The Most Dwanderful Real Estate Podcast Ever!

Annie Dickerson's Syndication Strategies

• Dwan Bent-Twyford • Season 5 • Episode 367

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Embarking on a journey from the classroom to the realm of real estate might seem like a leap too vast for most, but for Annie Dickerson, it was a transition marked by serendipity and success. I'm thrilled to have Annie, co-founder of Goodegg Investments, join us as we navigate the transformation of wealth-building and its societal influence. Together, we peel back the layers of real estate investing, from Annie's initial plunge into house hacking in Washington D.C. to the strategic sales that bolstered her financial portfolio. We also shed light on the intricate balance of nurturing investments alongside family life and the nuances of landlord-tenant laws that every budding investor should be aware of.

Venturing into the underestimated gold mine of Huntsville, Alabama, I reveal my own awe at the affordability and potential lying dormant in this emerging hotspot. We discuss the growth spurred by prominent industries and the natural barriers that make Huntsville's downtown real estate a hidden treasure. But it's not all smooth sailing; managing properties from afar presents a unique set of challenges, and we dive into the realities of remote real estate investment, from dealing with theft to understanding local dynamics.

Capping off our discourse, we turn to the robust world of syndications, a sector that can be as bewildering as it is lucrative. Annie explains her initial reluctance and the enlightening journey that led her to embrace syndication, eventually guiding her to establish Goodegg Investments. As we wrap up, the conversation takes a turn towards the philosophical, pondering the meaning of fulfillment and the connections that bind us. It's a tale of personal triumph, strategic foresight, and the pursuit of a life that not only prospers but also resonates with the heart's deepest desires. Join us as we share these insights, aiming to enrich your investment approach and, just perhaps, your approach to life itself.

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Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Hey everybody, welcome to the most Dwanderful real estate podcast ever. I'm your host, Dwan Bent-Twyford, also known as America's most sought-after real estate investor, and we are so excited to have you here today. If you're new to Dwanderful, I took my name Dwan and wonderful, and I made a new word, so that's how we came up with Dwan-der-ful. So you are now in the Dwan-der-ful zone. Our motto at Dwan-der-ful is people before profits, so if that's something that resonates with you, you're at the right place. I'm your girl. I have an amazing guest today, ms Annie Dickerson, and we're going to find out just find out what she's happening, what she's about and what's going on in her neck of the woods. And you can find me on Dwanderful, at dwanderful. com. Actually, if you opt in, I'll send you a free e-book. I have about four e-books. I'll send you a few, and I'm on all the socials TikTok, instagram, facebook, threads, x, all wonderful. So just look me up, I'm everywhere. So, with that being said, Annie, I want to welcome you to the show today.

Annie Dickerson:

Thank you. I'm thrilled to be here with you and your listeners.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

I love it and I like the good egg investments. That's awesome.

Annie Dickerson:

That's right. It's all about building your nest egg while doing good in the world.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

I could not agree with you more. I really liked that. Building your nest egg while doing good in the world. Yeah, I just feel like I mean, the world's gone crazy right now. Oh God, I'm just like I can't even believe how things were like even just a decade ago to what's happening right now. It's like, where are the good people? I know there's still a lot of good people, but, man, I tell you what it's starting to become questionable.

Annie Dickerson:

Yeah, there's a lot of noise to cut through these days, for sure.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

It's so much. So, basically, I we like to just throw our guests straight to the wolves. So what I'm going to ask you to do is just give us your name, how to contact you and like a one sentence or two sentences of what you do, and I have a couple of fun little questions and we're going to backtrack and find out how you became to be Annie Dickerson.

Annie Dickerson:

Fantastic. Well, I'm Annie Dickerson and I'm the founder and chief brand officer at Good Egg Investments. What is it? Say it again. Hang on, can I check real quick? My cleaners are here, yeah, yeah, do you hear anything in the background on your end? Okay, just wanted to double check, okay, so I'll keep going. So let me back up. So my name is Annie and I never intended to get into real estate.

Annie Dickerson:

Honestly, I started out as a teacher, a fourth grade teacher with Teach for America, and actually we, early on, my husband and I, were really blessed with a really great real estate agent Maybe not America's most sought after, but he was decent at the time. And the reason I say that was I was working as a teacher, he was working as a web developer and we just we went down the list and we thought, okay, well, we got married. Check what's next on the list. Oh, next is buy a house, yeah, okay. So we were living in Washington DC at the time and we said, okay, well, what do we want? Let's look at something. Being young, 20 somethings we thought let's buy a condo or a loft, something really trendy. But our real estate agent was, he took a more practical approach and he said you know, but our real estate agent took a more practical approach and he said you know, those are nice, but you might want to think more long term. And he said in DC these row homes are pretty popular.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Oh man they are.

Annie Dickerson:

And he said you know, some of them have not just one, but they have two units, and so you could potentially live in one, rent out the other, and that other unit could help you pay down your mortgage. And he said the magic words. He said and plus, if you play your cards right and you hold on to this asset long term, someday you might be able to get this house to be cash flow positive. It's it, and I thought I have no idea what that means, but that sounds so magical. And I said this is what I want. I want something that's cashflow positive, that pays for itself, that we can leave to our kids, something that we can have long-term. And so that's really what sparked the interest in real estate for me and fast forward to now.

