Transcript:

Steven Butala:
Steve and Jill here.

Jill DeWit:
Good day.

Steven Butala:
Welcome to the House Academy show, entertaining real estate investment talk. I’m Steven Jack Butala.

Jill DeWit:
And I’m Jill DeWit, casting from sunny, southern California.

Steven Butala:
We’re going through this so fast today. I’m like, I’ve got to slow down. I’ve got to say stuff.

Jill DeWit:
D-E capital W-I-T, Butala, B as in boy. Sorry.

Steven Butala:
Oh, geez. That even hurts me.

Jill DeWit:
I know.

Steven Butala:
It’s hard enough to listen to the whole show. What if we spelled everything? Oh my gosh. That’d be awful.

Jill DeWit:
A-W-F-U-L. That would be awful. C-R-A-P-P-Y. That’s good. I’m going to do that. This is good. I want to spell things out and pretend I have Tourette’s but my version of Tourette’s is I spell random words.

Steven Butala:
All right, do it.

Jill DeWit:
Okay.

Steven Butala:
You know what, however you respond to what I’m saying, just spell it, one word.

Jill DeWit:
Okay. All right. N-U-T-S.

Steven Butala:
Today, Jill and I talk about … This is a perfect episode to do this too because it’s stuff that I want to talk about.

Jill DeWit:
Yeah. Yeah. This is going to break up this show because we’re going to need it. We haven’t even got to the topic and I’m like, oh no.

Steven Butala:
Usually Jill takes notes right before we start recording. And she’s like, “So this is called five data sets where offer,” nope.

Jill DeWit:
What?

Steven Butala:
She just said no.

Jill DeWit:
And you said, “This is my show.”

Steven Butala:
I’ll do it. She puts her pen down and said, “Okay, good.”

Jill DeWit:
S-N-O-O-Z-E.

Steven Butala:
Make sure my hair looks good. That’s my job.

Jill DeWit:
Did you hear what I spelled?

Steven Butala:
Yeah. Today, Jill and I talk about five data sets where offer campaigns work. Before we get into it though, let’s take a question posted by one of our members on the houseacademy.com online community. It’s free.

Jill DeWit:
Are you like us? Do your friends think you’re nuts, because that happens to us all the time. And right now I’m starting to realize why.

Steven Butala:
You know what happens with us with our friends that I’ve noticed lately? They just have so many questions for us. Like what do you mean you have a podcast? What do you mean you have? Because I think we’re normal people.

Jill DeWit:
I don’t. You think that they think that we’re normal?

Steven Butala:
No, I see us as normal people and I think they’re like, “What do you mean you have a podcast? What do mean you buy and sell real estate?”

Jill DeWit:
Oh, I don’t see us as normal people.

Steven Butala:
What do you mean? What do you mean? How do you do that?

Jill DeWit:
Sweetheart, I hate to break it to you, we are not normal people.

Steven Butala:
I don’t think people like who are a mechanical engineer, like I don’t have any questions for a mechanical engineer. I don’t walk up to them and say-

Jill DeWit:
That is interesting.

Steven Butala:
… “So, what do you mean, you’re a mechanical engineer?”

Jill DeWit:
Do you know what I think? I think we come across with this vibe that we’re not that bright because we’re never talking about anything really smart or important. Seriously.

Steven Butala:
Oh my gosh, you’re right.

Jill DeWit:
Then they go, “You live where and you do what?” And that’s what I think there’s a disconnect.

Steven Butala:
Jill, you’re right.

Jill DeWit:
Right? I think people-

Steven Butala:
Mission accomplished.

Jill DeWit:
… meet us, and they expect that we live in a two bedroom condo somewhere by a mall.

Steven Butala:
Yeah, it’s probably right.

Jill DeWit:
And then they’re like, “One of these things is not like the other.” And then maybe, this is my new theory now, and they’re even more intrigued because they’re like, “Well hell, if you two can do it, I can do it.”

Steven Butala:
That’s what I think. And I believe that. If we can do it, it’s just not that hard.

Jill DeWit:
They can’t be that smart.

Steven Butala:
None of this is. It just takes discipline and confidence.

Jill DeWit:
Thank you. Okay. Back to the question. What is the-

Steven Butala:
It’s three people.

Jill DeWit:
Okay. Three people. One question?

Steven Butala:
Yeah.

Jill DeWit:
Okay. Clam, Sam-

Steven Butala:
Clam?

Jill DeWit:
Oh, excuse me. I combined two. Clay, Sam and Duke.

Steven Butala:
Combined them.

