22 Years in the Game | Lessons From Hard Money Lender Darel

Today's guest is Daryl Dyke. Daryl Dyke has been in business for 22 years. I think that alone is a feat in itself. So 2008, I want to talk about 2008 because you're one of the few people that I've interviewed here that actually went through that. Let's talk about how that dynamic was, right? It was a bull run leading up to 2008, right? Everyone was like bam, bam, bam, go. Loans, deals, everything. 2008, walk us through it.

What happened? The market just tanked. A lot of loans went bad. People weren't buying houses anymore. I would have customers just walk in and here's the keys to 10 houses. I can't do it anymore. So that's what I did. So whatever I couldn't sell, I kept. And so at one point I had probably like 20 25 different houses that I had either rented or owner financed because I would have got killed on them. Now I remember

I had houses that I had a $50,000 loan on and I couldn't give them away for 30. Wow. So it was very stressful. I was married at the time. I had two small children at home. My my wife didn't work. So I was had the pressure on me big time. After 08 and 09,09 wasn't better either. We also had a hurricane come in, Hurricane Ike, we had a big freeze. And so all these houses that I

was juggling and I had rehabbed, a lot of them got damaged and I'm like, "Ah, damn." They were already done. They were finished. And I go out there and I walk up to the door and I look and there's water running >> and I'm like, >> "This is not good." You know, open the door and water just >> Yeah. >> very stressful, but you know, I learned a lot. I always say I learned more in those

two years than I have in 22. I don't want to do it again. >> No. But you learn so much when you're struggling. There's a ton of hard money lenders here in Houston. You know, seeing a lot of people come and go, but what has made you different? What has led you to be successful when a lot of others have came and gone? I think um welcome to another episode of Pick Up the Phone podcast. I

am your host, Jose. I am the CEO of Vancom. We help people with marketing, sales, and artificial intelligence. Today's guest is Daryl Dyke. Daryl Dyke has been in business for 22 years. So I think that alone is a feat in itself. Uh can't wait to talk a lot about that. Uh his mortgage company uh has 14 employees and one of the biggest qualities that I think you mentioned earlier was that you develop a lot of people

and so I'd really love to deep into that uh dive into that. Um, and then I think Darl, one of the most important things that I see you do is you host an event every year and you have 500 professional people in in a room. So, how do you do all that? You know, lots of marketing and uh lots of people uh referring people over, but you know, we try to bring value. We do a lot

of events, but yeah, our biggest one is in January and it's a forecast event. So, we bring in a group of professionals to talk about, okay, what are they seeing, you know, coming in the in the next 12 months. Yeah. And >> so it's a good topic to have in January and there's a lot of forecasts out there and you know >> forecasts are worth the diamond dozen as you know you know everybody has their own

opinion of it but it's a good way to we bring in like local investors and chair of H comes in and just people that are actually have boots on the ground that are seeing deals not you know some economist that's s been sitting in a desk and you know teaching people at University of Texas or something. These are people that are actually doing deals. So I think it brings a lot of value. I think that's why

we've been able to get such a high uh attendance to it. >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I I definitely see I I definitely see it consistently be one of the biggest events in town that people look forward to at the beginning of the year, especially because it's at the beginning of the year. You know, people are always excited to go to the to that event. Uh see what kind of people you bring on to the panel. Um

and a lot of a lot of people up there are actually bringing a lot of actionable value to to the marketplace. >> Yeah, absolutely. And that's the goal, right? Yeah, >> you know, it's easy to go up there and stand and tell everybody how great you are and send me a business and all that, but I don't, you know, I don't get people like that. I bring people in that actually be vulnerable and and talk about

their experience and what they're expecting and what maybe they're targeting for investments this year and so forth. >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I love that. I love that. Well, Darl, let's uh let's start from the beginning, man. Let's uh let's talk a little bit about you and your story. How did you get started? Um you've been in business for 22 years, man. So, one question that I I like to ask everyone is, you know, when did you

know that you wanted to be an entrepreneur? >> Um, you know, I think I don't think I ever did. I think I'm an accidental entrepreneur. Uh, you know, I started off uh right out of college, thought I wanted to be a stock broker and and so forth. That didn't pan out. And I got a job at a at a hard money company as a loan officer. And, you know, I always tell people the same story, and

I don't I don't mean this in an arrogant way, but if you ever hear the story about Mozart, you know, he's 3 years old. They put him they put him in front of a piano >> and he just knew how to play. >> Yeah. >> And that's how I felt on the loan side. I just it just felt right. It felt very comfortable. I just knew how to close loans. I knew how to underwrite them and

so forth. So, right off the bat, you know, when I started, I was still a bartender at night. You know, I was bartending cuz I wasn't making money as a stock broker. Yeah. >> You know, the market would had just tanked. And so, >> I I got a job as a loan officer. I was still bartending at night. And then after a couple months, I was like, I don't need to, you know, bartend anymore. I was

making money now. So, it just felt it just felt right. And so, I kind of >> that's how I got my start in the industry. But, you know, the first guy I worked for, >> at first he was doing uh very well and doing the right things. And then greed took over. >> And I saw it on the wall before I left and and before he ended up going bankrupt. And so, about a year before they

went bankrupt, I was like, I I can't be around this. It's >> not the right thing to do here. you know, I just felt like he was going to fail and I felt like he was going to end people were going to get screwed in the process, you know, raising money and and that's exactly what happened. >> And so I was like, I'm not if I'm going to do this, I'll just do it right. So in

my mind, I'm thinking, okay, I'm already 100% commission. I'll just do my own business, you know? And that's what a lot of people think. I'm 100% commission already. I'll just start my business. >> Yeah. >> And what a lot of people don't realize is that's just sales, >> right? >> Sales is one aspect of owning a business. And so it was a huge learning curve for me cuz then you have to incorporate you know hiring people

HR and managing people your finances and accounting and marketing and IT like all of a sudden you're like doing all these things and you didn't realize that you're like I just want to sell and do loans >> but you didn't realize all these other things are going to happen. So that's really how I got into Noble is just I wanted to do things the right way you know stay in that industry but I don't want to

be associated with someone that was you know starting to to go down the wrong path. And so I was like, I'm just going to do this myself. >> So that's how you got started. You just >> That's how I started Noble. >> Wow. >> You know, I subleased some office space from another guy that was a hard money lender here that I had a relationship with. Yeah. >> And um he was an older an older guy

and he Yeah. You can, you know, sub take that office back there type of deal. And he kind of helped me, mentored me a little bit early on. >> Wow. >> Even though I would eventually be a competitor of his, but he had been doing in it so long. So that helped me out a lot as well. >> That's incredible. Yeah. >> Yeah. So are you originally from Houston? Um, born in Indiana, but I've lived here

since I was four. So, yeah, I claimed Houston as my home. >> Nice. So, you and your family came over here when you were four years old. >> Yep. >> Went went to school here and everything. >> Yep. Grew up in Sugarland. Went to Sugarland Junior High, Clement High School. >> Nice. Nice. Okay. So, native Houstononian at this point. >> Pretty much. Yeah, pretty much. >> So, started Noble um right after college. uh you started you

were bartending at night and then after a while how long were you working for someone before you decided to okay this guy's doing something shady let me go do my own thing >> I think it was about 5 years >> okay >> um most of that time you know the company was good you know it didn't feel like there was anything shady shady going on but they started to grow very very rapidly and get into doing

large commercial deals because they were able to raise money so fast but these commercial deals doing I Man, this just doesn't look like this doesn't look like a deal that's going to work in the end and uh that that was eventually their downfall. >> Got it. So, basically wrote a bunch of bad loans, made made a bunch of bad loans, had raised money from investors, and then a lot of those investors lost their money eventually when

they when they everybody figured out what was going on. Yeah. >> Yeah. Yeah. And that's tough. That's tough. >> Yeah. >> So, five years you're working for this guy. You're probably what, like around 26 27 years old probably when you started Noble. >> Um I was older than that. I was in my I think I was like maybe 29 or 30. >> Yeah. >> 29 to 30 something like that. >> Nice. Nice. So when you started

