We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Elaine Stageberg. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Elaine below.

Alright, Elaine thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Often outsiders look at a successful business and think it became a success overnight. Even media and especially movies love to gloss over nitty, gritty details that went into that middle phase of your business – after you started but before you got to where you are today. In our experience, overnight success is usually the result of years of hard work laying the foundation for success, but unfortunately, it’s exactly this part of the story that most of the media ignores. Can you talk to us about your scaling up story – what are some of the nitty, gritty details folks should know about?

Scaling Black Swan Real Estate: The Real Story Behind Our Growth
People love to talk about overnight success, but in my experience, true success is built brick by brick, through years of intentional effort, strategic risk-taking, and a relentless focus on delivering value. Black Swan Real Estate is no exception. Today, we manage a portfolio of over 1,350 doors and $330 million in assets under management, but the journey from our first rental property to a vertically integrated, institutional-grade real estate firm was anything but instant.

The Early Days: Laying the Foundation
My husband, Nick, and I started in real estate the way many do—through sheer hustle. We both had demanding careers (him in tech, me in medicine), and real estate investing began as a side pursuit. Our first properties were single-family rentals, and we quickly realized that to scale, we needed systems, not just hard work. Nick and I had built a few start-ups before our real estate endeavors, and we quickly applied those business lessons to real estate to ramp up our scale as quickly as possible.

For years, we reinvested everything, living well below our means so that every dollar could go back into acquiring even more properties. We built sweat equity, doing renovations ourselves and self-managing our growing portfolio. We also educated ourselves constantly—devouring books, attending conferences, and networking with other investors. We knew that real estate was local, so we became experts in our market, understanding everything from resident preferences to the nuances of city planning and zoning laws.

The Leap to Multifamily and Scaling Up
The key to exponential growth lay in larger assets—apartment complexes and multifamily properties. Our first multifamily acquisition was a test of everything we had learned up to that point. It required creative financing, operational efficiency, and a deep understanding of how to add value at scale. In order to scale at that level, we had to bring investors into the company and so we first started with offering joint ventures and then we eventually launched our first private equity fund!

We realized early on that in order to truly scale, we needed control. That led us to vertically integrate—building an in-house property management company and construction team so that we could directly influence the quality of operations and renovations. This allowed us to push net operating income higher and create significant value for investors while maintaining a hands-on, high-touch approach.

Key Strategies That Helped Us Scale
Sweat Equity & Reinvestment – We lived frugally and reinvested profits into acquiring and improving properties instead of taking distributions. This allowed our capital to compound rapidly.

Cash-Out Refinancing – Instead of selling, we refinanced properties after improving them, pulling out capital to reinvest in the next deal. This strategy was a game-changer for our ability to scale quickly.

Vertical Integration – By bringing property management and construction in-house, we reduced costs, improved operational efficiency, and maintained high-quality tenant experiences—driving better long-term returns.

No GP-Level Fees – A major differentiator in our business model is that we don’t collect fees at the general partner level. We don’t profit until our investors have received a full return of their capital, which creates true alignment and has built deep trust with our investors. We weren’t afraid to innovate and offer something to the market that was truly unique – and we’ve been rewarded handsomely for it!

Strategic Hiring & Team Growth – As we scaled, we invested in hiring top talent—people who aligned with our mission and values. Our team became an extension of our vision, enabling us to scale without losing the high standards we built from day one. Our very first hire was a person who had previously been a recruiter and talent manager for a different company – we knew that we needed to hire that skillset so that he could guide us in hiring the rest of our team – which today is 50 full-time employees and another dozen virtual assistants!

The Challenges & Lessons Along the Way
Scaling wasn’t without its share of challenges. The 2008 housing crash shaped our conservative financial philosophy, and the rising interest rate environment of the past few years reinforced our focus on cash flow and sustainable leverage. We’ve made mistakes—hiring the wrong people, underestimating renovation costs, or misjudging a deal—but every challenge strengthened our resolve and refined our approach.

