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Born in Pensacola, Florida, Arnold Dormer grew up there and in New Orleans followed by Memphis. He graduated from Central High School here in Memphis in 1957 and served his country in the United States Marines. He graduated from Memphis State University (now the University of Memphis) fall of 1961 with a minor in Real Estate and Finance. |
At that time he thought the wealth in the country was based on real estate holdings and he didn’t have any so he bought his first house January 1, 1962. This property was a one bedroom duplex with a $10.00 spread between mortgage note and rent. This was the start of his real estate career.
At the same time he started working for Crane Supply Company in Memphis. Within the next three years Arnold had accumulated twelve properties. Every Saturday he went out and did my own maintenance as he was pretty handy with that sort of thing. During the following years he bought apartments, boarding houses, duplexes, camping resort, Christmas tree farm, and many single family homes. During this time Richard Scarborough and Arnold became friends in the early 80’s as they were competitors buying, fixing-up and reselling houses in the retail market. Back in the 80’s they had to go to Atlanta, Georgia for real estate seminars. One time he bought a seminar on selling property using wrap mortgages. When Arnold retutned to Memphis it did not take long to fully grasp the profit potential by applying this knowledge. His real estate agent at the time was Harold Buelher and he put up for sale about 20 properties which he owned. He only sold to investors and got scared because he were so successful and stopped selling at about 16 properties. This created an income stream of approximately $ 75,000 per year for about the next twelve years.
In 1988 Arnold got a General Contractor’s License and started buying large parcels of land subdividing it into four acre lots and building houses. If someone wanted to buy a lot only he would sell and finance with a 30 year loan knowing they were planning to build and they would normally get paid off within two to three years. During my time as a home builder Arnold built approximately 260 properties for sale which included 35 in the development known as Harbor Town. At the end of 1999, and tired of building and selling Arnold then decided he would go into full time rental. At that time he had approximately 24 rental units. Together with his wife Cathy, they developed a plan to build rental houses for their own account. They built and financed about 140 properties and secured 30 year fixed rate loans. Their properties were built mostly in the Frayser, Raleigh and Millington area. Arnold wanted to concentrate my properties where the distance from the furthest one to the next furthest one was about a 15 minute drive as this would help to hold down his management costs.
In 2011 due to the real estate crisis Arnold entered into Chapter 11 and reorganized his company into a once again profitable enterprise with the help of his lawyer, Russ Savory. Arnold believes that what was accomplished is a perfect example of what Chapter 11 Bankruptcy is all about.
In early 2000 Arnold was reading the newspaper ads for investment property and saw an ad for a group meeting of investors at the Holiday Inn at Poplar and I-240. He called Richard and asked him if he knew what was going on. Richard said “No” so they decided to attend their first MIG meeting. They were enthused about what was going on, joined the group and both been active members ever since.
Arnold is now at a stage in life with his company where he does not have to be in Memphis all the time. With the invention of the smart phone Arnold is able to be anywhere and tend to his business. His main day to day job is to answer the phone from his rental line and sell the prospective tenants on the advantages of renting from Arnold Rental. He then sees that they are shown the property and they go through the rental process.
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Arnold can be contacted at:
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