What do Boots on the Ground Do for Sellers (022)
What do Boots on the Ground Do for Sellers (022)
Transcript:
Steven: Steve and Jill here!
Jill: Hi!
Steven: Welcome to the House Academy Show, entertaining real estate investment talk. I’m Steven Jack Butala
Jill: And I’m Jill DeWit, broadcasting from sunny, Southern California.
Steven: Today, Jill and I talk about what do the boots on the ground actually do for sellers.
Jill: I would like to say, “What don’t the boots on the ground actually do for sellers?”
Jill: Isn’t it kind of amazing what you guys have had to do-
Kristine: Yes!
Jill: … for some of these sellers?”
Kristine: Absolutely, yes.
Steven: If you’re looking for a real, good, solid definition of how we use, or this concept of boots on the ground, listen to the show from yesterday. We really define it in pretty good detail about why real estate investors need… or, should utilize some version of boots on the ground, and represent you as the investor purchasing the house. This show is all about what the boots on the ground do for the seller, to get us to the point where we’ve purchased the house. And there’s a lot of stuff.
Jill: There is. And I’d like to add, if you’re just finding us today, this is Kristine and Ken [Bonn 00:01:04] and they are our boots on the ground for the whole Phoenix MSA.
Steven: Right.
Jill: And, maybe more.
Kristine: That’s coming.
Steven: And the truth is, we just opened this studio, and these guys were out here having fun with us for a couple weeks, and we decided to do this five episodes today for this week, the 4th of July weekend.
Jill: Exactly.
Steven: Or week. I guess it’s going to air next week, by the way.
Jill: Yeah. For the 8th of July week! For the 8th of July week! Yay!
Steven: Before we get into it, let’s take a question, posted by one of our members on the online HouseAcademy.com community. It’s free.
Jill: Andrew asks, “What cities are best to flip houses?”
Steven: So, this is a good question. There’s so much… We do data-driven, data-centric acquisitions, and there’s a lot of large companies… Not a lot. There’s about five really large companies out there, for whatever reason, believe that there’s about eight or ten MSAs that are great to do this in, and it’s all based on statistics, and how fast the properties are moving, and how little they need to do to them, if anything, to resell them.
Steven: I personally think that’s possible and plausible. But the best deals I’ve ever seen, both in land and in houses, are when somebody goes off and it’s some crazy market that they know really well, and purchase and sell property there because they know it well, or their partners know it well. So, what’s the best places to do this? If you want to do it just purely by the book, by price per square foot, Phoenix, Dallas, I think Charlotte’s up there now, Seattle, it’s real easy to do.
Jill: Vegas.
Steven: Yeah, Vegas, for sure, and some of the communities in Los Angeles. But I’ll tell you, the real money is in smaller MSAs that fit the same criteria that you know more about.
Jill: [inaudible 00:03:05] I’ve known what you’re looking for, right?
Steven: Yeah.
Jill: That’s the whole thing with House Academy. That’s what we do, and what we share is how to go into a large area and look at, line up all the zip codes, or however you want to get into it, even subdivisions, pit them against each other, and stuff will rise to the top, and you’ll know.
Jill: So, it really does work almost everywhere.
Steven: The fundamentals are the same. If you have a property that’s priced, when you go to sell it, priced 20% below what it’s actually worth, retail, you’re going to sell it fast. I don’t care if it’s in the Upper Peninsula in Michigan, or in downtown Scottsdale.
Jill: Yeah, it’s funny. I just yesterday had a woman reach out to me online and was asking… because we fund deals for people of all kinds, all over the country. She’s like, “Would you be interested in this apartment complex?” She went into detail about the type of units.
Jill: I’m like, “Hold on. Stop right there.”
Steven: Good.
Jill: I don’t care about that. All I care about is what are the numbers? She’s like, “It’s not your normal thing.”
Jill: And so I said, “Do I normally do apartments? No. But,” I said, “If you can find a deal that’s under priced by this much, you’ve kind of got a guy in your back pocket, who you have a buyer lined up, and all you need is money to close a deal we can get in and out real fast, that’s what we’re looking for.”
Jill: So, at place for all property types, not just houses, and lots of locations.
