October 22, 2024 • 48 mins
Imagine earning an 18% return on your investment just by helping your local government. Our latest episode features the seasoned expert Ted Thomas, who has over three decades of experience in the niche but highly lucrative world of tax liens and tax-defaulted properties. Hosted by Dwan Bent-Twyford, we reminisce about our shared stages with industry legends like Donald Trump and Tony Robbins, while Ted opens up about his transition from the foreclosure business to mastering the art of tax lien investing. This episode promises to equip you with essential knowledge, whether you're a real estate novice or a seasoned investor.
Have you ever wondered how to scoop up discounted properties at a fraction of their market value? Ted Thomas breaks down the fascinating mechanics of tax lien certificates and tax-defaulted property auctions. We explore the step-by-step process, from purchasing tax lien certificates to securing properties at auction, all while emphasizing the significant returns and minimal risks involved. With Ted's expert guidance, you'll learn how to navigate the varied processes across different states and avoid the common pitfalls that many new investors face.
Beyond the world of real estate, get to know Ted on a personal level. From his love for 1940s big band music to his cherished moments as a pilot witnessing breathtaking sunrises and sunsets over the Pacific, Ted shares his passions and life experiences. He even hints at his philanthropic goals and offers a special promo code for listeners interested in his virtual classes. Tune in for a comprehensive and engaging episode that not only covers the lucrative realm of tax liens but also lets you in on the personal joys and future aspirations of our esteemed guest.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (00:02):
Hey everybody , welcome to the most Dwonderful
real estate podcast ever.
I'm your host, wandaBenton-Twyford.
I am America's mostsought-after real estate
investor and I'm telling you Ihave such a good treat for you
all today.
This is my friend, ted Thomas,and Ted and I have known each
other at least 30 years.
(00:23):
So long We've spoken everywhere, all over the country, giant
stages, and I'm so excited tohave him on as my guest today.
So, before we start with Ted,the motto at D'Wonderful is
people before profits, so that'ssomething that resonates with
you.
You're at the right place.
(00:43):
I'm a girl, this is your guy,so let's get into it.
So, ted, seriously, how thehell are you?
Ted Thomas (00:49):
I am great.
I never felt better.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (00:52):
So do you still say yes and yes?
Ted Thomas (00:55):
Yes and yes.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (00:56):
You know, I used to teach trial closes, so
I'd say to people yes or yes andthey would just say yes, that
was great I remember you and Igosh darn, we spoke at the
Learning Annexes in New York andDonald Trump was there, and
Tony Robbins and Kiyosaki andSuzy Orman and you and me and we
had so much fun at all thosebig events.
Ted Thomas (01:17):
Boy, those events were huge, Sometimes 40,000
people.
I remember being in Los Angelesand you couldn't leave the room
because there was so manypeople in the hallway.
You know there's 40,000 peoplethere.
It was unbelievable.
They were fun.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (01:31):
I kind of hated to see those go away.
I thought because they werejust.
You know, first of all it's funto speak and teach and train
and, you know, get to share ourprograms and our knowledge with
people.
But it was just always good tobe able to see all the other
speakers too.
Ted Thomas (01:43):
Right, absolutely.
I haven't seen you sgo havedinner.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (01:46):
You look amazing, I'm just saying it.
You look freaking amazing.
Ted Thomas (01:51):
Oh, that was the right thing to say.
Now, you made my ego so big.
I'm as big as the empire statebuilding, okay.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (01:58):
No, you look great, you look great.
And you have been teaching thetax lianes for I mean forever
and ever.
I actually learned what I knowabout them from you and sitting
in on all your classes andeverything.
Ted Thomas (02:09):
Well, thank you.
You know, I started out in theforeclosure business, so my
first jgrade was as a pilot andthen, when I finished flying, I
got involved in foreclosure realestate, which I liked and that
worked well.
But then everybody got in thebusiness and I said well, if
everybody's in the business,everybody's pushing the price up
, up, up.
You could buy foreclosures for30 or 50 cents on the dollar.
(02:29):
But oh, my goodness, whathappened Next thing?
You know, people paid 70 and 80cents on the dollar.
I said well, you pay 80%, howare you going to make any money?
And so I started learning abouttax liens a little over 30
years ago and I've been at itever since and it's been a great
business.
It still is a great business.
It still is, and nationwideit's in every single county in
(02:49):
the United.
States yeah.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (02:51):
So let's tell everyone right off the bat are
you online?
Do you have all social media?
Do you have Instagram?
Ted Thomas (02:58):
Oh yeah, we have all the social media channels.
So what is your social media?
Well, so what?
Dwan Bent-Twyford (03:01):
What is your social media?
Ted Thomas (03:03):
Well, most people just want to go to tedthomas.
com.
That's the easiest place tostart Tedthomas.
com.
Right.
That's where most people start.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (03:11):
Okay, and then I know they can find you on
YouTube, and so they'll just goto tedthomas.
com and they'll find you in allthe places.
Ted Thomas (03:19):
Right, yeah, and definitely YouTube.
I have about 2,000 visitors onYouTube every day, about 5,000
or 6,000 subscribers to YouTube,and I just started.
I'm not a tech guy, I'm ahands-on person, so I just
started the YouTube channelthree years ago, but it's up to
55,000 people already.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (03:39):
I know, hey, listen, that's amazing.
But you know honestly, you justlike.
You have so much knowledge withwhat you do so you teach people
.
So let's talk about tax liens.
So a lot of the people on myDwonderful real estate podcasts
are people that are newer in thebusiness.
So you know, if someone's likebrand brand new, I'm like just
(04:02):
wholesale a house is a good wayto get your feet wet, but tax
liens are something I think thatpeople can do is like brand
brand new.
I'm like just wholesale a houseis a good way to get your feet
wet, but tax lanes are somethingI think that people can do
straight out of the gate, evenas new people, but a lot of
people don't talk about it.
In fact, I've had my podcastfor five years.
I think I've only interviewedlike one or two people that
teach people how to do tax lanes, because you're like, you know,
(04:24):
you're like the grandfather.
Ted Thomas (04:25):
Yeah, right, yeah, oh, the godfather is right,
you're the godfather, you arethe godfather of tax liens.
They're probably my students.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (04:33):
They probably are your students and when I,
when I found out that you wereavailable, I was like, oh my God
, ted's on my podcast.
I have to say I feel reallyhonored because I've just seen
you on the giant stages andknown you for so long and, yeah,
we're all like kind of newtogether.
Back, back, back, back back.
So it's a real honor for me tohave you on today.
Ted Thomas (04:51):
Well, we should say one thing before we talk about
tax advocates.
So we worked in New York Cityand big forums.
I mean there were so manypeople there, 20 or 30,000
people and I'll never forgetwhen we come up from down to
these big forms.
There were big rooms and I'dcome up a big elevator and I'd
come up the elevator and therewas a picture of you that was at
(05:12):
least 20 foot tall, at least 20foot.
There you were glamorous, youwaving at all of us and
welcoming us.
I'll never forget that picture.
So when we made the appointmentfor this broadcast, I said
Linda, you're not going tobelieve this.
This gal was so glamorous.
She had a picture that was sobiad.
I've never seen such a bigpicture in my life.
So here we are doing it again.
(05:32):
It was, you're just asglamorous.
Now I don't know how you did it, but you really did it.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (05:37):
Thank you, I will accept that compliment.
Yeah, I remember the one therein New York and they were like
they had me speak on the bigstage with, uh they go, we're
going to put up some pictures ofyou.
And I remember myself I didn'tknow.
When I went in I was like, ohmy God, that's the biggest
picture I've ever seen of myselfanywhere.
So then, when we're done, I waslike, could I have that picture
(05:57):
?
Like how are you?
Ted Thomas (05:58):
going to get it.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (05:59):
I don't know, but it's like 20 feet tall.
It was the biggest picture I'veever seen.
Ted Thomas (06:04):
That's a trademark forever.
I mean, it was unbelievable,really unbelievable.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (06:11):
Those were some really good times and you
know, you and I spoke on thestages with Donald Trump and
Tony Robbins, and Kiyosaki, ofcourse us, and Susie Orman, and
I remember Russell Sieminer wasthat one Any big?
Ted Thomas (06:20):
name that was on television was on that program,
everybody, and we were reallythe people that made the money
for the event.
But the big names were whatbrought people here.
Trump brought thousands andthousands of people.
Susie Orman, all those peoplebrought wonderful, wonderful
crowds.
I mean I've never been in acrowd like we were in Los
Angeles, where there was 40,000people.
I mean I've never been aroundanything like that.
(06:42):
That was really fantastic.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (06:44):
I had never seen that many people either.
When I got up on that reallybig stage it was like 10,000
people and I thought, oh Lord,have mercy, I did it because you
know I'm not nervous.
And I got up there and when Iwas standing there I was like,
oh all right, I can do it.
I can do it.
I know what I'm talking about,but it was a lot of people.
Ted Thomas (07:02):
Yeah, it sure was.
So let me tell you abouttaxidermists.
So tell us about taxidermists.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (07:06):
So someone that's like, let's just say,
someone is like really superbrand spanking new, they don't
know anything about taxidermy.
Ted Thomas (07:13):
Okay, okay, how does that?
Dwan Bent-Twyford (07:14):
work for a brand new person.
Ted Thomas (07:16):
Foundation right from the foundation.
All right, so every property inthe United States is taxable,
all right, half of the statessell tax defaulted.
All of them sell tax defaulted,but half of them will sell
what's called a tax liencertificate.
Now, this is a certificatethat's produced by a local
government, meaning a county.
(07:37):
So there's over 3,000 pluscounties and all the counties
that sell these tax certificates.
Now, a tax certificate isnothing more than a piece of
paper, and that's a piece ofpaper like I'm holding up right
now.
It's just a piece of paper likethat.
Yeah, okay, so if someone didn'tpay their tax, the county would
say now Dwan, you didn't payyour tax.
(07:58):
So what we're going to do iswe're going to slap your hand
and we want you to pay your taxreturn, but meanwhile we're
going to let someone else buythis certificate, which is a tax
on your house, so they couldpay the tax on your property.
So thousands of thesecertificates are available and
they paid outrageous interestrates.
So it wouldn't matter whetheryou were in Florida, where they
(08:19):
pay all the way up to 18 percent, or whether you were in Iowa,
where they pay 24 percent, orwhether you're in Iowa where
they pay 24%, or whether you'rein Phoenix, arizona, where they
paid 16%.
So there's all these differentamounts they pay.
It's all up to the state to dothat.
Now anybody can go to a tax liencertificate auction.
Now you can do it online.
You just raise your hand likethat and say you want to buy it
(08:40):
and then you're just going togive your money to the
government.
You can't give the money togovernment.
You can't give the money to me.
You can't give the money to you.
This is super safe.
This is the safest investmentin America today because it goes
directly to the county Yep andthe county will hold that money.
Now you're not going to loseyour house because you didn't
pay the tax.
So 97% of all thesecertificates will pay off.
(09:04):
In other words, the people willcome in and when they come in
and pay their tax, they get apenalty.
So now they get their handsslapped.
Yeah, and the penalty is justlike master charge and visa Same
thing.
It's a penalty.
You didn't pay on time, so nowyou're going to pay.
So if they paid in Florida, itmight go all the way up to 18%.
If they paid it in anotherstate, it might be a different
(09:25):
rate.
The point is these are safecertificates.
So a place like Florida,they'll have 1 million
certificates available in themonth of May 1 million a year A
million, a million.
Miami Florida will have 60 or 70.
Here I'll show you so.
They advertise these in thenewspaper.
Anybody can find it.
So here's, this is the Tampanewspaper.
(09:46):
Yeah, okay, but there's nopictures, it's just lists of tax
lien certificates.
Wow, 40,000 just in that list,so you can pick out every single
county.
