REITD 004 - Trent Dalrymple - Former Hard Money Lender Turned Real Estate Investor

REI Talk Detroit | Weekly News and Interviews With Active Real Estate Investors in Metro Detroit, Michigan

In this episode I interview Trent Dalrymple, former Hard Money Lender turned Real Estate Investor.

Trent’s story is inspiring. He was cursing along with a profitable lending business when the government jumped in and changed the rules. Overnight he had to switch gears and find another way to earn a living. And he did. We talk about what he experienced and what he did about it during our conversation.

REI News

No local REI News to report this week.

Just a reminder though that I’m still looking to put a group of folks together to do some decent volume of suburban turn key properties for a couple of hedge funds that called me.

So if you’d like to participate with funding deals, or if you can do some volume in the suburbs (not including cities like Pontiac or Inkster) then go to the contact page http://www.REITalkDetroit.com/contact and let’s talk.

And if you have a news item to contribute or an event coming up, drop me a line and I’ll get it on the show.

Current Business

Trent is now on the investing side of the business instead of the lending side.

Because good numbers are hard to come by with straight rehabs, he’s primarily focusing on doing straight new builds in Birmingham and Royal Oak. He has a pretty cool business model where he has licensed contractors bringing him deals and doing the work. He has one property on the market, two nearing completion, and he closed on the purchase of a new property a coupe of weeks ago. He’s busy.

It’s a unique and pretty simple business model as well - if you’re interested in how it works then this episode is for you.

Also - because the new build business is highly capital intensive, and because he’d like to do more of them, Trent is also looking for additional finding sources. If what he’s doing is of interest, then drop him a line. His contact information is below.

How He Got Started in REI

Trent started his career as a radio DJ. He was "spinning records" on the radio in Southern California in the 80’s! Once he got married he realized that he’d need to do something more substantial to support his family. He started on the retail agent side like many do, and got frustrated with it.

So he jumped over to the lending side. He did that for a while in California then he moved his family back to Michigan. When the lender he was working for went out of business during the crash, he and one of his former money partners decided to start their own Hard Money lending business. He did that until the Dodd-Frank legislation put him out of business as a lender.

Biggest Mistake

Trent says that his biggest mistake was not trusting his gut instincts with some of the folks that wanted to do hard money loans with him. He tells the story of how he made a loan even though his gut told him there would be issues. And sure enough the borrower was a problem from the start is is presently in foreclosure.

Biggest Success

He says that he particularly proud of two things. First, that his business is going so well now and that he enjoys it so much. The second is that he won a sales contest to sell a premium mobile home back in the 80’s which lead to a nice bonus check but also a lot of new business selling additional models of the premium home that he had sold.

Money Talks

He has numerous sources of capital, which you’d expect from someone who spent so much time with private lenders in the past. At present he’s using family money and partner money to fund his deals. Nothing really fancy - but Trent is yet another example of someone who has spent a lot of time cultivating respect and a solid reputation, which in turn makes it really easy to attract investment capital.

Answer to Listener Question

The question that I asked Trent was “How do you go about delegating and outsourcing work in your investing business?" And as a follow up, "How do you keep track of the work that you delegate?”

Trent is like most investors in that he knows that he need to keep up on what’s happening in his business. So he’s starting small by delegating some of the tracking and office work. Because he wants to grow his business and do more deals, he thinks that delegating might take the form of having someone visit in-flight projects and take extensive video and picture to document progress.

Links and Resources

Trent’s looking for three things:

1. Licensed contractors with deals
2. Additional sources of funding
3. Deals! Particularly in Birmingham and Royal Oak

If you’d like to talk to Trent about any of these, or if you have questions for him, you can reach him via email at [e-mail].

He also has three new build projects that are completed or near it. They are:

• 702 Golf Avenue in Royal Oak. Presently listed for $415k
• 1817 N. Lafayette in Royal Oak. Nearly ready to be listed. Will be available for $415k
• 501 N. Center in Royal Oak. Nearing completion; will be available for around $450k

If you have feedback on the show, a question you’d like answered, a news item, or perhaps a recommendation of someone you’d like me to interview, or if you’d like to be a guest on the show, go to http://www.REITalkDetoit.com/contact and let me know about it.