Greenbook: A Local Guide to Chesapeake Living - Issue 3 | Page 66

prized red Corvette convertible. But
then he rebuilt his real estate business
into a mini housing empire in one of the
most depressed real estate markets
in California — the Antelope Valley in
northern Los Angeles County.
Located on the western tip of the
Mojave Desert, the Antelope Valley is
Tony’s town. He owns it — or at least
a large chunk of it. In a few short
years, he’s acquired 150 cash-flowing
rental properties.
“I made a fortune in the Antelope
Valley during the last downturn,”
said Alvarez, the owner of Evergreen
Properties, and author of “Breaking
into the REO Business” (Montana
Publishing, 2010), a book about making money in the REO (real estate
owned) business. “I started out with
only $6,000 that I borrowed from my
father, and I turned it into $7.2 million
dollars in seven years — that’s profit,
not gross sales — with the help of real
estate professionals.”
He said real estate is about people, not
properties. He has developed strong
professional and personal relationships
with all the leading REO brokers in
the Antelope Valley. And they have
made him a wealthy man. They come
to him with deals, and he rewards
them with listings, when he sells his
investment properties. It’s a symbiotic
relationship that works for everyone.
He’s always in his car, not his office, tending to his vast and growing
stable of rental units. He drives a 2006
Dodge Ram pickup truck. If he isn’t
looking at houses or talking to real
estate agents, he isn’t making money.
He buys mostly distressed properties
in the $30,000 to $80,000 range. He
fixes them up. Then, he either flips
them for a quick 10 to 20 percent
profit or he holds them for long-term
cash-flow. He uses his own cash to
purchase properties, then refinances
them and pulls out the money to buy
more properties, using William
Nickerson’s pyramiding power of
borrowed money.
His long-term goal: Own 200 dwellings
generating $10,000 a month — every
month.
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GREENBOOK | SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER 2014

“I think the secret sauce to my
success is knowing when to get in, and
when to get out of the market,”
explained Alvarez, who in known in
real estate investing circles as the
HYPERLINK "http://theoutspokeninvestor.com/blog/" REO Mentor
and has taught thousands of
entrepreneurs his investing
techniques. “The greatest lesson for
consistent, long-term success is to love
your business associates. Care more
about their success as much as your
own success. If you love them, they
will find it easy to love you back, and
they will remember you — always.”

home — and raise her daughter at the
same time. Investing in foreclosures
was the perfect solution. She made
$22,000 on her first deal and never
looked back. For years, she’s operated
a popular boot camp and continuing
education programs for real estate
investors. She’s known as the “Queen
of Short Sales” and is one of the country’s leading authorities on buying
foreclosure properties directly from
lenders.

Queen of Short Sales
Name: Dawn Bent-Twyford
Hometown: Denver, Colo.
Net worth: $10 million
Drives: Chevy Van
Owns: 0 rentals
Goal: 300 mortgage notes

“We made the decision to get rid of
our rentals and buy notes instead,” she
said. “We are currently in the process
of buying our first note package with
300 notes. After being landlords for
many years, we want to be the bank
for a while. So we currently hold no
rentals and 300 notes. We owned over
100 rentals when we decided to sell
them and use that money for notes.
Our plan in to hold enough notes to
generate a $100,000 a month income.
That should take us about two years
based on our initial success.”

Recently, Bent-Twyford — who now
works with her new husband Bill —
sold all their rental properties, and
used the profit to purchase a large
Rina Alvarez — Tony’s mother —
pool of non-performing mortgage
must be proud of her son. The message notes in the Rust Belt. In a business
finally sunk in; and she was right — it largely dominated by men, Bent-Twypaid off.
ford is now a banker.

“The road to riches is paved with borrowed money.”
William E. Nickerson
Dawn Bent-Twyford success story
is inspiring. She is a former waitress
who learned how to rehab properties
by going to Home Depot do-it-yourself
classes. She started her business as a
broke, single mom and became a millionaire. Her success story offers