Charles Seaman on Real Estate Syndication, Investor Relations, and Surviving Tough Markets

Charles Seaman (00:00)
What I would say is I think there’s probably a lot of people who are struggling and there’s people who are struggling because of the economy, there people who are struggling because of maybe their own personal circumstances. Maybe they’re just getting started and they’re scared and they’re getting stuck. The key I would tell everybody is just don’t quit. And it may sound a lot simpler than it is. There’s gonna be times when you don’t wanna get out bed in the morning and you wanna put your head under the covers and just say, you know what, I don’t wanna face the world today.

Quentin (01:59)
Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I am your host Q Edmonds, and I am excited to be here today to have another fantastic guest. And when I asked him a little secret to his sauce, he said, you know what? I just outworked the competition.

And he did mention his charm a little bit too. So I think we’re going to see a little bit of his charm come shining through as we have this conversation today. But I am so excited to introduce you all to Mr. Charles Seaman. Mr. Charles, how you doing today, sir?

Charles Seaman (02:29)
Excellent. Quentin, thanks for having me. It’s a pleasure to be here.

Quentin (02:32)
Absolutely, man. Thank you so much for being here. And listen, Charles, I’m a type, I like to dive in, man. So I would love for you to tell the people what your main focus is these days. If you can give us a little bit of an origin story, kind of how you got to the point where you are. Like, we love the journey. We love the hero’s journey. And then, let them know where you are in the world geographically. People seem to love to know where you are, just in case if you’re close to them and they can partner up or connect.

So what your main focus is, your origin story and where you are. Mr. Charles, have the floor, sir.

Charles Seaman (03:03)
Absolutely, I’d be glad to.

So my story began in Brooklyn, New York, and that’s where I’m from. live in Charleston, South Carolina now, but New York certainly made me who I am. And starting from there, I came from a single parent household. We always had food on the table and a roof over our head, but not usually too much wood in that. And we didn’t really talk about money in my house. It wasn’t something that was a…

the conversation at the dinner table, or really anywhere. So was something that as I graduated high school and I started trying to figure myself out in the world, that I stumbled initially upon network marketing. And that was the first thing that really exposed me to passive income and just thinking a little bit differently than the average person. So that also put me around a different network. And then as I say, it really got me into real estate. It wasn’t so much that I was aspiring to be a real estate investor.

It was more so that I was young, and broke. And I needed a job. And the job that I found amongst other things had exposure to commercial real estate. I was very fortunate to work for a guy that was very successful and to learn a lot from him. And that was a great benefit. So when I first started that job, I intended to stay there for two to three years, know, figured I’d go out and do my own thing. to kind of just build myself up, get solid and move on. But as life happens, sometimes that doesn’t always work that way.

Quentin (03:59)
Mmm.

Charles Seaman (04:26)
I started gaining more responsibility, started making a little more money. Maybe I thought it was important. And next thing you know, here I am coming up on almost 10 years there and I’m thinking to myself, I was only going to stay here two to three years. What happened? And I thought to myself, well, do I still want to go out and do my own thing? That was always kind of my passion. So it was, you know, what I wanted to do. consider myself an entrepreneur. And around that point, was

You know, I started when I was only 20 years old. So was just pushing 30 when I was kind of having these these thoughts and I’m thinking to myself, well, you know, I do want to do my own thing because inherently I have to try. I’d be very disappointed in myself if I went through my whole life. And even if I made a decent living working with somebody else ⁓ saying, I just don’t know what’s possible because I never tried it. And the last thing you want to do is have regrets. So around that point, I stumbled on wholesaling initially.

decided that that wasn’t really the right fit, made that decision after testing it out for a few months and hiring a mentor. And I realized two things. One, I didn’t like it very much and two, I wasn’t good at it. So it took a little bit of a break, kept working my full-time job. About a year later in 2016, I discovered syndication for the first time, went to a free seminar. And then after that, it took another nine, 10 months before I really started diving into it. But I said, you know,

this strategy could work. It allows me to do the types of deals I want to do and be able to raise capital and use other people’s money with them. then I, in 2019, I left a full-time job, went full-time in syndication. And to date I’ve syndicated, you know, 11 deals in the multifamily space. And now I, you know, I still look at multifamily, but I don’t see a lot that has me excited. So more of my recent, you know, activities actually been on the industrial and flex side because I see at least some excitement there and things to be.

really clamoring about.

