Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Roger Chappell. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Roger , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today So, let’s start with a hypothetical – what would you change about the educational system?

I think our educational system has completely lost it’s way. I graduated high school 40 years ago. When I graduated, the emphasis was getting students into college. For some, like me, college wasn’t the answer either. So, I joined the military. What I have seen over the years is that young adults, let’s say 18-27 year old males, need to continue their growth after high school. That growth is mostly mental, maturity, and to some degree, physical. I will not attempt to address female growth, as I am basing my opinion solely on my own upbringing and success. Now, when I graduated high school, I immediately went to college. I was only there for a very short time as I understood very quickly that I did not want to be in school any more. However, I also knew I didn’t want to go home either. My mentality was that I was now a “grown up” and I could make my own decisions. So, I did. However, in the military, I was still unable to make my own decisions. I learned very quickly that decision making as a recruit or private is non-existent. I also learned that the longer I was in the service, the more responsibility I was provided. I also moved up the ranks. The military is designed to teach, in a very regimented way things that academia can not. For example, taking responsibility is paramount in the military ranks. I look back and remember that young Marines, 18, 19, 20 years old were in charge of multi million dollars of equipments he safety of other Marines, and tremendous budgets and decision making. Only in the military can one gain that kind of experience. After I got out of the Marines, I joined the Houston Police Department. That was a great career! The USMC taught me all I needed to know to get hired on the Department. Eventually, I moved up and around in various assignments. With each new assignment came a brand new set of responsibilities. All of which built on the previous assignment. While with HPD, I also went back to school. My learning was dramatically different than when I was in high school or when I took a brief college career. By now, I was 28 years old, more mature, I had two kids with a third on the way, so I now had family responsibilities as well. I learned so much more waiting until later in life to obtain my degrees. Yes, I earned a BS Degree and an MS Degree. At the time, I did not see how those degrees would help me in my career. Looking back after retirement, I totally understand! So, I always wanted to be a police officer. From the time I was about 7 years old, I knew that was what I wanted to be. I think my chose path of the Marines after high school set me on the proper roadway to achieve that goal. I type this diatribe to say this…. As kids, we all have dreams. Sometimes those dreams seem to not follow the path adults want us to. I know in my own journey, I had many friends tell me I would never make it as a police officer. I used that as my motivation. Our educational system needs to focus on the kids. Focus on helping them set paths to achieve whatever their dreams and goals are. That would include getting back to the basics, offering courses in the normal things in life, such as the trade professions and yes, even home economics. I hear my wife talk about her degree in Home Economics all the time. She believes that is what helped her focus on family and keeping a budget. I never had such courses and I have to say, she has done very well with taking care of our family. These things today are looked at as antiquated and insulting. That has to change. We are not doing any favors to our youth by not promoting good, solid values at the early educational level.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I am a retired sergeant from the Houston Police Department. I had a very unique and outstanding career. My wife was in the hospitality industry and worked at various luxury hotels around Houston for many years. Back in 2008, we paid off our home. The next year, we had to pay a huge amount of money to the IRS. I was furious about that and had been talking to others about rental properties. So, we bought our first rental property. We put some money into it and remodeled then leased it out. We had a realtor at the time as well. Fast forward a few years, we now own multiple rental properties plus our own home. So, our realtor had been listing the properties for lease for us, but he was unable to show them. So, I met the agents and the prospective tenants. What I learned was that I had a knack for helping people in real estate. I believe that had to do with the investigative skills I had honed over the years. I know what questions to ask to elicit responses that people aren’t really ready to reveal yet. So, I basically cut through the nonsense very quickly. I also tell people what they need to hear, not always what they want to hear. Sometimes those are the same things. Many times they are not. So, my honesty, integrity and just being nice with the delivery of the message make me very suitable for real estate. My wife accepted an executive position in San Diego, so she moved out west. That forced me to retire. While in California, I started working on obtaining my license. During that time, my wife was sent back to Central Texas. I was able to get my license very quickly after that. Since then, I have obtained my broker’s license and done very well in the real estate industry. As a result, my wife and I have built up enough passive income where we can both retire 100%. That’s pretty great considering we are still quite young.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

Funding our business has been actually quite easy. Because we own so many other properties, we are able to take out equity loans. We usually do very short term loans as we know that they will be paid off quickly considering the amount of real estate I sell. I have been so blessed that fortunately, it didn’t take us long to have enough capital where my business is sound. There are a number of creative ways to obtain capital for businesses. One needs only to speak to a financial advisor or lender. I also suggest hiring a really good CPA.

What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?

I am one of the few realtors that have been successful with online leads. I pay for the leads even today. I learned very early on that this is a relationship business. So, the agents that had been in my area the longest had the best relationships and the business to suit them. So, I knew I had to develop the same thing. So, I paid for leads. I am very blessed in that I have been very successful converting many of those leads to sales. Then, I concentrate on referrals. I also check in on my clients from time to time just to see how they are. Just speaking to them once a quarter is enough. I also have many of my clients on various drip campaigns so that I stay top of mind. Finally, I have a strong social media presence. I pay someone to help me with that as well. This combination of actions have made my business quite successful.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://chappellrealtygroup.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chappellrealtygroup/
• Facebook: facebook.com/ChappellRealtyGroup
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/roger-chappell-12795b29
• Youtube: @rogerchappell

Image Credits
All of these are my own images. However, I do need to give credit to Honor Flight and Sports Clips for the bi-plane ride. The photos may be mine, but the privilege to ride was provided by Honor Flight and Sports Clips.