Unlocking Real Estate Success: Arden Hillstrom’s 1999 Journey Revealed

Dylan Silver (00:02.52)
Hey folks, welcome back to the show. Today’s guest is a full cycle real estate investor focused on strategic growth with experience in single family, small multifamily, land development, especially in the Gainesville market she’s based out of, bringing a sharp eye for opportunity and execution, Arden Hillstrom with Infinite Land and Growth. Arden, welcome to the show.

Arden Hillstrom (00:28.302)
Thank for having me.

Dylan Silver (00:30.452)
It’s great to have you on. I always like to start off at the top by asking folks how they got into the real estate space.

Arden Hillstrom (00:37.866)
Lovely question. So I started in the real estate space in 1999 and I got into the space because I just I wanted to be an investor. At that time, you know, things were moving for people. But me being in my early 20s at that time, it wasn’t a popular thing. But for me, I wanted that flexibility. I thought real estate investing brought freedom, flexibility. And that’s what I was about.

Dylan Silver (01:09.006)
Did you come from a background of real estate where there are lots of real estate people maybe in your family or in your sphere of influence?

Arden Hillstrom (01:18.124)
A little bit. So I had one aunt that also started investing in her 20s and she bought a huge amount of land in Florida. And I at that time I was I was in elementary school, but I remember watching her with the contractors and her talking to us and she said, you know, we’re going to make this street this and this street that. And I’m thinking, my God, she’s going to have so many people. I want to do that.

Dylan Silver (01:46.67)
And so you said, I’m going to follow in the footsteps. 1999, I imagine that was kind of a great time to get into real estate. Probably lot of, I would say, financing that was good and favorable and maybe some favorable conditions, especially in Florida. Probably a booming year. It’s booming now, but even more so then because of how much opportunity there was,

Arden Hillstrom (02:10.138)
So when I started, I started in up north. so it was during 1999, it was not a lot of creative financing going on. It was more so of you brought your 20 % or your 30 % and interest rates were 15%, 18%. So you really had to figure out, okay, I have this many dollars, but I want this many properties and how am I gonna make it stretch?

Dylan Silver (02:14.871)
Okay.

Arden Hillstrom (02:39.396)
So I guess the creative came from, okay, you have this many properties, I have this many dollars, can we figure out a way to get it closed? But I’ve seen after 99, we went into the early 2000s, which were amazing times. By then we had figured out, you know, different systems and it was definitely booming. Now I’m learning Florida market now.

but starting up north, the average house was like $500,000 at that time. And it was 20, 30 % down. So you really had to put boots on the ground and be super, super creative.

Dylan Silver (03:24.182)
Now, interesting, a lot of interesting touch points there. You mentioned investing outside of Florida, north. this northeast coast? Which area of the country was this in?

Arden Hillstrom (03:37.082)
DMV, Maryland DC Virginia. Love that place.

Dylan Silver (03:39.36)
Okay. Yeah, I have a lot of affinity to that area. I’m from northern New Jersey, but kind of I’m in Texas now. So anytime I hear folks from that area, I say, well, we’re kind of simpatico. Once you come out here, people kind of group together as East Coasters. But you also mentioned that time period being great for real estate and then also, you know, not not as much with the creative. I think a lot of the creative deals came about

Arden Hillstrom (03:52.758)
Yes.

Dylan Silver (04:07.98)
when financing got harder to come by and people had to come up with new creative ways. I’ve even heard that about private equity too. Like there was private equity beforehand, but then it just really boomed after the crash because people couldn’t get financing. And so you go down, at what point, what year roughly were you down in Florida? It sounds like more recent.

Arden Hillstrom (04:31.338)
So Florida has been more recent for me. It was actually, my parents retired here, so I stayed. For me, like large cities, a lot going on, but they’re older and I wanted to be closer, so I had to get here and really learn this market because I’m one of those people, I’m always out, I network, I knock on doors, like I’m old school. I feel like,

the ones that are doing things virtually. I love it. I applaud them, but I’m still that old school person. I want to see people. I want to go look at the house. I want to, and it allows me to stay competitive because I’m still getting listings all the time, but it allows me that extra special touch, which is I think needed right now.

