is truth time that we do with Jan and I right now. We have so many deals coming back at us right now that I'm getting even pickier than I ever have been. And I have a two to three strike system. Steve Jack Butala: [crosstalk 00:03:12]. Jill DeWitt: And this is the thing that I wrote just yesterday. I went through 10 properties, and anyone that had... I'll tell you my three strike system here. What I wrote most of the time was, and it was flipping funny. Here's what's happening, and it ties into this show. One strike was access. Two strike was, I don't think the guy owns the whole thing. And three strike was, it's West Virginia. Steve Jack Butala: What? Jill DeWitt: Automatically, that was one of the strikes, and I'll tell you more why in a minute. And I'm like, "Nope, canceled due to location." That was it. So, anyway, it's funny for me because with Lucas's question, it makes me think about... There's a reason why people like us are successful overcoming obstacles. And then,

5 Real Estate Results of Covid (LA 1378) Transcript: Jack Butala: Steve and Jill here. Jill DeWit: Hello. Jack Butala: Happy Friday. Jill DeWit: Thank you. Jack Butala: Welcome to the Land Academy Show, entertaining- Jill DeWit: Was that for me? Jack Butala: ... land investment talk. I'm Steven Jack Butala. Jill DeWit: And I'm Jill DeWit, broadcasting from sunny southern California. Jack Butala: Today, Jill and I talk about five real estate results of the COVID. Jill DeWit: I have something funny I was just thinking about. Do you know, we just had rain like a week and a half ago. We had gone ... So everyone, I'm sorry if you're not in our state. Brace yourself. We had like 100- Jack Butala: Congratulations. You're not in our state. That's what I say. Jill DeWit: So thumbs up to that. If you're not in our state, thumbs up. Your taxes rock. But as a side note, I was going to share that we had gone something stupid, like 180 days without any weather, if you can believe that. No rain. It's kind of amazing when you think about like we haven't had ... So what was that March, February? I don't even remember. But it was a pretty flipping long stretch of no rain. So when I say sunny southern California, I kind of mean it. As you can see behind us. Okay. Back to the question. Are we doing our question now? Jack Butala: Before we get into it and Jill gets too far into it, let's take a question posted by one of our members on the landinvestors.com online community. It's free. Jill DeWit: I hope I pronounce this correctly. I'm saying Amit. Amit wrote, "Hi, all. New to Land Academy and excited to be here. I'm working on my first mailer. The county that I'm working on has some cheap properties and some in a better scenic area that are a little more pricey. What creates an issue for me is to price the offers right." Jack Butala: Welcome to Land Academy. Pricing, pricing, pricing. Jill DeWit: "I'm afraid if I go by the lowest values of Zillow and LandWatch, et cetera, this will only be applicable to one area of the county, and similar acreage in other areas of the county I probably won't even get a response. Cannot use the subdivision column or zip code since there's a lot of blank spaces, empty. Is there any tools to map APN to specific regions in bulk? Any other thoughts? Or price this better and just go for the lowest and see what happens?" So this is kind of all on your side of the sheet. Jack Butala: Amit, I'm happy to inform you that you are going to do fantastically well in this career. You're brand new. You're already looking at a county and the data that's involved in the county. You probably don't even know this about yourself. You're probably frustrated as hell, like I am every single time I sit down. The first 10% of doing a mailer is brutal. The last 10% is like pat yourself on the back. But you're asking all the right questions. You're concerned about the variance in pricing in a given county, and you want to do something about it. And you reached out in Land Investors to the point where it made it on this show, because you care that much, and you're using Land Academy the way that it's intended. So, congratulations. So I'm going to answer your question. There's generally four or five quadrants, I would say in most counties. I love to use Santa Barbara County as an example because it's so different. Santa Barbara County itself is made up of this mountain area. There's a lot of property there. This core urban area where a lot of people from Los Angeles moved to. So there's a lot of dirt, and houses are extremely expensive. And then there's this desert area up in the Northeast. So my point is there's very different or very separate parts that need to be priced differently. If you open DataTree, and you have a subscription as a member, and you type in some address or some APN that gets you to the county, and then you start searching through the map and you get to a certain altitude, let's call it,

Covid has Special Use Property Sales Way Up (LA 1377) Transcript: Jack Butala: Steve and Jill here. Jill DeWit: Hello. Jack 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. Jack Butala: Today Jill and I talk about how COVID has special use property sales way up. Special use properties are things like, in commercial real estate, it could be property that's a very specifically zone for hotel, motel or another special use property would be a mobile home park or special use property like mountain, second home property. Anything that's just not in a subdivision that's your primary residence or strip mall and even strip mall there's an argument. But Jill read an article, and she's going to explain it to you here in the show about the Florida property on the water with boats. That's a really special, specific use property. The sales are just through the roof right now, we'll talk about that in a second. 