Investing in Syndications: Insights from a Real Estate Mogul Reed Goossens

What happens when an Aussie moves to America to chase a girl and ends up building a real estate empire worth over $700 million? Reed Goossens, our guest for today, is the embodiment of that story. Bursting onto the US real estate scene just six months after his arrival, Reed’s fearless approach and down-to-earth attitude have seen him go from rehabbing to commanding commercial real estate syndications. 

For those with an eye on real estate investing, Reed's insights are pure gold. As we explore the world of commercial real estate syndications together, you'll discover how they can provide a passive income and why partnering with experienced operators is a game-changer. Reed's vivid account of the realities of the industry - from debunking popular misconceptions to the importance of financial education - is an essential listen for anyone considering this form of investment. We'll also discuss the value of diversifying your portfolio and how syndications can be ideal for those with limited time and resources. 

But this episode is not just about numbers and business strategies. It's also about the personal growth and the lessons learned along the journey. As Reed recounts his journey from small deals to a portfolio worth over $700 million, you'll learn about his transition, the role his background in structural engineering played, and why networking is vital in the real estate industry. We'll even touch upon Australian cuisine and his morning routine. So tune in, prepare to be inspired, and remember, if an Aussie can do it, why can't you?

Transcript

Dwan Bent-Twyford 0:02

Hey everybody, welcome to The Most Dwanderful Real Estate Podcast Ever. I'm your host, Dwan Bent-Twyford. I'm America's most sought after real estate investor. I am so excited that you are here with me today. As you can see, I have a very handsome man, so he is our wicked smart man today, and we're going to see what we can learn from Reed and see how he can help you in your investing your life, your career, your health, your mental health, whatever it is. We're going to see how you can implement some of the things that you're going to learn today.

Dwan Bent-Twyford 0:34

Firstly, our motto at Dwanderful is people before profits. So if that's something that resonates with you, you're at the right place, it's the right time. I'm your girl, that's your guy, right there, so keep that in mind and we're going to just have a great time today. So, oh, and also, go to Dwan-Der-Ful D-W-A-N-D-E-R-F-U-L, d-w-a-n-d-f-u-l. com, opt in. I have two free real estate training programs for you and for you that are new to me. I took my name Dwan and wonderful, and made a new word, and that's how we became so Dwan-Der-Ful over here. So, reed, how are you today?

Reed Goossens 1:13

I am doing well. Thanks for having me on the show.

Dwan Bent-Twyford 1:16

I'm excited. I like your background. It's so, you know, it's like I have all this fluffy stuff and all the men have like shelves and books and all this stuff. It's like I have flamingos. I don't know. I'm thinking maybe I should get a more serious background. I'm like you know you can't have fun in life Like really, what's the purpose?

Reed Goossens 1:37

Exactly.

Dwan Bent-Twyford 1:39

So Reed Goosens.

Reed Goossens 1:42

Yep, that's it.

Dwan Bent-Twyford 1:43

Right, I put a little line over the two O's. So I'd say it right. And so, first of all, we just want to welcome you. So you are today's Wicked, smart man, so we're going to ask you questions. We're going to see what you do. And find out, but first we're going to have a toast, so I am drinking live enzyme water. What do you have?

Reed Goossens 2:03

I just have a bottle of water, so there you go. Well, cheers.

Dwan Bent-Twyford 2:07

Cheers, watching, get your drink, cheers, welcome to the show and everybody. Take a deep breath and shake up all your negativity. Whatever you got going on, get rid of it so you can just tune in with us and you can have some fun, and you're going to learn a lot in the next 45 minutes. So we just kind of throw you off into the deep end. So what I would like for you to do, reed, is tell us who you are, and one or two sentences is what you do and how we can get in touch with you, and then we're going to backtrack and find out how you became this awesome guy that's on my podcast today. So, basically, we want to know what's your deal.

Reed Goossens 2:51

Well, my deal. I'm a real estate syndicator. I buy large multifamily properties across the United States. I have a company called RSN Property Group. I have a podcast of my own which we're going to have you on afterwards I'm really excited about. I've written two books, like you've written some books, and hopefully people think of me as a down to earth Australian guy. I moved to the US about 12 years ago longer than that 2012. And I came here with very little money and not a big network, and I built something from scratch, and so the sort of the motto is if an Aussie can, halfway from around the world, can do it, then why can't the average American?

Dwan Bent-Twyford 3:26

So, yeah, there you go and tell everyone how to get in contact with you.

Reed Goossens 3:30

Easiest ways, reedgoossens. com. So it's R-E-E-D-G-O-O-S-S-E-N-S. com. A lot of O's, a lot of E's, a lot of S's. Remember, repeat that if you need it, world of you try to. You know I'm down to earth. I'm trying to give away as much knowledge as I can for what I've learned over the last sort of 15 years doing what I've done.

Dwan Bent-Twyford 3:49

Nice. So I would like to get your contacts, all your stuff, in the beginning of the show notes, because you know a lot of people will start to listen. They'll read some notes. I'm going to come back later, so I just want to make sure all your information is right up there in the first paragraph.

Reed Goossens 4:03

Love it, so you can find you.

Dwan Bent-Twyford 4:05

So you moved here from Australia. So what did you do in Australia?

Reed Goossens 4:10

So Simple, Engineers is my background. I moved, actually, to the United States to chase a girl and she's now my wife, which is this love story that was successful. But I also just came here to be an expat, like just to live in New York City. I have a. I had a great.

Reed Goossens 4:24

You know, I have an engineering background which meant I could get a visa to be here and the idea was just to come here and live for a couple of years and move home after that, you know, and see if this, this chasing this girl half across the world, was going to work out. It has. And you know, I started buying real estate within six months of being fresh off the boat. And you know, as I said, the rest is history. So I'm sure we'll, I'm sure we'll unpack it and get through some. Yeah, yeah, yeah, pretty pretty.

Dwan Bent-Twyford 4:49

So it was worth traveling halfway around the world for the girl.

Reed Goossens 4:52

That is correct, yes.

Dwan Bent-Twyford 4:53

You're married. How old are you?

Reed Goossens 4:55

I'm 37.