Steven: Okay. I have a lot to say about this.
Jill: Okay.
Steven: These one off deals, that people do this. I got a golf course deal two months ago.
Jill: That’s true.
Steven: They almost never work. When you send out line to offer campaigns-
Jill: That’s true.
Steven: …and you have a acquisition machine, and a pipeline under you, you’re very used to looking at deals that you’ve generated yourself, you got there first, it’s a great way to do properties.
Steven: But, these opportunistic deals come up all the time-
Jill: True.
Steven: …because of this show. I don’t remember ever buying one.
Jill: No, you’re right. And, [Jay 00:05:00], I want to know, you’re right, because I was pretty much shutting her down. Because [crosstalk 00:05:05].
Steven: Because we talk about this all the time.
Jill: I know, exactly, because the point is, however you found it was probably wrong. You’re doing it probably wrong. Here’s what I look for to kind of help you. Please don’t come to me with these.
Steven: Was it a big building? What was so special to her about this building?
Jill: She didn’t have any money.
Jill: For some reason, she saw something in this, because it’s unique, maybe it’s near her. She wants to get into apartments. She’s just, this is her thing.
Steven: Oh, she wants to get into apartments.
Jill: She wants to get into apartments. And when I said, “I need A, B, C, D, and E,” it’s probably like, “Well, okay, thank you Jill. Nevermind.”
Jill: Which is what I was I was going for. I didn’t want to like, shut her down, but I know she’s not doing it right and I was trying to help her and educate her the right way.
Steven: Okay.
Jill: Yeah. Thank you.
Steven: Today’s topic, what do boots on the ground do for sellers, or in Jill’s case… Jill says, “What do-” [crosstalk 00:05:54]. It’s what they don’t do.
Jill: It’s what they don’t do.
Steven: This is why you’re listening. Go ahead, Jill.
Jill: Well, I guess we can… If we go back to yesterday’s call, we had mentioned that, to back up for a second, the boots on the ground we are indeed the eyes and the ears for our investors there locally within that given area that you’re in. So, that initial engagement that happens with the sellers, it literally comes from us. So, understanding again, the need of where the sellers are coming from and then also at the same time being able to know, okay, this is in the areas that they’re going to need a little bit of extra more help on, or not. Gauging the support for the sellers is something that we absolutely do. So, just to sort of re-cap from yesterday’s call.
Jill: But, to get down to the actual tactics of what exactly happens and how we support sellers. So, not… as I was mentioning yesterday, there’s not one size fits all. So, we take on the call and there’s a seller who has interest in selling their property. That starts the initial, okay, let’s understand the engagements required. We run through the process with them. We’ve had lots of different-
Steven: Let me take two steps back first.
Jill: Yeah. Yeah.
Ken: Sure.
Kristine: Yeah.
Steven: Jill and I, from our central office send out thousands and thousands and thousands of blind offers that are all priced real specifically. There’s a lot of science that goes into it. And, because we have a great relationship with them, they get… that generates, once the sellers open those offers, they either call the number on there, or they email. And, in both cases it goes… because we have a great relationship with these guys, it goes to them.
Jill: Directly.
Steven: Directly. So, that gets the ball started. So-
Kristine: Yeah, [crosstalk 00:07:37]
Jill: All right.
Steven: … from that point-
Jill: Also, say, are all the callers happy and ready to sell?
Kristine: No.
Ken: We wish.
Jill: Yeah.
Kristine: Goodness. You have some good story here about what have people told you.
Jill: Right, so, we’re always excited to get a call, okay. Always excited to answer the call, and you’re really cheerful, and then you have someone that says, “Get my name off your list!” Or, “Never send me the letter!”
Jill: We have the ones that, “Hey, I’m interested in selling my house, but it might be five years out.”
Jill: And then, you have the ones that, “I’m in a time crunch, and oh, by the way, I need to get out within 60 days.”
Jill: So, it’s definitely, yeah.
Ken: [crosstalk 00:08:17]
Jill: Yes. Exactly. [inaudible 00:08:18]
Jill: I’m sure you’ve heard those calls come in, too.
Ken: I have?
