August 20, 2024 • 52 mins
Raise your glasses with us, as we toast to the triumphs and trials in the tapestry of real estate! In a heartfelt conversation with the industrial real estate virtuoso Joel Friedland, we uncover the rugged beauty of tenant-occupied properties and the astonishing resilience of industrial spaces. As we venture through Joel's portfolio of 19 buildings, you'll find a treasure trove of insights into the adaptability of these structures, ranging from postal depots to athletic facilities, and the surprising fact that a mere quarter are owner-occupied.
Life, much like real estate, is a cascade of choices, some monumental, others seemingly minute, yet all impactful. I share my own tale of conservative investing, a path less trodden that shuns high leverage for the steadiness of all-cash deals, drawing from the wisdom carved out of personal hardships and economic downturns. This candid segment peels back the layers of building a legacy in real estate, one that stands firm in the face of market whirlwinds, and the resilience required to rise from the ashes of past mistakes.
Wrapping up this season's first episode, we meander through the revitalization of a small town, reminiscent of the charm found in "Virgin River," where community spirit flourishes and local politics beckon. With each property acquisition, I weave my vision into the fabric of the town, crafting a legacy beyond buildings, fostering festivals, and kindling the flames of local engagement. So, join us on this journey, and be inspired to sow the seeds of transformation in your own corner of the world through mindful investments and decisions that resonate with the heart.
Thanks again for listening. Don't forget to subscribe, share, and leave a FIVE-STAR review.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (00:03):
Hey everybody , welcome to the most Dwanderful
real estate podcast ever.
I am so excited that you arehere with me in season five.
Can you believe it?
It's been five years sincewe've been going, so we have so
much to celebrate and so much tobe thankful for.
I'm so excited for all myguests that are in my season
five.
(00:23):
One of them is the gentlemanI'm interviewing today.
So I just appreciate all of you.
I always ask for likes,subscriptions, reviews, five
stars, of course.
Keep following, keep making theDwanderful universe get bigger
and bigger, because you're justreally doing a great job helping
me build my little slice of thepie.
(00:45):
So this is the mostDwan-der-ful real estate podcast
ever.
My name is Dwan Bent Twyford,I'm your host, I'm America's
most sought after real estateinvestor, and our motto at
Dwan-derful is people beforeprofits.
So if that resonates with you,you're at the right place at the
right time.
I'm your girl and today we haveJoel Friedland, and he is our
(01:07):
wicked smart guy today.
So how are you, Mr Joel?
Joel Friedland (01:12):
I am doing great Friedland.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (01:15):
Friedland, you said Friedman again Did I
say that?
Joel Friedland (01:18):
I said Friedland , yeah no.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (01:22):
Friedland.
I even wrote it down in twosyllables Do you edit or do you?
Joel Friedland (01:28):
No, we're just rolling.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (01:30):
We are rolling Freed Land, I think I
just said that with my southerntwang.
Joel Friedland (01:37):
Okay.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (01:38):
That's what it was F-R-I-E-D-L-A-N-D.
So first I want to welcome youto the show.
I-e-d-l-a-n-d.
Joel Friedland (01:42):
So first.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (01:42):
I want to welcome you to the show.
Joel Friedland (01:44):
Yes.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (01:45):
And we like to start off.
We have a toast, so you havesomething there that you're
drinking.
Oh, what do you have?
Coffee, oh, I have cranberryjuice.
So cheers.
Cheers Guys, grab a drink.
I might throw a little I loveiced coffee.
Joel Friedland (02:07):
I drink iced coffee all day long.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (02:10):
Oh my God, If I drank coffee all day long, I
feel like my heart would stop.
Everybody, just take a stretchand get ready and listen to what
Joel Friedland and I have totalk about.
The topic we're talking abouttoday is really I'm super
excited to talk about it becauseI've never talked about this
(02:30):
topic in my whole entire fiveyears.
So you are the first, like thesuperstar, the first one to open
up this topic.
But what I like to do first ishave you just tell us in a quick
summary who you are, what youdo, how we get a hold of you in
your own words, and then we'llgo back and find out how you
(02:52):
came to be.
Joel Friedland (02:54):
Sure.
So I am an industrial realestate specialist.
That's all I do.
I don't do anything butindustrial manufacturing
buildings and warehousebuildings.
So we have a company that has19 industrial buildings that are
all leased.
We have some great tenants andwe have some not so great
(03:16):
tenants.
We've got the US Postal Service, we have AT&T, we've got
Instacart and then we've got alittle company that started
doing testing for COVID, andwhen COVID became less of a
health crisis over the past yearthey weren't so busy and they
got in financial trouble andthey haven't paid rent in a few
(03:36):
months.
But industrial buildings areoccupied by many kinds of
companies, includinglaboratories that would fall
into the category of industrial.
I started in 1981 working for afamily that owned 84 industrial
buildings?
Dwan Bent-Twyford (03:53):
I'm going to ask you those questions.
Hang on, hang on.
I'm going to ask you thosequestions.
Tell us how we got a hold ofyou.
Joel Friedland (03:58):
Okay, brit Properties B-R-I-T with one T
properties.
com.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (04:09):
Okay, that's easy and you have.
Are you on?
Joel Friedland (04:11):
all the socials.
Instagram, facebook.
Yeah, I have nothing to do withthat.
My people in the office do allthat.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (04:17):
I am just mostly available telephone calls
and emails do you know yourhandles on like instagram and
facebook?
Nope, okay, so y'all j-o-e-lfriedman, f-r-i-e-d, l-a-n-d.
You'll just look him up oryou'll go to britproperties.
com and you will find him I'dhave to call.
Joel Friedland (04:42):
I'd have to call my son to figure out all the
other social media.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (04:46):
It's okay, you know I actually was not too
much on social media, but thelast couple of years I've done
it quite a bit and I'm reallyenjoying it.
I I find myself sitting down atnight and I'm like I'm like
that person looking throughTikTok video and I was like I
just spent two hours, I don'tknow.
I enjoy it, I think it's fun.
Okay, so now two things we'regoing to talk about is that you
(05:12):
talk about trauma mistakes thatpeople have made in their
investing, and also I have notinterviewed anyone that does
industrial real estate.
So I love that because I meananything can be in like a,
anything can be in an industrialbuilding.
Joel Friedland (05:30):
Sure, Including, say, sports uses, sometimes
gymnastics companies.
They need high ceilings, whichis what we have.
So industrial buildings havebadminton we just signed a lease
with a badminton company allkinds of indoor soccer, you name
(05:50):
it, yeah.
And industrial andmanufacturing and distribution
and HVAC companies.
You know anyone who storessomething in a warehouse?
Dwan Bent-Twyford (06:02):
Yeah, because I think a lot of people just
assume if a company is in like abig warehouse, they own the
building.
Joel Friedland (06:11):
But they don't like anybody else.
They do.
Yeah, three quarters of thebuildings are occupied by
tenants.
Only 25% are owned by theoccupants, plus or minus only
25% are owned by the occupants,plus or minus.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (06:27):
Yeah, we just got in our little plethora of
buildings we have over inClinton, iowa.
There was one that has threebuildings that are side-by-side,
attached with a storage unitand a parking lot, so it's five
parcels, but the middle one theyused to work on, I think, like
really big, like semis and bigtrucks like that, because the
ceiling is crazy high and thepeople that left it there's all
(06:50):
these cranes and all thesethings and that come down from
the ceiling, I think, to liftengines and things and they left
all of it there.
They just left everythingthat's like and it's bad.
That means you have to clean itout I know I was like, oh my god
, look at all this.
We need to have an auction here.
There's so much stuff in thisbuilding, but it's like a big,
giant building.
(07:10):
I would have thought the peopleowned it, and maybe they did,
and that's how we ended up withit or rented it.
But everyone's like, oh, I wantto rent your building.
It's like really.
Joel Friedland (07:25):
I would think you just just buy one for
something like that.
But yeah, they can be reallypricey, I imagine.
Well, most companies make moneyin their business and not so
much on the real estate.
The only people that own realestate are wealthy people,
because they have so much moneythat they say, well, rather than
renting, since I have so muchmoney, I'm going to buy my own
building and rent it to myself.
But usually companies don't ownthe building.
It's owned by the family thatowns the business, and then they
(07:45):
make money by owning the realestate.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (07:48):
Yeah, and you said you have post offices and
you have Instacart in one ofyour buildings.
Joel Friedland (07:54):
I do.
The post office and Instacartare in the same building and
they compete for parking.
The biggest problem we have isparking.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (08:02):
Yeah, yeah, I would imagine a couple of the
buildings that we bought are ona main and it's Clinton Isle.
Like everyone that listensknows, I'm rehabbing this whole
town, but a couple of thebuildings are right on the main
drag and there's only like twoparking spaces in front of the
building.
There's none in the back.
It's like so they have to godown, to like the block away
(08:22):
where there's a big parking lot.
But if people are like, oh, Ihave to walk two blocks, it's
too far, it's like, oh my God,just go for the walk, I know.
Joel Friedland (08:31):
That's why I only like to buy buildings where
the parking is right in front.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (08:36):
Yes, yes, I was like, oh, people want mine.
They'll just walk a block, it'sno big deal, but you'd be
surprised how many people arelike it's not a lot of walk.
Joel Friedland (08:49):
It's like, really, the store is as big as
that parking lot.
You're going to walk the wholestore, yeah, especially when
it's raining or snowing, nobodywants to walk.
That ruins your business ifyou're in retail or if you have
an office.
But in industrial they have tocome to work because they make
stuff in the back.
So the employees have to come,and if it's raining or snowing
they have to come in, doesn'tmatter.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (09:06):
They have to come in anyway, that doesn't
matter.
Yeah, that's true, though.
I love that.
So I do want to jump over, ifit's okay, because we talked for
a few minutes right before wegot on today about the trauma
and the mistake thing.
So I would like you to touchmore on that, because I really
have not interviewed anyone forthat.
I've interviewed people thathelp people through, you know,
(09:27):
traumas childhood traumas,divorces and etc.
But I have also seen manypeople myself personally like,
oh, I bought a house, or Irehabbed a house, or I bought a
building, or someone ripped meoff, or it didn't work out, I
lost my life savings and theyjust quit.
They're like I'm done forever.
I say, well, don't be doneforever, like you can recuperate
(09:49):
from that.
Joel Friedland (09:50):
Well, okay.
So sometimes yes and sometimesno.
As far as as making a bad deal,especially in real estate,
there's no such thing assomebody who's done a lot of
deals that's never had a badexperience.
There are bad experiences.
(10:11):
There's risk.
Whenever there's risk,something can go wrong, and
sometimes many things go wrong.
And I've had situations whereit's been devastatingly bad and
I have investors.
I'm a syndicator, so I have acouple hundred investors and
it's very public.
When you have a bad deal andyou've got 50 or a hundred
(10:35):
investors with you who each putin 50 or a hundred thousand
dollars, and now you have totell them what's happening.
You can't hide it.
If it's your own deal or you'vegot one investor, nobody needs
to know, but when you're asyndicator, you have to.
By what are known as thesecurities laws, the SEC, the
(10:56):
Securities and ExchangeCommission, requires that you
disclose your track record topeople who might want to invest.
So I've had a very difficulteight days.