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: Steve wrote, is this you? Jack Butala: No. Jill DeWit: Okay. Jack Butala: If that was me, I would have said. Jill DeWit: SJB? Jack Butala: Yeah, I would have said Oscar. Jill DeWit: Okay, Oscar. Is that the guy inside of Steven? Jack Butala: Yeah. There's an Oscar, the grouching side of me. It's that's where it's fun. Jill DeWit: Is he really inside? I'm sorry. How bad will Oscar get? How mad would Oscar get? Jack Butala: Just like, I believe in my soul that there's a stripper inside of Jill named Stacy. Jill DeWit: Keep that careful. There could be kids in the room. Oh boy. Okay. Steve, not my Steve asked, "I'm looking for smaller land contracts to buy, all or part, minimum of two years left on them, at least one payment made." Well, that's easy. This is all very easy. Jack Butala: This guy joined our group to do this, by the way. Jill DeWit: Interesting. We are experienced in paper, but not so much in land. We have done six land deals to date. If you have a pool of notes and you want to get some cash out, now let's see if we can find a way to help us both out, thanks. Jack Butala: Here's how this works; you buy a piece of property for 10,000 bucks, let's say, then you sell it on terms as to the end user for $500 down, and $200 a month or some number. This is a huge business model for a lot of people who used to be our business model. Jill and I got tired of the hassle. So you can create a very amazing cashless with cash flow, from land release. After a certain amount of time, where that note's been performing the $500 down, you get the $200 payments, six months, eight months, 10 months, two years; that's a five-year note. It starts to have some serious value to people like Steve who are note investors, they're not really land investors or house investors, only that. They're they're in a paper business as he accurately said. Over the years, I've done a lot of deals like this, not buying the pay but selling it, because I win. If I buy a property for 10,000 bucks, I got all these payments that have come in and then I sell it for 20,000 let's say, because the value of that contract, as it goes out, grossly exceeds how much I paid. They don't care, by by the way, how much you paid, they only care about that income stream, the future income stream. Because they're going to pool it into their existing portfolio, take the averages and clink each other's beer at the end of the day. So is this a good thing for us? It's a great thing. If you have properties on terms that you're selling, that have season notes, seek these people out, you can make a ton of money. It could be your exit strategy. Jill DeWit: That could be the model right there. Because let me think about this, a lot of people, the money is tied up in the land,

Chasing False Due Diligence (LA 1376) Transcript: Jack Butala: Steve and Jill here. Jill DeWit: Hi. Jack Butala: Welcome to the Land Academy Show, entertaining land investment talk. I'm Steven Jack Butala. Jill DeWit: I'm Jill DeWit, broadcasting from sunny Southern California. Jack Butala: Today, Jill and I talk about chasing false due diligence. And right at the end of the show yesterday, I asked Jill to tell us a story about how this episode came about. Can you please repeat it? Jill DeWit: Yes. So we have a new member in Land Academy. First deal came in, they loved it, submitted to me for deal funding. I looked at it, I didn't love it. Specially- Jack Butala: Loved the asset, not the price. Jill DeWit: Not the price. It's like, I wasn't in love with it. And don't be afraid to do this. I just sent an email out yesterday, by the way, to a seller. They got our offer in the mail. Instead of calling, they decided to email me and I said, "All right." And she's like, "Hey, it's my grandma's property. We like the offer," dah, dah, dah. And I had to write her back and said, "Look, I like it. I don't love it. So my original price is going to be the end price." So, that's where we are. Jack Butala: The old grandmother's property story. Jill DeWit: It is? No, and I believe her. I'm sure it's true. Jack Butala: Yeah. Me, too. It's hard to get a really great price out of your grandmother. You just don't want to do that. Jill DeWit: I know. I'm not even sure of the original price I loved. So what I wrote back was, "I like it. I like it. I don't love it." I said, "The best I would do and the highest offer is my original offer. Let me know what you guys think," and then walk away. So you have to get to that point, so, where we are. So back to what you asked me about this person. They're trying to make this deal happen and they've submitted it a couple times and I keep saying, "Shucks." Originally, I said I would, I think their offer was 30. And I said, "You know what? I'd give them five," kind of thing. That would the best I would do. And then they wrote back, and they're like, "But Jill," and then I said, "I marked it canceled." Not going to happen because 30 and five are very different. So then they came back and said, "But we found these other comps and we feel really good about it." And I looked at the comps and I said, "Well, maybe 10." And then I kept reading. I said, " [inaudible 00:02:17], I would consider 10,000." And they said, "Well, we got them down to 20,000. They won't go below that." I said, "Well, then the deal's done. As far as I'm concerned done. They're either going to accept 10,000, really I like five or that's it. I'm not going to come up to their 20,000." And the thing is, and what this episode is about is going to be more about how to not get into this predicament of trying to chase a deal and why it happens. Jack Butala: Yeah. And again, I have, like I said, yesterday, I have like 10 questions for you because I have personal experience with this. When I started, I had issues with pricing and not necessarily pricing a mailer, but just pricing like in letting go of a deal. And I think there's a lot of reasons and they're all the reasons that I couldn't let go of deals were all in my head. And I still find myself doing it on big, high price, personal investments for us. And we'll talk about it. 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: Douglas, it looks like, who is new to the group not yet a member wrote, "Recently, my partner and I were contacted by a Land Academy lender." Jack Butala: What is that? I put this in here for a reason. Jill DeWit: We don't have Land Academy lenders. Jack Butala: I couldn't agree more. Jill DeWit: I'm very curious. I hope somebody said who's Land Academy lender. That's really funny. Jack Butala: I'm going to find out later today. Jill DeWit: Okay.