Annie Dickerson:

there's a lot in the middle. I have a lot of questions.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Don't jump out at me. I'll tell everyone how to find you?

Annie Dickerson:

Ah yes, To find me, the best place to go is goodegginvestments. com. Or if you have any questions specific about anything we talk about here today, you can reach out to me directly at Annie@ goodegginvestments. com.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Okay, and then are you on social media.

Annie Dickerson:

Yes, we are so. Personally, I'm probably most active on Instagram. I'm at uncanny banana on Instagram, and then we're also at Good Egg Investments, pretty much.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Okay, so spell uncanny bananny.

Annie Dickerson:

Yeah, there we go. So it's a U-N-C-A-N-N-I-E, so uncanny, with the Annie in there, and then B-A-N-A-N-N-I-E. It's a long story.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

I've tried to change it many times no, I love it. I'm going to change it many times. No, I love it. I'm gonna start following you today, as soon as we hang out.

Annie Dickerson:

But I'm gonna start following you. Well great, it's one of those things that it just stuck with me. I've thought about changing into something boring like Annie Dickerson, but extra flair.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

No, I know mine's Dwanderful people like how did you come up with that? I was like, well, my name is Dwan and when I started my podcast, there's like a million that are just, yeah, real estate investing. And I thought, nah, it's got to be something like I'm going to have a little more panache. So I started thinking like Dwan, dwan-der-ful, dwan-tastic. I kind of figured how can I play on my name? I was like, oh, dwan-der-ful, like wonderful, but Dwan-der-ful.

Annie Dickerson:

And then you know what, I love about Dwan-der-ful is it's Dwan-der-ful and there's that word wonder in there, which is like you're kind of open, you're kind of going where, where the world leads you, and yeah, I love it that people are like, and I was like, hey, listen, I got the hair, I got the whole thing.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

I have a whole world of wonderful and I'm excited when new people come in to my world, I always just like to get a short explanation from you and your socials and stuff. So it's in the top of the show notes because you know, yeah, and everybody watches podcasts all the way through and um, okay, so you were in your 20-somethings and you said you were married and you had been a teacher. Yes, and then you and your husband were in dc. Dc is a great area, you know. I know those row houses there I've been, I've been a million times and we teach there and stuff and I love all those houses oh yeah they're great.

Annie Dickerson:

I mean, it's like playing real life, nopoli when you start, uh, essentially house hacking, those, those row homes and we actually ended up buying two on the same block both duplexes, both row homes. It was great.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

So you bought them? How many years ago?

Annie Dickerson:

This was 2008 to 2010 when we were there, and so the how much are they worth now?

Annie Dickerson:

Well, we actually we sold them a few years ago, um, nearly for about double what we paid for them. So it was a great opportunity. We got in, like I said, we were in our early twenties. We didn't know what we were doing and we thought this looks kind of good. We went on Craigslist and we looked at what we could rent the basement apartment for. But the basement that first one had been a brothel, so we knew that there was a ton of work that we needed to do before we could rent it out. So we did a lot of cleanup work and some repairs and then it actually it worked out. So when we moved out of that first one, we were able to bring in money every month and it was paying for itself.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

That's so nice. I tell people all the time. I know lots of young couples. I'm like you know, buy a duplex, like live in one side, let the other side pay for it. It's like you can never go wrong. And then when you want to move up and get a house or whatever you know, rent that. And then you know, and then when you have a house and you're like, hey, I'm ready to buy the next size of a house, like rent that one. And just you know, keep scaling yourself up if that's something that you want to do. But I have told so many young people I'm like, buy a duplex or a triplex, live in one and rent the other. It's like free to live there. Exactly, people just don't like oh, I'm only right next to people. It's like, but when you live in a house in a subdivision, you live right next to people anyway, right.

Annie Dickerson:

And you got to do it when you're young, and this is part of what I ran into later on. You got to do it when you're young, before you have kids, before you have accumulated a ton of stuff and you're tied down by your job or your you know, kids, schools and stuff that way. You, you know, or your kids' schools and stuff that way. As a 20-something we were used to living with people because we had just come out of the college dorms. Oh yeah, we were used to living right next to people, so it wasn't a big stretch for us. Now, in our older age, I'm grumpier. I'm like I don't want to live next to anybody.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Okay, you cannot be that old. How old are you? I'm going to be 40 this year. Girl, I am 65 years old. Get out, you are not, I am, you're in your older age you are a puppy.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

I feel like I've been investing in real estate a long time, but yes, you're right, I still got a lot ahead of me. Yeah, that's true, you know you have been. I mean, I've been my daughter's 35 now, so I started when she was a baby. So it's like gosh, I've been doing this 35 years. How's that even possible? But I'm like, if you add that up, shoot, that means I'm 65. How's that possible?