Jill: I mean, what do you … the different types of calls that were coming in [crosstalk 00:08:26]
Ken: Yeah, and like, “You really shouldn’t call my wife that name!”
Jill: Yeah!
Ken: Yeah, I think the name of the game is just be cheerful and accommodating and, “We’ll take you off the list,” if it’s that caller.
Jill: Yes.
Ken: Hopefully it’s the other call that we like, which is, “Hey, I got your purchase agreement and I’m interested,” and we set it up from there. State, “When can we come see the house?”
Kristine: Yes.
Jill: Yet. So that kicks off. It’s kind of saying, “Okay. That’s our start button.” So-
Kristine: So, how fast do you do that, because that’s what I tell people, too. We all know time kills deals, especially in these situations, so-
Steven: Yeah.
Jill: Yes.
Kristine: How are you guys like when the call comes, when you’re already looking at your calendar thinking, “I got to be ready to hit these guys tomorrow.” You need a signed purchase agreement and get some photos and, yeah.
Jill: Right, right. Yeah. So, for the callers that are absolutely interested in selling, they’re excited, they want to … The first thing the ask is, “I got your letter. Your offer seems acceptable, but is this really real?”
Kristine: Wow.
Steven: Yeah.
Jill: That’s typically what they ask us. Is this really a real offer?
Kristine: Okay. Cool.
Jill: And so, what’s great is that there was a huge presence through [Rand 00:09:35] Academy and House Academy, and that definitely [inaudible 00:09:40] builds there address.
Ken: Yeah, it bolsters their confidence.
Jill: Right. And their confidence [crosstalk 00:09:46]
Kristine: That’s cool. That’s good.
Jill: So, there’s a brief moment there, you’re going to be having to explain, okay, who we are. And then, their next question is, “Okay, what’s the next steps?”
Ken: Right.
Jill: So then, you have about, I would say there’s a good, probably, typically seven to 10 minutes of where you’re going through the motion of who we are, and then at a very high level, here’s our next steps.
Kristine: Perfect.
Jill: So, I think, as far as if … Do we want to just dive into the next steps? Is that-
Kristine: Yeah. This is great!
Jill: So, we explain to them, “Okay, the next steps is we’ve sent you that offer, but we need to … Now let’s schedule a house visit.”
Jill: And so, there’s times where scheduling a house visit, they actually may have a tenant at the property. So there’s coordination there as an FY, you coordinate with the owner of the property and their tenants, and be able to come visit the house.
Jill: In other cases, and most of the cases what we’ve found is a lot of the houses are vacant. So that is-
Steven: Yeah, I’ve had that some, too.
Jill: Yeah, which those are great!
Kristine: Isn’t that amazing?
Ken: They’re great!
Jill: Yes, it’s a lot easier to manage.
Jill: I want to pause and say, this is one of the things that people think that you can only find these driving for dollars.
Jill: No, you don’t.
Jill: This is a good example. We’re not driving for dollars. We’re uncovering great assets that are empty, ready to go, and just with our direct mail, and that’s so much easier.
Kristine: Yes. It has. Exactly. Explaining the process that starts with, when you schedule a house visit, and then at the same time, if there’s an opportunity where we can also start to pre-plan for a home inspection.
Ken: Right.
Kristine: We do that within … so we’re on the call seven to 10 minutes, and then shortly thereafter, we’re starting to ping our home inspector to come, and start to schedule-
Ken: Right. Make the schedule.
Kristine: Yeah. So yeah, and-
Ken: I think one other critical thing is, when we go and we visit with them, if this is definitely something that we think is viable, is we want to get a signed purchase agreement.
Jill: Yep.
Kristine: Right. Yes.
Steven: I’m so glad you brought that up, because first thing, I’ve had this job that you guys have and I failed at it dismally, by the way, so thank you, but one of the first things I always ask is, “Does that purchase price work for you?” And if the answer’s no, then we can just stop.
Steven: Or, we’ll bring Jill in, maybe, and there may be a little bit of room in there based on the asset value and the current conditions, but I think it’s imperative to say, “Let’s not waste any time.”
Jill: Right.
Steven: And get it signed.
Ken: Yeah.
