February 21, 2025 • 28 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
I had somebody email me this week and make reference
to the use of this song in the movie, and
he said, you got to play that version.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Ever so often, and I thought, oh, you must be
new to the show.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
When we started with Old Happy Day, I didn't let
it play all the way out.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
It was designed to set the.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
Mood for a very positive Friday morning show, and people
would say, do you mind not not talking over it,
letting it finish? And I don't dare do it now
because I know it's important to me. Since we're on
the subject. I always talk about traditions. I always forget
(00:44):
the wee can review until too late in the opening
segment and have to push it back, and then I
get off my soul to get us started as we
always do, or at least.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Kind of say we always do it.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Sometimes forget courtesy of the great executive producer in all
the land, Chattaconi Nakanishi.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
Your week in reviews, yikes, I could use a distraction
right now, ladies and gentlemen, Mister Conway Twitty, I can.
Speaker 4 (01:13):
Know almost to the stillness as it you, to the sound.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Of your heart beating.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
Boom, what percent of women do you think we're attracted
to Conway, at least in part because his hair was
better than.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Their iglu is recalling more than a million rolling coolers
over concerns they could cause some serious finger injuries.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
In some cases, people's fingertips have actually been ambutent ambutated.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
How mean of those people? You think we're drunk when
they did that.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
I am surprised how many coolers tumblers are sold. If
you go to Academy, for instance, that area has it's
like a creep that area has crept out.
Speaker 5 (01:54):
Dallas based Southwest Airlines is not only a lead an
on time performance in safety, it tries to make flying fun.
You have to get to know the man behind the plane.
The chief executive officer, Burb Keller. I will bet you
one thing that I'm the only airline president in America
that would go over to his maintenance hanger at two
o'clock in the morning in a flowered hat with a
further boa and a purple dress.
Speaker 4 (02:14):
A shareholder stood up and said, mister Keller hair, now
that you have prostate cancer and you've not stopped smoking,
are you going to stopped smoking? And he said no,
because I don't smoke out of my ass.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
And I thought that was the greatest story.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
I worshiped burb.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
Kella hair at a kiss shoplifter was shot this afternoon
by the stores employees.
Speaker 5 (02:37):
The alleged shoplifter was also carrying a chainsaw.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
I saw attacked the store employee cheese.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
Shoplifter started hitting the employee.
Speaker 5 (02:45):
And please say, for some reason, he had a chainsaw
on him, like.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
I said, but it was not used in the confrontation.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
Why are you bothering the guy? Maybe he just walks
around with a chainsaw, but he didn't use it during
the fight.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
He didn't need to.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
He's about ten seconds for being able to carve. You See,
this is where I need demographics. I want to know
who brought a chainsaw into the family Dollar and started.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
Fighting and got shot.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
With the news that three hundred and forty four pounds
of meth were in the possession of illegal aliens who
had been deported multiple times with a murder at Colony
Ridge with federal raids and I'm hearing more on the way,
we thought it was a perfect time to share our
interview with the founder of Colony Ridge, Trey Harris. We
(03:32):
got a lot of national attention on this interview and
it turns out this week it's more relevant than ever.
Let's start with Greg Abbott putting Colony Ridge on the
call at the special I've never in my life, and
I've followed politics this long seen a residential development put
on a special session, certainly not by a governor who
(03:53):
had said they would only be why why is he
doing that?
Speaker 3 (03:56):
Good question? I don't have a good answer for that.
I wish I did, but I don't. You know, there's
a lot of developers that do the exact same thing
that we do. We're just better at it than most
of them. So we do more business than most people do.
We take better care of our customers, and our customers
(04:20):
a live show of our business comes from referrals, and
so the better we do it taking care of our
customers and treating them good, the more business, the better
our business does. And so that being in mind, we
do a lot more business than most developers do. But
(04:42):
why I wants to get on national television and beat
us up? I have no idea that just fored me?
Speaker 2 (04:49):
Was he a friend?
Speaker 1 (04:50):
I've even heard that that y'all had Thanksgiving dinner together
this past Thanksgiving?
Speaker 2 (04:56):
Is that true?
Speaker 3 (04:57):
Well, I don't know. About that. But yeah, I mean,
I've given him a million dollars and I really like
Abbot and I think he's good for Texas. I think
that decisions he's made historically of this, other than beating
up on me, I think his his decensions have been
good for the set of Texas. And I've always been
(05:18):
a fan of Abbot until recently.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
Of course, you've given him Trey Harris as our guest
Connie Ridge. You've given him just short of one point
five million obviously his public information in chunks of three
hundred thousand. That's a lot of money.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
Yeah, why and so, and there's nothing he can so
as the governor, there's nothing he can do for me.
My politics is on the county level, and so as
a governor, he can't do anything to help me in
my business. But at the same time, I live in Texas,
(05:56):
I work in Texas, everyone that I do business with
in Texas, and so Texas is important to me. Uh.
And I felt like Abbott was doing a great job
as a governor and he's making good decisions for the state,
and that meant a lot to me. And I wanted
to make sure he stayed in office because he was
good for Texas, and I'm all about Texas.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
And so did it surprise you he was that he
went on national Tea? Did he had he? Did he
give you any warning?
Speaker 3 (06:25):
Not a not a peep. I was not just surprised.
