Roy Carroll has made a fortune buying low and rarely selling. His sweet spot: cheap land that he’s turned into lucrative apartment complexes across the Southeast.
a monthly outdoor barbecue in a parking lot in downtown Greensboro, North Carolina, roughly 80 employees of the Carroll Companies gather around a plastic table piled with trays of hush puppies, mac and cheese and gallon jugs of sweet tea. Clad in khakis, a striped polo and an Apple watch, Roy E. Carroll II blends right in, loading a paper plate with pulled pork and roast chicken.
Since selling that first house back in 1976, he has sold only two apartment buildings, both in South Carolina. That plus the fact that he has never brought in any outside investors and has kept debt levels relatively low—about 40%—means he can move quickly when opportunity strikes. That’s what he did in the wake of the housing crash in 2009, when he chartered a helicopter with a broker in Raleigh and bought four properties on the spot. And it’s what he hopes to do again.
But he isn’t fazed. To prepare for the bust, Carroll isn’t planning to cash out on his properties—"we don't sell," he reiterates—but he has been pausing new investment and construction, keeping money available so he’s ready to buy if prices come down. It didn’t work. School was still too expensive, so Carroll returned home to study at the University of North Carolina in Greensboro. Then he dropped out, taking classes at the local community college to study for his real estate broker's license instead. At the same time, his father was still unemployed and had been asked by some family friends to oversee the construction of their new home.
Carroll set about buying land in North Carolina, dividing it into lots and building starter homes. The business model stayed the same, with most profits going back into the company. But by the late 1990s, Carroll decided he wanted to generate steady income rather than live off of home sales—so he moved into more profitable apartment buildings.
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