S2 E41 | Hard Money, Hard Lessons with Caleb Delgado

What happens when life knocks you down not once, but twice—and you find the strength to build something even better than before? 

Caleb's journey from Queens-born soccer player to mortgage mogul to nearly bankrupt and back again is a masterclass in resilience and entrepreneurial spirit. Growing up in Long Island with immigrant parents, he learned early lessons contrasting wealth and struggle that would prove invaluable later in life.

His soccer skills earned him a D1 college spot playing center midfield, but family financial troubles forced him to leave school and enter the mortgage industry at just 20. The timing couldn't have been more dramatic—the early 2000s "Boiler Room" era of mortgage lending. Within months, Caleb was making hundreds of thousands, driving luxury cars, dropping $10,000 on dinner tabs, and living what seemed like the dream. Until 2008 hit.

"That crash was my saving grace," Caleb reveals, explaining how losing everything forced him to rebuild with better values. With savings his mother had secretly set aside from his earnings, he relocated to Florida. Starting over meant taking jobs beneath his experience level while strategically networking and positioning himself for his next chapter.

The founding of DKC Lending with his partner David marks the culmination of these hard-learned lessons. Their approach to hard money lending focuses on transparency, reliability, and truly serving clients rather than simply collecting interest. Even in today's challenging market, they're finding creative solutions for investors while maintaining their core values.

What makes this conversation so compelling is Caleb's candor about both success and failure. His counterintuitive belief that "business is personal" challenges conventional wisdom, while his insights on entrepreneurship—"stick to what you know and be the best at it"—offer practical guidance for anyone building a career or company.

Want to build something that survives market crashes and personal setbacks? Listen now to learn how your biggest failures might become your greatest teachers.

Transcript

Introduction to Caleb and DKC Lending

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 0:00

All right, guys, we're here with another episode of Happy Hour Holidays, where we cheers to entrepreneurship, life stories and business. Today in studio, I'm your host every single week Manny Fresh, we got Sean Fabre back there on the sticks, and today in studio, we got Caleb with DKC Lending, and he also does a very successful podcast as well. So what was the podcast name? How to Make Money with Hard Money. How to Make Money with Hard Money. So we Make Money with Hard Money. Yeah, so we're loving it, man, Appreciate you coming in. So give us a little background on Caleb you know from.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 0:31

We could go right into background. Because I know you guys, you know, I love you already because cheers for the soccer Saludo, let's start right. You guys got me in the house. I love soccer is, you know, definitely part of my life since I was five or six. So tell me a little bit about the childhood and you know what made you into who you are today and where'd you grow up?

Caleb Delgado 0:50

yeah, so originally from Queens, new York, richmond Hill, moved, as most uh, with immigrant family. Yeah, as most immigrants do, they migrate from the city and the boroughs all to Long Island when they can uh. So I moved out to Oceanside in my younger years and I was born and raised there, but raised there in Long Island, got the great experience of Long Island. I don't know if many people know much about it.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 1:11

Long Island. Is that rich, rich, dog?

Caleb Delgado 1:15

It's the top 1% of the country. It's one of those places. So when you deal with that and I don't come from the top 1% family, so dealing with that it was very eyeopening and I got learned a lot of lessons the hard way um in New York, but I love every second of it. It was the best teacher in the world but started in Long Island, new York, uh, playing soccer. Um went to Oceanside high school Um. If anybody knows about Long Island high schools, they're top in the country for public, not private. But my school when I was going there, going there, was like 50th in the country, um for a public school. So it was a really great education.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 1:46

I'm really outgoing, like how we are. Yeah, I know I mean I was gonna say you make it in new york, you make it anywhere but you can tell man, everybody who comes from new york and we talk to them and you can tell that you put these, you translate these people in any single city and they're going to be top one percent yeah, you know, and I agree with it.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 2:02

I because of the hustle and bustle and you know the way that. It's like you're, almost the way you talk and you handle yourself. It's almost like you're. You're an entrepreneur, hustler already.

Growing Up in New York

Caleb Delgado 2:12

You know you have to have a surviving mentality and a growth mindset to really survive in New York and to make anything of yourself. So watching my parents and also the great teacher was my friends and their parents. So I got to view many different family sets. You know, some of my family friends were, you know, entrepreneurs. They had their own businesses and they were taking the train every day to their factories and trying to make things work in their businesses. And, more like my parents, my dad was an architect he did with asbestos and my mother was a nurse. So I got to watch the way that they worked, looking on the clock.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 2:43

Those are two good professions too. I mean, those are two people that make money. You know, Great, great professions.

Caleb Delgado 2:48

But when I look back on my parents' life because I use shout out my mom and dad, but I use their life as a roadmap for myself I got to witness their rise, their fall, their rise again and in this time, including with other family members when I was growing up in Long Island, I got to learn so much you know about business, about business and about life. Right, because business, when you're a true entrepreneur, business and life are the same, right, my lifestyle is my work is my lifestyle. This is who I am on and off the camera is this is what you get, and the way I operate in business, the same way I operate in life, like for like a. One example is me and David, our partnership. I consider that a marriage. It's an absolute marriage to me.

Caleb Delgado 3:29

Me and him meet with our principal advisor every Friday, or at least every chance we can on Friday. We rarely miss so out of every weekend in the year we maybe miss three or four maybe, and that's being generous. But we meet every Friday. We talk about our business. Meet every Friday, we talk about our business.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 3:43

We talk about each other and we grow our relationship this is not making sense to me, DKC.

Caleb Delgado 3:50

I'm wondering what the K stands for and who K is. So it's a funny story, but it's actually all David's initials.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 3:54

Yeah, it is all David's initials.

Caleb Delgado 3:56

So, going into the story of how DKC started, when David and I met, we met at a mutual company. We both worked for someone in downtown, on Channel Side in downtown Tampa. This gentleman kind of taught us the ropes of the hard money business. Dave was doing a bunch of operations for him building homes. He was building multifamily like 100 doors a year, or not building but managing and flipping 100 doors a year. He was also building single families for him. I was brought in because I have for most people that don't know, I have a conventional lending background. So in New York my trade was conventional regular bank lending. That's where I grew up, that's where my foundation starts. Coming to Tampa trying to start anew, I was trying to find myself and hard money was the vehicle that I found myself. In. What year did you get here? So 08 happened and I had to close down my business in new york. I came down here, oh nine.

Caleb Delgado 4:48

so um right after the great recession right, yeah, right during while it was all kind of happening. So I came down at that time but I was really trying to find myself, because anybody who knows anything about business, your network really is what helps you make money. Oh yeah, you know who you know. You know when people say those things like your network is your net worth, it is a hundred percent cliche as it is, but it's true.

Caleb Delgado 5:07

You know the saying oh, you see on the internet, oh, if you're sitting around six millionaires, you're the seventh one, or whatever.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 5:12

it might be All true, and you know and that's another thing with business, Everybody says it's not personal. Business is the most personal thing because if somebody likes you, they're going to give you the contract. How do people get these contracts or anything? You know, when it comes to business, if you have a good relationship with the client and they like you, they're going to give you the business. So I don't give a shit what anybody says where. No, this is just business. No business is personal, because that's when it comes. Network net worth.

Caleb Delgado 5:39

Yeah, I know personally for me I do business with certain people and I can get better deals elsewhere. I know a hundred percent I can definitely get a better deal. I can save money by using someone else, but I don't, because there's other things that people value right, like, for example, like with us in DKC, part of the things that we provide. We always want to be transparent, we always want to be reliable and we want to be client centric, which is we always want to cater to the client and make sure their best interest is always served. So for us, looking at the values that we bring to the table, I look at others that way. So for me, I want to make sure that the person I'm doing business doesn't just provide a quality product, but they're a quality themselves. I feel like the person representing the product is just as valuable.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 6:20

So and that's coming from a sales guy, because my background is sales where I couldn't tell so and that's coming from a sales guy, because my background is his sales where I Wish he would have done 2020 with me for selling. Verizon Fios. Man, I mean I did, I did well, but I mean damn you got it man, I appreciate it, I think I got it, but I have one me for the audience members out there. You know DKC Lenny right there. The way he is right now is the way he came into the studio.

Caleb Delgado 6:46

It's no different this is Caleb right now. Yeah, and I think most people who know me kind of get that I'm really hot out of the gate and I kind of stay that way. My temperature is always hot, right. I don't like to do anything half ass per se, right, and I'm unapologetic for what I do because I believe as you get older, it's like you're doing what's in your best interest and hopefully, if you're a good person, you're doing what others best interest.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 7:09

You're also being yourself too, which is the biggest thing that people forget. They they change who they are around certain people, and that's when you forget who you are. And now you got to go find yourself.