So about 1,500 to 1,700counties sell tax lien
certificates.
Yeah, so anybody can buy them,anybody tax lien certificates.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (10:04):
So anybody could anybody.
And so the thing I like abouttax certificates, let's just say
someone's taxes are, I don'tknow, $5,000.
Right, I commit, I pay the$5,000 to the city.
I have a tax certificate andI'm getting this 24% interest
and you can hold those for what?
Two years before the peoplehave to.
(10:25):
So at the end of the two yearsyou've made 24% interest for the
last two years and then thehomeowner or the bank or someone
is going to pay for thatcertificate, because that
certificate now moves into firstposition in front of the
mortgage.
So the bank isn't going to losea whole, entire mortgage over a
tax certificate right.
Ted Thomas (10:46):
so you get two possible pay.
One could be the homeownerwould pay for it or the bank
would pay for it.
Yeah, all right.
Now what if they don't pay youat all?
So if you didn't get paid atall, then you're going to get
the property without a mortgage.
That's right.
The mortgage is wiped out.
So some people buy and pray thatnobody pays, because they're
(11:08):
going to get the property.
You're going to get the right,so it's a great investment for
it.
And so you.
You have to know that 95, 97%of these certificates are going
to pay you, so you need to do itas a long-term investment.
So where is it perfect for?
How about a pension plan, anIRA plan or something like that?
If you have one of those,that's a perfect place for it.
(11:36):
Then there's the other side ofthe business, which is called
tax-defaulted property.
So you remember when I started,I said every property, and
there's 100 million of them inthe United States and we track
them all with a computer righthere.
We can show you how to sit.
I can sit where you're sittingright now and you can tap into
100 million properties 100million.
Now.
Those properties are going toget sold with a starting bid of
(11:56):
the back taxes.
Now, let's say it was a$100,000 property and the
starting bid is back taxesprobably only about $5,000.
So there's a lot of marginthere.
But the smart people like youand me, the people we teach,
they're going to go to thatauction, they're going to bid it
up so it won't get sold for$5,000, but you still can buy
properties for $0.25, $0.30 onthe dollar and you made a great
(12:18):
deal.
So where are you going to getproperties for $0.25 or $0.30 on
the dollar?
No place At the tax defaultedauctions, yeah, and there's
5,000 tax defaulted auctionsevery year.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (12:31):
Wow, that is so crazy.
I just way back when I used towork with Sharon.
We would, and when we wereworking in Fort Lauderdale we
would go to the Broward Countyand we'd buy a few tax
certificates here and there.
But they oh hey, look, billTwyford, look who I am talking
to.
Bill Twyford (12:48):
Oh, my God, how you doing, ted.
Hey, I'm great, I'm great.
Hold on Let me get my.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (12:53):
You look so great, let me get my.
Ted Thomas (12:55):
Oh, that's the right thing to say Keep it up, keep
it it's.
Bill Twyford (13:09):
There you go.
It's good seeing you, man.
Thank you, good to see you.
You look great.
Ted Thomas (13:15):
So you guys must be living in a refrigerator eating
vitamin C.
You don't eat food.
You both look great.
Bill Twyford (13:20):
Oh, thanks man.
Ted Thomas (13:22):
I'm 66 now.
Bill Twyford (13:23):
She's been probably 20 years since we've
been together, that we've seenyou.
Ted Thomas (13:27):
We were just talking about the big pictures at the
Learning Annex of Dwan.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (13:32):
Oh, there you go.
He came up the elevator.
He wanted a picture of me.
Ted Thomas (13:35):
Yeah, I've never seen a big picture of any other
woman like that.
It was unbelievable, oh.
Bill Twyford (13:40):
I know.
Ted Thomas (13:41):
That's so cool.
I bet all those guys weretapping on your shoulder and
saying leave my number in caseyou decide to leave town.
Right, that's right?
Yeah, I know that.
Bill Twyford (13:51):
Well, it's so good to see you man.
I just dropped her off a littlebit of food and I, even when I
was down eating, I thought, damn, I want to go see Ted while he
was on the call with her and Ijust got busy.
But I'm glad I got to see you,thank you.
You look great man.
You look great.
Thank you, we'll catch youlater.
Ted Thomas (14:10):
Ted, see you All right, so long there.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (14:13):
Can't believe that pizza's sitting right here
.
Okay, so I'll get rid of mybackground.
This is Doesn't he look great?
Ted Thomas (14:19):
Yeah, absolutely yeah.
You guys are eating right,you're exercising, you're doing
everything Good for you.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (14:24):
We're doing all the things.
So yeah, I know he was to thatone learning and that picture.
I was like, oh my god, I almostfelt a little bit embarrassed.
That picture was so big andeverybody's like you're on the
wall.
I'm like I know, I didn't knowthey would do, but I wish I
would have figured out a way toget that picture and ship it to
my house because I would make itone of my walls yes, oh god, it
(14:47):
was funny.
So, um, so with the taxes.
So people go on the countysites or like what you have
there, and then they buy thecertificate.
So let's go back to talkingabout that.
They buy the certificate.
Ted Thomas (15:02):
Okay.
So if you bought a tax liencertificate, it's just a piece
of paper like this, that's allit is.
This is a certificate that Ijust put a plastic on so it
wouldn't wear out.
So you get a certificate, youtake it home.
You don't have any work to doAfter you buy a tax certificate.
It's a passive investment.
So there's no work.
So you buy the certificate,take it home, put it on your
desk, then you just wait for thepeople to pay their tax.
(15:23):
When they pay it, you're goingto get all your money back.
I said all your money back andthe high interest rate.
All right.
Now the other side of it is ifyou go to any state that's
selling tax defaulted propertythose properties you actually
end up with a property.
You get a deed, like you guysdo with regular real estate.
Oh, ok, you get a deed to thatproperty.
(15:43):
Now you own the property.
So that means you know you haveto secure it, you want to take
care of it, you're going to haveto pay utilities, you're going
to pay taxes, you're going tohave to fix it up, whatever you
have to do, and so we teachpeople how to do both of those
business.
They're both very lucrativebusiness, but the one that
people want for making money istax-defaulted property.
(16:03):
If they've got pension plans orIRA plans, things like that,
they probably want to do taxlien.
Or if they're old people likeme with lots of gray hair, well
then what they have to do isthey have to say guess what?
We are going to buy some taxliens, be very conservative with
their money.
So it works for both partiesthat want to do it.
It's not complicated, butgenerally real estate people are
(16:27):
so busy doing all the stuffthey're doing they haven't
learned about it.
So it's become a specialty, andI've just done the same thing
for the past 30 years.
We teach classes, we takepeople to events, we take them
on buying tours, we give littleintroduction things, virtual
classes, everything that you canimagine.
I don't have to pitch itbecause I just tell you at the
(16:50):
end.
Anybody that wants to come to asix hour class I do on every
other Saturday I charge them 47bucks.
Everything you ever wanted toknow about tax certificates is
in that 47.
It's six hours.
It starts at 11 in the morning,doesn't end till five o'clock.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (17:02):
Yeah, I'm going to get on one of those
here in the next couple of weeks.
So let's go back to the taxdefaults.
So these are properties wheresomeone bought the property tax
and whoever the bank, bank orfor whatever reason nobody
stepped in to pay that taxcertificate back with the
interest rate.
So now the property is going tobe own, free and clear for the
(17:26):
taxes.
So people start bidding, sothey bid.
Maybe they have a five thousanddollar certificate.
Do they get it?
Or this is something different,where they're actually building
on tax liens that defaulted.
Ted Thomas (17:39):
Okay, so the tax lien, that's defaulted.
They'll notice that on thecounty website and they'll put
it in a newspaper like this.
So this particular one at$40,000.
If I get another one here it'llbe even more.
I'll show you that as we go.
All right, so that certificate,when you bid on it.
So they say who wants thiscertificate?
People raise their hand onlineor offline.
So tax certificates generallyare bid down.
(18:01):
So the $5,000 you can't changebecause that's taxes, can't
change the tax.
So they bid down the interestrate and the lowest bidder gets
it.
The lowest bidder gets it, notthe highest.
Okay, so you have to be carefulwhen you go to an auction.
You have to learn this.
You know what.
You go there and you expect youto make 18%, but then someone
over here bids 17 and a half andsomeone's 17, someone's 16.
(18:24):
The lowest bidder is going toget it.
So you have to really payattention to what you're doing.
At a tax lien certificateauction Now, at a tax deed
auction, it starts at the lowprice of back taxes.
So in other words, the propertyhas a tax of 5,000.
That's where the tax, where thebidding, will start.
(18:44):
And then, because the propertyis worth, say, 100,000,.
Some people are going to bid20,000 for it.
Some people are 25, 50.
Some people will bid full price.
It's up to them.
But you can buy properties atthose auctions for anywhere from
a low of 10% all the way up to50%.
Now, you're not going to get acolonial house.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (19:05):
No, no, no, no, you don't, but it's a good
way to get property.
Ted Thomas (19:11):
It's a good way, because you can buy them for 30
or 40 cents on the dollar, withno mortgage and no deed of trust
on it, all right.
And so those properties, thoseproperties, are in auction.
Well, I'll show you a place.
Some of those auctions are huge.
For example, I'll show you areally big one.
So this is an auction list fromLos Angeles.
You just seen the cover.
This is how many properties aregoing to have.
(19:33):
Wow, there's 2,000 propertiesat one auction.
Not California, just LosAngeles.
This is one county.
Oh yeah, San Bernardino willhave double this.
San Bernardino County will havetwice as many, and so these
properties start.
Some of these properties are $5million, $10 million.
Other properties are just goingto.
Average in Los Angeles is$900,000 for the median price.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (19:57):
Yeah, just for a median house.
Ted Thomas (19:59):
So you know, sharon, and I back when we worked.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (20:02):
We were working in Fort Lauderdale, so
we went to the Broward County.
We were going to go buy sometax certificates and I did not
know at that time because it waslike brand new for me.
And I did not know at that timebecause it was like brand new
for me and I did not know youyet.
And the bidding was likewhatever, it was like 18%.
And then people started biddingbackwards and we're like what's
happening right now, and so Ilearned, like on the spot, that
(20:27):
people bid down and then whoeverwill take the least amount wins
it.
So we're there, we're like, oh,we're going to buy a whole
bunch of these today, we're allexcited.
And then you got to really, sowe're learning as we went.
I think we bought a few, butthere were people that would
come in with a paper like thatand just bid on just hundreds of
things, just all day bidding,bidding, bidding.
Ted Thomas (20:49):
This is where you want to be careful.
So what I did?
So people see me do this onYouTube.
They see me hold this stuff.
So they say I'm going to godown and buy those.
Well, what they do is they golike this I'm going to buy those
three right there.
Well, wait a minute, youwouldn't marry the man if you
didn't see him.
You've got to go look at thatproperty.
What if it's in the middle ofthe ghetto?
(21:09):
I mean, Broward County is themost competitive county in the
United States.
Oh, I believe it, Morecompetitive than Miami.
Miami-dade is competitive, butBroward's the most competitive.
If you buy something and youhaven't looked at it, you are a
big-time risk taker.
Because what if it's a badproperty?
No one's coming in and payingfor that.
If they don't come in and payfor it, you're going to get the
property.
(21:29):
Do you want a bad property?
What are you going to do withit?
Dwan Bent-Twyford (21:31):
That's right.
Ted Thomas (21:33):
So people don't pay any attention.
They just think, oh, this is agood sport to go down and start
doing the people that geteducated in this business.
They make small fortunes.
I mean make $50,000, $100,000per deal.
This is not unusual.
If you watch one of my videos,you'd see people making $25,000
and $50,000.
(21:54):
If you watch one of my videos,you'd see people making $25,000
and $50,000 regularly becausethey're doing a process.
It's just like anything, whetherit would be working on your
hand and doing surgery orwhether you're getting your hair
fixed.