Noble, how long did it take you to start building up Noble and then maybe started hiring people? How long did that take? >> You know, really in the first 12 months I started hiring a few people and I didn't know what I was doing honestly. You know, I knew a lot of people in the industry and they're like, "Hey, can I hang my mortgage license with you as a loan officer?" I'm like, "Yeah, sure." I'm thinking,

"Okay, more business." Hey, and some, you know, so I hired like two, three people that were originators and then eventually hired, you know, some admin and so forth, you know, without any type of knowledge in what culture is in a company. >> And then before long, you know, we had, you know, 15, 18 people there. And it was just a lot of bickering and just, you know, little bit of drama here and there. And I was

just like, this is annoying. You know, I I didn't really enjoy it that much cuz I but I didn't think about I didn't have a concept of what culture was. And so, >> you know, after the market crashed in '08, you know, everybody pretty much ran for the hills. You know, we we were able to survive the great recession, but, you know, I went down to three employees, you know, me and two other people at one

point just trying to like get out of these foreclosures and and and keep the doors open. Yeah. And so, when I did start rehiring and building, I hired a business coach and that made a huge impact on me. >> And the first thing he talked about was culture, >> right? and and you know hiring the people that you know that fit them fit in the right seat and also get along with your personality style and that

was a game changer and ever since then I've never had any drama you know people stick around longer and so forth and it's been a big part of how much I enjoy owning a business cuz I I'm that guy that likes going to work on Monday you know I miss my team I'm like hey what' you guys do this weekend you know >> yeah that's amazing so let's talk a little bit about that then you you

hired a business coach what did he tell you that you had to do to be able to build the culture in your company. >> Well, the the first thing he taught me was to delegate, you know. Um, I was doing everything, you know. I was doing all my accounting and I didn't mind it cuz I'm good at numbers. I'm a math guy. >> And, uh, you know, I was doing the marketing, you know. Oh, someone has

a problem with their computer. Oh, yeah. I can I can fix that. I'll be the IT guy. And he was like, I remember he's like, why are you doing your own accounting? And I was like, I enjoy it, you know. I like I I like coming to zero. Yeah. you know, balance of books, something to zero. And he's like, "How much would it cost you to, >> you know, to hire an accountant?" And at the time,

I think I said like, you know, $50,000. >> And he's like, "How much do you make?" >> And I was like, >> "More than $50,000." And he's like, "You're losing money by not doing that." And so, he really got me out of my head to to start delegating. And then, you know, with culture, you know, it's a matter of that was when I was exposed to uh personality assessments. I'm a big I'm a big personality assessment.

>> Which one do you like? Which one do you like use? >> I use disk. >> Disk. Okay. >> Disc. There's a lot of them out there obviously, but um I got certified to teach Disk. It's one of my CE classes. >> And you know when you >> when you hire people, you you need to know that information. It's very valuable. You know, not only their skill set, but what their natural personality is. >> ID I

see. >> Exactly. All that stuff. And so that helped me just understanding discs, finding the right people that would fit our culture. Um I spent a lot of time interviewing them. You know, like they say, hire slowly, fire quickly. Mhm. >> You know, I interview him at least two or three times and I have two or three other team members interview them and my first question is, do you like them? >> You know, do you like

this? Do you see yourself spending >> every day with them? Because you think about you spend more time with your >> team members than you do with your own family >> sometimes. Yeah. >> So, my first thing is, do I like this person? Do I think they fit in with our culture? Cuz we're laid-back. We have fun. Everybody jokes around. You know, there's cussing involved in my office. I'll cuss in the interview. Like I will drop

not like an fbomb, but I will cuss a little bit in their interview and just look at them, see what they say, see how they act. >> If they flinch or they get like, "Oh god," you know, I'm like, "Yeah, I don't think you're going to work here. >> It's not the right fit." >> Yeah. You know, and that's not the right fit for them either. Right. >> Right. Right. >> So, I make sure that So,

we spend a lot of time interviewing to make sure they're going to fit the culture and make sure other people have talked to them. They're like, "Yeah, I like that person. Like, they'd be a good fit." >> Nice. Nice. So, I think what it really boils down to is then is during the interview is to really kind of iron out what person is really going to fit your dynamic in your company versus someone that >> that

is or isn't going to fit. You do it all during the interview. Yeah, I try to I mean I go with the cultural fit first, >> attitude second, and skill set third, >> you know, because if if they have the perfect skill set, but they have a bad attitude, >> that's a no-go, you know, >> or if they don't have the right personality assessment, you know, if it's someone who's back office doing accounting or something that's

very like, you know, you have to be very specific and you have to be correct or it can screw up a lot of things. I want a high C, right? >> High C's are very detail- oriented. I love C's. all my back office receipts, right? >> And they rarely make mistakes, >> right? >> Because a a mistake with an admin, even though it's something very tedious and and it's not difficult to do, but it can have

lots of ramifications, whether it's accounting or loan servicing and so forth. So, I try to hire C's in the back office, >> detail oriented people. >> Absolutely. Yeah. And I think that's really important because for the most part a lot of business or maybe new business owners are just looking at the resume and what that person can bring to the table versus noticing those those very important key traits like attitude, right? Attitude and their personality. Um

I use one called culture index. Okay. >> And that one is like disc on steroids. has the four um you know DISC and then it has like another one that ranges that on like a statistical basis across the entire human population or people that have taken the the survey. Um it's got like nine different factors in it. So, I'll show you show ladies. >> Yeah, there's ones. I mean, DISC is probably the simplest form of personality

assessments. But that's why I like it cuz I can have someone come come in for an interview and I have, hey, can you take this assessment? And they're they're done in 20 minutes. >> Yeah. >> And that one's probably a lot more labor intensive. Like, how long does it take them to get through? >> It normally I think it normally takes about 15 minutes, too. >> Really? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. >> That's interesting. >> Yeah. It's it's

literally just a bunch of words that they choose and then uh based on the clicks on the screen, it'll determine how you're hardwired based on based on the words that you choose on the screen. So, it's very >> you have to send it to me. I want to I want to check it out. I love that. I love that kind of stuff. >> Yeah, me too. Once I I mean, I hire and fire a bunch of

people like overseas, right? So, one of the my biggest indicators to determine if someone is a good fit for a position or not is that personality profile. So, I mean, we pay like 13 grand a year for it. So, it's uh it's a big component of our business for sure. >> That's really cool. Yeah, I think personality assessment is super important in any type of relationship. Even if you're dating somebody, >> you know, like whenever I