The last eight days for me havebeen maybe the toughest eight
days I've had in five years,because, yep, yep, and I'll tell
(11:19):
you why it's been relivingtrauma and I'll tell you what
happened.
You why it's been relivingtrauma and I'll tell you what
happened.
Over the last 35 years, I boughtabout 100 buildings with
investors, and in 2008, I hadabout 50 buildings with hundreds
of investors, and when theglobal financial crisis started
(11:43):
in 2008 and 2009,.
The global financial crisisstarted in 2008 and 2009,.
Some of our buildings had somefinancial problems, such as
tenants that went out ofbusiness or tenants that moved
out, and then the buildings werevacant and we couldn't fill
them up because nobody wasmoving, because companies were
just, you know, they were whiteknuckling it just to stay in
business.
(12:03):
Nobody was looking to spend themoney to move to a new building
.
So I've had this reallydifficult thing in the back of
my mind, which is I have todisclose my losses to people.
But how do you do it?
So my lawyer, who's inPhiladelphia, said you need to
give people a list of your deals.
(12:26):
So I put together a list andthe list said I've had 99 deals
and I listed how many werereally great deals and how many
were good deals and how manywere okay deals, and then the
last line was how many dealswhere we lost money and, by the
way, lost some or all of ourmoney on a deal which can happen
(12:48):
.
So I had this little chart andthe investors who I know say oh
yeah, it's really terrible thatyou lost money on those deals 10
out of a hundred deals.
We've lost money.
And a very large investor cameto me a couple of weeks ago and
he said I want to see the natureof your losses, I want to see
(13:10):
what you lost money on and why.
And I had to make a decision asto whether I was going to come
up with a list of every dealthat I've ever done and explain
the good ones and the bad ones,and I decided to do it.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (13:24):
Okay.
Joel Friedland (13:25):
So it was tough, man.
It was really hard, because thegood ones are easy Good one 20%
return, Good one 17% return,Good one 14% return.
But then there were the losses.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (13:40):
Yeah, and.
Joel Friedland (13:40):
I had to explain them, because that's the
requirement If somebody says Iwant to see what happened and I
have to explain what went wrong.
And when I went through thosethings back in 08, through the
aftermath of the crisis, whichwas all the way really through
2016, struggling to keepbuildings from going back to a
(14:01):
lender, just really working hard, really working hard to make it
right.
So for the last eight days I'vehad to relive the specifics of
all those terrible things thathappened and I made a list of
what went wrong and then Iexplained it in a paragraph.
(14:22):
Here's what went wrong and it'sreally interesting.
It's like I don't know ifyou're familiar with the 12
steps of recovery for people whohave addictions.
I don't know as well, but I'mfamiliar with it really
(14:47):
admitting that there's a problem, admitting that you're a
gambler or you're an alcoholicor a drug addict or a food
addict or a sex addict orwhatever you might be.
And step one is writing up allthe things that brought you to a
12-step program to try torecover.
And more or less my list was 10things that brought me to the
(15:08):
place that I was, where I feltthat some of my deals were too
risky and, by the way, risksometimes goes with the word bet
or goes with the word gamblestumble.
So I had to sort of admit tomyself that I took more risk
(15:29):
than I might have when I wasyounger and had these deals that
went bad.
And then just I said to my wifeI'm just so depressed, I'm
looking at all these things thathappened 15 years ago.
But it's coming back becauseI'm making the list, you know,
and it was really really hard,it was really difficult, but I
finished it.
I finished it last night, ohyeah, and yeah, yeah, hang on,
(15:52):
it's in my garbage, can hang onone yeah, no, and thank you for
sharing something like apersonal story like that.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (15:59):
I don't think a lot of people like to share
like personal, and I know peoplecertainly don't like to share
their mistakes.
But I'm all about tellingpeople all the things I've done
wrong.
I was like, listen, let me tellyou all the things not to do.
Joel Friedland (16:12):
Yeah, I want to show you this.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (16:13):
I appreciate you coming on the call like
after you just finished thatlist and maybe me and my crowd
we can cheer you up.
Joel Friedland (16:21):
I want to show you something.
This is my list.
I want to show you something.
This is my list and you can seethat the returns on the top
ones 27, 62%, 50.
These were ones where weflipped deals and made a lot of
money, but look at the bottomLoss incurred during the GFC,
the global financial crisis.
So I have pages and pages ofthe good deals and the bad deals
(16:45):
and I had to relive all thesebad deals and it was so hard, it
was so difficult.
Yeah, so you're my first personI'm talking to after coming out
of my deep hole of relivingtrauma, and I'm so glad to see
you because we're talkingpositive things.
But people need to know thatwhen you take a risk, you can
(17:10):
lose, and when you lose, it'sokay to mourn your loss and to
feel bad about it.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (17:17):
It is.
Joel Friedland (17:18):
Yeah.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (17:19):
It is.
I mean it's like with businessor like with marriage.
Like Bill's my third husband,so I didn't expect to get
divorced the first two times.
But when I did, I was like wow,that was so unexpected and not
in my life goal.
I was going to be married onetime and you know.
But now we just had our 22ndanniversary and I told him at
(17:43):
this point, after being my thirdhusband, I said listen, we're
going to go till death.
Do us part and don't make mecall in that clause early,
because I'm not getting divorcedand I got a back on 10 acres.
Man, don't make me call that in.
Joel Friedland (17:58):
But people.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (17:59):
I think don't think that about business,
Because you're right, I've had afew houses that I've lost money
and they were just one of themwas just super embarrassing.
It's like, oh my God, I don'teven know how it was that stupid
to do that.
And then everyone knows andpeople will talk and then you're
like, oh, what do people thinkabout me?
And you're exposed to thepublic and you do have to mourn
that.
I think people don't giveenough credit to like the
(18:23):
grieving process of yeah well.
Joel Friedland (18:27):
so I wrote a little paragraph at the
beginning of the list and itsays of the hundred deals, 10
lost money.
And it says these outcomestaught us painful but valuable
lessons.
And we've responded byconcentrating on solely buying
and managing the kind ofbuildings that did work and
(18:49):
avoiding the ones that hadcommon things that didn't work.
And you know what I do.
That's really different thananybody.
I do all cash deals with nomortgages most of the time,
because the one thing that thedeals had in common that we lost
money on is they had 65 to 80%loan to value debt.
(19:10):
And I would say, of the 4,000syndicators who have portfolios
of over $50 million worth ofproperty I've done a little
study, I think it's 4,000 of usI'm probably the only one who
does no debt deals and a lot ofpeople think I'm an idiot.
They say well, you make moneyin real estate because of the
(19:33):
leverage.
And my answer is you know what?
I learned some lessons from alot of leverage, and my
investors and I are risk averse.
And there are people who arelike that who say you know what?
I'd rather make a 12% returnwith no debt than try to shoot
for a 20% return with debt whereI can incur a loss if things go
(19:55):
bad.
And right now a lot of peopleare struggling because they had
floating rate debt and they'regoing to lose the properties and
give them back to the lender orsell for a loss.
I'm not in that position,luckily, because my deals have
no debt.
But boy, this trauma of lookingat the ones that were trouble.
It's like enough to scare thecrap out of you from doing more
(20:19):
risky deals.
And you can do more risky dealsfor a different reason than I
can.
Industrial buildings are largeand they're freestanding and
they're single tenant andthey're either 100 percent
vacant or 100 percent leased.
So in my world it almost forcesme, if I don't want to take
risk, to avoid the debt, thedebt.
But you can do it, because ifyou buy a half a million dollar
(20:44):
retail building or an apartmentbuilding or a home or whatever,
you can put debt on it, becauseif one deal goes bad, you can
cover the payments.
But on a deal like mine, whereit's a $10 million property, I
can't cover that.
If it goes bad, the bank'sgoing to want to get paid.
Banks have no sense of humor.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (21:06):
No, they do not.
They do not understand and Idon't want to hear your excuses.
Joel Friedland (21:13):
Right.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (21:15):
Go tell that to somebody else.
When's the payment coming in?
Yeah, I really appreciate yousharing your heart with me.
Honestly, you have no idea likehow much that touches me and I
just don't think that.
You know it's true Like there'salways some risk in anything
but in real estate especially.
You know it's true Like there'salways some risk in anything
but in real estate especially.
You know, one of the things Ipreach to my students is I say
(21:36):
buy all your rentals and paycash for them, so if there's
ever a giant crash in the market, you don't lose all your stuff
in one big swoop.
And everybody else that teachesis like leverage your rentals,
use that money to buy more stuffand buy more stuff is like
leverage your rentals, use thatmoney to buy more stuff and buy
more stuff and buy my yeah.
But if you keep buying morestuff and then, like covid, some
giant thing comes along, youlose all of your shit in one big
(21:59):
giant shot.
So I I am that person thatconstantly preaches pay like, if
you want to wholesale,wholesale four or five deals and
then pay cash for a rental orcash for a building, pay cash
for stuff so you don't ever getstuck.
And I've been, and that'sbecause in the beginning I lost
some rentals and it was like, ohwell, that wasn't very smart, I
(22:19):
haven't all myself leveraged upto the eyeballs, and so I
learned, you know, and now it'slike I try not to have debt on
anything.
If I, if I can and if I do,it's very.
But I'm totally againstmortgaging everything to borrow
more money to buy more stuff.
Joel Friedland (22:35):
Yeah, a lot of people do it and a lot of people
have become very rich doing it,because, if you're doing it
during a period of time wheneverything's going up, there
have been years, many years,since 2009, where if you had a
pulse and you bought real estate, you made money.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (22:52):
And you just had to fog the mirror like and
they gave you a loan.
Joel Friedland (22:58):
The mirror test.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (22:59):
I remember the mirror test days.
It's like you could just getanything from anyone, like, oh,
can you breathe?
You fog the mirror, it's yours.
And then people you know, thenthe big crash came and I mean I
know people that lost hundredsof millions, 50, 100 million
dollars, people that owned youknow three or four hundred
rentals and just like gotcompletely wiped out.
It's like, oh, my God, yeah.
Joel Friedland (23:20):
How is that?
Dwan Bent-Twyford (23:20):
possible.
Joel Friedland (23:22):
Yeah, I nearly got wiped out.
I worked tooth and nail after2008 to keep from getting wiped
out and I was able to keep all50 of our buildings.
I kept for multiple years afterthat happened, although I had
to finally give up on a bunch ofthem where we had to sell them
(23:45):
for less than we would havegotten had we waited until now.
They're probably today weredouble what we sold them for in
2012.
And if I just had the stayingpower, we would have done great.
But when you're under pressureto pay the bank and pay the
taxes and the insurance and themaintenance and the utilities,
(24:06):
it makes it very difficult if abunch of bad ones happen all at
once.
And that's what's happening topeople today with these damn
floating rates where they didn'trealize that 4% interest rates
on loans wasn't normal.
It was abnormal.
Normal is probably 7% loans.
(24:27):
You look back on the averagefor the last 50 years, there
were just 11 years, 12 yearswhere it was that low and when I
got in the business, interestrates were 10%.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (24:42):
I remember.
Joel Friedland (24:44):
Yeah.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (24:45):
I remember, I remember when they were high,
and then it's like there werethose little 2% loans there for
a minute it's like, oh, buy asmuch stuff as you can, it's just
so cheap.
