Land Academy Show

How to Overcome Bad Situations (CFFL 553) Transcript: Jack: Jack Butala with Jill Dewitt. Jill: Hey there. Jack: Welcome to our show today. In this episode, Jill and I talk about how to overcome bad situations. I'm looking forward to this, for a lot of reasons. Jill: I can't wait to hear why. Jack: I'm looking forward to it, because I'm like a hot head from Detroit, and so I can make a bad situation out of anything good. Jill: Yes you can. And I can't make a good situation out of anything bad. Jack: I know, I know Darma. Let's take a question posted by one of our members on the LandInvestors.com online community. It's free. Jill: It's really good. Kristen P. asked, "Hi I looking for some advice on what to do in this situation. I sent out a mailer in the beginning of August to a few counties in Texas, and with my luck Hurricane Harvey hit those areas dead on. So I'm not sure what the best route is. I know the area will be restored within time; however, I am worried about buying these properties, and having an issue selling them due to others being concerned about the damage in the area and what not. What would you do in my situation? Thank you. Kristen." Jack: This has come up a lot recently, 'cause there's a lot of hurricanes. It's hurricane season. And Jill and I actually agree on this, it's the one thing we agree one. Jill: Yep. Jack: As Ripley said in the movie Alien, "Nuke it for morbid." I would not even answer the phone. I don't believe in taking people when they're down like this, and when people are looking for their photo albums, and stuff in a flood. You don't want to be talking about a real estate deal. Jill: Right. Jack: And you don't want to take advantage of people ever. Ever, ever, ever, so that's what ... I would send a mailer out to Utah or something. Jill: Well what about this idea, Jack. Now that you are talking about it. I mean 'cause, so yeah A, we totally agree, which is, don't try to take advantage of people now in this situation. Got it? Jack: And you're 100 percent correct Kristen P. you're right, alright? But what it looks like to the rest of the world is that, you're trying to screw somebody. So, and we know you're not. You sent it out before the hurricane- Jill: Well hold on a moment- Jack: There's no way you can explain your way out of that. Jill: Well hold on a moment. Here's my thoughts. Let me run this by you Jack. Here's what I think, so she sent out these mailers. Let's think, in August, so they got it in August, and they've been thinking about it, and now they're gonna call her back saying, "Do you still want it? It's under two feet of water." Let's talk about that for a second. 'Cause that really maybe what's going on. She's made an offer, and she still wants the property. Does she say, "Now, I know I offered you a 1,000$ for that property. I don't want it anymore, 'cause now I know it's under two feet of water. I'm sorry, I can't help you." What about that scenario? Jack: I mean you know what, this is kind of like how to overcome bad situations. It's kinda like the show. There's a lot of ways you can go here. I mean, you could pick up the phone, and if the person says exactly what you just said, "Do you still want it?" I guess I personally, as much as I hate talking on the phone, and hate talking to people and stuff ... I think that you might want to just have a nice fireside chat with 'em, and say, "How are you doin'? Is everything cool?" And I don't know ...

Daily Routines and Strategies for All (CFFL 552) Transcript: Jack Butala: Jack Butala with Jill DeWit. Jill DeWit: Hi. Jack Butala: Welcome to our show today. In this episode, Jill and I talk about the daily routines and strategies that are going to make you successful in everything, not just land investing. 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: Okay. Luke H. asks, "I bought eight properties and I have signed purchase agreements with 10 more from sellers calling every day." Jack Butala: You can't make this stuff up. Jill DeWit: I love this. "I'm starting to run out of money." I love that. Jack Butala: Been there. Jill DeWit: Yep. "From the research I've done, doing deals without money requires one of the following: One, buying on an option. From what I understand, the only way to do this with zero dollars is to find a company that will do a dual closing. I've been unsuccessful in doing this so far, but I'm still working on it. Number two-" Jack Butala: We will solve that problem for you within 60 days. Jill DeWit: Yep. Jack Butala: Called Title Mind. Jill DeWit: Yep. Number two- Jack Butala: We'd be happy to do your dual closing for you. Jill DeWit: Number two ... It's like a class. Jack Butala: Mom has spoken. Jill DeWit: Geez, Jack. You in the back, sit down please. I appreciate the comments, but save them for recess. All right. Where were we? Number two ... Does anyone else has a smart ass comment there? Jack Butala: You've got to stop swearing on the show, Jill. You can't swear. Jill DeWit: Sorry, sorry. Jack Butala: I'm serious. Jill DeWit: Is that bad? Jack Butala: Yeah. We have a G rating, and iTunes, the whole thing happens. Jill DeWit: I didn't know that that was bad. Jack Butala: Yeah. Jill DeWit: Okay, sorry. Anyway, "Number two, assigning the contract. All the offers I send out have a clause in them allowing me to assign the contract, but I have not taken advantage of this yet. Can I advertise a property for sale with the intent of assigning a contract I have on it without yet owning it?" Jack Butala: Yes. Jill DeWit: "Number three, finding an investor. Jack and Jill as well as other land investors talk about doing deals together. Does this entail some kind of written agreement? Is it typically one person doing the work and the other person putting the money down? And which of these three do you recommend? Are there any other options I'm unaware of?" Jack Butala: No, this is incredibly well written, Luke Harris. The level of intelligence that our group members have just is shocking, Jill, to me. Number three's my favorite. Jill DeWit: Why does that surprise you? Jack Butala: I just think we have a real ... my point is in a real positive way. We have a way, for some reason, of attracting really intelligent people to be members of our group. I'm proud of us. Jill DeWit: That's very true. Jack Butala: Number three is my favorite, finding an investor. LandCrowdFund.com will be live here within days. In fact, by the time this airs,

Where to go from $10,000 per Month (CFFL 551) Transcript: Jack Butala: Jack Butala with Jill DeWit. JIll DeWit: Good Day. Jack Butala: Welcome to the show today. In this episode Jill and I talk about where do you go from $10,000 a month? Well you go to $11,000 a month. Do we even need to do a show about that or is it more important- JIll DeWit: You go up, you go up, you go up. Jack Butala: Before we go into it, let's take a question from one of our members on the landinvestors.com online community, it's free. JIll DeWit: Okay, Chuck asks, "Can someone share any tips and tricks for handling deposits from a buyer to hold a property for a few days or more? Of course, we wouldn't stop marketing it, and do you tell the buyer the deposit is non-refundable if they decide not to buy, and any other stipulations regarding deposits?" Jack Butala: What would you do here Jill? Because you deal with this end of it, way more than me. JIll DeWit: You know, I'm not a fan. Jack Butala: I'm not either. JIll DeWit: I tell you Chuck, I'm really not a fan of a deposit because I don't want to take a payment and have to send it back. I don't want to worry about, then somebody else comes along and I have to say, "You gotta wait two days because this guy's thinking about it." You know I don't want to mess with it, I really just don't go there. For me, you know what, I appreciate that you're excited about it and you want to go see it. I really have to be honest with you and say this is a first come, first serve cash deal, so that's it. If you're 90% of the way there I'd say if anything is crazy, you hate it, I would obviously stand behind and refund it, if you want to buy it, or I'd say then go check it out. I have done this more often, this is what I do. I say, "You know what, here's the deal. I know you want to go look at it and you can't go until two weeks from now. So I get that. Call me before you decide your gonna go, because if it's gone by then, I don't want you to waste a trip." That's what I'd say. Jack Butala: Here's what I've done in the past, and it's in the past because we have people doing this for us now but, what I have done in the past is I'd say, "No I'm not gonna take a deposit, and by the way, nothing's non-refundable in this business, ever." JIll DeWit: Correct. Jack Butala: That's just not how we roll. All it does, all it is, is bad will. But what you really want to do, realistically, is what I've done in the past. I say, "Look, I'm gonna to give you a verbal right of first refusal, all right? So I'm gonna continue to market it. I win. You have a verbal right of first refusal. I will contact you and give you a reasonable amount of time to close the deal if you want. If and when we get an offer, another offer if somebody buys it. It's a lot harder to do if they click on it and pay with a credit card in the middle of the night, but that's the risk that they're gonna have to take with this." The net effect of this is that, and you explain it that way, the net effect of this is that, what you're doing is smoking out how serious this person is and if they just have the down payment and they don't have the rest of the money or they just can't put a pen to paper, they're just not the right buyer. That's really what you want to smoke out. In fact, communicating with the buyer this far, to this point actually, might be too much. JIll DeWit: Yeah, they're either in or they're out. Jack Butala: Yeah. JIll DeWit: I don't even want to do it the way you just said because I don't want to...

Painful Truth About Land Investing (CFFL 550) Transcript: Jack: Jack Butala with Jill DeWit. Jill: Hi. Jack: Welcome to the show today. In this episode Jill and I talk about the painful truth about land investing. Jill: That was a long pause. Jack: I just do that to freak you out. Jill: Painful truth. Jack: Before we get into it, let's take a question posted by one of our members on landinvestors.com online community. It's free and hopefully we can confuse Jill more too. Jill: I could have got a cup of coffee at that pause. That was long. Alright Joshua asks, "In the course Jack speaks about only mailing to an owner one time, even if they own more than one property on my list. When mailing such to such an individual, does anyone change the wording and only let them know if you are interested in any of their properties? If you are still only mailing to one of the properties, will you take extra time to research which property you would be most interested in?" This is a good question. Jack: This is a great question. Jill: "And put that AP in and pricing in your offer? Or do you just go with the first property on the list when doing the data scrub? I think about sending one total offer to the individual or possibly one offer per different lot acreage." Okay that's the end of the question, I know what I would say. Jack: Go ahead Jill. Jill: So, well here's how I would cover that. For me, it's about time and efficiency. I'm not going to do any research on the properties until I know if they're even in my ballpark range. So I'm going to bother and do that. I am going to probably just pick the first one honestly and scrub the rest of them because here's why. When and if the person reaches back out to me, one of my questions I always ask is, "Is there anything else that you have?" That covers it right there. And they're going to go, "Well as a matter of fact." Like this just happened to one of our members Luke. He's like a guys got 600 acres, it was that kind of thing. Luke sent him a letter about one, and found about 600 more acres. Now they're doing a bigger deal and they're going to do all this great stuff. And that's it, that's how you do it. Luke didn't and I don't ahead of time pick the prettiest one, and I really want this one. So I'm only sending in an offer for this one. But I'll still ask about the rest of them. I don't do that much ahead of time. And two, because what if you're sending out 6,000 letters, because some of our people are at one time. Are you really going to go through and spend that much time. Just get them in the mail. Price them right, get them in the mail. What? Jack: You're cracking me up. Jill: I am. And then see who's serious and then look at it. Jack ... Jack: That's great advice Jill and now I'm going to tell you actually what happens in our company. Jill: Oh no. Oh no here it goes. That's all pretty Jill skipping along the top way. That's really not at all what we do. Jill is now so far removed. Just kidding. Jack: If you'd like to know what goes on in our house. Jill: Oh gosh. Jack: And in our company, check out the show Darma and Greg. It's on during the 80's or 90's, 80's right? Jill: I think it might've been 90's too, because I think they tried to do ... Jack: They live in California, she's a total hippy and her husband Greg is the corporate attorney and he just looks at her constantly going, what? Jill: She wants ice cream for d...

Creative Marketing for Property Sales (CFFL 549) Transcript: Jack Butala: Jack Butala with Jill DeWitt. Jill DeWitt: Hi! Jack Butala: Welcome to the show today. In this episode, Jill and I talk about creative marketing for property sales, it seems simple, but sometimes there's a lot to it. Or is there? Jill DeWitt: I have some good ideas. 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: Okay. Shamgod asks, "I have a very thin, strange shaped lot in an are where many lots are selling for over $40,000. Is it worth trying to buy if I can get it for a few grand? I doubt you could put a house on it. If so, how do you value it, and who would your end buyer be other than the neighbors?" Jack Butala: Yep. Neighbors are the buyers. This is a great ... You know, and I can tell Shamgod's just killin' it with some of this stuff. So I mentioned on a few shows earlier, I think it was three or four shows ago, when somebody goes to subdivide a property, it's the same thing when you go to bake a cake. You're gonna have some leftover material. And it's probably gonna go to waste. So when you subdivide a piece of property and cut it all up and put twisty, windy roads and things, there's little pieces that are unusable, it's just the way it works. Or maybe the terrain's uneven, that's probably what you're talking about here. There are good fragments and bad ones. So you're gonna have to decide which one that is. In fact, a lot of times, they actually assign an APN, an assessor's parcel number, to the roads. I've seen that happen, that's pretty useless. Jill DeWitt: I have too, right. Jack Butala: Or drainage ditches, or all kinds of stuff. Jill DeWitt: An alley. Jack Butala: So you're gonna have to really discern. You're gonna have to discern if the property is worth it or not, I'll tell you a story real quick. I went to a tax auction where there's all kinds of property being auctioned off by the county, and I'm only interested, when I go to those things, in buying land, and the vast majority of the people there want to buy six or seven houses that are listed, which is good for me, because then I have less competition, less biding competition. But anyway, I ended up buying, knowing this, I didn't research this until I got there, sitting in the room, a tiny little piece of property in the backyard of a subdivision, where there's developed subdivision with houses all over the place, it had a water tank on it. Or a water well or something, I could just tell from Google Earth that there was some structure on there that was meaningful. Turned out being a water wall, water tank that all the subdivisions shared. I paid like $200 for this thing. Sent a simple letter out to 20 or 30 people in the immediate area and said, "Do you guys wanna buy this? Or does anyone want to buy this?" I ended up selling for 20 grand. So if that's the kind of fragment that you're talking about, then it's got some value. If it's just an easement that somebody incorrectly subdivided, which happens all the time, no, you don't want it. So that's the answer. I hope it's a water tank, man. Jill DeWitt: Yeah, me too. Jack Butala: If you have a question, or you want to be on the show, reach out to either one of us on landinvestors.com. Today's topic, creative marketing for property sales, this is right up Jill's alley. This is the meat of the show. Jill DeWitt: You know what's really interesting about this, I just thought of one more thought about this lot,

Kids are Back in School (CFFL 548) Transcript: Jack Butala: Jack Butala with Jill DeWit. Jill DeWit: Good day! Jack Butala: Welcome to our show today. In this episode, Jill and I talk about how the kids are back in school, at least ours are. Jill DeWit: Woohoo! Jack Butala: And what we're going to do with all this extra time now. Jill DeWit: Woohoo! Jack Butala: We don't have to put anybody in the closet and lock the door anymore. Jill DeWit: Woohoo! Especially me. Jack Butala: Before we get into it let's take a question posted by one of our members ... Jill DeWit: Because I'm drinking, just kidding. Jack Butala: One of our members on our landinvestors.com online community it's free. Drinking? Jill DeWit: Gosh. Where is mom? I don't know. She must be in the closet again. Okay. Jack Butala: Wasn't there a gallon of wine on the counter yesterday? Jill DeWit: I don't know where it went and mom's gone. Thank God school's back. Okay. Jack Butala: Little Jackie, why is your mom never here? Jill DeWit: I don't know, Mom who? Jack Butala: I don't know. She got her passport renewed yesterday. Jill DeWit: Exactly, then she's gone. Jack Butala: There's a lot of food in the refrigerator though. Jill DeWit: That's right and the keys here ... Alright. Luke asks, "What accounting software are people using? I don't like the idea of paying a monthly fee for a lot of cloud-based programs, but maybe that's just what I'll have to do. The QuickBooks Premiere that I bought I quickly returned after four hours on the phone with customer support because it won't connect with my Capital One Spark Bank business account." I hope there's more to the question, maybe that's it. Jack Butala: That's it. Jill DeWit: Okay. Jack Butala: What software do you use? Luke, we love you, but I think you may be overthinking this. Jill DeWit: Ahh ... Jack Butala: This is not the regular Luke, this is a different Luke. This is Luke Harris. Jill DeWit: Right. Jack Butala: I use Excel. And I send it to our accountant once a month. Jill DeWit: What accounting do you use? Well his name is ... Jack Butala: The whole point to this is not we're not going to answer the question. I just did. Don't worry ... Jill's got a whole thing about don't sweat the details about some of this stuff ... I have an accounting background. There are accounting-intensive businesses, this is not one of them. You maybe have payroll, you got some rent. Probably some subscriptions to stuff like Land Academy or whatever. They are recurring entries and this is not complicated at all. Jill DeWit: While this is important, this is not what you should be spending your time worrying about, right? Jack Butala: This is exactly what you should be outsourcing. Jill DeWit: Right. That's the key. Don't think about it, Luke. Hire somebody, move on. And this Luke ... I think he's at the level where he doesn't need to be thinking about some of this stuff. Right? Jack Butala: Luke Harris is incredibly successful. Jill DeWit: Yeah.

