GI224: Subject To Investing with Dwan Bent-Twyford

GI224: Subject To Investing with Dwan Bent-Twyford

Dwan Bent-Twyford has personally flipped over 2,000 properties and has taught thousands of people how to become financially free. She is known as being the “Queen of Short Sales” and is an expert on Short Sales & Foreclosures, while also writing three bestselling books.

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Transcript:

Announcer:
Welcome to the Global Investor Podcast, a show that focuses on helping foreign investors enter the lucrative US real estate market. Host Charles Carillo combines decades of real estate investing experience with a professional background in international banking to interview experts in all areas of US real estate investing. Now, here’s your host, Charles Carillo.

Charles:
Welcome to another episode of the Global Investors Podcast; I’m your host Charles Carillo. Today we have Dwan Bent-Twyford. She has personally flipped over 2,000 properties and has taught thousands of people how to become financially free. She is known as being the “Queen of Short Sales” and is an expert on Short Sales & Foreclosures, while also writing three bestselling books. So thank you so much for coming on, Dwan.

Dwan:
Hey Charles. Thank you for having me on, honey. I’m so excited.

Charles:
Yeah, it’s great to, uh, great to touch base with you again. Um, we are on a podcast about a week ago when I was being interviewed, and so this is awesome to have you on my show. And, uh, so a little bit about your background. You have a very interesting background prior to getting involved in real estate, which I think most people do. They come on the show, but you, um, tell us a little bit about your background, both personally and professionally prior to getting involved with real estate investing and coaching.

Dwan:
So, um, I, I basically got into real estate investing in my early thirties, like 31, 32, like, you know, around in there. So in my twenties, I always tell people in my twenties it was the eighties and I think unless you like lived in the eighties, people don’t understand it was a lot of drugs, it was a lot of partying, it was a lot of clubbing. I was living in Fort Lauderdale, it’s like I was like living the high life. However, that gave me no job skills, you know, going forward. And one of my last jobs I had, I worked at Denny’s on third shift, and this is 10 at night till six in the morning. And I got fired from Denny’s. And I was like, I’m looking back at that big sign. I was thinking, who gets fired from Denny’s? Like, seriously, how bad do you have to be?

Dwan:
So I knew I needed to do something else. And I got married, I had a baby when my daughter was eight months old, her dad and I split up really unexpectedly. So I just thought, you know, I gotta figure out a way to work for myself. I gotta raise this child. I have no job skills, I have no college, I have no nothing. I just have to figure it out. And I ran into some people that were investors. They said, we buy houses, we fix ’em up when we sell them. So me with no experience at all, I was like, they buy houses, they pick from this album, them sounds like decorating. I like to decorate. I’m gonna become a decorator. So I legitimately did my first rehab, like no joke for the depths of my soul, I thought I was gonna decorate this house, <laugh>.

Dwan:
And it was a full rehab. It needed everything. I was at Home Depot taking classes. I did all, I did all the stuff. And I made $22,000 in my first deal. And at that time, well anytime, but at that time, time that was life changing. So I was like, oh my gosh, I got $22,000. I’m a single mom. I worked on this house. I’m angry at my ex. So this house was, you know, a lot of physical work and I gotta work out on my anger. And I was like, that’s the best therapy. And I made money. Nice. Awesome. And now my daughter’s 34 years old, so it’s been a minute. <laugh>

Charles:
<laugh>. Uh, so what was the reasoning that you chose real estate? I mean, where you started, uh, it wasn’t like you were pushed into it or someone suggested to you. What was the reasoning where one of those investors you spoke to, uh, got you interested in it? Or was there some other reason that you chose it?

Dwan:
Yeah, it’s funny Charles, because pretty much everyone that you rights talk to, they reach out to me because they’re interested in being a real estate investor. Like they wanna do that. And you know, in like the eighties, my daughter’s born in 88, so this, this may be before your time, we had this thing called a newspaper <laugh>. And we had to look in the classified section of the newspaper and that’s where the jobs were because there were, there was no internet there. I’m, I’m pre pager, there were no pagers. There was one phone line in your house with a record. It was it. And so at that time there were a lot of, uh, ads to meet at banquet rooms and it was a lot of multi-level marketing. Yeah. So I really did, I honestly did not have any clue. I wasn’t looking for invest.

Dwan:
I was looking for something only I could do from home and raise my daughter and not put her in daycare. So I went to all these meetings and all these hotels and I kept seeing some of the same people. So finally I was talking to these guys and they’re like dressed really nice and they got nice cars, like, what do you guys do? Like, you know, it’s South Florida. I’m like, are you, are you drug dealers? Or you know, like, no, we buy houses and we fix ’em up and sell them. And I was like, well, tell me what that is because this I’ve never heard of. This is my first time hearing even the terms. They go, well, we buy ’em, we fix ’em up and then we sell ’em and we buy cars and we fix those up and we sell them. And I was like, well, there’s real estate.