So when someone goes throughlike that, like you just wrote
all the things out and you had,you know, 100 properties.
There's 90 good, there's 10 bad, and you worked yourself
through that.
What is the next step thatsomeone would take to be like
(25:08):
okay, I went through it Justlike you showed us, these are my
deals, here's my thing I stillwant to say in business.
I still want to keep movingforward, Like what is your next
step going to be?
Joel Friedland (25:22):
Well, I think it's to get to know yourself
better.
It's, I think it take.
It took for me it tookcounseling and meditation and
doing a lot of group work andjournal writing and talking to
my wife and talking to my familyand friends and talking it
(25:43):
through and figuring out whetherI have the stomach to even go
through any kind of downturn orloss again.
And then, if the answer is yes,what's your line in the sand
that makes you feel safe andthat makes you feel like you're
using good judgment?
I think that good judgment orcommon sense is extremely
uncommon.
(26:03):
Most people do things.
I think it is too.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (26:07):
I think it is too when you say it that way, I
think it is too.
I think it is too when you sayit that way.
Joel Friedland (26:12):
Yeah, most people make decisions based on
their emotions and not so muchon their intellect, and there's
a balance.
It needs to.
I think the most importantdecisions in your life have to
be intellect, and then you cancertainly do a trip to Florida,
like what you and I do, and headdown and say, hey, we're going
(26:32):
to Florida, we're doing it.
That's not a life-changingdecision.
If it was a mistake, it's not.
How can it even be a mistake?
It's usually the right thing.
Small decisions that areimpulsive are okay, but the
thing is, impulsive decisionscan kill you.
They can really kill you.
They literally.
(26:52):
It's a serious thing and it'swhatever decision that somebody
makes that is against theirphysical or mental health and
their future and their family'swell-being it's very easy to
make those decisions on the flyand not realize it.
It's very easy to make thosedecisions on the fly and not
(27:12):
realize it, and so my main focusreally is to make really good
decisions.
And I have a tool you want tohear my tool.
It's the word W-A-I-T, whichstands for why am I talking?
You know, because sometimes wesay things and we say, uh-oh, I
(27:35):
just put my foot in my mouth.
Why did I say that Sometimesthe better part of judgment is
to listen and be quiet?
So W-A-I-T.
Why am I talking?
I use that a lot with my wifeand my kids.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (27:54):
Because once you say something, you can't
unsay it.
No, you can't put thetoothpaste back in the tube,
it's already out there.
That's a good one.
Why am I taught, when you knowpeople like we're supposed to
wait?
And I mean, I feel like for me,like I want to wait, I always
want to pray about things like Iwant to.
You know, I'm I used to bereally insanely destructively
impulsive, and now I'm older andwiser and it's like, okay, now
I'm just gonna wait, I'm gonnajust think about I used to be
(28:16):
really insanely destructivelyimpulsive and now I'm older and
wiser and it's like, okay, nowI'm just going to wait, I'm
going to just think aboutsomething I'm going to, you know
, but like that, like, oh, let'sgo to Florida, yeah, I don't
need to think about that, let'sgo.
How fast can we get to theairport?
But yeah, I think, why am Italking is a really good thing
for people in all the areas ofyour life.
Another way to interpret WAIT.
Joel Friedland (28:38):
I journal a few times a week and I journal on
things that I'm struggling with,that are major decisions where
I want to make a good decision.
Wait also stands for injournaling what am I thinking
Like really thinking through,what is it that exactly I'm
trying to accomplish, and is ithelpful or is it hurtful and am
(29:02):
I hurting somebody or myself oram I going down the wrong path?
So what am I thinking is reallyimportant too.
So the W-A-I-T is reallyimportant too, and that's that.
So the WAIT is a tool for mefor those two avenues.
And getting back to what do youdo to restart after a loss?
I think it's study what you didwrong and try not to do it
(29:24):
again.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (29:26):
Yeah, I mean, that's how you know.
Like I said, bill Bill's mythird husband.
So on the first, I look back onwhat I do wrong.
Well, I married one after Iknew him for three weeks.
I married one after he moved inwith me.
After the second date I waslike, okay, maybe like a little,
a little too quick, maybe thistime I'll just like date and
(29:48):
kind of wait, you know, test thewaters, and then now, 20 years
later, not being so impulsiveended up being a good thing for
me.
In that arena there's a lot ofluck involved in making
decisions too.
Joel Friedland (30:03):
You know circumstances can go against you
.
That aren't your fault.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (30:08):
Yeah.
Joel Friedland (30:09):
You can really get.
You can really get screwed upfrom things that happen,
illnesses that happen to you oryour family members.
You can't.
You can't prevent most of those.
Yeah, I had a partner who was48 and he got a form of blood
cancer and he died at 48.
That's not about anybody'sdecision.
(30:29):
He didn't make any baddecisions.
He just got unlucky.
And sometimes in marriage youget in with someone you know
who's an abuser and you didn'tknow it.
They were charming and you gotmarried and boom, they're
verbally or physically abusiveand you didn't see it coming.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (30:47):
You can't know that that was husband
number one for me.
It's like it didn't take melong to realize like, oh man, I
really really got myself up inthe hot water right now.
I shouldn't have done that.
Joel Friedland (31:03):
So, yeah, my mother's a therapist, my
daughter's a therapist, my dadwas a psychologist, so
psychology and counseling is ourfamily business.
So we talk about those kinds ofthings a lot and impulsive
decision-making is a verydangerous thing.
(31:25):
It can be very fun because youget a dopamine hit.
Oh yeah, you ever watch thatguy, andrew Huberman.
He's got four million peoplewatch his podcast about how
people think he's a professor atStanford.
You know, dopamine makes youfeel good when you're depressed
or feeling crappy.
Doing something impulsivethat's really fun takes away the
(31:47):
crappy feeling.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (31:49):
Yes.
Joel Friedland (31:50):
I have a friend who went out and bought three
new cars.
He's very wealthy.
But I called him the other day.
I said how are you?
Oh, I said I bought a McLarenand I bought an Aston Martin and
I bought a Maserati.
And I said why did you do that?
He says I was in too good of amood.
I said, hmm.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (32:09):
But did they help him feel better or not?
Joel Friedland (32:12):
No, he regrets it.
He's got lots of regret.
He was telling me the other day.
He says I wasn't thinkingclearly, I just felt like I
needed to go buy stuff.
Impulsively, I bought thesethings.
I said, well, the lucky thingis you can sell them.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (32:30):
Yeah you can, you can.
When you drive a car off thelot, it's worth like so much
less the minute it holds intoyour drive.
I mean point A to point B.
A lot of the value goes down.
Joel Friedland (32:42):
He says, by the way?
He says, by the way, I alsobought a Corvette, a 1967
Corvette, and I said, holy crap,so you really bought four cars.
He said yeah.
I said, well, I want to ask yousomething.
Tell me about the Corvette.
He says let me show it to you.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (33:03):
Oh, that feels like a fun decision, that
one.
Joel Friedland (33:07):
Well, he bought four cars in a matter of about
three weeks, impulsively,probably spent $800,000 on them.
That's crazy.
He can afford them, but thosewere impulsive decisions and he
does regret them.
And now his wife's mad at him,His son's mad at him Like Dad,
(33:27):
why'd you do that?
Yeah, he said I was feelingreally good yeah, no, I get it.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (33:35):
I, I do definitely get it.
So I like the fact that you, um, and you know honestly, I, I
mean I, you know, I certainlynot to minimize your feelings
but if you did a hundred dealsand ten percent there was a loss
of money or something you know.
For the for the win, 90% wasgreat, like in life.
If we went at 90% of everythingthat we touch our finger to, I
(33:57):
think that's way high on thechart of success.
Joel Friedland (34:02):
In school.
That's an A-.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (34:05):
Yeah.
Joel Friedland (34:06):
Right, it's not even a B, it's still an A.
So yeah, but you know, you andI agree on this, I'm sure of it
that entrepreneurs are risktakers and sometimes what, what
made them so successful, wasbeing impulsive.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (34:23):
Yes.
Joel Friedland (34:24):
And and sometimes they're afraid to stop
being impulsive because theythink that's, that's the X
factor ingredient that made themso successful, and they're
afraid to become more calm andmore thoughtful.
But that's why entrepreneurswho grow their companies to be
very big hire professionalmanagers, because professional
(34:45):
managers are not impulsive,they're data driven.
And what we make the mistake asentrepreneurs is we keep
building and building andbuilding and building somewhat
impulsively, and a mistake canhappen and it can topple the
entire empire.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (35:00):
Yeah, no, it can.
It, can I do believe that too.
I mean, I feel like for anyoneto own a business or buy a
building or anything like that,to own a business or buy a
building or anything like that,you have to have some level of
risk.
You have to have a higher riskfactor than the person that
works at a factory for 30 yearsand gets their paycheck and
their retirement.
(35:20):
You obviously have to have ahigher risk factor, otherwise we
would all be entrepreneurs.
But I think at some point as anentrepreneur you do have to.
And I think that's about like adecade ago I was kind of like
you know you do have to.
And I think that's about like adecade ago I was kind of like
you know, we've done this, webuilt this, we own all this.
Like does it stop or do youlevel off, or do you you know?
And then we started buyingthose towns in Clinton, Iowa.
(35:42):
It's like let's just work onthis town.
Let's spend like five years andlet's work on this town and
kind of see where do we want togo, you know, next after we do
that.
So we're sort of like we're ina building working, but like
kind of whole, like let's justwork on this town for a while.
We're both 65.
This will be a fun project tillwe're 70, and then we'll see.
Joel Friedland (36:04):
Yeah, and you know what you've got on.
That.
That, I have to say, isprobably the most important
thing, is you've got to laserfocus on one thing.
Yeah, when you laser focus onone thing, you're likely to be
successful, and when you are allover the place, you're likely
not do things that will take youdown because you're all over
(36:28):
the place.
There's an old saying I'drather do one thing 10,000 times
to be successful than do 10,000things once, and you know who
that really applies to Doctors.
If you need surgery, if youhave kidney cancer as an example
, my mother had kidney cancerand two months ago ago she got
(36:49):
diagnosed.
Who do you pick to do thesurgery?
You pick the kidney surgerydoctor that's 40 or older, who's
done about 500 of them a year.
For the last 10 years he's done5,000 kidney surgeries For the
(37:09):
last 10 years he's done 5,000kidney surgeries.
Yeah, that's who you trust.
You trust someone with a laserfocus, and they're going to be
the ones who are sought after.
So, in my case, I do nothingbut industrial, nothing but
Chicago area, because it's agiant industrial market where
money can be made and where thecap rates, by the way, are much
better than on the East Coastand the West Coast, where cap
(37:33):
rates are in the sixes and inChicago it's about eight, which
is really important.
But it's a laser focus, with alaser focus on avoiding debt.
And so you know, I do one thingI'm like the kidney guy, and
you are too by doing Clinton.
One thing I'm like the kidneyguy, and you are too by doing
Clinton your commitment is toClinton to do lots of things in
(37:55):
one place.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (37:55):
That is, that is genius.
Yep, that's it.
So we we have 26 parcelsaltogether and the only reason
we ended up with that is it's a,it's a.
