S.E.C. Real Estate Observer

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Chuck Sutherland was born and raised in Wichita, Kansas. He is one of 8 children of Charles Sutherland and Joan Lynch. Most of his siblings have stayed in Wichita and are in the construction business. Chuck received his BBA in History from Wichita State University. Of course, those who know Chuck realize that he would not be satisfied with one degree because he overachieves at all his endeavors. Chuck then attended the University of Michigan and received his BBA in Business/Real Estate. He also has attended nearly every real estate course in the world and even obtained a Certified Property Manager (CPM) designation. Chuck is very proud to have become a member of S.E.C. in 1995, at which time he won the Creative Transaction of the Year Award as well as the S.E.C. Humanitarian of the Year Award.

Chuck feels that his greatest accomplishment is having worked since 1987 in the micro-credit loan business for the poorest women in the world. In fact, this is how he met his wife, Marilyn. He knew then that he had found the perfect spouse. They were blessed with 5 children and now 8 grandchildren. Chuck’s mother and his 7 brothers and sisters complete his immediate family.

Chuck and Marilyn worked with a group called Results International, an organization that helps poor women obtain loans to create their own businesses. Muhammad Yunus of the Grameen Bank, winner of a Nobel Peace Prize in 2006, was part of this group, and Chuck and Marilyn feel very fortunate to have worked with him. Since the time that Chuck and Marilyn have been involved in Results International, the number of poor women who have obtained loans for their own businesses increased from 3 million to over 35 million. Chuck was instrumental in having Senator Nancy Kassebaum enter the work “Microcredit” in the Foreign Aid Authorization Bill, which was the turning point in Microcredit being passed into legislation in the US Foreign Aid Bill. This was a major first step in shifting US Foreign Aid from grants to governments to programs operated by US-based nongovernmental organizations. Due to Chuck’s involvement with Results International, he had the distinct privilege to visit Bangladesh and the Grameen Bank in 1995. Chuck was treasurer of this fine organization for a number of years.

Chuck’s real estate expertise is vast. He is a commercial developer and consultant who lives and works out of Dallas, Texas. His success has been in consulting and development of single- and multifamily, commercial, retail, industrial, hotel, and mini-storage projects. As either an investor/developer or consultant, Chuck has participated in the completion of more than $200 million worth of real estate projects over his 40-year career. In his capacity as a development consultant, Chuck has conducted feasibility and market studies for industrial, commercial, hotel, and multifamily housing properties throughout the United States.

The reason Chuck has been so successful in the industry is that he believes in creating value for everyone in a deal and in life. He lives and works by the philosophy of “what comes around goes around”; if one creates value, the rest will take care of itself. Chuck feels that his greatest strength is his creativity and that his weakness is trusting without verifying. He says his best moment in real estate was creating a mini-storage partnership with Colby Sandlian in 1990. In his consulting practice, Chuck has physically inspected over 2000 self-storage properties in all 48 states of the continental United States and has also consulted on more than 100 other projects.

Over the past 40 years, Chuck has conducted market and feasibility studies on numerous hotels. In 2004, he conducted a market study and then coordinated a major remodeling and management turnaround of a convention hotel in Dickinson, North Dakota. Now a Grand Ramada, the property has set record profits each year with its new 43-suite and meeting space additions.

Over the years, Chuck has consulted on numerous apartment projects. Most recently he conducted a major market study for the Suburban Apartments in DeKalb, Illinois. His study fully documented 37 apartment developments in the market. Chuck created his own model for predicting the remodeled rents, which estimated an increase in the gross scheduled income of approximately a million dollars. Using Chuck’s model, the owners along with the property management firm prepared a plan for the complete remodeling of the development, which resulted in a 40% + yield to the equity investor.

Chuck believes in giving back because of all the blessings he has experienced. He has taught leadership programs for Landmark Worldwide since 2002 and has been teaching the “Creative Real Estate Formulas” course nationally for real estate marketing and other organizations for the past 10 years. His guidance and advice to guests of the Society have been very helpful to new meeting attendees. Chuck is a truly valued asset to the Society of Exchange Counselors.