What does it really take to go from broke at 19 to building a real estate empire with over 80,000 units?
This week on the Exit Strategies Radio Show, host Corwyn J. Melette welcomes Patrick Carroll, founder of CARROLL, a powerhouse real estate investment firm managing tens of thousands of multifamily units across the Sunbelt. With no college degree, zero startup capital, and nothing but hustle, Patrick’s rise is a blueprint for strategic scaling, mindset mastery, and long-term wealth building.
In this candid conversation, Patrick opens up about how he built his empire from scratch—acquiring property management companies to scale faster, mastering syndication, and targeting 250–350 unit complexes to attract institutional investors. He also breaks down current market shifts, how rising interest rates are reshaping the rental landscape, and why early investing can change your life.
🔑 Key Takeaways:
- (4:00) Patrick’s first deal and transition into multifamily
- (6:00) Why multifamily beats other niches
- (10:08) The strategy shift that changed everything
- (14:45) Why investing early reshapes your future
- (19:28) Group investing and the legacy opportunity
- (21:08) Going “whole hog committed” vs. halfway in
- (22:26) Learn finance—access to capital is the real key
- (23:36) Stress and fear are signs you’re on the right track
This is more than a real estate conversation—it’s a roadmap to building wealth, owning your future, and doing the hard things that lead to greatness.
🎯 Final Thought:
“If your stomach hurts, you might be doing the right thing. If you’re sleeping like a baby, you’re not pushing hard enough.”
Connect with Patrick:
Connect with Corwyn:
- Contact Number: 843-619-3005
Shoutout to our Sponsor: ROBYN COLLINS
Do you want something more? More Meaningful Moments opportunities, deeper relationships and memorable experiences? Do you want to make a difference? If you say YES, a career and real estate could be the opportunity you’re looking for guiding people to one of the most important decisions they ever made, the purchase or sale of their home can be both rewarding and lucrative.
Exit Realty has a revolutionary compensation model training and technology that provides you with the tools you need to start and build your successful real estate career. Call me today ROBYN COLLINS with REDROBYN HOMES at 843-557-5003. Again that’s 843-557-5003 or visit RedRobynhomes.com/join.exit and make your Exit today.
Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/corwyn-j-melette/support
ROBYN:
Do you want something more? More meaningful moments, opportunities, deeper relationships, and memorable experiences? Do you want to make a difference? If you said yes, a career in real estate could be the opportunity you’re looking for. Guiding people through one of the most important decisions they ever made, the purchase or sale of their home can be both rewarding and lucrative. Exit Realty’s revolutionary compensation model, training, and technology that provides you with the tools you need to start and build your successful real estate career. Call me today, Robyn Collins, R – O – B – Y – N Collins with Red Robin Homes at 843-557-5003. Again, that’s 843-557-5003 or visit us at redrobinhomes.com/joinexit and make your exit today
CORWYN:
Good morning, good morning, and great morning to you guys. Welcome to another fabulous episode of Exit Strategies Radio Show. Hey, I am your host, Corwyn J. Melette, broker and owner of Exit Realty Low Country Group, and beautiful, beautiful North Charleston, South Carolina. If this is your first time listening to this show, hey, you are in for a treat because our mission here is very simple. It is to empower our community through financial literacy and real estate education. We’re legacy building, that’s what we do. We always tell you, all of our listeners, first, because we love you, but we tell all of you, when you’re doing those things to set your family up for a different outcome, not just for you, but for your children, children, so forth and so on, guys, we want you to put your hashtag on that says that you’re legacy building because that is what you are doing. So I always got to give a shout out to those who listen to us faithfully, those people we bump into in our comings and goings. I really appreciate you guys tuning in to the Q family that tunes in and listens, friends, cohorts, all those people that make it a point to say, hey, you know what? I want to pick up what you’re putting down. I really appreciate you. From Hollywood, what you know no good, all the way out to the monkey’s corner. Y’all know that’s where my mama live. I appreciate y’all. But my folks in Mullins, Mullins and Marion, hometown, the M&M, look here, we ain’t just getting it out the mud. We taking the mud and we turn it into buildings. And I need y’all on this path and on this journey with us. So today I am super duper excited. We bring the best, the brightest. Look here. We bring some amazing folks to this platform. And I’m super excited that I have with us today none other than Patrick Carroll. Now Patrick got a heck of a story. I’m gonna let him, I’m in this season of letting people tell their story. I’m gonna let people define and give their own narrative, but sometimes we don’t tell other people’s story. But I wanna give you that sneak peek, that little insight into who he is. He is not only the visionary, because look here, you gotta be able to cast a vision, but he is also the founder of a company, and I love this, Carroll. So he’s gonna share with us not only what we can endeavor for, but what we also can do today, which is get ourselves in line and in order so that we can share in wealth creation and change our family’s dynamic for generations to come. Patrick, thank you so much for being on the show with us today. Absolutely. Thanks for having me. So first and foremost, give our listeners, our level of view, who you are, who Carroll is, your company, and what it is that you guys do.