start dating someone new, I hey, can you take this assessment? Literally, I do that every single time. And they're like, "What is this?" I'm like, "Just just take it." Yeah. >> Then we'll go to dinner afterwards. >> It's just a little uh fun game that we want to play. Go ahead and take this right here. >> Yeah. >> Oh, man. That's great. So, you're uh 2008. I want to talk about 2008 because you're one of the

few people that uh I've interviewed here that actually went through that. So t let's talk about how that dynamic was, right? It was it was a bull run leading up to 2008, right? Everyone was like bam bam bam go loans, deals, everything, right? >> Yep. >> 2008, walk us through it. What happened? Well, it's funny as we were talking about uh economic forecast earlier and I remember in the in the fall of '07, everybody was kind

of starting to get worried like, you know, it's something going to happen and I went to this economic forecast and the guy said he predicted a soft landing in 2008 and I will never forget that. >> And so, you know, the market just tanked, you know, and uh the market tanked. A lot of loans went bad. Um people weren't buying houses anymore. people were just I mean I would have customers just walk in and you know

here's here's the keys to 10 houses. I can't do it anymore. You know because we had a lot of and we still do we have like over 60% of my business is repeat customers and a lot of these customers would have 5 10 15 loans with me. Yeah. I had a guy come in give me 10 sets of keys and it's like I can't do it anymore. >> Yeah. And then and nobody were buy nobody was

buying houses. So it was very capital intensive for anybody that was in the hard money side because you're foreclosing on on homes. That's capital there. When you take the homes back, people always think hard lenders, oh, can't wait to foreclose. I hate forclos. >> I want to lend money and get paid back. I'm not in the business of rehabbing houses. But now I got to put my Mr. Contractor hat on and or Mr. You know, if

I can owner finance it or if I can rent it out and be a landlord. And so I had to it really forced me to get extremely creative on how to get keep cash flow coming. Know try to sell it. There's not no one buying houses. Okay, I'll owner finance it. No one's owner, no one wants to buy it as owner. Okay, then maybe I'll rent it. >> So that's what I did. So whatever I couldn't

sell, I kept. >> Yeah. >> And so at one point I had probably like 20 25 different houses >> that I had either rented or own or financed because I would have got killed on them, >> right? >> You know, I remember I had houses that I had a $50,000 loan on and I couldn't give them away for 30. >> Wow. >> And I'm like houses. >> Houses. I'm like, I'm not keep I'm not taking that

loss. So I stick a tenant in them. >> Held. You know, they always say if you can't get your price in real estate, just wait. >> Yeah. you know, just wait and it'll come back. And sure enough, it came back. >> Yeah. >> And so, it was very stressful cuz it was, you know, I I was married at the time. I had two small children at home. My my wife didn't work. >> So, I was, you

know, had the pressure on me big time. And then we had after 08 and 09.0 wasn't better either. We also had a hurricane come in, Hurricane Ike. We had a big freeze. And so, all these houses that I was juggling and I had rehabbed, a lot of them got damaged. And I'm like, ah gosh. I know. >> Damn. I know. I had I remember I had two and they were in Angleton. Yeah. And I I kept

avoiding going out there and check on them during a freeze because I was like they were kind of far away, you know, but they they were already done. They were finished >> and I go out there and I walk up to the door and I look and there's water running >> and I'm like, >> this is not good. You know, open the door and water just >> Yeah. >> So very stressful. Uh but you know, I

learned a lot. >> You know, I always say I learned more in those two years than I have in 22. >> Wow. >> And that's that's that's the truth. Now I don't want to do it again. No, but you know, you learn so much when you're when you're struggling, you know. >> Let's let's talk about that, man. What was your the biggest lessons that you learned those two years? >> You know, I think I definitely needed

to tighten up my underwriting quite a bit. Um, be a lot more careful about which neighborhoods we were lending in because when you do foreclose, you're not getting back the houses that you're like, "Okay, I I'll be fine on this house." You're getting houses in very, very, you know, rough neighborhoods. And so that makes it even more difficult, you know, to find contractors that that are willing to go out there and actually repair them. And then,

you know, no one's buying houses in those neighborhoods. And okay, now I'll rent it. Guess who my tenant is? The people that live in those neighborhoods. That was tough. You know, I would send contractors out and they would come back like, "Yeah, I'm not going back out there again. Someone, you know, broke into my truck and stole a bunch of my tools." And I'm like, >> so that was very, very difficult. And so just being a

little more careful about who our customers are, where they're buying their houses at, that was a big lesson I had to learn at the time. >> So not necessarily picking your borrowers better, but making sure that they're buying in good areas, sir. >> Yeah. >> Not terrible, not complete terrible. >> And if they are buying in a rough area, okay, then they better be well capitalized. You know, like I'll still do a loan in a rough

area. Ideally, they're going to keep it as a rental, so they're going to buy it and fix it. And then we'll arrange a long-term loan. >> Yeah. If they're flipping a house in a rough area, they better have good capital and good cash reserves to make me feel comfortable because, you know, bad borrower in a bad area, >> like I'll do loans to people that have I'm I'm doing a loan for a guy right now. He's

like a 480 credit score. I'll do that loan, >> but it better be a really nice area, you know, and he better have a lot of cash reserves. And this guy does. He's got like a 480 credit score, but he's got like 300 grand in the bank. Oh, yeah. >> And he's got a nice house he's buying. I'm like, "Okay, I'll do that deal." Yeah. >> Now, if he was buying in a rough area that I

wouldn't feel comfortable driving at, I wouldn't do that long. >> Right. Okay. So, how do you determine now whether you're going to write a loan for someone? >> Just have instincts about it. You know, like I said, I just know how to I know how to play, you know, and I've been doing it long enough and, you know, sometimes I'll still go look at the house in person. >> More importantly, how do you how do you

how do you teach that to someone? How do you teach that instinct of knowing whether to write a loan or not? >> You know, it's tough. Um, you know, I've had people that have worked for me for a long time and they still disagree with me on certain things and I'm like, >> "This is why I make the decisions, buddy." You know, >> this is why I'm the owner. >> Yeah. I mean, I have I have

I' I've always had really good lending instincts and I'm not saying I'm perfect and I've made loans that have gone bad and maybe I've missed opportunities, but at the end of the day, >> you know, it's me who has to sleep with it, right? The deal goes bad, I have to take the property back, I have to write the checks, I got to figure out all this stuff. So >> yeah, >> you know, until you're ready

to sit in that seat, then >> I don't want to hear anything. >> I mean, I'll listen to you, but I mean, if I've made my decision, I made my unless there's a compensating factor, you know, I'm really good at structuring deals. So, if there's a way to get the deal done, like if I'm not quite comfortable, I'm like, "Wait a minute." >> Yeah. >> Maybe we can help them negotiate a lower price or maybe we

can Does he have another property that's paid off, we can cross collateralize? So, I'll I'll I'll think outside the box to try to make that. I've even talked to a seller before and got him to take a seller second. >> He wanted to sell. He inherited it. I'm like, "Why don't you ask him for a second?" And they're like, >> "He's not going to do that." I'm like, "Have you asked?" Right. >> And they're like, "No."