I was shocked. It was. I did not see that
coming at all. Were you angry, No, I wasn't angry.
I was just a little disappointed. I was just appointed
that he didn't reach out and say, hey, dude, what's
going on. You know, why is this uproar about your communities? Uh?
(06:49):
And I could have said, hey, send somebody out here.
If you can't make it yourself, send somebody out here
and let me show them what's going on so they
can bring it back to you and tell you what
fact is actually happening here. You are, I didn't get that.
I did not get that call.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
You are a It strikes me that you've given the
guy as much money as literally anybody in the state,
that that would have happened, and that maybe he has
changed his opinion with regard.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
To your affiliation. Yep.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
Seems so.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
You have given a lot of money Trey Harris, to politicians,
to the governor, most to Morgan Latrelle, which I guess
is the Congress. I know Morgan very well, but I mean,
I assume that's his district given a lot of checks
to him, the to Briscocine, the state rep. To Ernest
Beale's a lot of money, and that has drawn a
(07:44):
lot of attention from people who say that that suggests.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
An undue influence.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
I don't know that any other developer is giving that
kind of money to the people who would appear to
be regulating their development.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
Why do you do that, well, I would.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
I would combat that with saying I don't know of
any other development developer that doesn't give it at least
as much money as I do, or more to the
people that help them, that help them with their legislation
and development. And so if you say, well, trade, no,
I know all these other developers and they don't give
that kind of money away. I could, And you want
(08:23):
me to try to defend my give them money away?
I'm I feel very fortunate that I've been able to
run a business that's as profitable, profitable as it is,
and I feel very fortunate to be able to be
able to reach out to politicians that I feel are
doing good things for Texas and be able to help
(08:47):
them stay in office.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
I think based on a lot of emails, a lot
of phone calls, that illegal immigration being such a big
issue today, there is the perception which I'm going to
ask you to speak to, there is a perception that
our border's wide open and that creates a lot of problems,
and that this has kind of become a hub for
(09:10):
where do people go when they come into this country legally?
Somebody there's a profiteer at the back end, and you
have become the face of that.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
Right. So my rebuttal to that would be the guy
that comes across the border that doesn't have anything or
doesn't have He's not coming to me, He's going to
try to find the roof over his head, right. I
mean the guy that comes to me, he's buying a
piece of property and putting a down payment on a
(09:40):
piece of property and making months of payments on a
piece of property that he probably can't he probably doesn't
have the probably able to move onto that property or
use that property for we sell everything in pre development,
so when we sell a piece of property, it's probably
a year out before that piece of property can be utilized,
(10:00):
and so the guy coming across the border. He's not
looking for a long term investment. He's looking for a
roof of his head. And I don't have that. And
so the idea that I'm an attractant or a draw
for illegal aliens, it's just not well founded.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
There is a sort of ease of access into this property.
One of the issues that comes up a lot is
is that the is the deal, what the deal looks like?
Are these contracts for deed? Are these no?
Speaker 3 (10:39):
So we don't do contract for deed. We do a
noe deed. And to Streuss, just like you would do
for your mortgage at the bank for your home. No
contract for deeds, we don't do that. That's not a
healthy business, that business transaction in Texas these days.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
Kray, Can you hold with me for just a minute.
You told Ramona you'd stay as long as I would like.
I'm a very patients all right, hold on just a moment.
Trey Harris is the developer of Colony Ridge.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
Will continue our conversation with him coming up. Trey Harris
is our guest. He is the developer of Colony Ridge.
Tred d.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
If you're telling someone who you are and what you
do do you say Colinie Ridge, you say Terrenos.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
What how would you? How am I saying that?
Speaker 3 (11:31):
Yeah? Now you're you're right on your own point.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
Is terrenos or Terrenos the a name that is intended
obviously to an audience that may not be primarily English speaking.
Speaker 3 (11:45):
Correct, okay, Terennus's land in Spanish.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
I want to be clear that whether you own a
flea market or a Supermarcallo or a Madam Morris meat market,
that is not illegal. And some people may not like that,
but that is the reality. My interest is in compliance
(12:11):
with the law and fairness in that sense. So this
development is, as I understand, correct me if I'm wrong,
fifty five square miles thirty three thousand acres.
Speaker 3 (12:23):
I can vouch for the thirty three thousand, but I
can't vouch to the square miles because I never I
haven't done the mask.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
My understanding is that this started in twenty thirteen.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
That's when the.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
First lot was sold twenty eleven, twenty eleven, and the.
Speaker 3 (12:41):
First resident was twenty thirteen, okay.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
And that there are about forty thousand residents today, yes, sir,
And there that you project there will be about one
hundred thousand by the mid two thirties. Dan Patrick had
said that based on the numbers he got from, so
about one hundred thousand by the mid two thirties and
about two hundred thousand by the twenty forties.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
Yes, sir, which is a pretty explosive growth.
Speaker 3 (13:11):
Yes, sir.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
The thing that seems to bother people the most, I'll
just address them directly. The thing that bothers them most
is first that these are illegal aliens purchasing the homes,
and that you either know that and are complicit or
are looking the other way on purpose.