Caleb Delgado 7:17

Yeah, I mean personally for me, one of my goals or the things that I always try to provide in value, because I'm a firm believer everywhere you go, you must provide value. I don't care if you're going to a podcast business, whatever, you must provide value. But one of my purposes is every room I walk into, I want it to be better by me being there. And if I can't provide that value in a room, it means hopefully I chose a better room than me and I'm just soaking it up and being quiet, hopefully. But whatever room I'm into, I don't care if it's education, I don't care if it's energy and just enthusiasm and positivity, whatever it is I'm going to bring to this room, but I'm bringing something and I believe in that and I believe everyone should. Did you bring?

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 7:56

that into your soccer playing career, because you played D1. Yes, and I got to know yes, so so, and I gotta know which position a center midfield, so a general damn just like you?

Caleb Delgado 8:10

yeah, so I was they. They called me a general. In high school they called me the.

Caleb Delgado 8:11

I was a general like that, which high school was okay, yeah, yeah yeah, so, um, so my youth going into soccer, uh, played in long island. So long island select, uh, new york odp empire state team, all those type of things, and my main club were two clubs I had Oceanside United and Hoda. Those are my two and Hoda I got in a little bit later but like all the you know, the better guys kind of gravitated to the team and kind of went there later on in our careers. But, um, but yeah, center midfielder was always out there barking instructions talking to my team. You know I wasn't the greatest goal scorer but you know, talking about delivering the ball on a platter, that was my job. My job was to make sure the guy who was scoring I may give him the best chance to score that goal. Did you play at ULI? No, I did not. So I went to Hartwick College, I went up there and I was, you know, recruited to go play there in my later years. But, going into my story, as I went up there I had personal family problems you know things I don't really go

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 9:09

into too much detail of and we don't have to.

Caleb Delgado 9:11

No, no, I said about the detail, but kind of just talk about it is so when I was born in Queens, I was born poor, like most you know immigrant family from Trinidad and Columbia. That's how it kind of started. But then my parents did well. They made investments, they did things, they monetized themselves and did it like anybody else would try to make themselves the best they can be. They got a little form of wealth. They moved out to Long Island, as the story always goes. But in that journey, as they grew, they made mistakes. Investments went bad, things go bad.

Caleb Delgado 9:40

You're not on top all the time, but so, but it happened right at my, you know, 11th to senior year in high school, like it all started going down and then, right when I went to my freshman year in college, it all collapsed. So I'm going into my college years knowing my whole life's falling apart. So I had to make decisions inside of there where it was like and at the time when I was going, for most people I don't care what my age, I'm 42, so most people don't know I may not look it or whatever, but I'm 42. At my time soccer players would make a 15 grand a year.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 10:10

They weren't making shit. That's what I'm talking about. Mls wasn't doing nothing, unless you played overseas.

Caleb Delgado 10:21

Right and we had, all'm looking at it, my family's complaining about, you know, certain tuitions, everything. It's just a mess. My, I have four brothers, and well, four of us total, but two brothers and a sister. I'm going through all these things. There's so much on the line. I'm the oldest boy and we're taught as immigrants. We take care like that's our job, you know, and I take that extremely serious.

Soccer Career to Early Business Life

Caleb Delgado 10:42

When it comes to my family, I'm the one. My mom and dad are older now. I take care of my brothers, my sisters, their kids, everyone. I don't ask, I just tell and I do and I show by my results. That's just the way that I grew up and that's all that I know. So in that turmoil that I started to get when I was a freshman in college, I had to kind of drop out and start anew. But it was the changing of my life because that's when I found real estate and mortgages. So I'll shout out a couple of people as I go, as I talk about my journey. But my friend TJ Thompson, who's a very successful guy out of Jupiter now doing a bunch of different things, but he's the one who brought me to mortgages. And have any of you guys seen the movie Boiler Room.

Caleb Delgado 11:20

I know it's a little old yeah with Matt or no, it's Ben Affleck, Ben Affleck, yeah yeah, the stockbroker one yeah.

Caleb Delgado 11:26

So in that time that's the time I was in and that was real Most people would be like oh you know, it's a movie, it was fake. Real is a frigging heart attack. At that time all my buddies were either stockbrokers or mortgage brokers. That's what you did me. He was like Caleb, pick your poison, it's stocks of real estate, what are you going to do? And my good friend TJ at the time was there kind of infused. I jumped right in head feet and it was scary. I went right from the soccer field going right there, not knowing what to do but knowing I had to make a lot of money fast.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 11:55

So it was a tough transition. So how old were you? Probably 20?.

Caleb Delgado 11:58

Oh, yeah, I'm 42 now. No, no, no, I'm 42 now. At the time, at the time, yeah, at the time, I was 19, going into 20. I was 20 years old.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 12:05

And then you decided to get your I guess your lending license.

Caleb Delgado 12:09

So it wasn't even like that back in those days Really, so it was a real boiler room I was working in shout out 666 Old Country Road in Long Island.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 12:18

Damn 666?.

Caleb Delgado 12:21

So it just so happens to be the first place my parents bought their first home out of the same place they had the closing, but in the basement the company was called Fidelity Borrowing. It was me and 100 or 150 guys banging the phones, those cold calls going hey, you need to refinance your mortgage, you want to do that? That's where I began. I was making 200 to 300 calls a day. I did that too and I was working for some guy who, yeah, I was saying to be my friend, but really didn't care about me, just wanted my leads and I was just, you know, trying to find my way.

Caleb Delgado 12:51

But the cool part was I met guys on the same journey and when I met the guys that were on the same journey, we just kind of believed in each other and kind of hustled with each other and help each other grow. But to make a long story short, I grew from one guy in a group to all of a sudden being a guy that could sell better than most, which I believe. My soccer skills and training transitioned to help me. And then I developed the team and then I met my future partner, which ended up being kind of my mentor. His name was David Steele. I met him down in that basement and I grew to the point that at one point we had our own DBA of another branch of a license. We had a bunch of guys working for us and we were slinging mortgages, making a boatload of money.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 13:30

Really young, really young, I swear. You've quoted Les Brown twice already. Do you know who Les Brown is? No, oh shit, no.

Caleb Delgado 13:38

He was a motivational speaker.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 13:40

He was who we used to listen to.

Caleb Delgado 13:42

You said better than most. I mean that's straight from les brown.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 13:44

And you said one other thing where I'm like, bro, is this guy listening to les brown? Oh, maybe I'm not. He's a great motivational speaker he's the reason why febreze frameworks even started. Well, that's good.

Caleb Delgado 13:55

Well yeah shout out to him and I, like him already, I'll make sure I read some of the stuff for him. But um well, you're going back to where I was and we were dba business and at a young age, making hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars a month. It was crazy. And when you go down to the parking lot where we were, you're talking kids from the age of 20 to 27. I mean, you name it. Any car was out there. We were leasing cars, lambos, mercedes, going crazy, investing any money, and I'll bring you to that. Investing nothing money, and I'll bring you to that. Investing nothing or very limited, believing in things that were so not true and so jaded by what was told to us as the reality of life. So, blowing money, oh my God, blowing money like crazy. Going to every restaurant you know tabs of $10,000 a night $20,000 a night Doing things like that, traveling all across the country.

Caleb Delgado 14:46

I don't know who's into EDM, but in my time Tiesto was the best DJ and he would travel around. I mean, we're going to Vegas, la, miami, we're following DJs around, we're partying, like the whole thing. It's crazy and it was a really great time in life, but totally short-sighted time in life. But totally short-sighted Not having someone really next to you to understand and show you what it's like to respect money and respect the art of why you're doing what you're doing. Until you met David Steele, until I well, david Steele kind of taught me so he comes from a real impoverished background, you know, and he, from 12 years old, was a hustler his whole life and I got to watch him rise and fall too and got to teach me.

Caleb Delgado 15:27

He used to tell me this quote all the time you're like caleb, how you feel today? I'm like happy. He's like all right. And then, the days I come, it's like caleb, how you feel today? I'm like sad and I'm like, well, guess what, doesn't matter if you're happy, sad, the bill guy after you, or you're living on top of the world. Get your ass up and go to work. Life will get better.

Caleb Delgado 15:41

Let's fucking always show up and let's fucking go dog and he was always like that with me and so young, I'm like damn, I'm like I'm a bitch, let me, I'm doing big things, let me, let me get episode I was always on that and then translate what soccer did for me. That's why I believe in sports so much and I'm heavy on sports is soccer taught me two of the things that I needed the most. One One how to communicate and lead. It's important. I know everyone kind of focuses so much on who you are as an individual and being the best version of yourself, because I truly believe you need to be the best version of yourself to lead others. But I know guys who are monsters individually monsters. They can do just about it, but they couldn't lead a team. No one will follow them, they can't get people together. So their multiplication and if anybody knows what it means your team multiplies your efforts right. So for me, I know if I don't have a team, I'm never going to be able to create anything worthwhile in this world. So team to me is extremely important and to my partner, dave. So, going back to what I was saying, is he taught me all those things to show up, show out and always give my best effort on my best day or on my worst day. So I truly believe into that.