And I said, "Well, ask." Well, and I don't think I said, "You want me to call him?" >> Yeah. >> Yeah. I called him and he took a $50,000 second. We got the deal closed. >> So, I mean, I'm very much, you know, in Yeah. Like not a deal killer. I'm I'm there to make the deal work. If there's a deal to be had, I try to figure out a way to make it work. >> Right.

Right. I think one of your uh biggest like character traits is that like you're very you have like a very uh educative, very easygoing mindset in terms of being able to walk through something complicated like a deal, right? And so I think that for any any new flipper that's out there that's maybe like looking at flipping a deal and needs some sort of guidance, I feel like you have like that sort of energy that can like

you'll be able to guide them very well throughout throughout a process like that, right? >> Yeah. We work we obviously worked with a lot of beginners over the years and professionals, but you know like the saying goes, right? If you can't teach it to a child, then you don't understand it yourself, right? >> Because when you are teaching to new investors, you know, I've been doing this over 20 years. It's it would be very easy for

me to just talk over their head and that's not you're not accomplishing anything. You want to speak to them in a way that they understand. Everybody understands things differently. So yeah, I try to make it very simple. >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. >> Um out of all your business, how how many would you say are like you're getting like new investors versus people that you've been doing business with? >> I think uh I want to say it's

like 70% repeat customers. >> Really? >> Yeah. 70%. And you know, a lot of those customers are people that are doing several deals, right? >> You know, typically that's the great thing about investment real estate. They don't just buy one house. Yeah. >> You know, they get their feet wet with one and next thing you know, you know, they might stop at five, they might stop at 50, they might might never stop, right? >> You know,

that's that's the part I love about that business is it's not like they buy a house every seven years to live in. These are people that are building, you know, >> a lot of net worth for their families and themselves. They're going to keep buying over the years. >> Dude, that's awesome. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Do you have like any sort of like educational classes or like resources for borrowers uh in your company? >> Yeah, we teach

classes all the time. I've always been big on education. Yeah. Um I have four different classes that I teach that are CE credited for realtors, but you don't have to be a realtor to go. >> Three of them are investment based as far as like buying houses rather flipping or even as a rental. And then we I also teach the disc class, the personality assessment. Oh yeah. which is great for realtors and really anybody, but realtors

especially because they're dealing with so many different personalities. >> And so it's understanding their personality and you know what's helpful is obviously you can read other people's personalities and then change your own to speak to them in a way that >> better communicates to them. >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think uh earlier you mentioned you had some sort of um some sort of class for teenagers. >> Yes. >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Let's talk about that. >>

Yeah, that's a cool class. We started doing it, I want to say in 2016 maybe and uh it it just happened organically. One of my investors came to me and he's like, "Hey, would you mind spending some time with my son to talk about real estate?" He said, "I think he's interested, but he doesn't really listen to me, you know, like all kids, right?" And I said, "Yeah, of course. I'll be happy to to sit down

and visit with them." And then I was thinking about it and I was like, you know, I bet there's a lot of other realtors or investors that would like to expose their kids to real estate. So, we said, "Let's do a class." So, we started this class. Uh, it's a real estate for teens. You know, they have to be 13 or older. And I want to say it was 2016. And we do it once a year.

Everybody always like, "Oh, can you do that since, you know, more times a year, but it's it's a lot of work. >> It's a lot of work to put that thing on." But it's it's really rewarding. And so, we've been doing that every year. And we get anywhere between 80 and 150 kids. >> And what's shocking is these kids, most of them have parents that are in real estate. They are asking brilliant questions. sometimes better than

my adults. But, you know, like parents think they're not listening. I'm like, they are listening. They're just not you just don't think they're listening. But they're asking very intelligent questions and you know, now I've run into two or three of them at my regular networking events and they're like, "Hey, I went to your teen class and, you know, eight years ago or five years ago, now they're in real estate." I'm like, "That's really cool." You know,

I love that. >> Yeah. Played a part in their success. >> Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. Really cool, >> man. That's amazing. That's um what has made you successful in >> I always come back to grit. >> Yeah. >> You know, I always come back to grit. Um you know, because when when things get rough, you know, it's all comes down to you. Just like we were talking about earlier, you know, you're a business owner. You're kind of

on an island. So, you've got to lead and figure it out. And that's what I've always been blessed with is just the grit to do that. And when you have, you know, again, 0809, I had a wife and two kids at home. That doesn't motivate you. I don't know what will. Uh so I've always had a good amount of grit being able to solve problems um and just being very have a abundant mindset. I've always been

a big person on abundant mindset. You know if I can help people in any way and even if it's my competitors I always try to be friendly with my competitors because you know it's it's important to network with your peers. You know as soon as there's a new hard money lender in Houston um when I run into them I always tell them the same thing. And I say, "Look, if you come across a deal and it's

a appraisal that I did, we did an appraisal. It's delivered to Nova Mortgage and you're wondering why I didn't do that loan, then call me. I'll tell you." Yeah. I don't want you to get burned on a deal. And I've had that happen several times. And I'm like, "Yeah, that guy >> created fraudulent bank statements or something, you know, so don't lend to that guy." And vice versa. I want to be able to call them. Hey,

I got this appraisal. >> Yeah. >> You know, why didn't you do this deal? Is there something weird going on here that I need to know about? Yeah. >> So, I think abundant mentality a huge thing when you're a business owner, you know, to help people cuz I think it comes back there's a I mean, you harped on a on a very important topic here. Also, there's a ton of hard money lenders in here in Houston,

right? And so, >> you've been in business 22 years, so you've obviously, you know, seen a lot of people come and go, >> but what has made you different and >> what has led you to be successful when, you know, a lot of others have came and gone? I think um we're very consistent at Noble Mortgage. I've been very um blessed to have a team members that have stayed with me for a long time. You've met

Chris that works for me. Yeah. >> You know, Chris and I were waiters in a restaurant when I met him in college. >> And he's worked for me for 21 years. >> Wow. >> And uh Lindsay's now worked for me for I think six years. Jesse's worked for me for six years. So when you can keep people around a long a lot longer and and they drink the Kool-Aid, I'm always like got to drink the noble

words Kool-Aid. It helps you deliver consistency and good customer. >> Yeah. >> And everybody talks about customer service, but we take it really seriously. Like I'm very laid-back at work, as you can tell. I'm a laid-back person. Yeah. But I don't come I don't play when it comes to customer service. You know, we have right now have over 500 Google reviews and every single one of them is five stars. >> You have four or 500? >>

Over 500. And they're all five stars. And so that says a lot about my team. Not to say that we've never disappointed somebody or made a mistake, but I always tell my team, look, if you make a mistake, >> figure out how to fix it, then call them and say, "I screwed up. >> Here's what I'm going to do to fix it." And I think people appreciate that. You know, everybody makes mistakes. It's the people that

don't take accountability that just make excuses that you're like, "Okay, this guy, >> I got to move on." So, >> this guy, >> that's been a huge part of our success is making sure we take care of everybody. >> Wow. How long did it take you to get that many reviews? >> I don't know. You know, Google hasn't been around but what >> I mean that Google didn't wasn't really a big thing until probably 2017 or

