From Rock Bottom to Real Estate Queen with Dwan Bent-Twyford - Episode - 529

And I realized paint, carpet, and new blinds does not decorate a house that needs everything. So I went to Home Depot, I took class after class after class, and I learned how to put in toilets and how to install the cabinets and put up the ceiling fans. And I rehabbed this house probably 90% by myself and made $22,000.

Welcome to Streams to Impact, the show where purpose meets Prosperity. I'm your host, Dr. Allen. I'm a professor of psychology, investor, and the founder of Streams to Impact. After surviving financial ruin, rediscovering, uh, my self-worth through the wisdom of horses and mastering the art of passive investing, I've made it my mission to help high-achieving professionals and entrepreneurs like you to build true financial freedom through secured high-yield alternative investments. This podcast is your invitation to go deeper into your calling, your wealth, and your legacy. So each week, we bring you real conversations with thought leaders, visionaries, and everyday professionals and entrepreneurs who are turning income streams into impact streams. Because wealth isn't the endgame, it's the impact. That we leave while we're here on this wonderful, beautiful blue planet. So let's build a life of meaning, momentum, and massive contribution. So welcome to Streams to Impact. Have you ever hit rock bottom, felt like there was nowhere left to go? What if that low point held the key to something extraordinary? In this episode, we are going to discover how you can turn dead end into gold and do it by putting people before profits. From being a broke single mom fired from Denny's to flipping over 2,000 properties, Dwan Bent Twyford became America's most sought-after real estate investor. She's known as the Queen of Short Sales, and she's a bestselling author, sought-after speaker, and the host of The Most Dwan-derful Real Estate Podcast Ever. Her story proves no matter where you start, greatness is within your reach. So Dwan, welcome, and if you would, tell us about your journey.

Well, thank you for having me. I'm so excited that, that we finally got it worked out today. And for all of you listening, I also had him on my podcast. So check out, we had a super fun interview and I found out you love the Carpenters.

I do indeed. Yes, indeed.

So, you know, my journey, I mean, I think like a lot of people, well, I can't say that. Many of the people that I meet, they're already looking to be a real estate investor. They're coming to live workshops, they're coming to webinars, you know. I, on the other hand, was 30, an 8-month-old baby. I was suddenly going through a really unexpected divorce. And in my entire 20s, let's just say, for those of you that are old enough to remember, it was the '80s. And so I was all in the nightclubs and working at bars and working at restaurants. And, you know, basically I accumulated no job skills. And, um, My daughter was 8 months old. My husband took off. I had no money. I had no car. I had a baby and, and no idea what I was gonna do. And so, you know, I think I licked my wounds for a couple of weeks because of the shock of everything. And then I just made a decision. I said, well, I'm 30 years old. I had planned on being the Girl Scout mom, the cookie mom, the field trip mom. The disco ball mom, you know, all those things. And I thought, well, why should I lose all that because my husband is a, you know, is a jerk? And so that was my defining moment of, do I get a job or do I try to work for myself? And at the time, if you look back at like, um, 1990-ish— Ada was born in '88— uh, the only way to find jobs, and I'm sure you remember this, uh, Dr. Allen is the newspaper and the classified section. There was no internet. Well, there was no internet. It wasn't even invented. There was no internet. There was no— you had to get the classifieds, you had to call, you had to go on job interview. And it was like, you know, and I met some guys and they're like, yeah, we do. We buy houses, we fix them up and we sell them. I thought, well, that sounds like fun because I associated fixing up with decorating. I said, I love to decorate. I have excellent taste. How hard could this be? This would be my dream job. And I found a house and moved into it. And I realized paint, carpet, and new blinds does not decorate a house that needs everything. So I went to Home Depot. I took class after class after class. And I learned how to put in toilets and how to install the cabinets and Put up the ceiling fans, and I rehabbed this house probably 90% by myself and made $22,000. And I was like, holy cow, I'm so rich right now. I've got $22,000. I thought, I'm gonna do it again. So for the first 5 years, I would live in a house, fix it up, move, live in the next one, and just keep doing that until Ada started kindergarten. Because I didn't have the money to like have an apartment here and work over here. I was living on credit cards a lot. And I don't know, it worked out. I did really good. I made a lot of money. I liked it. And I just kept going.