Dylan Silver (05:15.971)
Yeah.

Dylan Silver (05:24.14)
I think you’re exactly right. There’s no replacement for that type of feedback that you get from being able to, you know, touch the turf and go to these areas. I completely agree with you and I do this remotely. And so I say I always try to get tapped into the community out here. I want to talk about going from DMV area to Gainesville, right? Two totally different areas. I’m not too familiar with Gainesville, but I do know Florida is like a hot bed of

real estate entrepreneurs from really all over the country. I’ve spoken to people in Miami and then, you know, on the west side you’ve got St. Petersburg and Tampa and then I’ve spoken to people in like New Smyrna Beach.

Arden Hillstrom (05:56.612)
Yeah.

Arden Hillstrom (06:04.003)
So Gainesville falls in those. Gainesville falls in the middle of St. Pete and Tampa, Orlando. Those are the same buyers.

Dylan Silver (06:14.454)
I think it’s great, you know, I’ve had so many people on the show from Florida say, I’m gonna move, I don’t know where, but I’m gonna move out to Florida because there’s something in the water out there. I don’t know, I think I might go to St. Pete Arden. There was a lot of people who I’ve had in the show who said, apparently there’s like some level of, I’m coining this, there’s some level of competition. They will doubt it. I’ve spoken to lot of people who said, no, we’re not in competition with Miami. No, Miami’s not in competition with, you know, Tampa.

But then when I have folks on the show, they’re like, this is why you should move to Miami. This is why you should move to St. Peter, Tampa. And I said, OK.

Arden Hillstrom (06:52.982)
think St. Pete is a baby Miami. I would agree with them. I think St. Pete, brings a small time, quaint time culture, but it also brings about with the beauty and the aesthetics of everything that they have going on, a little Miami. So yeah, I know. I haven’t ventured as far as the St. Pete yet. I’ve gotten close. Like I’m doing things in the villages and Ocala and Orlando.

Tampa like everywhere neighboring, but I have not hit that yet. I plan to, I just haven’t done it yet.

Dylan Silver (07:28.814)
I think one of the interesting things about real estate and talking with so many people is you have to have the ability to pivot, to adapt, to geographically relocate, to invest without borders. You know, how many people from the East Coast are investing in the Midwest? How many people from California are investing in Texas and in Arizona? So many, so many. And so over the years, I’m curious to get your…

pivot points and the areas where you saw maybe a market shift and you said, okay, I have to go move from this to this.

Arden Hillstrom (08:05.626)
So geographically and business model, because with the geographic moves, a lot of time would bring about a business model shift. So I started in the DMV area and then from there it was the Midwest. And so the Midwest for me, I think brought about the change because I was actually in

the DMV area when I first like started dabbling. But then when I started to venture out further south, I realized that virtual buying was great. Doing business virtually was amazing because during the 2000, I would say eight to about 2010, the Midwest really popped up on the map for me on the radar.

Dylan Silver (08:52.462)
Yeah.

Arden Hillstrom (09:02.786)
Like I was doing neighborhoods and different things in the Midwest because it was easy to come by. Like the rent was 200 times the purchase of the property. So it was just a no brainer. And then I had clients because I’m semi hard money retired. But I funded a lot of investors.

When I started to notice that trend for Chicago, now Chicago is a little taboo, but starting in maybe 2008 to maybe 2014, Chicago was a gold mine. And so, and anything neighboring that. So it really just depends on what’s going on in the market. Right now, Florida is just hot. Like Florida is hot, Tennessee is hot. Different parts are hot, but as far as

If you get a property and you got a, you know, you have a million buyers, definitely Florida, like Florida is a no brainer. Texas too, so, you’re in a good market.