Jill DeWit:
Combined them all. Clam. All right. Clay, Sam and Luke say, “Hi everyone. We are new to the Land Academy family and are very blessed and happy to be here. We have not yet sent out our first mailer campaign, but plan to do so ASAP. We did however find a buyer in Texas who is looking to purchase a piece of land by using owner financing. She’s specifically looking in [Buddha 00:04:32] or Bastrop County. If anyone has any land there, please reach out to us ASAP. Thank you. We look forward to getting to know you all. Best, clay, Sam and Luke.” Do you want to go first, or do you want me to go first?

Steven Butala:
You go first and soften it because what I have to say is not nice.

Jill DeWit:
Well, I wasn’t going to be … Okay. I’ll do my best too. I’m just going to say, Clam.

Steven Butala:
Clamped. I’m trying to do all three of them. Clay, Sam, and Luke.

Jill DeWit:
Clay-cal-sam-uke. All right, knock it off, you guys. Don’t go at it like this. I’m going to be real cool, but I’m going to tell you just don’t waste your time. This person … You will quickly find out you never want to talk to these people, ever.

Steven Butala:
That’s right. That’s right.

Jill DeWit:
It’s like your dad saying, “Go find me this.” That’s not going to happen. You’re here to make money and do deals and not be even a broker. Maybe a broker would take on something like this, but only for a certain county. They’re going to drive them around. They already have a laundry list of inventory. This is the wrong direction you want to go. Say, “That’s great. Here’s my website. We may have something for you someday. We may not. Have a nice day.” And go do what you are learning to do right now.

Steven Butala:
When I graduated from college, my sister and I graduated from college about the same time, within two years of each other. We’re two years different in age. I went into commercial real estate and accounting, and immediately after college, she went into being a residential real estate agent. And she still is one, an incredibly successful one. And as soon as she got out of real estate school, she took this thing called Sweat Hogs. It’s still around now. It’s a very popular bootcamp kind of situation where it’s two weeks, and here’s what they tell you. They charge you a lot of money and I’ll save you the time of the Sweat Hogs.

Jill DeWit:
You get it for free right now.

Steven Butala:
Go get listings. Get yourself in the community. Get outside, get out of your desk, go get listings. Never, ever drive a buyer around and look at houses. It’s a waste of time. It’s ridiculous. And it’s still that way, even now. This is before the internet, all this happened. Now we’ve got the internet and all this other stuff, and it’s still inefficient to do that. Do one very specific thing. In our case, both houses and land, which is what this show’s about, send a hell of a lot of blind offers out. Choose the best ones, buy them and put them into a system to sell them.

Jill DeWit:
It’s my dating advice. Up your numbers.

Steven Butala:
That’s it.

Jill DeWit:
You don’t want to get hung up on this one person. The time that you spend to even do this and talk about stuff like this. And by the way, now, what if this worked out? What if one of the people in our community said, “Oh, I have something”? Great, now you’re the middleman. You’re not going to make anything off it. You’re going to put them together. In best case scenario, you put them together. Worst case scenario, you’re the go-between going, “I don’t know. Let me find out. How big is it? What can I do with it? I don’t know. Let me find out.” You don’t want to be in that situation.

Steven Butala:
Congratulations guys, you made the right decision and you found the right place to get educated and you found the right business in my opinion, to be in of all those things out there that you could do. What you want to do is listen to us and listen to the people in this group because we have all the answers, or at least most of them. And you do not want to spend more than five minutes talking to any buyer. Buy real cheap property, get it posted on the internet and buyers will come out of the woodwork, and then you can start to choose them. You can say, “You know what? I don’t like your attitude. You’re not buying my property. There’s 19 people right behind you.” Which is what I would say to this Texas person.

Jill DeWit:
F-L-U-F-F-Y.

Steven Butala:
Fluffy?

Jill DeWit:
Yeah. I told you, random Tourette’s syndrome here.

Steven Butala:
Why did you think of fluffy?

Jill DeWit:
I have random Tourette’s. I’m going to come up today with random Tourette’s spelling syndrome. I just made up this whole condition and I’m going to use it all day. Watch me. So you guys, did you write though … I want to end it on this for me is, “Hey, congratulations. You know there’s buyers out there for crazy stuff like that?” People think, “Oh, who wants to buy this stuff?” Well, you know, there’s people right there, and obviously this person impressed you enough that you think they’re legit, that you’re going forward trying to do it that way. Now we’re reeling you back in.

Steven Butala:
Today’s topic, five data sets where offer campaigns work. This is the meat of the show.

