Ep 366: Killing It In Real Estate Investing with Dwan Bent-Twyford
10/09/23 • 6 min
self-made real estate entrepreneur. Her story is a testament to resilience and determination in the face of life's unexpected turns. Driven by her entrepreneurial spirit, she stumbled into the realm of real estate investing, a decision which proved to be life-changing.
Emerging from humble beginnings, Dwan’s initial pursuits involved handwritten foreclosure lists and property visits. Her first investment was a financially-challenged property in dire need of repair. Despite the hurdles, she took it upon herself to learn the ropes, demonstrating the power of a self-starter attitude.
Her actions led to a profitable sale that exceeded some people's annual income at the time. Dwan's journey didn't stop there, as she continued to grow her real estate empire, refining her strategy and building a team of experts. Tune in to this episode to get a glimpse of Dwan's impressive journey and achievements in real estate investing.
Episode Highlights:
05:26 - I sold the house. I made $22,000. And I was like, "Oh, my gosh, I have $22,000. I am rich." To me, I was rich. I'm looking at my bank statements. I have $22,000. People didn't even make that in a year. Thirty-four years ago, that was a year's salary for people. And I was like, "Oh, I have $22,000. Oh, my God, I'm so rich. I'm going to do it again." And I did another house and would move in. I would fix them up, bring the daughter with me, sell it, move, fix it, sell it. And I did that until she started kindergarten. And by then, I had money, and I understood what fixing up was. Rehabbing. I learned a lot in those first couple of years, but by then, I had enough money and I could have a crew here and have a crew there and work on a house here. And then I just started killing it with real estate.
Master Your Journey
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🎧 It’s also the best way to go deeper with the Journey to Mastery podcast and get early access to what I’m learning, building, and navigating — all through the lens of faith and purpose-driven entrepreneurship.
👣 This is your space to stay connected and aligned as you grow. No noise. No fluff. Just clarity, intention, and inspiration for the road ahead.
Support me as a creator
If the Journey to Mastery podcast has encouraged or equipped you on your entrepreneurial journey, I’d be honored if you’d consider supporting the show so we can keep empowering purpose-driven entrepreneurs like you!
Sponsor
This podcast is brought to you by Podcast Town: Professional Podcast Solutions for B2B Leaders Focused on Growth and Authority.
Contact Dwan Bent-Twyford
self-made real estate entrepreneur. Her story is a testament to resilience and determination in the face of life's unexpected turns. Driven by her entrepreneurial spirit, she stumbled into the realm of real estate investing, a decision which proved to be life-changing.
Emerging from humble beginnings, Dwan’s initial pursuits involved handwritten foreclosure lists and property visits. Her first investment was a financially-challenged property in dire need of repair. Despite the hurdles, she took it upon herself to learn the ropes, demonstrating the power of a self-starter attitude.
Her actions led to a profitable sale that exceeded some people's annual income at the time. Dwan's journey didn't stop there, as she continued to grow her real estate empire, refining her strategy and building a team of experts. Tune in to this episode to get a glimpse of Dwan's impressive journey and achievements in real estate investing.
Episode Highlights:
05:26 - I sold the house. I made $22,000. And I was like, "Oh, my gosh, I have $22,000. I am rich." To me, I was rich. I'm looking at my bank statements. I have $22,000. People didn't even make that in a year. Thirty-four years ago, that was a year's salary for people. And I was like, "Oh, I have $22,000. Oh, my God, I'm so rich. I'm going to do it again." And I did another house and would move in. I would fix them up, bring the daughter with me, sell it, move, fix it, sell it. And I did that until she started kindergarten. And by then, I had money, and I understood what fixing up was. Rehabbing. I learned a lot in those first couple of years, but by then, I had enough money and I could have a crew here and have a crew there and work on a house here. And then I just started killing it with real estate.
Master Your Journey
💬 Want more than just another post in your feed?
Join The Journey Feed — a private stream where I share exclusive insights, behind-the-scenes reflections, spiritual discovery and real-time updates you won’t find on social media.
🎧 It’s also the best way to go deeper with the Journey to Mastery podcast and get early access to what I’m learning, building, and navigating — all through the lens of faith and purpose-driven entrepreneurship.
👣 This is your space to stay connected and aligned as you grow. No noise. No fluff. Just clarity, intention, and inspiration for the road ahead.
Support me as a creator
If the Journey to Mastery podcast has encouraged or equipped you on your entrepreneurial journey, I’d be honored if you’d consider supporting the show so we can keep empowering purpose-driven entrepreneurs like you!
Sponsor
This podcast is brought to you by Podcast Town: Professional Podcast Solutions for B2B Leaders Focused on Growth and Authority.
Contact Dwan Bent-Twyford
Previous Episode
Ep 365: How Real Estate Provides Financial Freedom and Flexibility with Meng Chen
Elzie sits down with Meng Chen, the founder of Portfolio Bay, a software designed to help early real estate investors transition from full-time work to full-time investment pursuit. Meng talks about his experience in real estate investing and how he struggled with managing properties, tenants, and accounting. He created Portfolio Bay to automate his processes and handle payments automatically, leading him to see the potential of creating a business out of it.