Dylan Silver (10:11.678)
Yeah, I think I think I’m grateful to be here. I moved up from San Antonio up to Dallas DFW Metro, which by the way, I didn’t know this it’s this whole thing DFW Metro’s you got Dallas you got Fort Worth you got the surrounding areas for I live in Denton I live like 40 miles that may be a slight exaggeration, but it might not be from Dallas and it’s like I can’t believe we still consider ourselves DFW. We’re closer to Oklahoma than we are to Dallas truly

Arden Hillstrom (10:17.988)
Okay.

Arden Hillstrom (10:27.011)
Yes.

Arden Hillstrom (10:32.686)
Yeah.

Dylan Silver (10:41.29)
and still

Arden Hillstrom (10:41.434)
What do you think you gotta take on? You guys have to wear that hat though, A Texan is just a Texan.

Dylan Silver (10:45.1)
We do. We do. It’s a it’s an I mean let me tell you what we get tornadoes out here Arden. We’ve had tornadoes that collapsed a shed on the ranch that threw a rod through my pretty car that I ended up selling because of that. But I know I was I said I didn’t know there was going to be tornadoes. But I do want to pivot here and talk shop about wholesale because I am a I would call myself a wholesaler by trade.

Arden Hillstrom (10:59.482)
Who? That’s that.

Dylan Silver (11:12.23)
I’m a real estate agent now but haven’t done deals as an agent. I just got licensed earlier this year. And I’m really passionate about working with investors and that’s kind of where I see myself scaling and I think there’s a lot of opportunity for all people, regardless if they have real estate license or not, to think and be investors. And many of the cases people start out in wholesale. So I’m curious to get your take on the business and in wholesale in general.

Arden Hillstrom (11:12.43)
Okay.

Arden Hillstrom (11:42.362)
So I do know for me, I had gotten my real estate license a long time ago, but I primarily like you, I only wanted to work with investors. I got it just to get houses at that time because I didn’t know any other way to get houses. but as wanting to be a realtor that works with investors, I think that it’s just, it’s really important that you understand

the numbers or understand the solution that they need. And oftentimes, I think with realtors, because I work with real estate agents as well, they send me properties all the time. But understanding the math, when you understand the math, I think a realtor is such a valuable asset. Now, when it comes to wholesaling, for me, I remember seeing all of the action, but not dipping my toe in that pond, per se. It’s like I saw it, but

okay, everybody’s doing it and I can figure it out. have the tools, but how do I put it together? So for me, I started looking at deals and when my model changed, I didn’t want any more single family homes in my portfolio. I went through the whole burnout and I just didn’t want to do that anymore. So for me, I get a lot of single family properties. I see them all the time because when I’m scouting for myself, I wind up with an abundance of properties. And so wholesalings, it…

felt like the best way, the solution. And I know quite a few investors. I know a lot of investors that, you know, they want to build doors. For them, that’s still important. So I, with my time, with my everything, the wholesaling right now is, that’s been key.

Dylan Silver (13:30.55)
Yeah, I think you hit on so many points there. People oftentimes make it seem like you have to this big, I would say, machine in order to do wholesale. And it does help. Don’t get me wrong, right? I know people who are spending $80,000 a month on mailers, right? But at the same point in time, a lot of it is a contact sport. say real estate is a contact sport because you’re knocking on doors. You mentioned walking properties, distressed.

I really have done most of the deals that I’ve done, either by myself or working with other people as a JV partner or with companies has been distressed property. It’s all distressed property. And so you realize like in order for this to get an HGTV level flip, you really do have to hit the pavement, so to speak. One of the strategies that I think a lot of people do and I’ve been involved in this is you have foreclosure lists, right?

Arden Hillstrom (14:05.529)
Yeah.

Arden Hillstrom (14:27.385)
Yes.