Jill DeWit:
Bright lights.

Steven Butala:
Bright lights?

Jill DeWit:
Yeah. No. See that?

Steven Butala:
You’re on Tourette’s?

Jill DeWit:
Yeah. See, it’s better spelling.

Steven Butala:
We’re going to get emails about, you can’t make fun of Tourette’s anymore.

Jill DeWit:
Oh no, I don’t mean to do that. No, that’s not what I’m doing. I’m sorry. I was just trying to … I’m sorry.

Steven Butala:
I don’t want to rain on your parade. I think it’s funny as hell, but I just know that there’s … I didn’t know how to say-

Jill DeWit:
I didn’t mean to do that.

Steven Butala:
It ends differently.

Jill DeWit:
I guess it could. I don’t mean to be making fun of anybody. No. I was actually kind of using it to just lighten the mood.

Steven Butala:
I’m not criticizing you. Again, I think you’re funny as hell. Anywhere that there’s a data set, offer campaigns work. So let your mind wander for a second. Wherever there’s a database of owners of anything that has any value, this works. For example-

Jill DeWit:
Give me some examples.

Steven Butala:
Here’s an example.

Jill DeWit:
Thank you.

Steven Butala:
People who own aircrafts and watercrafts, so boats and airplanes, are required to register with a bunch of places, or cars. They’re required to register with the DMV. Boats are coast guard slash-

Jill DeWit:
They have insurance.

Steven Butala:
Yeah. An aircraft is even, FAAs, it’s even a closer, tighter database. So if you can get ahold of those lists … and it turns out I’m really good at that. There’s like four things I’m good at in life. That’s one of them. I can get ahold of these datasets-

Jill DeWit:
That many? I can think of two. Just kidding.

Steven Butala:
Think with me for a second.

Jill DeWit:
I’m just kidding.

Steven Butala:
If you send out an offer to everybody who has a boat in a zip code in Michigan right now, everybody needs money.

Jill DeWit:
Especially right now.

Steven Butala:
For any price, you’re going to pick up some boats. For $100, they’re going to say, “Come and get it.” For expensive boats. I’ve tested this. It works. So what are the five datasets? I’ll answer it, and then we can listen to Jill make fun of whatever she’s going to make fun of. Cars, datasets real hard to get. DMV data is very difficult to get, but it’s possible. Boats, super simple. Just do an extensive search. It’s not free, but you’ll find it. FAA airplane data is free and you can find it very, very simply. People who own airplanes don’t give them away like boat people. They know there’s some value. They’ll reduce the price, but they won’t say, “Come and get it,” for some reason. Don’t you agree?

Jill DeWit:
Yeah, I totally agree. Yep. I agree with that theory.

Steven Butala:
Mobile homes, those datasets are very state specific. Some states have them right in the DMV records. Some states have them, they’re cataloged different ways. These datasets are not complete. The FAA dataset’s very complete. These datasets are not complete like real estate. We’re all spoiled with real estate. The real-

Jill DeWit:
Wait, wait. Cars, boats, planes, mobile homes.

Steven Butala:
Yep. And real estate. Those are the five datasets. We have spent decades, Jill and I, on real estate. And quite honestly, personally I’m venturing off into these other areas right now because of this recession because I know how cheap it is. You can get anything you want for nothing. The process is exactly the same. You take a look at a geography. You take a look at a type of car or boat or a plane that you want. You price it. You send them an offer with the price right in there and you tell them how the process is to change ownership and the timeframe. Give them a timeframe to act on it. And you just let it rip. And a very predictable … It’s the same conversation. Fill in the blank. Oh, thank you so much for contacting me. I really didn’t want this X anyway. When can you come and get it? I’m tired of paying the slip fees. I’m tired of paying the real estate taxes. I’m tired of paying the … What is it for planes? Tie-down fees.

Jill DeWit:
Oh my gosh, maintenance.

Steven Butala:
Yeah, the annual or whatever. So it’s all the same deal. And it’s very exciting. I mean, obviously this is what we do with our lives. Here’s where it doesn’t work.

Jill DeWit:
Obviously.

Steven Butala:
HEre’s where it doesn’t work and it’s too bad, and people get sidetracked and waste years of their lives trying to figure it out. Diamonds. You’re not going to get a dataset anywhere.

Jill DeWit:
Boy, I would have cracked that one if there was. That would be on the top of my list. Let’s keep going.

Steven Butala:
So this story that Clam, Sam and Luke here.

Jill DeWit:
Clay.

