Sterling Chapman
Sterling Chapman has been a guest on Collecting Keys, the real estate investing podcast hosted by Mike DeHaan, Dan Austin and Dylan Koch.
Building Multiple 7 Figure Businesses While Still Having a W2 With Sterling Chapman
Sterling Chapman joins Mike and Dan to explain how he built a rental portfolio (~70 units), a flipping operation, and an apartment syndication business while keeping a six-figure telecom W2 job. He walks through his first BRRRR partnership, the tradeoffs of buying older properties on seller financing, why 'door count' is a vanity metric in the syndication world, and how he splits roles with partners so he only handles deal flow and capital raising.
Key takeaways
- Chapman's first big deal used a partner's investors and experience: two side-by-side duplexes bought for $190K, $60K in rehab, appraised at $390K, refinanced, $50K paid to the partner, and about $78K in equity plus cash flow left for him.
- Seller financing with little or nothing down still carries a bill later — he bought 80-year-old duplexes and fourplexes in 2019 with no money down and spent roughly $150K on deferred maintenance in 2022.
- Seller financing often appeals most to the seller: his 70-year-old seller got a premium price, guaranteed 6% income, and a stretched-out tax burden without doing more work.
- Door count is a misleading metric — Chapman says people claim hundreds of units while holding tiny equity positions, and his equity in a 54-unit was five times his equity in a 350-unit.