Caleb Delgado 16:49

But going into David Steele, and what happened was I started becoming the guy I don't know who really remembers this when Florida condo conversions were hot. So developers would come down and buy apartment complexes two, three, 400 units and they would convert the apartments to actual condos. They were garden style Florida places and people would convert them. They put all the luxury in them and then they would sell them. I tripped and fell on a really beautiful thing where I met a developer through a good friend of mine, vinny Pappalardo. He actually met the developer and we all decided to be the in-house lenders to selling all these complexes. So these people would come in and try to buy, you know, 200, 300 units, whatever they might be, and then we became the preferred person providing the lending. So we started stationing ourselves in all these places and we're like great. We're doing 100 mortgages a month, you know. So it's like crazy. And we did all that till the market crashed in 08.

Caleb Delgado 17:46

Like everybody else, everyone has the story. You showed up on 08, chains on your door, everything's gone. You don't know what to do and I give that as most people think about, doomsday, I think about as my saving grace. That was probably the best thing that ever happened in my life, because it forced me to change all the bad habits that I had and all the misconceptions that I thought were valuable and wealthy and everything in between. So what happened to me at that point is Florida I was. I was going back and forth from Florida, like I was saying about the deals I was doing, and I was traveling every two weeks, no matter what, with my friend Vinny. But when that happened in 08, I had to reinvent myself. I had no college degree, I'm a high school graduate, I have my soccer pedigree and I have my experience. That's all I got. I come down to Florida because, like most guys, I met a girl in Miami which is Big booty Latina.

Caleb Delgado 18:39

Actually, no, I'm a sucker for blonde hair and blue eyes, for whatever reason. I don't know why, but that's kind of my thing. But I met her in Miami at what was the club at that time, Club Space.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 18:49

No, club Space was the after party, but yes, Club Mansion was the time.

Caleb Delgado 18:53

It was Mansion at that time. But I met her there. We were always dating. She lived in Clearwater Company shut down. I need to reinvent myself. I shoot myself to clear water, I close up shop and I just go. I go down there looking like a real schmuck. Barely a dollar in my pocket.

Caleb Delgado 19:13

You know, I go from making all this money. Everything's gone. So all the cashflow, everything's there. I own a house in you know. I own my house in New York. I have, you know, some investments limited investments but I got a short sale. I'm facing foreclosure, everything I'm in like the pits and the dumps. So I have to learn from my own self and others how to short sale my house, how to salvage my house, how to salvage my investments. And I did. Yeah, I had to let go some. I had to salvage others and thank God for my friends and family who bared with me in the time.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 19:41

but my credit went to crap, lost everything really, and I was really down to my last dime, going back to living wild and not really understanding what I should do, and that's a big ego hit right, oh, massive Once you're on top of the world, and to go straight back down to rock bottom.

Caleb Delgado 19:56

I hate to say some of these things, but they're just true. When I tell you I was 25 years old, sitting with $50,000 in chips in Vegas, hanging out just blowing money. Yeah, that was life.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 20:07

And I thought that was all real. Wolf of Wall Street, baby, some of the stuff you were saying. Wolf of Wall Street, dude, that's what Boiler Room was before Wolf of Wall Street came out it was true and all my guys that were with me understood what it was.

Caleb Delgado 20:17

But now transitioning to where I went, to Florida, is like I met her. We got married, I tried to establish a life but I got nowhere to go. Real estate sucks. Nothing is moving.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 20:27

Lending isn't working out, nothing is moving.

Caleb Delgado 20:30

I have no connections too. I know no one here. I got nothing to fall back on. I come down here. I don't work for a very long time, years. I'm coming down here sitting on my money and I'll keep shouting people out. My mom God bless her soul. The entire time I was making money in New York, she was writing checks out of my checking account.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 20:50

No, no, but putting it into an account.

Caleb Delgado 20:51

Hold it Hold it Not telling me nothing.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 20:54

My mom's a Bro, you got to take her like crazy, bro.

Caleb Delgado 20:58

My mom is my idol and everything that she has in life, like when she comes to me, she always trying to like repay me for stuff. And I'm like mom, you've been retired, you are retired, you'll never work again, you'll never have to worry about a domino, because I you did it for me, I'm doing it for you and it'll never change Her and my father. They could do nothing wrong and she's like yeah, it ain't motherfucking changing.

Caleb Delgado 21:18

Okay, let real clean For sure she was writing checks out of my account when I was younger saving, and she pocketed about 200 grand from me. She put it aside. So when I go to make my jump, she's like Caleb, not only do I got money for you, she ships down my motorcycle, my Sunday car, she ships everything down to my little apartment, ma how'd you pay for this?

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 21:40

I didn't pay for it. You did. She's the best I didn't pay for it you did.

Caleb Delgado 21:43

She's the best. I have a little tutu with my girlfriend at the time and I married her. And then, of course, like all Florida guys, divorce comes. But we'll go into that story later. But go down there. I get this frigging car.

Caleb Delgado 21:56

All of a sudden all my stuff starts dropping out. People think I must be like a drug dealer because I got all this stuff coming in, dropped off in this little like you know, you know duplex side of the apartment. But I start trying to find my life in tampa. I meet some really good guys and um, but the biggest problem I ran into was I ran out of money. You know, I ran out of money. I had nowhere to go.

Caleb Delgado 22:16

So you weren't blowing it at this time anymore. I wasn't blowing it at this time anymore, but I was learning the concept of what it is really not to have as an adult, like when, when I was younger, not having money, you don't know, right, your parents protected your shelter. You don't know. But when you become an adult and you don't have money and the repo man's on you, it's a big frigging difference. You start to really value things in a total different light. So I got the repo man on me. I got backdoor bills, I'm dealing with my short sales, my foreclosures, everything, and I'm managing all of it. It was the biggest lesson I had in life.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 22:46

So and then when we get back yeah, with happy hour, holidays, we'll know what caleb's lepsin was make sure you like, comment and subscribe, and we appreciate all the uh fans out there listening to our podcast. We just want you to go out there and make your dreams come true. We'll be right back. I mean no, cuba, everybody be like, what are you doing here? You should be playing baseball. So I'd be like yeah, but I mean I was like I wasn't the fastest guy, but I had.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 23:09

He was a great, I was like you, I had slow passes and then I had the the shot from the outside of the 18. Plus he had the brick wall behind him.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 23:19

That was my favorite man. I started at five or six years old our first like playing, and then it was only one year. I played recreational and then the coaches were like, hey, I want that guy on my team. My dad's like, no, I don't want to put him in travel ball. So then they did one more year in recreational and then I scored, you know like too many goals and they're like, okay, we're going to put him in competitive. And then they competitive. And then it was just like you know I, you know I went and tried out for clear water black watch, but then I ended up at acu because my dad's like I'm not driving the fucking black watch I'm not driving the clear water of course he's like what's gonna be the most like.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 23:52

You got your brother playing soccer. You got your sister playing soccer yeah we gotta do something that works for the family. But he wanted me to go out there and you know I really wanted to play for black watch because at that time black watch was physical and I was like and that's, and you fit good in there.

Caleb Delgado 24:04

I fit really good in there because you were finesse. Yeah, I was a big guy.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 24:07

So I mean center mid, it was like, hey, man, this is, this is the team I wanted to play for and the coach loved me he was like man I really wanted to.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 24:14

But you know, I did it for my family because I was like HCU is right around the corner and I was just like it is what it is. But I also tried out for strictly soccer too. I had some good choices but at the end of the day we did what was best for the family and the route on Saturday. Come on, let's start it off? I don't know where we left off. We left off when was it?

Caleb Delgado 24:36

I don't know. I can jump into DK.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 24:39

We left off at my mom maybe it was your. Oh yeah, you moved to Florida. My mom, maybe, yeah, it was your mom.

Caleb Delgado 24:46

And then, once you got down here, oh yeah, you moved to Florida and then you moved in with your girlfriend, yeah, and then my mom gave me the money and I was off and running.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 24:52

Yeah, so we're good. All right guys. We're back with Happy Hour, holidays, caleb's got a fucking Netflix story here and we're just pretty much tuning in here. It's so great. Man so we're at the point where now you're in Clearwater, moved in with that girl. You got shit getting dropped ship like you're fucking a drug dealer. And now you're like, damn, thank you, mom for putting aside all that money for me. So now I got at least a base, right, right.