PATRICK:
Yeah, one, I’ve been extremely blessed, extremely fortunate. I started with no money. I grew up in Tampa, Florida, moved to Atlanta when I was 19 years old, bought a 100% financed condo and started flipping homes and things like that. Got into the multifamily business and developed a property, sold it early 2008, and then watched the market crash. And so in 2009, I bought three property management companies because I was going up to New York trying to raise a bunch of money and take advantage of the downturn. And everybody looked at me and said, look, you don’t have a college degree, you’re 27 years old, get the hell out of here. So I said, listen, what would it take to partner? What would it take for you to partner with me? And they said, look, we want to partner with fully integrated companies that do the property management, the asset management, the construction, and find the deals. And so that’s why I bought those property management companies. And from there on, it was a liftoff. I started raising a lot of money. I started attracting a lot of big Wall Street firms to back me. And I went on to buy 80,000 units all across the Sunbelt from Arizona up to South Carolina, North Carolina, really, down to Florida. And so it was perfect timing. Like I said, that’s why I say I’m so fortunate. I really started buying in 2010, sold off a lot, probably 60,000 units up till 2022. And then I sold my property management company in 2023. Yeah, it’s been a nice run.
CORWYN:
So you guys really focus on investment. Real estate investing is so broad. There’s niches, and there’s even corners. And if we want to put it in a streetscape, we got corners, we got cul-de-sac, we got codes, we got all these different places and things. So sometimes we look at it just as the main drag, if that makes sense. But it’s a very broad and got a lot of opportunities in certain little niche locales, if you will. So you guys now focus on what? What is where your company really dials in to do?
PATRICK:
Yeah, multifamily housing. Somebody told me a long time ago, they aren’t making any virtual events. And so you can compete online with retail. You got Amazon. You can compete with office buildings, with Zoom or whatever. But you really can’t create housing. So whether it’s single family homes or multifamily apartment complexes, that’s what we focus on. And really, it was just a scale thing. It’s easier for me to manage a 300-unit complex than a 20-unit complex, just because I can spread my expenses across 300 units. But I started out one home at a time. I’d buy a house and renovate it, either sell it or rent it. That’s how I tell everybody. If they want to get into the real estate business, that, in my opinion, is the best way. Not only because I did that, but if you look at other commercial properties or whatever, they’re a lot riskier and they require a lot more capital.
CORWYN:
It makes perfect sense. Something you touched on. Some of our listeners are early investors. Some are latter investors. Our listenership, again, expands the globe. I’m always humbled by that. But managing is scaling. That’s what you’re talking about, is scaling up to a greater density in a single locale. That cuts down all your expenses. Now, if you have staff, which that many units, you got staff, but they’re in one locale. Essentially and effectively, they’re doing the work that covers the entire property. If you had to send someone to do whatever at all the units, let’s say that you outsource the mechanical and in turn send somebody, instead of having to send them to 300 different locations, you’re sending them to one. That’s a huge cost savings. Kudos to you on that. Let’s talk about what does that market look like, that space like, and where do you see it going here? Because people are different. People are different. Where do you see this particular space going in multifamily and large-scale development? Because one other thing, Patrick, before you answer that, if you could define this, because what I’m hearing is your minimum for a site that you’ll consider, my assumption is based upon something you said, is no less than 250, 300 units. There’s probably a cap, I imagine, that you take in a single site.