Dwan Bent-Twyford 4:56

37. You guys are all just pops today, but you know I met my husband. We did not as long distances you, but I lived in Florida and he lived in Colorado, which is still 2000 miles.

Reed Goossens 5:09

And we did a long distance.

Dwan Bent-Twyford 5:10

For about a year and a half, got married and we've been married 22 years.

Reed Goossens 5:14

That's incredible. That's awesome.

Dwan Bent-Twyford 5:16

And people say long distance doesn't work. I don't know work for me. I've never been happier.

Reed Goossens 5:21

Yeah, that's, that's great, it's for each of their own right. They think that the distance is hard. They need the physical. It was hard for a period of time and for just to wrap up that we had a. We had a year of separation, of like not being together, and we always knew that it was an end point, whether I come here or she came there. And you know, just to you know, give it a go, see if it works.

Dwan Bent-Twyford 5:40

You know I I've never been to Australia. It's one of the places I want to go to and I don't know. I just imagine like, and I'm sure in the cities is different. I sort of just imagine like this really great country and it's like wild animals and kangaroos, and I've watched a couple videos when I see these spiders that are like this big. It's like, oh my god, how is there a spider? And and some person put a video up with something called a garden sink or something.

Dwan Bent-Twyford 6:07

Mm-hmm like 20 feet long. It's like I have never seen anything like that.

Reed Goossens 6:12

Yeah it's, it's definitely, it's definitely a country. You know it's, it's think of like it's got all the things like at the state. So it's got. You know the cold, you know cold mountains where you are. It wouldn't be as high as the Rockies, but you know we've got everything to the humidity of Florida all the way through to the dryness of, say, texas, right. So you got in everything in between. Yeah, but there is a lot of animals that can kill you, so just watch out. But that shouldn't stop you from going. You should definitely go. I've always wanted to go to Sydney.

Dwan Bent-Twyford 6:43

I just love the way it looks and that's one of my things. I told my husband. I said you know, the next year or two I want to go and stay for like a month.

Reed Goossens 6:50

Yeah, do it.

Dwan Bent-Twyford 6:51

Hang out and see the country, because it's one of those countries I just always, and I've always wanted to go to Africa, like on an actual sparring though, and those are like two places I haven't been. I don't know why I haven't been, but I those are two places I don't on my bucket list.

Reed Goossens 7:05

I'm like I'm, bad turn 65.

Dwan Bent-Twyford 7:07

So my bucket I don't know how much time left in my bucket. I need to start doing the things that Hopefully I've inspired you to go right.

Reed Goossens 7:15

you make it happen, so that's it.

Dwan Bent-Twyford 7:18

That'll be my deal in the next couple of years. Okay, so you do syndication, so. I'm not syndication. So if our person that's brand new today and they don't know what that means, what does that mean?

Investing in Commercial Real Estate Syndications

Reed Goossens 7:30

in the simplest form, the analogy I like to use is an airplane right, if I'm gonna fly from LA to Denver by myself, it's gonna cost me a lot of money, but if I go and, you know, split the cost with other people, I can fly that same route with a bunch of other people. In that same analogy, there's a captain and co-pilot, which is the, the sponsors of the deal, and then everyone back in In in coach you're called limited partners, and they can participate in this flight for a fraction of the cost that would take, you know, to to hire the entire plane, and they get the benefits of investing in real estate. So really, we syndicate, we pull money's, people's money together. We go from buy larger, larger multifamily in particular, larger commercial real estate, and it's you get to participate in something that is at a fraction of the cost If you try to go take it down by yourself. So, yeah, we've been doing this for nearly a decade. We have 24 deals that we've gone through and cycle Not that we've cycled all of them, but we've had 24 deals in the portfolio at any one time. We've sold six deals to date and we have a bunch others that we're gonna try and sell.

Reed Goossens 8:34

And, yeah, we help investors, you know, get involved in a space where they may not have the time or the energy to go out and do it. They want to get involved in commercial real estate. They're like, wow, I don't even know where to start and this provides a passive income for them and they get the benefits. And the benefits to us is that we get to Partner up with people, because we're also not sitting on a pile of cash. They can go off and just buy all the buildings we want. We need to partner up, so it's it's, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a partnership between both of us and we benefit. You know that people get to benefit from our expertise in the industry and we get to benefit from, you know, capital that we've been able to procure from investors.

Dwan Bent-Twyford 9:12

Yeah, I have to tell you something. I have met a lot of people that do syndications. I've interviewed a lot of people. That was the best explanation I've ever heard. It makes it so simple. It's like a plane, like the captain, the copilot and the passengers are the deal the people putting in my. That is literally the greatest explanation. I because, if I didn't know, I understood completely what you said, because people like oh, I have this with a bunch of partners, we're da, da, da, da, and I can see people lies kind of glaze over sometimes when people don't explain things To a lot of that a new person could understand and if I heard that, I'd be like oh, I want to be on the plane, I want to invest them.

Reed Goossens 9:52

What do I need?

Dwan Bent-Twyford 9:53

to do to get a ticket on that plane.

Reed Goossens 9:55

Right, that's exactly right.

Dwan Bent-Twyford 10:00

You bad explanation I have ever heard.

Reed Goossens 10:02

Well, thank you, thank you.

Dwan Bent-Twyford 10:04

It's brilliant, it is literally brilliant. All right, so you guys do commercial buildings. Mm-hmm and all over the country.

Reed Goossens 10:12

Yeah, primarily in Phoenix, Central Texas and the Carolinas. We've, you know we'd love to do more states, but it's just bandwidth, you know we can't be everywhere.

Dwan Bent-Twyford 10:21

No, you can't so be this. Texas and the Carolinas yeah, those are all good areas. I, we, my husband's family is from Texas and there's just a lot. There's a lot out there, and Phoenix everybody loves Phoenix, and who doesn't love the Carolinas?

Reed Goossens 10:35

Well, sweet.

Dwan Bent-Twyford 10:35

I'm out there, so all right. So you guys buy commercial buildings so you find a Big like. Are we looking 20 story building?