Kristine: Yes. Yeah. I would say, also, one of the questions that come up is, because we do seek to get the purchase agreement signed at that first visit, one of the questions that comes up is, “Hey, after your house visit and take a look at the property, what if you guys are wanting to offer something less, and now I just signed a purchase agreement. I can’t get out of that purchase agreement.”
Kristine: So, within the purchase agreement, we definitely put some notes, as far as, these are the … I don’t know if you want to call them contingencies. I mean, we say here are some things that we are looking to confirm and validate on our end, [inaudible 00:12:51], or back taxes, because you may not know at that given time you sent the letter.
Kristine: Another thing is the state of the overall property in itself. So, are you going [crosstalk 00:13:00]
Jill: Was there a fire last week?
Kristine: Yes. A fire that just happened?
Ken: Right.
Jill: Very.
Kristine: Right. So there’s some things that’s stated in the purchase agreement that we state up front, that pending X-Y-Z checks off, then we’re good with that offer, but if there is problems, then we’ll just go back to the number and talk through it with them.
Jill: Why do they think that there’s no surpri- Are they ever surprised by this conversation? Are they like, “Well, I get it. I would feel the same way.”
Kristine: No. Typically-
Ken: It depends.
Kristine: It depends. So if there’s another investor calling and saying, “Hey, I want to …” they know the process in that.
Kristine: We’ve had times where it was realtors, who are … They are wanting to sell our property, and they know the process inside and out. There’s others that it’s a, you know, a couple who are early 80s, and the last time they’ve dealt with a sell of their property was 25- 30 years ago.
Jill: [crosstalk 00:13:56] Wow.
Ken: [inaudible 00:13:57].
Kristine: So, they’re totally [inaudible 00:13:57].
Kristine: And again, going back to my motto of, there’s not one size fits all, there really isn’t, and just gauging that during an initial call of what the seller, and what’s required for them.
Jill: That’s great.
Ken: I think most sellers have, well, all sellers have some trigger point. All right? And it’s always different. It could range from, “If you guys could, really, I could use some help clearing out my basement,” to “I have to get cash out of this thing in two weeks!”
Ken: And there’s a lot of different things that trigger, whatever [crosstalk 00:14:32]-
Steven: I think we [inaudible 00:14:32] one recently.
Ken: … where we had we had to get the back taxes paid, because it was going to go into a state of, potentially, judicial foreclosure with county, so [inaudible 00:14:43]-
Kristine: We were hustling.
Ken: … it was a time-sensitive thing.
Kristine: Yeah.
Ken: And that’s what makes this program so unique, this BOG program.
Kristine: Right.
Ken: Because we are small and agile enough to address these custom seller requirements.
Kristine: Right.
Jill: Right. Yeah. Yeah.
Kristine: Yeah.
Ken: So, I guess we can move to once we get a signed seller agreement. Right?
Ken: From that point on, we’re scheduling our home inspection, which we could probably do a show just on. Find the right homes.
Jill: Give us a few good minutes on this, because I’m sure everybody listening would love to know. They think you just go on Yelp and pick a guy, call him, and it’s cheap and easy. Right?
Ken: Yeah, right. Yeah.
Kristine: Yeah.
Ken: Lucky for us, we went through a few and we found a fantastic one that seems to … At this point, you almost [inaudible 00:15:31].
Jill: Yes.
Kristine: I’m surprised that he does.
Ken: [crosstalk 00:15:33] great. He gets out there right away, gets a schedule, and his reports are so thorough, almost too thorough. Right? And we appreciate it, but I think he’s kind of learned our style, and we’ve learned his and so forth, but-
Kristine: Yeah, I would, also, add in finding a good inspector, that one of the values of [inaudible 00:15:50], the one we have right now, is that his prices are fixed.
Ken: Yeah.
Kristine: If your property is a thousand to 2,500 square feet, this is my price. If you have a pool … Having that cost up front, there is no guessing.
Kristine: We had inspectors that the costs were ranging two, to five, to six million dollars more than our inspector now, and those costs would change, it seemed like, on the fly.
Kristine: So again, looking for an inspector, I would look for one that … again, that was [crosstalk 00:16:22]-
Jill: Consistent.