Annie Dickerson:

I'm 65. How's that possible? Yeah, yeah, but what we said we started out with. So that first one we ended up calling um alpha. We started collecting the letters of the alphabet. Our goal was to get to Zulu. So alpha and Bravo were in Washington DC, right around the corner from each other. And then um, Charlie and Delta followed. Next they were here in the Bay Area and then, as we got Delta, at that point we had two young kids. So our kids were about three and newborn.

Annie Dickerson:

Around that time when I started really digging into real estate and I thought, okay, we got to expand, we got to, we got to do this faster. We can't just buy one duplex every you know, three, four years. This is going to take us forever to get all the way to Zulu. Yeah, I said, you know, let's see if we can do this faster. But because we had young kids at that time we were living in the bay area, we had young kids. It's very expensive here in the bay area, very competitive. Our kids had lots of stuff. We were tied down by the schools now and so I thought, okay, maybe this whole moving around every couple years and uprooting the kids maybe this isn't the best fit anymore. Well, what else can we do? So then I said, well, looking around the Bay Area, I said maybe we could just buy a duplex that we don't live in and then we rent it out. And so we started looking at that. But of course the landlord tenant laws here in the Bay Area are very restrictive. Yeah, they are and.

Annie Dickerson:

I thought, oh, that could be a potential headache and a lot of risk that I'm taking on. So then I said, okay, well, maybe not, but then what else could we do? And so I was in this phase of like, okay, how can I? I know I want to invest in real estate, but I don't know exactly how. And so I said, well, maybe we could go beyond the Bay Area. So this was in 2016, 2017.

Annie Dickerson:

I said maybe we could go beyond the Bay Area. And I literally I basically pulled down a map, like in middle school geography class, I pulled down a map of the whole United States and I was like, all right, well, if not here, where should we go? Right, well, if not here, where should we go? And I started scouring the web for all sorts of different articles, research, anything I can get my hands on about different markets, especially emerging markets around the country and I thought if I can catch a market kind of on the upswing sort of like DC was.

Annie Dickerson:

When we first started investing there, especially the neighborhood that we invested in I said if I could find a kind of sleeper market where there's job growth coming to the area, where there's population growth, where there's job diversity, there's lots of opportunity people moving to the area, if I could invest there now and kind of take advantage of that upswing yes they're now and kind of take advantage of that upswing and that could be a really good investment. So I started cross-referencing all these lists of the top markets to invest in. I stumbled across a great book called Emerging Real Estate Markets by Dave Lindahl.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Yeah, I know Dave.

Annie Dickerson:

Lindahl, yeah yeah. So he kind of laid out all these different things to look for in a potential market. So I cross-referenced all these lists and I finally zeroed in on Huntsville, alabama, which back in 2016, 2017, wasn't really a market that a lot of people knew about. Now you say Huntsville and a lot more people know about Huntsville, alabama. Back then I remember I would tell my colleagues and whatnot about Huntsville and they were like Huntsville, where's that? And I knew I was onto something because this was a small town. But I knew that there were jobs.

Annie Dickerson:

I think Toyota at the time was going to build a factory to bring 6,000 jobs to the area. There were some other big name companies coming to Huntsville. Huntsville also had actually the highest rate of PhDs per capita in the country. Really Right. It's very shocking because here it is, this small town, but rockets are built in Huntsville. And so when you look at a map of Huntsville, this is what put me over the top with Huntsville, because Dave Lindahl says in his book you got to look for a market that's got a natural barrier to growth. That's why the coastal cities do so well, like San Francisco. As more people come here, they can't build into the ocean, and same with mountainous regions, but most of the landlocked states. They don't have that natural barrier of growth, but Huntsville. What Huntsville has to its advantage is, if you look at a map of Huntsville, kitty corner to downtown Huntsville is this huge swath of land called the Redstone Arsenal. It's government land, so that's where the rockets are built. The military is there, the FBI is there, so it's all government land.

Annie Dickerson:

And so I started putting these things together and I said, well, okay, jobs are coming. That means people are going to be moving here Population growth. People like to live indoors, so they're going to need more housing, but they're not going to be moving here. They're doing population growth. People like to live indoors, so they're going to need more housing, but they're not going to be able to build here, so they're going to have to spread out. And so that means that these houses right here, close to the downtown area, that's going to be prime real estate in a few years. And so that's what kind of I latched on to, and so very quickly, as we invested in Huntsville, because when you're from an expensive market like the Bay Area and you invest pretty much anywhere else, it looks like everything's on fire sale.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Alabama from California you had like sticker shock for how cheap.

Annie Dickerson:

It was yes, oh my gosh. I remember the first time I talked to a broker there and he said I said well, we're looking at you know two to four units. What do you got? And he said well, I've got a handful of these four plexes. And he said they're $200,000 a piece. And I said you mean like 200,000 for the down payment? And he said oh, no, no, the whole thing's 200 K.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

I was like what it was like. Give me every one you got it's so true though it is. When I first was investing, I was investing in South Florida and in a West Palm beach and Palm beach County. But at that time you could buy for like 50 or 75,000, like a really a nice, you know, like a three, two, you know for rentals and things. And I married Bill and I moved to Denver. We were out door knocking and looking at houses. He's like, oh yeah, this house is 300,000. I was like this house that's this big. How is that possible that that cost that much money? So I spent honestly, like the first three years we were married. We go look at houses and I was like I can't understand. I can't understand how this house cost this much. Money like this is impossible. So I had sticker shock the other way. Now I'm in, I'm in in Colorado and I buy houses in Iowa, which is where I'm at right now I was like, shoot, they got a three, one and 60 grand. How many can we buy? Right?