Reed Goossens 10:44

Yeah, no, we're talking about like Sort of a hundred units and above. So think of garden style apartments, if you're, if you're listening as a familiar with what a garden style. It's sort of like on a on more acreage it might be like a 10, 15 acres and it's multifamily, but they're, you know, two to three stories high. There's a bunch of buildings on on the property, very, very, very classic. It's not like a, an urban infill High-rise. We're not buying high-rises, we're buying more. As I said, garden style apartment, multifamily.

Dwan Bent-Twyford 11:15

I like that. I have a one of those, I have a few of those and they're all commercial downstairs and everybody's renting upstairs. These are such a great investment. Yep, yep, that's exactly right, there's such a great investment and the average person probably I think the average, even the average rule saying Vester, I Don't feel could take on something like that unless they really had some experience or some money to back them. And there's so many things that that you have to check when you have a building that's got some commercial and some residential like.

Dwan Bent-Twyford 11:46

There's just so many things to it and I feel I tell people all time and like, syndications are a good place to put your money, because to learn it it is a whole thing.

Reed Goossens 11:57

Right, right now, I will say that, like with syndications, you have to obviously be betting on the horse. I'm sorry, on the jock, you're not the horse, as I say, right. So you need to be understanding who the operator is, and I'm not. I'm not sitting here saying I'm the only operator. I'm not.

Reed Goossens 12:12

And the beauty about syndications and it really came about with the 2012 Jobs Act, right, where investors could start investing directly into people's deals, and that allowed retail investors to. You know, you know, usually you just had the REITs on the stock market in you. It was really much of a old boys club, where commercial real estate deals weren't getting done and no one really had access to it. Today it's a looks a little, a lot different. So there's syndicators like myself who are out there and and I encourage people to go and look at other syndicators because the the beauty is you can go and diversify your investments by placing a portion of your capital, because, obviously, to buy that seat on the plane, yeah, a lot less than buying the entire plane, and so you can split. You can split your investment up Over multiple syndicators, over multiple different you know asset classes, not just multifamily. There's self storage as mobile home parks. Yeah, any, really any real estate deal could be a syndication. At the end of the day, it's just a formal partnership.

Dwan Bent-Twyford 13:10

And what is it cost someone? They say hey, I love to read, I heard everything you said, I want to work with him.

Reed Goossens 13:16

How much?

Dwan Bent-Twyford 13:16

money, someone have to have to buy a seat.

Reed Goossens 13:19

Minimum investments is $50,000 per deal. Typically we buy, as I mentioned, about a hundred units or up, so you're looking anywhere from 10 to 30 million dollar purchase prices. We go and we procure the debt. So we are, we as a sponsor, so I get go get the best debt we can for that particular property and then for the down payment and for the capital improvements, we raise that money from investors and that's how investors get involved right. In terms of the structure, we typically split it investors own 70% of the deal and we own 30% of the deal and Investors money sits above us. So if we buy a deal, operate it and sell it and we only break even and we get investors money back, well then we don't get paid. So it's, you know it's we're incentivised to make sure that we do well and we buy deals that are going to perform Right, because that's how you yeah and that's right.

Dwan Bent-Twyford 14:11

I think you put the investors money first, because a lot of people don't do that.

Reed Goossens 14:15

I they should.

Dwan Bent-Twyford 14:18

I know. But a lot of people are like you know. They take a little here, take a little there and at the end of the day it's like, oh sorry, is this much money for all the investors Now? Do they have to stay in for a set amount of time?

Reed Goossens 14:27

Yeah, so that's, you know, part of A year two to five years a week.

Reed Goossens 14:31

Yeah, part of. Yeah, typically our deals are between three and five years long, the sort of median term type of investments. But you know, people listening to this show probably understand that real estate is a median to long term type of investment strategy. You know it's not get rich quick, so we're in for three to five years and you're in one deal, right, so it's not co-collateralized with you know five other deals and we're just going to. You know, go and you can see it's ABC Smith Street. You can walk past and you can touch it, you can feel it and you're directly invested in that deal.

Reed Goossens 15:03

There's two reasons why we do that. One is because we don't want to. You know the house of cards. You don't want to buy a deal and then have another deal be predicated on that deal and so on and it becomes very, very risky. And two people just like the ability to say you know this is the deal I'm investing in, like sometimes blind funds and it depends on the sophistication of the investor. They can handle that. But, like most people are, like I don't want to put my money in this blind fund and hope that you go find a multifamily deal that works for me, like they get more invested in like oh, here it is, here's a deal in Denver, colorado, it's you know $20 million. I can see it's 150 units. It's like I can see and feel it and people like that, particularly when it comes to real estate.

Dwan Bent-Twyford 15:42

No, they do. I like that too. I like that too and I like the fact. You know, and it is real, I tell people all the time it's like listen, I work with a lot of brand new investors, like brand baking new investors. I mean, listen, this is not a get rich quick business. Yeah, you can wholesale a house and make 30 grand and put the money in your pocket, but you are not getting rich overnight, right, you're going to have to learn things.

Dwan Bent-Twyford 16:02

You're going to have to own things, you're going to have to hold things, you're going to have to invest in things, but I feel like and I've been doing it for almost 35 years I love real estate investing. There are so many classes under the umbrella of investing that you can just do so many different fun things all the time.

Reed Goossens 16:22

Right, and that's like I started being a newbie investor all those years ago, right, and I remember reading the books about wholesaling and I've done fix and flips and I bought you know $40,000 properties in you know Section 8 housing, like I've done all of that stuff. But you're right, the beauty of real estate it is that it's a thing that is needed, it's a physical asset and it's not going away Like it's not, like technology is going to make that we don't need a roof over our heads or we don't need to store something in something else, right? So at the end of the day, real estate is going to be here forever. And just to your point of what you said earlier, is learning like having to learn the craft of real estate investing, and a lot of people think that's overwhelming and it is to some extent. But if you're really going to be what's the word serious about your investments and where you put your money, then taking 30 hours over a period of six months or so to learn a little bit about where your money's going is important.

Dwan Bent-Twyford 17:22

So it is important I tell people that you can never know everything.

Reed Goossens 17:27

Never.

The Realities of Real Estate Investing

Dwan Bent-Twyford 17:28

Like I feel like I had a really broad spectrum of real thing, that thing. But even now still hear about something new and go, oh, that's interesting, I like that, that's a new thing for me, that's exciting. But people are just like, oh yeah, we're going to buy a little picture up. We're like, well, do you know how to rehab? And yeah, are you getting the money and who's going to fix it?