Where We Are Today & What’s Next
Today, Black Swan Real Estate continues to grow, but our core principles remain unchanged: we are investor-aligned, disciplined in our acquisitions, and laser-focused on delivering long-term value.

For anyone looking to scale, my biggest advice is this: be willing to put in the work, stay disciplined, and focus on long-term value rather than short-term wins. Real estate rewards those who think in decades, not months. It’s not about an overnight success story—it’s about building something that stands the test of time.

Elaine, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I’m Elaine Stageberg, co-founder of Black Swan Real Estate. My husband, Nick, and I built this company from the ground up, starting with a single rental property and growing it into a vertically integrated real estate investment firm managing over 1,350 doors and $330 million in assets under management. But more than that, we built a business that aligns with our values—one that prioritizes integrity, investor success, and a long-term, sustainable approach to wealth-building.

How We Got Started
Real estate wasn’t our original career path. I come from a background in psychiatry, and Nick was in tech. But we both had an intense desire for financial freedom—not just for ourselves, but for our family and our community. We wanted to be in control of our time, to have the ability to make meaningful choices about our lives.

We started like many do: buying one rental property while still working our W-2 jobs. We saved aggressively, reinvested every dollar, and self-managed to learn the ins and outs of operations. As we scaled, we moved into multifamily and larger projects, ultimately realizing that to truly build something sustainable, we needed to be vertically integrated—meaning we handle property management, renovations, and asset management in-house.

What We Do & Who We Help
At its core, Black Swan Real Estate exists to solve a fundamental problem: how to help people build wealth through real estate in a way that is truly aligned with their best interests.

For passive investors, we offer institutional-quality real estate opportunities without all the traditional downsides. What sets us apart is that we don’t take general partner fees—meaning we don’t make a dime until our investors receive 100% of their initial capital back. This alignment of interests is incredibly rare in the industry, and it’s why our investor community has grown so quickly.

For residents, we focus on providing high-quality housing, treating tenants with dignity and respect, and ensuring that our properties are well-maintained and well-managed. We believe in creating communities, not just collecting rent checks.

For real estate professionals and operators, we share our experience and expertise through education and mentorship, helping others scale their own portfolios responsibly and sustainably.

What Sets Us Apart
There are a lot of real estate investment firms out there, but we do things differently:

We don’t take fees at the general partner level. That means we only make money when our investors do—there’s no prioritization of our interests over theirs.
We believe in long-term value creation, not short-term wins. Real estate isn’t about flipping for quick profits; it’s about building something that lasts.
We are vertically integrated. By managing our properties in-house, we can ensure high-quality operations, efficiency, and a better experience for both investors and residents.

How did you build your audience on social media?

One of the biggest misconceptions about building a social media audience—especially in business and investing—is that people are looking for perfection. They’re not. They want connection, realness, and authenticity. That’s exactly what we aim to bring with Black Swan Real Estate, and one of the most powerful ways we’ve done that is through our monthly Community Power Hours.

The Birth of Community Power Hour
When we first started sharing our journey online, we had no grand social media strategy. We just wanted to help people. We saw so many investors struggling with the same questions over and over again—how to find deals, how to scale, how to structure partnerships—and we realized that if we could just create a space for real, open conversation, it could be valuable for a lot of people.

That’s how Community Power Hour was born. It’s a free, live, interactive educational session where we go deep on a topic and then take every single question until people run out of things to ask. No sales pitch, no fluff—just real talk about real estate investing. And we don’t hold back. We share the wins, the lessons, and even the mistakes. People get to see the actual numbers, the strategies that work, and the reality of running a real estate business at scale.

And it turns out, that’s exactly what people want. They don’t want rehearsed, overly polished presentations—they want honest conversations where they can ask anything and get straight answers.