Annie Dickerson:

Yeah, I was actually the first place I lived. I was born in Beijing and then Iowa was actually the first place that we lived. When we came to the States I was four years old and it was kind of like talk about sticker shock. It was culture shock for sure, going from busy Beijing to Ames Iowa my mom thought she had been sold a bill of goods.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

But you know, iowa is a good little town. We invest here it is. We buy a bunch of commercial buildings and stuff. You know any place and like Alabama, any place that's like. And like Alabama, any place that's like, just like a little American town where people want to bring industry, especially, like you know, they build rockets and stuff. I mean that can change, that can change everything. And they're probably still super inexpensive compared to what everything is in California.

Annie Dickerson:

Oh yeah, absolutely, and so I'll tell you no-transcript. But what happened was very different and because, when you house hack, when you're in a duplex and you're renting out one unit, you know those people. They live under the same roof, you see them every day, you say hi, you become friends, which means you're constantly talking to them, you're constantly seeing them, you know what kind of people they are and you have an open line of communication. This was many states over and, yes, I had a property manager that I was working with, but we only met once a week. We talked once a week, and so, in between, I didn't know who these people were, who were living in these properties that I owned, and, on top of that, it wasn't the most luxury properties. Let's say luxury neighborhoods.

Annie Dickerson:

They were more working class properties and working class neighborhoods. And so all of a sudden, within the span of a few months, we came across things that we had never come across before Theft, vandalism. I had to start thinking about eviction. It was all sorts.

Annie Dickerson:

We had this one guy who had this big dog and it was a pet free property. So we kept telling him you can't have a dog here and whatnot. Finally we said this isn't going to be the best fit if you're going to have a dog here. So one day he finally decides to leave. But before he left he actually left the dog there and he took off and he didn't tell anybody. So meanwhile this dog is just wreaking havoc on this property. He's got no food, no water. It was days before anybody knew. Thankfully, the dog was okay, but by the time they went into the unit the drywall was torn into. That. I mean, there was all kinds of damage. So it's stuff like that that we had never come across in house hacking that we didn't even think was possible. So it was a fast learning curve for us.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

I have had some rentals on my own where people just leave them trashed or they're full of like roaches and bugs and trash. It's like seriously, do you live this way? Like I don't understand how people like I've never done that to any property.

Annie Dickerson:

Yeah, we had one. The one that put me over the edge and finally got me to think that this isn't the right fit for me was this one property was a fourplex and there was a woman that was living there who hadn't been paying for even before we took over the property.

Annie Dickerson:

And this is something that we learned about Alabama is that you have to ask the right questions. They're actually not required to disclose everything to you. So I know right. So something we discovered, something we learned along the way. But with this particular tenant, she hadn't been paying for many months and finally we made the decision that we were going to evict her.

Annie Dickerson:

So the day before the sheriff shows up, my property manager calls me, and it's never a good sign when your property manager calls you out of the blue. But she said you know I got good news and bad news. She said you know, the good news is your tenant left, and I said okay, that's something that's a positive. She said. The bad news, though, is that before she left, she stopped up all the sinks and the tubs in her unit. She left the water running and then she took off. And so she said, by the time anybody knew what was happening, she had flooded not just her unit but the unit next door and the unit next door to that. So three of the four units in this fourplex were basically offline for that entire summer.

Annie Dickerson:

This is Huntsville humid summer lots of fans going just to dry the place out before we could do any repairs. It was a huge learning curve for me. Here I am, thinking I'm going to have a wonderful summer with my two kids, who are at that time where I think, four and one. I spent the whole summer filling out paperwork, talking to insurance, talking to my property manager, oh what a nightmare.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

It is, and that's part of like a lot of people that I meet. They're like, oh, I want to invest in my own backyard, I don't want to invest other places. I'm like, oh, I want to invest in my own backyard, I don't want to invest other places. I'm like, yeah, but maybe the other places it is better because it's cheaper, you can buy more, you make more money, build more wealth, things like that. But you definitely have to have like a property manager or somebody around, because people do stupid stuff like that.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

It's like just move out in peace, right, right. Why do people have to trash things like that before they go? I don't get it. You know, we have a couple rentals we have a lot of subject to. We always say listen, if for some reason, you can't make it, you can't make the payments, something in your life changes just tell us. Just tell us and we'll give you some cash and for keys and just move and please don't trash the place. So you got to have basic humanity. Yeah, you have to just have so much communication with people because of stuff like that.