Dwan:
Like, you know, because we just go to the courthouse, like this is legitimately all of my expertise. We go to courthouse, we write down the addresses, we go knock on doors, we tell people that we can, you know, buy their house and fix it up. And so that, with that little bit of knowledge, I thought, that sounds like fun. I could do that. I’m a good decorator, I can talk to people, I can knock on doors. ELA can be in the car with me. I’ll try that. And then after I did the first house and the money was like, to me that was the most amount of money. I mean, I might as well have been a millionaire with $22,000 in the bank. And I was like, well that was with fun and ELA was with me. And so I still wasn’t even, I don’t think fully committed. I thought I’m do another house.

Dwan:
Well, my second house I made $50,000 and I was like, that is it. I am doing this until I’m dead because I now have $70,000 in like 1990 and a minimum wages, I don’t know, four or $5 or something like that. And I have more money in the bank than I’ve ever known of any person in the world to have. Like I’m doing it again. And then, you know, you just keep doing it and next thing you know, write a book. People have you come and speak, you get a podcast and you buy a town <laugh> and it just blows out from there. <laugh>.

Charles:
So tell us about what you, um, you, you know, you scaled to doing 2000 houses and how has your investment strategy changed over those years? And you built out the team, I imagine, to assist you with doing all these flips. And are these in different markets? Are these in a certain number of markets? I mean, how did you grow your flipping business to that scale?

Dwan:
Well, you know, for about the first decade, um, I ended up teaming up with another girl, Sharon, down there in South Florida. And I was like, you know, two people could probably work better together. It’s probably safer for door knocking and things like that. So for that, like that first decade, um, I, we did most of the door knocking. We started a R R E I, a real Estate Investors association. We started a r um, we started doing bus trips and taking people out and like, you know, so like some of these houses were sold, you know, in in bulk because we were doing a lot. But we hired bird dogs in the beginning. And one of the things I learned way back then, I still do this today, I hired people that were retired because a lot

Charles:
Of people, can you explain what a bird, I’m sorry. Can you explain what a bird dog is? I don’t think what

Dwan:
Bird dog is someone that does and does the door knocking and, and the looking for me, and we still did quite a bit, I still, even now, like twice a month, I’ll go down to Denver with one of my kids and I, I like to do it. I go door knocking, see what’s happening in the neighborhoods, meet people, talk to people. Um, I don’t know, I, I still like to do it. I know people that’s weird, but I like to do it <laugh>. So it’s a weird thing. But, uh, so I hired people to do it for me. So, and then I hired someone to go to the courthouse, you know, again, we don’t have anything online. Someone has to go physically to the courthouse, write ’em all down, map ’em all out. And I got a guy that is bird dogging for me. And I found out because I hired all kinds of different people.

Dwan:
Uh, my best bird dogs are people that were retired because they’re retired. They may not have quite enough of a fixed income and a lot of them are just bored and they’re like low, low gray hair. Like who’s gonna say no? So I ended up hiring some, a bunch of seniors and they’d go out door knocking and I’m telling you, these people have got so many deals because like, who’s gonna say no to little gray haired mom or dad or grandma type of a person? You know? And um, so I don’t know. I hired that and then, you know, now you have all the stuff, ads and websites and Facebook and you know, social media and meetup and all of the stuff. But I still do have people that, that door knock for me. And I still think, and what I know, not what I think, what I know is a lot of the homeowners that are in trouble are not necessarily computer savvy. They’re not necessarily on the computer looking for you to pop up in their Facebook ads. In my last three deals, nobody even had a computer in their house. They had their phone and that’s all they had. And had I, and they had a stack of mail this high that had postcards and stuff in it. Yeah. I thought, well, if we had not actually gone to the door, we probably wouldn’t have got to those deals. And those last couple deals altogether, we made almost a hundred grand.

Charles:
Yeah.

Dwan:
I think everyone think like, oh, the automation is the best. But if you’re dealing with a person that’s 50 or above, they don’t necessarily have laptops, desktops, the savviness to even find people out there. And you know, when you, when you deal with homeowners, there’s not that many of them that are like 22 years old and they’re in foreclosure. Right. They’re usually older married kids, you know, fifties, forties, sixties, seventies. Got a guy right now that’s 78 lives all three of his houses. He doesn’t even have <laugh>. He has a phone with the, um, you know, the buttons where you have to hit like a <laugh> b like to, I forget what that’s even called, like the old school texting.