Well, an amazing, amazing story there. So could somebody do that today? Is it possible to replicate what you did?

You know, it is. And I tell people all the time, I think one of the reasons I like to teach, because I tell people, listen, I was fired from Denny's. I had my— I lost my house in foreclosure. I had my car repossessed. I had no money, and I had a baby, and I had no job skills, and I just had a lot of tenacity. And I wasn't about to let this thing, like, set me back and move back to my parents. My parents offered me to move back into my old room in Ohio, and I'm already living in Florida. I was like, live in my old room with the green shag carpet in Ohio, or swim into the ocean and maybe a shark will eat me. And the shark idea actually sounded better. I was like, nah, it's time to put on my big girl pants and I gotta make it happen. So I started from a point of Really necessity. Make something happen or just get a job. And I knew if I got a job, I'd have it till she was 18, and then I'd be 50 and I'd have a job. And, you know, when we're in our 20s and 30s, people that are 50 seem really old. It's like, I'll be an old woman. And, you know, now that I'm 66, I'm like, I was a baby when I was 50. But I still thought that way in my 30s. And so I just, you know, I took the chance. And the nice thing about now, if someone found me and they said, hey, I want to learn how to wholesale, or I want to learn how to rehab, or I want to learn how to do subject-to's, I can teach them. I've got all the programs. I can guide them through so they don't make any mistakes. The learning curve is the hardest part. Like for me, my learning curve was long because I did not understand I was going to be rehabbing. I didn't know how to rehab. There were no real estate groups at that time, so I had no other investors to run ideas by. So I rehabbed for 5 years full-time until the first real estate investing group opened. And then I went there and there were like 80 other investors, and then they were all men. And I was like, do women not do this? I'm already into it, you know. And there was one other woman there, and we talked and we formed a partnership. And Then we started wholesaling. I could just get them, sell them to the rehabbers, and not have to do all that. Oh, this is the most incredible thing I've ever seen. And my first year, I wholesaled 75 houses. And it was my first year wholesaling. I didn't know how to do that either, but I knew how to fill out paperwork and a lot of tenacity, and I just made it happen.

Well, what is it? Do you— where did it come from? You have Tremendous amounts of determination and tenacity. What are the roots of that? Where did that come from in your life?

You know, that came— my dad, he was a good dad. He always told all of his kids, like, you can do anything you want to do. Don't let people hold you down. Even though he encouraged me, because I graduated high school in '77, I was encouraged to marry my high school boyfriend, work at the factory and have babies, which was like— which I did. I think I told you the other day, I worked at a factory for like 6 weeks. I was like, Lord, please tell me this isn't the rest of my life. But he was really good about, you can do anything, women can do anything, you set your mind to it, you're strong, you're strong-willed, you can do it, you can do it, you could do it. And so I never— it actually never occurred to me that I would fail. Because I had always had parents telling me and my sister, you're great, you're amazing, you can do things, you've got guts. And my dad would say, you've got balls, and you know, you can do it, you can do it. And so, um, and I heard that my whole life, and I was good in school, I was good at everything, uh, but then, you know, the factory thing, I was like, not doing that. So I think just my whole life being raised with like high self-esteem And always having that, like, my dad wasn't like, oh, women can't do these things. He was like, you can do anything. And my mom too, like, you could do anything. And my mom used to say things like, don't get married and get stuck in a marriage.

Hmm.

Because she got married back in the '50s, because I was born in '59. And back in that decade, you stayed home, you were the wife, you took care of the house. And my mom never really liked that role. But there was really— in that time, it was like, you know, there's no way out of that. And she was like, don't get stuck, do for yourself, you know, be independent. And I was like, yeah, okay. So I just think all the years of being built up, opposed to kids that are beat down by their parents, um, gave me the courage. Like, well, if I fail, I can get a job, but if I get a job, I won't try.