Caleb Delgado 25:16

So she gives me a base. And so what do I do? I pay my rent for the year. I go right away.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 25:21

I want my rent covered.

Caleb Delgado 25:22

I cover some of my bills, make sure that my platform is there and I start beginning to understand what's life like as an entrepreneur with experience. But at that time I think I'm 27, eight, 27, 28 at that time, so don't really have the degrees like most people think they need and I don't have any of that and I'm starting my life. So what do I do in a town? I don't know anybody and I'm just pure fresh?

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 25:46

You find a blonde woman with blue eyes and then you smash out and live with her. Yeah, my ex-wife will love me for this.

Caleb Delgado 25:51

She's a beautiful girl and she fit that bill. You know she definitely fit that bill. So, um, so what did I do? I hung out at the best places, I went to nice restaurants, I rubbed my elbows with the right people and started building stuff. But that backfired on me, but it didn't get me where I needed to go because eventually I ran out of money.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 26:09

It's pricey right To rub elbows with those kinds of people.

Caleb Delgado 26:12

I ran out of money and when I ran out of money I had to get my first job Eye-opening learned so much so I went in for I had to do a two-prong set and for most people went in for I had to do a two-prong set and for most people, you know, they just kind of just do things to do things. I did it with a method and my theory at the time was with no degree. I actually went, and I don't know if most people know Ultimate Medical Academy or any of those things. My mom was a nurse but I went and got an x-ray degree, took me quick. It was like 15,000 bucks and if anybody reads Hermosi or like follows him or anything, you know the quickest way to earn more money and multiply your capital is to get the qualifications to earn more money for someone Meaning like if I make $10 an hour now, if I go get a nursing, a nursing license to do phlebotomy, my hourly wage automatically jumps to 30 bucks an hour For a certification, for a certification, and you could do it in 48 hours or whatever it might be. So me this is. You know we're in the future at this point, but me I took that same psychology that my mother taught me.

Caleb Delgado 27:14

She said, okay, I'll do something in medical. So I went and I got that license just to get a job at one of the radiology companies. But it was never for the purpose of being an x-ray tech. I didn't care about being a tech. I was going to pay 15 bucks an hour. It was way beyond like beneath me. But I'm humble enough to understand. You got to learn these experiences. So I go in and I do it the whole time. I'm waiting for the company events and or Christmas party or whatever it is. So come to find out.

Caleb Delgado 27:37

I get an opportunity while I'm working this job. I eventually get a nine to five. I'm going there every day. It sucks. There's a whole story behind it, but I'm just fast forwarding. I get to the company party. It happened to be the Christmas party was the first one up. I go to my wife and I go look, get two of your hottest girls. Here's money. Go to go and shoot me if you want. Macy's was. Fly back in those days. Go to Macy's, go get yourself some addresses. You know it was I forgot. I think it was maybe Whitney and Maggie, her friends, whatever, whoever they are, but she got two of her friends.

Caleb Delgado 28:07

She got herself all dolled up. We went to this Christmas party. The owner's there. I go looking Great. He's looking at me. He's like who the hell is this guy with these girls? You're walking around, I'm dancing, I'm doing my thing, you know. And he's just like who's this guy? What the hell is going on here? And then I go no, I'm one of your x-ray techs at this location. He goes what he goes hold on. So he pulls me to the side, starts talking to me and we're at the bar. My girls do your thing, just sit at the bar. And he's like and we talk about ufc, because I'm a big fight fan, I'm big into into ufc, so he liked it at the time too. He's's like look, this is my company party. He's like you're frigging awesome, I don't know what you're doing in x-ray tech. He's like I'm going to offer you a job right now.

Caleb Delgado 28:48

Let's get out of this car and let's go watch UFC fights down the corner, because it was like a wing house at the time right down in Palm Harbor. We shoot down there. We're drinking, hanging out whatever kind of maybe, maybe not whatever. We get pulled over on the way up. I'm speeding. It's me and him. We're drinking, we're hanging out. He's like his face drops.

Caleb Delgado 29:07

And I won't say his name, even though I appreciate you very much. You helped me out a lot in life.

Caleb Delgado 29:17

He looks at me like Caleb, we're going to jail. You know, like dude, I got this, so I just get my thing. I hand it to the cop. I'm like, yeah, no, no, we just came out of Christmas party. Whatever, long story short, he lets us go, he goes, go. So we go up there, we start drinking beers four times what you're making now. Come to my house tomorrow you're gonna head marketing, that's what you're doing. Wow, he's like I'm not asking you, I'm telling you. I'm like sure, and that's what I wanted anyway. Yeah, but he just it's been like I went to his house in saint p sink, the deal, so I went from making.

Caleb Delgado 29:51

this is how crazy life is $15 an hour, which was $25,000 for the year. The way it mapped out of my schedule to more than four times that's out right away Like I just jumped right up. So I go right into that. But I never dropped my dream. You know I'm an entrepreneur through and through.

Caleb Delgado 30:07

In this time, even with that increase, it wasn't enough to really build my family. So my heart goes out to people really trying to make a life. I understand we're limited to the amount of money we make and sometimes you you know it's great to have love, it's great to have connection with your family and all those things. But we live in America and unfortunately, money is a huge driver of what you can do and it's it's a necessary evil that you can turn into a blessing if you get it and use it right. So for me, I knew the power of money. After having it and losing it multiple times, I went into that situation and I was like, well, this ain't for me. I need to get into back into my business fast forward real estate.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 30:45

How long did you do that for, though?

Caleb Delgado 30:46

I did that for the head of marketing for the head of you know, I was doing that many years, over five years, oh, five years. But I was building my dream majority of the time. So when I got into it I went right into building my network. So I would wake up at that time. I mean I I'm no, I'm not super physically fit my partner's going to hate me because I don't go to the gym with them every morning like they do but I would wake up at five 30 in the morning. I would get ready.

Moving to Florida and Starting Over

Caleb Delgado 31:09

I met a gentleman in Tampa who wanted me to build um, the, the who. I had only want to call his name out, but, um, I met him and that's where I met David, my partner today. We met there at this company and we both vibe. But I was going to the gym with him in the morning. I was setting up my day doing real estate things, then going to do marketing in the afternoon, making sure I hit all of my calls. I was driving and seeing 20 to 40 accounts every day going into my normal drive calls which were doctors. I was making sure to hit the gym with the guy. I wanted to do real estate. We were doing real estate deals in the morning and I was pitching loans and trying to grow business and grow my network and dropping meeting people and then I was doing my which was radiology in the afternoon. So I was doing that for years while I was building the business Eventually fast forward how DKC was born.

Caleb Delgado 31:58

Dkc was born because eventually, the guy I was working with ran out of money. It was like a family office type of deal where he had a limited amount of capital and David and me got along very well. We were like brothers all the time and we just had a really great partnership and I saw I mean it's limited to my experience, but I will challenge anybody to be as good of an operator as my partner. My partner is one of the best operators there is period. Is he your age? Huh, is he your age? No, he's 10 years younger than me and I'll challenge anybody.

Caleb Delgado 32:26

Younger, 10 years younger than me. Good for Dave. Yeah, I just think he just turned 33 and I'm 42.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 32:31

Damn good for him bro.

Caleb Delgado 32:33

That's awesome. Yeah, he's a. I met him at that time. We run out of money. He has no more money for me to lend my. You know, my income is capped and, like I said, I'm an entrepreneur. You try to put a ceiling on me. I'm busting through it. I'm finding a way past it. I don't give a damn. I'm figuring out how to really make money. So he runs out of money. I'm forced to branch. I'm trying to find guys who will believe in me. I'm trying to find people who will invest in me, and I kind of paved the way for David and I, because we kind of had an understanding before I even left.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 33:04

So were you looking for capital investors into TKC?

Caleb Delgado 33:07

Because when I ran out of money with that company, now I don't have money and now I've developed a network that wants deals. So now I got deal flow but no money. And now I but I don't own my own company, I don't have infrastructure for people tangibly to look at and say, oh, I'm going to give DKC a million bucks and I'm going to do this with them. I have none of that. So I go out there with a person I'll call out because I respect him very much, Robert Cezanne. But he gave me that money and the jumpstart.

Caleb Delgado 33:33

So I wrote a bunch of mortgages, I tried to manage them. I did a piss poor job managing them. And then David at the same time was figuring out his exit too, because he had caps and an own situation going on there as well. So he closes his doors and I'm like we doing business or what Cause? I knew how, how, what a great, what a great talent he is and and how disciplined and strong he was. So I knew he was my next partner to go to the next level, and I believe he saw the same in me and we we they call us yin and yang, because he's very different than I am.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 34:03

You know we bring different things. Is he white and you're darker? Oh yeah, he's white and he's a white guy. There's a yin and there's a yang. I bet he's more reserved than you're the outgoing. Oh yeah.