Annie Dickerson:

Yeah, yeah, totally. And well, because of that. I mean, it was actually a. What did that lead you to? Yeah, it was a blessing in disguise, as are most things, because it really opened my eyes to this is also no longer the right fit for us at this phase in life. But then I thought, okay, well, is that it then? Because at that point, my understanding of real estate investing was you're either a landlord or you don't invest in real estate. I had no idea that there were other ways to invest in real estate. There's dozens and dozens of ways to invest in real estate, and at the time I thought it was just that path or bust, yep. But before I gave up, I thought, okay, well, maybe let me look into this.

Annie Dickerson:

Because along the way, what had happened was I had had all these conversations with friends and family about what I was doing in real estate, and every time people would get excited about it and they'd want to learn how. But as I was teaching them, they'd say no, no, no, no, you misunderstand, I don't want to do the work, I just have some money I want to put into real estate. Could you do it for me? Could I just put my money with you. And at the time I was like no, no, I'm sorry, I don't do that, I only do my own properties. Sorry, good luck, but along this time it was coming together that I was like well, wait a second. I've had a lot of these conversations. A lot of the people I know have the same problem. They all have some money they want to put into real estate. They don't want to know how to do it. They don't have the skills or the time. But I've done it before and now I've been through a few things. I could probably figure it out, especially if I were to double down and do this full time.

Annie Dickerson:

So then I said, okay, well, what would that look like? How would that work? And at the time I only knew as far as a small partnership, like a joint venture, a joint partnership. So I said, okay, well, I guess I could do some digging to see how that works. And as I started digging I went further and further into the rabbit hole and one thing led to another and I discovered this term syndication. The first time I came across the word syndication I thought, ooh, that sounds way too complex. I'm not up for that. I don't know what that is. Let me just keep going down this JV route. But it kept coming up, kept coming up, and so finally I was like okay, let me just see what this syndication thing is about, and I realized that it's just a group investment rather than that's all it is.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

People are so scared of the word. The first time I heard it I was like oh, I don't know, that sounds like it's above my pay grade. I don't even know what it means Exactly.

Annie Dickerson:

So as I started digging, I was like, oh, it just means it's a group investment. This might be what I was looking for, and I said, well, if I could get this to work, I could be the lead I could have. You know, let's say, five to 10 of my friends and family come into a syndication with me and it solves their problems and gives me an opportunity to do something that I love, and so that was kind of my plan. The other thing that really irked me about syndications when I discovered them was that I was like wait a second. How is it possible that this opportunity has existed for generations? And I've been at that point.

Annie Dickerson:

I had been investing in real estate for about 10 years and nobody had told me about syndications. Why is this such a secret? Why is this a country club investment, as they call it? Why isn't this available to the masses, to the everyday investor? And so that, combined with my friends and family who needed help, I was like I got to get this the word out to the streets. I got to let people know that this opportunity is out there. So that's what led me to pursue syndications, which is what we focus on now.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

See, I love that because you started out probably like most investors. You're married. What can we do? Let's get a rental. I feel like kind of a lot of it.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

I started off, I rehabbed a few, I wholesaled a few, I got a couple of rentals. I think a lot of us kind of have that same path. And then you get going and then like now we buy commercial buildings and then you hear, like the first couple times I heard about syndication, I swear to you, the first time someone explained it to me I was investing gosh, maybe 20 years already and I could not wrap my mind. I'm like, okay, just explain this one more time. You have to have have money, you have to be accredited. You have to not be accredited. I like, for whatever reason, I'm not understanding what this is. And now it's like it's such a great way for people to start because they don't have to do all the work. They have somebody like you that's already like running the ship there and they can invest and put money in and get money back, and I think I feel like it takes the guesswork out of it for a lot of people.

Annie Dickerson:

Yeah, and that's what we always tell people is. You know, syndications are really for the people who want to invest in real estate but they don't want to be landlords, and that what it allows you to do is one, to quickly and fairly easily get into great opportunities that are led by people who are doing this full time. And two, even when I was investing in my rentals, it took me months to settle on Huntsville, alabama. Then I had to call all these property managers, interview them, figure out the neighborhoods and do all the Google Maps and talk to the brokers that whole thing. Right To set up shop in one market, and but with syndications which is what I now personally invest in primarily it's I could diversify across the whole country fairly easily. I just have to get to know the groups, the people that are doing these syndications, and I don't have to set up shop myself in these markets.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Exactly so is that where the good egg investments came in.

Annie Dickerson:

That did, so I actually I quit my job. I was working as a creative director at the time. I quit my job in January of 2018 without a safety net, because that's just how I roll. I was like, okay, I'm going to make this work one way or the other. And I had never done a syndication before. I had actually never purchased a commercial property before, but I had taken a course. So there was that.

Annie Dickerson:

So I took one course on how syndications work and I thought I'm going to make this work and I thought how hard could it be? I've done a fourplex. I could do a 40 units probably the same thing. It was not the same thing by a long stretch. Thankfully, the universe stepped in, was like I think you need some help. This is cute what you're trying to do, but you're going to need some help here.

Annie Dickerson:

And so the very next week after I quit my job, I was actually at a conference in Denver.