It's a process and it has to bedone correctly, otherwise you
get orange hair or a biginfection in your hand.
You're getting my point.
I get it.
Well, you know what happens.
Right, because people don'tknow the process.
(22:19):
And if that's the case.
So this is a process businessand if people follow the process
they can do well.
If they don't and they wing it,they get in trouble.
I get young people.
They want to get rich quick.
It's a problem.
My average client is 45 to 105.
Young people don't do thisbecause they don't have the
money.
They want to go buy a BMW orthey want to try to get a down
(22:41):
payment on a condo or somethingright.
So I get adult people, so thepeople that come to us, we're
able to give them training.
That's the difference.
Same thing you're doing.
You're mentoring people andguiding them step by step, and
that's what it takes to makemoney today a step-by-step
process.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (22:56):
And you know it really does.
I mean you and I have been inthis business.
You know over 30 years each indifferent fields, but it's the
same thing I tell people.
It's like if you want to learnhow to buy and sell foreclosures
or you want to be a landlord ora rehabber, like I did, wing it
back then because there wasnobody teaching in 1990.
(23:17):
So I learned seat of my pants.
But then by the time like thoselearning antics, those kind of
events came, there were peoplelike you and people like me that
had systems and programs thatcould say look, cut your
learning curve, let me just showyou how to do it the right way.
And same thing, the first taxcertificates that I ever went to
at Broward County, sharon and Idon't know.
(23:39):
We're sitting there, we'rethinking we're going to bid on
all this stuff and everybody'sbidding things down, and then I
guess there must have been sometax defaults and some people
ended up with buying land thatwas like kind of in the
Everglades, like where they hadplanned to build but they never
did.
So everything was all swampy orthey'd buy a bunch of pieces
together but nothing was not abig enough space to put in a
(24:02):
septic and I mean I know somepeople that ended up with and
they're like oh yeah, we didn'tgo look at it.
We just thought you know it's apiece of land, it's got to be
good.
So now that's not necessarilytrue.
You need to know what you'redoing.
Ted Thomas (24:15):
Yeah, and people buy .
Unfortunately, especially inFlorida, they buy land where
they don't know where the landis.
So you are right next to itbecause you're right next to
Lake Okeechobee.
So I've been at auctions wherebig companies will come in,
whether they're banks or a hedgefund, and they'll buy 3,000
(24:40):
certificates off the list.
So they're doing that in WestPalm Beach.
Well, part of the land that'smapped out is under Lake
Okeechobee.
Where are they going to do aproperty under Lake Okeechobee?
So what's going to happen isthey're going to give their
money to the county.
There's no one ever going tocome in and redeem that and pay
for it.
So they lost, they're going tolose their money.
So people say you can't lose,you get a little instruction,
you learn just things to avoid.
So it's very important thatpeople take some kind of
(25:01):
training.
I remember when you were theonly person they could go to for
short sales.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (25:09):
That's right, the short sale queen.
I have the trademarks still tothis day.
Ted Thomas (25:14):
Well, when you did that, you had to go step by step
, fall down, step by step, falldown until you could write the
book.
You wrote the book.
Well, I wrote the book on taxliens and deeds.
And I tell you, it wasn't soeasy to write.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (25:30):
I know, I know I did.
I was doing short sales andthen I trademarked the term
short sales as it applies toreal estate and it's like, hey,
I still have that trademark tothis day.
It's like I'm always keepingthat trademark.
I worked hard for that.
Ted Thomas (25:43):
Yeah, darn right, so it's the same story People that
don't take training.
There's a certain group, butthe clients that I attract, I
don't get anybody that doesn'thave gray hair.
They get gray hair and they'reconservative.
We can teach them all the steps.
It's not unusual for us to havepeople at 80 and 90 years old
going to auctions.
Yeah, not unusual, but theyknow what they're doing.
(26:03):
They know what they're notguessing, whereas the other
people that go and guess mostauctions I'll say 80% of the
people you'll see at an auctionhave never had any training.
I've never talked to anybody.
They just show up.
The word auction means bargainto them and so they overbid to
win the auction.
What are you going to sell itfor?
If you overbid, overbidproperty, there's no way you can
(26:25):
sell it.
It's impossible.
People don't understand that.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (26:28):
They do.
They hear the word auction like, oh, it's going to be a great
deal, it's an auction and it'snot necessarily a good deal.
And all the different countiesaround the country?
Then is all the bidding on thetax certificates the same.
You start here and people bidbackwards.
Is that the nationwide concept?
Ted Thomas (26:48):
The challenge with the taxing business is it's not
because some states, like SouthCarolina, you can actually bid
them up.
They bid up like you would bidon a property.
But South Carolina is such agood state to do it because if
you bid up and then the peopledon't come in and redeem it,
they just automatically send youthe deed.
You don't even have toforeclose, they just send you a
(27:10):
deed to the property and you ownit.
So that's how easy it is there.
If you go to Texas, texas andGeorgia are my two favorite
states because if you buy inTexas, when you raise your hand
and you buy a certificate, thatcertificate pays up to 25%.
That's so much money.
So what happens is, when youbought the certificate, the
(27:30):
property owner has 180 days tocome back and buy the
certificate back.
If they don't buy it back, youget the property in 180 days.
That's nice.
In Georgia you can buy it andearn a 20% return in one year,
30% the next year, 40% the yearafter that.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (27:50):
Dang.
So then, like the bank steps inand redeems it, they have to
pay you the 20% and 30% and 40%for each of those years.
Ted Thomas (27:59):
If the bank wants a certificate, they will come in
and pay for it.
Most of the banks just walkaway from it because they don't
want the headaches.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (28:05):
Yeah, they do , they do.
Ted Thomas (28:07):
Yeah, they don't understand what they've got, so
they walk away because theydon't want to hire an attorney
and go through all that.
Now, on a big colonial housethat's worth $800,000, they're
going to come in, but on smallparcels of land and small
properties $200,000 propertiesthe bank's just going to walk.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (28:25):
Yeah, they do , they do.
They let them go all the time.
And so now someone gets the taxcertificate.
It's gone through the process,nobody redeemed it.
They get the deed to the houseand then they can do whatever
they want with it it's theirhouse.
Ted Thomas (28:38):
Right, it's their house, and the only thing
they'll have to do is they'llhave to get a legal procedure
done, called a quiet titleaction.
Yeah, that means the attorneygoes out and checks all the
reports to make sure that thetitle is correct, because banks
won't accept properties thatwere delivered from the county
because they don't know if thecounty did all the work right or
not, and so you have to get aquiet title.
(29:00):
99% of the time the county doesit right, but you'll have to
get a quiet title or youcouldn't finance it.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (29:08):
Yeah, I forgot about that.
It's like oh, quiet title, Iremember that.
Yeah, some of the terms youdon't use them for a long time.
You're like, oh, remember that.
Yeah, so you get like a titlecompany that does a quiet title.
They just confirm everything'sclear and free and then boom,
you've got your house for thetaxes.
Ted Thomas (29:23):
Yeah, yeah, you have to use an attorney for that
because it's a lawsuit.
Yeah, quiet title is a lawsuit,so it has to be done with an
attorney.
So you're kind of getting theidea.
So I have all kinds of clients.
I have them all over the place.
I have clients that are in theUnited Kingdom.
I have in Mexico, mexico City,all of the United States.
We're really big in Canada.
When I finish this, I'll haveLinda put a couple of
(29:46):
testimonials in and tell youabout some of those people so
you can see what they do and howthey did it.
Women are especially good atthis business and I'll tell you
why it's because I don't teachfixer uppers.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (30:01):
Yeah, exactly .
Ted Thomas (30:02):
I say just do the engineering of learning how to
buy it, learning how to sell itand sell it to guys and gals
that want to fix it up.
So this is a business that youbuy low, get a little bit of
margin, sell low to afixer-upper or someone that
wants to be a wholesaler andmove on to the next one.
(30:23):
There's 5,000 auctions everysingle year.
There's such an abundance it'srare for them to be able to sell
all the properties at auction.
Yeah, this isn't overwhelmingPeople.
They're not overwhelming.
You can go to auctions.
There'll be 800 people there.
Just use the 80-20 rule.
Maximum of 20% will do anything.
All the 80% of they're justlooking.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (30:45):
Oh, what's happening?
They're just there to watch.
Ted Thomas (30:47):
Yeah, that's all they're there to watch.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (30:48):
I used to like to go to the auctions at
the courthouse steps, like inBroward County and Palm Beach
County, and you just walk in.
There's so many people.
You're like, oh my gosh, I'mnever going to get a house for
so many people.
But most people are justwatching.
There's just a little handfuland you see who they are.
And then they're there everyweek or every day or however
(31:09):
often it is.
They're there all the timebuying and buying and bidding on
things.
Ted Thomas (31:13):
Right.
Right, people are in thebusiness, go to the auction, are
in the business, go to theauction.
So there's enough room foreverybody Anybody that wants to
do it, and there's enough statesto do it.
And the beauty of it is becausewhat's happened in the last
actually over 10 years, but inthe last two or three years, all
of the counties have comeonline.
There's only a few countiesthat aren't online now, and so
now we can teach people to sithere in the office and they can
(31:34):
do all the research on theproperty, know everything they
want to know about it, and theycan buy property online if they
want.
Yeah, we have one rule.
That rule is don't buy anythingwhere you didn't walk on the
property.
That's right.
If you haven't seen it, don'tbuy it.
Get your shoes dirty, get therain coming down on you, because
(31:55):
it's always raining.
When you want to look, there'salways something wrong.
So you want to look, because ifyou don't know what you bought,
well, you've got a big problemin your hands, but you can do
all of it online now.
So women are very good atonline number one.
But number two they don't haveto get.
Really, you don't have to be asuper salesperson because you
(32:16):
see you bought it low.
So let's say you bought it at30 cents.
Hell, sell it at 50 cents onthe dollar and every rehabber in
the world will be beating onyour door because they're going
to put all the heavy work in it.
Now they deserve what they dothey have to work hard?
I mean, they really work hard?
Oh, they do.
No broken fingernails, no painin your hair, none of that.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (32:37):
So women do especially well, especially well
, in the school I get it.
So the people that just want tolike I just want to buy
certificates sit on them for acouple of years and then they
get redeemed, so and maybe theyget it at like 18%.
They paid $5,000 for it, sothey're making 18% each year.
So if they have it for twoyears before it's redeemed, they
(32:58):
make 18% each year.
So if they have it for twoyears before it's redeemed, they
make 18% the first year, 18%the second year.
So someone that just wants tobuy the certificates and wait
for them to be redeemed, theycould have hundreds and hundreds
of them at a time, as long asthey've got the cash for them.
Ted Thomas (33:12):
As long as they got cash to buy them.
I have clients that have boughtup to 700 certificates over a
period of a couple of years, sothen their cash starts coming
back.
Yeah, they can just keep buyingmore and more and more.
95 to 97% of all thosecertificates are going to pay
you.
Yeah, they are.
You pray that you get one thatdoesn't pay you and then when
(33:33):
that happens, I'll even put alittle testimony on there so you
can see it.
This couple in Phoenix boughtone.
They spent $11,000 on thecertificate and the people
didn't come in and pay.
Turned out it was a $150,000condo they bought.
They went and looked first andit was on the water.
They bought it.
They paid the taxes on it.
(33:53):
The people never came in andpaid.
They ended up selling it andmaking $160,000.
That's not unusual.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (34:00):
It's not unusual and you know the reason
I think a lot of that happens isa lot of the people that buy
those certificates.
When they don't get reimbursed,it's because maybe someone from
another country bought a secondhome in the States and they
don't understand.
If they don't pay their taxes,then it gets sold, because I've
(34:23):
had a lot of.
I actually had one in Hollywood, florida, that we bought.