Charles:
Yeah. He has that

Dwan:
<laugh>. Oh

Charles:
Yeah. So it’s great. Yeah, I mean it’s, it’s uh, you’re finding deals doing what other people aren’t and um, you know, going about a different way where you hear the hear these people that are sourcing deals and they’re trying to scale it and they’re doing all these different marketing methods, but really the tried and true way of really just going to people’s houses. ’cause some people might not even know that there’s a solution available for them, which is what I’ve heard before from other people. So it’s like, if you’re going there and using senior citizens is great ’cause who’s gonna slam a door on a senior citizen’s face or be worried about opening it for senior citizens. So that’s great that, that’s something I haven’t heard before. Um, now

Dwan:
Sadly, I am also a senior citizen <laugh>, I’m 64, but I went with like, you know, the cool pink hair thing. So I’m thinking like, they’re probably like, I don’t really know how old she is, but I’ll talk to her. But senior citizens are the best. You get some, yeah, you get two of ’em to team up and go door-knocking all day. They’re great. So our main things is I still have people that door knock. Um, I do mail postcards from time to time. Um, I use uh, Craigslist a lot. It’s really shocking. Like I’m stunned how many phone calls I get off Craigslist and I put a lot of flyers and things out, like at the library and at like, we have, um, the grocery stores up here called Natural Grocers. I don’t know if they’re nationwide. They’re like a Whole Foods. And in the back of every store there’s a big bulletin board and there’s the two bathrooms. So every single one within a hundred miles got one of my flyers on it. And I, we put ’em places where people are at.

Charles:
Yeah.

Dwan:
Interest grocery stores, library schools, bulletin bars. And you would be surprised. It’s shocking how many people call you. Really, it’s shocking because no one does that.

Charles:
Yeah, it’s interesting. Just a few months ago I have a, uh, coaching student for multifamily, but he also has a like, wholesaling business and he got a call and a lead and a deal outta Craigslist and so, yeah. Uh, and he just put up quick ads, he puts them up, whatever it is. And so here, 2023, there are still deals coming through on Craigslist. And so it’s, we

Dwan:
Wholesale 150 unit, uh, multi-unit off someone that called me from Craigslist. They had moved to Puerto Rico, they needed some help. They’re from this area. They put it on Craigslist. I put an ad, they called me and we, we wholesaled a whopping deal.

Charles:
Oh yeah. Nice, nice. So

Dwan:
It’s Craigslist <laugh>.

Charles:
Yeah. It’s still there. It’s still there. People, these old, it’s, yeah, it’s free, it’s easy and um, you know, people are using it but not like they were. So I think it’s something that not like people looking for all types of rental properties. And I purchased properties off Craigslist as well too. Years back when I used to flip houses many years back. Um, I, I bought houses off that too. So there’s, yeah, there’s a lot of stuff. There’s, there’s a lot of deals on there.

Dwan:
We buy a lot of stuff in Iowa and you can just go through Craigslist and, and half the people on there that have for sale or for rent and for lease, half of ’em are foreclosure. Just trying to get rid of it. And the other half just don’t wanna pay commission <laugh>. But my daughter and my son in the LA and my other in the last year have probably got 15 rentals from just going on Craigslist in Iowa and calling people. Yeah,

Charles:
Yeah. Yep. You’ll have people that still put up there and they see what happens and then you can speak directly to them. So, which is, which is really powerful. So, um, so one of those, one of the strategies that you’re using that, uh, I kinda wanna break down. I think we’ve uh, spoken about once or twice on the show before, but is subject to, and uh, can you talk about this investment strategy and kind of how it works and uh, how the process, let, let’s, you know, explain how the process works for you and how you are going about it.

Dwan:
So subject twos are one of my favorite because it’s a way, well, so, so I’ll explain to people in case you don’t know what subject two is. So subject two, basically I find a homeowner and they’re, say they have a house and they’re in distress and um, maybe they don’t have a lot of equity. Maybe it’s not a deal that would be good to sell retail ’cause it needs too much work or I can’t wholesale it ’cause there’s not enough equity. So we’ll do what’s called a subject to, so the people deeded the house to us. So they deeded their house to us. So their name is on the mortgage, their name was on the deeded. Now they deeded the house to me and their house. Their name is still on the mortgage. So we have this conversation to say, Hey, you can teach your house to me.

Dwan:
I’m going to rent it or sell it or lease it or whatever I do with it. And uh, I’ll make all your payments and you, I have an agreement with them basically in five years I’ll get their name off. So these are in the house and a lot of times I’m like, well why would I do that? And I said, well, you’ve been in and outta foreclosure for like three years. Your credit’s a wreck. If I make all your payments on time for the next five years, that’s gonna raise your credit like exponentially. And then I can turn around and put in a, a tenant, a renter, or I do, uh, owner financing where I sell it owner financing. So if someone pays me, I’m the bank and I pay this homeowner’s bank. And so anyway, it’s a really good way just to get properties to build a rental portfolio to bill passive income without having any money outta your pocket or having to get a loan from the bank.

