First 10 Week Land Academy Accountability Group – Huge Success for Members (LA 1445)

Transcripts: Steven Butala: Steve and Jill here. Jill DeWit: Hello. Steven Butala: Welcome to the Land Academy Show, entertaining land investment talk. I'm Steven Jack Butala. Jill DeWit: I'm Jill DeWitt, broadcasting from sunny Southern California. Steven Butala: Today Jill and I talk about the first 10 weeks of our Land Academy Accountability Group and how much of a success it has been for our members. I'm surprised by this, like always. Jill DeWit: We're halfway in, right? Where are we ... I don't know what weekend. Steven Butala: We're on session six of 10- Jill DeWit: There we go. Steven Butala: ... or seven of 10 actually. Jill DeWit: Exactly. Steven Butala: It'll be almost done by the time this airs. Every single time Jill and I start something new, some little subsection based on what people ask for, I don't think it's going to work. That's just how my personality is. Jill DeWit: I was going to have a different answer. Go ahead. Steven Butala: Every single time, Jill's like, "Oh, I'm so excited. It's going to be ... Everyone's going to love this." And that's what ends up happening. Most of the time, not all the time. Jill DeWit: Here's my takeout. Every time we start something new, it develops into something else new. Steven Butala: Then we have to do more stuff. Jill DeWit: So instead of one new project, then we have three. It was so sweet, I had Kristin and I had a consulting call the other day. And it was very nice, the first few minutes she said, "Look, I own my own business and I'm just getting started in this. How the heck do you guys do what you do? I can't believe what you do." And every time I hear that, I'm like, "Yeah ..." First of all, thank you, Kristen. And yes, I am that tired. Steven Butala: Yeah. Jill DeWit: It is a lot, but it's all good and I'm very happy and we have a great group. And so I'm inspired just to get up every day and do it again. Steven Butala: Deal funding really helps deal. Deal funding allows us to do a lot of real estate deals without doing a tremendous amount of work. Jill DeWit: That's true. [crosstalk 00:01:38] help. Steven Butala: So for years and years ... I mean, we still do tons of our own deals, but we've got a good staff in place so it's not that bad. Jill DeWit: It's true. Steven Butala: We still do it. Jill DeWit: I know. We do it to ourselves Steven Butala: Before we get into it, let's take a question posted by one of our members on the landinvestors.com online community. It's free. Jill DeWit: Thomas wrote, "Hi, everyone. My partners and I are active since about a year ago and currently operating in X state. We made multiple acquisitions so far and I'm very enthusiastic about the process. We started off in a lower price range in X County, and are now dealing with gradually larger and higher value properties that range between 10,000 and $20,000. However, we've noticed big price fluctuations depending on the attributes, specifically trees. It seems that land with trees on it is disproportionally more valuable than land without." I'm sure in this area, it makes a difference. Jill DeWit: "For instance, we recently bought a property with a tiny forest on it for $6,800 and sold it for $20,000 within a matter of days. While the treeless properties, we can often sell with up to a 50% profit margin. A few days ago, we received a signed purchase agreement for a seven acre property with lovely mountain view for $14,000. According to our research and comps in the area, we estimate a conservative retail price of about 25 to $28,000." So 80% of the lowest price comparable in the area. These are all making sense to me. This is great. Steven Butala: So far, so good. Yeah. Jill DeWit: "Nevertheless, it neither has electricity nor trees, but it's located near a creek." I'm good with all of this. Steven Butala: Yep. Jill DeWit: "A local land investor who we sold properties to in the past and sometimes consult with about our new acquisitions,