Mm-hmm.

So I'm like, screw it. I'm gonna take a chance.

Well, uh, let's, let's go back to that, uh, that period, uh, when your husband unexpectedly left. You said you were surprised that it ended. I'm thinking, who isn't surprised, you know, unless you're the initiator? But—

Listen, I was floored. I was just like, yeah, are you kidding me? We have a baby. I mean, it was like I was really surprised.

Yeah. Well, you— so besides determination and resilience, and then you also had mentioned you had met a couple of people who were doing house renovations and flipping. But what was it? Was there somebody? Was there something That when this shock happened to you, how did you, how did you come through that shock period to come out on the other side to really start taking action?

Well, I think for a couple of weeks I cried a lot. I was embarrassed. My parents had said, I don't think you should marry him, he's not the right guy for you. And then I have to go like with my tail tucked and say, Oh yeah, he left. Maybe you were right, but I have a baby now. And, you know, and so I don't know. I mean, obviously I was hurt. I was angry. And I tell people this, I said rehabbing a house, I think, is what saved me because I was really angry. And, and I had that sort of like, F everybody attitude in the whole world. So when I was in there fixing houses and using sledgehammers and tearing down old cabinets and just doing that, that construction, I'm telling you, I always tell people all the time, I'm like, if you are in a bad relationship, the best therapy, rehab an entire house by yourself. Just picture your husband every time you're like sledgehammering something and knocking holes in walls. And, and when I was done, I was like, huh, I feel a lot better. That's I think I took all my anger out on my first house.

Yeah.

And, and it was really beautiful when it was done. And, and then I was like, oh, okay, I made $22 grand, I'm not so mad. And then the next house, I made $50 grand on my second house. I was like, oh, look at me, I'm a rock star, I got a baby, I can do this without my husband. And so I think I worked through my anger by, um, Rehabbing houses.

That's interesting. You know, I think we all need good therapy.

Yeah, that's right. It's like those, those places that they go now where you go in and you rent a space, you like break everything. What are those rooms called? You know what I mean? They have those rooms.

Uh, I don't, I don't know.

You rent a— there's a space and you can sledgehammer and break TVs and you can break all kinds of— and then the axe throwing. They have all those crazy things down. I was like, I did that 30 years ago.

Well, yeah, I think we all need therapy, and you found your therapy in rehabbing. That's an interesting way to get into your therapy. So you were broke, had a baby, no job. How did you get into this house to start the renovation?

I, uh, it's funny looking back at it. So these guys were like, well, we drive up to the courthouse in Palm Beach County and we handwrite all the foreclosures. Then you have those big map books and you have to— I had to learn how to read a map book. And I would go door knocking and talk to the people in foreclosure with the baby on my hip, you know. And I found this woman, Barbara, who was also going through a divorce and she had kids, but they were You know, older, like late teens. And I was like, listen, and I told her, I said, look, I, this is my first deal. I don't 100% know what I'm doing. I know the gist of what we need to do. I think I can help you. And if you'll move out, I'll live there and I'll rehab it while I'm in there and I'll sell it and we'll split it. So we literally did this deal on like a hug and a handshake.

Oh, wow.

All I had in paperwork was a signed Like a listing agreement that she would sell the house to me. And I look back at that, I was like, if one of my students came to me and said, hey, I met a homeowner and we signed a contract that we had a hug and a handshake and we're going to work this deal out, I'd be like, are you out of your mind? You need paperwork. But I didn't know. She didn't know. We were just 2 women. I think that just at that moment needed help. And I felt— and I said, listen, I know I can fix this place up.

Mm-hmm.

