ERIC CLANCE | INVESTOR. DEVELOPER. BUILDER. OWNER.
I'm a real estate investor and developer with a hands-on background in acquiring, renovating, operating and owning investment properties.
Over time, my approach to real estate has evolved.
What began with acquiring and renovating existing properties grew into long-term rental ownership, short-term rental operations, land development and now ground-up construction.
Along the way, I became a licensed North Carolina commercial general contractor, adding another capability to the investment and development side of the business.
Those experiences increasingly work together.
I don't look at acquisition, construction and ownership as separate businesses. I look at them as different parts of the same investment process—each offering another opportunity to create value, control costs, improve the finished property and make better long-term ownership decisions.
EC Investment Properties is the investment and development side of that approach.
When I acquire a property, I'm investing in it as the actual buyer—not acting as a wholesaler looking to assign the purchase contract to someone else. My experience in construction, renovation and property ownership allows me to evaluate opportunities firsthand and take responsibility for the properties I purchase.
My construction company, EC Building & Remodeling LLC, operates separately from EC Investment Properties. Through it, I bring my North Carolina commercial general contractor license and hands-on construction experience to renovation and building projects.
BUILT FROM HANDS-ON EXPERIENCE
I've spent years working directly on my own investment properties—managing renovations, purchasing materials, coordinating licensed trades and personally performing much of the construction work that didn't require a licensed trade.
That experience taught me more than how things are built. It taught me how construction decisions affect the economics of an investment.
I learned where spending more can create meaningful value, where unnecessary costs can be eliminated, which improvements matter to tenants and guests, and how decisions made during construction can affect maintenance and operating costs years later.
Earning my North Carolina commercial general contractor license expanded that experience into the ability to manage larger and more complex projects.
Today, I can approach a property from both sides of the equation:
What can be done with it—and does doing it make financial sense?
OWNERSHIP CHANGES THE WAY I INVEST
My preferred outcome is often ownership rather than a quick sale.
I currently own and operate investment properties, including successful short-term rentals. That means I experience the consequences of acquisition, renovation and construction decisions long after the work is finished.
I see what holds up, what requires maintenance, what guests value, what affects operating costs and which improvements actually contribute to the performance of a property.
That experience feeds directly back into the next property I evaluate and the next project I develop.
As the portfolio grows, I expect to transition more of the day-to-day property management to professional management so I can focus more of my time on acquisitions, development and construction.
But the ownership perspective won't change.
I'm not just thinking about what it costs to create a property. I'm thinking about what it will be like to own.
A LEANER APPROACH TO GROWTH
My goal isn't to build a large company simply for the sake of being large.
I prefer a lean, vertically integrated approach where I remain directly involved in the decisions that create the most value while working with the right contractors, licensed trades, lenders, property managers and partners where their expertise makes more sense.
That allows the portfolio to grow without requiring every capability to become another layer of permanent overhead.
The same principle applies to individual projects. I don't need to personally perform every task to benefit from understanding how it should be done, what it should cost and where my direct involvement can materially improve the economics.
As the business grows, I expect my role to continue shifting toward finding opportunities, structuring acquisitions, development strategy and overseeing construction, while other parts of the operation become increasingly delegated.
The goal is to scale the portfolio without unnecessarily scaling the overhead.
WHAT I'M BUILDING TOWARD
I'm continuing to grow EC Investment Properties through a combination of acquisitions, development, construction and long-term ownership.
I'm particularly interested in opportunities where there is more to the property than what may be obvious at first glance—whether that's a renovation, a different use, additional land, development potential or another way to create value.
I generally prefer projects where I can remain directly involved, either independently or alongside a small number of aligned partners, rather than projects dependent upon large organizations or layers of outside investors.
I'm also interested in building relationships with the people who make those opportunities possible—property owners, wholesalers, bird dogs, agents, landowners, lenders, investors, developers, contractors and potential joint-venture partners.
I don't expect every relationship to produce a deal immediately.
The right relationship can create opportunities for years.