18. >> You know, I was just reading an article about, you know, Internet Explorer was the big thing before Google took over, right? >> And uh Google wasn't really a search browser until like 15, I think. They just started to get into it. So, it was probably like 17, 2017, 18 that we kind of started thinking maybe we should start getting reviews because before then it was like the Better Business Bureau, >> right? Right. or Yelp,

something like that. >> So, you just ask uh every client to give you a review, something like that, and then it starts kind of >> progressing over time. >> Yeah, absolutely. We have the loan officers, you know, reach out to them and ask ask us to give us a a review on on Google, and that helps out a lot. We we send them the link to make it easier on them, you know? Right. >> So, but

yeah, it's it's helped out a lot. >> That's awesome, man. Awesome. >> Uh Daryl, what does success mean to you? >> I mean, I think you can pair something that you're good at and something that you enjoy, >> you're happy. I think that that will make you happy. That's that's success. Obviously, you know, making money is is at the end of the day, that's what it comes down to. And I've been very blessed. You know, my

industry's been good to me and been good to my family and been able to put my boys through college and >> do all the fun things and travel like you do and so forth and and also have a big impact with my team members. you know, um, we talked about before, I love developing people. >> I love when someone comes in, they're a little bit shy and they're, you know, you know, they're smart, but they're just

kind of quiet and not so sure of themselves. And watching them develop and then all a sudden they got this swagger to them. You can see them walking in the hallway and I'm like, >> I remember you. I remember when you started and you were very timid. And so, I love that part of the business, you know, when you can develop people. So, I think if you if you're like me and you can say you enjoy

going to work on Monday and you're making good money doing it, able to support yourself and your family, that's that's a good sign of success. >> Yeah. Yeah. Especially, I mean, you know, being responsible for the success of 14 people like you are, I think that's a a huge undertaking and I think it takes a lot of or it says a lot about you as a leader, you know, to be able to guide those people on

a daily basis. So, >> yeah. And you got to put them first, you know. I always put my team members first. Never let them feel like, you know, you have an iate customer, you know, and I'm like, they've if someone like, you know, it's happened very rarely over the years, right? But one time we had some some guy that was just cussing at one of my employees. And my employees are not allowed to diade or yell

at anybody. >> But I'm like, if somebody ever does that to you, you come get me and I'll be that I'll be that mama bear that comes in there. I'm like, "Hey buddy, you don't speak to my team that way." So, they know I have their back, you know, 100%. And again, that's happened, I think, one time. But I'm like, you know, sometimes people can get that way, you know, but I think your your team members

want to know that you believe in them and you have their back in case they do get into buying because you take care of them and they'll take care of you. >> Yeah, absolutely. I couldn't agree more. What has been what has been your biggest lesson that you've learned throughout the years, you know, being a business owner and being a leader in in uh in Noble Mortgage? Um what has been some like some of the biggest

key takeaways that you've gotten over the years? You know, I think um you know, when when times are good, you know, don't get too high. Times are business is slow, don't get too low. Yeah. And just try to stay consistent. You know, try to stay as consistent and persistent as you can every day. Go to work, you know, work hard. You obviously take time off when you can, but you have to be consistent and persistent over

the years or else you just will not last. You know, it's easy to rest on your laurels. the market is good, you know, like a lot of people have probably the last several years because the market was just sane for a while. Yeah. >> But you know it's coming to an end, right? You know, you know the market's going to slow down and it's slow right now. You know, you know that's coming. So, I've learned to

be very like, okay, we're doing good right now, but let's not, you know, not pat ourselves on the back. You know, let's be careful here. And then when the market's down, I got to do the opposite, right? I got to lift everybody up, you know, because we're not doing as much business or something like that. So, you know, try try not to get too high, try not to get too low, and just be very consistent. Treat

everybody with respect and just do the right thing when it comes to your team members or your your employees. I mean, or your uh customers, obviously, take care of your customers, you know. >> And when you say being consistent, what do you like specifically? What kind of tasks do you mean being consistent in? >> I mean, showing up showing up is 80% of of anything out there, you know. >> I'm very um big on uh inperson,

you know, uh employees on team members. We tried the whole remote thing during CO and I hated it. >> That's tough. >> I feel like you lose a lot, you know, you lose a lot with your uh culture. Yeah. >> You know, and I couldn't do it. Like I I I couldn't do it. There's no way. I need to be around people. And so I, you know, I like my team members in the office. We have

one guy that's remote, but he moved to another city. But, you know, showing up to work and showing up prepared and in the right mindset and with the right attitude on a daily basis, you know, and doing that over a long period of time. And again, in my case, over 22 years, >> that has a big part of my success, you know, but I enjoy it. You know, I I enjoy the that grind and and coming

in on Monday and you know, you're as you know, as a as a business owner, you you you never turn off. >> No. >> You know, I'll be at home and I'm sitting there and I'm just I'm gazing off and my girlfriend would look at me, she's like, "What's wrong?" I'm like, "I'm working out a situation in my head. You never turn off and I" And she's like, "God, that sounds so stressful." And I'm like, >>

"No, it doesn't bother me." you know, and I work from home the other day and I was >> working and on the phone this this and that. And she was like, "Are you okay?" And I'm like, "Fine." She's like, "So, sounds like you're having a really bad day." And I was like, "This is just another day." >> Yeah. >> This is this is nothing. This is what we do, baby. >> I'm fine. What are we doing

tonight, by the way? You know, let's go have dinner or something. >> Right. Right. Yeah. So, uh I like that. I like the fast pace, you know. >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. >> You've seen a lot of ups and downs in the market, right? >> Yes. >> So, right now we're we're slow. We're kind of in a in a buyer market right now. Where do you see the market going from here? >> I think it's going to

flip eventually. When I think if we can get, you know, everybody's hanging their head on interest rates, you know, but you know, interest rates are not that high. People are like acting like we're paying, you know, when I first started in this industry, our primary residence was over 9%. >> 9%. >> It was over 9% for a primary residence. >> And then, you know, when they got into >> What year was this? >> This was in

1995. >> 95. Yeah. 9%. >> 9596. >> Yeah. And then they had they had started going down and they got into the sevens and people were ecstatic, you know. And then you got into the sixes, that's when you were the guy bragging at the party. I got a six and a quarter interest rate. And that's very normal. If you look at the if you look at the graph of where interest rates have always kind of been

in that five, six, 7% range, more six or seven. >> Yeah. >> So I don't think rates is necessarily the solution. I just think that we were on such a high, such a bull run for a long time. >> You know, it's it felt like it needed to slow down after 2019 and then COVID hit. We did have that brief slowdown, >> but then it like >> but then it it took off even more and you

know, it's hard to hold those runs for too long and so I think it was a necessary evil where people were just buying and spending and the rates were so low and then now the market slowed down and everybody's terrified to get rid of their 2 or 3% rate. So, I don't think people are buying unless they absolutely have to. >> And so, I think that'll change. I think the rates will come down in the next

year and by next spring, I don't think it'll start picking up, but there's still a little too much inventory right now. We don't have enough buyers in the market. >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, in terms of being able to see that flip, right, when do you think maybe we're going to have some sort of like another B? Late next year, maybe 2027. Yeah, I think, you know, I'm hoping by maybe the second quarter or the third

quarter of next year, I think it'll I don't know if it'll be a bull run, but I think it'll it'll change quite a bit. I think the rates by then will have dropped and start getting people that I think they're already starting to get a little more active right now, but I think people will start buying a little bit more. >> Yeah. >> Get some of that inventory flushed down and can get back to doing business.