Speaker 3 (13:32):
So I'll be happy to address that. Number one. The
majority of our customers have valid usids, which means they
are not here illegally. So the idea that all of
our customers are illegal aliens is a fallacy and something
(13:54):
that our haters love to portray. And so the vast
majority of our customers are either citizens or have value
legal status here in the US.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
How do you know that?
Speaker 3 (14:10):
Relive? If someone has a Texas Driver's license, you note
that they're They can't get that if they're.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
Illegal, so they present a Texas Driver's license before the closing. Yes,
if you are, are you financing one hundred percent of
these loans. What percentage of the loans are you financing?
Speaker 3 (14:32):
Well, that's a good question. I don't know the exact percentage,
but it's certainly not one hundred percent. Of lot of
our customers they cash. Some of them do bank financing,
Not very many of them do bank financing because the
closing costs of the bank, they require an appraisal, survey.
Their closing costs are so expensive at the bank that
they're if someone wants to finance, they typically finance to
(14:53):
us because it's a better financing option than typically it's
better than the bank options that they get.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
While twelve percent may not be illegal under usery laws,
if that is the percentage that's that's higher than certainly
market rate. Is that what y'all are getting.
Speaker 3 (15:13):
Yeah, but if you go to the bank, so someone
the finances with us, their closing costs are about one
hundred dollars. If they go of the bank, the bank
don't charge the survey pricing costs. Their banks don't charge
them for a survey. They're gonna charge them for appraisal.
They're gonna charge them for uh dealt about four thousand
dollars or more in closing costs with the bank UH
(15:34):
and if they put that four thousand dollars down as
principal on and finance with US, typically that their payment
ends up lower with US than it does with the bank.
And so, because a landlan is not the same as
a mortgage on a home. If you're if you're you,
(15:57):
for example, and the electric bill comes due, and the
home note comes due, and your car note comes due,
or you're gonna pay your car. No, you're going to
pay your home home note, You're going to pay your
electricity bill, and if something gets short, it's your landote
because that's not necessarily something you have to pay. And so,
(16:20):
because that's a more volatile loan, the banks typically charge
a higher interest rate for those for a landland than
they would for a mortgage.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
Observers of the situation who have contacted me over the
last year have suggested that part of your business model
is a very low down payment to get somebody in
twelve percent interest rate, and that there is an incredibly
high repossession rate that you're taking back a lot of
(16:53):
these lots.
Speaker 3 (16:57):
So I'll trump's grown up for you if you can.
There is no money in a repossession or a foreclosure.
That's just an expense a lot of people. I've heard that.
I've heard it my entire life. Oh, well, you sell
it and you get the money, and then you turn
around that foreclosing turn resell it again. Well, that's the
(17:19):
furthest thing from the truth. The foreclosure. There's no money
in the foreclosure. You if you take and sell a
piece of land and your sales expenses let's just say
twenty percent, and you collect a five hundred dollars down
payment on a forty thousand dollars a lot, you're going
(17:39):
in the hole on the cell. And if you turn
around and have to have to bear the expense of
a foreclosure, and then you turn around bear the expense
of reselling that same piece of property, there's no money
in that. And so that is certainly not so. The
(18:01):
customer that we make money on the gal that comes
in and pay buy the lot and makes payments for
the next twenty years. That's the customer that we that
we make money off of. The guy that comes in
and puts a minimal down payment and we spend twenty
percent paying commissions to salespeople and advertising, and that guy
(18:26):
never makes a payment, then we have the expense of
foreclosing on that guy, and then we have to turn
around and put it up for sale and pay the
sales expense all over again. Uh, there's there's just no
money in that.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
Even if it's not an ideal business model, there are
a high number of foreclosures.
Speaker 3 (18:44):
Yeah, we we, so we look at it a little different.
But we from our perspective, we loan money to people
that no one else will loan money to. You want
loan money to, banks will loan money, No one wants money,
and we loan the money and they are about an
(19:04):
eighty percent success right there. That's what we say. That's
where we look at it.
Speaker 1 (19:09):
Trey hole with me for just a moment. Trey Harris
is our guest. He is the developer alone with his
brother of Colony Ridge.
Speaker 3 (19:17):
I'm not sure what your question was, mister Michael Berry.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
I lost the plot somewhere.
Speaker 3 (19:22):
You did? You did?
Speaker 1 (19:25):
Trey Harris is the developer along with his brother of
Colony Ridge, mostly in Liberty County, Trey. When people complain
about this development, there are three things that come up
a lot. Number one is that this is a cartel
(19:47):
hotbed that the cartels are operating out of this development, Yes, sir.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
Is that true?
Speaker 3 (19:57):
No, No, it's a furthest thing and the truth if
you look at the actual crime statistics of Liberty County,
there are we are one of our neighborhood in our
community is one of the lowest crime rates in the county.
Uh and uh you know so Uh that's you know,
(20:26):
the sheriff of the Liberty County, Barby Raider. He's a
good guy. I like him, but he is certainly a
politician and he will work every angle in the world
to try to get a bigger budget and to try
to get extra assets for his for his staff. He
(20:48):
hits me up for guns, for bull proofs, for cars, uh,
for everything and so uh And I don't blame him.
I mean he's he's looking out for his guys and
you can't you can't knock him for that. But he
will go to extremes to try to better his budget
(21:09):
if you will.