Dwan Bent-Twyford 17:50

And if you're going to be a weekend warrior by the third weekend. You're going to be half dead and it's going to sit there and you know, because people they have, the idea sounds so great.

Reed Goossens 18:00

No, that's right.

Dwan Bent-Twyford 18:01

You have to learn your stuff.

Reed Goossens 18:03

You have to learn your skill, and shows like HTTV don't do us any, don't do anyone any justice for the actual costs and time involved. And was it Joan and Kip? What's his name? Chip and Joan, or whatever?

Dwan Bent-Twyford 18:16

It's Chip and.

Reed Goossens 18:17

Joanne, Chip and Joanne, you know they make it look so easy. It's like here it's rehabbing.

Dwan Bent-Twyford 18:22

And then the two days later she's hand decorating. And then there's the. You know, the people buy it, and it's like that doesn't never happen it never exists. And I love watching those shows. I love the property brothers and I love watching those shows. But when they first came out they're kind of neat, but now it's like it gives people such an unrealistic show Sense of reality. Nothing is not like that.

Dwan Bent-Twyford 18:48

You don't go in and hang at a hundred thousand dollars for the work on the house in four weeks and sell it and it's the first buyer that walks in gets it and you make $200,000. It's like that's not real.

Reed Goossens 18:59

Right, and you will know as you know, you've done a lot of fix and flipping that it's all about how you buy the property. Right, if you don't make the, you make the money when you buy, not when you sell. And if you buy something overpriced, you may have to hold it for longer and till you get your profits out.

Dwan Bent-Twyford 19:13

So yeah, there, but I've watched them once in a while. I liked it. I liked the little tiny homes and like things like that that I don't do. It's like, oh, that's kind of fun to watch, that there's some guy that builds tree houses or something and I was like that's kind of cool, I like to watch that guy. But most of the stuff I watch and at the end of the show I'm just like, oh God, please don't anybody think that that's how it works.

Reed Goossens 19:34

Right, but so many people do. So many people do, and that's why they listen to this show, because they want to be more educated from you.

Dwan Bent-Twyford 19:40

Yeah, cause I tell people like, listen, I mean I started by the seat of my pants. I had no clue what I was doing and I took. My learning curve was long because, you know, I started back in the 90s. So in the 90s we didn't even have pagers. I'm pre pager. There wasn't even pagers. There were no cell phones, there was no internet, there was no getting everything online. You had to physically go to the courthouse and get to, physically drive to houses and you had to physically do everything and then that stuff didn't exist. My learning curve was long but once I got it it was like, oh, this is great. And then you know it's like, hey, if I can do it, other people can do it. Let me teach other people and let me start sharing and help people cut their learning curve. My learning curve was long. It was like seven, eight, nine years before I really had a real grasp on all the different areas and what.

Dwan Bent-Twyford 20:27

I liked and what I didn't like, and you know what made quicker money versus longer term. It takes a minute to get it around, but I feel like for people like my dad's a good example sitting on so much money, my dad, you should put your money, like you know, in a syndication. He owned a bunch of rentals but in the last few years he's like no, I want to sell everything. I want to have all my cash on the bank. It's like, but like why. And a syndication is great for people that have the money, don't have the time they want to invest, but they don't want to actually be, have their hands and be dirty on me, the work and things that go along with it.

Reed Goossens 21:08

That's correct. That goes back to the education part of the first step of anyone listening to the show and thinking about getting involved in real estate is what's your why? Why are you trying to do it? Are you trying to do it because everyone else is doing it, or are you trying to do it because you really want to diversify your portfolio? Maybe you invested in stocks and bonds and mutual funds, or you've got cash sitting in the bank and you just think, well, I need to get my money working for me in other parts of the investment spectrum. Well, that's great. Maybe real estate is one of those and that's where you need to. I don't actually invest much in stocks and bonds, and so I'm not an expert on stocks and bonds I never do.

Personal Growth Through Financial Education

Reed Goossens 21:47

I would be like the person listening to the real estate this podcast about stocks and bonds. I don't know enough about it to go make an investment, but if I was wanting to do that, I would need to educate myself. It's the same sort of thing, same principle. We've been told to do certain things with our money for tens of years. Growing up, your parents have a big influence on how you treat money and how you have money energy. What you do with your money today is up to you and you can decide where it goes, and that's the beauty of it. But you have to be educated.

Dwan Bent-Twyford 22:19

When you were 13, 14, that young free, that guy living in Australia, what were you doing?

Reed Goossens 22:28

My parents were both high school teachers, so very modest upbringing, state educated kid. So I went to state schools. We didn't have a lot of money. I think it's 13.5. You can legally work in Australia as soon as I could get a job. I did have a job. What was?

Dwan Bent-Twyford 22:46

your first job.

Reed Goossens 22:48

It was a local cafe in Coulomb Beach called Sorrento Cafe and it was only three hours on a Saturday morning and three hours on a Sunday morning. Helping set up the cafe, taking shares out, washing out the wheelie bins, the garbage bins for those Americans, just doing all the things I'm just going to say what's a wheelie.

Dwan Bent-Twyford 23:06

Bin A wheelie bin. Yeah, that's so much more fun than a garbage. Can I like it?

Reed Goossens 23:14

That got me to understand the value of a dollar. That was what I was, would have been in year nine, so ninth grade. Even after I would have other jobs in the summer holidays, laboring, doing a lot of physical labor, because as a young kid boy particularly, that's really the jobs that suited me best. It made me understand the value of the dollar. I remember building a swimming pool one summer I think I was coming towards either my last year of high school or my first year of university getting paid, whatever it was, but it was backbreaking labor. That was just something that I didn't want to do for the rest of my life.

Reed Goossens 23:55

I obviously went to university and got an engineering degree, but it definitely helped me put into perspective what would happen if I didn't have some sort of education, whatever that might look like. It can be self-education or the traditional education, but it was something that I knew. I didn't want to be a laborer. Having those experiences early really shaped me into who I am today. It also helped shape me into the person that is also like hey, nothing's too big to figure out and if I've got to roll up the sleeves and figure it out, then I will. It's not rocket science at the end of the day.