Steven Butala:
Yeah.

Jill DeWit:
Poor Clay. We’re going to call you Clam every time now.

Steven Butala:
About finding a buyer and they’re just, oh, these people are just obsessed sometimes about trying to find a buyer. I mean, trying to find a seller and then matching them with a buyer instead of just buying it, posting it and walking away.

Jill DeWit:
Make it easy.

Steven Butala:
There’s a lot of places like for expensive watches and diamonds and all that stuff that just wastes a lot of time.

Jill DeWit:
That’s true.

Steven Butala:
People who know those businesses who do very well, it’s because they have lifelong relationships with suppliers and it’s a whole different thing. It’s not a data driven company. It’s relationship driven.

Jill DeWit:
Here’s a funny note.

Steven Butala:
I’m not too good at relationships. I’m better with data.

Jill DeWit:
That’s for sure. Just kidding. I’m just kidding. No, here’s a funny note though. You mentioned looking for a certain thing versus a price. When I go on Offer Up or I’m on Craigslist, I’m doing it right now just because it’s kind of fun. I just want to see what people are selling. I don’t go looking for specifically a certain solitaire earring shape. I just do all jewelry and I do price high to low and just see what’s out there.

Steven Butala:
It’s a total gender thing, because I’ve been in a grocery store with you, or like a furniture store. Oh, this is the worst, where you just walk around and see how everything makes you feel. That’s shopping.

Jill DeWit:
Well, my point is, but this is kind of how we do it a little bit with … We do a kind of a shotgun … I guess maybe it is strategic. Nevermind. He’s picking on me. Well, you also, I made a note here. I wrote down, you said decades. It hasn’t felt like decades with you, baby.

Steven Butala:
What does it feel like?

Jill DeWit:
It feels like less. It’s still very fun. You are fun. I want you to know that. F-U-N. And then some days S-C-A-R-Y. Just kidding. R-O-L-L-I-N-G C-O-A-S-T-E-R. And I’m sure it’s evolved.

Steven Butala:
The kids in the back seat, now they’re learning how to spell. So, good for you.

Jill DeWit:
No, here’s what makes every … This is the word that you use, as you’re a parent … Now that we’re … Are we done with the topic? Can we just have fun.

Steven Butala:
Yeah, sure.

Jill DeWit:
Okay.

Steven Butala:
Finally, for you.

Jill DeWit:
The word that you used to be able to, every parent knows this, there’s a word that you could spell. And for a while it worked and then the kids figured out the spelling and you’re like, “Uh oh, we can’t use that one anymore.” It’s M-C-D-O-N-A-L-D-S. That’s the first word that my kids knew how to spell. We’ve got to change it now.

Steven Butala:
Oh, man.

Jill DeWit:
We did that to the dog too. The dog figured out what O-U-T was and so we can’t spell that.

Steven Butala:
My words in my childhood are more like M-U-R-D-E-R. Did you do the M-U-R-D-E-R? Oh, good. Thanks, Sam.

Jill DeWit:
I’m glad it wasn’t F-E-L-O-N-Y. Oh my gosh. I’m sorry. That’s my alarm. Well, I am happy you could join us today. Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, you can find us right here on the Land Academy Show. Tuesdays and Thursdays, we our next door over on the House Academy Show.

Steven Butala:
Tomorrow, the episode on the Land Academy show is called how to start your own business and not fail. You are not alone in your real estate ambition.

Jill DeWit:
Sorry.

Steven Butala:
What’s your alarm mean?

Jill DeWit:
My alarm means, okay it’s truth. Truth time. This is my noon alarm, meaning I can eat now. I don’t have to … It’s my little fasting alarm. I’m sure some of you listening know about this thing. We’ve both been doing it. Noon to … What do we? Noon to 8:00?

Steven Butala:
6:00.

Jill DeWit:
I do noon to 8:00. You do noon to 6:00. Yeah, I do noon to 8:00. I give myself noon to 8:00 that I eat. And then the outside time, I don’t eat.

Steven Butala:
This is a good alarm then.

Jill DeWit:
Yeah. No, this means-

Steven Butala:
Now you can eat.

Jill DeWit:
Yeah. This means like, “Ooh, yippee ki yay, go make a sandwich.” The House Academy Show remains commercial free for you, our loyal listener. So wherever you’re watching, wherever you’re listening, please subscribe and rate us there. We are Steve and Jill.

Steven Butala:
We are Steve and Jill. Information.

Jill DeWit:
And inspiration.

Steven Butala:
To buy undervalued property.