Real Definition of Deal Flow (LA 1375) Transcript: Jack Butala: Steve and Jill here. Jill DeWit: Howdy. Jack 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. Jack Butala: Today Jill and I talk about the real definition of deal flow. This phrase, do you ever notice in our little land investment world, there's catchphrases that go on and off? Jill DeWit: Yeah. Too many sometimes, there's a lot. Jack Butala: And some of them are misunderstood. Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Jack Butala: And some of them have multiple definitions and it's like, "No, that's not good." One of them right now is a homestead. I did a show, we did a show, whatever about a month ago. It's like, look, this is what homestead really means because it's just not getting used correctly. Jill DeWit: I got one, when you're ready. Jack Butala: Well, deal flow is the one today, but yes, go ahead. Jill DeWit: Wholesale. Jack Butala: Yeah, wholesale is not used right. Jill DeWit: Correct, exactly. It drives me nuts. Jack Butala: Here's another one, passive income. Jill DeWit: Yes. Jack Butala: That's a crack up for me. Jill DeWit: This is funny. Jack Butala: Jill got interviewed by Mark Podolsky, actually. Jill DeWit: I did. Jack Butala: Two or three days ago. I don't know when it's going to air. He's a scheduling freak like I am, so he's probably got five years of interviews lined up and recorded so he can just air. But they use passive income a lot in that, I noticed. Have you noticed that? Jill DeWit: Exactly. And every one of us that has "created passive income". In our world, there's nothing passive about it. Jack Butala: Jill and I are lucky enough to have several rental properties in Arizona, and it's as passive as it gets. They're condos for the most part, not all of them. The renters are family friends and over years- Jill DeWit: Super easy, they solve their own problems. Jack Butala: When they call they laugh and stuff, nobody ever calls and says 12th is work. Jill DeWit: Right. Jack Butala: And I don't think that's passive. I still think there's stuff that goes on in there. Jill DeWit: Oh, stuff goes on. We just don't hear about it. It's good. Jack Butala: So, is it passive, really? Jill DeWit: No. We're lucky. Jack Butala: Is buying stock passive? I don't think so. Because you look at it [inaudible 00:02:13]. Jill DeWit: That's true. Jack Butala: Anyway, I don't know how we got off on that. 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: Matt W wrote, Hello all, I closed on 18 properties from one seller on Friday, October 30th, for $60,000. They're mostly one to four acre lots, several are landlocked. Most are in the floodplains, but there are a few nice infill lots. I sent out 54 neighbor letters. And by last Friday, November six, one week after closing, I sold six of those lots for $60,000. So while the remaining 12 will take a little bit longer to sell, I have my money back and I can relax a bit. How cool is that? Jack Butala: Mic drop. Jill DeWit: Then he brought on and said one more thing. I also had an offer on a 15 acre lot. I purchased for 22 five at the end of July for $62,500. All in all, not a bad week. Holy cow, I love that. Jack Butala: I mean, he made- Jill DeWit: It's perfect. Jack Butala: He generated $120,000 in revenue on $60,000. And he's got how many lots left? 12 properties left. So if those 12 properties sell for half of what the other properties did, he's got $70,000. He created 70,000 plus 40,000. He created about 120, 110, $120,000 of equity. Jill DeWit: That's why you do it. Jack Butala: Since July. Jill DeWit: Love it. Jack Butala: Most of it is cash. Some of its property, which is like all of you know that if you've been buying and selling property,