PATRICK:
Yeah. I’ve done up to a 1,500-unit complex, but it’s not that… Your efficiencies cap out at a certain size. What I was always trying to do is buy properties that I knew an end user… I knew another buyer would want. I was… These institutions, these big banks on Wall Street really wanted properties in the 250 to 350 range. So that’s what I focused on, just because I wanted to have a buyer behind me. Starting out, I think it’s a different story. If you can get something in 10 to 20 units, that’s more manageable. Instead of selling to a Wall Street firm, you’re likely selling to another up-and-coming investor, things like that. I think different brackets are different parts in your career. I think you can look at different sizes. I would just always look at who is my end buyer, unless I plan on… The way to make money in these, in multifamily or anything, is you can either sell it or you can grow… You can increase the value and refinance, pull out your profits. So really, it’s two different strategies. One is to hold longer term, and the other one is to book a profit and go on down the road. Where I’ve seen the market is, unfortunately, where interest rates are, it’s very difficult for people to buy a house to live in. It’s keeping people renting longer, whether it’s a single family home or multifamily home. So it’s good for that business. It’s good for keeping people renting, and it’s not so good for people buying new homes.
CORWYN:
It makes perfect sense. On occasion, because we understand that the market is always ebbing and flowing, which you know. So we do have that conversation about where rates are and projections and the impacts and all that stuff here on the show. So thank you so much for touching on that, because that does, unfortunately, keep some people at times, or fortunately, unfortunately, according to what seat you’re in, keep them in a rental situation or scenario. For the investors that you guys have in your company, again, what I’m hearing is, and correct me if I’m wrong, Patrick, you guys take additional investors on, and you guys syndicate and pull the deal together. Does that sound about right? Yes.
PATRICK:
Historically, we’ve raised a lot of money on Wall Street. So either I find a deal, and then I go partner with one of these big banks, or I raise discretionary funds. So I go out and get pre-commitments, $100 million from 10 different big investors. And as I do deals, I pick up the phone and say, okay, I need your capital, your pre-committed capital. So that’s how we’ve done it typically.
CORWYN:
Okay. Okay. I get it. I get it. So essentially, you’re lining up, it’s almost like establishing multiple lines of credit and say, okay, you’re going to do this, you can do this, so forth and so on. And when it’s time, you, okay, hey, I need you to send me this, and it’s time for us to make this investment. That is awesome. So one of the questions that I have, your investors like now or today, obviously, we’re again, going back to something we just talked about, we’re in a higher rate market. These types of investments now, are you still seeing investors flock to, or are you seeing a trend that indicates something different?
PATRICK:
Good question. Everybody’s still interested, but it’s very hard to make the numbers work. A lot of the investing I was doing was in a very low interest rate environment. So right now you’ve got to, instead of just riding those low interest rates, you’ve got to come in and really create a lot of value. And so I’d say investors are very interested, but they’re scrutinizing the numbers more. So they’re really paying attention to how are you going to create value? How are you going to come in there and take the rents from a hundred dollars a month to $200 a month? And are you going to do that through speculating, or can you point to your actual improvements in the property, things like that? So there’s definitely interest, but you just got to know your stuff and be able to create value that you can point to.
CORWYN:
So you guys as a firm have managed, or at one time have managed up to how many units? Roughly 90,000? 80,000. 80,000. Wow. So my imagination tells me, and Patrick, please correct me if I’m wrong. So just for a degree of reference, we’ve had nearly every segment, if you will. Well, well, nearly a lot of the various segments on our show over the years, all the cul-de-sacs and the coves and all that stuff, so to speak. And one thing that we have had a couple of times, we talk about the difference between storage, which doesn’t have toilets, and obviously apartments got toilets. So that means you got the people in the place versus the people’s stuff in the place. So what is, I imagine that you have a tremendous amount of, okay, I don’t want to do this ever again. I never want this experience again. What can we change to make sure we don’t have to relive this over and over again? So give our listeners kind of some insight into some of the experiences you guys have had as you guys were taking on new acquisitions. And moreover, as you guys have worked to stabilize them, what does that look like? Like where are your pinch points, your hard-pressed challenges that you’re running into?