That was a little condo, like alittle one bedroom condo on the
beach, and Sharon and I endedup getting that.
We were like, oh my gosh, wehave this little like efficiency
right on the ocean in Hollywoodand the people that owned it
were from Canada or somewherelike that and they just they
didn't know how it works here inthe States.
So you do end up with a lot ofproperties, especially in like
(34:44):
tourist areas where people buyfrom out of country and don't
know how the tax laws work overhere.
Ted Thomas (34:51):
Well, you know it works the same way, you know
reversed, because the people inMichigan, you know, they come
down here and they buy and theyforget about paying the taxes so
they could lose the house.
But you know, floridians, a lotof Floridians, they want in the
summertime, they want to go outand be on one of those lakes in
Michigan, they want to be on alake, go fishing, it's nice and
cool at night, and all that theyforget to pay their taxes.
(35:12):
And so we have a bonanza goingon right now in Michigan where
my clients are buying propertiesin Michigan because people
haven't paid the taxes.
It's amazing.
So it works both ways.
People have so much they forgetto pay the taxes.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (35:28):
They do and they just don't know.
I mean, if you have a mortgagethat has principal interest
taxes and insurance in it, yourtaxes are going to get paid, but
a lot of people buy things freeand clear and then they just it
slips by.
Ted Thomas (35:43):
Young people get a mortgage with all that stuff in
it.
People that are buying theirsecond property.
Like you said, a lot of thempay cash.
Yeah, Some people pass away.
When they pass away and there'sno relatives, those houses are
all up for sale.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (35:56):
Yeah.
Ted Thomas (35:57):
So it's not an unusual business.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (35:59):
Well, let's jump topics for a minute.
So everyone, you are definitelythe godfather of taxes.
So everyone just go totedthomascom and you can find
everything out.
Possibly that this man knowsand I'm telling you from
personal experience.
I've seen him for decadesworking and doing this and
(36:20):
making millionaires and helpingother people and things like
that.
So let's go talk about somepersonal things.
What's your favorite band ofall time?
Tell me your favorite band ofall time.
Who do you love to listen to?
Ted Thomas (36:30):
Oh, my goodness, I'm really going to date myself.
I loved Glenn Miller and allthe old bands.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (36:36):
I do too, though.
Ted Thomas (36:37):
Harry James, all that I mean.
When I went to, you know, afterregular school I went to the
college things.
They were still touring inthose days, which is 1960 for me
.
That was a long time ago.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (36:50):
I like the music from the 40s, like the big
band music from the 40s.
Ted Thomas (36:53):
Yeah, that's what I'm talking about.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (36:55):
Yeah, I know I know Glenn Miller I have on my
TV has Sirius Radio I put onthe 40s, all the time that era
of music is like.
It's so peaceful.
Ted Thomas (37:08):
You can even understand the words.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (37:10):
You can understand the words, there's no
cursing and it's such a nicemusic.
I love 40s music.
I listen to it a surprisingamount because it's just really
peaceful.
It makes you want to dance.
You're like, oh, I want to getup, I want to do a ball.
Yeah Well, that's good.
Glenn Miller, good for you.
What kind of food?
What's your favorite thing toeat?
(37:30):
What do you like to eat whenyou go out?
Ted Thomas (37:32):
Well, if I go out, I'm not a gourmand, as they say,
although I did spend part of mylife studying wines and food.
Now I'm really happy with asirloin steak and a baked potato
.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (37:46):
So I'm an old school guy that likes that with
lots of veggies.
I like just the steak, noveggies.
Ted Thomas (37:51):
I'll just take a veggie steak.
Oh no, you got to have veggies.
You got to have veggies.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (37:53):
Yeah, I know I really have to make myself be
better about that.
I'm a meat eater.
I could just eat meat all thetime.
But then I'm like no, I got tomake veggies.
No, I got to have some salad.
Ted Thomas (38:04):
I'm a meat eater.
No, no, I could eat the meatall the time, but I'd probably
get sick.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (38:08):
Yeah, as we get a little older, we have to
be more cautious about what weeat.
Ted Thomas (38:13):
I lose weight if I eat meat.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (38:18):
I eat meat, I lose weight.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I thinkeverybody does so.
What's your favorite part ofthe day?
Waking up to go to bed?
When is like, where's yourhappy time?
Ted Thomas (38:25):
I'm happy most of the time, but I I'm a morning
person.
I don't mind being solo bymyself.
My first career was a pilot, soI was very lucky.
You start early days and wecould watch the sun go out.
So my first major flying jobwas with Aloha Airlines in
Honolulu, hawaii.
So when you took off out of theHonolulu airport you headed
(38:45):
east towards the big island.
We watched the sun come up overthe Pacific.
We finished the last flight ofthe day, that's at nine o'clock
at night, right.
So we're leaving the big islandafter many trips back and forth
and now you can see the sunsetof the day.
So both of those times todayare the favorite time.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (39:01):
I love that too.
I love that too.
So what is your biggest goalLike right now, ted Thomas?
What's your biggest goal thatyou're working on, and how can
the wonderful family help youachieve that?
Ted Thomas (39:16):
Well, thank you, that was a nice thing to say.
My biggest goal is to do moreof what I'm doing now and just
stay alive.
I had a stroke three years agoand so I lost my balance All
right, so I can't fly anymore.
So I always have to be touchingsomething Like right now I
touch the table, or my butt isin the chair, so otherwise I'll
(39:37):
lose my balance and I could fall.
The table, or my butt is in thechair, so I, otherwise I'll
lose my balance and I could fall.
So my, my goal is is to livefive more years and then all
what I have I've already signedall the papers.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (39:48):
I'm giving it all away to Habitat.
Oh wow, that's really amazing.
Ted Thomas (39:51):
Yes, Well, that is sweet.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (39:53):
Well, let's hope that you make it more than
five years.
90 is too young.
I feel like you're one of those?
Ted Thomas (39:58):
Oh, I don't know about that.
You need to hang on to like 100.
All right, hang on to 100.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (40:03):
Give us a little.
I got to get out of here.
Ted Thomas (40:05):
I got to get out of here, though, so the young
people can take over.
No, no, you just keep teachingthem again All right, so the
best way, yeah, but let me tellyou something we do.
We need to do a promo for yourclients, okay, so I'm going to
give you a promo code.
That's really easy.
Okay, it's Dwan, d-w-a-n 50.
(40:26):
Okay, so you want to go to?
That's the promo code.
Go to TedThomas, slash Dwan.
And what they can do is I doevery other week, I do a
six-hour virtual so they can sitat home, put their feet up,
they can have breakfast, theycan have lunch.
We're going to do a six-hourclass Now.
(40:47):
Usually I charge 47 bucks.
It's only $23.
Okay, I always charge foreverything.
I'm not doing anything free,and what we'll do is they can
come through that If they everwanted to learn about tax
defaulted property or tax liens.
They will know more after thatsix hours than you and I learned
in our first three years.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (41:05):
Oh, here, here.
So tedthomas.
com forward, slash Dwan50.
Ted Thomas (41:10):
You can do that and it'll go right through.
That'll be perfect and it'll goright through.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (41:13):
Okay, so I still have one more question for
you.
So before we wrap up, let me domy wrap up, and I got a really
good question for you.
So, folks again, dwan meantTwyford, america's most sought
after real estate investor.
You can find me atdwanderfulcom, so Ted's known me
a long time.
So I took my name Dwan andwonderful, and I made a new word
, so hence the world ofdwanderful.
(41:36):
So you've always told me I'vealways been outgoing, I've
always been out there.
I'm like you know what?
I'm getting older, I need somepink hair.
I can't have gray hair.
I have to be D'Wonderful, Ineed something amazing.
So that's how D'Wonderful cameto be.
If you opt in over there, Ihave some.
You not.
(41:57):
With Ted Thomas, I want you tosubscribe to my podcast, leave a
five-star review and writesomething, because podcasts are
definitely a labor of love andwe can't grow and get bigger
without your help.
And, ted, I don't know if youknow this right now, but right
now on Spotify, my podcast islike in the top 50.
Ted Thomas (42:17):
Wow, Congratulations .
I know I get Congratulations.
I know I got.
I get notifications.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (42:21):
I'm like I was number 47.
The other day I was like 47 on.
Spotify under the category ofbusiness.
It's like oh, my word.
Ted Thomas (42:29):
So keep the pink hair.
Because my assistant said Isaid I know this woman and she
said she's got pink hair.
That's the first thing she said.
I said well, she was glamorous25 years ago, so I can't imagine
now.
And then here we are.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (42:42):
I'm in breaking gray but, I, can't be
all gray.
I have to have some fun.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Ted Thomas (42:47):
I have white, I have white.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (42:49):
You do?
You look fabulous.
Honestly, it's really such ablast in the past.
I can't wait to tell peoplethat I interviewed you and
talked to you, okay, so what Iwant you to do, Ted, is I want
you to give us a parting word ofwisdom, but it can only be one
single word, one word Results.
(43:10):
Okay Now.
So everyone that listens to meknows every week, when our guest
gives us our word of the week,our parting word of wisdom,
you're going to write a littlesticky and you're going to put
it up on your mirror and everyday you're going to say results,
results, results.
That's your word of the week.
So tell us what that means toyou, so they know what you think
the word results means.
Ted Thomas (43:32):
Well, I have a policy with my company because I
have a lot of young people thatwork with me and they're always
afraid to make mistakes.
So I say it.
They don't always believe me,but I say it continuously.
I say, look, just do it, and ifyou make a mistake you can't
get fired.
You make a mistake, you can'tget fired, because the only way
I evaluate people is those sevenletters results.
(43:54):
What result did you prove?
Now, if you make a mistake,just don't kill anybody.
I mean, don't run someone over.
But if you make a mistake witha computer or with a client, we
can call the client back and say, look, we made a mistake and
it's okay to do that.
The heck with the mistakes,because people grow like this,
yeah they do.
Listen, I said it.
(44:15):
I can only say this to very fewpeople.
I can say it to you.
Listen, I said it and I canonly say this to very few people
.
I can say it to you because youcreated a subject.
You created short sale.
There was short sales forexecutives and for people that
really knew big-time real estate, but there was no little person
like us real people that knewwhat short sale meant.
And then you came out with thisbig package of things short
(44:37):
sale.
I still have it on the shelf.
Next time I see you, I'm goingto hold it up and show it to you
.
So you started something, butyou didn't start something
without leveling out, crashingdown, going up Each time you
went up.
It's like the first time youtry to do a pushup, the first
time you try to go on a diet.
Just grade yourself on theresult, that's all.
(44:58):
So I tell my people I'm justgoing to grade you on result.
You would be amazed how itchanges people.
But they have to be remindedconstantly and we as people have
to remember to grade ourselveson result, because we botch it
up all the time.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (45:12):
Yeah, that's really kind of profound,
actually, because I have somepeople that work for me that are
younger and whenever they makea mistake they're always like I
hope John didn't fire me.
It's like I'm not going to fireyou, like I'm teaching you.
But you know that's true.
Just the results are the bigpicture, because everyone's
going to make mistakes.
Nobody gets it right all thetime.
Ted Thomas (45:35):
Fail forward fast.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (45:37):
Fail forward fast, okay, so after I uh say
goodbye here, I want you to justhang on and stay with me for a
second.
So again, folks, ted is he.
He is really the godfather I'mreally.
Honestly, it's like my heart'sjust warm seeing you again today
.
So go to ted, thomascom,forward, slash duan, and I would
highly advise you to watch oneof those weekends.
(45:58):
I think, ted, I do have, I knowI do.
Down in Florida I have some anold training Maybe I got back
from like the learning annexdays and I'm going to have to
dig it up too.
So next time I see I can say,hey, I went to sign my, my.
Ted Thomas (46:10):
OG copy.
If you can find it, send it tome and our all new programs come
out in December.
