Growing up in Appalachia, Tom always knew he wanted to be a businessman. For Tom, a career in business seemed like the only way to escape the generational poverty he saw all around him. As the son of a coal miner, Tom did not attend college but instead chose to work his way up the corporate ladder in sales and management. Before long, he realized he had developed a strong resume as a turnaround manager. Taking positions managing a company, store, or department that was not profitable and turning them profitable. After several of these positions, he acquired the skills and knowledge to go on his own and started his own financial services firm. After acquiring 18 state and federal licenses covering life and health insurance, property and casualty insurance, mortgages, and securities sales, Tom and his wife built a business by helping families plan and implement efficient finance and investing strategies to enable them to reach their goals.

In 2006 Tom and his wife decided to move their family and business from their small rural community in Ohio to the much larger market of Houston, TX. While this seemed like a fantastic opportunity, no one foresaw the financial crisis that crushed their business the following year. After losing everything they had worked for and saved, Tom decided to start a different type of business as a real estate professional. Starting with nothing, he acquired over 400 rental units in the next four years and has since bought and sold hundreds of houses and commercial properties.

In 2014 he partnered with Donald Sutton to Co-Found Investor Loan Source (ILS), and since that time, ILS has closed over 1,700 loans for just over $350,000,000 in loan volume. In 2018, Donald and Tom launched The ILS Funds to grow their loan volume and allow other passive investors to pool their money and take part in the private lending systems and the team they built. To date, the ILS funds have raised over $90,000,000 in investor capital and have produced solid returns throughout.

Tom and his wife of 20 years, Melissa, still reside in Texas and have four adult children and ten grandchildren. Some of their children and their spouses work in the family business. In his spare time, Tom is an avid hunter and loves to make memories with the family on his exotic game ranch in central Texas. He also has a passion for teaching others how to build wealth through real estate and strongly believes that teaching is the best way to set the next generation up for success. Mr. Berry is the former host of a popular radio show, The Real Estate Rush Hour, and continues traveling all over the country to speak at various conventions and mastermind groups, in addition to his duties as CEO of the ILS group of companies.