They discuss the Lean Startup methodology and how it allows entrepreneurs to approach uncertain outcomes in steps, through building, measuring, and learning. They also dive into the importance of validating assumptions, the role of failure in success, and the idea of using real estate to build a financial runway before jumping into entrepreneurship.
Tune in to listen to Meng share how his transition from a full-time employee to a full-time founder was more about having personal conviction that what he was doing would work and seeing value from his product among users. They also talk about how people without software engineering skills can take steps to build a platform and how Meng manages competition by focusing on solving user problems rather than differentiating from competitors. So, don't miss out on this episode on real estate investing and how Portfolio Bay is changing the game for early real estate investors.
Episode Highlights:
14:07 - I would say I will keep working on it. There might be pivot in terms of solution, in terms of what the product is, but I'll keep working on it until it becomes a successful company. And that's just the value of real estate. It brings in to me like my own personal life. It's not just about investing in real estate and make some money. It's about having the flexibility, like financially, to pursue things that you are more passionate about. And eventually, if you stay long enough and you have the passion to go really hard on it, you're going to be successful. So, that's my belief.
17:15 - I learned everything myself. I didn't come up with the right framework in the very beginning, and the first version of the product isn't perfect. I actually went through multiple iteration and at some point, I had to rewrite everything in three months to make it under a more sustainable and a better framework that can be extended better, easier in the future. So, I definitely made a lot of mistakes like in the web development side.
19:10 - For me, as a founder, I'm no longer just focused on the engineering. Because as a founder, you have to look at every part of the business. Engineering is one part of it, and there's an even bigger part that I don't have the background on it, is the marketing. And the marketing has multiple component, like the SEO. People spend their whole career and be expert just on this one thing, so you can go really, really deep on it. And for me, I have to spend a lot of time learning whenever I'm driving, whenever I'm just not working on Portfolio Bay. I'll always have something just like a podcast or listen to a YouTube video either talking about SEO or talking about marketing in general, because that's my short weakness in all the skill set for doing the Portfolio Bay things.
26:49 - From my point of view, funding is kind of an amplifier on the success and the failure of a startup. So, if your startup is working and are in the right trajectory, having the funding really amplifies your success and it can make your success much bigger and it can make you go faster. But if you don't have the right idea or like there's some flaws in the business model, having the funding, it just amplifies the failure because you're going to spend the money but not getting enough traction to the next stage and get the next round of funding. And that's why startups die.
Master Your Journey
💬 Want more than just another post in your feed?
Join The Journey Feed — a private stream where I share exclusive insights, behind-the-scenes reflections, spiritual discovery and real-time updates you won’t find on social media.
🎧 It’s also the best way to go deeper with the Journey to Mastery podcast and get early access to what I’m learning, building, and navigating — all through the lens of faith and purpose-driven entrepreneurship.
👣 This is your space to stay connected and aligned as you grow. No noise. No fluff. Just clarity, intention, and inspiration for the road ahead.
Support me as a creator
If the Journey ...
Next Episode
Ep 367: From Factory to Fortune with Dwan Bent-Twyford
Dwan Bent-Twyford shares her remarkable journey from factory work to entrepreneurial success. Growing up in Ohio, she graduated high school in 1977 and initially took a factory job. However, Dwan quickly realized she aspired to achieve more in life.
Driven by determination, she delved into the world of business and investing by devouring books on the subjects. With unwavering commitment, she gradually amassed enough funds to hire an accountant, further enhancing her financial knowledge.
Tune in to hear how she got into wholesale real estate and how she later pursued courses on rental property investments. Her ultimate goal was to create a career that allowed her to work from home and raise her daughter without relying on daycare. Listen to hear Dwan's inspiring journey of resilience and entrepreneurial growth.
Episode Highlight:
00:42 - We were encouraged to go get a factory job because all the car factories were there. So, it was like, "Get a factory job, get married, have kids, work for the man, retire when you're 60, and do that." So, my very first job out of high school, I actually got a factory job. And after a week, I thought, "Oh, my God, why would my parents want me to work in a factory? This is the worst thing that's ever happened to me. Who would want this for me?" I remember being mad at my dad like, "Why would you want me to work in a factory? It's so hot. It's so miserable. There's no air conditioning. I got to stand all day. I'm dirty. I'm sweaty. Why would you want that?" So, I was like, "Okay, that's definitely not going to happen for me." People still weren't pushing women to go to college. It was more like get a factory job, get married, have kids, and, it was the 70s. It was still kind of that way.
Master Your Journey
💬 Want more than just another post in your feed?
Join The Journey Feed — a private stream where I share exclusive insights, behind-the-scenes reflections, spiritual discovery and real-time updates you won’t find on social media.
🎧 It’s also the best way to go deeper with the Journey to Mastery podcast and get early access to what I’m learning, building, and navigating — all through the lens of faith and purpose-driven entrepreneurship.
👣 This is your space to stay connected and aligned as you grow. No noise. No fluff. Just clarity, intention, and inspiration for the road ahead.
Support me as a creator
If the Journey to Mastery podcast has encouraged or equipped you on your entrepreneurial journey, I’d be honored if you’d consider supporting the show so we can keep empowering purpose-driven entrepreneurs like you!
Sponsor
This podcast is brought to you by Podcast Town: Professional Podcast Solutions for B2B Leaders Focused on Growth and Authority.
Contact Dwan Bent-Twyford
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