We're just finishing them now,all new, and I'll send it to you
.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (46:20):
Yeah.
Ted Thomas (46:21):
Send me the old one, I'm sure.
Speaker 2 (46:23):
I do.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (46:24):
When I go to Florida next time I'm going
through my old bookshelf I'mgoing to find it, because I know
for sure that I have it and Ilike your words, results and
thank you for being a guest.
You've been very kind andgenerous with your time and your
effort and all of your crazyknowledge.
So, folks, we'll be back againnext week.
Same bat time, same bat channel.
And just remember that thetruth is in the red letters.
(46:45):
All right, everybody.
Ciao, I'll see you next week.
And Ted, again, thank you andsee you next week.
Hey everybody , welcome to the most Dwonderful
real estate podcast ever.
I'm your host, wandaBenton-Twyford.
I am America's mostsought-after real estate
investor and I'm telling you Ihave such a good treat for you
all today.
This is my friend, ted Thomas,and Ted and I have known each
other at least 30 years.
(00:23):
So long We've spoken everywhere, all over the country, giant
stages, and I'm so excited tohave him on as my guest today.
So, before we start with Ted,the motto at D'Wonderful is
people before profits, so that'ssomething that resonates with
you.
You're at the right place.
(00:43):
I'm a girl, this is your guy,so let's get into it.
So, ted, seriously, how thehell are you?
Ted Thomas (00:49):
I am great.
I never felt better.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (00:52):
So do you still say yes and yes?
Ted Thomas (00:55):
Yes and yes.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (00:56):
You know, I used to teach trial closes, so
I'd say to people yes or yes andthey would just say yes, that
was great I remember you and Igosh darn, we spoke at the
Learning Annexes in New York andDonald Trump was there, and
Tony Robbins and Kiyosaki andSuzy Orman and you and me and we
had so much fun at all thosebig events.
Ted Thomas (01:17):
Boy, those events were huge, Sometimes 40,000
people.
I remember being in Los Angelesand you couldn't leave the room
because there was so manypeople in the hallway.
You know there's 40,000 peoplethere.
It was unbelievable.
They were fun.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (01:31):
I kind of hated to see those go away.
I thought because they werejust.
You know, first of all it's funto speak and teach and train
and, you know, get to share ourprograms and our knowledge with
people.
But it was just always good tobe able to see all the other
speakers too.
Ted Thomas (01:43):
Right, absolutely.
I haven't seen you sgo havedinner.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (01:46):
You look amazing, I'm just saying it.
You look freaking amazing.
Ted Thomas (01:51):
Oh, that was the right thing to say.
Now, you made my ego so big.
I'm as big as the empire statebuilding, okay.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (01:58):
No, you look great, you look great.
And you have been teaching thetax lianes for I mean forever
and ever.
I actually learned what I knowabout them from you and sitting
in on all your classes andeverything.
Ted Thomas (02:09):
Well, thank you.
You know, I started out in theforeclosure business, so my
first jgrade was as a pilot andthen, when I finished flying, I
got involved in foreclosure realestate, which I liked and that
worked well.
But then everybody got in thebusiness and I said well, if
everybody's in the business,everybody's pushing the price up
, up, up.
You could buy foreclosures for30 or 50 cents on the dollar.
(02:29):
But oh, my goodness, whathappened Next thing?
You know, people paid 70 and 80cents on the dollar.
I said well, you pay 80%, howare you going to make any money?
And so I started learning abouttax liens a little over 30
years ago and I've been at itever since and it's been a great
business.
It still is a great business.
It still is, and nationwideit's in every single county in
(02:49):
the United.
States yeah.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (02:51):
So let's tell everyone right off the bat are
you online?
Do you have all social media?
Do you have Instagram?
Ted Thomas (02:58):
Oh yeah, we have all the social media channels.
So what is your social media?
Well, so what?
Dwan Bent-Twyford (03:01):
What is your social media?
Ted Thomas (03:03):
Well, most people just want to go to tedthomas.
com.
That's the easiest place tostart Tedthomas.
com.
Right.
That's where most people start.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (03:11):
Okay, and then I know they can find you on
YouTube, and so they'll just goto tedthomas.
com and they'll find you in allthe places.
Ted Thomas (03:19):
Right, yeah, and definitely YouTube.
I have about 2,000 visitors onYouTube every day, about 5,000
or 6,000 subscribers to YouTube,and I just started.
I'm not a tech guy, I'm ahands-on person, so I just
started the YouTube channelthree years ago, but it's up to
55,000 people already.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (03:39):
I know, hey, listen, that's amazing.
But you know honestly, you justlike.
You have so much knowledge withwhat you do so you teach people
.
So let's talk about tax liens.
So a lot of the people on myDwonderful real estate podcasts
are people that are newer in thebusiness.
So you know, if someone's likebrand brand new, I'm like just
(04:02):
wholesale a house is a good wayto get your feet wet, but tax
liens are something I think thatpeople can do is like brand
brand new.
I'm like just wholesale a houseis a good way to get your feet
wet, but tax lanes are somethingI think that people can do
straight out of the gate, evenas new people, but a lot of
people don't talk about it.
In fact, I've had my podcastfor five years.
I think I've only interviewedlike one or two people that
teach people how to do tax lanes, because you're like, you know,
(04:24):
you're like the grandfather.
Ted Thomas (04:25):
Yeah, right, yeah, oh, the godfather is right,
you're the godfather, you arethe godfather of tax liens.
They're probably my students.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (04:33):
They probably are your students and when I,
when I found out that you wereavailable, I was like, oh my God
, ted's on my podcast.
I have to say I feel reallyhonored because I've just seen
you on the giant stages andknown you for so long and, yeah,
we're all like kind of newtogether.
Back, back, back, back back.
So it's a real honor for me tohave you on today.
Ted Thomas (04:51):
Well, we should say one thing before we talk about
tax advocates.
So we worked in New York Cityand big forums.
I mean there were so manypeople there, 20 or 30,000
people and I'll never forgetwhen we come up from down to
these big forms.
There were big rooms and I'dcome up a big elevator and I'd
come up the elevator and therewas a picture of you that was at
(05:12):
least 20 foot tall, at least 20foot.
There you were glamorous, youwaving at all of us and
welcoming us.
I'll never forget that picture.
So when we made the appointmentfor this broadcast, I said
Linda, you're not going tobelieve this.
This gal was so glamorous.
She had a picture that was sobiad.
I've never seen such a bigpicture in my life.
So here we are doing it again.
(05:32):
It was, you're just asglamorous.
Now I don't know how you did it, but you really did it.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (05:37):
Thank you, I will accept that compliment.
Yeah, I remember the one therein New York and they were like
they had me speak on the bigstage with, uh they go, we're
going to put up some pictures ofyou.
And I remember myself I didn'tknow.
When I went in I was like, ohmy God, that's the biggest
picture I've ever seen of myselfanywhere.
So then, when we're done, I waslike, could I have that picture
(05:57):
?
Like how are you?
Ted Thomas (05:58):
going to get it.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (05:59):
I don't know, but it's like 20 feet tall.
It was the biggest picture I'veever seen.
Ted Thomas (06:04):
That's a trademark forever.
I mean, it was unbelievable,really unbelievable.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (06:11):
Those were some really good times and you
know, you and I spoke on thestages with Donald Trump and
Tony Robbins, and Kiyosaki, ofcourse us, and Susie Orman, and
I remember Russell Sieminer wasthat one Any big?
Ted Thomas (06:20):
name that was on television was on that program,
everybody, and we were reallythe people that made the money
for the event.
But the big names were whatbrought people here.
Trump brought thousands andthousands of people.
Susie Orman, all those peoplebrought wonderful, wonderful
crowds.
I mean I've never been in acrowd like we were in Los
Angeles, where there was 40,000people.
I mean I've never been aroundanything like that.
(06:42):
That was really fantastic.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (06:44):
I had never seen that many people either.
When I got up on that reallybig stage it was like 10,000
people and I thought, oh Lord,have mercy, I did it because you
know I'm not nervous.
And I got up there and when Iwas standing there I was like,
oh all right, I can do it.
I can do it.
I know what I'm talking about,but it was a lot of people.
Ted Thomas (07:02):
Yeah, it sure was.
So let me tell you abouttaxidermists.
So tell us about taxidermists.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (07:06):
So someone that's like, let's just say,
someone is like really superbrand spanking new, they don't
know anything about taxidermy.
Ted Thomas (07:13):
Okay, okay, how does that?
Dwan Bent-Twyford (07:14):
work for a brand new person.
Ted Thomas (07:16):
Foundation right from the foundation.
All right, so every property inthe United States is taxable,
all right, half of the statessell tax defaulted.
All of them sell tax defaulted,but half of them will sell
what's called a tax liencertificate.
Now, this is a certificatethat's produced by a local
government, meaning a county.
(07:37):
So there's over 3,000 pluscounties and all the counties
that sell these tax certificates.
Now, a tax certificate isnothing more than a piece of
paper, and that's a piece ofpaper like I'm holding up right
now.
It's just a piece of paper likethat.
Yeah, okay, so if someone didn'tpay their tax, the county would
say now Dwan, you didn't payyour tax.
(07:58):
So what we're going to do iswe're going to slap your hand
and we want you to pay your taxreturn, but meanwhile we're
going to let someone else buythis certificate, which is a tax
on your house, so they couldpay the tax on your property.
So thousands of thesecertificates are available and
they paid outrageous interestrates.
So it wouldn't matter whetheryou were in Florida, where they
(08:19):
pay all the way up to 18 percent, or whether you were in Iowa,
where they pay 24 percent, orwhether you're in Iowa where
they pay 24%, or whether you'rein Phoenix, arizona, where they
paid 16%.
So there's all these differentamounts they pay.
It's all up to the state to dothat.
Now anybody can go to a tax liencertificate auction.
Now you can do it online.
You just raise your hand likethat and say you want to buy it
(08:40):
and then you're just going togive your money to the
government.
You can't give the money togovernment.
You can't give the money to me.
You can't give the money to you.
This is super safe.
This is the safest investmentin America today because it goes
directly to the county Yep andthe county will hold that money.
Now you're not going to loseyour house because you didn't
pay the tax.
So 97% of all thesecertificates will pay off.
(09:04):
In other words, the people willcome in and when they come in
and pay their tax, they get apenalty.
So now they get their handsslapped.
Yeah, and the penalty is justlike master charge and visa Same
thing.
It's a penalty.
You didn't pay on time, so nowyou're going to pay.
So if they paid in Florida, itmight go all the way up to 18%.
If they paid it in anotherstate, it might be a different
(09:25):
rate.
The point is these are safecertificates.
So a place like Florida,they'll have 1 million
certificates available in themonth of May 1 million a year A
million, a million.
Miami Florida will have 60 or 70.
Here I'll show you so.
They advertise these in thenewspaper.
Anybody can find it.
So here's, this is the Tampanewspaper.
(09:46):
Yeah, okay, but there's nopictures, it's just lists of tax
lien certificates.
Wow, 40,000 just in that list,so you can pick out every single
county.
So about 1,500 to 1,700counties sell tax lien
certificates.
Yeah, so anybody can buy them,anybody tax lien certificates.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (10:04):
So anybody could anybody.
And so the thing I like abouttax certificates, let's just say
someone's taxes are, I don'tknow, $5,000.
Right, I commit, I pay the$5,000 to the city.
I have a tax certificate andI'm getting this 24% interest
and you can hold those for what?
Two years before the peoplehave to.
(10:25):
So at the end of the two yearsyou've made 24% interest for the
last two years and then thehomeowner or the bank or someone
is going to pay for thatcertificate, because that
certificate now moves into firstposition in front of the
mortgage.
So the bank isn't going to losea whole, entire mortgage over a
tax certificate right.
