About
Derek Simkins
I'm an Asheville-based private money broker for real estate investors across Western North Carolina. I broker fix-and-flip, ground-up construction, short-term bridge, and long-term DSCR through a network of vetted private-capital lending partners — in and around Asheville, Hendersonville, Black Mountain, Weaverville, and Brevard. Business-purpose, non-owner-occupied investment property only. I don't sit on top of a single fund; I sit across several, and I pick the one that fits your deal.
How I work
Three things investors tell me they wish other connectors and lenders did.
- Real numbers up front. Observed rate ranges across the network, points, LTV, and what your effective cost of capital looks like over the projected holding period. Our partner ranges are public.
- Honest read on the deal. If the ARV doesn't comp, the rehab budget is light, or the exit is more wish than plan, I'll tell you on the first call before I send it to any lender. That's a faster "no" than three weeks of underwriting that ends the same way, and you can take the feedback to the next deal.
- Same person from intake to close. Intake, lender matching, underwriting coordination, closing logistics. No bouncing between five lender forms or getting handed off to a regional credit officer in another state.
"A faster 'no' beats a three-week 'maybe' that ends the same way."
"I'm not pricing risk from a generic North Carolina spreadsheet two states away."
Why Asheville
I work this market because I live in it.
I know which neighborhoods are flipping well, which ones are slow, which contractors deliver, and which appraisers actually walk the property. That market knowledge changes how I read a deal before routing it — risk gets framed from the deal in front of me, not from a head-office generalization.
Asheville's investor market is real but nuanced. Tourism and short-term rental demand shape value differently than a typical secondary city. Inventory is constrained. Mountain construction has cost dynamics that flatlanders consistently underestimate. Lending decisions land better when the connector understands all of that before introducing the deal to a partner.
How I structure deals
Deep capital relationships, not a one-size-fits-one product menu.
I've worked across investor transactions for years — pricing deals, structuring financing introductions, walking properties, watching what closes and what doesn't. The deals I take on now are ones I can stay close to, where the borrower and I can have a real conversation about the numbers and the exit, and where I can move fast on the right introduction when the deal pencils.
I work with established private capital relationships across hard money, construction, bridge, and long-term DSCR holds. Multiple partners gives me room to find the right structure for the deal in front of us — including some that a single-fund direct path wouldn't take. I'm not the biggest connector in this market. I'm not trying to be. I just want to make the introductions that actually close.
"The right structure for the deal in front of us — not whichever product is on the menu."
Background
United States Air Force.
Eleven years in the Air Force. Avionics technician, then flight mechanic on "no-fail" missions — refueling fighter jets in the Middle East, managing maintenance and sourcing parts wherever the deployment took me. Scotland. Greece. The work didn't reward shortcuts.
Same habits move into the broker work. Show up. Do what I said I'd do. Don't promise a closing timeline I can't actually hit. The capital is other people's, and reliability is the only thing that compounds.
What I won't do
A few things I won't do, no matter how the deal looks on paper.
- —I won't route a deal I think is going to crush the borrower, even if a partner would fund it.
- —I won't tell you a number is going to work when I think it won't.
- —I won't route owner-occupied primary residences. Our network covers business-purpose investment property only.
- —I won't promise a closing timeline I can't actually hit through the lending partner.
Got a deal?
Pick up the phone or send the numbers. I read every form submission myself.