Dwan Bent-Twyford 24:31

Yeah, and it is. I was raised in Ohio so, like the Midwest, I graduated high school in the 70s. In those days General Motors was there. Everyone got jobs at factories. I did the same thing. I got a factory job. I started like a week I thought, oh my God, who wants to work here until they're 60 and work for the man and have this miserable, hot, sweaty, awful laborer's job? Why would anyone want to do that? It's funny because my parents were like, hey, when you get a job, you're at a high school, you get married, you have kids, you get a factory job, you work for the man. And that Because in the 70s they weren't really encouraging of women who weren't going to college that much yet. That's how I was like get married, have kids, get a factory job and you'll be great. After like two weeks I just remember thinking like, why would my parents want this for me?

Reed Goossens 25:22

This is horrible.

Dwan Bent-Twyford 25:23

It's hot it's awful, you're on concrete all day, it's sweaty, it's like this is the worst thing. Why would anybody want to do this? But then my dad and they all retired from factories. It's like, shoot man, I'm in the money in the world to have like a horrible job like that, and nothing against anybody works in a factory. Listen, my family went that route. I totally get it. But there is such a big world out there of other things that you could do besides just working hard labor all of your life.

Reed Goossens 25:55

That's correct. That's correct.

Dwan Bent-Twyford 25:58

And I'm too much of a princess for hard labor.

Reed Goossens 26:01

Hey, at least you admitted it.

Dwan Bent-Twyford 26:04

I was a rehabber for 10 years and I was always in there hot, dirty, sweaty, but I still had my nails done and wore gloves and it's like I was a hard worker by day and I was a princess by night. But right now I'm way too much of a princess for that. But yeah, it is, and people always have all these excuses why they can't do things. But literally in America you can do anything.

Reed Goossens 26:27

Yeah, it's interesting you bring that up and from my international perspective, we do have people from outside the US, have this America's done a very good job at marketing itself since the Second World War of like the land of opportunity. And I have come here and I wouldn't be anywhere near the person I am today without making that trip on that plane all those years ago. But the interesting thing about this is that once you start scratching the surface of how things work, particularly in business and, for example, real estate, all of a sudden these blinkers come off and you're like, wow, there's actually so much other opportunity in other not just real estate, but in other businesses, and sometimes you get too much shiny objects. So I know that like now I look at stuff back in Australia particularly because where am I from I'm like, oh yeah, that makes you know.

Reed Goossens 27:19

I had a friend who bought a steel fabrication business, bought it from a mom and pop who didn't quite understand marketing, and he went in there and he did exactly what I do in my multi families. He rebranded it, he made better advertising, he bought in better people and all of a sudden he's like quadrupled the income and made a massive profit for himself. And it's those things you learn by studying real estate or studying something different that we weren't taught in high school or in university. That makes you inquisitive and curious to then continue to learn. And the thing that you said earlier about you're always learning, right, well, I'm, I'm, don't ever think that I know it all. The day you do, that is the day you stop learning, is the day you will die, right.

Reed Goossens 27:59

And so being and trying to find things that make you tick is really, really important. So, coming back around to your, you know your, your laborer story. It's not that it's being a laborer is bad, it's not. You may really love being a laborer, but may there's another way in which you could get your money working for you. That's more powerful than retreating your time for money. That's all we're trying to say.

Dwan Bent-Twyford 28:23

Yeah, and you know, when I was rehabbing, I actually really loved it because, you know, I was buying these like ratty house, like these foothouses, and I'm making them really nice. And I was like, you know, and I loved doing it. But then I thought, you know, as I got in later in my 30s, I was like but do I want to be doing this when I'm 50? So I'm like, you know, let me learn about rentals. So then I started doing rentals and then I was doing wholesaling and I was doing a short sale and now my husband and I bought 20 buildings in a small town and we're rehabbing an entire town.

Reed Goossens 28:56

Wow.

Dwan Bent-Twyford 28:57

I have a whole town. I'm rehabbing a town. So Bill and I were sitting around recently and I was like you know, do we know anyone that's actually rehabbing a town like anybody? And I was like no, I think we're the only people that we know that are doing that. But at some point your mind has expanded enough that no project seems too big.

Reed Goossens 29:15

No, and that's the beauty of pulling that thread on the entrepreneurship right, it's not. And don't get us wrong, like we're sitting here saying it's guys, we're on the show or not.

Dwan Bent-Twyford 29:27

Say anything you want.

Reed Goossens 29:29

It's fucking hard being an entrepreneur.

Dwan Bent-Twyford 29:30

Get your Lord's name in vain.

Reed Goossens 29:32

Okay, okay.

Dwan Bent-Twyford 29:32

They fuck all day long.

Reed Goossens 29:36

So it's effing hard being an entrepreneur, but the rewards you get from it, like expanding your mind, expanding your curiosity into different things, to understanding how the world works, besides all the money that we've created and the wealth we've built. That is exactly what you said. I'll ask you back when you're 30, you had no idea you'd be able to rehab the whole town, right? Oh, limiting beliefs.

Dwan Bent-Twyford 30:00

Never even imagined I would speak and stand on a stage and teach people. I'd listen to rehab. My house is this is fun and I really did like it, and I decorate them all off. It's like this is so great. Never would did, I think. Oh yeah, I'll start teaching. I'll stand in front of 5,000 people and teach them how to do that. I would have been like, no, Having a podcast, no, A town hell, no. But after a while you're like, why not?

Reed Goossens 30:27

But it also comes down to allowing yourself to be uncomfortable, being comfortable, being uncomfortable, right. And then that's such a skill set that, like being a laborer, you learn the skill of digging a hole or building a building or whatever that might be, that you, being in that factory, you have the skill of being able to push your boundaries and then continuing to up level and push yourself into things that may be uncomfortable for you, like speaking on stage or rehabbing half a town.