Annie Dickerson:

Very next week after I quit my job, I was actually at a conference in Denver and I that's where I met my business partner, julie, and she and I um hit it off right away because we both had a passion for helping moms and women into real estate, because we thought this is the perfect fit for busy moms who don't have time for real estate, but they want some other way to contribute financially to their families, to build passive income, to build long-term wealth for their families, and so it's such a passion for that. And so a few months later, we kind of joined forces and created Good Egg Investments and that's what we focus on now. We help both women and men. Actually we're 50-50. But we help people to one, learn about what syndications are so they can figure out if it's the right path for them, whether they invest with us or not. And the other is to offer great opportunities that we're investing in ourselves so people can kind of invest alongside us investing in ourselves so people can kind of invest alongside us.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

I love that. I love that. You know, I started off as a very broke single mom and during my divorce I had lost a house of foreclosure, I had my car repossessed, like all this stuff. So when I got investing and I realized how many women were in foreclosure and most many of them were like going through divorces, husband's not paying or whatever I thought, gosh, there's like a million other women just like me. I could just help them and that would be a good choice for me. And now, 35 years later, like that's kind of still, you know what we do and we buy commercial, we buy a lot of different things like that, but at the end of the day, I'm still about trying to help the people that are actually in foreclosure and even still now a lot of them are women. Yeah, it's like people need to stand up for the women.

Annie Dickerson:

Yes, and the thing on it was all about education still is to this day. You know, when we first got into the syndication industry, it was so much of a black box we were having trouble understanding it and we had real estate experience. There's so much jargon, so much terminology and complicated graphs and charts and it was just hard to figure out. And so we really took it upon ourselves to create a welcoming and inviting atmosphere where, you know, it was the fourth grade teacher in me I said I can't explain this to a five-year-old, then we're not doing it right.

Annie Dickerson:

So we started to try to just take apart what is syndication, what does it mean, look at it from all the different angles with simple math, simple terminology. And people started coming to us and they'd say you know, I thought I understood syndication before, but now I really understand it. And they just had this confidence and this excitement about it, and that's what we love the most.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Yeah, I love it too. I love your whole, your thought and who you're helping, and I love syndications and I like to interview a lot of people that do syndications. But it seems like I think the average investor thinks you have to have like a lot of money or like they're. They hear that word and think, oh, that's like hedge fund and that's other people, but it can just be a regular person that's just got some money to invest. Yeah, and there's like a gazillion of us boomers. Everybody's just sitting on money and they have no idea what to do with it, so they just sit on it yeah, and early on.

Annie Dickerson:

You know, we always had a heart and a passion for helping the everyday investor, the non-accredited investors, the people who were just starting out, and for the first few years, as we were building and scaling the business and the team, it made most sense to focus on accredited investors, those who are higher net worth 200K and above, or 300K with their spouse, or a million dollars of net worth.

Annie Dickerson:

So we focused on those people first. But as of the last couple of years I'm very happy to this is one of my favorite parts about what we do is we've been able to open up crowdfunding, which means that we can now offer all of our opportunities to anybody, so anybody, whether you're a creditor or not, can invest for as low as $10,000. And so one of my crowning achievements is that my mom now gets to invest with us, and it's great because she had never invested in real estate earlier in her life and she doesn't know the first thing about managing a rental property, but now she can start to grow wealth in a meaningful way, even though she's not yet accredited.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

I think that's amazing. That is amazing. That's such a good story too, because you'll teach your kids Now you're teaching your mom, and that's how generational wealth starts. Someone's got to be the top of the food chain. That it's like, hey, I'm going to teach these people that are coming up behind me and somewhere along the way, your whole family will just be all into investing and doing this, and maybe even growing past that into something, and they'll all be like, oh, it's because of grandma Annie.

Annie Dickerson:

Exactly. And the thing that I want my and I talked about this before the thing that I want my kids to take away about real estate investing is you know, back when I was a teacher, the first paycheck that I took out of my teacher mailbox. I ripped it apart, looked at it and I thought that I took out of my teacher mailbox. I ripped it apart, looked at it and I thought that's it. I just worked my tail off for the last two weeks. This is what I get. I think it was just barely over $1,000.

Annie Dickerson:

And I thought how can I possibly create a living on this? And what I want my kids to know is I don't ever want them to be in a place where they say I'm really, I love teaching or whatever it is. This is my passion, but because I'm not paid enough, I can't do this job. I'd hate for them to be in that position, as I was at that time. If I had known everything I know about real estate now and I really love teaching as much as I did, then I could say you know what it's. Okay, I don't depend solely on this paycheck, because I've got these other streams of income from my real estate investments that I can use to support my income.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

That's right. And now you're just teaching on a different level. You're teaching investors about syndications. So the teacher in you is still there.

Annie Dickerson:

Yes, exactly, still the teacher in your study, okay.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

So I want to jump topics for a minute and I love your whole story. I love every single thing about your story. It is all of it and it just it's amazing, and the fact that your mom can do it it's like, oh, that just touches my heart. It's like, oh, that's so cute. My mom is 87 and my dad's 86, so he started buying rentals a couple years ago and started doing some things and I was like it's good, because you know, like, okay, I started, then they jumped into and then now all my kids, all my kids, are millennials, so they all own rentals and they all work for themselves. I know they just teach their kids and they keep going. We'll end up with a fully self-employed line that just goes down, down, down, down down and create the general. It's a blessing to create generational. Well, a hundred percent. So much, okay. We're going to jump topics. Tell me what is your favorite band of all time?