By the way, I'm sorry to hearabout your mom.
Joel Friedland (38:05):
She's okay.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (38:06):
Oh, that's so good.
I and I agree with that.
I just had a hip replacement acouple months ago and in the
first search and I saw kind ofjust like a lot of joints I was
like no, I'm 65 years old.
I need like a full hip.
I want a person that lives anddies on hips.
You know, and that's who I got.
It's like actually the numberguy.
Someone referred me to him andsomehow someone else canceled.
(38:30):
I got a spot earlier and I waslike done and he's like oh yeah,
I do like 250 a year minimum.
I was like that's my guy andhe's like 50.
Joel Friedland (38:41):
That's the way to go.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (38:42):
That's my guy .
He's done.
He can do these in his sleepCause.
I could not agree more.
I don't want the person that'sall over the map like I don't
want anybody testing anything onme.
It's like I'm no testing isgoing on over here.
No, like I'm not taking youdon't want to be.
I'm not taking any shots.
I'm not taking anything.
If you're testing the waters, Iam not your girl, um, but but
(39:04):
in, in our little town it's alittle, it's uh, so it's a
fairly big town itself.
I should know how many peopleare in the town, but I don't
often.
But the downtown is like threeblocks this way and three blocks
it's a little nine block areaand it's right on the river and
they're doing like this cityre-beautification and we're like
, oh, you know, built from there, we go there to visit family.
(39:25):
And I was like this little dayand I used to always keep saying
, like the last decade, thislittle town just needs some love
.
And then we made a phone call.
We saw a building for sale.
Then we bought a building.
It was like, oh, we're in thislittle downtown partnership.
We bought another building,another building.
Then we started to realize,anytime they want to do like a
music festival or they want todo anything, everybody's got to
(39:47):
vote.
You own to do like a musicfestival or you want to do
anything, everybody's got tovote.
You own a building, you get avote.
So we're like, hey, let's dochristmas in july and they go.
We tried that eight years ago.
It didn't work and they votedus down.
I was like, okay, let's do, uh,winter festival.
Oh, we tried that, you know,six years ago.
It didn't work and I keptgetting voted down.
I'm like listen, I watchhallmark movies all day.
(40:08):
I know, when there's Winterfest, februaryfest, marchfest, st
Patrick's Day, like everythingneeds to have an event.
That's how you get people tocome back to an old downtown.
So finally I go to the girlthat's in charge and said listen
, how much property do I need toown to control the vote?
She's like well, you need thismany more, which is how we ended
(40:33):
up with 26.
It's like okay, now when wevote, we're like, yes, we're in
and everyone's like all rightbecause we've have you?
Joel Friedland (40:38):
have you watched the tv show virgin river?
No, I haven't oh, you got towatch it.
It's about a little town, uh,allegedly in california, near
eureka, and it's about a littletown allegedly in California,
near Eureka, and it's about alittle town.
There's a little country,doctor, and there's a little.
There's a bar where everybodygoes to have their drinks and
(41:00):
their meals and it's beautifulscenery.
It's one of my favorite showsthat I've ever seen.
It reminds me of your Clintonstory.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (41:08):
I have to watch it.
Joel Friedland (41:09):
They have lots of festivals where they put
things together and people.
You'll love this.
You'll love if you, if you'vegot cable, go watch Virgin River
.
You'll get addicted.
It is so good.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (41:19):
I will.
That sounds like what we'redoing.
So after a while it's like,okay, well, listen, I can't move
forward at the pace I want tomove at, with everybody voting
me down on stuff all the time.
So we're like we'll just buymore control the vote and then
we'll just take over.
Oh, that's great.
So I was like, well, how highis our risk factor?
Well, it's 26 parcels high atthis point.
(41:40):
So but you just, maybe you'llbecome the mayor.
That's what I always tell Billyou can become the mayor, you
should be the mayor.
I don't want to be the mayor.
I'm like, oh my God, it'd be somuch fun just for like a year
or two.
Just be the mayor.
Joel Friedland (41:53):
Like that'd be so fun.
That's what happened in VirginRiver.
The country doctor is marriedto the mayor.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (41:59):
See, there you go so it's the same thing.
So he could be the mayor andI'm like I don't know, he might
get mad if we're like, hey, youknow what we're gonna run.
Joel Friedland (42:17):
But yeah, don't do that, don't do that I don't
want to.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (42:20):
I don't want to, I don't want to make him mad
, but yeah, I don't think toomuch paperwork, but it'd be fun,
just for like a year, to say,hey, here's my town.
And oh, by the way, I'm themayor.
I said maybe they'll give us akey to the city.
So I don't know, I don't know,okay.
(42:41):
So I want to ask a couple morequestions.
But the next one is what is thebiggest goal that you have
right now in front of you, joel,your biggest goal, and how can
we at DeWonderful, how can wehelp you reach that goal?
Joel Friedland (42:48):
Sure, we like to buy three or four buildings a
year.
Our average building is about$3 or $4 million.
So we because we do all cashdeals primarily we are looking
to find some new investors inaddition to the existing.
We have about 70 regularinvestors who go into almost all
(43:10):
of our deals and I'm hoping toadd a few investors every couple
months that we don't know,because if we do buy four
buildings, let's say for 3million each, it's $12 million,
and if people are putting in 25,50, $100,000, it takes a lot of
people to fill up each one withthe investor group.
(43:31):
So that's the main goal and thesecondary, but maybe even more
important, is we go door-to-door, knocking on doors of
industrial buildings to ask thecompanies inside, to ask the
owners of the companies if theywould consider selling.
That's how we find our deals.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (43:48):
That's a good idea.
Joel Friedland (43:51):
Yeah.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (43:51):
That is a good idea, and you never know.
We did the same thing.
We asked some people like hey,are you interested in selling
that building?
Because that would fit into ourblock?
And they were like, yeah, we'llsell it to you.
It's like oh, sometimes I getstaff, let's do it, let's do it
yeah let's go.
I love it.
Okay, so we're going to switchto complete topics here.
Tell me your favorite band ofall time Earth.
Joel Friedland (44:13):
Wind Fire.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (44:15):
Oh, I like Earth, wind, fire.
That's a good band.
Joel Friedland (44:20):
They're the great group for dancing at
weddings.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (44:24):
Yeah, yes, yeah, we saw them.
Yeah, bill just reminded me wesaw that.
Yeah, bill just reminded me, wesaw them.
We were up in DC and they wereat some amphitheater on the
water and we went and I was like, and I went with some friends
and I was like, oh, we're goingto a concert.
And a few minutes later I waslike, okay, I know all this
music and I didn't realize itwas at Earth Wind, fire.
I was like, oh my God, and itwas so great, yeah, they're
(44:45):
great, and what's your favorite?
food.
Joel Friedland (44:54):
Well, I have this restaurant called Ron of
Japan where they have teppanyaki.
They have these guys who areplaying with the food on the
table.
You know, on the grill right infront of you, fried rice, steak
, chicken lobster Fantastic,chicken lobster fantastic.
Except then when we leave, youknow they have that, they put
the grease on and they put thebig fire up and all that.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (45:17):
You walk out of there and you smell like
grease.
You do.
The next time Bill and I are inChicago, we're going to have
some Japanese food and listen tosome earth, wind and fire.
Joel Friedland (45:25):
There you go.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (45:26):
There you go.
Joel Friedland (45:27):
I'll go with you , I'll go with you.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (45:29):
We'll come with you.
Well, we'll come out.
We'll hang out for a night.
Okay, so one more time, justtell everyone how to get ahold
of you.
Joel Friedland (45:35):
Brit properties B-R-I-T with one T
britpropertiescom.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (45:40):
Okay, britpropertiescom.
Joel Friedman, f-r-i-e-d.
I talk really fastF-R-I-E-D-L-A-N-D.
Freedland.
I have to say I talk so fast.
I did say it right in thebeginning.
I think I just talked so fast.
It's like people were like,what did she say?
And again, guys, you can hit meup at dwonderfulcom.
(46:03):
So I took dwonderful and I madea new word, so dwonderfulcom
and I'm the same on TikTok,instagram, facebook, youtube,
everything at DwanDerful.
And I always ask you to do me afavor.
If you had fun today, if youlearned, if you listened, if you
(46:25):
just, you know, joel reallylike seriously shared his heart
with us today, which was Iappreciate that so much about
you for doing that.
It's really awesome.
Uh, I just want you tosubscribe and, uh, hit the
little button so you arenotified every time a new show
comes up.
If you want to watch this,because I mean, like, look how
fun we are, they need to see usand watch us and not just listen
(46:47):
.
So if you want to watch us, yougo over to my YouTube channel
and it's in the show notesWonderful Real Estate and watch
the show today.
Joel's awesome.
You know, I'm always awesomeand we're fun to watch.
So, some people I alwaysencourage people because you
know, for me personally, joel,I've had to just sit down and
watch people do a podcastbecause I like to watch and I
(47:08):
see people interact and I knowpeople like they listen when
they're running and jogging andthey're doing whatever.
But if I'm exercising or doingthings like that, I do
everything in silence, like Ithink and I get in my head and I
do everything.
I drive in silence and it's andeveryone's like you know, you
drove a four-hour drive and youlisten to me.
Me, I was like no, I just rodein silence.
(47:29):
I'm just I'm thinking.
I got stuff going on.
I'm thinking through it.
That's how I process all mystuff, and so when I want to
watch shows, I like to sit downand watch them on YouTube,
because I like to see the peopleand see the face of the person,
that I'm hearing their voice.
I like to match the face withthe voice.
So if you want to see us, we'reon the YouTube and also on my
(47:51):
website, dwanefulcom.
If you opt in over there, I'vegot a couple free gifts for you,
so stay involved.
Okay, last thing of the day,joel, last thing, I want you to
give us a parting word of wisdom, but only a single word, one
actual word.
Joel Friedland (48:08):
Mentorship.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (48:11):
Okay, mentorship, so that is our word
of the week.
All my wonderful people knowthat is our word of the week.
What does mentorship mean toyou?
Joel Friedland (48:23):
To me, it's people who already know things
who can tell you what they'velearned, so that you can learn
through their experiencevicariously and know a lot of
things from a conversation,rather than going and making
some big mistakes because youdidn't get taught by somebody
(48:49):
who knew better and could havewarned you.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (48:53):
I could not agree more.
I tell every person I meetyou're going to learn everything
in real estate by mentors andmistakes, and mentors are
cheaper, Exactly, and probablybetter for your well-being,
because your mentor will helpyou ideally avoid all the
mistakes that we all make and weall make.
Joel Friedland (49:15):
That's a great way to look at it Exactly.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (49:18):
Yeah, I'm always telling people like
listen, don't reinvent the wheel.
The real estate wheel is there,it's already invented.
There are people doing itsuccessfully.
You don't need to make a newwheel.
Just find someone that you liketheir wheel and you know and
work with them.
That's all like we don't needto reinvent stuff.
It's already there and I feellike you'd be great guiding
(49:38):
people through the industrialside of things.
I want to see some of yourbuildings.
They sound great yeah, they'rereally.
Joel Friedland (49:45):
they're mostly smaller buildings, like between
10,000 square feet and 30,000square feet, and when you walk
inside you have no idea from theoutside what they're doing in
there.