Ted Thomas (10:46):
so you get two possible pay.
One could be the homeownerwould pay for it or the bank
would pay for it.
Yeah, all right.
Now what if they don't pay youat all?
So if you didn't get paid atall, then you're going to get
the property without a mortgage.
That's right.
The mortgage is wiped out.
So some people buy and pray thatnobody pays, because they're
(11:08):
going to get the property.
You're going to get the right,so it's a great investment for
it.
And so you.
You have to know that 95, 97%of these certificates are going
to pay you, so you need to do itas a long-term investment.
So where is it perfect for?
How about a pension plan, anIRA plan or something like that?
If you have one of those,that's a perfect place for it.
(11:36):
Then there's the other side ofthe business, which is called
tax-defaulted property.
So you remember when I started,I said every property, and
there's 100 million of them inthe United States and we track
them all with a computer righthere.
We can show you how to sit.
I can sit where you're sittingright now and you can tap into
100 million properties 100million.
Now.
Those properties are going toget sold with a starting bid of
(11:56):
the back taxes.
Now, let's say it was a$100,000 property and the
starting bid is back taxesprobably only about $5,000.
So there's a lot of marginthere.
But the smart people like youand me, the people we teach,
they're going to go to thatauction, they're going to bid it
up so it won't get sold for$5,000, but you still can buy
properties for $0.25, $0.30 onthe dollar and you made a great
(12:18):
deal.
So where are you going to getproperties for $0.25 or $0.30 on
the dollar?
No place At the tax defaultedauctions, yeah, and there's
5,000 tax defaulted auctionsevery year.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (12:31):
Wow, that is so crazy.
I just way back when I used towork with Sharon.
We would, and when we wereworking in Fort Lauderdale we
would go to the Broward Countyand we'd buy a few tax
certificates here and there.
But they oh hey, look, billTwyford, look who I am talking
to.
Bill Twyford (12:48):
Oh, my God, how you doing, ted.
Hey, I'm great, I'm great.
Hold on Let me get my.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (12:53):
You look so great, let me get my.
Ted Thomas (12:55):
Oh, that's the right thing to say Keep it up, keep
it it's.
Bill Twyford (13:09):
There you go.
It's good seeing you, man.
Thank you, good to see you.
You look great.
Ted Thomas (13:15):
So you guys must be living in a refrigerator eating
vitamin C.
You don't eat food.
You both look great.
Bill Twyford (13:20):
Oh, thanks man.
Ted Thomas (13:22):
I'm 66 now.
Bill Twyford (13:23):
She's been probably 20 years since we've
been together, that we've seenyou.
Ted Thomas (13:27):
We were just talking about the big pictures at the
Learning Annex of Dwan.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (13:32):
Oh, there you go.
He came up the elevator.
He wanted a picture of me.
Ted Thomas (13:35):
Yeah, I've never seen a big picture of any other
woman like that.
It was unbelievable, oh.
Bill Twyford (13:40):
I know.
Ted Thomas (13:41):
That's so cool.
I bet all those guys weretapping on your shoulder and
saying leave my number in caseyou decide to leave town.
Right, that's right?
Yeah, I know that.
Bill Twyford (13:51):
Well, it's so good to see you man.
I just dropped her off a littlebit of food and I, even when I
was down eating, I thought, damn, I want to go see Ted while he
was on the call with her and Ijust got busy.
But I'm glad I got to see you,thank you.
You look great man.
You look great.
Thank you, we'll catch youlater.
Ted Thomas (14:10):
Ted, see you All right, so long there.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (14:13):
Can't believe that pizza's sitting right here
.
Okay, so I'll get rid of mybackground.
This is Doesn't he look great?
Ted Thomas (14:19):
Yeah, absolutely yeah.
You guys are eating right,you're exercising, you're doing
everything Good for you.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (14:24):
We're doing all the things.
So yeah, I know he was to thatone learning and that picture.
I was like, oh my god, I almostfelt a little bit embarrassed.
That picture was so big andeverybody's like you're on the
wall.
I'm like I know, I didn't knowthey would do, but I wish I
would have figured out a way toget that picture and ship it to
my house because I would make itone of my walls yes, oh god, it
(14:47):
was funny.
So, um, so with the taxes.
So people go on the countysites or like what you have
there, and then they buy thecertificate.
So let's go back to talkingabout that.
They buy the certificate.
Ted Thomas (15:02):
Okay.
So if you bought a tax liencertificate, it's just a piece
of paper like this, that's allit is.
This is a certificate that Ijust put a plastic on so it
wouldn't wear out.
So you get a certificate, youtake it home.
You don't have any work to doAfter you buy a tax certificate.
It's a passive investment.
So there's no work.
So you buy the certificate,take it home, put it on your
desk, then you just wait for thepeople to pay their tax.
(15:23):
When they pay it, you're goingto get all your money back.
I said all your money back andthe high interest rate.
All right.
Now the other side of it is ifyou go to any state that's
selling tax defaulted propertythose properties you actually
end up with a property.
You get a deed, like you guysdo with regular real estate.
Oh, ok, you get a deed to thatproperty.
(15:43):
Now you own the property.
So that means you know you haveto secure it, you want to take
care of it, you're going to haveto pay utilities, you're going
to pay taxes, you're going tohave to fix it up, whatever you
have to do, and so we teachpeople how to do both of those
business.
They're both very lucrativebusiness, but the one that
people want for making money istax-defaulted property.
(16:03):
If they've got pension plans orIRA plans, things like that,
they probably want to do taxlien.
Or if they're old people likeme with lots of gray hair, well
then what they have to do isthey have to say guess what?
We are going to buy some taxliens, be very conservative with
their money.
So it works for both partiesthat want to do it.
It's not complicated, butgenerally real estate people are
(16:27):
so busy doing all the stuffthey're doing they haven't
learned about it.
So it's become a specialty, andI've just done the same thing
for the past 30 years.
We teach classes, we takepeople to events, we take them
on buying tours, we give littleintroduction things, virtual
classes, everything that you canimagine.
I don't have to pitch itbecause I just tell you at the
(16:50):
end.
Anybody that wants to come to asix hour class I do on every
other Saturday I charge them 47bucks.
Everything you ever wanted toknow about tax certificates is
in that 47.
It's six hours.
It starts at 11 in the morning,doesn't end till five o'clock.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (17:02):
Yeah, I'm going to get on one of those
here in the next couple of weeks.
So let's go back to the taxdefaults.
So these are properties wheresomeone bought the property tax
and whoever the bank, bank orfor whatever reason nobody
stepped in to pay that taxcertificate back with the
interest rate.
So now the property is going tobe own, free and clear for the
(17:26):
taxes.
So people start bidding, sothey bid.
Maybe they have a five thousanddollar certificate.
Do they get it?
Or this is something different,where they're actually building
on tax liens that defaulted.
Ted Thomas (17:39):
Okay, so the tax lien, that's defaulted.
They'll notice that on thecounty website and they'll put
it in a newspaper like this.
So this particular one at$40,000.
If I get another one here it'llbe even more.
I'll show you that as we go.
All right, so that certificate,when you bid on it.
So they say who wants thiscertificate?
People raise their hand onlineor offline.
So tax certificates generallyare bid down.
(18:01):
So the $5,000 you can't changebecause that's taxes, can't
change the tax.
So they bid down the interestrate and the lowest bidder gets
it.
The lowest bidder gets it, notthe highest.
Okay, so you have to be carefulwhen you go to an auction.
You have to learn this.
You know what.
You go there and you expect youto make 18%, but then someone
over here bids 17 and a half andsomeone's 17, someone's 16.
(18:24):
The lowest bidder is going toget it.
So you have to really payattention to what you're doing.
At a tax lien certificateauction Now, at a tax deed
auction, it starts at the lowprice of back taxes.
So in other words, the propertyhas a tax of 5,000.
That's where the tax, where thebidding, will start.
(18:44):
And then, because the propertyis worth, say, 100,000,.
Some people are going to bid20,000 for it.
Some people are 25, 50.
Some people will bid full price.
It's up to them.
But you can buy properties atthose auctions for anywhere from
a low of 10% all the way up to50%.
Now, you're not going to get acolonial house.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (19:05):
No, no, no, no, you don't, but it's a good
way to get property.
Ted Thomas (19:11):
It's a good way, because you can buy them for 30
or 40 cents on the dollar, withno mortgage and no deed of trust
on it, all right.
And so those properties, thoseproperties, are in auction.
Well, I'll show you a place.
Some of those auctions are huge.
For example, I'll show you areally big one.
So this is an auction list fromLos Angeles.
You just seen the cover.
This is how many properties aregoing to have.
(19:33):
Wow, there's 2,000 propertiesat one auction.
Not California, just LosAngeles.
This is one county.
Oh yeah, San Bernardino willhave double this.
San Bernardino County will havetwice as many, and so these
properties start.
Some of these properties are $5million, $10 million.
Other properties are just goingto.
Average in Los Angeles is$900,000 for the median price.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (19:57):
Yeah, just for a median house.
Ted Thomas (19:59):
So you know, sharon, and I back when we worked.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (20:02):
We were working in Fort Lauderdale, so
we went to the Broward County.
We were going to go buy sometax certificates and I did not
know at that time because it waslike brand new for me.
And I did not know at that timebecause it was like brand new
for me and I did not know youyet.
And the bidding was likewhatever, it was like 18%.
And then people started biddingbackwards and we're like what's
happening right now, and so Ilearned, like on the spot, that
(20:27):
people bid down and then whoeverwill take the least amount wins
it.
So we're there, we're like, oh,we're going to buy a whole
bunch of these today, we're allexcited.
And then you got to really, sowe're learning as we went.
I think we bought a few, butthere were people that would
come in with a paper like thatand just bid on just hundreds of
things, just all day bidding,bidding, bidding.
Ted Thomas (20:49):
This is where you want to be careful.
So what I did?
So people see me do this onYouTube.
They see me hold this stuff.
So they say I'm going to godown and buy those.
Well, what they do is they golike this I'm going to buy those
three right there.
Well, wait a minute, youwouldn't marry the man if you
didn't see him.
You've got to go look at thatproperty.
What if it's in the middle ofthe ghetto?
(21:09):
I mean, Broward County is themost competitive county in the
United States.
Oh, I believe it, Morecompetitive than Miami.
Miami-dade is competitive, butBroward's the most competitive.
If you buy something and youhaven't looked at it, you are a
big-time risk taker.
Because what if it's a badproperty?
No one's coming in and payingfor that.
If they don't come in and payfor it, you're going to get the
property.
(21:29):
Do you want a bad property?
What are you going to do withit?
Dwan Bent-Twyford (21:31):
That's right.
Ted Thomas (21:33):
So people don't pay any attention.
They just think, oh, this is agood sport to go down and start
doing the people that geteducated in this business.
They make small fortunes.
I mean make $50,000, $100,000per deal.
This is not unusual.
If you watch one of my videos,you'd see people making $25,000
and $50,000.
(21:54):
If you watch one of my videos,you'd see people making $25,000
and $50,000 regularly becausethey're doing a process.
It's just like anything, whetherit would be working on your
hand and doing surgery orwhether you're getting your hair
fixed.
It's a process and it has to bedone correctly, otherwise you
get orange hair or a biginfection in your hand.
You're getting my point.
I get it.
Well, you know what happens.
Right, because people don'tknow the process.
(22:19):
And if that's the case.
So this is a process businessand if people follow the process
they can do well.
If they don't and they wing it,they get in trouble.
I get young people.
They want to get rich quick.
It's a problem.
My average client is 45 to 105.
Young people don't do thisbecause they don't have the
money.
They want to go buy a BMW orthey want to try to get a down
(22:41):
payment on a condo or somethingright.
So I get adult people, so thepeople that come to us, we're
able to give them training.
That's the difference.
Same thing you're doing.
