Ep #1,154 - Why He Buys the Worst Apartments

Lifetime Cash Flow Through Real Estate Investing

Rod Khleif

Passive, Estate, Family, Business, Management, Income, Multifamily, Apartment, Education, Multi, Property, Commercial, Real, Investing, Investor

4.8 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 15 September 2025

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Nick Stageberg is the CEO of Black Swan Real Estate and a former tech entrepreneur who scaled a $13M startup to a $100M exit. He later led 13 engineering teams at Mayo Clinic before building a thriving real estate portfolio with his wife, Elaine. Today Nick leverages his tech-driven approach to give Black Swan a distinct edge in the multifamily industry.

Here’s some of the topics we covered:

From Tech Career to Real Estate Freedom
How to Turn Setbacks Into Your Greatest Wins
Warren Buffet’s Surprising Take on D Class Properties
Using Real Estate Profits to Create Lasting Impact
Must-Know Tips for First-Time Investors
How to Land a Mentor Without Spending a Dime
Why Real Estate Beats Even the Highest-Paying W2 Job

To find out more about partnering or investing in a multifamily deal: Text Partner to 72345 or email [email protected]

For more about Rod and his real estate investing journey go to www.rodkhleif.com

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Welcome. This is the Lifetime Cash Flow through Real Estate Investing podcast.
0:06.6	This is where you'll learn strategies to help you achieve lifetime financial freedom through real estate investment.
0:12.5	Your host, Rod Clef, has owned over 2,000 homes and apartments.
0:17.3	And he brings experts in all aspects of real estate investment and management onto the show.
0:23.3	Now, here's your host, Rod Cleef.
0:26.9	Welcome to another edition of Lifetime Cash Flow through Real Estate Investing.
0:30.0	I'm Rod Clef, and I am thrilled you're here.
0:32.3	I know you're going to get tremendous value from the gentleman I'm interviewing today.
0:35.3	I met him at a conference and had dinner with he and his wife and a bunch of other people and was very impressed with his operation. His name is Nick Stagabberg and he's in about 1,300 doors, but his I really want to dig into operations. Welcome to the show, brother. Thanks so much. It's an honor, a privilege to be here with you. Well, that's kind of you to say that. Please say how to the boss for me when you go back home. We'll do. And why don't you just start by telling us a little bit of your background. I know you come from an IT background, which is very common in this industry, and frankly, a positive in my view because it ties together so many so often.
1:12.5	But yeah, give us a little backstory.
1:14.6	Absolutely.
1:15.2	So I have a bachelor's degree in ministry and a bachelor's degree in computer science.
1:18.8	I'm kind of a man of faith, man of science, and had a very successful career in IT.
1:23.8	Had a chance to get on the ground floor of one tech startup.
1:26.1	We went from 13 million in venture capital to 100 million in private equity sale over the
1:29.4	course of nine years and then had the privilege to do a software development startup for
1:34.0	the Mayo Clinic, help them create a software development consultancy, the intrapreneurship movement
1:39.0	where big companies, start companies underneath their umbrella.
1:42.4	We went from just a handful of people to
1:44.8	13 teams of engineers, about 73 engineers I was leading over the course of three years. And we're
1:50.7	doing about a third of all new development for the enterprise. So that was just a crazy trip,
1:54.8	you know, over the course of 15 years. I felt like I'd kind of, I don't know, conquered every
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Rod Khleif, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Rod Khleif and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.