'Cause it needed a lot. And I said, I know I can do that. And we'll just, once it's done, we'll split the money. And there was just a lot of faith with her with me and a lot of trust, which was, you know, which is a wonderful thing. But now I would never on the face of this earth would I do a deal like that. So I rehabbed everything by using my Home Depot credit card. I bought all the supplies at Home Depot and I used my other credit card. I literally lived on credit cards for, Probably 6 months. I bought my groceries. I bought, um, my aunt lent me $3,000 to buy a used car. And on my first deal, I paid her right back. So my aunt helped me out with 3 grand. Uh, my parents, neither one actually helped me. They were like, why you got yourself into that mess? I was like, oh, all those years of you could do anything and now I'm in this mess and you don't wanna help me?

Hmm.

So this is very odd. Um, but then after I did 2 or 3 houses, then my dad's like, hey, can we invest? Can we put up the money for the next couple deals and split the profit with us? And I was like, no, no, I did, I did a couple deals with them, but I was like, hey, you wouldn't help me in the beginning.

Yeah.

And yeah, probably because they thought like, you know, girls don't do that. It's not a girl's business. And after I did 5 or 6 houses, next thing you know, everybody I know is throwing money at me like, hey, we'll give you the money to buy the house and you just pay us back interest. And I was like, oh, okay. Money was everywhere all of a sudden. But I just, uh, I, I just used credit cards. I, I mean, I ran up— I was up to like $65,000 worth of credit card debt.

Wow.

Which is a lot back then. Like, it was— I was really shocked when it came down to it how much credit card money I had. But I had really great credit. I had a house, I had a car, I had lots of credit cards, and I used them. And honestly, I lived on credit cards And when the first deal closed, I paid back my aunt. I said, you know, obviously making payments on my credit cards. And because I was taking cash off this one over here to make the payment on that one, and like, it was one of those, like, what do I do? And then I thought, no, I'm just going to keep paying them all back. This is— but after the first deal, I had at least money to buy groceries and gas and tools with my Home Depot card. So pretty much every dollar I made went to pay back the Home Depot card and some other things. Then by the second one, I made 50 grand. I was like, I'm out of debt, look at me! And it was really crazy how God opened all those doors for me that way, because I have never met another person who, who just started off just like I did.

Yeah, well, lots of uncertainty, lots of challenges, certainly a lot of things that you could have been extraordinarily fearful about. You could have just become frozen Uh, with fear. Uh, but you didn't do that.

I was too mad to be frozen. I always have the attitude like, I hate all men and I'm gonna show him. So that's where my mind went instead of like just being froze about it. I mean, after like a few weeks— for a few weeks I just cried, tucked my tail, you know, didn't want to talk to people and, and my daughter. And I was just like, oh, I got it, you know, I just— I, I can't. I just can't like fall off the wagon over here. I've got a kid to take care of by myself. And then I was just more like wanting to prove, I think, to my ex, like, oh, you are a jerk. Watch me. So a lot of it was to show him I was better somehow. I was capable. I could do it on my own. And again, working through the physical worked out a lot of my anger issues. And then a couple years later, I was like, huh, I really like doing this. This is amazing. I'm helping people. I'm raising my daughter. I'm doing my own thing. And then of course, you know, he wanted to get back and I was like, honey, hell will have to freeze over twice for that to ever happen. And no, nothing. There's no going backwards.

Well, that was, that was probably one of the wisest decisions you've ever made.

And I actually thought about it because I thought, well, it'd be nice to have another kid. You know, I don't want, you know, baby daddies. They didn't even use that term back then, but I don't want dads, all these. And I was like, and I thought, you know what, no. Everything I went through, there's no chance. I said, honestly, don't ever call me again. Don't ever ask me again. Don't ever nothing. You can see Ayla when you want to, but we're done. Never ever say this conversation to me again. I will bury you in the backyard of one of my houses. Just kidding, just kidding, just kidding. I thought about it.

Um, yeah, I'm sure you did. Well, uh, in terms of— I mean, you work with investors, you do, you have, uh, in-depth training programs. And in working with them, what do you find to be the biggest mistake that, uh, those just starting out generally make?