It's fascinating what they'remanufacturing, what they're
assembling.
It's an amazing thing to seewhat they do inside.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (50:04):
Well, when we go to Clinton, if we fly, we
always fly to Chicago, so it'snot out of the way for me to
come and see you for a day andwe'll go out.
Joel Friedland (50:12):
Come see us.
Yeah, we have one buildingthat's one minute from O'Hare
Airport.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (50:17):
Fun, okay.
Well, I'm there, it's a date,I'm with my husband and we'll
hang out.
All right, everyone I know youloved today, next week, same bat
time, same bat channel.
And remember that the truth isin the red letters.
All right, everybody.
(50:38):
Ciao, welcome to season five.
We'll talk to you in a few days.
Hey everybody , welcome to the most Dwanderful
real estate podcast ever.
I am so excited that you arehere with me in season five.
Can you believe it?
It's been five years sincewe've been going, so we have so
much to celebrate and so much tobe thankful for.
I'm so excited for all myguests that are in my season
five.
(00:23):
One of them is the gentlemanI'm interviewing today.
So I just appreciate all of you.
I always ask for likes,subscriptions, reviews, five
stars, of course.
Keep following, keep making theDwanderful universe get bigger
and bigger, because you're justreally doing a great job helping
me build my little slice of thepie.
(00:45):
So this is the mostDwan-der-ful real estate podcast
ever.
My name is Dwan Bent Twyford,I'm your host, I'm America's
most sought after real estateinvestor, and our motto at
Dwan-derful is people beforeprofits.
So if that resonates with you,you're at the right place at the
right time.
I'm your girl and today we haveJoel Friedland, and he is our
(01:07):
wicked smart guy today.
So how are you, Mr Joel?
Joel Friedland (01:12):
I am doing great Friedland.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (01:15):
Friedland, you said Friedman again Did I
say that?
Joel Friedland (01:18):
I said Friedland , yeah no.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (01:22):
Friedland.
I even wrote it down in twosyllables Do you edit or do you?
Joel Friedland (01:28):
No, we're just rolling.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (01:30):
We are rolling Freed Land, I think I
just said that with my southerntwang.
Joel Friedland (01:37):
Okay.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (01:38):
That's what it was F-R-I-E-D-L-A-N-D.
So first I want to welcome youto the show.
I-e-d-l-a-n-d.
Joel Friedland (01:42):
So first.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (01:42):
I want to welcome you to the show.
Joel Friedland (01:44):
Yes.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (01:45):
And we like to start off.
We have a toast, so you havesomething there that you're
drinking.
Oh, what do you have?
Coffee, oh, I have cranberryjuice.
So cheers.
Cheers Guys, grab a drink.
I might throw a little I loveiced coffee.
Joel Friedland (02:07):
I drink iced coffee all day long.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (02:10):
Oh my God, If I drank coffee all day long, I
feel like my heart would stop.
Everybody, just take a stretchand get ready and listen to what
Joel Friedland and I have totalk about.
The topic we're talking abouttoday is really I'm super
excited to talk about it becauseI've never talked about this
(02:30):
topic in my whole entire fiveyears.
So you are the first, like thesuperstar, the first one to open
up this topic.
But what I like to do first ishave you just tell us in a quick
summary who you are, what youdo, how we get a hold of you in
your own words, and then we'llgo back and find out how you
(02:52):
came to be.
Joel Friedland (02:54):
Sure.
So I am an industrial realestate specialist.
That's all I do.
I don't do anything butindustrial manufacturing
buildings and warehousebuildings.
So we have a company that has19 industrial buildings that are
all leased.
We have some great tenants andwe have some not so great
(03:16):
tenants.
We've got the US Postal Service, we have AT&T, we've got
Instacart and then we've got alittle company that started
doing testing for COVID, andwhen COVID became less of a
health crisis over the past yearthey weren't so busy and they
got in financial trouble andthey haven't paid rent in a few
(03:36):
months.
But industrial buildings areoccupied by many kinds of
companies, includinglaboratories that would fall
into the category of industrial.
I started in 1981 working for afamily that owned 84 industrial
buildings?
Dwan Bent-Twyford (03:53):
I'm going to ask you those questions.
Hang on, hang on.
I'm going to ask you thosequestions.
Tell us how we got a hold ofyou.
Joel Friedland (03:58):
Okay, brit Properties B-R-I-T with one T
properties.
com.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (04:09):
Okay, that's easy and you have.
Are you on?
Joel Friedland (04:11):
all the socials.
Instagram, facebook.
Yeah, I have nothing to do withthat.
My people in the office do allthat.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (04:17):
I am just mostly available telephone calls
and emails do you know yourhandles on like instagram and
facebook?
Nope, okay, so y'all j-o-e-lfriedman, f-r-i-e-d, l-a-n-d.
You'll just look him up oryou'll go to britproperties.
com and you will find him I'dhave to call.
Joel Friedland (04:42):
I'd have to call my son to figure out all the
other social media.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (04:46):
It's okay, you know I actually was not too
much on social media, but thelast couple of years I've done
it quite a bit and I'm reallyenjoying it.
I I find myself sitting down atnight and I'm like I'm like
that person looking throughTikTok video and I was like I
just spent two hours, I don'tknow.
I enjoy it, I think it's fun.
Okay, so now two things we'regoing to talk about is that you
(05:12):
talk about trauma mistakes thatpeople have made in their
investing, and also I have notinterviewed anyone that does
industrial real estate.
So I love that because I meananything can be in like a,
anything can be in an industrialbuilding.
Joel Friedland (05:30):
Sure, Including, say, sports uses, sometimes
gymnastics companies.
They need high ceilings, whichis what we have.
So industrial buildings havebadminton we just signed a lease
with a badminton company allkinds of indoor soccer, you name
(05:50):
it, yeah.
And industrial andmanufacturing and distribution
and HVAC companies.
You know anyone who storessomething in a warehouse?
Dwan Bent-Twyford (06:02):
Yeah, because I think a lot of people just
assume if a company is in like abig warehouse, they own the
building.
Joel Friedland (06:11):
But they don't like anybody else.
They do.
Yeah, three quarters of thebuildings are occupied by
tenants.
Only 25% are owned by theoccupants, plus or minus only
25% are owned by the occupants,plus or minus.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (06:27):
Yeah, we just got in our little plethora of
buildings we have over inClinton, iowa.
There was one that has threebuildings that are side-by-side,
attached with a storage unitand a parking lot, so it's five
parcels, but the middle one theyused to work on, I think, like
really big, like semis and bigtrucks like that, because the
ceiling is crazy high and thepeople that left it there's all
(06:50):
these cranes and all thesethings and that come down from
the ceiling, I think, to liftengines and things and they left
all of it there.
They just left everythingthat's like and it's bad.
That means you have to clean itout I know I was like, oh my god
, look at all this.
We need to have an auction here.
There's so much stuff in thisbuilding, but it's like a big,
giant building.
(07:10):
I would have thought the peopleowned it, and maybe they did,
and that's how we ended up withit or rented it.
But everyone's like, oh, I wantto rent your building.
It's like really.
Joel Friedland (07:25):
I would think you just just buy one for
something like that.
But yeah, they can be reallypricey, I imagine.
Well, most companies make moneyin their business and not so
much on the real estate.
The only people that own realestate are wealthy people,
because they have so much moneythat they say, well, rather than
renting, since I have so muchmoney, I'm going to buy my own
building and rent it to myself.
But usually companies don't ownthe building.
It's owned by the family thatowns the business, and then they
(07:45):
make money by owning the realestate.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (07:48):
Yeah, and you said you have post offices and
you have Instacart in one ofyour buildings.
Joel Friedland (07:54):
I do.
The post office and Instacartare in the same building and
they compete for parking.
The biggest problem we have isparking.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (08:02):
Yeah, yeah, I would imagine a couple of the
buildings that we bought are ona main and it's Clinton Isle.
Like everyone that listensknows, I'm rehabbing this whole
town, but a couple of thebuildings are right on the main
drag and there's only like twoparking spaces in front of the
building.
There's none in the back.
It's like so they have to godown, to like the block away
(08:22):
where there's a big parking lot.
But if people are like, oh, Ihave to walk two blocks, it's
too far, it's like, oh my God,just go for the walk, I know.
Joel Friedland (08:31):
That's why I only like to buy buildings where
the parking is right in front.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (08:36):
Yes, yes, I was like, oh, people want mine.
They'll just walk a block, it'sno big deal, but you'd be
surprised how many people arelike it's not a lot of walk.
Joel Friedland (08:49):
It's like, really, the store is as big as
that parking lot.
You're going to walk the wholestore, yeah, especially when
it's raining or snowing, nobodywants to walk.
That ruins your business ifyou're in retail or if you have
an office.
But in industrial they have tocome to work because they make
stuff in the back.
So the employees have to come,and if it's raining or snowing
they have to come in, doesn'tmatter.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (09:06):
They have to come in anyway, that doesn't
matter.
Yeah, that's true, though.
I love that.
So I do want to jump over, ifit's okay, because we talked for
a few minutes right before wegot on today about the trauma
and the mistake thing.
So I would like you to touchmore on that, because I really
have not interviewed anyone forthat.
I've interviewed people thathelp people through, you know,
(09:27):
traumas childhood traumas,divorces and etc.
But I have also seen manypeople myself personally like,
oh, I bought a house, or Irehabbed a house, or I bought a
building, or someone ripped meoff, or it didn't work out, I
lost my life savings and theyjust quit.
They're like I'm done forever.
I say, well, don't be doneforever, like you can recuperate
(09:49):
from that.
Joel Friedland (09:50):
Well, okay.
So sometimes yes and sometimesno.
As far as as making a bad deal,especially in real estate,
there's no such thing assomebody who's done a lot of
deals that's never had a badexperience.
There are bad experiences.
(10:11):
There's risk.
Whenever there's risk,something can go wrong, and
sometimes many things go wrong.
And I've had situations whereit's been devastatingly bad and
I have investors.
I'm a syndicator, so I have acouple hundred investors and
it's very public.
When you have a bad deal andyou've got 50 or a hundred
(10:35):
investors with you who each putin 50 or a hundred thousand
dollars, and now you have totell them what's happening.
You can't hide it.
If it's your own deal or you'vegot one investor, nobody needs
to know, but when you're asyndicator, you have to.
By what are known as thesecurities laws, the SEC, the
(10:56):
Securities and ExchangeCommission, requires that you
disclose your track record topeople who might want to invest.
So I've had a very difficulteight days.
The last eight days for me havebeen maybe the toughest eight
days I've had in five years,because, yep, yep, and I'll tell
(11:19):
you why it's been relivingtrauma and I'll tell you what
happened.
You why it's been relivingtrauma and I'll tell you what
happened.
Over the last 35 years, I boughtabout 100 buildings with
investors, and in 2008, I hadabout 50 buildings with hundreds
of investors, and when theglobal financial crisis started
(11:43):
in 2008 and 2009,.
The global financial crisisstarted in 2008 and 2009,.
Some of our buildings had somefinancial problems, such as
tenants that went out ofbusiness or tenants that moved
out, and then the buildings werevacant and we couldn't fill
them up because nobody wasmoving, because companies were
just, you know, they were whiteknuckling it just to stay in
business.