Caleb Delgado 34:10

He's definitely more reserved, he's conservative, he's outgoing too, though, and he actually moved to Virginia, and then that's when the vision started. He's like well, Caleb, you know, I see you're doing this and I'm showing him my checks, I'm showing him everything, we're being totally transparent, and he's just like we can do this, this and this, and this is the plan money. But I wasn't doing it in a professional, you know, orchestrated manner. I was just doing it like bro, shake my hand, I promise the money will be back. And that's kind of crazy to deal with that kind of money chips on the table. So go into that.

Caleb Delgado 34:48

We developed DKC at that time, which was roughly about five years ago now. So bring us full circle. So we start DKC. So David now becomes. I start originating loans. David spearheads organization of the business and investors and starts lining up investors. So he kind of used my little investor base. That was already kind of there. He already had so much trust from the previous company. Because remember when you're, you know, flipping 100 multifamily doors, you're building all these homes and you're handling investor money, people tend to gain trust in you. Handling investor money, people tend to gain trust in you. So all those people were like, wow, you know, this guy always made sure my checks were on time, he made sure projects got done. He had faith. You know people had faith in him already, so he multiplied that and brought it to the table and at the same time he taught me. He brought me into coaching.

Caleb Delgado 35:34

Which Capitalist Network, Rob Fah another shout out. He's our principal advisor at DKC Lending. He's kind of like our mentor and the guy we go see on every Friday. How did you find him? So David was already seeing him. Dave was big in mentorship, Like paying him yeah, paying him, talking about how to elevate your life and do the best thing that you could possibly do to be the best version of yourself. So David was already into that.

Caleb Delgado 35:56

And when me and our partnership started first thing, a part of his requirement which I love and appreciate him always wanting the best out of me that was a requirement. He's like look, if we're going to do this journey together, you have to have self-improvement. We got to be on the same page. We got to have these meetings and I totally respected and knew it's what we needed. And what did that mentor do? So it's mindset, it's mindset and it's really experienced. So, coming back from my wild and crazy world that I grew up in and all the money and the fast cars and all the crazy things. I knew. That wasn't it.

Caleb Delgado 36:26

So going into this next venture, which was probably my third venture at the time, it had to be more structured, organized. Like you are an athlete, we're very big in being a corporate athlete. Corporate athlete is huge with us. And, look, I'm not super huge into physical fitness. I had my time and it's not like the biggest thing on my radar, but I do my workouts I still.

Caleb Delgado 36:48

You know, run, I mean, um, you know if anybody ever heard what a Masogi is? A Masogi is something you do every year to just chest that. You have the ability to do it. It's like drop down and give me a hundred pushups, Can you do it? I always do little things like that to test, make sure my physical abilities are there. But going into what a mentor that Rob Falk did for us is, he gave a structure, he gave us the ability to look for further education. He gave us connections to rooms for investors and a little bit more credibility, because we're young guys, you know. We're young guys asking for millions of dollars, you know, with not a proven track record of what we did, kind of individually but nothing together. So you're asking people for these large amounts of money without this proven track record?

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 37:29

I mean I know if I'm on the other side.

Caleb Delgado 37:31

I'm like screw you, I'm not giving you my money. What if you lose it? Nevertheless, people broke through. I raised money with a couple of my people. David brought money to the table. We start slinging hard money loans and for anybody who doesn't know what hard money loans are, it's an asset-based loan without the qualifications of what normal bank lending is.

Caleb Delgado 37:48

With short-term loan amounts, short-term bridge financing typically 12 months, 24 months, that sort of lending but no credit for us at DKC. I can't speak for everybody, but DKC lending is no credit, no appraisal, no tax returns Interest only payments.

Caleb Delgado 38:03

Interest only, payments, short-term bridge. So that's the type of financing that we're providing. So it's all asset-based. So the type of clientele we're going for are for builders, you know fix and flip clients, you know realtors, mortgage brokers, who have clients are doing this, people just investor-based lending, what we call commercial lending. So we developed DKC and it was, I mean, I'd like to say it was kind of gradual, but it was meteoric. It was just a meteoric rise, yeah, it's only been five years.

Caleb Delgado 38:34

Right, but take this into account this is what I try to explain to people. I'm 23 years of lending experience. David in his operations and lending with the other company is just a little bit over a decade, so we're not really five years of business, we're a multitude of all of that.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 38:49

You know we're 30 plus years of experience. Well, DKC is but a combined experience of 33 years.

Caleb Delgado 38:55

Yeah a lot.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 38:56

A lot. Well, let's say, if you go from the person looking for a loan to the person that wants to invest in DKC, are you guys actively looking for investors? Absolutely. What's the minimum investment amount?

Caleb Delgado 39:10

So our typical amount is In returns. Well, so we give our clients about 10%. Return is kind of our standard of where you know. But we like to determine the deal really determines it, because we have a variety of deals.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 39:22

So they don't just like say, hey, I don't know. If you said the minimum amount, is it $250,000? $250,000. $250,000.

Caleb Delgado 39:29

So, $250,000,.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 39:30

You're going to get $25,000 a year.

Caleb Delgado 39:32

Yep.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 39:33

At minimum.

Caleb Delgado 39:34

Yep At minimum. Yeah, so you know. With that said, you know we give these investors the opportunity to invest in tangible assets. So, like the stock market, you invest in. Your stock goes zero, what do?

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 39:46

you have, you got nothing.

Caleb Delgado 39:47

Which I'm a firm believer. Learn my lesson there. I had 401ks, I had all of that. 08 happened, I lost all of it. Just, I still have some shares, but it's like very minimal crap. But learn my lesson. So I knew in this next venture I wanted tangible assets. So talking to an investor like, hey, the worst case scenario is we foreclose, we take the property, you have a rental property versus you know an interest paying dividend, you can always pay. You can always sell it too, you can always sell it. So there's always, you know it doesn't always work out like that. And we're learning, because I like to tell everybody it's a tough market now. Oh, hell yeah. And everyone, I think, is feeling it. It's fucking really tough.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 40:21

So is there a floor where the client could lose the entirety of the investment? Let's say, if the real estate market takes a crap, is that a possibility? I'm just asking.

Caleb Delgado 40:31

I mean it's a risk.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 40:33

I mean with anything else. There's a risk assessment, but I heard 10% at minimum. Yeah, so I'm going to give you so if 10% at minimum means that you're guaranteeing me 25K for $250,000 per year, that means that's the floor, right, Right, or is it okay? Well, the average is 25K on 250. And if the market tanks, you're screwed.

Caleb Delgado 40:56

So I wouldn't say you're screwed, but yes, in a nutshell, because you know IULs, yes, I know all the insurance things and stuff which I don't pretend. I learned this about investing I'm just wondering. No, no, no, and I'm going to give you the whole thing and this is a question audience members would ask. And I don't want to give a political answer. I want to give a true answer.

Caleb Delgado 41:14

So, I'm going to give a true how I see it is. When it comes to investing, I'll give everyone the advice, and many people say this there is no guarantee. I don't care who you are or what is getting pitched to you. If you get the pipe dream, or you get a valid regular 401k, 5% return in the stock market, whatever you might or the S&P 500. I mean, if you look at the S&P 500 for the last 30 years, it's given people 10%. So if you're looking at that as a standard, there is that sort of standard. But investing there is no guarantee and anybody who says there's a guarantee, I consider that snake oil.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 41:44

That's a lot.

Caleb Delgado 41:45

And I'm not going to sit here and give that to anybody. But what I can say is if you're doing an investment with DKC Lending, you're buying the actual investment of that loan with us and we are servicing, we're providing a service to you. So DKC L lending originates the loan. We underwrite the loan, we service the loan and we can assist, depending on the person assist with your exit or just the satisfaction of the mortgage. We walk with you from the A to Z and it's important to understand that, especially in hard money lending, because there's a lot of other lenders that are out there that say they do things along that but they don't.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 42:22

Is that from a client standpoint or from an investor standpoint? It sounded like more from a client standpoint, so we do both.

Caleb Delgado 42:29

So we try to keep the standard mirrored on both sides. So, from an investor standpoint, if you invest with us, we will mitigate, we will manage the loan with servicing, so we'll collect the payments for you, we'll make sure the insurances are paid, we'll make sure the project is moving along accordingly, like the borrower has indicated. So we're protecting your investment there and managing it. If, for whatever reason, there is a foreclosure, we have a whole foreclosure protocol. I won't go into the details, but we manage the money as if it's our own and we go into there. If there's foreclosure needed, we have already our paid and on-call attorney firm, PHL firm, who handles all our foreclosure defense and we hop right into it. And for most people who don't understand what foreclosure looks like in hard money lending day 31,. If you don't make your payment, it's day 31. You own it now.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 43:16

No, I don't own it.