PATRICK:
Be very careful who you rent to. I think we’ve taken on some properties before that we knew had a tricky renter base, whether it was bad credit tenants or something like that. And you think you can fix it, right? You think you can come in there and change the profile, the residence, things like that, but very difficult. Same with, even if you have a single family home, if you’re really, I remember when I started out, you sit on that house for a month or two and you want that income come in. And if someone comes in and they’ve got bad credit and things like that, especially if they’ve broken leases and things like, it’s painful to have the wrong type of resident in there because it takes a while to get them out and they can really slow you down. So I think those are some mistakes we’ve made. It looks good on paper, but you go, okay, we got high occupancy, things like that, but people don’t pay their rent, it hurts. I’d say that. And then you talk about location, it’s location. That’s the three rules of real estate investing, location. You can’t fix location. You could fix anything else. You could fix a roof. You can fix the exterior, the interior, everything like that.
CORWYN:
You can’t fix the location. So you guys in your management of assets, you guys have, I imagine, and for our listeners, sometimes you may hear a reference of a class of property. So my imagination says that most of your properties are either class A, no lower than maybe class B properties. What is a differentiator, if you will, or the differentiators between those A’s and maybe a C class or maybe less property? What are the things that you just literally say, okay, yeah, that is going to be no.
PATRICK:
Good question. It’s age. So most of our properties, I think, average early 2000s. You’re right. We do own A and B properties. I think a lot of people started out by C properties because they think it looks cheap. If it’s cheap, it’s usually cheap for a reason. But yeah, they’re definitely older properties and there’s a lot of functional obsolescence. If all the newer properties have nine foot ceilings, higher ceilings, these have seven or eight foot ceilings. So you come in, that’s another thing you can’t fix. The ceiling height. So it just makes it feel more cramped, things like that. So functional obsolescence like low ceilings, just weird, flat ceilings, things like that. And they’re usually in the wrong part of town. They’re usually not. We look for good school districts. We look for good access to retail, things like that. So C properties are likely in a part of town that used to be a good part of town, but the things have gone the other way. And now they’re not the best part of town. I think it’s age, property quality, product quality, and just location.
CORWYN:
I had an experience doing or working on a project with an investor who purchased us. Matter of fact, I wouldn’t even call this property a C class property. It was probably a little bit less than that. So I know exactly what you’re talking about. The pain of, yeah, I know the pain points, man. Look here, I’m sorry. I’m about to have a flashback. Might even start having heart palpitations over here because that’s not what you want. So for our listeners, we look at sometimes those opportunities, Patrick, I’m pretty sure you would echo this and feel free to echo this. Sometimes we look at it as low hanging fruit, but really it’s rotten fruit. It’s on the ground already. That sounds about right. Sounds about right. Tell our listeners, like your average, like you said, you partner with a lot of banks you may mention up. So are there any either, my assumption also is maybe some hedge funds or otherwise mutual funds that are pooling money and investing, but by chance, are you working with any private investors? And if so, what does that look like? And who’s your ideal investor, man? That’s probably a better question.
PATRICK:
Yeah, it’s interesting. I had a meeting this morning. It’s more starting to look like you raise money, like you see people raising money online, right? And so the way I’ve done it in the past is like the old way of doing it, where you go and it’s cornered, it’s like you said, it’s hedge funds, it’s banks, it’s private equity funds, but there’s such a big market of people that watch your show, watch people online, things like that, and want access to these types of investments. So I think ideally might be in the future to tap into the hundreds of millions of people that are interested in it, that typically only had access to what Wall Street was selling them. That and I think just people that align with you from a morality standpoint, from a business mind, things like that. You’ve certainly don’t want to, you’ve got to pick your partners carefully. So you definitely don’t want to get into a deal and realize you have different values and different things like that, because it’s very, a partnership’s like a marriage. So it’s very careful. You got to be very careful with that.
CORWYN:
That is very true. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. So let me ask you this one, which would be along the vein of, some of our listeners are again, novice beginners. Some are full fledged, full blown, like they’re down the road. As far as investing, but what do you perceive or see as, what insights could you give? Let’s frame it that way, as it relates to what someone could do by investing in real estate as a whole, but let alone by being a part of an investment or group of this of your scale, meaning where’s the opportunity for them to create and build a legacy financially from this?
