About Us

Hamilton Darnall, LLC grew out of a property investment partnership in 2006 and has taken on new dimensions as our story has unfolded.  This strategic partnership was designed to provide resilience characterized by mentoring, synergism, and finances. Mentoring allowed for the gradual transfer of over 40 years of property experience allowing less experienced partners to acquire knowledge, and hands on experience in the field. Each partner contributed unique skills the others did not have. By combining talents our efforts became synergistic. Lastly, we set up a financial structure that could withstand challenges which proved very helpful in 2008 when the housing market crashed. The journey began with the goal of finding a house on property that could be subdivided. We were looking for a house in need of major remodeling. That proved to be an understatement. The more we dismantled, the more convinced we became that the house had to go. In fact only some posts on the porch and part of the foundation remained.

One partner drew up plans and was the operations manager, another scheduled contractors and was the office manager, the third managed insurance requirements and documented safety concerns through the resolution process and the fourth functioned as general contractor. And all of us got our hands dirty on a regular basis. Once the original project was completed we took a deep breath and decided to develop the property.

There were various building options, but we settled on building row houses. Our informal motto was “we build houses that are better than average”.  In fact, we recognized many people desired to live in a very nice home, but simply couldn’t afford the price. We agreed that our niche would be to focus on modest sized one level houses with solid construction, above average finish work and very nice amenities. All have large kitchens with solid maple cabinets and granite counter tops, gas fireplaces, high quality tile work and come furnished with all appliances including washers and dryers. Our signature house has an 8x32 foot covered front porch. The others have sliding glass doors and a deck. Though fully landscape, each property also has well defined spaces for vegetables, flowers or small shrubs.

Since completing the project, we have rented and leased houses. We brag that “we have the best tenants in the world”. This did not happen by accident. Our core values include excellent landlord-tenant relations.  We communicate and show respect for neighbors and the neighborhood association. Our expectations are high and as a result our tenants tell us we are the best landlords they’ve ever had.  One of our tenants wrote us an unsolicited letter of recommendation commending us for our caring approach and commitment to excellent living conditions. With such a great tenant population our properties require little of our time leaving us free to expand on a new adventure.

Since 2009 one of our team members embarked on a rigorous course of education and training which has opened up opportunities to provide project and organizational support. Having acquired the skills, relationships and seeing such positive results, we decided that helping businesses and organizations improve their capacity to serve others was the right decision.

Our combined talents are an asset to any small business or organization. They include growing up knowing how to run the family business, followed by 25 years teaching in the inner city, and teaching abroad; 40 years as a machinist and serving abroad on diverse projects in over twenty countries; over twenty years nonprofit and for profit experience; professional work in a medical setting, fundraising, grant writing, special projects and organizational consulting combined with post-masters training in emergency management and watershed management; 6 years in an industrial setting, followed by over 30 years as a government employee. He is now enjoying retirement. Our broad interests range from organizational consulting to evaluation and improvement to curricula design, workshops, networking, resource sharing, group facilitation, and public speaking. Our team has two avid researchers. We have over 150 years of combined gardening experience and have interests in permaculture, and general sustainability topics.

Since we are a small company with a three year strategic plan for this new adventure, we will slowly build up this aspect of operations. Our focus will be on quality rather than quantity. We look forward to new opportunities for networking and working with community partners as our business grows.

We are also evaluating the need to restructure our business as one partner is now fully retired.