Caleb Delgado 43:17

We're starting foreclosure. We're going to give you a demand letter on the day 15. But on day 31, we're having that conversation with you Like it's foreclosure time. Understand that that's coming With us, not everybody. I like to make this because most people have the misconception that hard money lending is like the loan sharks.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 43:36

You ever see, like the old Italian guys back in the day hey, you give me money, I'm breaking legs. You give me my money, all that.

Caleb Delgado 43:40

People have that misconception all the time and I've been kind of kicking around the idea to do kind of like skits.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 43:47

Being like. You know how the babies are, like what it is.

Caleb Delgado 43:49

I was gonna do a baby face like an old Italian and talk like that when I'm like pitching mortgages to kind of like see how people go with it. But that's for another story.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 43:56

That's actually not a bad idea, you know, I was thinking about that. So if anyone, takes it.

Building DKC Lending with David

Caleb Delgado 44:00

You took it from me so I go into that. But we protect our investor money like that. We have our foreclosure defense protocols that we go through with our attorney firms and we attack because we believe in contracts. Right, it took me a long time in my life and business to understand that contracts matter. You know at which, in essence, when you're, when you go back in the day, your word matters. You know I respect men who keep their word and I know in this life when you're building business, it's hard to keep your word when there's other people around. But there's also an understanding that like, look, if you give me your word about certain things, you'll be a man. You know A handshake. You give me your handshake, I'm the old school way, like that.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 44:34

Handshake is what I feel constitute a contract.

Caleb Delgado 44:37

It's a contract and technically I believe it is. Don't quote me, chat GBT. Whatever you want, there has to be consideration, acknowledgement and then a decision. A verbal contract is. You can do that in Florida, I believe Not every state, but that's the. But nevertheless, people should read their contracts, because in business it ain't nothing personal. Your contract stands, everything else is for the birds.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 44:57

Where people promise you all the other BS. That's why the quality of the contracts is huge. You know a lot of people will go to, you know, rocket Lawyer or something like that. Wait, wait, wait. I like that. I like that.

Caleb Delgado 45:12

No, and that being true, you know you got to stand by these contracts. Yeah, you do. You got to be a man of your word. You know how many times because I've been throwing shout outs everywhere. I'm not going to do that anymore. But you know how many times I've done a deal and it just didn't work out. But I gave my word and I went right in my pocket and I gave the person my word and I gave him my money because I gave my word Right and that matters, you know.

Caleb Delgado 45:32

And but in this day of business, anybody watching read your contracts. Don't be the naive person that just wants the, you know, the money at the end of the rainbow. Sees that this is a vehicle to get you there, misses all the fine print, signs the contract just to get what they want. That's not how life works, because life, especially in real estate, crap happens, deals happen, you rip down a wall, you need more money for a supporting beam, something happens. So working with your lenders and having people who are willing to navigate the obstacles with you is massive. And for me, that's where DKC, some of our values, go into. And I know we have a shorter podcast, but I can go into this and I want people to see this.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 46:13

We're going to do another segment. Okay, we can do another segment. And then, with that being said, let me stop you right there. A real quick shout out to Steve Fantetti, Fantetti Legal, and also Ben Stranzel, FHSS in downtown Tampa I don't know what all the motherfucking acronyms stand for. Too many people down there. But we'll be right back. Like, comment and subscribe. Hit that notification button, that way you can be notified every time a happy hour holidays podcast gets dropped. Shout out to DKC lending and we'll be right back. All right, guys, we're back with a happy hour holidays, and Caleb's been a wealth of knowledge here, man. He has taught us so much in such little time. So we were kind of talking about investing off camera and we were talking about, hey, what's the best way to utilize your money? And right now, the state of real estate, fix and flips aren't really the way. So I mean, what else are you looking at right now as far as investment? I mean, obviously you still want to make money on hard money. So what are people doing now?

Caleb Delgado 47:10

Or how did you do?

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 47:11

How did you do it?

Caleb Delgado 47:13

That's a better way to say it, because I usually direct it that way. I kind of let people know what I do, because there's no, you know, I'm not the arbiter of truth, I'm not the person that tells I'm not God.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 47:21

right, everyone has their own way. You said outside guru.

Caleb Delgado 47:24

Yeah, yeah, guru, yeah, I'm not some guru that's going to tell you how to invest in Tesla at 150.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 47:30

You're going to make this much money, yeah, no we're.

Caleb Delgado 47:32

Each individual is its own source of energy in your own individual right. What works for you doesn't work for me, or might right. I'm a firm believer and I'm not crapping on any gurus. I'm not crapping on people's routines. I'm not saying any of that. What I would say is I don't believe a lot of those things. I know what works for me and what I practically do every day. So what I would say is this when it comes to investing, I learn I play in my sandbox. If I have knowledge of it and I know and I've done the research in time, I will invest in it.

Caleb Delgado 48:06

Investing for me started going back to my crazy days when I was blowing money and having money. I didn't understand the value of money. When I actually got to the next point with DKC and I actually had my second run at wealth, what I did was I stayed in my sandbox. I'm a lender. That's what I do. That's personally who I am. That's my identity as a person. So if I'm not going to buy my own mortgages and invest in my own company, I'm a fraud. So the first thing I did was practice what I preach put my money where it belonged, which isn't the product that I stand behind. So that was my first investment was buying mortgages. Obviously, I've invested in real estate throughout my life, but in this next run with DKC, I wanted to be all about what I was doing.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 48:47

When you say buying mortgages, what do you mean by that?

Caleb Delgado 48:49

So, just like I go to an investor and asking for money or because we're not a fund, I actually want to put a disclaimer. We're not a fund at all. Everything is a participation agreement with us where they invest in the actual deal. So I was an investor in my own business. What they call. What they call is bootstrapping. So when people own a business and you invest your own money, that's when you bootstrap to grow the business, whether it's via marketing or buying some of the deals that you're trying to get investors for.

Caleb Delgado 49:14

So myself and my partner, we've bootstrapped our business where we've. You know, we bet on ourselves. We understand who we are and we believe that we're going to be the best at what we do. So we took our money that we were earning and invested it back in our company. So I was for me personally, my personal investments. I buy mortgages. We also have a development company where I'm not going to label myself as a developer because I don't know what it is to manage the subcontractors to that degree like my partners do, but I knew I wanted to be in development. So what was the best way to be in development without making the mistakes myself was to partnering with the right people. You know our development partner, mike Jones. You know he goes out there, he built, he helps, builds our home. That we all Not the Mike Jones. Oh yeah, yeah, mike Jones.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 50:00

We get it every time.

Caleb Delgado 50:02

So for me, on my personal investments, I invest in my mortgages. We have a development manager in Mike who he brings projects to us. We sit together collectively as a unit, we decide what we're going to invest into it and we put our money up and then I become a partner in these deals and I go for my equity. Also, too, on the side with my family, because I'm a big family guy and family means everything to me. You know, I buy houses with my brothers and I make sure that I have a personal rental portfolio that I manage myself. I don't necessarily mess with the stocks and stuff, because back in oh wait, when all that happened and I was believing in the dream and everything that was, you know, I invested money and I got nothing out of it. So I just don't do that sort of stuff. So for me, I think for people, when it comes to investing, I think you need to prioritize yourself, understand who you are as an individual and maximize who you are when it comes to lending. I mean, I may not be the best lender, as most people say, but in my eyes, I've perfected my craft and I'm the best at what I do and I pour everything into it and I maximize the amount of money I can earn as my identity as a lender. Now that I have capital, I create strategic partnerships because I believe, like the guru said, you got to have this many ways of cash flow. You have to be. You know, this version of this vehicle of money. This vehicle of money. That's not true, because you can't be the greatest, at least in my opinion. Let me say that In my opinion, that's not true because you can't be the greatest at everything. You know. You just can't.

Caleb Delgado 51:27

You know, and I'll say this I lost money on an Amazon store. I put 35 grand up for an Amazon store and the guy took me to the cleaners. Why? Why? Because I didn't know what the hell it was to drop ship. I didn't know what it is to do the work and set up the business. I knew how business should run, but I didn't know that business. So then, when everything went left and I'm going into this investment and it couldn't work and these guys are failing in every way on the promises that they brought me, they're like oh well, you got a store, now Good luck. I paid you 35 G's, I got a store and now I'm supposed to do it when you said it was 100% passive and it was going to hit my mailbox. I just lost money and thank God it's a write-off on my tax return and I was in the position to take the loss, but nevertheless I don't believe in that crap.

