Investors Newsletter – Volume 8
Can you believe it’s November?
(We sure can’t!)
We’re making a big push to finish this year strong – and hope you are too! In addition to the deals (and deals and deals) that we have going on, we’ve also been busy updating ParcelFact (more on that below) and other sites, finding new ways to bring you the informative content you know and love, and working on some top-secret projects that we can’t wait to share with you.
Don’t forget to check out our Facebook Groups (LAND) (HOUSES) to connect with like-minded investors, ask questions, create partnerships, and more!
As always, this newsletter is for you. Read it, bookmark it, share it, and feel free to let us know if you have any feedback, content suggestions, or questions!
Don’t miss your next chance to see Steven Butala and Jill DeWit LIVE.
This Tuesday (tomorrow!) November 18th, they will be going live at 4:30 pm PT on Facebook.
They will be talking about our new ParcelFact updates and showing you how to find the owner of any property in seconds. You don’t want to miss this – and they’ll be doing a Q&A section too so bring your questions and Steven and Jill will answer them live on air.
You can join it HERE.
(You really don’t want to miss this)
What is it?
Offers2Owners had a RECORD month.
Stay tuned for some great Offers2Owners site updates coming your way, and don’t forget that Smart Pricing Service (SPS) is now just $0.10/line!
With more and more mail going out, we are also seeing more mistakes in mailings. Luckily these are easily fixed, but we want to take a look into the Offers2Owners blog archives to bring you some information on the most common mistakes we see.
“… Most of the common misconceptions about direct mail derive from the lack of knowledge about setting up a successful campaign, the data, the numbers, the templates, and more. There are certain steps that need to be taken and also a certain amount of knowledge possessed in order to receive a good response rate.
Some f the most common mistakes we see in submitted mailers include spelling errors, spacing errors, and reoccurring or incorrect numbers. These can occur at any stage of the campaign, starting from the initial editing of your letter template to an issue occurring post merging.
If you are using a well–written template, you are less likely to have spelling mistakes, specifically when you double-check all your additions and changes made to the template itself. The spacing errors can occur due to long lines of data being picked up and these could include long Legal Descriptions, Assessor Parcel Numbers etc. The spacing can sometimes add an extra page and move important information you may have to places that are not easily visible to your recipient. You can avoid this error by making sure all your information is on the same page(s) as when you first started setting it up and shortening some of this data in your data spreadsheet.” (Read More)
New ParcelFact.com Features –
We have released 3 new features on ParcelFact.com available to all users.
- FEMA Flood Areas – Once enabled in the “layers list” menu, you can now see all flood areas for any covered counties instantly.
- New Map View Layers – We’ve added several new map view layers so you can see everything about your property easier than ever!
- Mile Marker Key – This adjusts to scale as you zoom out or in, and is great to help you see parcel sizes, distances to other items, and more.
Check out a video below highlighting some of the great new items, and don’t forget to watch Jill and Steven show how they use ParcelFact live tomorrow at 4:30 pm PT HERE.
We’ve also done some general site cleaning, bug fixes, and optimization so your experience should be smoother than ever. Also, coming soon is a fresh redesign to Offers2Owners.com!
How to Make 10,000 Offers a Week in Less Than an Hour
By S. Jack Butala
If you are a seasoned real estate investment pro or a full-time acquisitions specialist for a Real Estate Investment Trust, you already know how to
make thousands of offers at a time and why it works like a charm to buy undervalued property. Your job depends on it. For the rest of us, here’s the ticket to success and how to do it from your coffee table:
Overview
1) Get access to world class property ownership data.
2) Create your own personal “acquisition criteria.”
3) Manipulate that data (scrub it) so you are left with properties that fit your “Acquisition Criteria.” – Take the list rom millions of properties to just hundreds or thousands.
4) Send each property owner in the scrubbed list a customized offer to purchase their property (Mail Merge).
5) Let the offers do all the work for you. Only the owners who are interested in selling will send the offers back or call you to get the deal done. Maximum time and cost efficiency.
This is “hands-down” the most efficient way to reach thousands of potential sellers at a time.
Can you image “driving for dollars” in an hour and making 10,000 offers?