Work 90 Hours a Week to Avoid a 40 Hour Job (CFFL 547) Transcript: Jack: Jack Butala with Jill DeWit. Jill: Hi everyone. Jack: Welcome to our show today. Jill and I talk today ... in this episode Jill and I talk about working ninety hours a week in the beginning to avoid working a forty hour job. I think you might know where this is going, 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: Okay, Pete asks, "I have some areas where the average lots are selling for $9,000 to $14,000 and up. There are many lots available. I would love to know what offer price people would start with?" I don't know ... offer $2,000 and sell for $7,000. Is offering $3,000 reasonable? Which is 33% of the lowest retail? Jack: Yeah, I think that if there's a lot of available properties ... which is non-quantifiable variable in pricing. I would definitely scrape the bottom of the lower portion of the pricing scenario, so yeah that's the key here. The other thing I would look at is days on market. So if you've got properties ... lot of property available and there's really long days on market, like more than 200 days or 300 days, which is a year, frankly, I'd move on. I wouldn't even send an offer campaign of that area. What you want is real low days on market, not a ton of availability, but some availability so you can price it right. Then you wanna go in around 40, 50, 60 percent. That's just personally what I would do, I don't know Pete if you're new or not ... it's hard to tell from here, but if there's a ton of availability and a really long days on market, go in at the bottom. And really don't expect to get a lot because you wanna find a market that's kinda really cool, like, Man I would like to ... if you find yourself doing this as an investor, "Boy, I think maybe I should ... if I get one of these properties for this cheap I should keep it." If you find yourself doing that, you're gonna do great. Jill: When there's a lot of availability, too, it's hard to differentiate your property from other properties so you might be sitting with it for a little while, so if you come in low you can afford to let it just sit there. I would roll it into my inventory, wouldn't have a problem with that. Just be ready for it. Jack: There's gotta be something good about your property, that differentiates it from everything else that's on the market. Jill and I have literally gone to Home Depot and bought one of those cool sheds that are out in the parking lot and had it delivered to a property. Took a bunch of pictures and just yeah, there's a shed on the property, and now it's different from every other piece of property out there and it sells really fast. Jill: Now we can buy a yurt like Luke. Jack: A yurt? Jill: That came up the other day. One of our members found yurt zoned property. What the heck? That's a new one. I had to know that that was out there. So we were joking about that. Put a yurt on it, Pete. Jack: One night in a yurt and it'll be over. Jill: Oh my goodness. I just can't even say the word yurt. Jack: That's so funny. Everybody's saying what the hell's a yurt. Jill: I wanna do that tonight, we're out ... we're gonna go what do you guys do? We invest in yurts. Jack: A yurt is a Mongolian Teepee. Jill: I'm a yurt distributor. That's my new job. Jack: I'm a yurt dealer. Jill: I'm a yurt dealer. What color would you like? You want a two bedroom or a one bedroom?

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

Top 3 Ways to Wreck Your Real Estate Career and Your Life (CFFL 545) Transcript: Jack Butala: Jack Butala with Jill DeWit. Jill DeWit: Good day everyone. Jack Butala: Welcome to our show today. In this episode, Jill and I talk about the top three ways to wreck your real estate career, and your life. It's a real positive show for us today. Jill DeWit: Oh my gosh. This is not a Jill topic obviously. 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: Okay. Marcus asks, "In the land counties I'm looking at, they seem to retail roughly at $10,000 per acre. Should I use the $100 an acre suggested offer, and blast out 1500 offers, or up my offer price? Thanks in advance." Jack Butala: I am so glad, Marcus, that you asked this question. And I'm so glad, [Yanni 00:00:46], our producer, included it in the show. Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Jack Butala: You should never ... Jill DeWit: Yeah. Jack Butala: ... blast a county, with $100 an acre price where it's retailing for $10,000 an acre. You're wasting your time, you're going to upset a lot of people, and waste a bunch of money on mail. Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Jack Butala: It's the same exact effect of offering somebody to buy an office building in Manhattan for $100 a square foot. It's just silly. What you're doing is earning a reputation for yourself that's not good. Jill DeWit: Exactly. Jack Butala: What you want to do instead, to directly answer the question is, if it's 10,000 bucks an acre retail, for sale, come in around 40 to 50 percent. 5,000, 4,000, and 6,000. There's a lot of variables. At this level, what we do, and how I price offers, has to do with how much cash I want to take out of the deal. It's not a percentage. If you buy a five acre property, and it's $50,000 according to your ideology, I would try to buy it for 40,000 or 30,000 and just to make a $10,000 spread, or some version of that. Pricing in general, is a very, very ... It's imperative to learn how to price to make this work. It takes a lot of practice. You can't do it the first time out. Jill DeWit: You know though, the thing that's interesting that you were giving those numbers. We go for volume more than maximizing revenue, and I think that's important for people to know. The more deals you do ... Maybe they're smaller deals, but they're easier deals, and they're faster deals. That's our way, and it works out really well. Jack Butala: You want to have a ... What you want to do when you get an offer campaign in the mail, is establish some type of consistency that yields predictable results. Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Jack Butala: Jill and I in general, when we do a land campaign, I can almost bank on about one percent. For every 100 letters that we send out, we're going to buy a property. It's a little closer to 150, but we're going to buy a property that we know we can double our money on, for land. For houses, it's about 1,500 to 2,000 sometimes 2,500 offers we have to send out to buy a house, but the profit margin from a percentage standpoint is way lower. But the dollars that you yield on each deal is way higher. Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Jack Butala: Does that make sense Jill, or we all just ... Jill DeWit: Yeah, less deals worth more money,

House Poor Defined (CFFL 544) Transcript: Jack Butala: Jack Butala with Jill DeWit. Jill DeWit: Hi there. Jack Butala: Welcome to our show today. In this episode, Jill and I talk about House Poor Defined. 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: Okay. Allan asks, "Hi. I purchased a parcel of land and now have a potential buyer who is asking if mineral rights are included. Has anyone had this question come up, and if so, how would I even go about answering what seems to be a very complex area of law?" I apologize. This is Marianne, by the way. "Does anyone make this part of their due diligence before buying a property, and if so how are you checking it? Any help is much appreciated." I want to just point out, Marianne is actually what looks like brand new to Land Investors and just kind of learning about this, but it's a really good question. Jack Butala: Yeah. Do you want me to answer it or do you want to? Jill DeWit: Yeah. Go right ahead. Jack Butala: You're 100% correct in saying it's extremely complicated. Here's what happens. There's a change of title on every single piece of property right back to when it was homesteaded. So let's say it changed hand just 10 times. John Smith gave it to his daughter or Sally Smith. Sally Smith sold it to an unrelated third party called John Adams, and so on and so on and so on. Well, during one of those changes, one of those transfers, somebody put right on the document on the deed, the transfer document that they're going to retain the mineral rights. They're going to transfer the surface rights, but they're going to keep the mineral rights. Is it complicated and difficult and nearly impossible to find out who actually owns mineral rights? Yes it is. Unless you have to go through all those documents, most of which, think about how many county buildings have burned down before the internet. The chances are of really digging into and finding out who owns mineral rights is nearly impossible at our level. If there's a gold mine on a piece of property somewhere in Nevada and there's billions of dollars in potential revenue involved, then you can start to hire people and figure that out. But for purposes of these asset types that we're involved in, it's nearly impossible, so what do you do? Well, what Jill and I do and for a lot of years what we just said is ... We don't even look into it. We just say no. We are not transferring the mineral rights. Or we say I don't know. We're not going to put it in our document. Jill DeWit: Right. Jack Butala: When we convey the property to you, we're going to convey the property as if we don't know and that you get the mineral rights with it. We're not going to retain the mineral rights nine times out of 10, well, 9.9 times out of 10. The potential buyer that's asking that doesn't know this and quite frankly, it's really important for you to understand the basic stuff, but if you start to go down this path, this philosophical mineral rights path with the buyer, you're going to scare him away. So just say to your knowledge, I believe that we are transferring the mineral rights to you, but I don't know. You're going to have to check, but I think it does come with mineral rights, and we're going to assume that, so we're going to convey a document like we believe that you're going to get the mineral rights with it. Jill DeWit: Right. I would just say too, look at it like the property. The property's the asset. That's what I'm conveying to you- Jack Butala: Yeah. There you go, Jill. Jill DeWit: That's really it is.

Every Million Costs 5 Thousand in Monthly Payment (CFFL 543) Transcript: Jack Butala: Jack Butala with Jill DeWitt. Jill DeWitt: Good day. Jack Butala: Welcome to the show today. In this episode, Jill and I talk about how every million dollars of acquisition cost costs you $5,000 in monthly payment. Before we get into this, let's take a question posted by one of our members on a landinvestors.com online community, it's free. Jill DeWitt: Okay. Allen B. asks, "How is everyone managing their terms deals? Are you using platforms such as Loan Geek or Simple Money? Or are you manually keeping track of payments and sending monthly invoices? I have five properties I'm currently marketing as cash only deals ... Jack Butala: Good for you Allen. Jill DeWitt: Right. Jack Butala: Awesome, man. Jill DeWitt: ... But I've had a few buyers who want to do terms. So, I figure since the whole idea of this business is to cash flow from land, I'd better get a handle on how I'm going to manage terms deals. My mindset is, the more automated I can make the payments and statements the better ... Jack Butala: Yeah, absolutely. Jill DeWitt: ... What does the Land Investors collective mind have to say about this?" Jack Butala: That's a good question. Well so, I mean, Jill, you have historically managed our cash flow, our terms sales. What do you use? I'm pretty confident that we don't use the most sophisticated methodology out there, which is why I think I would love to just hear your unedited, undiscussed answer, the truth of it. And then I'll put my two cents in as how I think it should go. Jill DeWitt: My team has it automated how you have directed them. Is that fair to say? Jack Butala: A lot of years ago I spent almost a quarter of a million bucks on ... This is a long time ago ... On a relational database that handles the management of this thing. And it's by no means the best way, in any way. Stuff gets imported through a spreadsheet and a CSV file, pretty much like it's 1998. So, while there's a lot of good ... It works for us, let me put it that way. There are other cooler, easier, simpler ways, like Loan Geek, I hear nothing but good things about Loan Geek and Simple Money. But in the end, if I were just starting out and I only have five properties, I would put it in a spreadsheet. Jill and I have created a tremendous number of helpful, I think, some of them are imperative tools to make real estate investing easier, and in the 21st century. Here's a short list of them, ParcelFact, fact.com, so you can look up a property and get the GPS boundaries, that's life changing. That was life changing even for us. Jill DeWitt: Right. Jack Butala: When you're on the phone, you can time in an APN ... Jill DeWitt: And have right there. Jack Butala: ... And have it staring at you, and you can make a decision about whether or not to buy or sell a property. Jill DeWitt: Right. Jack Butala: Offers2owners.com, life changing when it comes to getting offer campaigns in the mail. There's nothing cheaper, and there's nothing more geared toward exactly what we do anywhere on the internet. And it comes with a ton of free help to get that first mailer because it's a bottleneck. And there's a bunch of other ones and I'm not gonna bore you. I'll tell you what's not on our list, and probably never will be, a way to manage payments. Jill DeWitt: Right. Jack Butala: Which is one of the r...

How to Buy Your Next House for Half Price (CFFL 542) Transcript: Jack Butala: Jack Butala with Jill DeWit. Jill DeWit: Hey there! Jack Butala: Welcome to the show today! In this episode Jill and I are going to talk about how to buy your next house for half price. Here's a hint: it's the same way we buy all the other stuff. Jill DeWit: Yup. Jack Butala: Before we get into it, let's take a question posted by one of our members. Landinvestors.com online community. It's free. Jill DeWit: OK. I love that he uses this name. It's not his real name, I looked, I know. But shammgod asks, if you go on landinvestors you'll find him here. He asks, "A couple of properties I've researched I've noticed have extremely low assessed values. Sometimes $20, in an area where that's not normal at all. Is this a red flag when that happens, and what would you be looking for? I realize analyzing assessed value is unnecessary, but when it's significantly different from the other properties in the area, I feel like something might be up. Overthinking? Or a good flag to follow?" Jack Butala: At this level there's no such thing as overthinking how to analyze data. There's overthinking, like, lots of stuff. But analyzing data, you can't overthink it. And I think that this is a fantastic question. Assessed value, like you said, has nothing to do with the actual value of the property. What you're experiencing when you see, if you have a dataset of like kind properties, in a perfect world, and the assessed values are all over the map, it's purely for this reason: the assessor, or the assessor before him, or 13 assessors ago when the county actually incorporated, made a mistake. They just overlooked that APR and so it got assessed at $20. It might be a property that's designated as a non-profit, so there's no taxes at all. 13 assessors ago a guy may have decided that the two-zero dollar value in that column in the database really meant that it was a non-profit thing. So, they get offers from me, shammgod. When I see that, I disregard it. The only reason that, in order for a property wouldn't get an offer from me when I scrub out data is, number one, it's like a government property, so the owner is not somebody who is going to respond. Like, the City of X, that's the owner. They don't get a letter from me. And the other reason is property use. I'm famous for not sending offers to industrial property. There are people in our group that that's all that they do is send offers to industrial property, and they do great. So those are the two reasons, assessed value is not one of the reasons. I hope that answers the question. Jill DeWit: I think it's great. Thank you, Jack. If you have a question or you want to be on the show, reach out to either of us on landinvestors.com Jack Butala: Today's topic: How to buy your next house for half price. This is the meat of the show. So think of going to a garage sale or to a jewelry store, even better ... Jill DeWit: Better. Now you have my attention. Thank you. Jack Butala: And you go to a jewelry store, and you see a diamond ring, and the exact same ring, two of them, side by side, or as close as can be, and one's 10 grand and one's five grand. But they're the same ring. Which one are you going to buy? Jill DeWit: Two of the five grands. Jack Butala: Two of the five grands? Jill DeWit: Ha ha ha ha. Jack Butala: So you buy two of the five thousand dollar rings ... Jill DeWit: That's right. Jack Butala: And sell one of them for ten grand.

Choose Real Estate Specialization (CFFL 541) Transcript: Jack Butala: Jack Butala with Jill DeWit. Jill DeWit: Hey there. Jack Butala: Welcome to our show today. In this episode, Jill and I talk about choosing a real estate specialization. Seems kind of basic, but man, it's important. 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: Okay. Joshua asks, "In the education program, Jack recommends including agricultural land data in our search criteria. I had decided on a county to send my first mailer to, but I've noticed that the majority of the parcels listed had the land use description of Agricultural NEC. Would this be a red flag for targeting this county, or could I be looking at this differently. In theory, I thought having the major percentage of my list focused on residential or recreational would be best. Thanks for any insight." Jack Butala: NEC, as I understand it, and I don't know the exact N-acronym, I'll look it up during the show and try to find out exactly what it stands for, but what it generally means is not categorized. Not is the N, and C is categorized, I think, and I'll make absolutely sure. I just found it, No Existing Category, so it means that the assessor thinks it's agricultural, but it's NEC, or they think it's industrial, but it's NEC. That's your assessor at work, by the way. That's your taxes. Jill DeWit: Would this be a red flag? Oh gosh. Jack Butala: No. You know what? To directly answer your question, I love NEC property because hey, if the assessor doesn't really know, I'll figure it out. We're going to let the guy who owns it and me, the buyer, we're going to put a price on it real quick, so keep that in, absolutely. Jill DeWit: Totally. Jack Butala: To directly answer your question again, the only reason I would remove agriculture is if you're working on a very farming intensive county. Farmland is a commodity that's usually priced per acre. If you walk into a bar or a coffee shop somewhere in Kansas and you say, "Hey, what's the price of an acre go for these days," everybody will jump right up and say, and they'll be pretty close about it, but their answer's going to be very consistent, "Oh, it goes for about $8,000 an acre or $3,000 an acre or $3,250." If you're working those areas, you want to price your mailer the way that we price houses. You want to come in under that number. Decide what it is and come in 60-70% under that number. Jill DeWit: Traditionally, what you're saying too is farmland is much higher than just out there rural residential vacant land. Jack Butala: Desert land, yeah. Jill DeWit: That's the whole point here. Jack Butala: It's priced much lower, much, much lower than property that's about to be developed like a developer property for subdivisions. Jill DeWit: Exactly. Jack Butala: That variance, by the way, this is a topic for a whole show. All of us have driven down a street and then two months later, you drive down it and you're like, "There used to be a farm there, and now they're putting roads in." Jill DeWit: It's a strip mall or something, exactly. Jack Butala: That's why we're here, by the way. That person, whoever is doing that development, they're creating equity. That's the takeaway from this question, but whatever you do, you want to create equity. You don't want to just make property move around, if you know what I mean. Jill DeWit: Right.