Dwan Bent-Twyford 30:54

So yeah, oh my God, the first time I spoke, I was living in South Florida and I started Real Estate Investing Group because RIA groups were like fresh. When I started, there was not a RIA group. In case people don't know, reia Real Estate Investors Association so you can Google them as a RIA group in every single city in the whole entire country. But there weren't any RIA groups yet, and so this one opened up and I went and there were about 80 people and I was only one of two women. So my first thought was like, do women not invest in real estate? Why are there all these men here and there are no women? Because I'm rehabbing, I'm literally rehabbing, and I was thinking, okay, maybe this is are women, do we do this? But what happened is I? People started to realize I was doing. I was the top one, I was the producer in the whole group, like, hey, you should come and speak, and I was like, oh, that'd be fun. Well then I was.

Dwan Bent-Twyford 31:53

The day came to do my presentation. There were like 200 people there and I'm telling you, I thought I'm going to throw up. I'm like, I'm so sick. My stomach it's like, oh my God, I can't do it, I'm sweating. I didn't sleep for a week ahead of time. I was terrified. But then I did. I was like, oh, it's kind of fun and I can teach people what I'm doing, and that's kind of fun, and you know, but I never thought I would and I was completely horrified. I'm reading all the books on how to be a speaker. I'm reading everybody's book. I'm reading everything. I'm just like you know what? I'm just going to go be myself and talk about what I do, and I'm just going to do that. And then you know, here we are all these years later, like all the books and all the stuff that go with it. But I never even imagined I'd write a book.

Dwan Bent-Twyford 32:34

I'm just going to pick up houses.

Reed Goossens 32:36

I will say that one of the most powerful things that I came to the US was what you just mentioned there Ria's. Ria's are really powerful guys. If you're listening to this, I was fresh of two weeks off the boat and the first thing I went to in New York City. I still remember it to this day the New York NYREIA and the beauty of this group. I spoke up for that yeah, have you, you have.

Dwan Bent-Twyford 32:59

Oh yeah, lunchtime.

Reed Goossens 33:00

Yeah, they're great, great organization, but what I'm trying to get is that, coming from Australia, we didn't have that incredible tapestry of networking events. So if you're listening to this and you're new, I challenge you to go, get literally get on Google type in RIA, in the town that you live in or close to the big city, and there will definitely be one. Get your ass to it and I get there. Get to it once a month for the next six months and just be a fly on the wall and over time, I guarantee you you'll meet people that you want you aspire to be and you start rubbing shoulders with people that you aspire to be and you'll start up leveling your life Exactly and just be like that and be. Don't. Don't just go once. I want you to go six times, six months in a row, and see the change in your mindset about what you can and can't achieve in life.

Dwan Bent-Twyford 33:48

And that's great advice. In one of the books I wrote, one of the first things I said was join your local RIA. Yep, everyone that comes to the first time is everybody's first time, right? Everyone that's there is interested in the same thing and they all want to help and work together. But that's how you meet the contractor or the roofer or the hard money lender. The broker or the broker, like that's where your people are at. They're in this one space every month for two hours, and there's hundreds of them.

Reed Goossens 34:17

Right.

Dwan Bent-Twyford 34:18

You can't say, oh, we're going to find anybody, Like I really couldn't find anybody. The first regroup they'll be like oh my God, real estate group and it was in the classified section, Because that's how we found jobs back then. It was in the classified section of the newspaper and it's like real estate investors group is going to open up. I'm going to go to that. That sounds like fun.

Dwan Bent-Twyford 34:38

And now I've got to throughout my career, but it's finding the people, because there's no reason for anyone in today's society to have to figure it out. Well, many people like you, like me, like YouTube, like TV. Nobody needs to just trial an error anymore, because there's too much opportunity literally at your fingertips.

Reed Goossens 35:02

Yep, I complete 100%, 100%.

Dwan Bent-Twyford 35:05

Some people are like oh, I can't find anything to work with. It's like how can you even say that? Pick up your cell phone. There's just opportunities everywhere. So you did some of the other things too. You did some rehabbing and you said something about some section 8s.

Reed Goossens 35:23

Yeah, that was my first property I purchased Six months being in America was an all cash property in upstate New York. It was a triplex for $38,000. Oh, yeah, well, I had been. I've already been bitten by the real estate bug in Australia and I was going to the. It's not called a rear event, but a local real estate investment club. That was the only one in the whole of the country in Australia, in Brisbane. It's still going to this day. I still get emails from them. Kudos to the Brisbane Property Investing Network, I should say. And they're still going strong. And that helped me find my group.

Reed Goossens 35:59

And then so, when I came to the US, I was like, aha, I need to go to a networking event. And I was just Googling real estate on meetupcom and guess what came up? A rear Go there. All of a sudden, I'm being absolutely bombarded with information American information it's a little bit different to Australian information and what an LLC is? What does cash on cash mean? What does IRR mean? Like you know all these things.

Reed Goossens 36:23

And once I figured out the lingo, it was about like, okay, what can I do with my money that I'd saved? I'd save a lot of money, but it's safe enough to be like, hey, let's go buy a property. Well, the first thing I realized that no one was going to lend to me because I had no bloody credit right. So I have to go find if I was going to get. You know in the pool, so to speak. I needed to go and actually do a deal because I got to a point where I was, I'd read enough books, I'd been self-educating about two and a half years over the period of in Australia and some per rest of six months in the US and I was like I need to go do this myself, like this is my money, if I stuff it up, it's mine and I'm not going to get to deal number 10 without doing deal number one, regardless of how it goes. And I went and did it.

Reed Goossens 37:05

And now, looking back on it, what I'm doing today we have over $700 million of assets in our portfolio. You know like I'm not trying to boast, but like I've gone for a $30,000 unit triplex to a portfolio worth over $750 million today, nearly four and a half thousand units across five different MSAs, and I partner with people I've done it all off. You know, pulled up my own two, what they call it, pull up your bootstraps, whatever it's called. But it's starting with like doing something that I could fathom and pushing myself to go do it Right.

Reed Goossens 37:52

And then I'm taking the Greyhound bus from Penn Station on a Saturday up to Syracuse, new York, because I was living in New York City. I'd be up there, the broker would pick me up, do a quick tour, get back on the bus, be back down in New York, because it would be a three and a half hour journey every day, twice, and that's what I had to do to get started Right now. It wasn't glamorous in the beginning, but what I have now today looks completely different, but it got me going. So sharing those little stories with people hopefully inspires them to take more action in and around what they're doing. That's what I think.