Caleb Delgado 52:11

I'm a lender by trade and I have strategic partnerships for other vehicles of investment that I like and I appreciate and things that interest me right and rentals, love them. Development and building homes with my partners. Love them. Fixing and flipping houses which is a terrible investment right now but done plenty of them with my partners. I'm an investor in those businesses. I am not the guy that knows it all, so that's what it for me for investing is stick to what you know, be the best at what you do and then, when you've proven the fact that you can earn the money, invest in vehicles that you have knowledge of and have great strategic partnerships.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 52:46

So when, when people put in the money, it's okay, they give you the money but it's. You're not getting the deal right up front. Right, you're waiting until the deal comes through, and then you'll reach out to him and be like, hey, I got this deal. We're going to use your money for this deal. What do you think about it? Exactly, that's how it goes.

Investment Philosophy in Today's Market

Caleb Delgado 53:00

That's how it goes and it's in a more technical term. We do it I like to say the best in the business in a very professional manner. We do everything through our emails, have a presented file for a deal for an investor to look at. We have an investment opportunity that they read, that they have to feel comfortable with and understand the deal from beginning to end. That's the big thing with us. We're not here to just pump a deal to pump a deal. We're here to say investor and client, because it's a dual thing and I'm more on the client side. David deals with more the investor side. So we'll get David here to explain the ins and outs of investing, because he will give you a wealth of knowledge way beyond what I can provide. But nevertheless, we like to make sure the investor understands from A to Z and we like to make sure the client understands their obligations, because they have the grand scheme of things. I'm going to buy this house with this number, put in this number, sell for this number, but the actual. That's the theory, but then the practicality of doing it and executing it total different things and that's where DKC, you know, separates themselves. You can come to me and I know I'm jumping a little bit, but as an investor, when they go through the caveats and the hurdles of investing, they can come back to me and say hey, caleb, look, x, y and Z happened. My, you know, my contractor ran off with my money. I'm short. Well, they can come back to me as a lender. I don't say go kill yourself, I say you be. If you, if I said unlimited check right now, what would you do and what would be the solution? So I listened to them, I get their solution and then I think about what's the next answer with my investor base, to meet the person in the middle where I don't jeopardize the money and I keep the investors happy but at the same time meet the needs of the investor. And I think that's what DKC does better than arguably most other lenders is. We have a great marriage between investor and clients and we understand what the needs are between both and we like what I was saying between the values of transparency super transparent, I would say we've had caveats where people didn't understand, but that's when I go back into contracts. I would label that one. Maybe we could have done better at saying things. But two, read your damn contract, understand what you're doing. Don't just sit there and say, okay, I got the money, let me do my project. That's not how life works. So I think we have a great marriage between the both and I think DKC has taken a real proactive approach.

Caleb Delgado 55:23

Going back to the market, where everyone for the last couple of years it was awesome, you could make any mistake property values were all going up and it was great. You know, I made myself a promise and me and my partner made a promise because he studies 08. He cause he didn't live it. He wasn't part of the time, he was playing professional soccer at the time, but I was living it, and living it by experience. So I learned the hard way. But we think of that experience now and we always thought like, hey, we're riding this up here. What happens when things drop, which right now, fix and flips are dead? Yeah, they are. Man, you know everyone's when, when you're looking at it in a, you know, with a microscope and you're diving in, can you get a fix and flip? Right now A one-off.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 56:05

Yeah, Are you making? Are you making what you could back then? Probably not. The margins are tight.

Caleb Delgado 56:13

They're not there for mistakes, they're not. Everything's more expensive and the values just aren't there, because property values are going down to a stable, stable point that we'll find. If it's today's market or next market, we don't know, but nevertheless that's dead. So what happens then? We're great with diversity. That's why loans are so important. We can do new construction loans, we can do cash out refinance to stabilize an asset. We can just do bridge loans till the market turns and you can get yourself other financing. So we provide not just loans that are great during the market but are great after the market. And we are here to provide you real estate solutions I like to say creative real estate solutions for all of your needs.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 56:48

What's the longest term product you guys offer?

Caleb Delgado 56:50

Everything for us is 12 months, 12 months, but it's for a reason, because I know there's plenty of other companies that do 24 or 36.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 56:57

So if fix and flips are dead, how is a client going to pay you back within 12 months? Is this what they're going to do? They're going to buy a house or a multifamily unit, fix it, rent it out maybe a Section 8, and then cash out refi with another lender and then pay you back or traditional lender right or traditional lender and then pay you back.

Caleb Delgado 57:19

Is that what seems to be occurring at this moment? So that's what's happening. Is that what seems to be occurring at this moment? So that's what's happening and that's why part of I know I haven't laid out how all of DKC is designed, but that's part of how me and David designed the company was being able to provide outlets for takeout financing. I'm not a conventional lender. I did that early in my career and I don't want anything to do with it, nor am I a conventional lender now. But for anybody investing in real estate, they know DSCR loans, you know debt coverage service ratio. Loans are really debt service coverage ratio loans are really big right now and that's how investors are getting out to 30-year products right now. There's no income required for it. It's based on the rental income of the property once it's stabilized and you'll have to get an appraisal to do so. But nevertheless is DKC provides those loans, or insight or access to those loans for clients to help them get out. And it's not that we need money or want to collect fees or want to provide that. We just want to know that as the challenges for the client happen and the market gets hard where it's like hey, I know you're about to finish, but in three or four months, if you can't sell because the price is.

Caleb Delgado 58:23

We just did another evaluation of your property. You were expecting. You bought it for 100, you put 50 grand into it. You're expecting 200, prices just aren't there. You're probably gonna get 170. After real estate commissions, you're probably gonna walk away with 150. You're breaking even or losing money, so you wanna hold it.

Caleb Delgado 58:39

Are you in position to hold it? Yes, caleb, I'm in position. I'll put down a little bit more. I'll get a DSCR loan. Well, have you ever done it? No, well, that's where us, we educated ourselves and our team to understand, to give these people outlets. Say, hey, we can provide you these outlets. Go wherever you want, but this is available to you if you would like to take advantage, if you can't sell for the profit you want. That's why I think in companies, why DKC is so powerful, because we provide a full scope of solutions for people. It's not just hey, I give you hard money, whether you live or die, it doesn't matter to me. Yeah, and I'll take your property and I'll make it profitable for me because you, I, you, I gave you a loan 30 or 50% under what you paid. So I'm good, but you're not.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 59:19

I was, besides being a lender, you're a strategic partner. I mean, that's the biggest difference when I've heard everybody else that's a lender. They're like here you go, I'm getting my points, my interest payments, good luck.

Caleb Delgado 59:31

No, you guys are actually getting in there with the investor, with the client and taking them the roadmap.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 59:39

But you also have to foreclose on properties.

Caleb Delgado 59:40

So more than ever and anybody who says that they're not is a liar there's more foreclosures than ever happening right now.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 59:46

So how does that for a lending company, what exactly happens to those foreclosure properties and how do you guys deal with them?

Caleb Delgado 59:53

So it's a tough thing. I'm not going to go into the intricacies of how we handle investors because I'll let David come up here and go through the intricacies. But the theory of it and how we're handling it is we follow Florida statute, so we're going to go. We're going to file the complaint in court. We're going to then proceed to foreclose on the property. In this time we're going to take every opportunity to negotiate, to work out a solution with that client before the foreclosure happens. They can either pay us off, they can work out some sort of payment. We're gonna do everything in our power to not go there. But if we get to the foreclosure, then we're gonna go. It's gonna go up for auction. If someone bids and gives us the number, the property's gone right there at the auction steps.

Caleb Delgado 1:00:39

If not and we have to take it back, well, we're going to make sure the lawn's cut. We're going to make sure that the property rehab was done properly, or at least get it to that. We're going to rent the property out and now, instead of interest checks, we're now getting rent checks. We're going to reevaluate the deal, let our investor know throughout the process what we're doing, and then we're going to decide hey, are we going to collect the rent for the next two years or sell the cap, or we're going to sell right now to an investor because we got it stabilized and we could sell for this number? You get your money, we might even profit, which that is those theories of foreclosure. I hate when people say, oh, are you one of those loan shark, hard money lenders that take people's property?

Caleb Delgado 1:01:13

well, they don't know what the fuck they're talking about right go through a foreclosure on average right now, foreclosure legal fees got to be through the roof. It's about 25% of the property that's been costing us roughly Through auction, right Going through the whole process to repossess. Yeah, so I give you a 70% LTV loan and it costs me 25% to recover your asset.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 1:01:33

You only got 5%. I'm in 95% LTV, maybe 5% profit.