But I think it it was almost necessary that it slowed down. It had to slow down. We needed it. Yeah. >> Yeah. I mean, since >> sort of corruption. Yeah. I mean, since the great recession of 08 and09, I don't think there's really been a real slow period that that we've had that I can recall of, right? And so, >> would you say this is kind of like the first first kind of slow period since then?

>> Other than the Yeah. Other than the Great Recession, I mean, we've had good years and and okay years, but this, you know, the last year and a half, you could see, you know, there's been mortgage companies closing. There's been, I think, over a million realtors exited the industry. >> Wow. You know, I know that figure. >> Yeah. There's a lot of people that have just exited the industry in general. Yeah. >> And uh you know,

you get that in this industry. It's very >> low barriers to entry. It's very profitable. So, you get a lot of people that come into the entry when it's good and they pull out when it slows down, right? >> You know, I'm just an old I'm I'm an old dog. I'm sticking to this is all I know. You know, >> I'm like, you know, some say diversify, you know, don't put all your eggs in one basket.

I'm like, no, I'm >> I have to I'm all in. And I just I just watch my basket. >> Yeah. >> You know, if you watch your basket, you'll be okay. >> Yeah. you're going to take care of it. >> But it's a great industry, you know, and there's a lot of people that are the same like me that just out for the long haul, you know. >> Yeah, absolutely. >> What do you think? Uh, so

you mentioned, you know, interest rates are are not everything for why, you know, we're in the economy that we're in right now or the market that we're in. Uh, what other factors do you think are contributing to the slow economy right now? >> I mean, I think it's it's it's several things. Obviously, we had a bull run for a long time. Um, inflation has certainly had an impact on people. you also have u higher insurance premiums

and higher taxes and so people can't afford as much and so we're at that point now where a lot of people are like I'm just going to rent for for a little while longer because it makes more sense for them to rent insurance has gone through the roof you know and so has property taxes you know um we talked about earlier I started an insurance company four years ago >> and the the way the premiums have

gone up and I don't see how they're going to come back down that has changes that changes the whole >> dynamic >> the whole dynamic of buying a house you Before you were paying $2,000 for insurance and now you're paying $5,000 for insurance. >> It's gone up that much dramatically. >> I mean, it depends on where you're at obviously, right? But yeah, I mean, and especially on the commercial side, if you're buying, you know, class C

apartments, we've had policies that went from 20,000 to 80,000 year over year. But these insurance companies >> from 20 to 80K. >> Yeah. Think about what that does to your cash flow. >> Oh yeah. It eliminates it. >> Eliminates your cash flow. And so, and the same thing with landlords. landlords have had to pay higher insurance premiums. God forbid they're in a flood zone or, you know, they're in Galveston or somewhere where there you need windstorm.

I mean, that's a that's a game changer and how much how profitable that property is. >> What do you think is costing all the uh the insurance premiums to go up so dramatically? >> I mean, we've had so many >> Yeah. >> Think about the storms we've had the last several years. You know, we had that Dreto that came out of nowhere. >> Yeah. >> Tons of damage. We had Hurricane Barrel. we had that big freeze

and so a lot of these storms have stacked up on us the last three four years and you know and insurance companies are nationwide right so then you look at the fires that happened in in California and then all the storms in Florida especially those markets you know those outerly markets >> these insurance companies have taken tons and tons of losses on it in Hawaii you know so now that >> they got to recoup them so

they're going to raise their base premiums >> and so you really don't see the premiums coming Um, >> I haven't seen anything that points to a sign of relief >> when it comes to insurance premiums. I think it's really the new norm. I think some of that will settle down, >> but I think a lot of it is the new norm. And even on autos, I mean, auto insurance has gone up quite a bit. So, all

that affects people's ability to buy a house. And the reason auto insurance has gone up so much is because it's more expensive to repair these autos. You know, these autos are like driving computers now, right? >> You know, it used to be they're very mechanical. you know, you can take it in, you get something fixed, but now you have to have a dealer or someone who has a computer system to fix everything on these cars, and

it's incredibly expensive. So, guess what? Insurance company's going to raise your premium, you know, cuz a fender bender, you know, 10 years ago, 20 years ago, might have cost 1,500 bucks. Now, it's like $8,000. And so, fender bender, >> yeah, something minor because it has all these sensors on it or, you know, whatever else it messed up on there. So, that has a big impact on what it takes to fix things. And same thing on houses.

You know, you get damage on a house, it's a lot more expensive to repair a house than it than it ever was. >> Yeah. And the insurance has gone up, the taxes have gone up, and so really the only thing that needs to give is the price, right? So that that's why we're seeing all these uh buyers really have control whenever they're going out and shopping, they're able to make low offers. I really think right now,

you know, if anyone is shopping for a house, make that lower offer, right? Because uh sellers don't have a whole lot of options. And you know, taxes being that high, insurance being that high, the only thing it needs to give is price. So, >> yeah. Yeah. I was I did a video yesterday about this because a lot of houses are sitting on the market right now. And one of the things that a lot of um sellers

are missing on and a lot of agents are not aware aware of is you can do what's called a a buy down, a rate buy down, a temporary rate buy down. >> Okay? >> And so, if you have if you're a seller, and my example yesterday was if you have a $300,000 house, rather than lower the price 10%, you know, which is $30,000, offer them a two a two-1 buy down. So if you qualify for a

7% interest rate, me as the seller says, I'm going to contribute towards your interest rate. I'm going to give you a temporary rate buy down, a 21 buy down, the first year, your rate instead of seven, it's going to be 5%. Second year, it's going to be 6%. Then it goes back up to seven. The lender gets all that money up front. The lender's happy as a clam. They're still making their money. Yeah. >> That only

cost the seller $7,000. >> Really? >> So would you rather take a 10% reduction or $7,000? I'll take the $7,000. >> Yeah. And so, and it's a it's a benefit to the buyer. It helps them get into the house. Their their rate goes down to 5% that first year, and then everybody's thinking is the rates going to come down to around 5% in the next year anyway. And then they can refinance it. >> It's a great

way to move houses. And a lot of a lot of people aren't doing that. I tell all my guys that are flipping, I'm like, you need to think about this if it's sitting on the market. >> Yeah. For longer than a couple months. >> Yeah. And so, how do you how do you recommend someone advertise that? Maybe like on the MLS whenever they go and list the property. >> Yeah. the agent just needs to recommend it

uh or put it on the MOS. The seller Yeah. The seller is offering Yeah. agent remarks. Seller is offering a a two-1 buy down or you can do even do a 3-1 buy down and and you'll be able to compute how much that cost is. You know, just stick it into chat GPT and it'll tell you it'll cost a seller this much money. Yeah. >> And again, $300,000 house, that's 7,000 bucks. Nothing. >> Nothing. Yeah. >>

Less than 10%, less than 5%. >> And it helps the buyer out tremendously. >> Absolutely. It's a win-win. So that might may help you stick out more than the guy selling the house next to you. that's giving you a, you know, bonus for buying new curtains or something. >> Yeah. >> Wow. And and it's so uh it's so surprising how cheap it is to do that, too. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Cuz all you're doing is paying

the difference in what the interest what the lender would earn in interest. And it's not that big of a difference from 7% to 2% over the course of a year and then 7% to 6% course of the second year. It's not that much. Again, it's $7,000 over the course of two years. Yeah. >> And you know, and also, you know, it makes a really impact about how much interest rates don't really have that big of an

impact. >> Yeah. >> You know, it's more of mindset than anything. >> You know, I've got a buddy of mine that he's he lives in Katy and, you know, he got a divorce and he really wants to live in town now and he's like, "Um, I got this 3% interest rate." >> And I was like, "Bro, you work in town. Your girlfriend lives in the Heights. You live in Katy." I'm like, "Just move over here." And

he's like, "No, I can't get rid of that 3% interest rate." >> Oh my god. And I'm like, "So, you're gonna drive 30 miles every day?" >> Yeah. >> "So you don't lose your three?" And he's like, "Yeah, I can't do it, man. I can't do it." I'm like, "Okay, geez." Yeah. >> Isn't that crazy? >> I don't I don't understand that at all. For me, quality of life is everything, you know? And Yes. >> Yeah.