Dwan:
And then the first question people go, oh, about the due on sale clause. But no bank’s ever gonna call the due on sale clause. No bank in the history of the world is gonna call the due on sale clause if the mortgage payments start coming in. So we take the deed. So let’s say I meet you Charles and, and I explain, you know, you’re in trouble and there’s not enough equity for me to wholesale, you can’t really sell at retail, da da da, let’s do a subject to, you’re gonna deeded to me. I’m going to give you whatever, 5,000 bucks and we’re gonna put it into a, a land trust. So it doesn’t really show the title transferred and Charles is gonna put it into a land trust and dwan is the beneficiary. And then I’m gonna sign a bunch of papers, lots of papers, power of attorneys, all kinds of stuff in case they died, like all the documents that you could imagine. And they move off. And I have it now and I move somebody else in. So it’s, I mean we’ve done, I don’t know, 300, maybe 85 subject twos.

Charles:
Wow.

Dwan:
And they’re great. And you don’t need any money.

Charles:
Yeah. With, with that scenario. I, I see if you have a potential person coming in and, uh, the subject two thing or the, um, the do on sale thing doesn’t really bother me. ’cause you’re doing in land trust and stuff like that. But the thing though, or doesn’t worry me,

Dwan:
Everybody ask that question.

Charles:
Yeah, yeah. It’s yeah,

Dwan:
Body.

Charles:
Yeah. My, my attorney tells me he’s like, it’s a, it’s a, it’s a possibility, however, we’ve never had it happen before when they do like quick claim into an L L C or something like this. But, um, so with that being said, the main thing is that finding you, you have a home seller, um, or someone that’s, uh, you know, I can see someone that is, uh, in and out of foreclosure, like you said, that makes a perfect scenario. I would probably make that deal if I was that person with that home because here’s a way of getting my payments paid for five years and then I can actually pay off the bank. I won’t have this hanging over me, uh, you know, right. With what I’m doing and I can move on with my life. However, well, how does this, if I have, I’m making the payments, I just want a higher price for my property, or I’m a little bit behind, instead of making up that difference with the bank to sell it, say I’m moving for a job somewhere. I mean, how does that conversation change? Um, where ’cause they’re not putting the trust in you because if you’re, my credit’s already ruined, you know, uh, it’s not gonna be the, you know, it’s, we’re not going from, you know, great to bad. You know, it’s already kind of terrible. So it’s, if I have really, you know, everything’s going well, the property making payments, and then I have to move, how are you convincing that type of homeowner that hey, you can trust me. And what happens if you don’t make those payments?

Dwan:
You know, I have a perfect scenario. So there was this guy, we had, I think, I think we had an add on Craigslist over in Colorado Springs. So I’m in the Denver area. Colorado Springs is like, I know hour and a half away. It’s Ally, Fort Lauderdale, Miami, like, I know you’re in, in Florida. Um, and this guy called, his name was Michael. And he said, I have this job. They’re transferring me from Colorado to Texas. I have to move in two weeks, but I’m, they’re not paying me to move. They’re reimbursing me after I move. He goes, but the job I have is a high security and it requires me to have perfect credit. And he goes, I can’t afford to make this payment in Colorado Springs, move to Texas and make that payment while this house sells. I don’t have enough time to get it sold.

Dwan:
So I said, well, here’s what we could do. We’ll do a subject two, you’re gonna deed it to me. I promise you I’ll give you my word. I’ll sign whatever you want me to sign. I’ll make all the payments on time and I’m gonna rent it and uh, I’ll keep it, I’ll keep your name on for, I, I think at that point I told him I keep ’em on for like three years. And I said, and then at that time, I’m gonna sell it and I’m gonna make the money and whatever there is there to do and I’ll get your name off the mortgage. And this guy didn’t know him. Even mad like we talked on the phone. I went and met him. I looked at his house, I was like, wow, that’s a beautiful house. Didn’t need nothing. The house was b beautiful, but he had to move and he couldn’t afford to make payments in two places.

Dwan:
Okay. And he’d never heard of a subject two. And I said, you know, I understand it’s risky since your job requires you to have good credit for your security clearance. All I can do is just give you my word. I can, you can Google me, just, you know, I can give you some references. He said, now I’ll do the deal. So he did the house to me. He didn’t even ask for $1. I said, don’t you want any? He goes, I don’t know why 80. I just, I want you to make the payments. He moved. I actually did a, uh, owner and finance on that. So I found another couple that wanted to buy a house but didn’t have quite good enough credit to buy. So they gave me $25,000 down. I gave them a new mortgage, but they’re paying me, I’m paying Michael’s bank, he’s off over here.