Caleb Delgado 1:01:36

I got to sell the property profit. Yeah, I gotta sell the property. Now I gotta dispo it. What's a real estate commission? Roughly five percent. Maybe you negotiate them down to four or three, but you're not breaking even. You're breaking even. It's not as lucrative as people think. Now think about this if foreclosure gets dragged, you know, drug out for two years, now you're even more fucked. You lost 24 interest, just off the two years of fighting, unless you had to, to rent it out and you're at which the client is typically doing that and they're probably not paying you and keeping the rent.

Caleb Delgado 1:02:07

So, as a lender, it's so important to be with a team who truly understands not just originating loans and that was the psychology that David Hyatt had around the company. And going back to what I was saying about, because I want to make this point for anybody looking for a job, because this is where I kind of want to promo guys who are actively looking for creating something for their future when you come for a loan consultant job at DKC Lending, you have to invest. No, you don't have to. I don't say that, that's a wrong word. I didn't deal with absolutes. We encourage you to invest with us and my loan consultants buy mortgages. My loan consultants invest in development projects.

Handling Deals and Foreclosures

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 1:02:44

My loan consultants Is that minimum still?

Caleb Delgado 1:02:45

250? No, it's. You know we work out deals with them because we understand they don't have to do it if they don't want to, but I encourage them to, and the reason why is because I remember the days when I was a broker, making a boatload of money and no one with me over my shoulder to say, hey, caleb, what's a rainy day look like for you? How many fix and flips do you have you actually done and actually made money on, and how much did you turn to rentals for the next, for the future? How many you know? What is your 401k look like? All these investments that people talk about? What is your investing profile look like? I'm not going to tell you how to invest in vehicles that I don't control, but if you're a team member of DKC Lending and a loan consultant, to be specific, you're given and you're allowed every opportunity at a premium to invest with us.

Caleb Delgado 1:03:28

Of everything I personally do and David, my partner, does personally, I don't ever ask anyone to make an investment that I don't have money in period. That's not how we deal here. That's strong. But my whole point is if you lose, I lose. If I don't believe in myself, then what are we doing here. That's why, when I go back to the story of banking on myself and when David and I started the company, how we were bootstrapping, putting our money into the company and trying to do these things, it's because there was no one that was going to tell me everything different. And that's why I tell people, when you look about investing, be the best version of yourself first. Be the person you know. My identity is a lender. Well, if you put me up against another lender, I'm not going to go against someone who is a stockbroker. I'm not going to go against someone who manages restaurants. That's not what I'm talking about. We're different investments. But if you put me up against another lender, this is the vehicle I know to be proven. This is the vehicle I know that's paid my investors. This is the vehicle that I know that's paid my investors. This is the vehicle that I know that my clients have been able to develop and build and pay for their families. Cause you have to take into account these things, right, I think about and these are crazy things that people maybe think are crazy or not, I don't know.

Caleb Delgado 1:04:31

I, when I have a client comes to me, I look at the client, I look at who they are and do they own their own company? Truly, are they a hundred percent full-time real estate? Are they feeding contractors who are feeding their family? Do they have kids who are in college? What do they got going on that makes that? I'm going to help invest in this person to create their future, Because I'm a strategic partner. Like you said before, a lender is just of a performer. We're aligned on a performer base. We're a cost of money that when you're doing your real estate investment, I'm the line that says cost of money, the lender that's who I am, but I also stand next to you and if you fail, I fail Because what happens if you default on your loan? Who's liable?

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 1:05:12

You have to go through all that shit.

Caleb Delgado 1:05:14

It's not like I just disappear and hey, buddy, good luck.

Caleb Delgado 1:05:18

That is not it at all. I call you personally. Default management me and David are actively in default management with you. I call you, text you personally and go hey, bud, I know you're going through a rough time. I see you're not making your payments. What can we do to help you in this investment and help your family? I'm sure it's probably a difficult time for you.

Caleb Delgado 1:05:37

And look, sometimes these guys are so scared they won't call me back. Sometimes they make this assumption and thing in their head like I'm out there to kill him and they go oh, this guy's going to take my property. Not the truth at all. I'm a lender, I collect interest checks. That's all I want. Talk to me, deal with me, and I'm going into the darker side because the market is in a tougher space. So there's more of this than ever. And by more of this I don't mean like 100% of people. You know you're talking 10% of what's going on. You're not talking the mass majority, but those 10% are people too and they deserve assistance and help. So DKC provides default mitigation for our investors and provides default mitigation solutions for the client as well.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 1:06:15

For individuals that are looking to become mortgage consultants for DKC. What are the prerequisites that you guys require?

Caleb Delgado 1:06:24

We have no licensing prerequisites because for most that don't know or know, there's no licenses required for being a hard money lender, but for us it's value-based and hustle. If you're a guy that's going to show up every day, you're going to be a sponge and you're going to not fight me and always have an excuse or a contradictory thing to say to me because you think you know better than me which there's plenty of people in this world that are smarter than me but you're coming into my house and my rules. Take it in, be a sponge, learn what we're doing, because I failed many of times to get the education that I have and the expertise that I have today and, if you like it, continue to grow with me. That's all I ask, and if not, get the fuck out.

Final Thoughts and Finding Success

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 1:07:08

And if not, yeah, get the fuck out and we move on. Yeah, we move on. No hard feelings here. So we're winding down. How can people find DKC Lending? You guys are on socials. I know you guys are on Instagram. I know you guys got a website. Shout it all out. Yeah, yeah.

Caleb Delgado 1:07:22

So we're at DKCLendingcom, that's our website. Go there anytime. But DKCLending on Instagram, dkclending on Facebook, how to Make Money with Hard Money is our podcast. No-transcript your enemy. We're here to grow with you and create the stable life and the American dream, because if you win, we win. That's the honest truth, and I know we're down to the wire. There's so much more.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 1:08:03

Hey, we got to shout out Barbara real quick.

Caleb Delgado 1:08:05

Yes, oh, I want to say that.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 1:08:06

I mean because she made the connection right there.

Caleb Delgado 1:08:09

Yep. So Barbara Brown, brown Associates, a phenomenal attorney firm. I can tell you my brother learned under her tutelage. My brother's an attorney. He's on his own now. You don't get the plug today. Kyle Barber does. But but but Barbara Brown at Brown and associates. She has done a bunch of our title work. She has helped us in large portfolio transactions. I'm talking hundreds of doors. I can say this with a fact. I've done a multiple over a hundred door package of sale, acquisition and disposition with Barbara Brown. You are a stellar attorney. You have the ability to make mountains move, so shout out to you.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 1:08:45

And she's a cool ass person, oh she's cool, she got experience. She's really cool. You wouldn't even expect Barbara to be who Barbara is. But Barbara, shout out. Barbara.

Caleb Delgado 1:08:54

I got to shout you out.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 1:08:55

I've already met her like twice.

Caleb Delgado 1:08:57

I define her as a southern belle with a bite there.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 1:09:00

I define her as a southern bell with a bite. There you go.

Caleb Delgado 1:09:01

She got a little bit of grit on there and she has the brains to back it up, and an attorney at that. Oh yeah, and a trusted attorney that I trust personally.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 1:09:09

And also associated with the Suncoast Tampa Association of Realtors. Shout out Quan, the VP of Strategic Partnerships with Star.

Caleb Delgado 1:09:21

We're actually going to see you tomorrow, but uh, yeah, yeah, this has been a good episode.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 1:09:24

What else do you have to tell the young people out there If they're trying to hustle and bustle like what kind of motivation can you give it? Just a little snippet, real quick, of somebody who's trying to come up? You know, I'm just trying to come up a little bit.

Caleb Delgado 1:09:35

No, the come up is is believe in yourself, right? You know everyone try to block out the social media. Believe in yourself. If you have something that's worked in your life and you love it, it's what you want to go for. Go for it, Because what happens is is people believe they want something, they don't go for it, they don't give it their all, and then they end up being stuck on the nine to five job which I was on that train too and they never fight for your dreams. Fight for your dreams as soon as possible. You don't need a college degree. You don't need to wait for all the qualifications. Start right away. I don't care if you're 12. I don't care if you're eight, I don't care if you're 25. Go, Go, do it and do it now. There's no like day, like the present right, this moment. Go after it.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 1:10:17

We could have made a couple of motivational videos.

Caleb Delgado 1:10:19

Damn. Yeah, I know.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 1:10:20

That was fantastic. We're here for Brave Framework Studios with another episode of Happy Hour Holidays with Caleb man. It's been freaking fantastic.

Caleb Delgado 1:10:27

And Sean and Sean. Oh yeah, Sean's out there, Jesus fucking.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 1:10:31

Christ man Alright peace.