Speaker 1 (21:11):
Do you think that's why in your mind the crime
statistics have been exaggerated.
Speaker 3 (21:17):
Are the perception absolutely exaggerated? Yeah? No. The majority of
my customers come to us to get away from the
crime in Houston. I mean, that's that's one of the
big draws. One of the biggest draws, UH. And the
one of the reasons that we're so successful is because
Liberty County, the crime in Liberty County is the crime
(21:38):
rates in the Liberty County are so small compared to
the city of Houston. Uh. We have so many customers
that just come to us just to get away from
from the crime and the in the city of Houston.
Speaker 1 (21:53):
My understanding is that one of the criticisms has been
leveled at you is that you advertise this development in Mexico,
but that your response is that you only advertise here.
Speaker 2 (22:04):
Where do you market? How do people find you?
Speaker 3 (22:08):
We do not advertise anywhere outside of the US, and
that's fact. And the majority of our customers don't come
from our advertise that they come from referrals there. People
have already bought some instead are happy.
Speaker 1 (22:27):
There is I heard this from a number of folks
I talked to folks in law enforcement. There's not a
statistic or a report, but there is discussion of a
proliferation of drugs, and if there work cartels or criminal activity,
criminal organizations, then drugs is a vehicle for that. It's
it's it's an industry and that this is a drug hotbed.
Speaker 3 (22:53):
I would refute that. I think that's absolutely not sure
if you were going to act a look at statistics
of drug arrests in Liberty County and or, I mean,
everything that happens in Liberty County that's negative gets pushed
on us. The other In the not too recent path,
they had a two hundred acre pot farm get busted
(23:18):
and everyone through Colonie Ridge under the bus on that
that was an hour away from where are the closest
piece of property we own? That was an hour away,
But it was a Colonie Ridge deal just because it
happened in Liberty County. It absolutely nothing to do with us,
nothing to do with any of our customers. Like I said,
(23:40):
it was an hour away, just because it happened in
Liberty County. It's by default, it's it's Tray's fault, which is,
you know, ridiculous.
Speaker 1 (23:53):
Trey Harris is our guest developer of Cality Ridge. You
said that it's not one hundred percent of legal aliens,
that that is inaccurate number. What number would you guess
of home buyers are illegal aliens in Coliny Ridge?
Speaker 3 (24:07):
Yeah, So that's a that's a tough one to pull
the trigger on. But I would save just a less
than five percent.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
But it's not your policy to refuse to sell to
someone who's an illegal alien. And it's not your policy
to pursue knowing whether a person is in the country legally.
Speaker 3 (24:28):
That's against the law for me to discriminate against someone
if I knew they were illegal. I still don't under
the laws of Texas, I don't have the right say
I'm not selling to you because you're not here. Your
status here is not legal. I don't have the right
to do that.
Speaker 1 (24:45):
In Texas, the crime issue comes up a lot, and
you've sort of answered that. But one of the things
I hear is that more resources are needed. Obviously we
had the sheriff of Liberty County, but a number of
folks have pointed out that the state, after Abbott made
(25:05):
his big announcement, they put some more rangers on this,
they put some more dps on this. What level of
state resources are being are being directed at this development?
And was that necessary?
Speaker 3 (25:23):
So my take, I have noticed recently a higher number
of troopers in the development, which is nice. I think
the residents appreciate that. But we've got to remember that
(25:44):
the residents in the neighborhood spend a million dollars a
year for extra police protection. And so that in and
of itself says something about the community and what their
goals and what their goals are. And so if it
(26:06):
was a crime ridden, cartel run community, would those individuals
spend a million dollars with their own money to have
extra law enforcement in the community. And my answers to
that is absolutely not. But they do, in fact spend
a million dollars a year on extra police protection to
(26:28):
make the community safer.
Speaker 1 (26:30):
And that is through the vehicle of a homeowners association
or what correct, correct, And they pay dues into that.
That is not a payment you make, correct.
Speaker 3 (26:42):
So the homeowners association collects dues and they take that
money and they contract with Liberty County for ten officers
to the Sheriff's department and two officers to the Conspinels
Conspel's office.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
In your opinion, is there sufficient law enforcement in the area.
Speaker 3 (27:06):
I think it's, without a doubt, the safest area in
Liberty County without question.
Speaker 1 (27:16):
Interesting, I've got a break coming up in just a moment.
Let me ask you one more because I don't want
to have to cut you short. And not let you answer.
I've been told by law enforcement that the number is
about ninety percent of cars that are pulled over have
no Texas driver's license. Those folks will not go on
the record, So I say that and people can judge
for themselves. I hate giving an unsourced quote. What would
(27:39):
you respond to that, right?
Speaker 3 (27:41):
I would say, the people that buy from us, we
don't necessarily we don't have a good accurate we know
who we sell to, we don't know who lives on
the property, and we don't have any way to track that.
Speaker 2 (27:55):
Right.
Speaker 3 (27:55):
So if Joe buys the people and for me and
Sam lives on the property, I don't have any way
to figure that out, right.
Speaker 1 (28:05):
But that could that could create a straw man situation
if someone was buying to front for a person who
was who knows what. Trey Harris hole with me for
just a moment. Trey Harris, the developer of Colony Ridge.