Quentin (07:11)
I love it, Mr. Charles, man. Thank you, Charles, for taking us through the journey, taking us to how you got to where you are now. And as you was talking, I was just taking little notes, how you began in Brooklyn, single parent household. I loved how you stumbled across network marketing, and you just went through just different transitions and went full-time at syndication. I believe I heard you say in 2019, right? And so.

Charles Seaman (07:36)
Correct, yep.

Quentin (07:37)
Yeah, and so I’d be going to say all these things to you, Mr. Charles, because I have a saying where I say destiny has no wasted moments, right? Meaning no matter what we’ve been through in life, our journey has kind of brought us to the point where we are now. And we borrow from different things that we went through our life to kind of get to the mindset and the strategies and the person that we are now. And so I would love to know, Mr. Charles, throughout your journey, man, coming from Brooklyn.

Charles Seaman (07:52)
Yes.

Quentin (08:04)
single parent household, stumbling in network marketing, your niche in syndication. What has this journey taught you about yourself? Has it taught you discipline, humility, resilience? What has it taught you about you now?

Charles Seaman (08:19)
All those

things. So you learn them sometimes at different points, right? know, life is a journey and none of us have all the answers at any given time. You know, you when you first start out, you think you know everything, but then after you do things a while, you realize you don’t know everything. And it’s ironic, you would think it be the other way, but it’s not. Usually you start out, you know, and then you get humbled and that kind of

Quentin (08:39)
Yeah, yeah.

Charles Seaman (08:47)
you teaches you and you learn some of your best lessons that way. What is also, I I knew this beforehand, but it’s different reading it in a book or seeing somebody else go through it versus doing it yourself, is that you need to be tenacious. If you’re gonna become successful as a business owner or an investor, or even in the corporate world, you have to be tenacious. You’re going to get knocked down. It’s not if, it’s not when, it’s when, it’s not if. And if you’re gonna be successful.

You gotta be able to come back when you get knocked down.

Quentin (09:18)
Yeah, Nope, I think that’s so good, man. I’m so glad you said it because that’s something that we talk about ⁓ consistently here is that adversity is going to come, right? If you stay in business long enough, you stay in life long enough, adversity is going to come. And what do you do once you get hit, once you get knocked down? What do you do? So I’m so glad that you mentioned that because that’s the consistent mind frame and mindset that we try to keep here when we talk to people.

So I’m gonna ask you this, what comes to mind when you hear cash flow chants? When you hear that, what comes to mind for you, Mr. Charles?

Charles Seaman (10:33)
So what comes to mind is that, you know, I think ⁓ you want to be opportunistic and where we are right now, we’re recording this in April, 2026. You know, for commercial real estate, for anybody who’s been following that the last couple of years, a lot of asset classes have been on a downward spiral. And for better or worse, unfortunately, I’m not going to be, I’ve experienced some of that myself, ⁓ but it’s opportunistic.

Quentin (10:57)
Yeah.

Charles Seaman (11:00)
And it’s kind of goes back to that whole tenacity thing. Sometimes commercial real estate really tests your patience and your tenacity because the cycles can last years, not months. So what I think of is that there have been some things that didn’t go exactly the way we hoped, but now there’s opportunities to rebound, opportunities ahead, and it’s picking up the, for lack of a better term, picking up the ashes and rising through it and becoming a phoenix.

Quentin (11:09)
Yeah.

Yeah, man. I love it, man. The rise of the thing is let’s go. This is where we come back in. You know, I always say what don’t breaks you, it may bend you, but it won’t break you, right? Situations may bend you, but they will not break you. So what is the next real goal for you guys? What are you looking to solve a scale next with your business?

Charles Seaman (11:46)
So what we’re looking to do there is to keep building investor relations, ideally with some larger check writers, maybe some family offices, and be able to strike quickly when opportunity presents itself.

Quentin (12:02)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. just gonna sink straight to the point. When you said strike when the opportunity presents itself. So I know one of the things you said, you love my poster back there. And so it says, make your own luck. That’s what it says. But my running definition of luck is when preparation meets opportunity. that’s when the luck comes into play is when you have prepared and the opportunity comes up and you strike on the opportunity. So I love how you talked about.