Kristine: Yeah, consistency. And then with reviews, obviously, looking at the reviews.
Ken: What is the average? It’s about, what is he? I think he’s 300.
Kristine: Yeah, about 380, I’d say, 380 to 420. That seems to be the average cost with [inaudible 00:16:36].
Jill: And that’s the full inspection with termite.
Kristine: Yes, with termite. If there’s a pool, I think they usually add about 50- 60 dollars more for a pool, because you’re inspecting the equipment.
Kristine: And then, the time he’s there, it’s I would say, on average for like a 2,500 square foot home, it’s about four hours.
Jill: Okay.
Ken: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Steven: That’s great!
Kristine: So.
Ken: Yeah.
Kristine: Yeah, I [crosstalk 00:16:53] hours.
Jill: And he usually does it just like that night, doesn’t he? [crosstalk 00:16:56] get them fast.
Ken: And he is [crosstalk 00:16:55].
Steven: Yeah.
Kristine: Yes.
Jill: You guys have found such a good guy that I’ve seen when the bill comes through, we’re like, “Hey! It’s [inaudible 00:17:04]! Pay it fast!”
Kristine: Pay it fast. Yeah.
Jill: Because we want to keep him happy.
Ken: Yeah, yeah.
Kristine: Yes.
Ken: And he’s great. He’ll go through super thorough, with her [inaudible 00:17:10] and I’m in, and he pulls us in. He takes us to every critical point that he feels is an area of concern. He’s great.
Kristine: Yep.
Jill: Yeah. Okay, so we’ve gotten a purchase agreement, we’ve scheduled an inspection, we’ve now completed the inspection.
Ken: Yeah.
Kristine: And so, yes.
Jill: You guys have take pictures. I have to say [crosstalk 00:17:30] you were, things that we do is that when you guys first walk in there, you’re walking around, you get on your cellphone just taking pictures and uploading them for us, so we just kind of get eyes on it, because we do not, nor will we ever … for us, back here, see the property.
Ken: This is all building up. What they’re doing is building a case for whether, or not, we’re going to buy the property.
Jill: Right.
Ken: We still don’t know if we’re going to buy the property, yet.
Jill: Right.
Kristine: Yeah. One thing I would note, as far as the pictures. Always ask if you can take pictures in the [crosstalk 00:17:58].
Jill: Oh. I didn’t know that.
Kristine: [crosstalk 00:18:00] again. Yes.
Jill: Well, give me a story. Why? Who? Why? What happened?
Kristine: Well, again, in the vacant houses, it’s great. It’s not a problem.
Jill: If the care.
Kristine: But then, there’s homes that you walk in, and it’s absolutely lived in, and so you get into rooms and there’s things on the ground. They are not shoes should be in the picture.
Jill: We know what you guys did last night.
Kristine: Yeah. Yeah. And so when you go in-
Jill: Well, again, that looked like lingerie.
Kristine: Yes. Yeah, yeah. [crosstalk 00:18:35] have sleep there.
Jill: Wow.
Kristine: And again, [inaudible 00:18:36] There’s some that if they have dishes in the sink, they don’t want you to take pictures. They want a clean home [inaudible 00:18:43] dishes in the sink. So-
Jill: I didn’t know.
Kristine: Yes. So that’s, always ask-
Jill: It’s good advice.
Kristine: [crosstalk 00:18:48] you can take pictures, and all of them have allowed us to take pictures in their property.
Ken: Yeah.
Kristine: So, just maybe not that view, make it this view.
Jill: Right.
Kristine: Right. So, yes. So now, as Steve said, at this point we still haven’t decided this is the house we’re going to purchase. So, we completed the inspection, we’ve got the report, and at the point, the four of us are looking at, okay [crosstalk 00:19:13]
Ken: [crosstalk 00:19:13]
Kristine: Yeah, review. Here are the keys [crosstalk 00:19:15]
Ken: [crosstalk 00:19:15]
Kristine: Right. Here are the key things that we see are probably the most problematic, when it comes to the other side, which is going to be the resale of that property. And we just start to go through that and prioritize if there’s something that’s urgent.