You're mentoring people andguiding them step by step, and
that's what it takes to makemoney today a step-by-step
process.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (22:56):
And you know it really does.
I mean you and I have been inthis business.
You know over 30 years each indifferent fields, but it's the
same thing I tell people.
It's like if you want to learnhow to buy and sell foreclosures
or you want to be a landlord ora rehabber, like I did, wing it
back then because there wasnobody teaching in 1990.
(23:17):
So I learned seat of my pants.
But then by the time like thoselearning antics, those kind of
events came, there were peoplelike you and people like me that
had systems and programs thatcould say look, cut your
learning curve, let me just showyou how to do it the right way.
And same thing, the first taxcertificates that I ever went to
at Broward County, sharon and Idon't know.
(23:39):
We're sitting there, we'rethinking we're going to bid on
all this stuff and everybody'sbidding things down, and then I
guess there must have been sometax defaults and some people
ended up with buying land thatwas like kind of in the
Everglades, like where they hadplanned to build but they never
did.
So everything was all swampy orthey'd buy a bunch of pieces
together but nothing was not abig enough space to put in a
(24:02):
septic and I mean I know somepeople that ended up with and
they're like oh yeah, we didn'tgo look at it.
We just thought you know it's apiece of land, it's got to be
good.
So now that's not necessarilytrue.
You need to know what you'redoing.
Ted Thomas (24:15):
Yeah, and people buy .
Unfortunately, especially inFlorida, they buy land where
they don't know where the landis.
So you are right next to itbecause you're right next to
Lake Okeechobee.
So I've been at auctions wherebig companies will come in,
whether they're banks or a hedgefund, and they'll buy 3,000
(24:40):
certificates off the list.
So they're doing that in WestPalm Beach.
Well, part of the land that'smapped out is under Lake
Okeechobee.
Where are they going to do aproperty under Lake Okeechobee?
So what's going to happen isthey're going to give their
money to the county.
There's no one ever going tocome in and redeem that and pay
for it.
So they lost, they're going tolose their money.
So people say you can't lose,you get a little instruction,
you learn just things to avoid.
So it's very important thatpeople take some kind of
(25:01):
training.
I remember when you were theonly person they could go to for
short sales.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (25:09):
That's right, the short sale queen.
I have the trademarks still tothis day.
Ted Thomas (25:14):
Well, when you did that, you had to go step by step
, fall down, step by step, falldown until you could write the
book.
You wrote the book.
Well, I wrote the book on taxliens and deeds.
And I tell you, it wasn't soeasy to write.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (25:30):
I know, I know I did.
I was doing short sales andthen I trademarked the term
short sales as it applies toreal estate and it's like, hey,
I still have that trademark tothis day.
It's like I'm always keepingthat trademark.
I worked hard for that.
Ted Thomas (25:43):
Yeah, darn right, so it's the same story People that
don't take training.
There's a certain group, butthe clients that I attract, I
don't get anybody that doesn'thave gray hair.
They get gray hair and they'reconservative.
We can teach them all the steps.
It's not unusual for us to havepeople at 80 and 90 years old
going to auctions.
Yeah, not unusual, but theyknow what they're doing.
(26:03):
They know what they're notguessing, whereas the other
people that go and guess mostauctions I'll say 80% of the
people you'll see at an auctionhave never had any training.
I've never talked to anybody.
They just show up.
The word auction means bargainto them and so they overbid to
win the auction.
What are you going to sell itfor?
If you overbid, overbidproperty, there's no way you can
(26:25):
sell it.
It's impossible.
People don't understand that.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (26:28):
They do.
They hear the word auction like, oh, it's going to be a great
deal, it's an auction and it'snot necessarily a good deal.
And all the different countiesaround the country?
Then is all the bidding on thetax certificates the same.
You start here and people bidbackwards.
Is that the nationwide concept?
Ted Thomas (26:48):
The challenge with the taxing business is it's not
because some states, like SouthCarolina, you can actually bid
them up.
They bid up like you would bidon a property.
But South Carolina is such agood state to do it because if
you bid up and then the peopledon't come in and redeem it,
they just automatically send youthe deed.
You don't even have toforeclose, they just send you a
(27:10):
deed to the property and you ownit.
So that's how easy it is there.
If you go to Texas, texas andGeorgia are my two favorite
states because if you buy inTexas, when you raise your hand
and you buy a certificate, thatcertificate pays up to 25%.
That's so much money.
So what happens is, when youbought the certificate, the
(27:30):
property owner has 180 days tocome back and buy the
certificate back.
If they don't buy it back, youget the property in 180 days.
That's nice.
In Georgia you can buy it andearn a 20% return in one year,
30% the next year, 40% the yearafter that.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (27:50):
Dang.
So then, like the bank steps inand redeems it, they have to
pay you the 20% and 30% and 40%for each of those years.
Ted Thomas (27:59):
If the bank wants a certificate, they will come in
and pay for it.
Most of the banks just walkaway from it because they don't
want the headaches.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (28:05):
Yeah, they do , they do.
Ted Thomas (28:07):
Yeah, they don't understand what they've got, so
they walk away because theydon't want to hire an attorney
and go through all that.
Now, on a big colonial housethat's worth $800,000, they're
going to come in, but on smallparcels of land and small
properties $200,000 propertiesthe bank's just going to walk.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (28:25):
Yeah, they do , they do.
They let them go all the time.
And so now someone gets the taxcertificate.
It's gone through the process,nobody redeemed it.
They get the deed to the houseand then they can do whatever
they want with it it's theirhouse.
Ted Thomas (28:38):
Right, it's their house, and the only thing
they'll have to do is they'llhave to get a legal procedure
done, called a quiet titleaction.
Yeah, that means the attorneygoes out and checks all the
reports to make sure that thetitle is correct, because banks
won't accept properties thatwere delivered from the county
because they don't know if thecounty did all the work right or
not, and so you have to get aquiet title.
(29:00):
99% of the time the county doesit right, but you'll have to
get a quiet title or youcouldn't finance it.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (29:08):
Yeah, I forgot about that.
It's like oh, quiet title, Iremember that.
Yeah, some of the terms youdon't use them for a long time.
You're like, oh, remember that.
Yeah, so you get like a titlecompany that does a quiet title.
They just confirm everything'sclear and free and then boom,
you've got your house for thetaxes.
Ted Thomas (29:23):
Yeah, yeah, you have to use an attorney for that
because it's a lawsuit.
Yeah, quiet title is a lawsuit,so it has to be done with an
attorney.
So you're kind of getting theidea.
So I have all kinds of clients.
I have them all over the place.
I have clients that are in theUnited Kingdom.
I have in Mexico, mexico City,all of the United States.
We're really big in Canada.
When I finish this, I'll haveLinda put a couple of
(29:46):
testimonials in and tell youabout some of those people so
you can see what they do and howthey did it.
Women are especially good atthis business and I'll tell you
why it's because I don't teachfixer uppers.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (30:01):
Yeah, exactly .
Ted Thomas (30:02):
I say just do the engineering of learning how to
buy it, learning how to sell itand sell it to guys and gals
that want to fix it up.
So this is a business that youbuy low, get a little bit of
margin, sell low to afixer-upper or someone that
wants to be a wholesaler andmove on to the next one.
(30:23):
There's 5,000 auctions everysingle year.
There's such an abundance it'srare for them to be able to sell
all the properties at auction.
Yeah, this isn't overwhelmingPeople.
They're not overwhelming.
You can go to auctions.
There'll be 800 people there.
Just use the 80-20 rule.
Maximum of 20% will do anything.
All the 80% of they're justlooking.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (30:45):
Oh, what's happening?
They're just there to watch.
Ted Thomas (30:47):
Yeah, that's all they're there to watch.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (30:48):
I used to like to go to the auctions at
the courthouse steps, like inBroward County and Palm Beach
County, and you just walk in.
There's so many people.
You're like, oh my gosh, I'mnever going to get a house for
so many people.
But most people are justwatching.
There's just a little handfuland you see who they are.
And then they're there everyweek or every day or however
(31:09):
often it is.
They're there all the timebuying and buying and bidding on
things.
Ted Thomas (31:13):
Right.
Right, people are in thebusiness, go to the auction, are
in the business, go to theauction.
So there's enough room foreverybody Anybody that wants to
do it, and there's enough statesto do it.
And the beauty of it is becausewhat's happened in the last
actually over 10 years, but inthe last two or three years, all
of the counties have comeonline.
There's only a few countiesthat aren't online now, and so
now we can teach people to sithere in the office and they can
(31:34):
do all the research on theproperty, know everything they
want to know about it, and theycan buy property online if they
want.
Yeah, we have one rule.
That rule is don't buy anythingwhere you didn't walk on the
property.
That's right.
If you haven't seen it, don'tbuy it.
Get your shoes dirty, get therain coming down on you, because
(31:55):
it's always raining.
When you want to look, there'salways something wrong.
So you want to look, because ifyou don't know what you bought,
well, you've got a big problemin your hands, but you can do
all of it online now.
So women are very good atonline number one.
But number two they don't haveto get.
Really, you don't have to be asuper salesperson because you
(32:16):
see you bought it low.
So let's say you bought it at30 cents.
Hell, sell it at 50 cents onthe dollar and every rehabber in
the world will be beating onyour door because they're going
to put all the heavy work in it.
Now they deserve what they dothey have to work hard?
I mean, they really work hard?
Oh, they do.
No broken fingernails, no painin your hair, none of that.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (32:37):
So women do especially well, especially well
, in the school I get it.
So the people that just want tolike I just want to buy
certificates sit on them for acouple of years and then they
get redeemed, so and maybe theyget it at like 18%.
They paid $5,000 for it, sothey're making 18% each year.
So if they have it for twoyears before it's redeemed, they
(32:58):
make 18% each year.
So if they have it for twoyears before it's redeemed, they
make 18% the first year, 18%the second year.
So someone that just wants tobuy the certificates and wait
for them to be redeemed, theycould have hundreds and hundreds
of them at a time, as long asthey've got the cash for them.
Ted Thomas (33:12):
As long as they got cash to buy them.
I have clients that have boughtup to 700 certificates over a
period of a couple of years, sothen their cash starts coming
back.
Yeah, they can just keep buyingmore and more and more.
95 to 97% of all thosecertificates are going to pay
you.
Yeah, they are.
You pray that you get one thatdoesn't pay you and then when
(33:33):
that happens, I'll even put alittle testimony on there so you
can see it.
This couple in Phoenix boughtone.
They spent $11,000 on thecertificate and the people
didn't come in and pay.
Turned out it was a $150,000condo they bought.
They went and looked first andit was on the water.
They bought it.
They paid the taxes on it.
(33:53):
The people never came in andpaid.
They ended up selling it andmaking $160,000.
That's not unusual.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (34:00):
It's not unusual and you know the reason
I think a lot of that happens isa lot of the people that buy
those certificates.
When they don't get reimbursed,it's because maybe someone from
another country bought a secondhome in the States and they
don't understand.
If they don't pay their taxes,then it gets sold, because I've
(34:23):
had a lot of.
I actually had one in Hollywood, florida, that we bought.
That was a little condo, like alittle one bedroom condo on the
beach, and Sharon and I endedup getting that.
We were like, oh my gosh, wehave this little like efficiency
right on the ocean in Hollywoodand the people that owned it
were from Canada or somewherelike that and they just they
didn't know how it works here inthe States.
So you do end up with a lot ofproperties, especially in like
(34:44):
tourist areas where people buyfrom out of country and don't
know how the tax laws work overhere.
Ted Thomas (34:51):
Well, you know it works the same way, you know
reversed, because the people inMichigan, you know, they come
down here and they buy and theyforget about paying the taxes so
they could lose the house.
But you know, floridians, a lotof Floridians, they want in the
summertime, they want to go outand be on one of those lakes in
Michigan, they want to be on alake, go fishing, it's nice and
cool at night, and all that theyforget to pay their taxes.