Dwan:
I got these people refinanced and stayed within the timeframes that I had said and it was perfect for everybody. So it is, I I just think people have to maybe have some trust or faith. I know they don’t know you, but you know, like, you know, you meet people, you know, and um, you know, someone’s working with me, they can, hey say these are my partners. They’ve been doing it for like 30 years. So it gives people a little bit of extra credibility. But a lot of people do that. They need to move for a job or they’re getting a divorce or something and they’re not, credit’s not decimated, but they don’t want it to be or they can’t afford afford it to be. So that’s where, as an investor, you have to be one of the good guys. You can’t be the investor that just takes all these deeds and rents all of them out for, you know, 500 bucks a month and pockets a bunch of money and everybody loses their house.

Dwan:
Yeah. Equity skimming. I would the equity skim and then people go to jail for that. But investors, people hear and read. So that’s their question. Well what about this, what about that? Or they make payments, what if you don’t make the payments? What’s my recourse? So you just have to, um, just be able to have a conversation and answer all the questions so they feel comfortable to, this is a big step for them to deeded their house away. Because once you’re on the mortgage and not on the deeded, you don’t have any say on anything. I have no ownership anymore.

Charles:
What happens. So

Dwan:
I I, I’ll do a subject two on any house at all that is in good shape and has a set mortgage. I won’t do it with adjustable mortgages, set interest rate and it’s in good enough shape, I can sell it or whatever as it is, I will own and finance those things out all day long.

Charles:
So the one thing I see is that you, you know, you sell with seller financing. So you’re putting that money in the p in your pocket that uh, they’re giving to you for a down payment. You’re giving them another mortgage. How are you incentivizing them to refinance you out, uh, so that you can pay off the other mortgage when they’re, when they’re, you know, when they purchased it. Um, are you giving them like a higher rate than right now? What’s going on? You know what I mean? So that they’re kind of, it’s makes a lot of financial sense for them because obviously if you give ’em a lower interest rate, they’re not gonna refinance you out. Um, they’re, or they’re gonna wait all the way to the end. So how do you, how do you do that? How do you structure that where it’s not like you don’t, I don’t wanna like, you know, overdo it with the people that you’re selling it to, but I also want them to actually refinance me out when they can. How do you do that? You do.

Dwan:
So I put in a, so, so, so some deeds their house. ’cause it’s two specific different things here. One is a subject too. Some deeds their house to me now I can rent it, I can lease it, I can can lease the option to buy. I can owner financing. I can live in it. So, so my exit strategy for that house that someone just gave me, I like to do owner financing, right? So owner financing, I make the interest rate a little as high as I can make it according to all like the Dodd Frank rules. I make it as high as I can make it. I write in the verbiage of the mortgage that they’re going to, uh, work with a credit, uh, counseling company. And in three to five years they’re going to refinance it. And if they don’t then we have to sit down again and we have to do new paperwork.

Dwan:
They have to pay, um, money to do like, you know, closing and redoing documents and, and I will raise the interest <laugh> as I go. So it’s like, listen, you can stay here or you and I, I report all of their on-time payments to the credit bureau. It’s like I’ve reported four years of on-time payments to the credit bureau. Your credit score is now this high. You worked with my guy over here, so now you can refinance it. And I tell him, when you refinance it, you’ll get a lower interest rate. You know, you can refinance 95% of the value. You guys can pull equity out, it’s your house. Nice. You. But, so I don’t let people go till the end of time. ’cause they probably would if you just let them. Yeah,

Charles:
That makes

Dwan:
Sense. It’s changed the language of the mortgage. Now you used to be able to have like an actual balloon payments, but after like that whole 8, 9, 10, 2000 stuff. And the Dodd-Frank doesn’t allow you to do like a balloon per se. But you can have the verbiage in there that you have 36 to 60 months to refinance it or we have to restructure another um, deal.

Charles:
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Charles:
Yeah. So it’s, it’s something where your interest rate is going to readjust so many years down the road. So I didn’t know it was a whole plan that you provided ’em. So you’re providing them the contact for doing credit counseling, you’re providing ’em with lower interest rate to start. And then it’s like, okay, now after you’ve done this you have to follow your steps, do what you say, and if you don’t and you don’t refinance it out, then this interest rate’s gonna readjust a little higher and um, you know, so Okay. That makes, that makes perfect sense. And know

Dwan:
One just real quick then I know we’re like on a timeframe here. Um, one of the things with the people that I sell it to, they sell it to, I’m like, listen, I will literally do anything in my power to help you get into this house. They, you know, they gave me a really good amount of money, 25, 30,000 sale. Like people have a shocking amount of cash, but they just don’t have quite enough to go to the bank. And, and I always tell them like, you know, this is your house, you get to write off everything like a homeowner. Mm-hmm <affirmative> the taxes, the interest rate, you get to write every single thing off. And if you don’t do it, I have this other person. So I tell ’em there’s another person, I have to be held accountable to this guy. So you have to do this and if you don’t do this, I’m gonna just make it really difficult.