Kristine: One thing I would say is key to learning that we’ve had so far, with regards to the experience of home inspections, is I would say, the investment in, for example, of replacing carpet. I think initially we go in, and we’re like, “Well, we’ll get the carpet cleaned. It’s probably going to be sufficed enough, and then you guys would come in, “Well, if we just get the carpet replaced entirely for [inaudible 00:19:50], or whatever, that’s probably a better bet for the resale side of it.”
Jill: Exactly.
Ken: Yeah.
Jill: And some of them are not going to do any of that at all, because it’s in that condition that we know there’s going to be slip, another investor who’s going to buy it.
Kristine: Right.
Ken: Yeah.
Kristine: Exactly. Yeah.
Ken: Yeah, yeah.
Ken: Again, oh go ahead.
Steven: No, go ahead.
Ken: I was going to say, one other thing, because we have seen this, right? Is things like HOA transfer fees.
Jill: Oh, gosh.
Kristine: Yes.
Ken: There some things-
Jill: Little things you got to-
Ken: … that we got to show-
Jill: And you’re right.
Ken: And so, then we get to the end, and-
Jill: And now we’ve all learned that we ask that-
Ken: Yeah.
Kristine: Yes.
Jill: … and respect that.
Kristine: Yes, and so the checklist of things to do, and questions to get answered up front, I say has been beneficial, and we continue to build on that checklist as we learn.
Jill: Solar panels.
Steven: At this point what really happens in reality is, I call Ken, and I say, should we do this deal, or not. And everything you’ve seen, and a lot of times before, I can give you a couple examples, before it even gets to that point, he calls me and says, “Look man. We should stop right here. This is a mess. There’s army jeep, there’s one case, there’s like military [inaudible 00:20:54] back here. It’s a pretty good indication that we don’t even need to go into this thing. I know it’s priced right. I know it’s got a huge lot. It was in [crosstalk 00:21:01].”
Steven: And he just talked me out of that immediately, because of the neighborhood, not so much [crosstalk 00:21:06].
Ken: Yes. And that’s the thing. I mean, that’s the whole key to this whole thing is boots on ground is you can get there physically, see it, and you know [crosstalk 00:21:15], so-
Steven: Feel it.
Jill: Yeah.
Steven: I really don’t even know if you guys know that we do this, but he’s like, “We should actually do this deal,” or “No, we shouldn’t.”
Steven: And sometimes we disagree. And sometimes there’s other stuff that goes on, so I think there’s sometimes they see stuff, then Jill talks me into doing the deal.
Jill: Yeah.
Steven: We haven’t done a bad deal, yet.
Jill: Mm-mm (negative). No.
Steven: I think we’re actually overly conservative.
Ken: Yeah.
Jill: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Steven: We’ve done a bunch of deals together and when I think back, looking back on it, because now I really realize what you guys are capable of. There’s a few deals that we turned down, I probably could have turned okay.
Jill: True.
Steven: [crosstalk 00:21:48] house-
Jill: I like that. We aired on the side of caution, and now we’re going to, like, “Woo-hoo!”
Kristine: Exactly. Yeah.
Steven: Right. So we got the inspection, Jill and I say, “Hell yes! Let’s do it.” You guys agree. We go to escrow, right?
Kristine: Right. Yes. Yeah, so again, meanwhile well, we’re having this conversation, negotiating, okay are we going to do this, or not. The sellers are pinging both of us. What’s the status of [inaudible 00:22:09]
Kristine: The constant communication is what you’ll find majority of the sellers are going to be looking to, to provide to them, because they’re planning on their end. They’re trying to figure out how, especially the one’s that are living there, how are they going to … The time you want to need to move, they need extra help to come in, family members. So they’re starting to plan on their end-
Ken: And there’s even silly situations. Not silly, but people that … There’s a trust set up. Remember we had one that was a trust set up.
Steven: Yeah.
Ken: Where they got to get signatures from other parties of the family, and people that are in the trust, and so forth. And so, there’s coordination on the seller side, for sure.
Kristine: Yes. So we’re constantly keeping them informed.
Ken: Informing.
Kristine: Yeah, in the loop of what’s going on.
Jill: Will you explain about, then, escrow to your role?