Annie Dickerson:

Oh, I like that guess. Taylor swift doesn't count. My kids are obsessed with taylor swift.

Annie Dickerson:

um, but are you obsessed with taylor, I would say. I would say, actually my favorite band of all time is actually, I would say, green day. It's a surprise for a lot of people who know me, but their american idiot, I don't know. I think it's the Rebel in me. I just I listen to that every day for like a year, while I was in game design school, just getting up the energy to go and go with the hustle and the grind and I don't know. Something about Boulevard of Broken Dreams, especially where the lyrics talk about you know you're on your own, you're walking this path, you've got to depend on yourself, and something about that really spoke to me.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

I think that might be one of my all time favorite songs of my entire life, cause when I hear, I'm like that's how I feel Sometimes. I'm just walking on my path. Yep, you know my shadow and me walking along. That's right. Green Day is a good choice. I'm a big Green Day fan, so I'm a fan of Green Day and I get it. I think it's the rebel too. It's just like a lot of the stuff I super relate to. What's your favorite food? What kind of food do you like to eat?

Annie Dickerson:

Oh my gosh. We were just on this trip, this family trip, to Bali and Singapore. I ate so much on that trip it was like by the end of the vacation I was like is it time to eat again? I'm hungry. I can't give up these opportunities to eat because it's all good food. Oh, you know, I come back to you know, I've tried all sorts of different things. We've gone to Michelin starred restaurants, We've done all these different things. What I love the most is still the simple comfort foods. One of my favorite things in Singapore was chicken rice, which is exactly what it sounds like just chicken and rice, but prepared in this really hearty way. And then, of course, I can't leave out the sweets. I love sweets. One of my favorite things is fresh chocolate chip cookies right out of the oven. Oh, I could eat that all day.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

I could eat. My daughter-in-law makes them like all the way from scratch and I'm telling you, when she makes them I could eat like 50. It's like, oh my God, put the cookies away, Move the cookies into another room, Cause there's.

Annie Dickerson:

So I love chocolate chip, but warm up and then, when the chocolate's all gooey, it's like there's nothing better than what's your favorite part of the day Early morning, before anybody else is up, the house is quiet and it's just. It's just me doing my, you know, my morning workout, my meditation, sometimes reading and journaling, just getting myself in that right state of mind, the right place where I can be present with myself and fill up my own cup. Before then I have to go and fill up everybody else's.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

I love that. I love that I always like to ask people about their music, because you really can tell a lot about people by the kind of music they listen to. You're like kind of like oh okay, I see a little rebel in there. Like you know, whatever it is, it's like you can tell a lot about that. So I'm always interested in like those kinds of things Like what do you like to do and what do you like to eat and where do you like to go, and like to go and like what.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

What is that? Because you know, I feel like everyone that's in investing is kind of like investing is like the sum total of their life, but it's like it's not, it's just this tiny piece over here and you have all these other pieces that make you who you are, and I find that people like to work with people that they like. So it's like if they get to know you a little bit better and know you a little bit more personally, like I liked her and I was a ton of people doing syndications, I'm going to work with Annie because she was on Dawn's show.

Annie Dickerson:

Yep Couldn't agree more. You got to get to know the whole person, so I love that.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Okay, another question. I have two more questions for you. What is the biggest goal that you're working on right now for yourself, whatever it is, business or personal, and how can the DeWonderful family help you to attain that goal?

Annie Dickerson:

That's a very good question. So my biggest goal right now is a personal one, it's a personal, spiritual one is to surrender and be able to go through life as much as possible in the present moment. And it sounds very simple, but you know, with all that life throws at us and all the different challenges, with kids and business, investing, all this stuff, there's always going to be something that throws you off balance. All this stuff, there's always going to be something that throws you off balance. And so my goal is to live as much as possible in that present moment. And I've been doing lots of meditations and reading and journaling and reflecting, because if we can each find our center, I believe that a lot of this conflict will kind of dissolve naturally, because people get caught up in their emotions and it's all this heated stuff. And if we could just stay centered each of us. So that's what I'm trying to do for myself, so that I can then kind of elevate the resonance of those people around me and kind of have a relationship that way.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Let's see, you're 40. I didn't start trying to do that be more present probably till I was about 55 and then my sister unfortunately passed away from breast cancer and I was 55 and I thought, you know, I spent so much time over here or looking forward to that and not here where I am. So so it's been a decade and I still find myself over here a lot and you know like, oh, this is coming, that's coming, and I can't wait for that. Oh, I wish for this.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

But I'm 100% better about being more present and it is not easy to do, especially, I think for, like, I'm a really like go, go, go, you know working and maybe a smidge of a workaholic, and I just always want to be on the next thing, and that was hard. Like that's I'm, I'm 100, I'm 100 percent battered. I still have a long way to go. Yeah, I'm a, I'm a recovering workaholic too, just to be here, and I'm 65. It's like I'm just doing this over the last, you know, the last decade or so. But at your age I then everyone crossed my mind to be more present. I was like, okay, what's the next deal? Where's the next book? What's the next thing what, what, what, what, what. And I'm like slow your roll, girl, be in the moment, because you know that's right got you to where you are and you, because you know how the moments pass.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

That's right. It got you to where you are and when you get older, the moments pass faster. Trust me, they got really fast. It's like I was just 40, like a week ago. Is what it feels like? Yes, yes. Okay, one more time. Tell me how people can reach you.