PATRICK:
Yeah. And a whole adage, the old saying, Hey, if I can do it, you can do it. It’s true. And it’s, I think it’s just having that mindset and thinking big, if that’s what you want, there’s ways to get it at different things. It’s certainly an avenue you can go down if you want to create financial freedom and not have to be forced to do with a nine to five and things like that. A lot of stress comes with it, but it is nice having that control. And really you can get as big as you want. Like I said, I got pretty big and you mentioned employees, a lot comes with it. I had a thousand employees at one time and that’s a lot of stress. It’s a lot of managing and we’re a private company. So I looked at everybody like family and it’s just, that’s a stressor. So I think it’s taking a step back and visualizing your perfect life and your perfect setup and using real estate to get there.
CORWYN:
One of the things that I talk about with people, with staff is, and you touched on this just now, it’s not always about, it’s not just about the profit. It’s about the people. We put the people for the profit. So it is hard because you’ve got staff that, we have some staff that’s probably performing incredibly well. Then you have a section that’s just average. And then you have another section that’s probably isn’t. And you want to encourage all of them along while appreciating the ones that are, they’re fully invested. I use this adage, Patrick, about being whole hog committed. I talk about at breakfast time, the chicken, all they did was contribute. They gave an egg, but the hog had to give an appendage. They had to be fully committed to what was going to happen on that plate. You got your ones that’s whole hog committed and the ones who, and the rest of them or some of the others are chickens. So, you know, you don’t want no chickens. You want whole hogs. Yeah. Yeah. You don’t, yeah. You don’t make sausage. You don’t make sausage with eggs. You don’t, you got to have actual full commitment in that sausage. Yeah. Patrick, we’re quickly getting to the end of the day show. So first of all, I want to make sure that our listeners get your contact information. So how can they reach you? How can they tap in, dial in to get more information about what you and your company are doing and otherwise connect with you?
PATRICK:
Yeah. On Instagram, it’s just Patrick Carroll spelled out. P-A-T-R-I-C-K C-A-R-R-O-L-L. Just that’s my name. That’s my Instagram handle. And then really that’s it. I’m not selling anything. Just giving out free advice and free advice is usually what it’s worth.
CORWYN:
Your advice got some value to it. So while we may call it free, that does not deter, lessen or otherwise diminish its value. So Patrick, this one is an old adage, the hindsight question. What is it that you would have, if you knew what you know now, and I know you’ve learned an incredible amount of lessons over your years of real estate investing. For someone who’s, let’s go to the beginner, to novice. So that range there, they’re either just thinking about it maybe on their first property and they are scared to death. The lesson that you’ve learned in hindsight, what would you tell them today on what to do and in turn, what to focus on getting done?
PATRICK:
Learn finance. Even if you don’t, I didn’t go to college, but somebody told me the most successful real estate person is going to be the person that understands how to finance deals and raise the money and find the money. And I was lucky when I started, you could get a hundred percent mortgages, but now it’s a different game. So you got to figure that out. And so having access to capital, whether it’s through mortgages or rich uncles or the guy down the street, I think you got to try to figure that out. And then also just when you get scared, when you get nervous, when you’re worried, everybody’s like that. Don’t think it’s just, I think I worried so much and period. And that worry is that fuel you need. You weren’t worried, you’re not doing it. You don’t have that fire in your belly. So that worry is what gets you up in the morning and gets you going.
CORWYN:
So my man. So what I heard you say is if you look here, if your stomach hurt, then you might be doing the right thing. If you’re sleeping like a baby, you’re not pushing hard enough. I love it. I love it. So Patrick, my man, thank you so much for being on with us today. Thank you for being a part of the exit strategy radio show family. I really appreciate you taking time out of your busy schedule to be on with us today. Yes, sir. Have a good day. All right. So for our listeners, guys, look, this is it. This is the end of today’s show. I want you to take this information and I want you to apply. I want you to tell somebody about it and I want you to have them tune in and be a part of what we’re doing on next week. Guys, you know how I feel and what I say. You know, I always put the two of those things together and I give it to you this way, which is to tell you that I love you. I love you. And we’re going to see you guys out there in those streets.