Dwan Bent-Twyford 38:24

That's why I like to just have these conversations, like you know, like I like to talk to people like hey, we just met, we're sitting down, we're having a drink again to know each other, because that those are the things that inspire people, because they can see a piece of themselves in you. So, like you know, I really like that read guy. Let me check out what he does. I've been doing this for a while. I don't know about syndication. That sounds like a good place to start 100%.

Dwan Bent-Twyford 38:47

Now, how did you jump? So I know I don't know how long the story is, but from doing the rehabs or whatever, what made you think like? You know what I'm going to Starts and occasions, that's a huge jump, huge jump.

Reed Goossens 39:05

The critical point in there I mentioned earlier. My background is in structural engineering. In 2013, we relocated to LA and I was working for an engineering company and I just knew I wasn't. I had this bug of real estate. I was trying to do these little deals on the side and I was like I needed a visa to be in the country. If I didn't have a job, I'd have to go home. I was like, well, hang on, I've got a skill set here. I could maybe go work for a developer. Let's go work. Let's be surrounded by real estate 24-7.

Reed Goossens 39:35

I happened to work for a structural engineering firm that was doing multifamily in Long Beach. I said to my colleague I was like, hey, man, you should read this book called Rich Dad Port Ad and give me all the emails of these developers that you're working with, because I'm going to email them. I did, I added the blue and was like hey, I'm Reed. My girlfriend is American. I've moved here. I have background in structural engineering. Maybe there's a job that you need me to do. Long behold, two or three of them reached it back out and was like hell, yeah, we want a project manager, you've got a great skill set.

Reed Goossens 40:07

Looking back on it, that was a very, very critical pivot because I was then surrounding myself as I forget who says it, I think it was Mark Cuban says go out and find the highest paying corporate job you can in the space you want to learn. That is a path. That's what I did. I was still doing deals on the side. I then got a mentor at the same time as I transitioned into this job.

Reed Goossens 40:31

Working in my day job as what was called an owner's representative for ground up construction, I was also had a mentor that was helping me with the real estate syndication side. Over time, by the time I left that day job I had already led I think we bought 1,000 units as the lead captain and sponsor. There was a time there where it was just like working 60 hours a week at the day job and then having to try and do syndications on the side. It was tough. It was not going to get me wrong, but I got to the point where I had had made enough money on the side to having the day job was hurting my ability to continue to fly.

Reed Goossens 41:12

Then at the same time I married, my wife got the green card and here we are today. The reason I say that story is because so many people don't realize that they do have a skill set that may be useful in the industry they want to get involved with. They can still get paid to learn. On the other side, I also realized that I'm worthy enough of paying someone, a mentor, to take my life to the next level. I paid the cheapest mentor I could find, but it was about the mentor. But it was also about betting on myself and knowing that I'm worth this money to go and invest in myself. Those two things really help lay the foundation to launch where I am today.

Dwan Bent-Twyford 41:54

I love the fact that you had a mentor. Sadly, back then there were no traveling people and that stuff didn't quite. It was more like Tony Robbins rah, rah, rah. But I weren't like this real estate stuff. I didn't have the luck of having a mentor. But I like the fact that you said that, because I tell people, listen, you're going to learn two ways through mistakes or mentors. I'm telling you mistakes will cost you a lot more money, money, time, hardship aggravation, maybe you make a bad move and it puts you completely out of business. If you had a mentor, they would cut your learning curve and help you not make the bonehead mistakes that people make that don't have mentors.

Reed Goossens 42:39

That's exactly right. The mentor isn't the silver bullet that everything becomes. There's still a ton of work. They're not spoon feeding you, they're not doing the work for you, but it's the act of learning and taking the bet on yourself to say, hey, I've got this person in my corner, that I can go and run an idea against. That's so powerful because so many people do. And I've been to the seminars where people run up to the back of the room and they sign up for the goddamn mentor and blah, blah, blah, blah. You don't have to go and do the actual work. Getting a mentor is one step, which is good step, but then you've got to go and actually do it. That is sometimes a key where a lot of people just fall short. Having the mentor, you're going to put yourself in such a better place to go do that mentally, to be able to go take that next step and say, well, I'm going to go do my first deal. That's it.

Dwan Bent-Twyford 43:32

We're going to jump topics for a minute. I love everything you have to say. I believe in what you say. I agree 100% with all the things that you say and that you do. I really love the fact that and not to sound like so cliche, but that is literally the American dream. Someone comes from another country and even though Australia is obviously a very first world civilized country, but people can come from anywhere and they can make things happen in America. It really is a melting pot. There's opportunities for every single person, every age, every race, every sex, every color. There's opportunities for everybody, but people have to take the first step and open the door Right.

Dwan Bent-Twyford 44:14

You've got to open the door 100%.

Reed Goossens 44:16

Yes, it's not To your point of like. People always ask well, is it luck or is it hard work? And there's obviously some luck involved. But for me I definitely didn't come from a third world country, I will hand on heart. But there's a lot of immigrants who do, and they make big successes of themselves here in the United States because they've got their back against the wall. And my quote, unquote back against the wall is like well, if I don't succeed, I've got to go home. And it wasn't necessarily back against the wall, it was my emergency ripcourt because if that's the worst thing that happens, if I went back to Australia and got another civil engineering job, well, that's not that bad. And so going off and then saying, well, hang on, I want to go and scratch this itch that, go off and do it right, because there's no one holding you back beside yourself.

Dwan Bent-Twyford 45:07

I love it, so true, okay, so switch in topics. What's your favorite band of all time?

Reed Goossens 45:12

Favorite band. Yep All time Most influential band of all time. It's going to sound so cheesy. I grew up in the 90s, you know, when I came of age as a 13 year old boy, eminem had a pretty big impact on my life. So so, yeah, no, I love Eminem.

Dwan Bent-Twyford 45:37

I mean, I was like coming of age in the 70s, but when I got first hip hop, hip hop kind of music started coming out, I was like, oh my God, you can dance with this. This is awesome. Eminem, that's funny. He's actually a pretty nice guy. I follow a lot of stuff about him. Marshall's a pretty nice guy. So what's your favorite food?