(35:12):
And so we have a bonanza goingon right now in Michigan where
my clients are buying propertiesin Michigan because people
haven't paid the taxes.
It's amazing.
So it works both ways.
People have so much they forgetto pay the taxes.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (35:28):
They do and they just don't know.
I mean, if you have a mortgagethat has principal interest
taxes and insurance in it, yourtaxes are going to get paid, but
a lot of people buy things freeand clear and then they just it
slips by.
Ted Thomas (35:43):
Young people get a mortgage with all that stuff in
it.
People that are buying theirsecond property.
Like you said, a lot of thempay cash.
Yeah, Some people pass away.
When they pass away and there'sno relatives, those houses are
all up for sale.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (35:56):
Yeah.
Ted Thomas (35:57):
So it's not an unusual business.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (35:59):
Well, let's jump topics for a minute.
So everyone, you are definitelythe godfather of taxes.
So everyone just go totedthomascom and you can find
everything out.
Possibly that this man knowsand I'm telling you from
personal experience.
I've seen him for decadesworking and doing this and
(36:20):
making millionaires and helpingother people and things like
that.
So let's go talk about somepersonal things.
What's your favorite band ofall time?
Tell me your favorite band ofall time.
Who do you love to listen to?
Ted Thomas (36:30):
Oh, my goodness, I'm really going to date myself.
I loved Glenn Miller and allthe old bands.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (36:36):
I do too, though.
Ted Thomas (36:37):
Harry James, all that I mean.
When I went to, you know, afterregular school I went to the
college things.
They were still touring inthose days, which is 1960 for me
.
That was a long time ago.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (36:50):
I like the music from the 40s, like the big
band music from the 40s.
Ted Thomas (36:53):
Yeah, that's what I'm talking about.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (36:55):
Yeah, I know I know Glenn Miller I have on my
TV has Sirius Radio I put onthe 40s, all the time that era
of music is like.
It's so peaceful.
Ted Thomas (37:08):
You can even understand the words.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (37:10):
You can understand the words, there's no
cursing and it's such a nicemusic.
I love 40s music.
I listen to it a surprisingamount because it's just really
peaceful.
It makes you want to dance.
You're like, oh, I want to getup, I want to do a ball.
Yeah Well, that's good.
Glenn Miller, good for you.
What kind of food?
What's your favorite thing toeat?
(37:30):
What do you like to eat whenyou go out?
Ted Thomas (37:32):
Well, if I go out, I'm not a gourmand, as they say,
although I did spend part of mylife studying wines and food.
Now I'm really happy with asirloin steak and a baked potato
.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (37:46):
So I'm an old school guy that likes that with
lots of veggies.
I like just the steak, noveggies.
Ted Thomas (37:51):
I'll just take a veggie steak.
Oh no, you got to have veggies.
You got to have veggies.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (37:53):
Yeah, I know I really have to make myself be
better about that.
I'm a meat eater.
I could just eat meat all thetime.
But then I'm like no, I got tomake veggies.
No, I got to have some salad.
Ted Thomas (38:04):
I'm a meat eater.
No, no, I could eat the meatall the time, but I'd probably
get sick.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (38:08):
Yeah, as we get a little older, we have to
be more cautious about what weeat.
Ted Thomas (38:13):
I lose weight if I eat meat.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (38:18):
I eat meat, I lose weight.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I thinkeverybody does so.
What's your favorite part ofthe day?
Waking up to go to bed?
When is like, where's yourhappy time?
Ted Thomas (38:25):
I'm happy most of the time, but I I'm a morning
person.
I don't mind being solo bymyself.
My first career was a pilot, soI was very lucky.
You start early days and wecould watch the sun go out.
So my first major flying jobwas with Aloha Airlines in
Honolulu, hawaii.
So when you took off out of theHonolulu airport you headed
(38:45):
east towards the big island.
We watched the sun come up overthe Pacific.
We finished the last flight ofthe day, that's at nine o'clock
at night, right.
So we're leaving the big islandafter many trips back and forth
and now you can see the sunsetof the day.
So both of those times todayare the favorite time.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (39:01):
I love that too.
I love that too.
So what is your biggest goalLike right now, ted Thomas?
What's your biggest goal thatyou're working on, and how can
the wonderful family help youachieve that?
Ted Thomas (39:16):
Well, thank you, that was a nice thing to say.
My biggest goal is to do moreof what I'm doing now and just
stay alive.
I had a stroke three years agoand so I lost my balance All
right, so I can't fly anymore.
So I always have to be touchingsomething Like right now I
touch the table, or my butt isin the chair, so otherwise I'll
(39:37):
lose my balance and I could fall.
The table, or my butt is in thechair, so I, otherwise I'll
lose my balance and I could fall.
So my, my goal is is to livefive more years and then all
what I have I've already signedall the papers.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (39:48):
I'm giving it all away to Habitat.
Oh wow, that's really amazing.
Ted Thomas (39:51):
Yes, Well, that is sweet.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (39:53):
Well, let's hope that you make it more than
five years.
90 is too young.
I feel like you're one of those?
Ted Thomas (39:58):
Oh, I don't know about that.
You need to hang on to like 100.
All right, hang on to 100.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (40:03):
Give us a little.
I got to get out of here.
Ted Thomas (40:05):
I got to get out of here, though, so the young
people can take over.
No, no, you just keep teachingthem again All right, so the
best way, yeah, but let me tellyou something we do.
We need to do a promo for yourclients, okay, so I'm going to
give you a promo code.
That's really easy.
Okay, it's Dwan, d-w-a-n 50.
(40:26):
Okay, so you want to go to?
That's the promo code.
Go to TedThomas, slash Dwan.
And what they can do is I doevery other week, I do a
six-hour virtual so they can sitat home, put their feet up,
they can have breakfast, theycan have lunch.
We're going to do a six-hourclass Now.
(40:47):
Usually I charge 47 bucks.
It's only $23.
Okay, I always charge foreverything.
I'm not doing anything free,and what we'll do is they can
come through that If they everwanted to learn about tax
defaulted property or tax liens.
They will know more after thatsix hours than you and I learned
in our first three years.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (41:05):
Oh, here, here.
So tedthomas.
com forward, slash Dwan50.
Ted Thomas (41:10):
You can do that and it'll go right through.
That'll be perfect and it'll goright through.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (41:13):
Okay, so I still have one more question for
you.
So before we wrap up, let me domy wrap up, and I got a really
good question for you.
So, folks again, dwan meantTwyford, america's most sought
after real estate investor.
You can find me atdwanderfulcom, so Ted's known me
a long time.
So I took my name Dwan andwonderful, and I made a new word
, so hence the world ofdwanderful.
(41:36):
So you've always told me I'vealways been outgoing, I've
always been out there.
I'm like you know what?
I'm getting older, I need somepink hair.
I can't have gray hair.
I have to be D'Wonderful, Ineed something amazing.
So that's how D'Wonderful cameto be.
If you opt in over there, Ihave some.
You not.
(41:57):
With Ted Thomas, I want you tosubscribe to my podcast, leave a
five-star review and writesomething, because podcasts are
definitely a labor of love andwe can't grow and get bigger
without your help.
And, ted, I don't know if youknow this right now, but right
now on Spotify, my podcast islike in the top 50.
Ted Thomas (42:17):
Wow, Congratulations .
I know I get Congratulations.
I know I got.
I get notifications.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (42:21):
I'm like I was number 47.
The other day I was like 47 on.
Spotify under the category ofbusiness.
It's like oh, my word.
Ted Thomas (42:29):
So keep the pink hair.
Because my assistant said Isaid I know this woman and she
said she's got pink hair.
That's the first thing she said.
I said well, she was glamorous25 years ago, so I can't imagine
now.
And then here we are.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (42:42):
I'm in breaking gray but, I, can't be
all gray.
I have to have some fun.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Ted Thomas (42:47):
I have white, I have white.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (42:49):
You do?
You look fabulous.
Honestly, it's really such ablast in the past.
I can't wait to tell peoplethat I interviewed you and
talked to you, okay, so what Iwant you to do, Ted, is I want
you to give us a parting word ofwisdom, but it can only be one
single word, one word Results.
(43:10):
Okay Now.
So everyone that listens to meknows every week, when our guest
gives us our word of the week,our parting word of wisdom,
you're going to write a littlesticky and you're going to put
it up on your mirror and everyday you're going to say results,
results, results.
That's your word of the week.
So tell us what that means toyou, so they know what you think
the word results means.
Ted Thomas (43:32):
Well, I have a policy with my company because I
have a lot of young people thatwork with me and they're always
afraid to make mistakes.
So I say it.
They don't always believe me,but I say it continuously.
I say, look, just do it, and ifyou make a mistake you can't
get fired.
You make a mistake, you can'tget fired, because the only way
I evaluate people is those sevenletters results.
(43:54):
What result did you prove?
Now, if you make a mistake,just don't kill anybody.
I mean, don't run someone over.
But if you make a mistake witha computer or with a client, we
can call the client back and say, look, we made a mistake and
it's okay to do that.
The heck with the mistakes,because people grow like this,
yeah they do.
Listen, I said it.
(44:15):
I can only say this to very fewpeople.
I can say it to you.
Listen, I said it and I canonly say this to very few people
.
I can say it to you because youcreated a subject.
You created short sale.
There was short sales forexecutives and for people that
really knew big-time real estate, but there was no little person
like us real people that knewwhat short sale meant.
And then you came out with thisbig package of things short
(44:37):
sale.
I still have it on the shelf.
Next time I see you, I'm goingto hold it up and show it to you
.
So you started something, butyou didn't start something
without leveling out, crashingdown, going up Each time you
went up.
It's like the first time youtry to do a pushup, the first
time you try to go on a diet.
Just grade yourself on theresult, that's all.
(44:58):
So I tell my people I'm justgoing to grade you on result.
You would be amazed how itchanges people.
But they have to be remindedconstantly and we as people have
to remember to grade ourselveson result, because we botch it
up all the time.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (45:12):
Yeah, that's really kind of profound,
actually, because I have somepeople that work for me that are
younger and whenever they makea mistake they're always like I
hope John didn't fire me.
It's like I'm not going to fireyou, like I'm teaching you.
But you know that's true.
Just the results are the bigpicture, because everyone's
going to make mistakes.
Nobody gets it right all thetime.
Ted Thomas (45:35):
Fail forward fast.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (45:37):
Fail forward fast, okay, so after I uh say
goodbye here, I want you to justhang on and stay with me for a
second.
So again, folks, ted is he.
He is really the godfather I'mreally.
Honestly, it's like my heart'sjust warm seeing you again today
.
So go to ted, thomascom,forward, slash duan, and I would
highly advise you to watch oneof those weekends.
(45:58):
I think, ted, I do have, I knowI do.
Down in Florida I have some anold training Maybe I got back
from like the learning annexdays and I'm going to have to
dig it up too.
So next time I see I can say,hey, I went to sign my, my.
Ted Thomas (46:10):
OG copy.
If you can find it, send it tome and our all new programs come
out in December.
We're just finishing them now,all new, and I'll send it to you
.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (46:20):
Yeah.
Ted Thomas (46:21):
Send me the old one, I'm sure.
Speaker 2 (46:23):
I do.
Dwan Bent-Twyford (46:24):
When I go to Florida next time I'm going
through my old bookshelf I'mgoing to find it, because I know
for sure that I have it and Ilike your words, results and
thank you for being a guest.
You've been very kind andgenerous with your time and your
effort and all of your crazyknowledge.
So, folks, we'll be back againnext week.
Same bat time, same bat channel.
And just remember that thetruth is in the red letters.
(46:45):
All right, everybody.
Ciao, I'll see you next week.
And Ted, again, thank you andsee you next week.
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