Kristine: Yes.
Jill: What you do then?
Kristine: Yes. Yes. So, that’s another thing is-
Jill: To help the seller.
Kristine: Right. So, establishing [inaudible 00:22:57] for a second, establishing relationships within your local market, specifically your inspectors, specifically with repair people that are going to help you with the house, and then escrow. So we’ve, fortunately, we’ve definitely had our experience of [crosstalk 00:23:14] good experiences and bad experiences.
Kristine: We seem to have found a really good escrow company now to help us through that process. So, at that point, we’ve now said okay, we’ve explained to the seller we’re going to escrow. A lot of times they don’t know what that means, so there’s an element of educating them what that process is going to be about, and informing them that the escrow officer is now going to be contacting you, requesting information from you, and they have a direct interaction and engagement with the seller.
Jill: Do they call you all the time? I imagine, now that I know you … for the sweet, little lady, or couple that haven’t sold a house in 30 years, I would be calling you after every like, “She told me to send my taxes, or my whatever. Do I do that?”
Kristine: Yes. Yes.
Jill: Okay.
Ken: Yeah.
Kristine: And now, when they’re calling me, it’s “Hi Kristine, this is so-and-so. I’m going to put you on speaker phone.”
Jill: Oh. That’s so cute.
Ken: [crosstalk 00:24:09]
Kristine: So my husband can hear, or it could be the opposite. I never [inaudible 00:24:12], so I’m going to put you on speaker phone so my wife can hear.
Jill: You really are holding their hands through the whole thing.
Kristine: Yes. Yes.
Jill: That is so valuable.
Kristine: And I can tell you, with that couple, that particular transaction was definitely one that required, and not to be negative about it. It required the most hand-holding.
Jill: Yeah.
Kristine: And there’s an element of, I got to know them on a personal level, as well, and so it’s just gauging when you have to cross that line, and now you’re talking about their family verses some other folks, where they are not going to have that conversation with you. But that particular one, yes. There was a lot of [crosstalk 00:24:45].
Jill: Wasn’t that where you were for Christmas last year? Just kidding.
Jill: You got invited to the Christmas dinner.
Kristine: Yeah, yeah. Exactly. I think so, yeah.
Kristine: So, I got to know … There was once, I had been working with them for so … Because they were the ones that lived out of state, so finally they’re in Arizona where we’re starting to talk with them, and it was the day that I was going to go meet them.
Kristine: And, when I met them, it was that classic situation where you envision what they actually are going to look like, and you get there, and like, “Oh, my goodness!” I think the husband could barely walk, and so the wife was helping him. So, but it was good. I got to meet them on a more personal note, and it worked out for them.
Jill: That’s what this is about, I really think, at the end of the day that what we [crosstalk 00:25:28]
Steven: [crosstalk 00:25:28]
Kristine: Yes.
Jill: Yes.
Steven: There’s a personal connection.
Jill: And making it easy for them. I tell my whole staff that. You know that’s my goal in all of our transactions and in life is to make this easy.
Kristine: Right. Right. Yes. And I would say, they get to the point where they absolutely fully trust you, so as you say an escrow officer is going to make contact with you, they’re trusting in that you have found a good officer to work with them, and they’re trusting that the person they’re going to work with, they can also trust, as well. So, yeah, building a trust in the communication I say has probably been the most key to our success.
Ken: [crosstalk 00:26:06] crucial. Yeah.
Jill: That’s good. So how does it end? So, it goes through escrow, and then on closing day, do you have any funny stories or anything about-
Kristine: Right. Yeah.
Ken: I think it’s a classic … We think we’re going to close here and there’s one last thing, and this, or that, or whatever, there’s always that anticipation. Right? Are we going to really close on this. Our agent says we’re going to close. But other than that, I don’t think I [crosstalk 00:26:31]-
Steven: On the acquisition side, every deal we’ve done through you guys went really well.
Ken: Pretty good. Yeah.
Steven: It’s closed when it should.
Ken: Yeah.
Steven: Here’s the economics of these deals. These deals at the end, and we’re going to talk about what the BOG is, how they’re involved with the actual, the buyers and smart button.
