How to Save a Ton of Money Running Your Land Business (LA 1261)

How to Save a Ton of Money Running Your Land Business (LA 1261) Steven Butala: Steve and Jill here. Welcome to the Land Academy Show, entertaining land investment talk. I'm Steven Jack Butala. Jill DeWit: And I'm Jill DeWit, broadcasting from sunny Southern California. Steven Butala: Today, Jill and I talk about how to save a ton of money running your land business. Well, I talk about it and Jill dispels it, dispels my theories. Jill DeWit: No. I have to say, correct me if I'm wrong, I have become very frugal. I am not the one right now, between the two of us, that is spending money on things, and I'm not saying them, vehicles. So I'm not picking on you. I'm just saying I've gotten very frugal and very good, I like to think. You might tell me I'm wrong and I might be wrong, but... Steven Butala: I have a long, long history of being penny wise and pound foolish. In fact, that's kind of what this is about today. I'm going to separate the stuff that you need to spend some money on and stuff that you just can forget about it. And I think when you're brand new at something, it's hard to know the difference like, "Wow, should I be spending time or money on this?" No. 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: Is it Eraldo? Eraldo says, and I guess the title of his posting is, "Success on mailers." Great. So if you want to search this online, that's what you could search for. Steven Butala: And I have to say, he gives a very, very specific result and financial outcome on how many letters he sent, not so much where he sent him, but how it got sold. It's very detailed. And I will say this. He did it all wrong. And he did it, and he killed it. Jill DeWit: Did it all wrong and it still worked. Okay. This is excessive, just getting a darn mail-out. Okay. "Hi, all. I wanted to chime in after a few months of hiatus from this forum, not a hiatus from real estate. I have sent four mailers so far. So the first one, 407 units to rural vacant land, no properties purchased." Steven Butala: 407 unit mailers is... Jill DeWit: Small. Steven Butala: And I'm not... Eraldo, I'm just using you as an example here, and it's nothing personal at all. It's just tiny. So you're kind of setting yourself up to fail. It's too small. You need to send out 1500 to 2000. Jill DeWit: Okay. "Next one, 502 units to rural vacant land, one purchased and sold, one in process of accepting the amended offer. My initial offer was too high at $15,000 so I changed my offer and purchased for $7,000 and sold for 12." Steven Butala: Excellent. Jill DeWit: "Second, one same thing. Offer was too high for that area of the county. From $14,000, I was going to go down to $5,000 cash. But so far, we're at $10,400 owner financed, zero down, zero interest for five years." Steven Butala: Interesting. Jill DeWit: Really interesting. Steven Butala: He's locking the property up with equitable title and then he's going to go resell it. I think that's brilliant. Jill DeWit: Exactly. There you go. "We'll see if we have to modify. Another one down the road like this is selling for $45,000. I can probably sell this one for $35,000. I want to finance at 10% interest and cash flow it." Interesting. He's going... He's got some crazy ideas here. Steven Butala: He's very brave. He's very, very... Thinking out of the box, and it's very... He's totally jellified both of these first two properties. Jill DeWit: Okay. "So the third mailer, 349 units to infill lots. One out fo contract, in escrow, and also contracted to sell. My offer was too high at 20..." Came in high on all these. It's cute. Steven Butala: That's okay. Jill DeWit: That's all right. You fix it. This is good for everybody to see too, that think like, "If I come in that high, don't I have to do that? Aren't I obligated?" No, you're not. That's why we have all those statements that you make in your offer letter,