Forbes magazine has released a video interview of Roy Carroll, the president and CEO of The Carroll Companies, which owns this publication.

The video, “How A College Dropout Built A $2.9 Billion Real Estate Empire,” can be viewed here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPae0k6VeZc .

Along with the title, the intro of the video reads, “Based in Greensboro, North Carolina The Carroll Companies have over $5.2 billion in real estate assets including more than 13,000 apartments and 29 self-storage facilities.”

Although Carroll is pretty well known in the community, viewers of the video, which was shot in Carroll’s home in Center Pointe in downtown Greensboro, may learn a few things about Carroll they didn’t know.

One that should not be too surprising is that Carroll made a profit on his very first real estate investment, when he was still in high school.

Carroll said that, by doing odd jobs and such, he’d saved a thousand dollars and his father gave him the opportunity to buy a rental house.  He said that he put $1,000 down on a $5,000 house. Carroll said, “So I rented it for a year and sold it for a profit to buy a car, which is a bad investment because cars depreciate in value. I should have kept that house.”

Carroll talks about how he went into business with his father, building their first house as contractors while he was in college.  He said, “He and I did a lot of the work hands on.  I when I say, ‘did the work,’ we nailed the nails and swept the floors and did things like that.”

Carroll said it was after building a second home that he and his father decided that they just might be able to make a living building houses and started the company that has grown into The Carroll Companies.

Carroll talks about starting new ventures such as Bee Safe Storage and Wine Cellar and says, “We like to try it out in our backyard, tweak it a little big and get it right before we take it out on the road.”

The video ends with Carroll talking about his hometown and how much it has meant to him and his family. He says, “Greensboro is a beautiful place, a great place to live and a great place to grow up. I’m real blessed to be here.”

 

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