Or putting up 10,000 bandit signs in an hour? How much would that cost even if you could?
How about making 10,000 phone calls to property owners to see if they interested in selling for a way-below-market price.
Orchestrating a well planned and executed direct mail campaign is the only way I know of to buy undervalued property cost and time efficiently.
How to do it (the details)
1) Get access to world class property ownership data. The best property ownership data comes right from the source: the county assessor. This is the data set county authorities use to set the rate of property taxation each year. It’s how they calculate how high or low our property taxes are each year. And it requires a lot of data. Like how valuable is the land and the structure(s) on the land. How much the property sold for last time, if there’s a parking lot or a pool or a farm on all or part of the parcel. etc. They take a look at a ton of data to calculate our taxes and keep track of it all in one place.
What’s great about this information is that our forefathers required that this data legally be a matter of “public record.” I thank them publicly from this blog.
You have two choices about where to get the data: Directly from the county or from the people who need it to write title insurance policies (Title Companies like First American Title – I have no affiliation with them). See the rest of our steps and see examples for SFRs, land, and apartment buildings HERE.
How do I choose a county to mail to?
As an answer to ever-changing data and county information, we developed a tool called CountyWise. CountyWise is free and open to all, and is a great way to analyze a county and determine where you should send mail to. You can see the county properties, population, census data demographics, census tracts, and more for every county.
Watch Steven and Jill show you how they use it for a mailer and everything that is possible.
This month’s question came from Steven over on LandInvestors.
He asks –
“Have any of you used an escrow for a reduced fee to just review the documents and generate a preliminary title report (for the buyer) on a terms deal, where title will not change till land contract terms are met, and the parties are ok transferring funds directly (no escrow service needed for that function)?”
Check out Steven and Jill’s answer HERE.
This is always a great podcast to listen to if you want to hear some of what Steven and Jill are up to now (we know you’re always so curious!). The talk about the multi-million dollar urban Los Angeles County mailer that they’re working on. It’s incredibly interesting – and if you stay tuned I’m sure we’ll get an update soon!
Jermaine and Faith Hill are a very kind, smart, and successful couple from Virginia. Jermaine is an industrial engineer and Faith is a lawyer. As newlyweds, they soon found out that their careers, though very rewarding, were also very demanding.
Jermaine searched for a better lifestyle and career choice in REI. He found house wholesaling while they were getting their feet wet in REI. Jermaine then stumbled on Land Academy about four yrs ago. They were already 10 deals deep into homes but were intrigued by CFFL.
Since then, Jermaine and Faith have been unstoppable! Now 80 deals deep with land, they are also in house wholesaling and storage units! This power couple credits their success to CFFL and making it their own.
Click HERE to watch the rest of their YouTube interview with Steven and Jill.
Deal Funding is a place for interest-free, quick, simple deal means for both land and houses!
Open to members (and *currently* non-members), it is a way to get a quick deal review and obtain 100% of the cost to fund the property and close the deal. You find the property, manage the purchase, the marketing, & the sale. At the end, we split the profit 50/50.
Here’s how it works:
Find and lock in a deal with a signed purchase agreement.
Submit to us via the Deal Funding form found on LandInvestors (land) and House Academy (houses). Be sure to submit any pertinent information, comps, or lists (spreadsheets) for multi-parcel acquisitions.We quickly review and respond with one of three outcomes:
1) We love the deal and are ready to go.
2) We need more information (maybe access questions or your marketing strategy).
3) We pass on the deal as “not met our acquisition criteria” & typically suggest posting on LandTank.
Next, our team will work with you (as “manager”) through the open/close of escrow, keep in touch during sale process, and assist at final close and funding.
Finally, the manager gets paid 50% of the net profit directly out of escrow.
How do I get a deal approved?
Do your own due diligence before submitting. Make sure it passes all of your tests and that you would buy it, regardless of funding source. Submit any supporting information you have gathered in your review process to speed along our deal review. Finally, have a website and solid plan to market/sell the property.
How can this grow my business? (as a new or PRO investor)
Using someone else’s money to fund a deal is great for two reasons: 1. You are not limited to what you can afford when you are out of acquisition funds OR you want to acquire more expensive properties. 2. You can be doing double the deals since your acquisition funds are still in play acquiring even MORE property.