You know, That's a good question. I, I find— now I know you do syndications and you do things that are different from me. I take mostly beginners and try to guide them through the steps of, you know, doing the things— rehabbing, getting rentals, wholesaling, you know, flipping houses. And I find one of the biggest things, and I— and it's definitely because of the internet, is people get online and they try to buy all the shiny objects. Buy this program and you can print checks while you're sleeping, and they spend $2,000, and then it doesn't work, and then they buy somebody's coaching program, and then if they want actual coaching, they have to upgrade to this thing and to this thing and to this thing. So I find a lot of new people will, will try the shiny objects, or what I call the drive-bys. The, um, like the people that have HGTV shows will Roll into town, have a giant seminar, get everybody $50 grand in debt, and then they leave. So I call those the drive-bys. And people get sucked into stuff like that. And then they meet me and they're like, oh man, I wish I would've met you first. And it's like, well, I'm literally everywhere. So I find for new people, they try to buy or do something that they think is gonna be super easy. And it's not. So I tell people, listen, you are going to work. You are going to have tough days. You are going to go a month without a paycheck. You are going to have deals fall apart at the closing table. These things are going to happen, but this is part of what the industry is. So if you can overcome all that, you'll be fine.

So—

You know that from being in the business yourself. You know how many deals you're sitting there and the deal falls apart the last second. You're like, oh, Because in your mind, whatever money you were going to get, it's already spent.

Well, yeah. And what you say, I mean, is this industry just cultivates all of these gurus and they're out there and they roll into town or they're on the internet and they have this wonderful story and a big price tag. And most of them just do not have the real capacity to be there to really help beginners through those first processes. And so a lot of people are spending money that's just really essentially going down the drain.

It is. And, you know, you know all those. I mean, I know speakers that have only done 2 deals and they wrote a program and they're really good at marketing. So there's great marketing, this great website, and you're like, oh man. And, and I know for a fact, I see them up on a stage and I'm like, they closed 2 deals and they wrote a program. Nobody's gonna learn from that. So I always tell people like, listen, if you wanna find someone to work with, make sure they've been doing this at least a full decade. Make sure you can go back and see them online, see their programs, see their interviews, see their podcasts. See their website. They haven't been doing it for a decade. You don't have any business working with them because they've not been through the cycles.

Exactly. And cycles are so important. But tell us, Dwan, other than the fact that you've got a lot of experience behind you, how is your program different than the typical program that they offer you everything and deliver nothing?

Yeah, you know, mine actually is very detailed. Everything I write's really detailed. I have training calls that like, hey, like boot camps, like 6-week online boot camps. Do this and this and this, and it's in like the actual chronological order of how things are gonna unfold for you. And most everyone, I'm like, you know, I, when they buy a program, they're in a A little system called the Mighty Network where I have a, like, a space in there and people can ask me questions and I literally answer people's questions directly and I help them out and make sure that they don't get like lost, you know, lost in what's that called? Like, you know, in the cracks, fall through the cracks. And I just— and in all my programs, I have copies of checks, I explain deals, I go through a lot of Things of you know this is this and here's what's good, here's what was bad, and and I just think I don't know. I just I'm just really detailed and I stay on top of them. I text them like hey, I'm heard from you. What are you doing? Da da da. Get back to me. And I make people be accountable, and people can actually work directly with me and my husband, like directly, so they're not getting thrown up on some sales floor out in Utah. Where there's no real coach there. So I think the main reason is that I make myself accessible to people because I know that that's what they need. Like, if I had to do it over again and there was a mentor that would actually mentor me, I would have figured out a way to pay for that instead of having such a long— I'm talking long learning curve.

Yeah.

Because I didn't know how to rehab and I didn't know any other way existed in like 1990. And so I always tell people like, listen, you'll cut your learning curve by 20 years if you work with me. I will help you build generational wealth for your family. And my husband and I are the only 2 people in our families that ever became millionaires. I was like, somebody has to start that food chain that gets generational wealth. So I became a millionaire. He became a millionaire, both in real estate. And then we met, we're like, okay, now we've got someone that can, you know, start the process.