Steven: The economics is we net between, let’s say, $40,000 and $100,000 on these deals, and we split it. We take 33%, between 33 and 40 percent. They take between 33 and 20 percent, and the financial partner … We’ve got tons of financial backers that come in, that just write the checks. So, we don’t put any money into these deals. They don’t put any money in. They just put sweat equity. They’re a partner in the deal. We’re a partner in the deal, because we put the whole thing together. We’ve got money people, so everybody really wins financially.
Steven: And I like to think the seller wins. Do you put that in your head when you’re like, look, I mean, do they see it that way? Or, do they see it like you guys are taking me for a ride?
Ken: I don’t know. I think most of them, I think initially there’s the trust isn’t there, because let’s face it. There’s a lot of letters that come in [crosstalk 00:27:39] and so, I think, once we get past that … I think really the critical, Kristine mentioned it, is once that escrow officer starts making that call and starts gathering the information from them, then you can see they start to, “Okay. This is really going to happen.”
Jill: Yeah.
Kristine: Yes, so-
Ken: And so, I think they love the whole, “Man! This is going to happen. This is an easy button for me.”
Ken: At least that’s been my, I think for the most part, our experience.
Jill: Yeah.
Kristine: Right.
Ken: They want to be done with it. Like you mentioned, there’s a trigger somewhere, whatever it may be.
Jill: Yep.
Ken: And they’re ready to go.
Kristine: Right. Yeah.
Jill: Perfect.
Ken: All right.
Kristine: I would say, one other thing I was going to add.
Jill: This is good.
Kristine: In the spirit of closing, yeah.
Jill: This is good.
Kristine: You can see all my little tips and tricks here. So, we’re in the actual day we’re closing. We’re physically getting the keys, and there’s times where they physically want to hand you over the keys.
Jill: Aw.
Kristine: And then, that situation that you mentioned-
Jill: It’s like, “Can you come, can you meet me at Denny’s at 2:00?”
Kristine: Yeah. And then we have the ones that are just, you know, “I left it underneath the rock, next to the door,” and so those are easy.
Jill: That’s so cute.
Kristine: I’d say, for us, when I think of it, the goal of the Boots On Grounds is that, even down to at that very last day, we continue to ensure there’s a good experience. That they’ve had a good experience with the whole process. Granted it’s not going to be the case all the time, but that we strive to provide a good experience for them. So, whether it be the extra communication we provided, or anything extra we provided for them, we strive for a good experience.
Jill: That’s good.
Kristine: Yeah.
Ken: Thanks. [inaudible 00:29:08]
Steven: So now we own it. We as partners, all four of us, own a house that we paid probably a couple hundred thousand dollars for, that’s probably worth 300-ish. Some number like that, or 250, or 260, or 270, and none of us have put any money in it.
Jill: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Steven: And I think that’s pretty cool.
Ken: It’s very cool.
Steven: Tomorrow we talk about getting rid of the damn thing.
Steven: Join us the next episode called What the Boots On the Ground Do For the Buyers.
Jill: And, we answer your questions posted on our online community found at HouseAcademy.com. It is free.
Steven: You are not alone [inaudible 00:29:43] ambition.
Steven: So, I think you have to probably have some announcements still, or-
Jill: I do. I do. Happening in like in an hour from now, by the time this is hitting, if you go to LandAcademy.com, check it out, Jack, A-K-A Steve [inaudible 00:30:02], right, will be doing a live Facebook informative thing, talking about Land Academy and House Academy and everything in between.
Steven: You going to give something away like you usually do?
Jill: I don’t know. We haven’t talked about … This is kind of more of a business one. So, thanks, now maybe I have to.
Jill: So, and we’re going to talk about … actually it’s going to be really, seriously, it’s about discussing how to get started flipping land houses, and we’re going to be covering [crosstalk 00:30:27] and doing due diligence.
Steven: Oh, yeah. Okay. It’s all a business thing.
Jill: It really is a business thing, and I’m not just … Yes. Not just, you’re so good.
Jill: Wherever you’re watching and wherever you’re listening, please subscribe and rate us there.
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Steven: Steve and Jill. Information.
Jill: And inspiration.
Steven: To buy undervalued property.
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