He's our guests coming up.
I had somebody email me this week and make reference
to the use of this song in the movie, and
he said, you got to play that version.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Ever so often, and I thought, oh, you must be
new to the show.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
When we started with Old Happy Day, I didn't let
it play all the way out.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
It was designed to set the.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
Mood for a very positive Friday morning show, and people
would say, do you mind not not talking over it,
letting it finish? And I don't dare do it now
because I know it's important to me. Since we're on
the subject. I always talk about traditions. I always forget
(00:44):
the wee can review until too late in the opening
segment and have to push it back, and then I
get off my soul to get us started as we
always do, or at least.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Kind of say we always do it.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Sometimes forget courtesy of the great executive producer in all
the land, Chattaconi Nakanishi.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
Your week in reviews, yikes, I could use a distraction
right now, ladies and gentlemen, Mister Conway Twitty, I can.
Speaker 4 (01:13):
Know almost to the stillness as it you, to the sound.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Of your heart beating.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
Boom, what percent of women do you think we're attracted
to Conway, at least in part because his hair was
better than.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Their iglu is recalling more than a million rolling coolers
over concerns they could cause some serious finger injuries.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
In some cases, people's fingertips have actually been ambutent ambutated.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
How mean of those people? You think we're drunk when
they did that.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
I am surprised how many coolers tumblers are sold. If
you go to Academy, for instance, that area has it's
like a creep that area has crept out.
Speaker 5 (01:54):
Dallas based Southwest Airlines is not only a lead an
on time performance in safety, it tries to make flying fun.
You have to get to know the man behind the plane.
The chief executive officer, Burb Keller. I will bet you
one thing that I'm the only airline president in America
that would go over to his maintenance hanger at two
o'clock in the morning in a flowered hat with a
further boa and a purple dress.
Speaker 4 (02:14):
A shareholder stood up and said, mister Keller hair, now
that you have prostate cancer and you've not stopped smoking,
are you going to stopped smoking? And he said no,
because I don't smoke out of my ass.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
And I thought that was the greatest story.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
I worshiped burb.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
Kella hair at a kiss shoplifter was shot this afternoon
by the stores employees.
Speaker 5 (02:37):
The alleged shoplifter was also carrying a chainsaw.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
I saw attacked the store employee cheese.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
Shoplifter started hitting the employee.
Speaker 5 (02:45):
And please say, for some reason, he had a chainsaw
on him, like.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
I said, but it was not used in the confrontation.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
Why are you bothering the guy? Maybe he just walks
around with a chainsaw, but he didn't use it during
the fight.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
He didn't need to.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
He's about ten seconds for being able to carve. You See,
this is where I need demographics. I want to know
who brought a chainsaw into the family Dollar and started.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
Fighting and got shot.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
With the news that three hundred and forty four pounds
of meth were in the possession of illegal aliens who
had been deported multiple times with a murder at Colony
Ridge with federal raids and I'm hearing more on the way,
we thought it was a perfect time to share our
interview with the founder of Colony Ridge, Trey Harris. We
(03:32):
got a lot of national attention on this interview and
it turns out this week it's more relevant than ever.
Let's start with Greg Abbott putting Colony Ridge on the
call at the special I've never in my life, and
I've followed politics this long seen a residential development put
on a special session, certainly not by a governor who
(03:53):
had said they would only be why why is he
doing that?
Speaker 3 (03:56):
Good question? I don't have a good answer for that.
I wish I did, but I don't. You know, there's
a lot of developers that do the exact same thing
that we do. We're just better at it than most
of them. So we do more business than most people do.
We take better care of our customers, and our customers
(04:20):
a live show of our business comes from referrals, and
so the better we do it taking care of our
customers and treating them good, the more business, the better
our business does. And so that being in mind, we
do a lot more business than most developers do. But
(04:42):
why I wants to get on national television and beat
us up? I have no idea that just fored me?
Speaker 2 (04:49):
Was he a friend?
Speaker 1 (04:50):
I've even heard that that y'all had Thanksgiving dinner together
this past Thanksgiving?
Speaker 2 (04:56):
Is that true?
Speaker 3 (04:57):
Well, I don't know. About that. But yeah, I mean,
I've given him a million dollars and I really like
Abbot and I think he's good for Texas. I think
that decisions he's made historically of this, other than beating
up on me, I think his his decensions have been
good for the set of Texas. And I've always been
(05:18):
a fan of Abbot until recently.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
Of course, you've given him Trey Harris as our guest
Connie Ridge. You've given him just short of one point
five million obviously his public information in chunks of three
hundred thousand. That's a lot of money.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
Yeah, why and so, and there's nothing he can so
as the governor, there's nothing he can do for me.
My politics is on the county level, and so as
a governor, he can't do anything to help me in
my business. But at the same time, I live in Texas,
(05:56):
I work in Texas, everyone that I do business with
in Texas, and so Texas is important to me. Uh.
And I felt like Abbott was doing a great job
as a governor and he's making good decisions for the state,
and that meant a lot to me. And I wanted
to make sure he stayed in office because he was
good for Texas, and I'm all about Texas.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
And so did it surprise you he was that he
went on national Tea? Did he had he? Did he
give you any warning?
Speaker 3 (06:25):
Not a not a peep. I was not just surprised.