(12:03):
Nobody was looking to spend themoney to move to a new building
.
So I've had this reallydifficult thing in the back of
my mind, which is I have todisclose my losses to people.
But how do you do it?
So my lawyer, who's inPhiladelphia, said you need to
give people a list of your deals.
(12:26):
So I put together a list andthe list said I've had 99 deals
and I listed how many werereally great deals and how many
were good deals and how manywere okay deals, and then the
last line was how many dealswhere we lost money and, by the
way, lost some or all of ourmoney on a deal which can happen
(12:48):
.
So I had this little chart andthe investors who I know say oh
yeah, it's really terrible thatyou lost money on those deals 10
out of a hundred deals.
We've lost money.
And a very large investor cameto me a couple of weeks ago and
he said I want to see the natureof your losses, I want to see
(13:10):
what you lost money on and why.
And I had to make a decision asto whether I was going to come
up with a list of every dealthat I've ever done and explain
the good ones and the bad ones,and I decided to do it.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (13:24):
Okay.
Joel Friedland (13:25):
So it was tough, man.
It was really hard, because thegood ones are easy Good one 20%
return, Good one 17% return,Good one 14% return.
But then there were the losses.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (13:40):
Yeah, and.
Joel Friedland (13:40):
I had to explain them, because that's the
requirement If somebody says Iwant to see what happened and I
have to explain what went wrong.
And when I went through thosethings back in 08, through the
aftermath of the crisis, whichwas all the way really through
2016, struggling to keepbuildings from going back to a
(14:01):
lender, just really working hard, really working hard to make it
right.
So for the last eight days I'vehad to relive the specifics of
all those terrible things thathappened and I made a list of
what went wrong and then Iexplained it in a paragraph.
(14:22):
Here's what went wrong and it'sreally interesting.
It's like I don't know ifyou're familiar with the 12
steps of recovery for people whohave addictions.
I don't know as well, but I'mfamiliar with it really
(14:47):
admitting that there's a problem, admitting that you're a
gambler or you're an alcoholicor a drug addict or a food
addict or a sex addict orwhatever you might be.
And step one is writing up allthe things that brought you to a
12-step program to try torecover.
And more or less my list was 10things that brought me to the
(15:08):
place that I was, where I feltthat some of my deals were too
risky and, by the way, risksometimes goes with the word bet
or goes with the word gamblestumble.
So I had to sort of admit tomyself that I took more risk
(15:29):
than I might have when I wasyounger and had these deals that
went bad.
And then just I said to my wifeI'm just so depressed, I'm
looking at all these things thathappened 15 years ago.
But it's coming back becauseI'm making the list, you know,
and it was really really hard,it was really difficult, but I
finished it.
I finished it last night, ohyeah, and yeah, yeah, hang on,
(15:52):
it's in my garbage, can hang onone yeah, no, and thank you for
sharing something like apersonal story like that.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (15:59):
I don't think a lot of people like to share
like personal, and I know peoplecertainly don't like to share
their mistakes.
But I'm all about tellingpeople all the things I've done
wrong.
I was like, listen, let me tellyou all the things not to do.
Joel Friedland (16:12):
Yeah, I want to show you this.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (16:13):
I appreciate you coming on the call like
after you just finished thatlist and maybe me and my crowd
we can cheer you up.
Joel Friedland (16:21):
I want to show you something.
This is my list.
I want to show you something.
This is my list and you can seethat the returns on the top
ones 27, 62%, 50.
These were ones where weflipped deals and made a lot of
money, but look at the bottomLoss incurred during the GFC,
the global financial crisis.
So I have pages and pages ofthe good deals and the bad deals
(16:45):
and I had to relive all thesebad deals and it was so hard, it
was so difficult.
Yeah, so you're my first personI'm talking to after coming out
of my deep hole of relivingtrauma, and I'm so glad to see
you because we're talkingpositive things.
But people need to know thatwhen you take a risk, you can
(17:10):
lose, and when you lose, it'sokay to mourn your loss and to
feel bad about it.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (17:17):
It is.
Joel Friedland (17:18):
Yeah.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (17:19):
It is.
I mean it's like with businessor like with marriage.
Like Bill's my third husband,so I didn't expect to get
divorced the first two times.
But when I did, I was like wow,that was so unexpected and not
in my life goal.
I was going to be married onetime and you know.
But now we just had our 22ndanniversary and I told him at
(17:43):
this point, after being my thirdhusband, I said listen, we're
going to go till death.
Do us part and don't make mecall in that clause early,
because I'm not getting divorcedand I got a back on 10 acres.
Man, don't make me call that in.
Joel Friedland (17:58):
But people.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (17:59):
I think don't think that about business,
Because you're right, I've had afew houses that I've lost money
and they were just one of themwas just super embarrassing.
It's like, oh my God, I don'teven know how it was that stupid
to do that.
And then everyone knows andpeople will talk and then you're
like, oh, what do people thinkabout me?
And you're exposed to thepublic and you do have to mourn
that.
I think people don't giveenough credit to like the
(18:23):
grieving process of yeah well.
Joel Friedland (18:27):
so I wrote a little paragraph at the
beginning of the list and itsays of the hundred deals, 10
lost money.
And it says these outcomestaught us painful but valuable
lessons.
And we've responded byconcentrating on solely buying
and managing the kind ofbuildings that did work and
(18:49):
avoiding the ones that hadcommon things that didn't work.
And you know what I do.
That's really different thananybody.
I do all cash deals with nomortgages most of the time,
because the one thing that thedeals had in common that we lost
money on is they had 65 to 80%loan to value debt.
(19:10):
And I would say, of the 4,000syndicators who have portfolios
of over $50 million worth ofproperty I've done a little
study, I think it's 4,000 of usI'm probably the only one who
does no debt deals and a lot ofpeople think I'm an idiot.
They say well, you make moneyin real estate because of the
(19:33):
leverage.
And my answer is you know what?
I learned some lessons from alot of leverage, and my
investors and I are risk averse.
And there are people who arelike that who say you know what?
I'd rather make a 12% returnwith no debt than try to shoot
for a 20% return with debt whereI can incur a loss if things go
(19:55):
bad.
And right now a lot of peopleare struggling because they had
floating rate debt and they'regoing to lose the properties and
give them back to the lender orsell for a loss.
I'm not in that position,luckily, because my deals have
no debt.
But boy, this trauma of lookingat the ones that were trouble.
It's like enough to scare thecrap out of you from doing more
(20:19):
risky deals.
And you can do more risky dealsfor a different reason than I
can.
Industrial buildings are largeand they're freestanding and
they're single tenant andthey're either 100 percent
vacant or 100 percent leased.
So in my world it almost forcesme, if I don't want to take
risk, to avoid the debt, thedebt.
But you can do it, because ifyou buy a half a million dollar
(20:44):
retail building or an apartmentbuilding or a home or whatever,
you can put debt on it, becauseif one deal goes bad, you can
cover the payments.
But on a deal like mine, whereit's a $10 million property, I
can't cover that.
If it goes bad, the bank'sgoing to want to get paid.
Banks have no sense of humor.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (21:06):
No, they do not.
They do not understand and Idon't want to hear your excuses.
Joel Friedland (21:13):
Right.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (21:15):
Go tell that to somebody else.
When's the payment coming in?
Yeah, I really appreciate yousharing your heart with me.
Honestly, you have no idea likehow much that touches me and I
just don't think that.
You know it's true Like there'salways some risk in anything
but in real estate especially.
You know it's true Like there'salways some risk in anything
but in real estate especially.
You know, one of the things Ipreach to my students is I say
(21:36):
buy all your rentals and paycash for them, so if there's
ever a giant crash in the market, you don't lose all your stuff
in one big swoop.
And everybody else that teachesis like leverage your rentals,
use that money to buy more stuffand buy more stuff is like
leverage your rentals, use thatmoney to buy more stuff and buy
more stuff and buy my yeah.
But if you keep buying morestuff and then, like covid, some
giant thing comes along, youlose all of your shit in one big
(21:59):
giant shot.
So I I am that person thatconstantly preaches pay like, if
you want to wholesale,wholesale four or five deals and
then pay cash for a rental orcash for a building, pay cash
for stuff so you don't ever getstuck.
And I've been, and that'sbecause in the beginning I lost
some rentals and it was like, ohwell, that wasn't very smart, I
(22:19):
haven't all myself leveraged upto the eyeballs, and so I
learned, you know, and now it'slike I try not to have debt on
anything.
If I, if I can and if I do,it's very.
But I'm totally againstmortgaging everything to borrow
more money to buy more stuff.
Joel Friedland (22:35):
Yeah, a lot of people do it and a lot of people
have become very rich doing it,because, if you're doing it
during a period of time wheneverything's going up, there
have been years, many years,since 2009, where if you had a
pulse and you bought real estate, you made money.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (22:52):
And you just had to fog the mirror like and
they gave you a loan.
Joel Friedland (22:58):
The mirror test.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (22:59):
I remember the mirror test days.
It's like you could just getanything from anyone, like, oh,
can you breathe?
You fog the mirror, it's yours.
And then people you know, thenthe big crash came and I mean I
know people that lost hundredsof millions, 50, 100 million
dollars, people that owned youknow three or four hundred
rentals and just like gotcompletely wiped out.
It's like, oh, my God, yeah.
Joel Friedland (23:20):
How is that?
Dwan Bent-Twyford (23:20):
possible.
Joel Friedland (23:22):
Yeah, I nearly got wiped out.
I worked tooth and nail after2008 to keep from getting wiped
out and I was able to keep all50 of our buildings.
I kept for multiple years afterthat happened, although I had
to finally give up on a bunch ofthem where we had to sell them
(23:45):
for less than we would havegotten had we waited until now.
They're probably today weredouble what we sold them for in
2012.
And if I just had the stayingpower, we would have done great.
But when you're under pressureto pay the bank and pay the
taxes and the insurance and themaintenance and the utilities,
(24:06):
it makes it very difficult if abunch of bad ones happen all at
once.
And that's what's happening topeople today with these damn
floating rates where they didn'trealize that 4% interest rates
on loans wasn't normal.
It was abnormal.
Normal is probably 7% loans.
(24:27):
You look back on the averagefor the last 50 years, there
were just 11 years, 12 yearswhere it was that low and when I
got in the business, interestrates were 10%.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (24:42):
I remember.
Joel Friedland (24:44):
Yeah.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (24:45):
I remember, I remember when they were high,
and then it's like there werethose little 2% loans there for
a minute it's like, oh, buy asmuch stuff as you can, it's just
so cheap.
So when someone goes throughlike that, like you just wrote
all the things out and you had,you know, 100 properties.
There's 90 good, there's 10 bad, and you worked yourself
through that.
What is the next step thatsomeone would take to be like
(25:08):
okay, I went through it Justlike you showed us, these are my
deals, here's my thing I stillwant to say in business.
I still want to keep movingforward, Like what is your next
step going to be?
Joel Friedland (25:22):
Well, I think it's to get to know yourself
better.
It's, I think it take.
It took for me it tookcounseling and meditation and
doing a lot of group work andjournal writing and talking to
my wife and talking to my familyand friends and talking it
(25:43):
through and figuring out whetherI have the stomach to even go
through any kind of downturn orloss again.