Dwan:
So the other thing I tell them is, if for some reason you say I can’t do it dwan or I’ve tried to keep up with the payments, I can’t keep up, call me, I will give you cash for keys. We’ll, part ways I’ll put nothing on your credit. If you have to move out or you can’t do it anymore, you tell me and we will part ways as friends and I’ll pay you to move out and outta uh, the 300 something, three 80 or something deals. I’ve had about five people only and all that time that called and said, do I I really can’t do it. I can’t afford the payment. I thought I could, I was in foreclosure before and I’ll just take the money and I give them like five grand. It’s easier to give ’em five grand to move than them just destroy the house.

Dwan:
Yeah. Or drag me through the foreclosure process and about five times I think probably I’ve, I’ve had to give people, uh, money and they left the place in beautiful condition. But I also stay engaged. I like every couple, you know, twice, couple times a year. Hey wan how you doing? How you doing your payments? Everything good. I hear you haven’t talked to the credit guy for a while. Mm-hmm. So I kind of stay in touch with them. I mean sure. Because I don’t want everyone to go into foreclosure or file bankruptcy on me. ’cause I know how long that can take and I have to make the payments. ’cause I told this guy I would.

Charles:
Yeah, no, I’ve, I’ve found it where yeah, it’s, it’s something where I’ve had to deal with tenants before where it’s like, and um, you know, less, you know, properties that maybe aren’t the nicest and it would be, um, once they get in or they get what they want, then everything else, you know, they wanna renegotiate the deal a little bit and or they’re not following through what they’re saying, like you’re saying with the credit bureau. So it’s really having to keep engagement, having to make sure they’re doing it. It’s, this is not a strictly passive investment after it’s done. You know what I mean? So it’s definitely something where you have to keep in contact with them. And I keep a little

Dwan:
Attached. I know a lot of people don’t, but I know that, I know that if someone says to me like, Hey, you can live here and here’s the deal because they have a mortgage, they have everything, they own the house, you know mm-hmm. <affirmative> and it’s their house. They have a mortgage, they have the whole thing, everything’s filed with the courthouse. Like it’s the same as the Bank of Dewan. But I also know that if you from time to time just say hi, or from time to time you send a gift basket or something, they’re less inclined to wanna just move out in the middle of the night or not make the payments or drag you through foreclosure because they feel obligated that you helped ’em in the beginning. So I, for me personally, and a lot of people just hardcore, they do it, they have servicing companies, they never talk to the people again.

Dwan:
So you are really super hands off. But I just find that, you know, they’re coming to me, these people, they’re coming to me in the first place ’cause they can’t go to a bank. Yeah. So they already had some credit issue and I do run their credit and if it’s like a blip, but they’ve had 20 years of just on nothing’s on time, I’m not gonna do it. If I see good credit, good credit, health issue, couple years of a blip now back on track, I’m like, hey, I will give you a chance until the banks will take you back. So I’m, you know, I’m servicing people that, and I can’t quite go to a bank, but they’re not like deadbeats. Yeah.

Charles:
I gotcha.

Dwan:
You’ve got a decade of bad credit. You ain’t living in one of my house <laugh>.

Charles:
Yeah, well whatever you’re doing, whatever you’re doing is right because you’re only having 1% of your deals come back. So it’s something that, uh, yeah. So, um, one, one thing before we switch off this topic is that, um, we talked about a little bit of sourcing deals. How are you sourcing deals? Because this isn’t your common, um, hey, I have a utility shutoff list and this person’s utilities got cut off so I know that they need something done. You have someone that’s moving, that has on-time payments, as you said before, a beautiful house going for a job. I mean, and then you have someone that maybe is in and out of foreclosure. So you have both realms right. Of spectrum here that you’re kind of working with. How do you, what are some of the best ways you found to uh, to, you know, find these deals?

Dwan:
Find the deals for people? Substitute to me or find the people to sell ’em to? I

Charles:
Think selling deals would probably be a little easier. I’m saying to find the deals that are, because you’re, you know, it’s, it’s not a, you know, you’re not just finding troubled homeowners, right? I mean obviously that’s gonna one route of Yeah. So it’s the person that moved away getting a new job, stuff like that. So they’re not gonna be something that shows up on any list because everything they’ve done is correct. Right. Um, so how are you, how do you best find prospects for acquiring their house in a subject two format? Oh,

Dwan:
A lot of people like that will call me off of like my Craigslist dads like, Hey, we buy houses any shape and condition, cash, whatever, you know. So a lot of them find me because they’re, they don’t know what to do. Um, I also, I do uh, I do mailing, but like I think most people just mail the people that are in foreclosure. I have found that over 30 years of doing mailings, the best thing that works for me personally is I’ll buy a zip code and maybe there’s 5,000 single family homes in that zip code and I mail ’em a postcard. But my postcard is a half a page and it, it doesn’t say anything about I wanna sell. It says, well, my postcard says is, um, are you uh, going through a divorce with a question mark? Did you have an unexpected job transfer question mark, are you facing foreclosure?