I was shocked. It was. I did not see that
coming at all. Were you angry, No, I wasn't angry.
I was just a little disappointed. I was just appointed
that he didn't reach out and say, hey, dude, what's
going on. You know, why is this uproar about your communities? Uh?
(06:49):
And I could have said, hey, send somebody out here.
If you can't make it yourself, send somebody out here
and let me show them what's going on so they
can bring it back to you and tell you what
fact is actually happening here. You are, I didn't get that.
I did not get that call.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
You are a It strikes me that you've given the
guy as much money as literally anybody in the state,
that that would have happened, and that maybe he has
changed his opinion with regard.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
To your affiliation. Yep.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
Seems so.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
You have given a lot of money Trey Harris, to politicians,
to the governor, most to Morgan Latrelle, which I guess
is the Congress. I know Morgan very well, but I mean,
I assume that's his district given a lot of checks
to him, the to Briscocine, the state rep. To Ernest
Beale's a lot of money, and that has drawn a
(07:44):
lot of attention from people who say that that suggests.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
An undue influence.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
I don't know that any other developer is giving that
kind of money to the people who would appear to
be regulating their development.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
Why do you do that, well, I would.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
I would combat that with saying I don't know of
any other development developer that doesn't give it at least
as much money as I do, or more to the
people that help them, that help them with their legislation
and development. And so if you say, well, trade, no,
I know all these other developers and they don't give
that kind of money away. I could, And you want
(08:23):
me to try to defend my give them money away?
I'm I feel very fortunate that I've been able to
run a business that's as profitable, profitable as it is,
and I feel very fortunate to be able to be
able to reach out to politicians that I feel are
doing good things for Texas and be able to help
(08:47):
them stay in office.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
I think based on a lot of emails, a lot
of phone calls, that illegal immigration being such a big
issue today, there is the perception which I'm going to
ask you to speak to, there is a perception that
our border's wide open and that creates a lot of problems,
and that this has kind of become a hub for
(09:10):
where do people go when they come into this country legally?
Somebody there's a profiteer at the back end, and you
have become the face of that.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
Right. So my rebuttal to that would be the guy
that comes across the border that doesn't have anything or
doesn't have He's not coming to me, He's going to
try to find the roof over his head, right. I
mean the guy that comes to me, he's buying a
piece of property and putting a down payment on a
(09:40):
piece of property and making months of payments on a
piece of property that he probably can't he probably doesn't
have the probably able to move onto that property or
use that property for we sell everything in pre development,
so when we sell a piece of property, it's probably
a year out before that piece of property can be utilized,
(10:00):
and so the guy coming across the border. He's not
looking for a long term investment. He's looking for a
roof of his head. And I don't have that. And
so the idea that I'm an attractant or a draw
for illegal aliens, it's just not well founded.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
There is a sort of ease of access into this property.
One of the issues that comes up a lot is
is that the is the deal, what the deal looks like?
Are these contracts for deed? Are these no?
Speaker 3 (10:39):
So we don't do contract for deed. We do a
noe deed. And to Streuss, just like you would do
for your mortgage at the bank for your home. No
contract for deeds, we don't do that. That's not a
healthy business, that business transaction in Texas these days.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
Kray, Can you hold with me for just a minute.
You told Ramona you'd stay as long as I would like.
I'm a very patients all right, hold on just a moment.
Trey Harris is the developer of Colony Ridge.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
Will continue our conversation with him coming up. Trey Harris
is our guest. He is the developer of Colony Ridge.
Tred d.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
If you're telling someone who you are and what you
do do you say Colinie Ridge, you say Terrenos.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
What how would you? How am I saying that?
Speaker 3 (11:31):
Yeah? Now you're you're right on your own point.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
Is terrenos or Terrenos the a name that is intended
obviously to an audience that may not be primarily English speaking.
Speaker 3 (11:45):
Correct, okay, Terennus's land in Spanish.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
I want to be clear that whether you own a
flea market or a Supermarcallo or a Madam Morris meat market,
that is not illegal. And some people may not like that,
but that is the reality. My interest is in compliance
(12:11):
with the law and fairness in that sense. So this
development is, as I understand, correct me if I'm wrong,
fifty five square miles thirty three thousand acres.
Speaker 3 (12:23):
I can vouch for the thirty three thousand, but I
can't vouch to the square miles because I never I
haven't done the mask.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
My understanding is that this started in twenty thirteen.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
That's when the.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
First lot was sold twenty eleven, twenty eleven, and the.
Speaker 3 (12:41):
First resident was twenty thirteen, okay.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
And that there are about forty thousand residents today, yes, sir,
And there that you project there will be about one
hundred thousand by the mid two thirties. Dan Patrick had
said that based on the numbers he got from, so
about one hundred thousand by the mid two thirties and
about two hundred thousand by the twenty forties.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
Yes, sir, which is a pretty explosive growth.
Speaker 3 (13:11):
Yes, sir.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
The thing that seems to bother people the most, I'll
just address them directly. The thing that bothers them most
is first that these are illegal aliens purchasing the homes,
and that you either know that and are complicit or
are looking the other way on purpose.