Yeah. Well, um, there's a lot of options when you're, you're starting out. Uh, there's, uh, short sales, flipping houses, fix and flips, uh, wholesaling, uh, becoming landlord, uh, short-term, long-term leases. A whole lot of options out there. So how do you, how do you help people to decide what is the best route for them to go?

So before I answer that, I just want to say, since you mentioned short sales, you probably don't know this, but I actually have the registered trademark on the term short sales as it applies to real estate investing. So back when I started doing them, I stumbled into it. I started doing short sales. I wrote the first ever training program for investors in the entire country, and I copywrote the whole thing. I called an attorney and I trademarked the term short sales as it applies to real estate investing. So I have a little R on short sales. So I am actually the queen of short sales. I started, but, you know, I look at— I always talk to people and I would say, First off, I like to talk to you. I would just say, well, what are you interested in? And people go, oh, I want to buy a fixer-upper. I'm like, okay, so you want to rehab. Do you have skills? Do you have money? Are you going to be a weekend warrior and work all week and rehab all weekend and work all week and rehab all weekend? Because in 3 weeks you're going to be too tired. Do you know what you're doing? And I just ask people what— where they're at. And most people, I end up saying, listen, why don't you wholesale Find a house, get it under contract, sell it to a landlord or a rehabber, get paid. The the difference is called the assignment fee. Get like a twenty thousand dollar assignment fee. I want you bank a little money before you jump into something unless they have experience at that because people like oh I want to buy a fixer upper. It's like okay but do you know how to fix things? No. You're gonna hire it? No. Do you have contractors? No. How are you gonna do it? Well you know we're gonna watch YouTube videos. Oh my God. You should not be rehabbing and fixing up a house. You don't know what you're doing. I'm telling you, it's harder than it looks. So I mostly— and then I always encourage people to buy rentals at some point, wholesale a couple houses and buy a couple rentals and pay cash because you do want passive income because wholesaling or some of those things, it's You know, if you don't work for 6 months, there's no money. So I don't know, I just kind of— every person, I just give them like, ask them 5 or 6 questions to see where their skill level is. And most of them are really super newbies. And for newbies, I'm like, the easiest thing for you is the wholesale. If everything falls apart, all you lose is your $10 deposit. It's still a learning experience. It's the safest thing to start with. I want them to start safe, you know.

Good advice there. So viewers and listeners, you can find Dwan at dwonderful.com. And Dwan is D-W-A-N and Derful is D-E-R-F-U-L. And if you haven't caught on to that, that's a combination of Tuan and wonderful, and what a wonderful woman Tuan is. So that's wonderful.com. And this is of course going to be in our show notes, but I want those who are listening to be able to find her as well. So, Dawn, uh, before we close out here, uh, share with us— imagine that you are Uh, coming to the end of your life and you are laying on your deathbed, what do you look back on as your most joyful and, uh, fulfilling aspect of your life?

Well, that's easy. My kids and my grandkids. Uh-huh. Like, that's more important than anything.

Yeah.

I don't think anyone lays on their deathbed and goes, man, I wish I would have worked more. If I look back at my relationship with God, I would look back at my kids and my grandkids and all the things I was able to do, like traveling, taking them to countries, going on cruises, traveling through all of high school. We had a tutor. We just traveled the world with those kids. And I would look back and say, I, I did good with my kids. I raised them right. I got them good morals. I got them a good work ethic. Got them all in church. I got these little grandbabies and, you know, same kind of thing. So that would be my pride and joy, would be— and my husband's amazing. So those would be the things I'd be most thankful for and happiest about.

Well, Dwann, it's been wonderful. Thank you for being with us. Enlightened Investors, as always, wonderful having you with us. So please take a moment and do me a favor. Like, share, and subscribe. Until next time, live abundantly in all areas of your life, and we'll see you in the next episode.

Thank you.

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