How To Value Houses (CFFL 540) Transcript: Jack Butala: Jack Butala with Jill DeWit. Jill DeWit: Hi, there. Jack Butala: Welcome to the show today. In this episode Jill and I talk about how to value houses. Jill DeWit: This is interesting. Jack Butala: Before we get into it, let's take a question posted by one of our members on a Landinvestors.com online community. It's free. Jill DeWit: Okay. Matt asked, "Hey guys, I did a few searches on the forums. I couldn't find anything specific about the topic of how to build a buyers list. I've heard it mentioned of manually pulling emails of paid Land Watch users in your areas and asking if they'd be interested in being buyers. I've also heard mention of people systemizing the process of scraping those emails. This is all good stuff. It looks like it may be a good idea to keep one property up on Ebay at all times and adding those people to a buyers list. It looks like managing your buyers list through A-Webber is currently the best option." He's doing a lot of work here. I'm really impressed. "I wasn't able to find a definitely 'This is the best way to do it,' or 'Do these three things every week,' and I'm sure I'm not the only who would benefit from this thread. Hopefully the group can get some good actionable items from this thread. My question to everyone is if you were to build a buyers list from scratch today, how would you do and how would you structure emails to your buyers list. Thanks!" Jack Butala: Outstanding question, Matt. Plus you're thinking out of the box. I think you've asked a few other questions that haven't made it as far as this show on the landinvestors.com community and this is top notch so I'm going to do my best to answer your question. Drop everything and go to landwatch.com and go to the signature area. In fact I do a YouTube video on how to do this so if you go to our YouTube channel, landacademy.com, I actually show you how to do it on the computer. It's incredibly simple and fast. Literally takes about 30 minutes and you're going to have 50 to 100 of the best land buyers in the country. Go to the signature area, right click on any given email ... You're going to see each ... State-by-state it lists the land owner or the signature. It costs a lot of money to be a signature level member at Land Watch. Jill DeWit: It's like 500 a month, from what I remember. Jack Butala: Yeah. Click on ... First try to do it with one. Click on the person's email and that the notice of all their contact information and then save as and copy it to Word or anywhere else on your desktop and you're going to get their email address. Do that for all 50 to 100. I'm not sure how many. Every time I look the list gets bigger. These are the people who are real serious land buyers and sellers. That's the beginning of your A list. Since you're interested in doing this on an ongoing basis, which is incredibly positive, continue to do that, I don't know, once a month maybe. Then post your Craigslist ad in the area that you're working. Let's say it's Montana for example. I'm just throwing any location out there. Post your Craigslist ad saying you've got a bunch of property that you want to buy or you want to sell and you'll get some people that way, but the absolute best way, without a doubt, to get great buyers and probably will result in immediate sales, is to go to Real Quest, which you already have a subscription to, and take a look at who owns property in the immediate area of the properties that you want to sell. If it is Montana or one county in Montana, like Sweet Water, I guess Wyoming, or I'm drawing a blank on counties in Montana. You'll see exact, you'll see and just drop them a little note.

When To Stop Selling (CFFL 539) Transcript: Jack: Jack Butala with Jill DeWit! Jill: Hey there! Jack: Welcome to the show today! In this episode, as promised, Jill and I talk about when to stop selling. When is it just too much, jeez, stop with the shameless plugs of your websites. Jill: Bank account's too big ... Jack: Every other sentence is Land Investors this, Land Academy that. Before we get into it, though, let's take a question posted by one of our members on the landinvestors.com online community, it's great. Jill: Merritt asks, "Hi all. I'm wondering if folks have any experience with doing deals with attorneys. I know that I've heard warnings in the podcast from Jack and Jill that attorneys have a tendency to kill deals, but I'm not sure that applies to when they actually accept an offer you've mailed them. Jack: Man I have a lot to say about this already. Jill: This is good. Jack: Right? Jill: I got an accepted offer back in the mail that looked like a great deal. Reviewed it with Pappy Jack, thumbs up Pappy Jack, that's you. Strangely, after multiple attempts to get in touch with the seller via phone, no dice. Jack: Oh darn. Jill: Finally decide to email the guy and got a quick response. Jack: Oh good! Jill: He wants to do the deal but his deceased mom is on the title. I called the county and found out the necessary steps, removed him off the title- Jack: Good for you Merritt. Jill: And emailed him back the information, and the forms for him to file, et cetera. It should take him about thirty minutes of his time and cost $25. I said I would reimburse him. After I sent the email back to him, I notice that on his email, he was a D.A. Jack: District Attorney. Jill: It's hilarious. Looking him up and found out he's in fact the D.A. of the state's capital county. Awesome, this is so funny. Knowing this makes me want to take this deal down even more to show that I conquered the Genghis Khan of the state with an Excel spreadsheet and a $5,000 cashiers check. Jack: Oh, Merritt. We gotta have you on the show. You're hilarious. Jill: Is this cavalier and/or naïve on my part? Jack: No, it's great. Jill: I really can't run away, since I signed the Purchase Agreement with the D.A. Is this a mistake at a hundred miles an hour, Jack? Jack: Nope. Jill: Thanks for your thoughts. Jack: No, so let me clear this up. I don't dislike doing deals with attorneys. I just think that some of them can get a little overzealous and look for things to kill a deal. And by the way, just so we're all clear, full disclosure. Lawyers get paid the more they talk and do stuff. So if they can stretch a deal out for a couple more weeks, or a couple more months, or a couple more years, they get paid more. They can bill more. The more problems they find and that they have to solve, the more they get paid. Do all of them do that? No. In fact, one of my best friends is a lawyer in Scottsdale. I've known him forever. His name is Kent Lang, he's a construction real estate attorney- Jill: Sales plug. Jack: Yeah, well I hope it's [crosstalk 00:02:54] more business out of it. I have never dealt with an attorney who is more straightforward, honest and tries to get stuff done quickly. In fact, I tell Joe, Kent wrecked it for us.

Flirt To Convert II (CFFL 538) Transcript: Jack: Jack Butala with Jill DeWit. Jill: Hey there. Jack: Welcome to the show today. In this episode Jill and I talk about Flirting to Convert. Two. Jill: Two. Where the- Jack: A lot of years ago we did a show called Flirt to Convert. It was really popular because, I think- Jill: It's just funny Jack: they want to hear Jill's take on flirting- Jill: Thanks Jack: to convert, let's just say. Before we get into it, let's take a question posted by one of our members on LandInvestors.com online community. It's free. Jill: Okay. Noam asked, "Hi Everyone. What templates do you chose to work with in order to complete a sale on terms, and where do you get them? For terms deals, I know I need a land contract, promissory note and purchase agreement (is this accurate?) I was going to use Rocket Lawyer or a similar website. Do you recommend going the Rocket Lawyer way? Do you mind sharing your own docs? Do I need to notarize my signature on any of these docs, or only does the buyer? Thank you." Jack: All good questions. Jill: All good questions. Jack: So, the program, the educational program that Jill and I provide on how to flip land which is on LandAcademy.com provides a library of contracts and agreements. They're examples. Jill: So you have all ours right there. Jack: Do you want to use those verbatim? No. You want to put your own twist on it, and make sure that the specific situation is reflected in there. Jill: Right, but the meat's there. Jack: Do you want to use Rocket Lawyer? Yeah, I've heard all kinds of good stuff. I've never pulled agreements down from there, but I'll tell yeah, you're doing the right thing here, asking this question on LandInvestors.com because everybody is- I mean there's people all over our group, hundreds of people that do agreements all the time so, someone's going to have a real good, up-to-date answer. We've been using the same agreements for quite some time, and it works for us. So, you're in the right hands, let's say. Jill: Exactly. Jack: If you have a question, or you want to be on the show, reach out to either one of us on LandInvestors.com. Today's topic, Flirt to Convert, at number two. This is the meat of the show. Jill, I know you have a tremendous amount of experience in sales, even right up to the last 20 seconds. Jill: What the heck? Jack: Me and the kids joke about it. If she's talking, she's selling us something. I don't even know I'm being sold something. Jill: Oh boy. Jack: She's selling me on putting her paja- Jill: We don't have a thing on you. I need to come up with one about you. Jack: She's selling me on putting my pajamas on. Jill: That's hilarious. Jack: She's selling me on what to eat for lunch today. Jill: No. Jack: When they were little. It's a compliment. Jill: No. Thank you. That's just called good parenting. And picking your battles. Jack: That's a good point. When is it sales, and when is it too sales-y, like used car salesmen, or when is it like- Jill: That's a good one. Jack: Or when is it healthy, helpful? Jill: Can I talk now?

Being A Real Estate Agent Is Not A Career (CFFL 537) Transcript: Jack Butala: Jack Butala with Jill DeWit. Jill DeWit: Hi. Jack Butala: Welcome to the show today. In this episode, Jill and I talk about being a real estate agent and how it's not really a career. Jill DeWit: We're gonna tick off a lot of people. Jack Butala: It wouldn't be the first time or the last time. 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: Okay. Chris asked, "I'm looking at a county surplus auction inventory list." That's a mouthful. "And researching land I want to bid on. One of the property's descriptions from the county auction book reads, 'Vacant lot. Subject to apparent encroachment by structure. Half of a house.'" Seriously. You can't make this stuff up. I didn't say that. He wrote that, and they're right. So, Chris goes on to add, "I looked up the parcel number and the lot for auction or the pin number in this auction and the lot. Is a garage half of the house?" Jack Butala: Good for you doing your research. Jill DeWit: Is the garage half of the house? Got it. Jack Butala: I see this kind of stuff all the time. Jill DeWit: "The other half of the house taxes are owned by the county." Oh my gosh. At what point do we ... I would've run a long time ago, but anyway. Jack Butala: Yeah, but no. This is good. I'm really glad that he asked this question, and I'm glad our producer chose it for us. Jill DeWit: Right. "The other half of the house's taxes are owned by the county, but that portion is not up for surplus auction this year. It's a tax lien state. I dug even a bit deeper on the other half, and the taxes have been sold and taken back to the county twice over the past seven years. The caveat? This is a beautiful infill lot right on a golf course. I did drive by the lot." Jack Butala: Wow. Jill DeWit: "Do you have any experience with this type of question? My specific questions are ..." It keeps going. I was gonna say, "One, do I run?" No. "One, if I purchase the land with half a house encroaching and the county owns the other half, will I be able to sell my half?" Jack Butala: Yes. Jill DeWit: "Two, will I essentially own half a house?" Jack Butala: Yes. Jill DeWit: "Three, the property is a prime lot and there will be other more seasoned bidders at the auction. Should I run screaming and cross this one off my bidding list?" Jack Butala: Yes. Jill DeWit: "Retail is around $22,000 for the comps and the bidding starts at $600. Four, or just go for it and ask questions later?" Jack Butala: No. Jill DeWit: "I.e., hire a lawyer after I purchase." It's hilarious. "I suspect the answer is a combination of the above. But I welcome any direction. Thanks in advance." Jack Butala: First of all, Chris- Jill DeWit: It's hilarious Chris. Jack Butala: ... you are exactly who we want in our group. You have done every single thing right. When you go to an auction, I mean it, and you've asked all the right questions, you've done your research, you even went and looked at the property; which I have to say most of the time, I've never done. So, kudos to you. This deal is too complicated no matter how profitable. Jill DeWit: Right.

Picking A Side Business For Real Estate Agents (CFFL 536) Transcript: Jack Butala: Hey. Jack Butala here for Land Academy. Welcome to our Cash Flow From Land Show. In this episode Jill and I talk about the very first day of my land career, and then we talk about today and everything in between. Jill, I look at the numbers and I can't believe it. Ask me anything if you want. This is not going to be our highest rated show, and you know how I get about talking about myself and stuff, but somebody called in and asked about this. Jill DeWit: I love this topic. I actually have a list of questions that I think everyone would love to hear the answers. This is a great topic. Let me go back and explain. Do you want to explain what we're talking about. It's really ... Jack Butala: I would love for you to do it. Jill DeWit: Okay. This is really Steven started, no surprise and no secret, it's in our e-book too, with five hundred dollars and his checkbook sitting at his kitchen table buying a piece of land off eBay and who knew it would turn into twenty point, I don't know how many ... It's twenty-two. I don't remember what the final number was, but over twenty million dollars in revenue from that in not a lot of time. It is amazing, and it's all just buying and reselling rural land. Jack Butala: Right. Jill DeWit: That's it. Question one. Susie from Omaha said ... I'm just kidding. Jack Butala: Jill is joking about that because we're about to have callers on the show. We really are. We're several episodes away from doing that. Jill DeWit: Should I pretend, "Hi. My name is Susie"? Jack Butala: Yeah. Let's try it. Jill DeWit: Hi, my name is Susie. I'm from Omaha. How are you? Jack Butala: It's kind of turning me on. Jill DeWit: Long time listener. First time caller. Steven, your voice is just ... Jack Butala: Hello, Susie from Omaha. What are you wearing today? Jill DeWit: Your voice is just dreamy. Especially now that I know what your balance sheet looks like. Jack Butala: I've always wanted your balance sheet. Jill DeWit: Why do you like him? Have you seen his balance sheet. You know what? Next time somebody asks me why we're partners together or something I'll just say ... We're out in ... I going to say, "Have you seen his balance sheet?" Just kidding. Okay. Here is my question. When did you realize what was happening? When did you realize that you could actually make a living doing this? Jack Butala: Yeah. That's a good question. I bet people would be [or 00:03:03] like members are interested in this. I had a very delayed response, years. I went into this. I had a job. Like everybody, I had a job, and so I started flipping land on the internet long from the location that I was in. I was not in the same geography, so did a few deals, did a few off deals. Actually, we don't teach this, but I bought some land on the internet and then resold it. That happened and I guess, I don't know, I made a bunch of money. I just didn't believe it. I figured, "Oh, that's just a one-off thing." There was no education. I wasn't following a manual like Land Academy has or anything. I was just buying and selling property. The cash that I had on hand at that month is what I spent and sold it for cash. There was no terms. When it really dawned on me is I did a deal. I sent out a bunch of faxes. I sent a fax out to all the real estate agents in Arizona overnight one time. We talk about this in the program. There's an automated paperless way to do this. Back then the legalities were a little bit different than they are now,

Luke Smith Creates Great Success Quickly (CFFL 535) Transcript: Jack Butala: Luke Smith retired from being a penny stock broker at 33 and is now a full-time dad of two toddlers from Encinitas California. He heard about Land Academy on biggerpockets.com. He has not completed a purchase from his mailers yet, but he got a huge response and he's using that to learn from and he's sending out higher targeted mailers. It sounds like Luke, that we're catching you right before massive success. Luke Smith: I hope so. Jack Butala: Tell us ... You sent the mailer out. Give us a little bit of some of the details and some of the types of calls that you got back, and the response that you got. Luke Smith: Sure, I'd love to. I was too cheap to pay for your program at first. I thought I'd give it a try with all the free information, and just reading between the lines, I thought I'd give it a try. I fired off a couple hundred mailers and people started calling. Jill DeWit: Awesome. Luke Smith: I think where I was off base, was I was going off the appraised values and doing like a smaller piece of the appraised values. I was thinking I should sell these properties for a couple thousand bucks or more, so I'll go for a couple thousand dollars or more appraised values, and the people that are calling back think their properties are worth $50,000, or $100,000. I'm offering like $400 or a couple hundred dollars, but I was amazed at how many actually called back. They read their mail, they stewed on this thing. They got pissed off at my low-ball offer. They really value their land, and they called me back and they wanted to chew me out, or haggle on price. To me, that's success. My numbers were wrong. I can fix that in the next ones, but those are potential buyers of land. Those are people who buy vacant land in the middle of nowhere that I was making offers on. They have astronomical numbers that they value that land at. Jack Butala: Well you're exactly right. They are on your buyer list now, I hope. Luke Smith: Yeah, exactly. Jack Butala: That's great. Luke Smith: You know? Jack Butala: All right, so I'm going to ask you a few questions. Jill DeWit: I have to interject one thing though. Oh, go ahead. Jack Butala: No, yeah. Jill DeWit: I just want to say, when you have these people though, I feel like a broken record, but $10,000, they think it's worth $10,000, three, six months from now, your $500 offer is not so bad. You know? Sometimes they do overvalue. It's a priceless asset to them and I get it. It was handed down to the family, whatever, but then they realize, "Gosh, nobody really does want this and this guy wanted to give me something", and then they do a little homework and they realize you're not that far off. Luke Smith: Yeah. Jill DeWit: It can happen still, so that's good. Jack Butala: Did you, Luke, the offers that you sent out, did you send an offer out that was modeled after the ones that we always send out? Was it an actual offer? Luke Smith: It was an actual offer, two page offer with a dollar amount in there, and I put a reply envelope and I was amazed at how many people sent back notes and comments and things on the offer in the reply envelope with no postage on it, and the post office still delivered it. Jack Butala: Wow. Luke Smith: Because it had my name and address in both to and from, so I wonder how many got lost in the mail. I just went off of your free information to give it a try,