Speaker 3 (13:32):
So I'll be happy to address that. Number one. The
majority of our customers have valid usids, which means they
are not here illegally. So the idea that all of
our customers are illegal aliens is a fallacy and something
(13:54):
that our haters love to portray. And so the vast
majority of our customers are either citizens or have value
legal status here in the US.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
How do you know that?
Speaker 3 (14:10):
Relive? If someone has a Texas Driver's license, you note
that they're They can't get that if they're.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
Illegal, so they present a Texas Driver's license before the closing. Yes,
if you are, are you financing one hundred percent of
these loans. What percentage of the loans are you financing?
Speaker 3 (14:32):
Well, that's a good question. I don't know the exact percentage,
but it's certainly not one hundred percent. Of lot of
our customers they cash. Some of them do bank financing,
Not very many of them do bank financing because the
closing costs of the bank, they require an appraisal, survey.
Their closing costs are so expensive at the bank that
they're if someone wants to finance, they typically finance to
(14:53):
us because it's a better financing option than typically it's
better than the bank options that they get.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
While twelve percent may not be illegal under usery laws,
if that is the percentage that's that's higher than certainly
market rate. Is that what y'all are getting.
Speaker 3 (15:13):
Yeah, but if you go to the bank, so someone
the finances with us, their closing costs are about one
hundred dollars. If they go of the bank, the bank
don't charge the survey pricing costs. Their banks don't charge
them for a survey. They're gonna charge them for appraisal.
They're gonna charge them for uh dealt about four thousand
dollars or more in closing costs with the bank UH
(15:34):
and if they put that four thousand dollars down as
principal on and finance with US, typically that their payment
ends up lower with US than it does with the bank.
And so, because a landlan is not the same as
a mortgage on a home. If you're if you're you,
(15:57):
for example, and the electric bill comes due, and the
home note comes due, and your car note comes due,
or you're gonna pay your car. No, you're going to
pay your home home note, You're going to pay your
electricity bill, and if something gets short, it's your landote
because that's not necessarily something you have to pay. And so,
(16:20):
because that's a more volatile loan, the banks typically charge
a higher interest rate for those for a landland than
they would for a mortgage.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
Observers of the situation who have contacted me over the
last year have suggested that part of your business model
is a very low down payment to get somebody in
twelve percent interest rate, and that there is an incredibly
high repossession rate that you're taking back a lot of
(16:53):
these lots.
Speaker 3 (16:57):
So I'll trump's grown up for you if you can.
There is no money in a repossession or a foreclosure.
That's just an expense a lot of people. I've heard that.
I've heard it my entire life. Oh, well, you sell
it and you get the money, and then you turn
around that foreclosing turn resell it again. Well, that's the
(17:19):
furthest thing from the truth. The foreclosure. There's no money
in the foreclosure. You if you take and sell a
piece of land and your sales expenses let's just say
twenty percent, and you collect a five hundred dollars down
payment on a forty thousand dollars a lot, you're going
(17:39):
in the hole on the cell. And if you turn
around and have to have to bear the expense of
a foreclosure, and then you turn around bear the expense
of reselling that same piece of property, there's no money
in that. And so that is certainly not so. The
(18:01):
customer that we make money on the gal that comes
in and pay buy the lot and makes payments for
the next twenty years. That's the customer that we that
we make money off of. The guy that comes in
and puts a minimal down payment and we spend twenty
percent paying commissions to salespeople and advertising, and that guy
(18:26):
never makes a payment, then we have the expense of
foreclosing on that guy, and then we have to turn
around and put it up for sale and pay the
sales expense all over again. Uh, there's there's just no
money in that.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
Even if it's not an ideal business model, there are
a high number of foreclosures.
Speaker 3 (18:44):
Yeah, we we, so we look at it a little different.
But we from our perspective, we loan money to people
that no one else will loan money to. You want
loan money to, banks will loan money, No one wants money,
and we loan the money and they are about an
(19:04):
eighty percent success right there. That's what we say. That's
where we look at it.
Speaker 1 (19:09):
Trey hole with me for just a moment. Trey Harris
is our guest. He is the developer alone with his
brother of Colony Ridge.
Speaker 3 (19:17):
I'm not sure what your question was, mister Michael Berry.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
I lost the plot somewhere.
Speaker 3 (19:22):
You did? You did?
Speaker 1 (19:25):
Trey Harris is the developer along with his brother of
Colony Ridge, mostly in Liberty County, Trey. When people complain
about this development, there are three things that come up
a lot. Number one is that this is a cartel
(19:47):
hotbed that the cartels are operating out of this development, Yes, sir.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
Is that true?
Speaker 3 (19:57):
No, No, it's a furthest thing and the truth if
you look at the actual crime statistics of Liberty County,
there are we are one of our neighborhood in our
community is one of the lowest crime rates in the county.
Uh and uh you know so Uh that's you know,
(20:26):
the sheriff of the Liberty County, Barby Raider. He's a
good guy. I like him, but he is certainly a
politician and he will work every angle in the world
to try to get a bigger budget and to try
to get extra assets for his for his staff. He
(20:48):
hits me up for guns, for bull proofs, for cars, uh,
for everything and so uh And I don't blame him.
I mean he's he's looking out for his guys and
you can't you can't knock him for that. But he
will go to extremes to try to better his budget
(21:09):
if you will.