What Makes It Work
We go long. If people are still asking questions two hours in, we’re still answering. We don’t cut people off or rush through things.
We keep it casual. We’re playful, we tell jokes, we fumble our words. We’re human and people see it.
We prioritize connection over perfection. We don’t try to impress people with a flawless, buttoned-up presentation. We want to be approachable, relatable, and transparent.
We actually engage. We read every comment, we answer real questions, and we make sure people feel heard.
How This Built Our Audience
Social media is crowded with people trying to sell something. What made our approach different is that we weren’t trying to build an audience—we were just showing up, providing value, and treating people like real humans instead of “followers” or “leads.”

When we first started posting about real estate, we weren’t chasing trends or trying to game the algorithm. We simply shared what we were learning, what we were doing, and what we wished we had known earlier. That raw honesty resonated with people, and over time, our audience grew—not because we were posting perfect content, but because we were consistently real.

People started following us not because we had the most polished content, but because they trusted us. They knew we would always give straight answers, share the good and the bad, and show up consistently.

Later, when we launched our first private equity fund, we raised $10M in just 24 hours because of the deep trust we had built with our audience over the years.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

Our Biggest Pivot: From Medicine & Tech to Full-Time Real Estate Investors
One of the biggest pivots in my life—and the one that ultimately led to Black Swan Real Estate—was leaving behind the traditional career paths that Nick and I had worked so hard to build.

I was a practicing psychiatrist. Nick was in tech. By most measures, we had “made it.” We had stable, well-paying jobs, career trajectories that seemed secure, and the kind of work that society tells you should be fulfilling. But something wasn’t right.

We were working long hours, constantly pulled in different directions, and feeling the weight of being tied to careers that didn’t give us the autonomy or impact we wanted. At the same time, we had been building a real estate portfolio on the side, reinvesting every dollar, learning through experience, and slowly but steadily growing our investments.

The Moment Everything Changed
For years, real estate was just a side hustle. A powerful one, but still something we did in the margins of our “real” jobs. Then, in 2019, we reached a crossroads. The portfolio had grown to the point where it wasn’t just providing some extra income—it was covering our bare minimum living expenses.

That was the lightbulb moment.

We realized that if we wanted to scale, if we wanted to take Black Swan Real Estate from a passion project to a truly impactful business, we couldn’t keep treating it as “extra.” It was time to go all in.

So Nick left tech first. Then, I made the decision to step away from practicing medicine. Quite honestly, my pivot was born from pain — during the COVID pandemic, we had no school or childcare for our growing family and so I stepped away from medicine “temporarily” until the pandemic settled down — and as it turns out, after a year in the business full time, I knew there was no turning back. There’s a deep identity shift that happens when you walk away from a career you’ve invested so much into. But the more we leaned into real estate, the more we saw the true potential—not just for financial freedom, but for building something meaningful.

The Real Pivot: From Investors to Leaders
The biggest shift wasn’t just going full-time in real estate—it was realizing that we weren’t just investors anymore. We were building a company, a team, and a community.

We had to scale operations, moving from self-managing properties to hiring and leading a full team.
We had to step into the role of educators and mentors, sharing what we had learned so others could follow a similar path.
We had to think bigger, transitioning from single-family homes to large multifamily deals, private equity, and eventually, a vertically integrated firm managing over 1,350 doors.
That pivot—stepping out of “safe” careers into the unknown of entrepreneurship—was the hardest and best decision we ever made. It forced us to grow, to take risks, and to build something that truly aligns with our values.

The Lesson? Bet on Yourself.
If there’s one takeaway from this pivot, it’s that security isn’t about having a traditional job. Security is about owning your time, your decisions, and your future.

We could have stayed in our careers forever, comfortable but limited. Instead, we chose the harder path—the one that required more risk, more learning, and more faith in ourselves. And that decision changed everything.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://meetblackswan.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/blackswanrealestatellc/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/blackswanrealestateteam
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/black-swan-real-estate
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@NickElaine