And then, if the answer is yes,what's your line in the sand
that makes you feel safe andthat makes you feel like you're
using good judgment?
I think that good judgment orcommon sense is extremely
uncommon.
(26:03):
Most people do things.
I think it is too.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (26:07):
I think it is too when you say it that way, I
think it is too.
I think it is too when you sayit that way.
Joel Friedland (26:12):
Yeah, most people make decisions based on
their emotions and not so muchon their intellect, and there's
a balance.
It needs to.
I think the most importantdecisions in your life have to
be intellect, and then you cancertainly do a trip to Florida,
like what you and I do, and headdown and say, hey, we're going
(26:32):
to Florida, we're doing it.
That's not a life-changingdecision.
If it was a mistake, it's not.
How can it even be a mistake?
It's usually the right thing.
Small decisions that areimpulsive are okay, but the
thing is, impulsive decisionscan kill you.
They can really kill you.
They literally.
(26:52):
It's a serious thing and it'swhatever decision that somebody
makes that is against theirphysical or mental health and
their future and their family'swell-being it's very easy to
make those decisions on the flyand not realize it.
It's very easy to make thosedecisions on the fly and not
(27:12):
realize it, and so my main focusreally is to make really good
decisions.
And I have a tool you want tohear my tool.
It's the word W-A-I-T, whichstands for why am I talking?
You know, because sometimes wesay things and we say, uh-oh, I
(27:35):
just put my foot in my mouth.
Why did I say that Sometimesthe better part of judgment is
to listen and be quiet?
So W-A-I-T.
Why am I talking?
I use that a lot with my wifeand my kids.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (27:54):
Because once you say something, you can't
unsay it.
No, you can't put thetoothpaste back in the tube,
it's already out there.
That's a good one.
Why am I taught, when you knowpeople like we're supposed to
wait?
And I mean, I feel like for me,like I want to wait, I always
want to pray about things like Iwant to.
You know, I'm I used to bereally insanely destructively
impulsive, and now I'm older andwiser and it's like, okay, now
I'm just gonna wait, I'm gonnajust think about I used to be
(28:16):
really insanely destructivelyimpulsive and now I'm older and
wiser and it's like, okay, nowI'm just going to wait, I'm
going to just think aboutsomething I'm going to, you know
, but like that, like, oh, let'sgo to Florida, yeah, I don't
need to think about that, let'sgo.
How fast can we get to theairport?
But yeah, I think, why am Italking is a really good thing
for people in all the areas ofyour life.
Another way to interpret WAIT.
Joel Friedland (28:38):
I journal a few times a week and I journal on
things that I'm struggling with,that are major decisions where
I want to make a good decision.
Wait also stands for injournaling what am I thinking
Like really thinking through,what is it that exactly I'm
trying to accomplish, and is ithelpful or is it hurtful and am
(29:02):
I hurting somebody or myself oram I going down the wrong path?
So what am I thinking is reallyimportant too.
So the W-A-I-T is reallyimportant too, and that's that.
So the WAIT is a tool for mefor those two avenues.
And getting back to what do youdo to restart after a loss?
I think it's study what you didwrong and try not to do it
(29:24):
again.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (29:26):
Yeah, I mean, that's how you know.
Like I said, bill Bill's mythird husband.
So on the first, I look back onwhat I do wrong.
Well, I married one after Iknew him for three weeks.
I married one after he moved inwith me.
After the second date I waslike, okay, maybe like a little,
a little too quick, maybe thistime I'll just like date and
(29:48):
kind of wait, you know, test thewaters, and then now, 20 years
later, not being so impulsiveended up being a good thing for
me.
In that arena there's a lot ofluck involved in making
decisions too.
Joel Friedland (30:03):
You know circumstances can go against you
.
That aren't your fault.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (30:08):
Yeah.
Joel Friedland (30:09):
You can really get.
You can really get screwed upfrom things that happen,
illnesses that happen to you oryour family members.
You can't.
You can't prevent most of those.
Yeah, I had a partner who was48 and he got a form of blood
cancer and he died at 48.
That's not about anybody'sdecision.
(30:29):
He didn't make any baddecisions.
He just got unlucky.
And sometimes in marriage youget in with someone you know
who's an abuser and you didn'tknow it.
They were charming and you gotmarried and boom, they're
verbally or physically abusiveand you didn't see it coming.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (30:47):
You can't know that that was husband
number one for me.
It's like it didn't take melong to realize like, oh man, I
really really got myself up inthe hot water right now.
I shouldn't have done that.
Joel Friedland (31:03):
So, yeah, my mother's a therapist, my
daughter's a therapist, my dadwas a psychologist, so
psychology and counseling is ourfamily business.
So we talk about those kinds ofthings a lot and impulsive
decision-making is a verydangerous thing.
(31:25):
It can be very fun because youget a dopamine hit.
Oh yeah, you ever watch thatguy, andrew Huberman.
He's got four million peoplewatch his podcast about how
people think he's a professor atStanford.
You know, dopamine makes youfeel good when you're depressed
or feeling crappy.
Doing something impulsivethat's really fun takes away the
(31:47):
crappy feeling.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (31:49):
Yes.
Joel Friedland (31:50):
I have a friend who went out and bought three
new cars.
He's very wealthy.
But I called him the other day.
I said how are you?
Oh, I said I bought a McLarenand I bought an Aston Martin and
I bought a Maserati.
And I said why did you do that?
He says I was in too good of amood.
I said, hmm.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (32:09):
But did they help him feel better or not?
Joel Friedland (32:12):
No, he regrets it.
He's got lots of regret.
He was telling me the other day.
He says I wasn't thinkingclearly, I just felt like I
needed to go buy stuff.
Impulsively, I bought thesethings.
I said, well, the lucky thingis you can sell them.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (32:30):
Yeah you can, you can.
When you drive a car off thelot, it's worth like so much
less the minute it holds intoyour drive.
I mean point A to point B.
A lot of the value goes down.
Joel Friedland (32:42):
He says, by the way?
He says, by the way, I alsobought a Corvette, a 1967
Corvette, and I said, holy crap,so you really bought four cars.
He said yeah.
I said, well, I want to ask yousomething.
Tell me about the Corvette.
He says let me show it to you.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (33:03):
Oh, that feels like a fun decision, that
one.
Joel Friedland (33:07):
Well, he bought four cars in a matter of about
three weeks, impulsively,probably spent $800,000 on them.
That's crazy.
He can afford them, but thosewere impulsive decisions and he
does regret them.
And now his wife's mad at him,His son's mad at him Like Dad,
(33:27):
why'd you do that?
Yeah, he said I was feelingreally good yeah, no, I get it.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (33:35):
I, I do definitely get it.
So I like the fact that you, um, and you know honestly, I, I
mean I, you know, I certainlynot to minimize your feelings
but if you did a hundred dealsand ten percent there was a loss
of money or something you know.
For the for the win, 90% wasgreat, like in life.
If we went at 90% of everythingthat we touch our finger to, I
(33:57):
think that's way high on thechart of success.
Joel Friedland (34:02):
In school.
That's an A-.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (34:05):
Yeah.
Joel Friedland (34:06):
Right, it's not even a B, it's still an A.
So yeah, but you know, you andI agree on this, I'm sure of it
that entrepreneurs are risktakers and sometimes what, what
made them so successful, wasbeing impulsive.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (34:23):
Yes.
Joel Friedland (34:24):
And and sometimes they're afraid to stop
being impulsive because theythink that's, that's the X
factor ingredient that made themso successful, and they're
afraid to become more calm andmore thoughtful.
But that's why entrepreneurswho grow their companies to be
very big hire professionalmanagers, because professional
(34:45):
managers are not impulsive,they're data driven.
And what we make the mistake asentrepreneurs is we keep
building and building andbuilding and building somewhat
impulsively, and a mistake canhappen and it can topple the
entire empire.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (35:00):
Yeah, no, it can.
It, can I do believe that too.
I mean, I feel like for anyoneto own a business or buy a
building or anything like that,to own a business or buy a
building or anything like that,you have to have some level of
risk.
You have to have a higher riskfactor than the person that
works at a factory for 30 yearsand gets their paycheck and
their retirement.
(35:20):
You obviously have to have ahigher risk factor, otherwise we
would all be entrepreneurs.
But I think at some point as anentrepreneur you do have to.
And I think that's about like adecade ago I was kind of like
you know you do have to.
And I think that's about like adecade ago I was kind of like
you know, we've done this, webuilt this, we own all this.
Like does it stop or do youlevel off, or do you you know?
And then we started buyingthose towns in Clinton, Iowa.
(35:42):
It's like let's just work onthis town.
Let's spend like five years andlet's work on this town and
kind of see where do we want togo, you know, next after we do
that.
So we're sort of like we're ina building working, but like
kind of whole, like let's justwork on this town for a while.
We're both 65.
This will be a fun project tillwe're 70, and then we'll see.
Joel Friedland (36:04):
Yeah, and you know what you've got on.
That.
That, I have to say, isprobably the most important
thing, is you've got to laserfocus on one thing.
Yeah, when you laser focus onone thing, you're likely to be
successful, and when you are allover the place, you're likely
not do things that will take youdown because you're all over
(36:28):
the place.
There's an old saying I'drather do one thing 10,000 times
to be successful than do 10,000things once, and you know who
that really applies to Doctors.
If you need surgery, if youhave kidney cancer as an example
, my mother had kidney cancerand two months ago ago she got
(36:49):
diagnosed.
Who do you pick to do thesurgery?
You pick the kidney surgerydoctor that's 40 or older, who's
done about 500 of them a year.
For the last 10 years he's done5,000 kidney surgeries For the
(37:09):
last 10 years he's done 5,000kidney surgeries.
Yeah, that's who you trust.
You trust someone with a laserfocus, and they're going to be
the ones who are sought after.
So, in my case, I do nothingbut industrial, nothing but
Chicago area, because it's agiant industrial market where
money can be made and where thecap rates, by the way, are much
better than on the East Coastand the West Coast, where cap
(37:33):
rates are in the sixes and inChicago it's about eight, which
is really important.
But it's a laser focus, with alaser focus on avoiding debt.
And so you know, I do one thingI'm like the kidney guy, and
you are too by doing Clinton.
One thing I'm like the kidneyguy, and you are too by doing
Clinton your commitment is toClinton to do lots of things in
(37:55):
one place.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (37:55):
That is, that is genius.
Yep, that's it.
So we we have 26 parcelsaltogether and the only reason
we ended up with that is it's a,it's a.
By the way, I'm sorry to hearabout your mom.
Joel Friedland (38:05):
She's okay.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (38:06):
Oh, that's so good.
I and I agree with that.
I just had a hip replacement acouple months ago and in the
first search and I saw kind ofjust like a lot of joints I was
like no, I'm 65 years old.
I need like a full hip.
I want a person that lives anddies on hips.
You know, and that's who I got.
It's like actually the numberguy.
Someone referred me to him andsomehow someone else canceled.
(38:30):
I got a spot earlier and I waslike done and he's like oh yeah,
I do like 250 a year minimum.
I was like that's my guy andhe's like 50.
Joel Friedland (38:41):
That's the way to go.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (38:42):
That's my guy .
He's done.