Dwan:
Question mark, did you have unexpected death in the family? Question mark, is there an illness in your family? Question mark, we have solutions to all your property problems. Call for a free and confidential phone consultation. And then I just farm neighborhoods. So like twice a year the people will get a postcard and I have gone to people’s houses and go, I got this postcard four months ago, <laugh> and my husband and I were getting ready to split up so I stuck it in my drawers. I could call you after he moved out. So my postcards don’t say anything about, we’re looking to buy a new neighborhood, we’re looking to buy houses, cash, I just listed a house down the street. None of that. It’s all, do you have these problems? And if you do call for a free and confidential phone consultation, no charge, no pressure, no nothing.

Dwan:
And, and people will call and say, Hey, I got this postcard and so-and-so died or my husband or wife has cancer and this and that and what can you do to help us? So I, I I farm, but I think I kind of farm a little different. Yeah. Because I get postcards all the time. I sold the house down the street for this much money. Yeah. Your house is, I’m just like, ugh. And then I get the big bright yellow WP or pink or orange. I buy house as cash. It’s like, no, I just thought it was trash.

Charles:
Yeah, no, that’s, that’s very interesting. Uh, it’s because it’s, you know, the subject two ads. Another kind of tool to your toolbox of what you can do, where it does when a deal comes. Because if there’s not enough equity in the deal, which you’ll see with properties that haven’t been bought in the last few years, um, yeah. If you find, if you have a deal that’s, you know, that did the seller, uh, bought 10 plus years ago, they probably have the equity and you probably can do that, um, you know, a cash deal on that, but it’s sometimes you don’t, so that’s great. Something deal that you’d be thrown away. You’re not. So, um, and

Dwan:
Some of them that we’ve just done, they’ve only had mortgages for like two years. They’ve defaulted like in the first year or two. So there’s no equity. But the house is really nice. It’s like, well I can raise the interest rate, you know, 2% and I can raise the value of the price of the house 10%. So if it’s 200,000 our house, I’ll offer it out for two 20. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So I’ll raise it because in five years it’ll probably be worth two 20. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And then I’ll get a down payment and it’s like, okay, worst case they don’t make the payments. I still have their down payment money, which you know, yeah I spend, but <laugh>, you know, in the beginning I would put it all in the bank. So if I had to default, I could make the payments and not be like freaked out about how I was gonna do that.

Dwan:
Yeah. But after a while you’re like, ah, I’m gonna spend the money. I’m gonna buy something else with it. I’m gonna invest it someplace else. So there’s a, you know, and I did a lot of trial and error on, um, my very first subject too. I didn’t know to have all this stuff in writing. And the first one I ever did, the woman gave me like 20,000 down. She was divorcing her husband. She couldn’t be on any, anything that could be found on the, um, do like a credit search or something. And I was fairly like within two or three years of being an investor, my first subject two deal and she kind of owed what it was worth. And she, this girl gave me a down payment, but I spent it. But then she refinanced a year later and I was like, well shoot her payoff in this payoff or like, it was a deficit and I had to come up with some money and I was like, okay, well I’m not doing that again. I need to raise the value of house a little more, change interest rate, maybe keep some money. You know, once her divorce is over, she’s like, yeah, I’m ready to pay the house off in cash. And I had to come up with like 10 grand so the numbers were too tight.

Charles:
Right. Interesting. Okay.

Dwan:
So, and so that was my first one and I still went back and did it again. I was like, well okay, I see the value. I obviously need a little bit more education on it. And now it’s just like, I’ve got a whole program and package with every single contract, everything you need. So you don’t have that happen to you.

Charles:
Yeah. Edit the strategy just a little bit. That

Dwan:
Debacle <laugh>, my first one was I complete debacle <laugh>.

Charles:
Uh, that’s how it easy is with people with their first deal. It was for me. So, um, so Dewan, what are some common mistakes you see real estate investors make over decades of being an investor and then also coaching them now?

Dwan:
Um, you know what, honestly, and I know this might sound really basic to people, people are chasing too many shiny objects. Oh, you know, they hear me talk and they, oh, I’m gonna buy wan’s program. Then they hear Charles, oh, I’m gonna work with Charles. Then they hear, oh, I’m gonna work over here. And they just keep, they keep like buying or getting on webinars of like 50 different people and then there’s so much information they don’t really know where to start. So I tell people like, listen, even if you don’t work with me, get on a few webinars. Find one person that you really like and start with one person. You cannot take a sliver of everything and make a new wheel. ’cause we’ve already all invented this wheel. So you, so I think that’s one of the biggest is people, or they think they have to learn every single thing before they can talk to their first homeowner. So they get a question or an objection. They’re like, oh, what do I say? I need to know everything. And then they spend so much time learning that I think they, what do they call that? A paralysis of analysis

Charles:
For something that Yeah, analysis paralysis.