Driving an hour in traffic every day. >> Every day >> is not the quality of life that I me. >> No. >> Like my whole world's about 5 miles. >> Same. Yeah. I live in the Heights. I'm not going anywhere, dude. >> Yeah. Yeah. I like being in town. >> Yeah. My My gym now is walking distance. I can walk to it. I have uh a m major shopping center right there. I have my dog I

take her walking all over the place and I'm I'm happy as duck. It's great there. >> There's definitely perks to living in town, you know, and I get it from him. Like, you know, he has kids and so forth, but you know, his ex-wife lives in town, too. And I'm like, >> come on. I'm like just And they go to school in town. I'm like, your whole world is over here. You're 30 miles out. >> You're

over there. Makes sense. >> Now, I got that I got that 3% interest rate, buddy. I can't get rid of it. >> Yeah. Yeah. You would think you, you know, I mean, you could just probably rent it out or something or maybe owner finance it, you know, and then maybe, you know, if they default, then you can take it back or whatever. But there's ways to still capitalize on that low interest rate. >> Absolutely. It's a

limited mindset. >> Limited mindset. >> Hopefully he doesn't watch it and watch the show and see me call him out. >> We're talking about him. >> So, Darl, um, what makes what makes you successful, man? you I I see you do a lot of these events and all this other stuff, you know, but I think all of that is um a result of of something, right? So, what is the cost of all of that? What makes

you successful? >> I mean, I'm I'm I've become really good at networking. Yeah. >> You know, I think that's helped build my business. And and when I started Noble Mortgage, >> you know, I was a little more introverted. >> Yeah. >> I wasn't a natural extrovert. I mean, once I got comfortable in the setting, I would I would get >> I really don't even see that at all, man. >> I know. Yeah. if you if you

if you meet people and I have I'm very blessed that I have you know like four buddies that I've known for 30 years and they will tell you you're a drastically different person than than what you were and so you know you always say you always hear the saying people can't change and and I'm here to say yes they can >> you know if you're motivated you know when I started my business I wasn't good at

public speaking >> you and I wasn't the best at networking you know I was a little more shy about it and so I was like I have a wife and two kids at home I I have to make this work >> and so I took I took uh public speaking classes and I just forced myself to to be uncomfortable and start networking and started attending a lot of events and doing public speaking and throwing events and

just trying to be that rain maker for the business. And that's what really helped build my business a lot. And I and I try to do that in a very authentic way. You know, I don't believe showing up at an event and just handing out business cards is the way to do it. You know, if I show up at an event and I make three good connections and when I say connections, something I can do for

you or something you can do for me or vice versa, you have to approach it in a very authentic way, right? >> You know, again, that abundance mentality, right? I think that can over the years, you know, you get get small results initially, but over the years that magnifies because people will refer you business and those people will refer you business. And at the end of the day, you have to get business to stay in business,

right? And so I've always been big on networking and and going about it that way. And I still try to attend a lot of events and just treat people right, you know, do the right thing >> again. Show up at work, do the right thing, and just grind, man. That's all you can do. >> Yeah. Yeah. I don't even remember the way that we met, dude. You know, it just seems like over time you're you're here

in Houston, you're doing business, and you just meet people, right? Yeah. Well, you know, it's a small it's a small circle on the investment side in real estate, you know, and that's probably how I came to meet you. I think I originally met Boris. >> Yeah. >> And then met you and and u >> all the other, you know, brokis, John, Ken, Jonathan, and all that. And then and then we went to I went to Vegas

with you guys a couple years ago. That was wild, man. >> That was a great time, man. >> I was like, "Holy cow, these guys are too young for me, man. I can't keep up with them. >> You were the OG, man. You were out there, you know, like you were just moving through the crowd and I'm like, "Dang, I need to I need to learn a couple tricks from Daryl. >> Holy I didn't know I

could learn so much from him." Hey, what's up, Daryl? Let's I'm going hang out with you, bro. That was a fun trip. >> That was a great trip, man. That was one of the Boris's uh Boris specials, and he's like, "Yeah, let's do a champagne shower." You know, $20,000 later. >> Oh, yeah. That's I think our tab at the pool was like over 20 grand, >> something like that. Something absolutely ridiculous. Yeah. >> But it was

it was a great memory. >> That was a great trip. >> Great trip. Great trip. >> But um cool, man. I I love this. I love this. So, you know, let's fast forward now. You know, we went through your story. went through how you started Noble. Fast forward now to uh to today. You know, what's next for Noble Mortgage? >> You know, right now we're really uh we're getting ready to move offices. We we just signed

a lease on a new space. We're excited about that. We're doing a custom buildout and all that. So, that's really good. Um you know, focusing on uh continuing to educate our team. really try to incorporate a lot more technology in our in our website and just our systems and so for so forth with with the you know new Adrian with AI and automation so forth that's something I've been really focusing on the last year just to

make things more efficient you know the more efficient you can you can get I think the better you are and and the more you can >> align with AI and everything else that it has to offer I think that's kind of the new wave right so we're trying to we're trying to spend a lot of time focusing on that and see how we can be really efficient And I lean on my team team members for that,

you know. >> Um, you know, most of my team me team members are in their 30s or younger. >> Yeah. >> You know, so they they've been around this their whole life. >> And so I always tell my my team members whenever they start, look, you know, come in here. We're going to teach you what we do. And I want you to just focus on that and master it. And after you master that, I want you,

if you have an idea about something, how we can do things better or more efficient or take care of our customers. But I am all ears. I don't care if you're the person answering the phones or whoever. >> Yeah. >> And I listen to that. >> I don't always do what they say they're going to do. I'm like I'm I'm all ears. Not saying we're going to do it, but I'm all ears. And you know, because

every system we have at Noble, >> a team member has had a part in it. Either it was their idea or they made it better. >> Nice. >> So, I think that's the big reason why I'm also successful. We've been able to stay in business so long is I lean on that. You know, that younger generation, >> they're exposed to things that I wasn't exposed to. Man, I I've learned so much from them. You know, they

can learn from me, too. But I'm I'm a big believer in learning from them. >> I love that. How do you uh how do you plan on incorporating artificial intelligence into your business? >> You know, I've just kind of started scratching the surface at at that year. But the first thing I'm looking at is how we can do it with our website, number one. Yeah. >> Um and also how we can do it with our leads.