Annie Dickerson:

The best place to go is our website, goodegginvestmentscom. If any of your listeners are new to the world of syndications and just want kind of a primer, we have a great seven-day email course. It's completely free. It's called Passive Real Estate Investing 101. You can go to passiveinvesting101.com to sign up for that and no strings. You don't have to invest with us, you don't have to pay us anything. It's really we're just about that mission of just spreading the word as much as possible.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

I love it. I love it. I have a heart for teaching too, and a lot of people. I don't do syndication as far as like doing that like you're doing. Some people come to me like hey, I'm looking for some syndication. I'm like you know what, you should listen to my podcast and see who you like. But see, now that I know you, I can say no, you need to go to Annie. She's got right mindset, she's got that girl power, she's about helping and growing and and you know, and nothing against you guys, but not a lot of guys are that way. I feel like the women are more about, hey, let's help and empower other women. Yeah, because even today, you know, especially in the syndication world, it's still a, you know, real estate investing, investing is still kind of like. You know, the boys club.

Annie Dickerson:

You gotta like break into the boys club to make a name for yourself exactly, and I feel like and I've invested with a lot of different groups, a lot of syndication groups at this point, and often it's like they're always trying to sell me. They're like come invest in this deal. Here's what's good about this one how much you want to invest. And what we try to do is always have that kind of female energy to it and we bring people in and we say what are your actual goals, what do you want your life to look like? And then we back into it and we say, well, does this deal actually fit with what you're trying to achieve? Or maybe you sit this one out and you do another one, or maybe, rather than invest with us, we'll sometimes refer people to others if it's a better fit. But I fully believe if we're all just trying to help each other, then rising tide will lift all boats.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

I wish everybody was like that. There's so much crazy in the world. I just can't even. I'm just like every day, I don't even understand how this is America, okay, so one more thing. So first of all, I just want to thank all of you for listening today. If you want to watch us, you can watch this on my YouTube channel. It's in the show notes with D'Wonderful Real Estate should watch us because, like, look how fantastic we are. We are worth sitting down and watching and having some fun with us. So go to my YouTube channel and and watch.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

And if you are new, I want you to do me a favor. If you learned anything, if you laughed, if you had a good time, if you thought those two are nuts or those who are amazing, I want you to subscribe. Click the button, the bell, leave a five-star review. Podcasts are definitely a labor of love and I know I do mine to try to help educate people on how to be an investor and work for yourself and not be caught up in the working for the man and you know, putting in your whole life's work for somebody else. Do it for your family and do it for yourself and do it for generations to come and I feel like you're like that too. Oh yeah, absolutely so that's. That's always what my my main goal is, so subscribe, like, leave a comment. I have almost 2000 five-star reviews, so you could be the one that puts me over the edge, so I need you to do that, so dwonderfulcom. Okay, last thing I want you to give us a parting word of wisdom, but it can only be one word.

Annie Dickerson:

Ooh, my word is going to be fulfillment.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

The reason why I say wait wait, wait, hold on, wait, wait, hold on. I'm going to ask you in a second. So everyone that listens, I tell them to write the word. So that's our word of the week and the wonderful universe, that is our word of the week. Now I tell everyone to write it down, put down a little sticky, put it in your mirror and every day just say fulfillment, fulfillment, fulfillment. But I do want to know what does it mean to you?

Annie Dickerson:

To me, fulfillment is about it's beyond just happiness, it's beyond the material things. It's a synthesis of what really fills you up and can sustain you and makes you feel good about this one precious life that you're living. And it's about impact, it's about giving back and it's about really doing that thing that makes your heart sing. Sometimes it takes a lot of courage to step out into whatever that is, but once you get there, then that fulfillment will carry you through.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Yeah, I love it. Okay, so now you know what it means to Miss Annie, and after we say goodbye to everyone else, I want you to just stay on for a second longer, and so that's it. Our word of the week is fulfillment and syndication. Y'all have heard me talk about it before. I love the idea, I love the concept. I don't do it so when I'm interested in something like that, I have to go find other people, and you know, I really, truly I just I love your heart.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

So this is who I'm recommending for your syndication goals right here, and I want to thank all of you for being on with me. And I want to thank you too. As you know, I say every week, time is our most valuable asset and I appreciate that you all spend your time with me. And, annie, I appreciate you spending your time with me Because you know when our time's up, time's up. So we'll be back next week, same bat time, same bat channel, and remember that the truth is in the red letters. All right, everyone. Ciao, annie, thank you. Thank you, duann.