Speaker 1 (21:11):
Do you think that's why in your mind the crime
statistics have been exaggerated.
Speaker 3 (21:17):
Are the perception absolutely exaggerated? Yeah? No. The majority of
my customers come to us to get away from the
crime in Houston. I mean, that's that's one of the
big draws. One of the biggest draws, UH. And the
one of the reasons that we're so successful is because
Liberty County, the crime in Liberty County is the crime
(21:38):
rates in the Liberty County are so small compared to
the city of Houston. Uh. We have so many customers
that just come to us just to get away from
from the crime and the in the city of Houston.
Speaker 1 (21:53):
My understanding is that one of the criticisms has been
leveled at you is that you advertise this development in Mexico,
but that your response is that you only advertise here.
Speaker 2 (22:04):
Where do you market? How do people find you?
Speaker 3 (22:08):
We do not advertise anywhere outside of the US, and
that's fact. And the majority of our customers don't come
from our advertise that they come from referrals there. People
have already bought some instead are happy.
Speaker 1 (22:27):
There is I heard this from a number of folks
I talked to folks in law enforcement. There's not a
statistic or a report, but there is discussion of a
proliferation of drugs, and if there work cartels or criminal activity,
criminal organizations, then drugs is a vehicle for that. It's
it's it's an industry and that this is a drug hotbed.
Speaker 3 (22:53):
I would refute that. I think that's absolutely not sure
if you were going to act a look at statistics
of drug arrests in Liberty County and or, I mean,
everything that happens in Liberty County that's negative gets pushed
on us. The other In the not too recent path,
they had a two hundred acre pot farm get busted
(23:18):
and everyone through Colonie Ridge under the bus on that
that was an hour away from where are the closest
piece of property we own? That was an hour away,
But it was a Colonie Ridge deal just because it
happened in Liberty County. It absolutely nothing to do with us,
nothing to do with any of our customers. Like I said,
(23:40):
it was an hour away, just because it happened in
Liberty County. It's by default, it's it's Tray's fault, which is,
you know, ridiculous.
Speaker 1 (23:53):
Trey Harris is our guest developer of Cality Ridge. You
said that it's not one hundred percent of legal aliens,
that that is inaccurate number. What number would you guess
of home buyers are illegal aliens in Coliny Ridge?
Speaker 3 (24:07):
Yeah, So that's a that's a tough one to pull
the trigger on. But I would save just a less
than five percent.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
But it's not your policy to refuse to sell to
someone who's an illegal alien. And it's not your policy
to pursue knowing whether a person is in the country legally.
Speaker 3 (24:28):
That's against the law for me to discriminate against someone
if I knew they were illegal. I still don't under
the laws of Texas, I don't have the right say
I'm not selling to you because you're not here. Your
status here is not legal. I don't have the right
to do that.
Speaker 1 (24:45):
In Texas, the crime issue comes up a lot, and
you've sort of answered that. But one of the things
I hear is that more resources are needed. Obviously we
had the sheriff of Liberty County, but a number of
folks have pointed out that the state, after Abbott made
(25:05):
his big announcement, they put some more rangers on this,
they put some more dps on this. What level of
state resources are being are being directed at this development?
And was that necessary?
Speaker 3 (25:23):
So my take, I have noticed recently a higher number
of troopers in the development, which is nice. I think
the residents appreciate that. But we've got to remember that
(25:44):
the residents in the neighborhood spend a million dollars a
year for extra police protection. And so that in and
of itself says something about the community and what their
goals and what their goals are. And so if it
(26:06):
was a crime ridden, cartel run community, would those individuals
spend a million dollars with their own money to have
extra law enforcement in the community. And my answers to
that is absolutely not. But they do, in fact spend
a million dollars a year on extra police protection to
(26:28):
make the community safer.
Speaker 1 (26:30):
And that is through the vehicle of a homeowners association
or what correct, correct, And they pay dues into that.
That is not a payment you make, correct.
Speaker 3 (26:42):
So the homeowners association collects dues and they take that
money and they contract with Liberty County for ten officers
to the Sheriff's department and two officers to the Conspinels
Conspel's office.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
In your opinion, is there sufficient law enforcement in the area.
Speaker 3 (27:06):
I think it's, without a doubt, the safest area in
Liberty County without question.
Speaker 1 (27:16):
Interesting, I've got a break coming up in just a moment.
Let me ask you one more because I don't want
to have to cut you short. And not let you answer.
I've been told by law enforcement that the number is
about ninety percent of cars that are pulled over have
no Texas driver's license. Those folks will not go on
the record, So I say that and people can judge
for themselves. I hate giving an unsourced quote. What would
(27:39):
you respond to that, right?
Speaker 3 (27:41):
I would say, the people that buy from us, we
don't necessarily we don't have a good accurate we know
who we sell to, we don't know who lives on
the property, and we don't have any way to track that.
Speaker 2 (27:55):
Right.
Speaker 3 (27:55):
So if Joe buys the people and for me and
Sam lives on the property, I don't have any way
to figure that out, right.
Speaker 1 (28:05):
But that could that could create a straw man situation
if someone was buying to front for a person who
was who knows what. Trey Harris hole with me for
just a moment. Trey Harris, the developer of Colony Ridge.
He's our guests coming up.
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