Listen to Jill approve a deal here –
Marketing Your Property – What Plans to Choose and Where to Post
from Joey Chavez
I am currently marketing my second property as a new investor, and I’ve been going through the same things that so
many of you do – deciding where to market my property. As a new investor, I don’t have unlimited marketing funds and decided to do a deep dive into where I should market. I decided to start with Lands of America. Here are my experiences –
After I posted my property with Lands of America, I found out that they also posted my property onto Land And Farm (thank you syndication!) and then received an email with a new plan that Land.com will be offering in the future.
Here is the email:
“Land.com is launching a brand new universal month to month plan. The universal would include all 3 websites under one billing and does not require a contract. This will be available online in the next 30-60 days.
—-
Universal plans include all 3 websites: Lands of America | Land And Farm | LandWatch
The Universal Standard plans have; a easy to use tool for uploading your properties; comprehensive listing performance reports; 4000 character property description; up to 99 photos and 1 property Video per listing.
The Universal Standard Monthly plan for 1 Listings is $99.00/mo.
Or
The Universal Premium plan has everything in the standard plan plus; higher ranking on the search results; your name listed on search results and a link back to your website; access to comparable listing data.
The Universal Premium Monthly plan for 1 Listings is $199.00/mo.”
While it’s important to do your own research and determine the best places to list your land, we love these new options and can’t wait to explore them further upon their release. We hope you found this useful and that it helps provide you with more options on marketing your property – catch us next month for more!
Some incredible things are being done on LandTank and in Deal Funding right now.
Check it out –
We just closed on a property that we partnered with a Land Academy member on (we funded 100%).
This property was bought for $9900, and sold for $25,000!
We’re working on another that should close shortly – we funded a member and bought the property for $50,000. We expect to sell it for $350,000!
This is what it’s really all about. We’re stronger together.
Our House Academy podcast is BACK!
As I’m sure you’re aware, we currently have TWO podcasts so you can catch us every weekday. Our land podcast airs Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Our housing podcast airs Tuesdays and Thursdays. While they’re separate podcasts, there is a TON of overlap on information so make sure you check them both out!
Check out some of our favorite recent podcasts below –
Adventures in Texting Land Owners
Flood Zones 101 and the Best Resource Available
What to Do When You Cannot Find a Property
How to Add Six Zeros to Your Offers
To Renovate or Not to Renovate for House Investors
Member Updates
Don’t Forget – HouseTank is Open
HouseTank is open and ready for partnering! For a limited time, Land and House Academy members have free access – so make sure you take advantage of it!
Use HouseTank to discover acquisitions and opportunities generated by House Academy, post your own to get funded, connect to review your opportunities, and partner on projects that make sense to you!
Make sure you check out the Resources section (drop down in the upper right hand corner) for more VIDEOS (including how to reserve a posting and create your own posting), an example partnership agreement, sample postings, the FAQ, and more!
If you’re a member, your account has automatically been registered with HouseTank and you have already received an email letting you know about your account. You can follow the link in that email to reset your password and set up your account.
If you did not receive the email, first please check any junk/spam folders. If you don’t find it, you can just visit HouseTank and follow the “forgotten password” function with the email that you signed up for House Academy with. It will prompt you to reset that way.
How to become an Advanced Member
Since the Live Event, we have been getting asked “How do I become an Advanced Member?” quite a bit, so we thought it would be great to address here.
The advanced group is completely free, and we don’t specific prerequisites to become an Advanced Member, because it’s not all about how many deals you do as much as it is a mindset and how you contribute to the group.
Do you embody what Land Academy is about? How did you make the program your own? Are your numbers increasing? Are you constantly looking to diversify? Jill and Steven broke down each level a member is at perfectly in this podcast. Find out where you are and how to get to the next level. Our staff is constantly keeping an eye out for the next great fit – it might be you!
If you aren’t a member yet – why not? We would love to have you “in our corner.” Visit LandAcademy.com for more information on joining or to schedule a call with our team.
If you want an opportunity to attend one of the weekly closed member calls to get a taste of what we’re about, send an email to support@landacademy.com