Our New JackJill Show - You Tell Us What You Want (CFFL 534) Transcript: Jack: Jack Butala with Jill Dewitt. Jill: Hi. Jack: Welcome to our show today, in this episode, Jill and I talk about our new Jack Jill show. This is all about ... Jill: What's coming. Jack: What's coming, and what you think the show should be about. Before we get into it, let's take a question, posted by one of our members on the land investors dot com. Online community. It's free. Jill: Okay, Allen asks, "is anyone else having problems posting property on land pin?" This is funny. Oops! How'd this get in there? Wow, all right. This is good. I fill out the new listing info and when I click the save button, the website grays out and just says "saving". This is hilarious. I have tried to list this one property four times now and the same thing keeps happening. All right, so we just got a tech support question that made it into our show. So, I'm ... Jack: I'm gonna answer it. Jill: All right, tech support Jack. Go for it. Jack: It has to do with how you signed up. And so there's no way you could know this. It happens to like, three people of the ... I think that site has a thousands of people so ... Jill: That's hilarious. Jack: Please email Erin at land academy dot com if you're having issues. She's the manager of that whole line of business and she'll get you straightened out real quick. In fact, chances are Allen, you're way past. By the time this airs, you know, you'll be all set. Jill: It's fixed, that's hilarious. Jack: This does bring up a good point though. Jill: I think this is really funny, I feel like somebody wanted to get this ... someone's like frustrated and put this in there on purpose. Jack: This does bring up a great point, so, and the point is ... Jill and I, we start these lines of businesses like land pan, parcel fact, land crowd fund, land tank, and on and on and on, there's a bunch of them. And, we put a manager at the top of it and that person runs that line like it's their own business. With their own plans, and Jill and I just kind of help out. So, all kidding aside, this kind of just snuck in here and I'm glad it did. Jill: I think it's hilarious. Jack: It gave us an opportunity today ... Jill: To see what's going on in our business. Jack: It gave us an opportunity to talk about our business structure and stuff. And we modeled this whole ... built a moat around it. Jill, as Jill calls it, "built a moat around these lines". They're separate companies; after Berkshire Hathaway. That's what they do. He doesn't go to ... You don't go visit the company every day that you own. Especially if you own 50 of them; In fact you probably don't ever go. Jill: You can't, it's not possible. Jack: Warren Buffet doesn't sit around and talk about Sees Candy. Jill: It's even ... Just within your business, you don't spend ... You're not sitting with the accounting people one hour every day, and then the billing people an hour every day, and the customer service people an hour every day. You have to put them in place with the right tools and the right resources and trust them and let them go. Jack: And the right manager. Jill: Yeah. Jack: You have to put the right manager in, and hold that manger accountable. Jill: Yep. Jack: So there's clearly,

5 Stages of Wealth (CFFL 533) Transcript: Jack: Rental neighborhoods, it works very, very well to put in the paper. Jill: Okay. Jack: To like in a newspaper, actually. Jill: Oh, okay. Jack: If you're trying to rent a house. Jill: Got it. Jack: So you can test it that way and, but even long before you even buy it, you put it right in there, and leave out a few of the details, like the APN and things like that, and just see if ... If 50 people call you to rent a house that you haven't bought yet, there's a pretty darn good chance you're gonna be okay. Jill: Exactly. Jack: Same thing with the sales in Craigslist. Jill: Yeah. Jack: You'll get an indicator real quick. If two people call you in three weeks, you want to run away. Jill: Right. Jack: Never have for sale property. Jill: Correct. Jack: If you have a question, or you want to be on the show, reach out to either one of us on landinvestors.com. Today's topic, the five stages of wealth. This is [inaudible 00:00:46] to the show. This is also a topic I wrote- Jill: Yeah. Jack: Because I don't think Jill would ever want any part of this. Jill: Well, I want to hear what your things are, and then I have something I want to add that what this made me think of. Jack: This came up because I wrote the outline the other day for a book that I'm going to release in about three months, called, "Wealth," or, "Your Wealth." I haven't titled it yet, but it's things that I wish as a young ... I'm not a young man any longer, but I wish someone would explain this to me when I was younger. Number one, here's my five, and then Jill's going to hopefully have some stuff to say, and maybe she'll debunk the whole thing. Number one, secure revenue source, i.e., get a job. All right, nothing's gonna happen unless you ... I don't care who you are, or what you are, unless you're a trust fund baby, you've got to secure an ongoing revenue source. In fact, now that I'm thinking about it, trust fund kids [crosstalk 00:01:47] have a built-in- Jill: Probably need it even more. Jack: They have a built-in revenue source, that's interest income or whatever. So, secure a revenue source, number one. Number two, remove any debt or don't accumulate, better yet, don't take on any unless it's business associated debt and you actually know how it's gonna go. Jill: So that's stage two. Jack: Number three ... The five stages, yeah. Begin to accumulate equity. There's two ways to do this, save the money, saving money from your revenue source that you have, your job. Or, number two, invest it, and turn it. Number two is how fortunes are made. Number one is how you live a lonely little life of savings. Jill: Yeah, right and under your mattress. Jack: Yeah. Number four, now you're accumulating- Jill: Step four, or stage four. Jack: Number four is, start to plan with this accumulated equity for your non-working years, or also known as, retirement. So, now you put your stock [inaudible 00:02:46] away and you're planning your exit. That's a whole stage that gets completely overlooked by the vast majority of people, even wealthy people. And finally, number five, which is my personal favorite, create a legacy revenue stream for people after you're gone. It may be in the form of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation,

When is it OK to Talk About Money? (CFFL 532) Transcript: Jack: Jack Butala with Jill DeWitt. Jill: Hi Jack: Welcome to the show today. In this episode, Jill and I talk about, when is okay to talk about money? And when is it not okay? More specifically, as it pertains to real estate as always. Jill: Got it. Jack: Before we get into it, let's take a question posted by one of our members on the land investors dot com online community, it's free. Jill: Okay. Mike asks, "Anyone have any advice on how to manipulate improvement percent to include properties with well or septic tanks?" Has anyone ever tinkered with this?" I would love to find some properties in some of my areas with old wells I could salvage. It would double the value of the land." Interesting spin he's going on here. Jack: Mike, once in a while we get a brilliant question and this. Jill: Yeah. Jack: Congratulations, you won this month. Jill: Thinking about, thinking outside of the box. Jack: Here's the thing Jill. The further we get into this Land Investors Land Academy, offers investors, offers academy thing, the more intelligent people keep joining our groups. And so this is brilliant. There's a two part answer. Number one, and I asked part of our staff to memorize this sentence. The data that we have in real quest pro and data tree and everywhere [inaudible 00:01:18] and all the other data sources that we provide is only as good as the assessor and the assessor's cake eaters put in. So man, that would be great to say, "Yep, it's got a well." Jill: Silly. Jack: Like a whole separate column. If I had my way, I would say there's a whole separate column for septic, a whole separate column for well, for well. It's that important for rural real estate. Jill: Right. Jack: Unfortunately they don't. So wouldn't it be great though, that said, if the improvement percentage was like fifteen. Like the property's been approved fifteen percent and that man had had a well on it in every county. That's dreamy data situation. Jill: Wouldn't that be great? I mean there really is a category for that on some of our data sources where you kind like check the box that you wanted to pop in. But you're right, I mean a pretty large percentage of the time it's not accurate information. The don't fill it in. Jack: So for the record, by the way, the first time I heard improved, "Is the property improved or not?" That was a lot of years ago. What I thought immediately was, "Does it have a house on it or construction?" and that's not what it means. If the property has been improved in any way, like let's say it's part of a subdivision and there's roads and stuff and there's sewer hook ups at the street and all that. That's improved property. And what it really it means is that lenders, lenders sit up in their chairs and say, "Oh, it's improved property, I have an interest in lending you money on it now." Jill: Right. Jack: I have an interest in lending you money now so that if you default I can own it. But that's a different topic. Jill: Right. Exactly. Jack: So now, to answer your question Mike. Brilliant question. It would be great if you could somehow [inaudible 00:03:00] find that specialization and buy properties with a well, like a defunct well. Man, you would be off to the races on that financially. In fact, you could talk about how much money you'd make. When is okay to talk about money? Jill: That's the [inaud...

Quentin Tarantino's House (CFFL 531) Transcript: Jack Butala: Jack Butala with Jill DeWit. Jill DeWit: Hey, good day. Jack Butala: Welcome to our show today. In this episode, Jill and I talk about Quentin Tarantino's house. What the heck is this about? Jill DeWit: Is this about? Jack Butala: Before I get into that, let's take a question posted by one of our members on the landinvestors.com online community. It's free. Jill DeWit: Okay, Joshua asks, "I was set to buy a 10 acre property for $1500 in Nevada, when I called the owner to get the ball rolling he said wait, we have a problem. He said we would need three signatures. One from his dead brother, one from him, and then one from his brother's widow." Oh my gosh. There's no red flags there. He said, "The widow will not sign because of a family issue they had with what was to be done with the body of the brother slash the husband." Jack Butala: Oh my gosh. Jill DeWit: Right, this is I believe this whole story too. Jack Butala: I do too. Jill DeWit: He said she would never, he said,"She never had anything to do with the land or anything but she just isn't going to sign because she wants to be a pain in the butt. I figured everyone would say move on but I thought I'd drop it in here anyway." Joshua, you are correct. Do you really want to take on this family feud? Jack Butala: Yeah. Jill DeWit: And try to solve where the brother is going to be buried or whatever the situation is? Just to buy a stinking piece of land? I gotta say. Jack Butala: Well said Jill, well said. Jill DeWit: I would've not even, this is one of those I say, I wish you all the best sir and have a nice life. Click and then I move on. Jack Butala: All kidding aside, when you run into these issues and we've all been there. Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Jack Butala: You should of put them in two piles. One pile is, this is beyond me, I need a title agent to really go through this and get it done. So there's one pile and the other pile is, which is where this one goes. Jill DeWit: Yeah. Jack Butala: It's unclosable. Jill DeWit: Yeah. Jack Butala: This property is not ... Jill DeWit: Title agent can't solve a family feud. Jack Butala: That's right. Jill DeWit: Or dig up a brother or a dead guy and make him sign. Jack Butala: They need a psychiatrist. A lot of times, I don't see it too much lately for some reason but a lot of times and it's my favorite I guess because I pay attention to it. You need the signature of somebody but they went, they just chucked life in there in Mexico somewhere having a blast. Jill DeWit: Right. Jack Butala: And so, we had a deal like that, not that long ago and it was a great deal. I'm like, you know what? Should I send a private investigator to find this guy? But I don't think even if they found him, he just doesn't care. Jill DeWit: No. Jack Butala: He's having fun down there. Jill DeWit: It's not worth it. Jack Butala: So. Jill DeWit: Sorry Joshua. Jack Butala: Yeah, it's just like and ... Jill DeWit: You are 100% correct a...

How to Value Land (CFFL 530) Transcript: Jack Butala: Jack Butala with Jill DeWit. Jill DeWit: Hi. Jack Butala: Welcome to our show today. In this episode, Jill and I talk about how to value land. That seems pretty obvious. Jill DeWit: Yeah ... you'd think! Jack Butala: I'll try to make it complicated though, that's for sure. Jill DeWit: Okay, good. Jack Butala: 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. Jill DeWit: Matt asks, "Hi everyone, I'm starting to close my deals in house and I'd like to make sure that the way I accept payment is as current as possible. I'm up to date on the podcasts and the Thursday afternoon weekly member calls. I can't tell you how many different things I've heard, ha ha. Payment systems seem to come and go. One week it sounds like a company allows real estate, the next they don't, and so on. I know that Jack and Jill are working to solve this for us, much appreciated, but what is the current state-of-the-art? If you were setting up your payment system for selling properties today how would you approach it? (I haven't setup my Land Pin account yet but I will be doing so soon)." What do you think Jack? [00:01:03] Yeah. Jack Butala: This is a very, very valid concern, and it's a big issue. So, here's the deal. In around 2004 to 2010, everybody's happily going along collecting payments for properties and their purchase of sell and actually like payments to make payments to pay off the property with PayPal. They woke up one day around, I don't know, 2010 and said it's beyond our risk threshold and they cut us all off, all of us. They didn't give us any notice. Jill DeWit: We were all happily sailing along- Jack Butala: So we all scrambled and found something else ... I think it was Stripe, at the time, or Bluepay ... there's a bunch of them. There's a million ... they're called payment gateways. All of them, for whatever reason [crosstalk 00:01:48] have all agreed- Jill DeWit: One by one ... It's not at the same time too-[crosstalk 00:01:53] Jack Butala: It's like dominoes. Jill DeWit: It's like one by one they go ... we're all over here, we're all happily accepting payments and the next thing they go, no ... we changed our mind. Then we go to the next guy. Jack Butala: Yeah, it's like dominoes. So you have exactly two solutions and Jillpay is one of them, and it's working extremely hard to get this thing done. The second one, and a couple of our members have done this ... very successfully in fact ... we've done it too ... is to go to your bank, and sit down with the branch manager, or whoever is the most appropriate or highest person you can get to ... Try and make it a large branch ... and explain the situation. They will, especially if you've had a bunch of deposits over time, and they're looking at your bank account and your deposits over the last few years ... they will grant you permission to do this. They don't issue a waiver, but what they really do is say, you seem to be a standup person on this whole thing ... we're gonna let you do this. Several members have had success with that. It's not an overnight process, which is why Jill and I are solving this, with Jillpay. It all comes down to the backend processor. If you look in on the internet and find out how credit cards are processed and how many people are involved when you buy something on Amazon ... it's actually, relatively silly. The real winners are[crosstalk 00:03:14] Jill DeWit: Like more involved than we reali...

Time Savings Tips for Land Investors (CFFL 529) Transcript: Jack Butala: Jack Butala with Jill Dewitt Jill Dewitt: Hello (laughing) Jack Butala: Welcome to our show today. In this episode - I can tell it's going to be funny already. Jill and I talk about time saving tips for land investors or really anybody. 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: Okay, I forgot who this is but this is their code name on here Shamgod asks, "There is a subdivision I've got a few tentative deals in but the parcels might not have legal access. They're not landlocked but have the possibility to be in the future. Properties are slow moving, priced at $1000 - $5000 an acre out there but those are the ones without potential access problems. What type of price would be your max? I've got a 5 and a 10 acre property that I'm looking at. I'm thinking $3000-ish for 5 acres, does that sound about right? Not sure if there's a good rule of thumb." Jack Butala: May I? Jill Dewitt: Yes, please. Jack Butala: There's two questions here: one's to do with access and how should I price this stuff, so I'll take the second one first. How should I price it? In general, there is a rule of thumb for vacant land like this. You want to be at about 40% or 50% of the lower echelon of the priced property, which sounds to me like $1000 an acre so that would bring it down to $500 an acres. So $500 for 5 acres is what, $2,500? Yeah, so, he says, right at the end, "I'm thinking $3000 per 500 acres question mark, does that sound about right?" Well, you answered your own question. That sounds perfectly priced to me, where you could double it and sell a 5 acre property for 6 grand, which is doubling your money, really quickly and you're still way below what retail is so the answer is hell yes. Question number one. Number two is: they're not landlocked yet but they might be in the future. Well, in general Jill and I do not buy property that has no access. When you look at it on the screen from Google Earth or from ParcelFact or wherever you're looking up your property and there is absolutely no way to get it, not even a regular trail or anything else and it's not close to a road, we pass. At any price, we pass. If it's showing some signs of yeah it could be platted legal access but you know you just need to lay the road in, now we're talking so that's a good reason sometimes to buy really undervalued property because nobody has taken the final step to just make it a great piece of property. That's what is sounds like here, so the answer is unfortunately I don't have a hard and fast answer but the answer is look into it. You can call an assessor and look into it in great detail because sometimes you can buy property that's incredibly inexpensive or undervalued because nobody has taken the final step to just get a road in there. Now's a good time for me to bring this point up because it's come up all week. I called the assessor and they said, "Fill in the blank," What are they going to say Jill? Jill Dewitt: I'm not an attorney. Jack Butala: That is one thing. Let's play this game right now, do you mind? Jill Dewitt: (laughing) Sure. You interrupted my lunch. Jack Butala: I called the assessor ... Yep, go ahead, keep going, you're on the right track. I called the assessor and they said ... Call an attorney- Jill Dewitt: It's a bad area. Jack Butala: It's a bad area. Ding-ding-ding-ding-ding! Jill Dewitt: Nobody's buying anything there. Jack Butala: Nobody buys the...

How to Stay on Task, Not on the Fun Ones (CFFL 528) Transcript: Jack Butala: Jack Butala with Jill DeWit. Jill DeWit: Hey there. Jack Butala: Welcome to our show today. In this episode, Jill and I talk about how to stay on task, at work that is, not just do the fun tasks, not just horse around and do fun stuff on the internet. This show's near and dear to my heart because- Jill DeWit: Yes it is. Jack Butala: This whole podcast is rooted in work avoidance. Before we get into that though, let's take a question, posted by one of our members on the landinvestors.com online community, it's free. Jill DeWit: Okay, Amy asks, "Hi. I'm new. I keep hearing about the training videos but I can't find them. Having very difficult time navigating to them. I finally assume that you must have to pay for them." That's hilarious. Hold on. "But on the membership matrix, it shows them as part of the green package." And we have a link here, "Can anyone enlighten me? Thanks much." Jack Butala: I can enlighten you, sure. Jill DeWit: What's cute is Amy's in our world. Jack Butala: She is now. I bet this question happened before that. Jill DeWit: Maybe. Jack Butala: There's training videos on YouTube, a ton of them actually, and where we link professional training videos about data and mail merges and stuff. Jill DeWit: Specific tasks. Jack Butala: And then when you get serious about it, this whole design. Jill and I designed this so that, don't want you to buy into this thing, unless you know you want to do it. Jill DeWit: Right. Jack Butala: So, we provide a ridiculous amount of free stuff. Jill DeWit: Get your feet wet, test it. Jack Butala: To see. Jill DeWit: Yeah. Jack Butala: See if you like data, see if you don't like it. See if you like real estate. See if you understand it. Jill DeWit: Talk to some sellers. See if you can do that. Jack Butala: Talk to the people who are already in the group at landinvestors.com, which is a whole community, like it says in the intro, of people who are succeeding at this and a couple people who are not. And see which one you're going to be, before you even spend a dollar, dollar one. That's the whole point to this. It's a good question, we do have a lot, a vast majority of that content's free. But the stuff you have to pay for, which by the way, Jill reminds me, every other day, is priced at about one tenth of everybody else's. Jill DeWit: Yeah. Jack Butala: Seriously. Jill DeWit: Oh man. Jack Butala: It's very- Jill DeWit: I think it's probably less than one tenth, but yeah. Jack Butala: Of what everybody else charges. So, that's not why were here. We're not here to make hoards of money doing this. Jill DeWit: And upsell you and do all that, that drives me crazy. Jack Butala: We are here however to keep the lights on. Jill DeWit: We do that. Need to do that, and food on the table. Jack Butala: You have question you want to be on the show, reach out to either one of us on landinvestors.com. Today's topic, how to stay on task with what you're doing, i.e., buy real estate and sell it for more, not just do the fun stuff that's all plastered all ...

