LANE YATES
Chairman and President
Yates Development LLC

Lane Yates grew up in small town USA and was not born with a silver spoon in his mouth; in fact, he has more likely shared a spoon with his three sisters and older brother. Lane's dad was a master craftsman and his mom worked in a textile mill to supplement their modest income, at times it was a financial challenge for his loving parents to provide for a family of five kids. Lane realized these challenges and accredits his childhood experiences as one of the inner forces that drove him in desiring financial success.

At an early age, Lane strived to get ahead; he worked in tomato fields and in construction while in school and during his summer breaks, he saved his first few earned dollars and bought his first clunker car. He vividly recalls the sweat and salt burning his eyes, and the pain he often endured from his sunburned lips, back and neck as if it was yesterday. As he was standing in the middle of a field wiping the sweat off his face, it was at that exact moment that he realized that in order for him to succeed financially he would have to re-engineer his thinking altogether.

Lane knew he needed to expand his education and broaden his life experiences; he needed money to attend college, and wanted to travel the world, so he enlisted in the U.S. military. He served 3-years as an 11 Bravo infantryman, M-60 machine gunner, was a U.S. Paratrooper and was assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division. After his honorable discharge, Lane moved to Charlotte North Carolina, began working two part time jobs, enrolled in college and earned a Civil Engineering Degree. Although his education was a great accomplishment, he soon realized that all he had to look forward to was a 9 to 5 JOB. "After one year of employment, I knew that I was nothing more than a bird in someone else's cage, I knew that somehow, I had to break free and get to higher grounds if I wanted to achieve financial wealth".

Lane left the company after one year of employment then purchased a couple dilapidated rental homes; he renovated the homes and secured his first round of tenants. Stepping into real-estate at an early age and having virtually no income was a bit challenging. On the side, Lane, then began selling consumer electronic products door-to-door as an extra source of income. His part time business ended up becoming a major success, along the way he recruited close friends and entrepreneurs to market his products and within a few years he expanded worldwide. For several years Lane was jet-setting to Canada, Europe, and across the U.S. teaching entrepreneurs how to market and sale high tech electronic gadgets (similar to those of sharper image products). His ability to teach and lead others played a key role in driving up the sales volume of the O.E.M (original equipment manufacture) from 6-million to 25-million dollars per month.

Lane expanded his business into Europe, he moved to Paris France in one of the highest cost districts within the city. He had an impressive office located on Faubourg Saint Honore and was growing his business with all the right people. Lane had built a substantial residual income, and was enjoying life to the fullest and was beginning to realize the potential of an early retirement. To Lane’s great surprise, the Hong Kong Company supplying his product began facing political challenges with China as it came back into rule, following a call from his supplier, his success ended in a flash.

He moved back to the U.S. and picked back up with the two homes he had purchased a few years before, and appreciated the rent that was still coming in each month. Realizing the residual from the homes, he decided to get back to pursuing real estate as his full time career. To crystallize his approach, Lane began a plan of action, started reading lots of books, subscribed to virtually all major newspapers, and magazines, listened to countless presentations, and motivational materials and studied the backgrounds of the "Ultra Wealthy". Lane came to the realization that the "Ultra Wealthy" shared many things in common; work ethics, attitudes, investment disciplines and most of all owned lots of real estate. He began studying feverishly virtually all facets of the real estate industry, as well as sought personal knowledge, advice and techniques used by some of the most successful real estate investors and developers around the world.

In 1994, Lane formed Yates Development and put his knowledge to the test. With very limited funds, but lots of confidence, he began his new career as a real estate investor and developer. For the next several years he invested in tracts of land, homes, historic buildings, retail stores, restaurants, multi-tenant office buildings and commercial projects. Each investment gave him a new perspective and broadened his knowledge and appreciation for the complexities of real estate.

Yates has learned first-hand unique investment concepts and has fined tuned his skills and financial strategies. He has learned creative ways to market, sell, lease and negotiate properties. He knows how to predict real estate cycles, buying trends, and knows how to forecast and identify winning locations. Simply put, he has learned a great deal about the real estate industry by being on the front line of many deals and transactions. What he has learned in the past decade would take most others a lifetime. His passion, knowledge and understanding have paid off tremendously; he now owns several million dollars in real estate assets and is creating development projects that will fill the supply and demand of the 21st century, he is on the path to become a real-estate tycoon.