Dwan:
Yeah, yeah, yeah. They’re just like, oh, you know, and they, they think they have to learn. I, I, I have people I, I’m coaching this Barry minute and this guy’s like, well if they say this or that, what do I do next? It was like, did anybody say that? No. Have you had the conversation? No. Then we don’t need to talk about it. You go have a conversation and you come back and tell me what they said. <laugh>. So

Charles:
Yeah, no, yeah. But

Dwan:
You know, people do it. They’re like, oh, I’m gonna buy a house. I’m gonna rehab, I’m gonna buy multifamily. I need to learn from 85 people and then pick and choose what I like and try to make it work and it doesn’t work. You end up just spinning. You do a deal here and a deal there and then you’re like, oh, let’s say it’s not that much fun. And they quit. And if they just would’ve focused in on one thing or one person or two people, I feel like everybody would be more successful. You don’t need to be all over the map. You don’t need to know everything to start. You just need to know the first step and then you learn the second step after you do the first step.

Charles:
Yeah. I think the focus is a huge thing. And so many times I’ve spoken to people just in this industry, they’re like, oh, I’m all in on this. And then you’ll speak to them six or eight months later and it’s something else, whether it’s outside of real estate or just another niche within it. And you’re just not gonna make progress if you haven’t, if you haven’t really narrowed down exactly what you’re doing and then go deep into that niche. And obviously down the road, yes you can expand a little bit, but initially when you’re starting you gotta go really thin and deep kind of in, in there and figure out exactly you wanna do.

Dwan:
I think, I mean I talk to people all the time. They go, oh, I bought, you know, this person, that one on tv, this one, this one, this one, this one. I’ve got 10 grand here, five grand there, 20 grand there. I don’t have any money to invest now. It’s like, okay. But with what you have, you have enough money, you have enough invested, you have enough information. I know for a fact to do a deal. Everyone thinks different ways. I dunno what to do. And people are just all over the map. It’s like, oh my god, just tune into someone. If you like me and like cur hair and that, then work with Juan, like Charles’s way, then work with Charles and you can work with a few people. But stop buying. Especially stop buying all the stupid, make a hundred million dollars while you’re sleeping. This will just print checks and mail them to you. It’s like, ugh, that doesn’t work. <laugh>. Yeah, if it worked, every person on the face of the earth would be doing it.

Charles:
Right. For sure. For sure. So as we’re finishing up here, how can our listeners learn more about you and your business? Dwan?

Dwan:
Well, super easy. Um, D wonderful. So I took Dwan and Wonderful. And I made a new word D. Wonderful. So everything is D wonderful and people can go to d wonderful.com and opt in. I have a free ebook. Flip Your Weight to a Fortune. We’re going heavy on the pink and purple. <laugh>. Purple and purple. Wonderful. Do com, wonderful on Instagram, Facebook tastic on TikTok, because you know I’m also fantastic. So I’m tastic. So just hit me up, check me out, watch some of my videos. I have so much free training and so much stuff out there. And if you like it, work with me. If you don’t, that’s okay.

Charles:
Lot. A lot of information on your website, a lot of information on your podcast. So if anybody’s interested in flipping or subject to or anything like that, definitely check out Dwan and I’ll put the her link to her website in the show notes. And I wanna thank you so much for coming on today.

Dwan:
Well, thank you. Bye everybody.

Charles:
Hi guys! It’s Charles from the Global Investors Podcast. I hope you enjoyed the show. If you’re interested in get involved with real estate, but you don’t know where to begin, set up a free 30 minute strategy call with me at schedulecharles.com. That’s schedulecharles.com. Thank you.

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About Dwan Bent-Twyford

Dwan Bent-Twyford, America’s Most Sought-After Real Estate Investor™, started as a broke, single mom who had been fired from Denny’s. She has personally flipped over 2,000 properties and taught thousands of people how to become financially free.

Dwan is affectionately known as the “Queen of Short Sales”® and is considered to be the Nation’s #1 Expert on Short Sales & Foreclosures. She has written three best sellers, “Short Sale Pre-Foreclosure Investing” & “How to Sell a House When It’s Worth Less Than the Mortgage”, her most recent New York Times best seller was written with Steve Forbes…SuccessOnomics.

She is highly sought after and has been featured on Fox and Friends, MSNBC, Naomi’s Good Morning, Colorado and Company, and many other TV, radio, podcasts, and print medias.

Dwan also has a top-rated podcast called…The Most Dwanderful Real Estate Podcast Ever!

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