Charles Seaman (12:16)
Right.

Quentin (12:31)
striking on opportunity. So I know you’re looking for continuing building a healthy relationship with investors. So when you hear the word relationship, Mr. Charles, what comes to mind for you?

Charles Seaman (12:44)
Well, great question. There’s a lot of things. You know, so this is a common one in our industry, but it’s kind of that no like trust triangle. And obviously the relationship starts with people knowing you and you knowing them. So you have to be willing to put yourself out there and vice versa. And ideally at least be somewhat likable and more importantly, especially in business, trust. So once they know who you are and vice versa, you want to build trust. that means even if things don’t go perfectly,

Quentin (12:53)
Yeah.

Charles Seaman (13:14)
fact that you’re communicating openly and honestly and working through the resolve as best you can, a lot of times that can build goodwill and create strong relationships.

Quentin (13:25)
I love it. mean, healthy communication, building trust, starting a conversation from community, communication from an honest, integral standpoint. That’s everything, man. I think that’s the way you build trust is just being authentic, being in heaven integrity. And so I love that outlook. ⁓ So Mr. Charles, let me ask you, is there any topic that I have not brought up that you would like to talk about, or is there any other words of maybe inspiration, education, motivation?

I don’t know if you came in with something on your mind that you feel like our viewers would benefit from. I kind of just want to open up the floor that way you can get that message across. So yes, sir.

Charles Seaman (14:00)
Yeah.

Absolutely.

What I would say is I think there’s probably a lot of people who are struggling and there’s people who are struggling because of the economy, there people who are struggling because of maybe their own personal circumstances. Maybe they’re just getting started and they’re scared and they’re getting stuck. The key I would tell everybody is just don’t quit. And it may sound a lot simpler than it is. There’s gonna be times when you don’t wanna get out bed in the morning and you wanna put your head under the covers and just say, you know what, I don’t wanna face the world today.

But those are the days you gotta get up and really kick your butt more than anybody. Be your own biggest cheerleader, your own biggest supporter, because if you’re not, nobody else will. You need to believe in yourself. Even if your dreams seem far away and they seem unachievable, they’re probably not as far away or unachievable as you think they are. You just need to keep working towards them and pivoting. So don’t quit, keep going, and eventually you’ll get there. It may take longer than you expected, but…

If you don’t quit, you’ll usually get there.

Quentin (15:45)
Self-talk is so important. You know, if you’re not talking good to yourself, you can’t expect anybody else to do it. So you’ve got to make sure you’re talking good to yourself. Positivity, training your mindset, speaking well in affirmations to yourself. Absolutely loving Mr. Charles. Listen, sir, if someone wanted to reach out to you, connect with you, collaborate with you, learn more about what you’re doing, how can they get in contact with you,

Charles Seaman (16:10)
Yeah, great question. So there’s two ways. The first one I’ll give you is my cell number and they can text me. That’s 347-306-3278. And the second one is my email address and that’s charles@cashflowchamps with an S at the end.com. So text or email will be the best ways.

Quentin (16:29)
There you go. Well, there he is everyone, Mr. Charles. Let me say three things to you, sir. First, thank you for your time. You know, couldn’t be doing anything but your time, but you gave us some of your time. So thank you for that.

Secondly, thank you for your story, man. Thank you for your gift of honesty and transparency. I believe stories have a way of planting seeds in people when they hear them. They can literally course correct them or spark an idea that they never thought of. So thank you for coming through with your story and your narrative. Lastly, man, thank you for your mindset, the way you think and bringing that mindset to this platform. I greatly appreciate you being here today, Mr. Charles.

Charles Seaman (17:04)
Likewise, thanks for hosting me. It’s been a pleasure.

Quentin (17:07)
Absolutely, absolutely. Well, listen, y’all heard Mr. Charles. Please look into the show notes, get in contact with him. All the information that he gave should be there. But definitely make sure you are subscribed here because we’re going to continue to bring up great people just like Mr. Charles. So, sir, I say thank you again. And everyone else, y’all have a fantastic