Planning and Zoning Explained by Member Mike Marshall (CFFL 527) Transcript: Jack Butala: Jack Butala with Jill DeWit. Jill DeWit: Hi. Jack Butala: Welcome to our show today. Today Jill and I, in this episode, have a treat for our listeners. Jill DeWit: We do. Jack Butala: We're going to talk with Mike Marshall, land use zoning career expert. For the last 12 years of Mike's professional career, his been in the field of land use and zoning in jurisdictions that involve California and Texas. He's managed a variety of projects from large scale residential subdivision to several hundred thousand square feet of commercial developments. He believes he can actually help us, or help our members with a significant experience in zoning and it can be boiled down to understanding what we have and what we can get and how we can get it. I can't wait - Jill DeWit: I know. I'm excited. It's [crosstalk 00:00:43]cool. Jack Butala: My biggest challenge with Mike today is going to be keep this at less than an hour. His early beginning zone career journey in the land investing and believes he can bring a unique experience, and some value to the group. Mike, welcome. Jill DeWit: Welcome. Mike Marshall: Thank you so much. I'm very happy to be here with you guys. I appreciate the opportunity. Jack Butala: Absolutely. Tell us what you're working on right now. Mike Marshall: Like you mentioned, I've worked in jurisdictions in both Texas and California so I'm still working in a full-time capacity in a local planning and zoning department, but on the side I'm also working on some land development projects. Some multi-family project as well as a smaller residential subdivision, so kind of doing project management on that side. I'm kind of transitioning out of that, and as you mentioned kind of moving towards my own land investment company, but also at the same time what I do is I'll help out different investors, try to understand what they can do with their property. What can I do with this piece of land? As you mentioned, it's "What do I have to begin with?" And "what can I get?" And ultimately what do I need to do to be able to get that? Jack Butala: That's really, really, really interesting, so I'm going to cut right to the chase. I'm going to probably ask what most of our members are thinking right now, "Well, hell I have 640 acres in Texas, what can I do with it? Can I subdivide it? Can I get it down to five acres?" So can you help with something like that? Mike Marshall: Yeah, I do that kind of thing a lot. In general, the unfortunate answer is that it really depends. It depends on the jurisdiction you're in, it depends what their requirements are, and ultimately what the zoning is. So, if you're looking at zoning, you're looking at wanting to subdivide a property, you have to look at things like, "what's my minimum lot size requirement?" If it's a residentially-zoned property, which is I know what we tend to look at more often. What's the density requirement? How many units can I get on an acre of land? What are my requirements as far as roadway frontage? What about infrastructure? So it kind of goes on and on in terms of the development side of things, but just from a pure zoning perspective, it's going to be a situation of, what is it in terms of the number of units I can get on the property? That's going to be dependent on each jurisdiction. As you move out into more rural areas it's going to tend to be larger lot sizes of course, and lower density. Jack Butala: So you know our whole group is ... We try to find rural, inexpensive property that's almost 90 percent of the tim...

Irony Of Assessed Value (CFFL 526) Transcript: Jack Butala: Jack Butala with Jill Dewitt. Jill Dewitt: Hi. Jack Butala: Welcome to the show today. In this episode, Jill and I talk about the irony of assessed value. Before we get in to it, let's take a question posted by one of our members on the landinvestors.com online community. It's free. Jill Dewitt: Okay. Luke asks, "I have used Google Voice for the last year and it's worked great, until they randomly shut down my account. I requested that they reactivate it, and they did it within about 24 hours, but I'm at the point where I can't be dealing with setbacks like that." I agree. Jack Butala: Yeah, good for you, Luke Harris. Jill Dewitt: "I'm using PATlive as well, but I need a service to text and make outbound calls with. What sponsors did you all use for your business?" Jack Butala: We use Jill Live, which we are still in a test phase with. Does it have a texting piece? I'm looking in to that, but we don't currently do that, and we, you know ... Jill Live is a fantastic product, it's just down the chain of products that we're releasing, so, I wish I could help more. Most people are using PATlive in our group, you know, because I talk to the sales rep there once in a while, and he tells me how many new people are signing up all the time, so ... I don't know if there's an all-in-one, CRM based ... I have a meeting about this actually today. CRM based sales scenario out there, but we're in the process of developing it, just like everything else. Jill Dewitt: I keep hoping we're gonna find, like, you know we have our VOIP service? I'm waiting for you, or somebody ... We're gonna trip on the VOIP/texting enabled, all within, like, Microsoft or something, and that's gonna be perfect. Jack Butala: I have a meeting this morning on that. Jill Dewitt: Okay. Jack Butala: And so I'm very aware of the demand, Luke. Jill Dewitt: This is a big deal. Jack Butala: And very aware of the technological challenge. We made the mistake, Jill and I ... Jill Dewitt: Hang in there. Jack Butala: We were releasing products too soon that don't work. Jill Dewitt: Yeah. Jack Butala: We never want to be in that situation again. Jill Dewitt: That was a long time ago. Jack Butala: Yeah, it was. Like we said in the last show, we want to make sure that ... So, obviously this is one of Luke Harris's bottlenecks right now. We're trying to, one by one, eliminate those. ParcelFact eliminated ... Jill Dewitt: Right. [crosstalk 00:02:14] That took precedent over answering the phones, and things like that. Jack Butala: If you haven't ... Jill Dewitt: And [inaudible 00:02:19] has taken precedent. Jack Butala: Yeah. If you haven't used ParcelFact, the free version, for a while, you should go check it out, because it solves due diligence entirely. Jill Dewitt: Right, and that's the point. We're focusing on products that ... There is no other solution, and let's get those tackled, because those are huge bottlenecks. But answering a phone, all right, we can figure it out. Are we spending more money sometimes? Yeah, okay, but at least we have some options. Jack Butala: You're right. ParcelFact was a solution that was not out there. Jill Dewitt: Right. We had to get to that first and offer it to owners right now.

Anatomy Of A Perfect Blind Offer Campaign (CFFL 525) Transcript: Jack Butala: Jack Butala with Jill DeWit Jill DeWit: Hi! Jack Butala: Welcome to the show today. In this episode, Jill and talk about the anatomy of a perfect blind offer campaign. Before we get into it, let's take a question posted by one of our members. On LandInvestors.com online community, it's free. Jill DeWit: Okay. Richard asks, hi everyone, I'm trying to use Real Quest to get mailing lists, mailing lists from micro-areas to market that I have looked at on Redfin. I'm not having much luck searching for vacant land areas smaller than a whole county with Real Quest. What search criteria are you guys using to pull small lists for say a specific zip code or town. I tried using township range section but Real Quest did not return any results that way. Jack Butala: Yeah. Jill DeWit: Many of the properties that I have looked at on Redfin don't have a subdivision listed for them. That was a good idea by the way. Jack says look for clusters in Redfin, which I did. Jack Butala: Yep. Jill DeWit: But I can't figure out how to pull those small area lists to mail property owners using Real Quest. Jack Butala: Alright, good. Jill DeWit: What method have you guys been using for that? Thank you. Do you want me to go on cuz I have one reply here and you want me to read it? Jack Butala: Yeah. Go ahead and let's hear what Trevor has to say and then, I know where the confusion is and I can really simplify it and make it easy. Go ahead, Jill. Jill DeWit: Okay, so one of our members had already replied here and this is what he wrote. As Trevor says, hey look up the property, the addresses are usually on these closer-in town areas. Use that address, with the county to look up the subdivision then go to Real Quest, do a table search by subdivision or subdivision by table search. Then, you can find any and all properties in that subdivision. Get after it, be darn careful you look up the correct phase of each subdivision as well. You can leave yourself out to dry in these subdivisions with lots of phases. Jack Butala: That's right. Jill DeWit: Some on the eighth tee box may be worth $500,000 and the 10,000 acre square foot the back next to the highway may be worth $50,000. Jack Butala: Great advice, Trevor. Jill DeWit: Love it! Jack Butala: I'm gonna add to Trevor's instead of replace it, cuz he's 100% correct. But here's the way to get to the bottom of it. If you're in our group, you understand and respect the data. If you're not and data is just a concept to you. Every answer to all of these thing's comes back to data. So, when somebody goes to apply for a new subdivision, a developer or whomever, they go to accessor and they say, thanks for approving my subdivision. Please assign a set of accessor parcel numbers to me. And they don't just randomly, it's not the lottery. They don't put... Jill DeWit: The next ten in line, here you go. Jack Butala: There's a rhyme and reason to it. So, and it's a numbers scheme. So, if you find, Redfin, you did perfectly, you did great on Redfin. You found a cluster and you can see some consistent pricing and that's great. That's what you want. Then, go back and find out, and there's 90 ways to do it, at least. What APN scheme is in that little subdivision or sub-subdivision? Like Trevor's talking about and then send letters to those people. There might be ten little subsets inside a data set to send price letter...

How To Call An Interested Seller (CFFL 524) Transcript: Jack: Jack Butala with Jill DeWit. Jill: Hey there! Jack: Welcome to our show today. In this episode, Jill and I talk about how to call an interested seller back. Man, this is so important, and I'm looking forward to it, because I want to hear from the expert, Jill. Jill: Thank you very much. Jack: 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: OK, this is a little bit lengthy one, so I'm gonna preface that. So, new member here, in our group, Shammgod. This is [inaudible 00:00:32], shares. "Agreed on my first deal today. I figure I'd post it here, just to write out my thought process and so that if I'm missing anything, someone will hopefully correct me. Details: Seller and his father are both on the deed. He sent me a copy. I couldn't locate it exactly on the map, but agreed on a price way below anything on the market." Jack: Red flag. Jill: "I talked to the recorder and they verified things, and talked to the treasurer and the taxes are good." Jack: This is good. Jill: "Next steps: getting them a contract. I'm planning on sending them a small deposit because I don't think it's valid without one." Jack: Not necessary. Jill: I would just say weird. "This is a small deal so I'm planning on doing title myself." Jack: Awesome. Jill: "I think that I need to get notaries for both the father and son because they live in different states." Jack: Yes. This is boring. Jill: It's distracting. Jack: It's distracting, am I stealing your thunder? Jill: Just a tad. Jack: It's sad? Jill: Just a tad. No, you are, like every time I take a breath. Jack: Are you sad today? Jill: It's like darn don't pause, Jack's gonna throw something in there. Jack: Jack you're sad. Jill: I'm not sad. Jack: Jack, you're a sad little real estate investor. Jill: I'm just trying to share a story. Can I just share a story? Alright, where was I? Jack: "My biggest question..." Jill: Oh shoot, no I'm sorry wait, I totally, as we say that I just lost my place. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Jack: "My biggest question..." Jill: OK, "my biggest" ... do you want to finish this? Jack: "My biggest question around title or having the notary hand them the cheque is-" Jill: Too bad. [inaudible 00:02:19] I want to be Jack, this is good. Jack: "My biggest question around title or having the notary hand them the cheque is, what if I mess something up on the deed and I find out afterward it wasn't done correctly?" Jill: Boo hoo. Jack: "The seller would have already had the money." Jill: Uh-oh. Jack: Oh my god, sound effects Jill. Jill: Well this is what it's like. Jack: "I feel like there's probably a step here where I should make sure this doesn't happen if we're using a title company. That's a ... you know ... but I'm not sure what it is." Jill: Alright, I'm taking back over. "What's the play there?

Offer Campaign Timeframe (CFFL 523) Transcript: Jack Butala: Jack Butala with Jill DeWit. Jill DeWit: Hey there! Jack Butala: Welcome to the show today. In this episode Jill and I talk about our offer campaign timeframe, the 30 day timeframe. So once that thing gets in the mail, what to expect almost day by day, I guess, for the first 30 days. 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: Okay. Bradley asked, he said, "Hello Land Investors. I'm looking to make land investment, via data, a potential career. I was hoping I could find the answers to a few questions below. Thanks in advance. How much capital should I have to start, including the Land Academy cost and presumed mailing of 2,000 offers per month?" So one of our guys, this is really cool, already weighed in so I'm gonna read his reply here. Chaz replied, "Presuming capital isn't an issue, how many should a total real estate novice send out, hold on a second, and how much learning should I do before sending out mailers if I want to start ASAP?" Well, the program should be enough to get started. With that, it's hard to say how much learning's enough, like the last show. Send one mailer of 1500 letters before making any decisions on monthly numbers. Jack Butala: That's great advice and that's what we've said since we've started this Land Investor scenario. About 1500 letters for the first month and just see what ... This is actually timely, this is a good question, it has to do with our show also. 1500 mailers? I think you should have, what, 5000 maybe 10000 bucks for acquisition money or access to it, you know- Jill DeWit: Depending on what your budget is, might be 50,000 to 100,000. Jack Butala: And I think about 2000's is, $2000 is a lot per month. You're gonna need a lot less than that to actually- Jill DeWit: On the mailers? Jack Butala: Yeah Jill DeWit: Yeah Jack Butala: And plus with the Land Academy fees and the whole thing. Jill DeWit: Right Jack Butala: It's less than that. [crosstalk 00:02:01]It's probably closer to, I don't know, 1000. Jill DeWit: Right. Jack Butala: But, you know, you could get ... there are people in the group and we get, you know 10, 15, 20 transactions out of one mailing campaign so ... that keeps you busy for a long time if you're new. Jill DeWit: It does. Jack Butala: You know, you want to get 'them sold and catch up so ... A lot of people think that there's a schedule. But here's my point to this; a lot of people think it's like a machine, so when you're brand new, you don't just sit and say, "I want to make a machine out of it. I'm going to send out 1500 mailers on the 3rd of every month. I'm gonna allocate $12,000 each month for acquisitions. I'm going to sell $24,000 each." Bang, bang. It just doesn't go that way. It does for us, quite honestly, now. But we're what, 25 years into this. 20 years into it, so ... Go ahead, Jill. Jill DeWit: So having said that- Jack Butala: She just raised her hand like we were in school. Jill DeWit: I did! Jack Butala: I kinda like it, makes me feel tingly. Jill DeWit: Thank you. Having said that ... so ... but ... It is good to have schedule and push yourself though. I will say this, some of my real successful folks have really sat down and tasked themselves and stuck to their schedule.

10,000 Hours (CFFL 522) Transcript: Jack Butala: Jack Butala with Jill DeWit. Jill DeWit: Hey there. Jack Butala: Welcome to our show today. In this episode Jill and I talk about 10,000 hours of experience to become an expert in anything and this is no exception. It's about five years full-time. 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: Okay. This is interesting, because this is a question that was asked by a guy. His login credentials are ShamGod and one of our members, Kevin, replied to this, I think a newer member here. I'm going to read this reply and then we're going to comment. It's got some good stuff. You'll figure out what the questions are in this reply. It says, "ShamGod, I have one who is slow to pay and usually, who's a buyer, and usually calls with excuses why she can't pay on the first. Somehow she always gets it paid before the late penalty kicks in. Others have questions that they should have asked before buying, but they didn't think of it until about three months into the payments. Like, 'Is the property marked,' or, 'Can I do blank on this property?' Mostly just odd questions that keep me on the phone too long. My first mailer was to a county with really remote desert properties. They have almost zero attributes, so they sell slowly. No problem, I can wait. My second mailer was priced wrong and I only bought two properties. One of which I had to return to the seller because she didn't know which property she was selling." That's hilarious, who had these? Jack Butala: This happens, yeah. Jill DeWit: "I'm in the middle of the third mailer now and I have a great response from owners who want to sell. I'm buying up a lot of land. The stuff I have for sale is moving slowly, but there's a good reason. My properties are far from a major population center and that affects sales. However, the properties were bought cheap and have some great features, so I know they will have to sell at the price I list them for. I get better at this with each mailer. You will too." Jack Butala: This is perfect. Jill DeWit: It is. Jack Butala: This is perfect for this topic today. Jill DeWit: Oh, it's true, it is. Jack Butala: Every mailer, and that's true with us. I mean, now, I mean, our strike percentages are crazy. They're crazy positive. The yield on the mailer that we get now is fantastic. We've just, we've been through it all and I'm not hiding anything. I share every single experience that I possibly can with everybody. Jill DeWit: Good and bad. Jack Butala: There's no replacement for hands on experience. Jill DeWit: Right. Jack Butala: It's just, it's that way with- Jill DeWit: What's it called? Saddle time. Jack Butala: Saddle time. Right. Yeah, saddle time. I used to causally race motorcycles and that's what we used to call it, man. The more saddle time you can get, especially with a new bike or a different model bike, the better you're going to be. Jill DeWit: Exactly. Do you want to comment more on the- That was just so good I just wanted to share it. Jack Butala: No, it's great. Jill DeWit: Let's dive into the show. Jack Butala: It's great. I mean there are people that... there are people that come to us, to land investors, from all walks. You know, some people are literally this is their 30th...