He can do these in his sleepCause.
I could not agree more.
I don't want the person that'sall over the map like I don't
want anybody testing anything onme.
It's like I'm no testing isgoing on over here.
No, like I'm not taking youdon't want to be.
I'm not taking any shots.
I'm not taking anything.
If you're testing the waters, Iam not your girl, um, but but
(39:04):
in, in our little town it's alittle, it's uh, so it's a
fairly big town itself.
I should know how many peopleare in the town, but I don't
often.
But the downtown is like threeblocks this way and three blocks
it's a little nine block areaand it's right on the river and
they're doing like this cityre-beautification and we're like
, oh, you know, built from there, we go there to visit family.
(39:25):
And I was like this little dayand I used to always keep saying
, like the last decade, thislittle town just needs some love
.
And then we made a phone call.
We saw a building for sale.
Then we bought a building.
It was like, oh, we're in thislittle downtown partnership.
We bought another building,another building.
Then we started to realize,anytime they want to do like a
music festival or they want todo anything, everybody's got to
(39:47):
vote.
You own to do like a musicfestival or you want to do
anything, everybody's got tovote.
You own a building, you get avote.
So we're like, hey, let's dochristmas in july and they go.
We tried that eight years ago.
It didn't work and they votedus down.
I was like, okay, let's do, uh,winter festival.
Oh, we tried that, you know,six years ago.
It didn't work and I keptgetting voted down.
I'm like listen, I watchhallmark movies all day.
(40:08):
I know, when there's Winterfest, februaryfest, marchfest, st
Patrick's Day, like everythingneeds to have an event.
That's how you get people tocome back to an old downtown.
So finally I go to the girlthat's in charge and said listen
, how much property do I need toown to control the vote?
She's like well, you need thismany more, which is how we ended
(40:33):
up with 26.
It's like okay, now when wevote, we're like, yes, we're in
and everyone's like all rightbecause we've have you?
Joel Friedland (40:38):
have you watched the tv show virgin river?
No, I haven't oh, you got towatch it.
It's about a little town, uh,allegedly in california, near
eureka, and it's about a littletown allegedly in California,
near Eureka, and it's about alittle town.
There's a little country,doctor, and there's a little.
There's a bar where everybodygoes to have their drinks and
(41:00):
their meals and it's beautifulscenery.
It's one of my favorite showsthat I've ever seen.
It reminds me of your Clintonstory.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (41:08):
I have to watch it.
Joel Friedland (41:09):
They have lots of festivals where they put
things together and people.
You'll love this.
You'll love if you, if you'vegot cable, go watch Virgin River
.
You'll get addicted.
It is so good.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (41:19):
I will.
That sounds like what we'redoing.
So after a while it's like,okay, well, listen, I can't move
forward at the pace I want tomove at, with everybody voting
me down on stuff all the time.
So we're like we'll just buymore control the vote and then
we'll just take over.
Oh, that's great.
So I was like, well, how highis our risk factor?
Well, it's 26 parcels high atthis point.
(41:40):
So but you just, maybe you'llbecome the mayor.
That's what I always tell Billyou can become the mayor, you
should be the mayor.
I don't want to be the mayor.
I'm like, oh my God, it'd be somuch fun just for like a year
or two.
Just be the mayor.
Joel Friedland (41:53):
Like that'd be so fun.
That's what happened in VirginRiver.
The country doctor is marriedto the mayor.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (41:59):
See, there you go so it's the same thing.
So he could be the mayor andI'm like I don't know, he might
get mad if we're like, hey, youknow what we're gonna run.
Joel Friedland (42:17):
But yeah, don't do that, don't do that I don't
want to.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (42:20):
I don't want to, I don't want to make him mad
, but yeah, I don't think toomuch paperwork, but it'd be fun,
just for like a year, to say,hey, here's my town.
And oh, by the way, I'm themayor.
I said maybe they'll give us akey to the city.
So I don't know, I don't know,okay.
(42:41):
So I want to ask a couple morequestions.
But the next one is what is thebiggest goal that you have
right now in front of you, joel,your biggest goal, and how can
we at DeWonderful, how can wehelp you reach that goal?
Joel Friedland (42:48):
Sure, we like to buy three or four buildings a
year.
Our average building is about$3 or $4 million.
So we because we do all cashdeals primarily we are looking
to find some new investors inaddition to the existing.
We have about 70 regularinvestors who go into almost all
(43:10):
of our deals and I'm hoping toadd a few investors every couple
months that we don't know,because if we do buy four
buildings, let's say for 3million each, it's $12 million,
and if people are putting in 25,50, $100,000, it takes a lot of
people to fill up each one withthe investor group.
(43:31):
So that's the main goal and thesecondary, but maybe even more
important, is we go door-to-door, knocking on doors of
industrial buildings to ask thecompanies inside, to ask the
owners of the companies if theywould consider selling.
That's how we find our deals.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (43:48):
That's a good idea.
Joel Friedland (43:51):
Yeah.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (43:51):
That is a good idea, and you never know.
We did the same thing.
We asked some people like hey,are you interested in selling
that building?
Because that would fit into ourblock?
And they were like, yeah, we'llsell it to you.
It's like oh, sometimes I getstaff, let's do it, let's do it
yeah let's go.
I love it.
Okay, so we're going to switchto complete topics here.
Tell me your favorite band ofall time Earth.
Joel Friedland (44:13):
Wind Fire.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (44:15):
Oh, I like Earth, wind, fire.
That's a good band.
Joel Friedland (44:20):
They're the great group for dancing at
weddings.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (44:24):
Yeah, yes, yeah, we saw them.
Yeah, bill just reminded me wesaw that.
Yeah, bill just reminded me, wesaw them.
We were up in DC and they wereat some amphitheater on the
water and we went and I was like, and I went with some friends
and I was like, oh, we're goingto a concert.
And a few minutes later I waslike, okay, I know all this
music and I didn't realize itwas at Earth Wind, fire.
I was like, oh my God, and itwas so great, yeah, they're
(44:45):
great, and what's your favorite?
food.
Joel Friedland (44:54):
Well, I have this restaurant called Ron of
Japan where they have teppanyaki.
They have these guys who areplaying with the food on the
table.
You know, on the grill right infront of you, fried rice, steak
, chicken lobster Fantastic,chicken lobster fantastic.
Except then when we leave, youknow they have that, they put
the grease on and they put thebig fire up and all that.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (45:17):
You walk out of there and you smell like
grease.
You do.
The next time Bill and I are inChicago, we're going to have
some Japanese food and listen tosome earth, wind and fire.
Joel Friedland (45:25):
There you go.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (45:26):
There you go.
Joel Friedland (45:27):
I'll go with you , I'll go with you.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (45:29):
We'll come with you.
Well, we'll come out.
We'll hang out for a night.
Okay, so one more time, justtell everyone how to get ahold
of you.
Joel Friedland (45:35):
Brit properties B-R-I-T with one T
britpropertiescom.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (45:40):
Okay, britpropertiescom.
Joel Friedman, f-r-i-e-d.
I talk really fastF-R-I-E-D-L-A-N-D.
Freedland.
I have to say I talk so fast.
I did say it right in thebeginning.
I think I just talked so fast.
It's like people were like,what did she say?
And again, guys, you can hit meup at dwonderfulcom.
(46:03):
So I took dwonderful and I madea new word, so dwonderfulcom
and I'm the same on TikTok,instagram, facebook, youtube,
everything at DwanDerful.
And I always ask you to do me afavor.
If you had fun today, if youlearned, if you listened, if you
(46:25):
just, you know, joel reallylike seriously shared his heart
with us today, which was Iappreciate that so much about
you for doing that.
It's really awesome.
Uh, I just want you tosubscribe and, uh, hit the
little button so you arenotified every time a new show
comes up.
If you want to watch this,because I mean, like, look how
fun we are, they need to see usand watch us and not just listen
(46:47):
.
So if you want to watch us, yougo over to my YouTube channel
and it's in the show notesWonderful Real Estate and watch
the show today.
Joel's awesome.
You know, I'm always awesomeand we're fun to watch.
So, some people I alwaysencourage people because you
know, for me personally, joel,I've had to just sit down and
watch people do a podcastbecause I like to watch and I
(47:08):
see people interact and I knowpeople like they listen when
they're running and jogging andthey're doing whatever.
But if I'm exercising or doingthings like that, I do
everything in silence, like Ithink and I get in my head and I
do everything.
I drive in silence and it's andeveryone's like you know, you
drove a four-hour drive and youlisten to me.
Me, I was like no, I just rodein silence.
(47:29):
I'm just I'm thinking.
I got stuff going on.
I'm thinking through it.
That's how I process all mystuff, and so when I want to
watch shows, I like to sit downand watch them on YouTube,
because I like to see the peopleand see the face of the person,
that I'm hearing their voice.
I like to match the face withthe voice.
So if you want to see us, we'reon the YouTube and also on my
(47:51):
website, dwanefulcom.
If you opt in over there, I'vegot a couple free gifts for you,
so stay involved.
Okay, last thing of the day,joel, last thing, I want you to
give us a parting word of wisdom, but only a single word, one
actual word.
Joel Friedland (48:08):
Mentorship.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (48:11):
Okay, mentorship, so that is our word
of the week.
All my wonderful people knowthat is our word of the week.
What does mentorship mean toyou?
Joel Friedland (48:23):
To me, it's people who already know things
who can tell you what they'velearned, so that you can learn
through their experiencevicariously and know a lot of
things from a conversation,rather than going and making
some big mistakes because youdidn't get taught by somebody
(48:49):
who knew better and could havewarned you.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (48:53):
I could not agree more.
I tell every person I meetyou're going to learn everything
in real estate by mentors andmistakes, and mentors are
cheaper, Exactly, and probablybetter for your well-being,
because your mentor will helpyou ideally avoid all the
mistakes that we all make and weall make.
Joel Friedland (49:15):
That's a great way to look at it Exactly.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (49:18):
Yeah, I'm always telling people like
listen, don't reinvent the wheel.
The real estate wheel is there,it's already invented.
There are people doing itsuccessfully.
You don't need to make a newwheel.
Just find someone that you liketheir wheel and you know and
work with them.
That's all like we don't needto reinvent stuff.
It's already there and I feellike you'd be great guiding
(49:38):
people through the industrialside of things.
I want to see some of yourbuildings.
They sound great yeah, they'rereally.
Joel Friedland (49:45):
they're mostly smaller buildings, like between
10,000 square feet and 30,000square feet, and when you walk
inside you have no idea from theoutside what they're doing in
there.
It's fascinating what they'remanufacturing, what they're
assembling.
It's an amazing thing to seewhat they do inside.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (50:04):
Well, when we go to Clinton, if we fly, we
always fly to Chicago, so it'snot out of the way for me to
come and see you for a day andwe'll go out.
Joel Friedland (50:12):
Come see us.
Yeah, we have one buildingthat's one minute from O'Hare
Airport.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (50:17):
Fun, okay.
Well, I'm there, it's a date,I'm with my husband and we'll
hang out.
All right, everyone I know youloved today, next week, same bat
time, same bat channel.
And remember that the truth isin the red letters.
All right, everybody.
(50:38):
Ciao, welcome to season five.
We'll talk to you in a few days.
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