Dylan Silver (14:27.446)
You could do mailers, right? You could also do this tired landlords. But I think an interesting strategy, which I’m seeing more and more of is land wholesaling. And I know you have land out there and there’s a lot of land over here. I think that’s a huge opportunity.

Arden Hillstrom (14:45.558)
So I have a few builders that are buyers for me. And so the landhold selling started by just asking, know, going out and meeting people and within my network groups, like, what are you guys doing? What are you looking for? And so right now with the shifts, everybody’s like, okay, for those of us that have seen this before, okay, we’re going into a huge rental market.

So right now, this is the time for an investor to really grab property because although, and then, you know, those properties aren’t flying off the shelf anymore. That’s a plethora of inventory. So now we get to get wholesale deals. We get to make a little spread or Delta from these deals because they’re out there. Foreclosure lists are great. I believe that for me, it took me a minute to kind of adopt that.

because I’ve seen times where people were really, really going after foreclosures, but they were cutthroat and it was not a good time. And we let, know, and we let, they’re already dealing with a sensitive situation. So now it, and you have to have a model that supports helping them, but you also have to have a model that supports making sure that you’re protected as well. No promises, you know.

no utopias at the end. This is what it is. This is our deal. This is what it is. And this is my solution. So with wholesaling, I think right now, this is the time. I honestly do believe that foreclosure lists, probate lists, those lists, they are ideal. I’m old school, so I’m not that person that has to have everything done for me. I can mine for data.

Dylan Silver (16:13.997)
Yeah.

Arden Hillstrom (16:32.794)
I can drive for dollars, which I still do. People are only using gas. Okay, I’m really not. I have an electric, so I’m okay. And I’m meeting people and I’m seeing neighborhoods that I’m going, yeah, that one’s on the radar. I can do a quick, you know, sale with that one. And we’re moving on. I like to know.

Dylan Silver (16:53.678)
Do you run Mile IQ? You know about Mile IQ?

Arden Hillstrom (16:57.146)
So yeah, I, Mylock you out. So was that one? I like that. Did you get that?

Dylan Silver (17:05.378)
I love that app. I love that app. mean, I can’t tell you, but I mean, if I’ve seen so many people save so much money and I look at the tax bill that I would have had in the year coming up versus with Mile IQ, it’s absurd. I said, I wish I would have known about this. I was an Uber driver briefly. I wish I would have known about this, you know, 10 years ago when I was driving Uber. said I would have saved a lot of money driving Uber.

Arden Hillstrom (17:06.99)
Yeah.

Arden Hillstrom (17:29.642)
my God, yes, because I found out about my IQ. My TC told me maybe about a year or two ago, maybe a year. My TC told me because I’m trying to keep up with Miles, but we put a lot of them on there.

Dylan Silver (17:46.71)
I mean it’s amazing how much really the tax strategy element as you know is so key. Otherwise you’re going to end up with a substantial bill. I just love my IQ. I just personally use them. That’s why I bring that up. If if you’re driving for dollars you might as well write it off right. Take it take it as a write off. We are coming up on on time here though Arden. Where can folks go if they want to reach out to you get in contact with you or learn a little bit more about your business out there.

Arden Hillstrom (18:17.306)
So for me, if they wanna get in touch with me, I’m always with email, of course. I stick to email. So it’s just infinitelandinggrowth at gmail.com. As far as my phone number, I’m still old school. So I’m okay with texts. I have no issues with that as well. I’m okay with that. I don’t do, like I said, we’re…

going into like social media, but for me, honestly, it’s not needed. Like right now where I am, I’m so comfortable. Just me, a small team, just allowing myself to be Arden. I’m not over 40, 50, you know, powered agent. I leave that to you guys that are, you know, in your thirties and younger or whatever, whoever wants to do it, I leave that to you. I’ve been there numerous times and I’m just, out on that one right now.

Dylan Silver (19:16.684)
Well, Arden, it’s great having you on the show here. Thanks for hopping on here today.

Arden Hillstrom (19:21.422)
Thank you so much.