No Real Way to Automate House Renovations (CFFL 521) Transcript: Jack Butala: Jack Butala with Jill DeWitt Jill DeWitt: Hi! Jack Butala: Welcome to the show today. In this episode, Jill and I talk about how there's really no way to automate a house renovation. And I feel qualified that Jill understands, and has a lot to say about this. Jill DeWitt: Oh my goodness. 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: Okay, Sean asked, "I have a seller with a deed in his name from 1958." Which is very normal for us, this is cool. "In it the previous owner wrote a very long, wordy exception to retain mineral rights. Can anyone tell me if I need to include the mineral rights in the verbiage, in the new vesting deed I'm creating? I can send a picture of the deed, if it would be helpful to anyone. Thanks for your time." Jack Butala: Do you wanna answer? No matter what you do, that person ... Well the person before, the person that you're buying it from, will retain the mineral rights to that property forever. Regardless if they're deceased or not. And to undo that, I mean it takes a team of lawyers. As you can imagine, petroleum companies and mining companies are experts at this. So they have whole teams that specialize in that. But here's the real deal, from a big picture concept. Along the chain of title, after the homestead, from the government. Somebody retained the mineral rights usually. Sometimes it could be you! If you do a lot of research, you might end up with the mineral rights. If nobody said right in the deed document, "I'm getting you the property, but with the exception of the mineral rights." You could very well own mineral rights. Like I said, it's a whole different career, however; you should exclude that when you convey the property. The mineral rights portion of this, and to do that, it's real simple. If you look at any of the deeds that we do all over the internet. You'll find a deed from us, and it quite simply says, "We're getting you the property with the exception of the mineral rights." It doesn't say, "We don't 'em," or, "We're keeping 'em for ourselves," or anything, we're just saying ... The verbiage just says, "We don't really know who owns mineral rights, but we're pretty confident it's not you." Jill DeWitt: Well you know what, here's another ... I personally ... Jack, you can tell me if you disagree, but ... If you goof up, and you do what we've said in the past, which is verbatim, copy the legal description and don't change a word, you will be fine. Jack Butala: Right, so- Jill DeWitt: So- Jack Butala: I beg to differ. Jill DeWitt: Well- Jack Butala: In the end Jill, you're right. But go ahead. Jill DeWitt: Well I guess let me explain this, please. So, if you copy it, verbatim, all you're doing is reiterating to the next person what's already happened. Are you going to get in trouble for that? Heck no. Do you have to do that? No, you don't. But, I mean I think it's a personal preference if you will. And if you're worried about taking it out, and doing it the right way, then I might leave it in. Jack Butala: Yeah I mean, if you're brand new, Jill's right, you're not going to get into any trouble for doing it this way. But I'll tell you, at our level, I would just leave it out entirely, and say, "We're not conveying mineral rights." And it's as simple as that. So, mineral rights is a big issue. It can make property really more valuable, or less valuable.

3 Reasons Not to Complete a Deal (CFFL 520) Transcript: Jack Butala : Jack Butala with Jill Dewit. Jill Dewit: Hi! Jack Butala : Welcome to the show today. In this episode, Jill and I talk about three reasons why you really shouldn't complete a deal no matter how good it is. And with some stories, I hope, too, Jill. Jill Dewit: Mm-hmm (affirmative). 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: Okay. Brandon asks, "I wanted to set up LetterStream, so that it sends out letters automatically through an API using Podio." "Has anyone done this?" "I know it can be done using Podio, and Click2Mail, or Lob," I don't know, Lob, "But, can it be done with LetterStream?" Jack Butala : Thank you so much for asking this question, Brandon. Jill Dewit: Super cool. Jack Butala : The answer is, heck, yes. We are about to launch offers2owners.com. It's offers, the number two, owners.com. And, we ... It essentially puts a tremendous amount of old school service back into doing a/an offer campaign. Jill Dewit: Mailer. Jack Butala : Yeah. Jill Dewit: Yeah. Jack Butala : So, it turns out this is a bottleneck for a lot of people, and we want to solve it. So, we have hired a full-time person to ... With an 800 number. You call him, and you ask questions, just like this, and then, we help you through it. Right on the phone, we help you with your [LetMail 00:01:14] merge. (cough) Excuse me. We help you with whatever it is that's stopping you from an IT, or text standpoint, or any reason, really, from sending out a mailer. And, this is a ... LetterStream ... One of the reasons that we chose LetterStream is they are 21st century capable of doing exactly what you're trying to do. And, we've been testing it, and it's working great. So, we can and will help you, Brandon. Thank you for asking. Launch date? Soon. Jill Dewit: Haha. Exactly. Jack Butala : If you have a question, or you want to be on the show, reach out to either one of us on landinvestors.com. Today's topic, three reasons why you wouldn't complete a deal, no matter how good it is. This is the meat of the show. Jill Dewit: There's actually 30,- Jack Butala : Haha Jill Dewit: But we've ... Trying to narrow it down to three, today. Jack Butala : I have to be honest- Jill Dewit: There's a lot. Jack Butala : Jill and I were having kind of a reminiscent, you know, walk down memory lane, laughing scenario, before the show 'cause we were talking about all the deals that we haven't completed. Jill Dewit: Yeah. Jack Butala : For reasons where something, you know, it set us off. Jill Dewit: Right. Jack Butala : Either one of us or both of us. Sometimes, the seller's attitude. Sometimes, it's the escrow officer's attitude. Jill Dewit: Sometimes, it's Jack's attitude. Jack Butala : Haha Jill Dewit: Haha. Let's be honest. There's people that rub ... Well, you know, it just happens, probably, the wrong way. And, you know, no, I'm just, not just you, I mean, theoretical you. You know? Jack Butala : I am extremely good at-

Land Crowd Fund is Working (CFFL 519) Transcript: Jack Butala: Jack Butala with Jill Dewit. Jill DeWit: Hi there! Jack Butala: Welcome to our show today. In this episode, Jill and I talk about how LandCrowdFund.com, by the way, is actually working, even though it's not live yet. Jill DeWit: Uh-huh Jack Butala: We picked a few people to test this out and it's doing smashingly well. Before we get into that though, let's take a question posted by one of our members on the LandInvestors.com online community. It's free. Jill DeWit: Cool! Dave V. asks, "I have a seller (it's a run-to-the-bank deal) and the property is in her previous married name, Jane Jones. Well, she's remarried and now her name is Jane Smith". Right? This happens. Jack Butala: Plain Jane. Jill DeWit: "So what kind of ID or name change proof should I require from her, Jack?" Jack Butala: Well, I think ... Dave's pretty experienced, so, chances are he has run into this before. There's a lot of ... If you have never done these deals, and you're kind of new to this, there's a lot of this that goes on. So you find a person that wants to sell their property. You don't want to go through title because it's expensive or whatever and you want to close the deal. People's names change, right? This is very, very, very common. Well, the title industry and title insurance industry and the escrow industry, they've long-since figured this out. And here's why. There's real specific local rules for each jurisdiction, each county, about how to handle this. Sometimes you attach a marriage license, sometimes you ... I mean, there's a lot of different ways to do it. Jill knows, actually, most of them. Which ... I don't know why I'm answering the question. Jill DeWit: I don't know! I just thought it was fun. You know what I was going to do? I was going to say ... Here's what I was waiting for. I was waiting for you to just to say something like "And here's a reason not to get married". (laughter) Jack Butala: Well, I was going to get to that. Jill DeWit: (Laughter) That's what I was thinking was going to come out of this, you know? Jack Butala: It's a small market. To answer the question. Before we get to the funny stuff, about marriage. To answer the- Jill DeWit: (laughter) The funny parts of marriage .com. There's a show! Jack Butala: If it's that good of deal and - Jill DeWit: Or a marriage! Jack Butala: And, this, Dave specifically runs into frequently. Find a local attorney and ask him to close the transaction. Jill DeWit: Yeah. Jack Butala: Hopefully his office is real close to the courthouse and he, honestly, can just close the deal within a week, if it's that good of a deal. Jill DeWit: The big- Jack Butala: If you do it with title, it's just going to take longer. Jill DeWit: Right. The big picture is, there's ways around this stuff. It is the right person, not like there's anything funny going on. And there ... By the way, there are documents that can show, like a marriage license, a name change ... So. Jack Butala: It's not a ways around it, it's just a lot of paper work. Jill DeWit: Um-hmm. Jack Butala: That's really the issue. Jill DeWit: Yeah. Jack Butala: There's a lot of stuff you have to do and you h...

Your Unfair Investor Advantage (CFFL 518) Transcript: Jack Butala: Jack Butala with Jill DeWitt. Jill DeWitt: Hi. Jack Butala: Welcome to our show today. In this episode Jill and I talk about what is your unfair investor advantage. Every single one of us have it. We just have to identify it. Before we get into this killer topic, let's take a question posted by one of our members on the landinvestors.com online community. It's free. Jill DeWitt: Okay. Richard asks, "Hello all. I want to use a legal description to get the latitude and longitude coordinates and create a Google map of my downloaded property files. My RealQuest download did not include this information. I can't remember if I selected property characteristics on the order page. Is there a reason I did not get this data included with my CSV downloaded file?" Jack Butala: Gosh this is a good question. Jill DeWitt: Yeah. Thank you for being detailed too. Go ahead. Jack Butala: Yeah. Thank you Richard. Again I say it every show probably ... But what a group of people. I mean really bright people. So no, you're not alone in this at all. Longitude and latitude coordinates are all be missing from RealQuest data. And there's no button you can click on to do it. We've solved that quite frankly. And I don't want this to be a commercial but we solved that ... this problem because it's been going on since the beginning of time with ParcelFact- Jill DeWitt: For us also. Jack Butala: For us too. With ParcelFact, F-A-C-T .com and it's free. The first few pulls are free. So if you just go there, sign up and type in the assessor's parcel number, the APN. Bang. You will get a pretty comprehensive detailed assessor's sheet on whatever the assessor knows you're going to know. Plus all the corner points and GPS. Not just the center point- Jill DeWitt: That's my favorite. Jack Butala: But the corner points. So how times have you- Jill DeWitt: It could be a weird like the shape of your hand. I've seen these weird properties and it's all there. Jack Butala: So the other way too is that we're licensed providers and as a member you also get Agent 24/7. Agent Pro 24/7. Jill DeWitt: Title Pro even better. Jack Butala: Title Pro I'm sorry. Jill knows this product really well. Jill DeWitt: Title Pro. Jack Butala: And there's a lot of parcels there, you can get the GPS center point. Jill DeWitt: Center. Jack Butala: But here's the problem with center points. I mean how many times have you looked at a center point GPS coordinate and great it's the center point. "I wonder if the property hits the road, that county road that's going by. We don't know." So ParcelFact ... all kidding aside ... is an incredible value to help you make decisions. And then once you do make the decision, if you're going to buy it, you obviously need maps and stuff to sell it. You can just literally click one button and it downloads all ... like I don't know 9 or 10 shots from Google Earth outlining the ... I mean it's a truly amazing product and you get to test it for free. About 20% of the people that use the free version sign up. That's staggering in this business. Usually it's half of one percent. Jill DeWitt: Exactly. Right. Jack Butala: So hope that helps. I wish I had a better answer for you. I wish I could ... There was some trick. But there's not. We spent a tremendous amount of money developing ParcelFact and probably 99% of the properties i...

How to Generate $100K per Deal (CFFL 517) Transcript: Jack: Jack Butala, Jill DeWitt. Jill: Hi there. Jack: Welcome to our show. In this episode, Jill and I talk about how to generate a hundred grand per deal. I feel very qualified to discuss this. Before I get into it, let's take a question posted by one of our members on landinvestors.com online community is free. Jill: Okay. Vlad and Nadia ask, "So, my husband and I are new members to Land Academy. I really enjoy the material in the course so far. But now that I'm actually getting starting to research which county to target, I'm getting a bit discouraged. Maybe because I hate taking risks. Or at least I'm willing to take a risk if I see some logic in my decision. I've been spending a lot of time reading the forums. I feel states like Arizona, New Mexico, California, et cetera are targeted a lot. Should I even bother with these popular states? I'm getting the feeling that there's much more competition now than even just two years ago. Maybe if it wasn't as expensive to send a mailer out, I wouldn't stress out as much and just give it a shot. I'm looking for a word of encouragement or any advice you're willing to share." Jack: You go first Jill. Jill: I didn't think it was expensive. No. So, you know what, so here's where I'm coming at this from. These are all valid, good points. I first question commitment. And I see, how do I say this - Jack: Waffling? Jill: - Yeah. And getting in her own way. Jack: Yep. Jill: So, I'm trying to think of another example of what something that in a whole different business. You know what. Every business has risks. Every business you want competition. Competition is healthy. And in the real estate world, there's a lot of competition out there. Let's be honest. That's okay. That's why you need to do it right and be efficient and be the best and have the best property at the best price. And there's nothing to think about. And that's where we are. And that's what we share. Jack: We have a handful of members, actually now way more than a handful, and I ask them because I talk to them regularly. They do a ton of deals. And almost all of them started with nothing. They have a little bit experience flipping houses or some other business, and it didn't work out. So, the light bulb went off. They heard this show. Or they talked to Jill or whatever. And light bulb went off over their head, and they're making six figures every month. And it's because they just get it. It sung to them. And this is clearly not singing to you. I'm trying to be nice about it actually. Jill: That's what I - Jack: It either works or it doesn't. I feel compelled to quote Dr. Phil. You know, you either get it or you don't. And if you don't, that's okay. Move on. I mean there's a lot of fish in the sea. Jill: Yeah. Jack: I'm not a big Dr. Phil fan by the way. But that is pretty damn good advice. Captain Obvious type advice. Jill: Exactly. Well you know, it's kind of funny. Makes me think of when I run into, we go, Nell and them will be in investor group settings. And the majority investors don't understand the whole direct mail thing. And they can't wrap their heads around it. And I tell them in there. And I'm like, "Yep." And usually my parting comments are, "Yeah, but who am I to say 15, 16,000 deals later, maybe I don't know. It's just a test." And they go, "Wait a minute." I know they think about it later. But - Jack: Where's the risk in sending out ... spending $500 to send out a thousand offers on houses or boats or whatever you choose.

Scale Your Real Estate Investment Business (CFFL 516) Transcript: Jack Butala: Jack Butala with Jill DeWit. Jill Dewitt: Hello! Jack Butala: Welcome to our show today! In this episode, Jill and I talk about scaling your real estate investment business. Sounds like an episode of Shark Tank. Before we get into it, let's take a question posted by one of our members on landinvestors.com online community. It's free! Jill Dewitt: Okay! Chuck asks, I am selling a large parcel on terms of which I signed a purchase option agreement with my seller. The parcel is 40 acres that I auctioned for $9,000 and I'm closing through a title company. Before I sign a terms agreement with my buyer, I thought I would seek advice from our forum to see if I should first fully close on the property with my seller to make sure there are no hitches due to something I may have missed in my due diligence. I don't want to get stuck not being able to close due to some surprise with the property, via title company findings and I've already signed a purchase and sale agreement with my buyer. Jack Butala: All good points. Jill Dewitt: So, should I simply fully disclose to my buyer that I'm in the closing process and there may be a chance I cannot sell and will refund all of their money and have written in the- Jack Butala: Purchase and sale. Jill Dewitt: Purchase and sale with my buyer. Any other advice? Thanks in advance! Jack Butala: Excellent, excellent questions Chuck. And this group is so intelligent. Not only did you ask the question but you gave three or four options on how I should answer it. Jill Dewitt: Right. Jack Butala: I'm serious. It's just very well thought out and intelligent question. There's two ways to sell property on terms. A deed of trust, which is kind of what you do, depending on the state you're in, this is how you do it. But, a deed of trust is what you do when you buy a house with a mortgage. There's a trustee and it gets recorded. When you buy a house, you don't own it. The bank really owns it with the mortgage. And it gets recorded with a title agent. And then you actually get the deed recorded in your name with a lien on it all throughout the payment periods. For 30 years sometimes. When you're done, the bank says "Okay, thanks. I'm releasing this lien and you own it, what's called, free and clear." Another way to do it is called a land contract, or just a contract for sale. Depending on which part of the country you're in. Land contract is Rust Belt, contract for sale is out here West. That way, the property is in your name throughout the duration of the payment period as the seller. And when they're done paying you physically deed the property over to the ... And that's how Jill and I that's how I do all of our deals. And I'll tell you, the reason we do them that way is because I got burned doing it the other way, because if and when they default, they cost a tremendous amount of money to undo that deed of trust. Jill Dewitt: Right. Exactly. Jack Butala: So, to answer your question directly Chuck, if that's not boring enough today. To answer your question directly, close the deal, if you love the property. You obviously got this far, so you love it. Buy the property for 9,000 bucks, now you're done, you own it, it's in your name. And then do a contract for sale. And let the person make payments and ... What Jill does all on the way payment cycle, is she communicates with the buyer. And says, "Hey, if you're enjoying it that much, and you love the property that much I'll give you a cash discount." This is like 6, 8, 10 months in.