Yeah. You know, how do we uh analyze our leads? Looking at the data. I'm a big the one the one uh side of my business that I I still delegate it but I'm still very active in is the marketing side. Yeah. I I really much enjoy the marketing side. And what a lot of people don't realize is marketing at the end of the day comes down to data, >> right? >> You know, because it really all

data, you know, it's like, okay, you spent this much money, this how many people called, this how many people were actually qualified for you to even sell them something. And then how many people did your salespeople convert? How much money did you make? >> Right? You know, that's it. >> And where did those leads come from? Did it work? And did you make money or lose money? You made money, great, do more of that. You lost

money. Okay. Either either don't do that or or change it, >> adjust it, >> right? And you have to study the data. And I love that part of it. And that's the part where AI is going to help us out a lot. >> Nice. Nice. What kind of marketing are you doing right now? >> Any and everything, man. >> Any and we're big on Google. Yeah. >> You know, we do Google AdWords. We spend we have

a company that manages all our SEO that we we we pay a lot of money to. And then we also sponsor a lot of events here in Houston. and he went to all the local um you know gurus here in town that have you know lifestyles total wealth all those guys and and two or three other ones plus we host events >> and then we have a lot of referral partners you know that refer business and

vice versa >> you know really cool use case that I've seen for AI is uh a receptionist and so what you do is you give it like a frequently asked questions website and then you you >> you basically train it on all of the potential questions that maybe a borrower is going to have. And dude, when you talk to them, it is crazy how eerily familiar it is to a human voice. It even pauses and then

it says like it throws in filler words like um and like. >> So AI is like, um, I don't know about that, you know, and it it paused. It's crazy, dude. It's it's gone a long way. and uh it's able to qualify uh the actual borrower that's calling in. Uh it'll have full-blown conversations and then it has a specific goal. So whether that's to schedule an in-person appointment with you or to maybe have them come into

the office or fill out a form, whatever it is, uh it'll it'll always revert back to that goal without losing, you know, like without going on in a tangent and maybe getting lost in a conversation. It'll always just come back to like, "Okay, let me get your form. Let me get your information. Let me get you." Yeah. It's pretty It's pretty great, man. Yeah. >> Yeah. We have a uh one of our lending partners that we

sell our long-term loans to. They they use AI to do that. They'll follow up with customers and so forth using AI with a voice and it's someone calling you. Yeah. You know, they called my son the other day. You know, my son started working for me, too. >> That's been really cool. My oldest son, Silus, he graduated from&M last year. Nice. and uh he wanted to come into the family business and and as a loan officer

>> and uh I never pushed him into it, you know, but he wanted to, which was such a huge compliment, you know, typically, you know, you don't want to work with your parents or something, >> but he wanted to and that's such a joy having my son there every day. >> I bet, man. >> And he's kind of like me. He's like, you know, cuz I kind of checked into him, checked in with him after 6

months and I was like, "How's it going?" You know, cuz you don't like it, don't stay here because I'm your dad. Go do what makes you happy. And he's like, he said, "Dad, it just all kind of makes sense." >> Yeah. >> I said, "That's so funny you said that cuz that's how I felt." >> Damn. >> Isn't that funny? >> Yeah. Yeah, it is. >> Same. He has the same mind. >> Apple Apple doesn't fall

too far from the tree, man. Absolutely. >> Yeah. That's great, man. I bet that's very uh fulfilling. >> It is. >> Yeah. >> I kind of knows you you were successful not only as a business owner, but also as a father. >> Oh, yeah. My kids are everything. I love my two, you know, my other one's in Arkansas. just went back. But uh yeah, very blessed that my kids actually enjoy spending time with me and they

enjoy spending time with their mom. You know, they truly do. Like for spring break last year, my youngest son always went to Cabo and he was like, I just want to come home and hang out with you and mom. I'm like, that's pretty awesome, man. >> You know, we go smoke cigars and drink whiskey and now it's a different element now. But it's it's really nice. >> Yeah, that's awesome, man. I think that's a good a

good way to track success right there. Yes. >> 100%. you know, you have to just keep them close to you. And uh, >> you know, they're going to be, you know, little for a while. You know, they go through that phase, but you just got to pick your battles with them. And, >> you know, what I think what really helped with them is they both interned with me. >> Yeah. >> Over the summer a couple times.

And it kind of it allowed them to see me in a different light. >> And they were like, "Man, Dad, you got some going on here, don't you? >> You're actually a badass. Nice." >> Yeah. You got a lot of pressure on you. You're handling a lot of stuff. And, you know, you dealing with all this stuff and then you take us to lunch like nothing. and you're like happy and this is and they're thinking like

how are you still happy after all that I'm like that's just that's just another day buddy. >> That's what we do here. You know, you can't let it ruin your day. >> That's what we do. That's what we do. >> That was really helpful. >> That's awesome, man. Well, dude, this has been a great great time. Um if someone wants to do business with you, how can they how can they find out more about, you know,

Daryl Dyke, Noble Mortgage, how can they get a hold of uh uh of your company? >> Yeah, absolutely. Of course, going to go to our website, noblemortgage.com. um they could call us at 713-6808100 and if they want to send me an email it's just daryl d I'm sorry I'm thinking of my legacy in in email it's dyke dd a iik at noble mortgage or send it to info@ noble mortgage I'm not hard to find just Google

me or find me on social media I'm very active on social media as well >> yeah do you answer DMs too >> absolutely I get a lot of leads from DMs and you know where I'm starting to get leads from right now is chat GPT >> chat GPT >> I've had like five or six loans that people have called in and we always ask how'd you hear about us and they said chat GPT. >> Wait, what?

>> Yeah, because if you put in >> So, so ChatGpt recommended you to someone that was searching uh you know the hard money lender in Houston. >> Yeah, cuz I actually looked it up myself. I was like, wait a minute. So, I went into chat GPT. >> What did you search? >> And I said, "Who's the best hard money lender in Houston?" >> I'm We did a marketing piece. Really? >> Yeah. Cuz I saw it and

I was like, "We got to make this a marketing piece." >> That's hilarious, dude. And listen, a couple >> You got to run ads on that. >> Yeah. Yeah, we did that. And it's like Noble Mortgage has been known to buy because they, you know, they go and they check and they look at your reviews, right? And they have we have outstanding reviews, you know, again, over 500, you know, uh, five star reviews from Google. So,

>> yeah, I bet a lot of, um, lenders out there don't have a lot that many reviews. >> Yeah, probably not. >> Yeah. >> Yeah, probably not. >> That's probably why you ranked pretty high on there. >> Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, that's, you know, that's really cool, isn't it? >> Wow. Yeah, it is. Yeah. So now we got to now you got to check out how to rank on the other AI platforms like Grock, you know,

Elon Musk AI and then Gemini. Yes, Gemini. That's Google. >> Yeah, I haven't messed with those. I always go to chat GPT, but I need to start messing with those. >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. More leads, you know. >> Yeah, absolutely. >> Well, thank you so much for for coming on and and doing this uh podcast with me. Uh is there anything else that you might want to add here at the end? >> I mean, just thanks

for having me on, Jose. you know, I consider you a friend and uh you have a lot of integrity and um proud to see you grow and thrive in and what you're doing and so forth. I know you've done some real estate and now you're doing a lot of other things with Vancom. So, I appreciate you having me on. >> Absolutely, man. Thank you so much for for being here. Absolutely.