Reed Goossens 45:55

Thai food.

Discovering Australian Cuisine and Morning Routines

Dwan Bent-Twyford 45:56

Thai food. I love Thai food too, so you don't want so. When people say oh, come to Australia and we'll put shrimps on the barbie, what does that mean?

Reed Goossens 46:05

Oh, like I love, I love a good barbie.

Dwan Bent-Twyford 46:06

What does that even mean?

Reed Goossens 46:09

It means prawns or you know, and it just it just on skewers and just just barbecue, you know what I mean.

Dwan Bent-Twyford 46:14

So people barbecue a lot over there 100% Like most, like most Western countries.

Reed Goossens 46:18

you know, one thing we barbecue probably more like a little bit un-traditional is our coat of arms, the kangaroo. We throw a slab of kangaroo on the barbie and it's very delicious.

Dwan Bent-Twyford 46:29

You eat the kangaroo.

Reed Goossens 46:30

Mm-hmm.

Dwan Bent-Twyford 46:31

Oh, okay. Well, I go to Australia. I'm definitely eating kangaroo. I did not know you could eat kangaroos.

Reed Goossens 46:36

Yeah, you definitely can, and it's actually really tasty.

Dwan Bent-Twyford 46:39

I bet it is Any country, any country I've ever traveled to, or any state. I always find out like what's their thing? And I don't care what it is, I don't care how gross it sounds, I always eat it. And I've had some of the best meals in my life, like in Korea and different places. I don't know, I don't even want to know what I was eating, but so delicious I did not. I know I just learned something 100%. I did not know you could eat a kangaroo.

Reed Goossens 47:04

Okay, yep.

Dwan Bent-Twyford 47:06

In Florida we alligator tailed, so.

Reed Goossens 47:09

But you can eat crocodile in Australia as well.

Dwan Bent-Twyford 47:12

There's definitely crocodiles, so oh yeah, frog legs, all that stuff, it's all good, and I was raised in the South. We like, killed everything, ate everything, I mean. Oh, if there's anything, I've eaten all of it, including brains and the whole thing. What is your favorite time of day?

Reed Goossens 47:28

Mornings.

Dwan Bent-Twyford 47:29

In the morning. What do you do in the morning?

Reed Goossens 47:33

Before, well, you just had a 12 month old baby, but before that it was a lot of meditation, a lot of taking some quiet time and working out. That was really just what mornings are for.

Dwan Bent-Twyford 47:45

Nice babies. So you have a one year old.

Reed Goossens 47:47

Mm, hmm.

Dwan Bent-Twyford 47:48

I have grandkids and I was like, oh, my God, I forgot how much I love babies. Okay, so. So, first of all, tell us the name of your podcast again.

Reed Goossens 47:59

Mm. Hmm, it's called investing in the US.

Dwan Bent-Twyford 48:02

Investing in the US, and how do people get a hold of you?

Reed Goossens 48:05

Readgoosenscom or just Google my name. I'm very Googleable, very Googleable.

Dwan Bent-Twyford 48:11

I know I love that, all right, and so folks, so. So first thank you for being on the podcast. I have a one more little thing before we wrap up, but first thank you for being on and everyone that's listening. You know people like read, people like myself, we do podcasts. Podcasts are definitely a labor of love. It's a lot of work getting people, booking people, talking to people. There's a lot that goes into it, but the people that do it are doing it to help educate you and whatever their field is, and to or entertain you or whatever. So I think we're a little bit of like education and entertainment, or like what I call someone called the edutain or something. So I think we're a little bit of both, but we're all here and we do it for you.

Dwan Bent-Twyford 48:49

So I asked two things of you. First of all, I want you to go to my podcast and I want you to write a positive comment and leave a five star review. Then I want you to go listen to Reed's podcast, which I'm going to be a guest on. I want you to also leave him a comment and a five star review and subscribe to both, because our way to know that you like what you're hearing from us is for you to leave reviews, subscribe, share with your friends so that we know that we're teaching people who are actually listening. So I'm asking you to do that as a favor to me, because I know you all had a good time today, and also I want you to go to Dwandurful D-W-A-N-D-E-R-F-U-L, dwandurfulcom. Often I've got two free real estate programs and one interesting is called Real Estate Lingo.

Dwan Bent-Twyford 49:37

So I give a program, because the lingo is not the same as in other industry. They all have their own lingo and another one is flipping your way to a fortune, so go do that for me, okay. So last thing, I want you to leave us with a parting word of wisdom that can only be one word.

Reed Goossens 49:55

One word, okay, one word Curiosity.

Dwan Bent-Twyford 50:00

Oh, that's a good word and I never saw people ahead of time that I wanted to have them, so I wasn't thinking about their word while we're talking. I want to see what word comes out of your mouth.

Reed Goossens 50:13

So I think, being curious, yeah, for sure.

Dwan Bent-Twyford 50:16

Okay, curiosity is a great word, so everyone that listens to Dwandurful knows that every week, when our guest gives us a word, that is our word of the week. So all my Dwandurful people will be working on Curiosity this week. But what we need to know is what does that mean to you?

Reed Goossens 50:34

Yep, so it means to me never stop being curious, right, and it goes probably to the theme of the show, what you said earlier, which was you're always wanting to continue to learn and be a student, right, because if you stop learning, you stop growing, and I think that's your story, my story. We wouldn't be here today to be able to share that, and our stories in 10 years' time are going to look different to what they are today, because we're continuing to be curious.

The Importance of Curiosity

Dwan Bent-Twyford 50:58

I love it. All right. So, folks, that's Curiosity Never stop. I could not agree more. That's a really excellent word for the week. So if you're curious about syndications, you're curious about any of it. Right here we are Go be curious this week. That's your word, all right. So thank you again. I just want to thank you for coming on. I know time is very valuable and I really appreciate you spending your time with me today and all of us, the wonderful team team, wonderful people, because we're a family over here and everybody will be back next week. Same bat time, same bat channel, and I want you to remember that the truth is in the red letter. So we'll see you next week. Ciao, reed, thank you, bye everybody.

Reed Goossens 51:41

Thank you, mmm, hmm.