How Jill Hires Support Staff (CFFL 515) Transcript: Jack: Jack Butala with Jill DeWitt. Jill: Hi there. Jack: Welcome to our show today. In this episode, Jill and I talk about how Jill hires support staff. It sounds boring, but it's incredibly important. Jill: Oh, it's a process. Jack: 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: Okay. Christian asked, "Hey, everyone. I've been going over the program and listening to lots of podcasts and Thursday calls." Note from Jill, those are free right now to the public, FYI. "And I'm rapidly coming to the conclusion that I don't know what I'm doing. I have almost no business experience and literally no real estate experience. I've signed a few leases, but that's it." Oh, that's okay. "Can you guys suggest some basic and accessible books, websites, YouTube channels, et cetera, that I can use to learn the basics of how real estate works? I'm more or less understanding most of what I'm reading and hearing here, but it's hard to get a handle on things without a basic framework of knowledge, so any help would be greatly appreciated." Aw, good stuff. Jack: Boy, I'll tell you, what a great question. The show and all of our written material covers all the details for every step of the way on how to get through your first acquisition sale, or your 16,000, I guess, which is what Jill and I are on, so it's really hard. We've all been standing exactly where you are. Everybody. Jill: You know what, you probably have everything at your finger tips, Christian, and it's just pushing the button kind of thing, you know, and just diving in, but you're already here, so you've kind of already done that, which is good. Jack: Anything else, you just take it step by step. Jill: Yep, and use us. Jack: Yeah. Jill: Yeah, and use our community. We were talking about this a few minutes ago. I know that we have the most helpful, considerate, by design, great group of individuals here that will, us included, help you every step of the way. So you get hung up on something? That's what landinvestors.com, that online community, is for. Go, any little question, like already I'm about to push the button on this. Am I missing anything? And everybody will weigh in and help you. Jack: Yeah. I mean, here's the basic steps. You target or pick an area where you want to send offers, blind offers. Step 2: You price the area and send the offers. We have the tools for all of this stuff every step of the way. Step 3: You field the calls, or hire somebody to field the calls, and then choose the offers, or the ones that you want to buy. You buy them, prep em for sale on the internet, and sell em, and I know I'm skipping along the top here, but again, all throughout our written materials and on our websites, you're gonna find the answers to all of this. Start at landinvestors.com and really ask this question, and I'd love to see, like Jill said, you have to really deconstruct- Jill: Do you know- Jack: It- Jill: Do you know what else? Jack: And model yourself after somebody who's really good at it, either us, or like, Luke Smith, or there's several other people, Tory Watson. There's a lot of other people in our group who are really, really successful. Jill: Well, I was gonna say too, Christian, you're not alone. Most individuals go over all the information more than one time, some, several times, so- Jack: Especially Chapter 5 in the program that we have,

Where Not to Buy Property (CFFL 514) Transcript: Jack Butala: Jack Butala with Jill DeWit. Jill DeWit: Howdy. Jack Butala: Welcome to the show. In this episode, Jill and I talk about where not to buy property. Jill DeWit: I like this. Jack Butala: We're going to give names of counties and property types. We're going to get real detailed here, none of this fluff, and no fluffiness. Jill DeWit: Dude, are you going to share some secrets? Jack Butala: Yeah. All the secret counties. We're going to give all the secrets away. Jill DeWit: All the secret counties. I love that. Jack Butala: Before we get into it, though, let's take a question posted by one of our members on the LandInvestors.com online community. It's free. Jill DeWit: Okay. Jason asks, "I am talking with a man that owns a 3,015 acre ranch in Edwards County, Texas." Jack Butala: Jeez, how's that for specific? Jill DeWit: I like this. Wow. "Land in this area is listed for $1,650 per acre. This could be a big deal ..." It's sure sounding like it. "But I'm not sure how to handle it. I'm thinking about proposing an option agreement for each section of the ranch that is divided by five different APN numbers ..." Okay, "and market each of the 600 acre ranches separately. I'm not sure what price will sell fast on such big properties. Any advice is appreciated." Jack Butala: Wow. I mean, I'm totally impressed. This is great. Jill DeWit: I got to do the math. Jack Butala: Yeah. You should market it both ways. You should market it all as one, or you should market it separately. And then the first thing I would do, Jason, and I mean immediately, is try to subdivide it. Go to the county and see if you can split it down in a five ... Texas is famous for being a split-friendly state. Hopefully it's not in an incorporated area, like it's not in a city, it's just a county land, because it falls under a different set of rules in Texas, they're state rules, and it's pretty easy to get it subdivided. So you could have a retirement deal on your hands here. IF you can get these properties down to five acres, you're going to sell them for a heck of a lot more than 1,600 bucks an acre. Jill DeWit: Could I just share some numbers with you? So I just did the math. If he came in and was able to negotiate a price, let's just say, $1,650 an acre, down to a little bit less than half of that. We're in the $2 million range, okay? So 2 million bucks out, but you double your money on that. You could easily double your money, and now you're going to make 3 million. Jack Butala: You're going to make 3 million bucks on this deal. Yeah. Exactly, Jill. Jill DeWit: Holy moly. I just did the numbers, so. And that's just flat, your numbers, but Jack's right, Jason. You could get creative with this and sell them as five acres, and 10 acres, and 20 acres, and ... Jack Butala: There's a lot of people in our group that would be really interested in funding this with you, so it's good that you put that out there. Jill DeWit: ... mm-hmm (affirmative), 40s. Yeah. Jack Butala: Make sure you put this on DealBoard, too, because they will, there's lots of money guys in our group that would love to do this deal. Here's the bad news: when you do this deal and you get it all subdivided, it's be careful what you wish for, because now you're going to have a bunch of property on your hands that's all similar, right?

Thoughts from a Pro Land Acquisition Manager (CFFL 513) Transcript: Jack Butala: Jack Butala with Jill DeWit. Jill Dewit: Hi. Jack Butala: Welcome to our show today. In this episode, Jill and I talk about thoughts from a professional land acquisition manager. Before we get into it though, let's take a question posted by one of our members on the LandInvestors.com online community. It's free. Jill Dewit: Cool. All right. So Dave asks, this is a long one. Let me preface this here. During last week's member call, someone brought up a great point. Using the pricing methodology that Jack teaches in the course, we find ourselves many times basing our prices on the lowest deal that just happens to be posted by a Land Academy member. Jack Butala: This is a real good point. Jill Dewit: This is true. Jack Butala: We are now creating our own comparison value machine. Jill Dewit: Exactly. Jack Butala: Creating a monster. Jill Dewit: We need to look at this a little differently, by the way, because of this. We need to know where they came from, so when we do. By doing this, we are driving each other's prices down. Jack Butala: That's right. Jill Dewit: Pretty soon buying- Jack Butala: It'll be zero. Jill Dewit: Right? Exactly. Pretty soon buying will be tough because we need to keep lowering our acquisition criteria, driving the prices downward. I have recently been doing several deals in a county in Colorado. At the time I prepared my list and priced my offers, there were no ads, and I know ads that I recognized as Land Academy members. However, I still brought pretty well, and when I went to advertise there were two Land Academy members already advertising property. One around $15,000, which I thought was really too high anyway since I based my pricing off of a low price of $12,000. The other was at $12,900. Then I hit the market with two parcels at $7,900, one at $8,900, and two more at $9,000, and one at $10,500. I'm sure that these two were quite happy with me. Wink, wink, right? I see that one of them has their property under contract- Jack Butala: Contract. Jill Dewit: -at $9,900 down from $15,000. I hope they still make a decent profit. I have sold three, and have three left, and did a two times 2.5 profit. I'm okay with that. Oh, so two to two and a half times my profit. Got it. Jack Butala: Doubled his money. Jill Dewit: Yeah, exactly. So I'm okay with that. You think? It's so funny. But one cannot go down from there. Really? Okay, anyway. What is the answer? Shall we possibly try to collaborate? I.e. if we see a Land Academy member with a 40,000-acre property at $10,000 and they are the cheapest, our properties are comparable of course let's just say, that we try not to price our property below them. Then it's up to each individual to do a better job of marketing to win the battle, but once one sells it opens up for another. Ideas anyone? Jack Butala: Yeah. Here's the thing. This is a roundabout way of discussing the topic of pricing. Pricing is imperative. How your price your mailers, it's going to make or break the situation. You have to price properly or this will go nowhere. The greatest data in the world and the greatest mailer and a 25,000-unit mailer won't work unless you price it right. David is correct. David has been with us for quite some time. He's very intelligent. This is a very good question. What's the answer? Do we collaborate? Do we compete with each other?

A Start-to-Finish Deal for Jack & Jill (CFFL 512) Transcript: Jack Butala: Jack Butala and Jill DeWit. Jill DeWit: Hi. Jack Butala: Welcome to the show today. In this episode, Jill and I talk about a start to finish deal for Jack and Jill. 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 we'll wait for Jill to finish what she's doing on her phone. Jill DeWit: I'm here. I'm always here. I just happen to multitask really, really, really well. Jack Butala: Okay, multitasker. Jill DeWit: It's a chick thing, by the way. Jack Butala: Hey, you want to do a podcast today? Jill DeWit: Hey, I'm here. [Noem 00:00:34] asked, "Hey, everyone. I'm in the middle of doing my due diligence for my first couple of accepted offers. Yay. The county I'm in is super nice on the phone, but they're kind of lacking free accessible info on their website when it comes to most of the due diligence, like, for example, finding liens, deeds, et cetera. What is your go-to resource for due diligence? Mainly looking up chain of title and making sure there's no open liens anywhere in the history of property. Jack Butala: Very good question. Jill DeWit: "I tried TitlePro247, but at least with this one, specific parcel I'm looking to buy, the info on Title Pro wasn't complete, and even when I called their customer service, they were not sure what was up with that property. This property, I'll just have to use a title company to close on. I'm happy to pay for the stuff, just not sure what the best tool is for that, other than a title company, of course. Any advice would be awesome. Thanks in advance." Jack Butala: Just like yesterday. They answered their own question. Very smart people we have in the group. Seriously. Jill DeWit: I want to say, "... and correct." Jack Butala: Agent Pro of TitlePro247 is owned by a company called Black Knight out of Irvine, California. They have said this sentence to Jill and I multiple times: "We started in California, and we're working our way east." So the quality of their data- Jill DeWit: Bingo. Jack Butala: ... it's fantastic west, but they're still working it out going east. Their goal is to get to every single property done, so I don't know exactly which country Noem's working on, but it could be an issue. Jill DeWit: I got another idea, too. Jack Butala: For chain of title, I mean, Jill, you know more about this stuff than I do. For chain of title, if you're real concerned about it and it's a big deal, you should get title insurance and go through title. If not, if you can actually go to the country, you can sort through the deeds. That's what Title Plan does. Jill DeWit: TitlePro247 is my number one go-to. Then, number two is CoreLogic. They are rapidly adding ... Seriously ... Jack Butala: We're licensed providers, by the way, both of these companies. Jill DeWit: I can't remember what the number is. I have the stats. I'm working on the stats. I've mentioned this on a number call the other day. I'm putting together some stuff for our new site coming up, OwnersData.com. Basically, it's just cheapest access to CoreLogic. That's all you get. I'm going to say what it is right now, anyway. OwnersData.com, which is launching any day now, $100 a month- Jack Butala: It's launched. Jill DeWit: ... 10 cents a record,

How Much Direct Mail Offering is too much? (CFFL 511) Transcript: Jack Butala: Jack Butala with Jill DeWitt. Jill DeWitt: Hi. Jack Butala: Welcome to the show. In this episode Jill and I talk about how much direct mail is too much. Can you send too much mail? I don't think so. let'S take a question posted by one of our members on the landinvesters.com online community first. It's free. Jill DeWitt: Marrid asks, "Hi all. I'm new to the group and I'm going through the steps to get out my first mailer. I plan on scheduling a call with Jack beforehand to get it right, but I'm wondering if anyone has had experience with pricing a mailer too low and what they did to rectify it." Jack Butala: I have. Jill DeWitt: Yeah right. We all have. Jack Butala: Marrid is a cool name, isn't it? Jill DeWitt: It is a cool name. Thank you. Suppose I send out a 3,000 piece mailer to a more expensive area and get zero deals because I only offered $300 an acre. Turns out I should've offered three to four times as much. Would you immediately resend the same mailer with a higher offer with or without some explanation as to why you low balled it the first time? Jack Butala: Yes. Jill DeWitt: Or send a right price mailer to different acreage range in the same county? Jack Butala: Yes to that too. Jill DeWitt: Or would you wait six to 12 months and repeat at the higher offer price? Jack Butala: No. Jill DeWitt: Or would you just drop the whole thing, change your name to lookingformethlablandinyourniceneighborhood.com This is so good. Jack Butala: Who the heck is this person? This is hilarious. Jill DeWitt: Knowing that you're forever branded yourself as a crooked kingpin of land flipping. Thanks for your thoughts. Jack Butala: First of all ... Jill DeWitt: I want to see if that name's available, number one. Lookingformethlablandinyourniceneighborhood.com. I love that. Jack Butala: Marrid, whoever you are, I can tell ... Jill DeWitt: Awesome. Jack Butala: You're going to be really good at this. Jill DeWitt: Totally. Jack Butala: You have a sense of humor about it, which is important. Jill DeWitt: Exactly. Jack Butala: To honestly and sincerely answer your question, sometimes these things happen. Sometimes you send a mailer out and it wasn't priced right. I talk to people every week who say some version of this and then they follow it up by, "Turns out I bought a piece of property anyway." Jill DeWitt: Exactly. I did it all wrong. What'd you do? I bought five. Jack Butala: I sent out, this is a true story, I sent out an incorrect mailer in a northern county of Arizona a lot of years ago. It went to really high priced property for next to nothing. I ended up buying a piece of property across from the county building that we sold for $240,000. Jill DeWitt: I know, I remember, exactly. Jack Butala: I bought it for like 10 grand. I don't remember the exact numbers. It's actually very conceivable that you're going to misprice a mailer and then potentially get stumped. I personally have never been stumped, and I don't think ... I talk to people once in a while who say they're stumped but then they let me know a week later that, oh wait,

Information and Inspiration (CFFL 510) Transcript: Jack Butala: Jack Butala with Jill DeWit. Jill DeWit: Hi there. Jack Butala: Welcome to our show today. In this episode, Jill and I talk about information and inspiration. If you're a regular listener, you've heard us say this maybe a million times. Jill DeWit: Exactly. Wonder ... Jack Butala: Before we- Jill DeWit: ... who's who. 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: Okay. Brian shares or asks, this is a question regarding a seller financing deal. Okay. I sell a property to a buyer and we do seller financing. He doesn't get the deed until the balance is paid in full. Can the buyer begin building on the property or move a trailer on the property without holding title? Jack Butala: I hope so. Jill DeWit: Right. Jack Butala: Now, this is a personal decision you have to make, but I think the more the people use it and enjoy it, the better. Jill DeWit: Right. Jack Butala: Plus, they're improving your property. Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative). I'd tell them, too, say they're thinking about it. They're like, "Hey, can we go camp there for the weekend and see if we like it?" Heck, yeah, you know, or even when we agree on the deal and they are just so excited they want to, like you said, they want to start using it right away. I tell them, "Sure, even though the transaction is happening on Tuesday, if you want to go out there and pull weeds, go for it," but you know what I mean. Jack Butala: I like to say this, you know, all the evil stuff you've ever said about lenders or even thought about, you have to take it back because now you're a lender. Jill DeWit: Well, there is that. Jack Butala: You're actually a lender, Brian. Jill DeWit: It's funny. Jack Butala: You call the shots. Jill DeWit: Yeah. Jack Butala: You're the bank. Jill DeWit: That's true. Jack Butala: Do you want to be an evil bank, or a good bank? Jill DeWit: Right. Jack Butala: I say, be a good bank and set them free. Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Jack Butala: Let them enjoy it. Jill DeWit: You want them to start improving it and making your property nice and all that good stuff. Jack Butala: Do you have a question or you want to be on the show? Reach out to either one of us on LandInvestors.com. Today's topic, Information and Inspiration Defined. Jill and I came up with this a lot of years ago. I'm the information and she's the inspiration and it occurred to me recently that we talk a lot about information. Jill DeWit: We talk a lot. Jack Butala: Period. Jill DeWit: I thought it was going to stop there. Jack Butala: You know what's nice about this show is we talk a lot and no one talks back. Jill DeWit: We talk a lot. That's my new ... Jack Butala: Everybody's shaking their head and they're throwing up a little bit in their mouth. Jill DeWit: ... Captain Obvious moment.

The Truth About Being Your Own Boss (CFFL 509) Transcript: Jack Butala: Jack Butala with Jill DeWit. Jill DeWit: Hey there. Jack Butala: Welcome to our show today. In this episode, Jill and I talk about the truth about being your own boss. It's all peaches and cream. Jill DeWit: It's easy. Jack Butala: This is going to be the shortest show ever. 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 more of a share that I had to put in here. Trevor shares a little update. "We are going to be looking at a 900-acre property that has been for sale for two years. This is in a county north of where I am mailing, but it came from a phone call from a pretty desperate broker. Here's a lesson also. He didn't even have pictures or video of a million-dollar listing." Jack Butala: Oh my gosh. Jill DeWit: Trevor, this is all ... I'm verbatim here. I freaking love it. "Anyway, they are asking $1,200 per acre, but we will offer $1,000 an acre. It has full county road frontage with both power and co-op water access with unlimited taps allowed along the road. Sold comps at $300 an acre or less is nearly $2,300 an acre." That's fantastic. "It is a great rectangular shape that will split up nicely." Jack Butala: Nice. Jill DeWit: "We may have to build some fences, but everything else is great." Jack Butala: Cheap. Jill DeWit: I know. Jack Butala: Fences are cheap. Jill DeWit: "It is a very basic mesquite flat county ..." Jack Butala: Country. Jill DeWit: "... Country, so we will have to offer it for less per acre. Either way, it may be a good way to make nearly a million dollars in a couple years with a capital outlay of less than $250,000. If they take our offer, I will send pictures of maps of it." Jack Butala: Outstanding. Jill DeWit: I haven't seen ... There wasn't a follow-up yet, but I was just like, A, wow. B, thank you so much for sharing those details. C, it really does happen. Jack Butala: Oh, yeah. In less than a year, probably, because if I know Trevor ... Trevor comes from a long line of people who have been doing this for generations. Jill DeWit: Right. Jack Butala: If you get the green light on all that from all the people you know, it's money in the bank. I love square properties with road access and all the utilities. Jeez. Jill DeWit: I know. Jack Butala: You can't ask for anything else. Jill DeWit: It's just amazing. What a deal. Jack Butala: Congratulations. Jill DeWit: I think it's ... Isn't that funny? We're talking about real estate agents and brokers. Dude, this broker didn't even ... I feel bad for the person who owns the property. They had this broker working on it and he's not even taking ... There's no pictures and nothing. I mean, talk about his heart wasn't in it. Jack Butala: How can that be? Jill DeWit: I don't know. Why would you not follow up? If it were my property, I'd be saying, "Excuse me, Mr. Broker, do you expect to sell this this way, with nothing?" Jack Butala: I would actually just provide the ... Yeah, you're right. I'd let the broker go the first week.

How Long Does it Take to Become a Pro (CFFL 508) Transcript: Jack Butala: Jack Butala with Jill DeWit. Jill DeWit: Hi. Jack Butala: Welcome to our show today. In this episode Jill and I talk about How Long Does it Take to Become a Pro? Great show today. Before we get into it, let's take a question posted by one of our members on landinvestors.com, our online community. It's free. Jill DeWit: Okay. Rod asks, "I'm looking at a bulk deal purchase in [Apache 00:00:20] County. Seller wants $22,500 for eight properties totalling 150 acres or about $150 an acre. I do not have the money. Any advice appreciated. Thanks." Jack Butala: Rod's a member, right Jill? Jill DeWit: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Jack Butala: I think yesterday's show was about this. Jill DeWit: I know. I was- Jack Butala: How to raise capital. Jill DeWit: Exactly. Jack Butala: It's real simple on a deal like this. 150 bucks an acre. If the properties have pretty good access and they're within reason, you can sell them for three hundred an acre, which I'm not sure there's a part of Apache County that you can't do this. Just go on a deal board on landinvestors.com. There's a deal board. Because you're a member you have access to it. Post it there. Then also post it on the pro level area in Land Investors as well as the non-pro level area. Jill DeWit: If you post it, they will come. Jack Butala: Yes. 22 thousand is a really low amount of money, small amount of money, to raise for a deal like this. I think you're gonna turn it cash in, cash out in less than 30 days. You should just consider wholesaling it or optioning it also. But whatever you do, tie it up because that's a good deal. Jill DeWit: Yeah. That's really, really good. Jack Butala: Anything around a hundred bucks an acre up there is good. Jill DeWit: I love it up there. It is pretty. Jack Butala: If I wasn't so busy ... We used to do deals with members all the time and it just ends up being a one-on-one education scenario that Jill and I ... I love doing real estate deals, but it's just not an efficient use of our time with other people. Jill and I do a lot of real estate deals, but we make 100 thousand bucks a unit. That's our rule right now. If you have a question or you want to be one the show ... Oh. I'm sorry, Jill. [crosstalk 00:02:08] Jill DeWit: No. It's good. No. I'm over here. It's all good. I'll pipe in. Jack Butala: Do you have a question? Okay, Robin. You want to be on the show, reach out to either one of us on landinvestors.com. Jill DeWit: Thank you, Batman. Jack Butala: It's more like the other Robin. Jill DeWit: Oh. Who? Jack Butala: Howard Stern's Robin. Jill DeWit: Oh. Jack Butala: Not that I think I'm Howard Stern, even want to be- Jill DeWit: Oh. Him. Jack Butala: ... or aspire or care about- Jill DeWit: Batman and Robin. Jack Butala: ... Howard Stern. Jill DeWit: You know what's funny? I never really watched Howard Stern, so I'm not there. Jack Butala: That's funny because it's a radio show. Jill DeWit: I know. Jack Butala: If you have a question ...

Where to Get Money for Your Land Acquisitions (CFFL 507) Transcript: Jack Butala: Jack Butala with Jill DeWit. Jill DeWit: Hi. Jack Butala: Welcome to our show today. In this episode, Jill and I talk about where to get money for your land acquisitions. This is very popular topic these days. We've decided to address it online. Jill DeWit: Love it. Jack Butala: Before we get into it though, let's take a question. Posted by one of our members on the LandInvestors.com online community. It's free. Jill DeWit: Okay. So this is really good. This is from one of our members that have been with us for a while and I just love this. The ti ... He put it in Land Investors, and the title of the post is, "Town of 200, Land is basically free if you can find it." I love this. Jack Butala: Well aren't ... This is fantastic. Jill DeWit: Isn't this great. He has a photo by the way, so as I describe this, you can imagine the photo that he posted with this. Jack Butala: What does it look like? Jill DeWit: It looks ... It's a ... You'll ... Let me read it here and you'll get it. Jack Butala: Okay. Jill DeWit: "Got a deal for a couple hundred properties scattered all over the place. Looking them up to see this collector likes these little towns. The one in the picture is an example. One handicap parking spot, and one regular parking spot at the post office." Jack Butala: So he must've gone there. Jill DeWit: I bet parking is never a problem there. There's two parking spots over by the post office and there are no cars. That's the image that you see. It's so cool. "The town is population of 202." Jack Butala: These people are salivating listening to this right now. They're dying to get out of a big city. Jill DeWit: Not 2,000, 200,000. No, it's 202 people. That's it. I'm sure they'd change it often. "The town, the lot is in the town, but I can't tell exactly where. I probably have to order a map from the county on each one of these eclectic properties. It'll be interesting to see how long it takes to sell them, for how much." Jack Butala: That's a big word for you. Jill DeWit: Right? Yeah. "Pricing them is like throwing darts blindfolded. I think I will do some kind of formula. What do you guys use in your formula to price them so you don't have to research each property? I just don't have the time." That's Luke's comment. I'm thinking some kind of conveyor belt approach that starts with high prices and lowers over time to find the market. Jack Butala: That's it. Jill DeWit: That's a good plan, so. Jack Butala: Good answer. Good first answer. So here's the thing. We teach ... When you're new at this, there's a formula, right? You go out on a land watch and you start with what properties ... This is how you price property, if you're new. You go on a land watch inlay environment, you see what's being sold. What's been on the market for not a lot of time, and it's getting offers, or it's getting purchased, and then you work backwards from there on your acquisition price. We usually say in the beginning, you should price it at about 40% for a rural, vacant land. For houses, it's way different. For other assets, people write dissertations on how to price real estate. For this asset site, this seems to work for our members and it's been working for us, for a real long time. However, once in a while you find property like Luke's got here,

LandPin is Open for Business (CFFL 506) Transcript: Jack Butala: Jack Butala with Jill DeWit. Jill DeWit: Hey there. Jack Butala: Welcome to our show today. In this episode, Jill and I talk about landpin and how it's open for business. Been a long time, Jill, and a lot of work. Jill DeWit: Right. Jack Butala: But it came out great. Jill DeWit: Yep. Jack Butala: Before we get in to it, let's take a question posted by one of our members on the landinvestors.com online community. It's free. Jill DeWit: Okay. Patrick and Jessica ask, "Hi all, we are a week out from posting our properties in a few areas, and have heard nothing. I know we need to be patient, and continue to expand our areas of marketing, but what is the standard time to sell a property. I am sure it depends on so many things, where you post, the demand in the area, your pricing, etc. I'm wondering at what point some of you dramatically lower your price?" I can't talk today. "Are we looking at weeks, months, time to sell? What is a reasonable goal? Thanks much." Jack Butala: So, I look at ... I gauge all of this by, with money. It's not really about the property, or just moving stuff around. And I call it cash in, cash out. So, when you write the check, or however you purchase a property, that's cash out. And when do you get your cash back, times whatever. Hopefully a positive multiple. For us, it's times two. And I look back on all the properties we've ever sold, and even recently this is true, it's about 30 days. So, you know, to directly answer your question. That's reasonable goal. If you've done everything right in our program, if you purchased it for 20, 30, 40% of what you really think it's worth, and you're trying to double your money, then that's really what should happen. Here's a few things that I think could get in the way of that. You purchased a property in an area where there's just tons, and tons, and tons, of properties for sale. I'll reel off, just for fun, in the lower priced asset business we're all in, I'll reel off a few subdivisions that I would avoid: Deming, New Mexico is packed with half acre properties that everybody seems to own one, on the planet; there's a few subdivisions in southern Arizona that I would avoid now, because there's just so, there's 10s of thousands of properties in these subdivisions. But, in general, if you stick with acreage, like most of our members do, you're going to do great. Everybody loves acreage. And now, I think yesterday, we talked about somebody with an infill lot goal. Those are great. You know, you should cash in and cash out of those. Jill DeWit: It's always nervous ... You're always nervous your first few properties. And I understand that. And it's funny, because, don't, don't lower your prices. As long as you priced it right, I mean, as long ... I mean, Patrick and Jessica, have the inside track, so you know how to buy it right? You know the ball park. You know how to price it to sell. And you know that you're under ... If you did it like we really, really tell you, and suggest, which is, it's already priced way below anything else out there, you just need to get it out there now. That's the next thing, is just market the heck out of the thing. And the people will come to you. It's so ... I can't tell you how many times, that we've had this conversation with people, and they ... And it finally sells, like the next day it sells, and then two days later they get a call from a guy who would have paid more. Jack Butala: Yeah. Yeah. Jill DeWit: So, we're like, don't go knocking your price off yet, you just barely begun to let everybody know.

Acquisition Decisions on the Fly with ParcelFact (CFFL 505) Transcript: Jack Butala: Jack Butala with Jill DeWit. Jill DeWit: Hi. Jack Butala: Welcome to our show today. In this episode, Jill and I talk about acquisition decisions on the fly, with parcelfact.com, our new website. Before we get into it though, let's take a question posted by one of our members on the landinvestors.com online community. It's free, and it's official. Success plan is going. Jill DeWit: I know. It's nice. It really is landinvestors.com by the way. Okay. Dansing Grace asks, and this person's not a member, so I pulled this specifically here. Jack Butala: Good. Jill DeWit: She says, "I happened to by an infield lot, with houses on both sides, in a suburb of Pueblo, Colorado with utilities to the street, selling at $10,950 at market. I have posted on Zillow, and no one called after two weeks. But one person from my mailer to the neighbors called after one week, but not returning calls now. I'm thinking my buyers may be builders, not consumers. I thought to specialize in infield, but I worry that if I deviate from the proven path, and wander off, I'd have to figure out the ins and outs of my town. Could someone give some advice on one, how to market infield lots- Jack Butala: I bet Jill's going to give advice on that. Jill DeWit: That's good. Two, should I stay in the infield lot business? And three, some encouragement if this is feasible. I'm a little scared and lonely out there." Jack Butala: Scaredandlonely.com. Jill DeWit: And you have a great property there. I shouldn't be scared, and you shouldn't be lonely. Jack Butala: So, just for clarity’s sake- Jill DeWit: You should be excited. Jack Butala: ... Grace, it says, infield lot here, with a correct, it's called an infill lot. Jill DeWit: That's true. I was reading it verbatim. Jack Butala: No, that's good. Jill DeWit: Yeah. So, that's how you know this is real. I really read it verbatim. Jack Butala: Hey, Jill, how you doing at 6:30 in the morning today. Jill DeWit: Oh, my goodness. I'm doing great, I'm peachy. Exactly. Jack Butala: So, Jill's going to tell us how to market property. Jill DeWit: Everywhere. Jack Butala: Marketing land 101. Go for it, Jill. Jill DeWit: Well, this type of lot, which we have had and sold, and these are great, by the way, love having these, because talk about, you know, no work. I mean, people really can drive right up to it. If it's got utilities, like this one, you know, right at the curb, it's paved. It's done, and there's houses on two sides. So, this is a great thing. Jack Butala: For the vast majority of people, land buyers, this is what they want. Property you can drive ... It's got an address. Jill DeWit: Oh, yeah, that's true. Jack Butala: We talk a lot on this show about properties that are way out, you know rural properties, that, which, by the way, a ton of people want, but this sings to everybody. Jill DeWit: The big thing is, you're limiting yourself by putting it only on one place. The whole concept, and this is Jack's big thing, and he's right, reach. How is the right buyer going to find your properties? Who's looking for this by the way. You only have it posted in one place.

Why the Concept of Data is Difficult to Explain (CFFL 504) Transcript: Jack Butala: Jack Butala and Jill DeWitt. Jill DeWit: Hi. Jack Butala: Welcome to our show today. In this episode, Jill and I talk about why the concept of data is sometimes difficult to explain, especially if somebody's new at this. Before you get into it ... Before we get into it ... Before you get into it, a freudian slip. Let's take a question posted by one of our members on the landinvestors.com online community, it's free. Jill DeWit: Okay. Rod asked, "I'm looking at a bulk deal purchase in Apache County, Arizona. Seller wants $22,500 for eight properties totalling 150 acres or about $150 per acre. I do not have the money. Any advice is appreciated." Jack Butala: We have all been where you are, Rod. Jill DeWit: Yep. Jack Butala: And here's my blanket statement to everyone in real estate, every time I meet them. No good acquisition should be left undone, especially because of money. So if it's a great deal, you're going to find it. Jill DeWit: There's money. Jack Butala: There's way more money out there than sense. And you've come to the right place because I can see here you're a member. Jill DeWit: We have money and not a lot of sense. I had to say that, you know it was coming. Jack Butala: We don't do deals directly any longer with members because quite honestly it takes too long. That's the real reason. Not because they're not good deals. It just takes too long. We have bigger fish to fry from a money standpoint. Not because they're bad deals, just because, well let's just say it. We're doing it with people who are new and there's a lot of stuff that goes on. But anyway, what you want to do is go on a deal board, if you're not there already. We have a thing called deal board, it's a hootsuite, picture a bulletin board, old school bulletin board for jobs and stuff. It's kind of like that, but it's online. And that's where all of our members, it's a members-only access scenario on landinvestors.com. They go in there and access the thing and do this kind of deal. So you would, in theory, you would post all the ... Post the properties, post the deal, probably include the GPS coordinates so everybody can look at it, or pictures. Pictures would be even better. As much information as you possibly can and then what you really want to do if you want to get this thing done fast, is find a buyer. Because chances are somebody on deal board is going to already have a buyer anyway, so you're going to be left with a lot of possibilities. Maybe you mark the properties up from $22,500 to $30,000 and then that person goes and sells them to the end user for 40. There's lots of possibilities. This is a great question. We have all been standing right where you are, all of us. Jill DeWit: Exactly. Jack Butala: Even at this place in our career, Jill and I where we are. We do deals that I do not want to ... I don't want to write a $4.3 Million check for. We get a money partner, but we do the courtesy of pretty much having the property sold before we even do the deal. It's an easier sell. At $150 an acre, you're going to do just fine. Jill DeWit: Exactly. Good stuff. Jack Butala: You have a question or you want to be on the show, reach out to either one of us on landinvestors.com. Today's topic, why the concept of data is difficult to explain sometimes. It's the meat of the show. Jill DeWit: I love this. Jack Butala: You know, again we come back to this co-birthday party you ...