Companies Owned by Than Merrill: Stakes, Investments & Exits

Merrill's companies form a loop in which each one feeds the next. CT Homes generates the track record: hundreds of renovated houses and the television exposure that came with them. FortuneBuilders turns that track record into a product, teaching others to do the same. Equity Street Capital then recycles profits and investor relationships into larger commercial assets that produce rent.

The three businesses earn money in very different ways. House flipping is transactional. Profit depends on buying below market, controlling renovation costs and selling within months, and the company carries short-term debt on every project. Education is a marketing business with high gross margins: free or low-cost introductory events lead to multi-day workshops and then coaching packages that can cost tens of thousands of dollars. Commercial property is the slow part, paying acquisition and management fees up front and a share of gains when buildings are sold or refinanced.

Capital needs are highest where margins are lowest. A flip requires purchase money and renovation funds, usually from private lenders. A $141.3 million shopping center needs a senior loan and tens of millions in equity, which is why Equity Street partners with firms such as Big V Property Group and Toro Properties. FortuneBuilders needs little capital beyond event costs and advertising, so it likely contributes the steadiest cash flow.

Governance rests on a long partnership. Merrill, Paul Esajian and Konrad Sopielnikow have worked together since 2004, and other executives, including Paul Shively at Equity Street, run day-to-day operations. The risks differ by company. Seminar businesses draw consumer complaints and regulatory attention across the industry and depend on continued demand for real estate coaching. Flipping margins shrink when house prices fall. Retail and apartment values move with interest rates, as owners who bought in 2020 and 2021 have learned.

Nothing in Merrill's group is controlled by him alone. CT Homes has had three partners since 2004. FortuneBuilders counts Merrill, Paul Esajian, JD Esajian and Konrad Sopielnikow among its founders and principals. Equity Street Capital lists Merrill and Paul Esajian as co-founders, with Paul Shively as principal and managing partner. The pattern is consistent: shared ownership among a small circle, with Merrill as the public face.

That division of labour has been stable. Merrill handles strategy, teaching and brand; Paul Esajian has long served as chief financial officer; Sopielnikow and JD Esajian oversee construction and operations. Partnerships that survive two decades and a housing crash usually have clear buy-sell terms and aligned incentives, and we take the group's longevity as evidence of both, even though the agreements are private.

At Equity Street the partners share authority further. Large acquisitions are made with co-sponsors, such as Big V Property Group at The Avenue Murfreesboro and Toro Properties at Carriage Park, and funded by passive investors and lenders. Each deal has its own operating agreement, loan covenants and, often, a joint venture partner with approval rights over major decisions. Merrill's influence over an individual building is therefore real but negotiated.

His leverage inside the group comes from reputation more than voting power. FortuneBuilders markets his story as a Yale graduate and former Chicago Bears safety turned investor, and his 2014 book The Real Estate Wholesaling Bible carries his name. That makes him difficult to replace and gives him a strong voice, yet it also concentrates key-person risk. A serious reputational problem for Merrill would hurt the education company first and the partners' fundraising soon after. In our judgment the partners' interests are well aligned today, and the real test would come if one of them wished to leave.

Equity Street Capital's deal list shows how far Merrill has moved from single-family flips. The Avenue Murfreesboro, bought in September 2020 for $141.3 million with Big V Property Group, is a 96-acre open-air center with tenants including Best Buy, Dick's Sporting Goods, Belk and H&M. It was described at the time as the largest outdoor retail center sale in the country that year, and it was the firm's 30th commercial acquisition.

Buying a big retail center six months into the pandemic was a contrarian call. Prices for open-air centers were depressed, lenders were cautious and many investors assumed physical retail was finished. Shopping centers anchored by necessity and discount tenants recovered well, so the timing looks good in hindsight. We would count that purchase as the firm's most instructive, because it shows a willingness to buy unpopular assets at scale.

Later deals tilt toward apartments. Peoria Grand, 144 units in the Phoenix suburbs, was bought in October 2023, a period when higher interest rates had pushed many buyers out. Carriage Park, 128 units in Vancouver, Washington, followed in April 2026 with Toro Properties and marked the firm's entry into the Pacific Northwest. The firm also lists 200 Central in St. Petersburg, Florida, and Merchants' Square in Carmel, Indiana.

Prices and returns for most of these are private, which limits any verdict on performance. The structure is conventional: value-add renovations, operational improvements, then sale or refinance. Merrill's personal economics come through his share of the sponsor's fees and promote plus any capital he invests. Compared with flipping houses, the money is slower and the cheques larger, and the outcome depends heavily on the interest-rate environment at exit. We would want to see realised returns on the 2020 and 2021 purchases before calling the commercial strategy a success.

Merrill has built for 22 years without selling a company. CT Homes, FortuneBuilders, Equity Street Capital and Realty National all remain in the hands of their founders, and no acquisition, merger or outside investment in any of them has been announced. That absence is itself the finding.

Exits happen constantly one level down. CT Homes exists to sell: every renovated house is an exit, and more than 1,000 of them add up to the bulk of the partners' early capital. Equity Street's commercial deals are structured the same way over longer periods, with gains realised when a property is sold or refinanced. Those proceeds are shared with investors and lenders before the sponsors are paid, so gross sale prices say little about what Merrill receives.

Why no corporate sale? Education companies built around a founder's persona are difficult to sell at attractive prices, because buyers discount the dependence on one personality. Flipping businesses have little value beyond their people and pipeline. Equity Street could attract institutional capital, but its sponsors would give up fees and control. We suspect the partners have concluded that the businesses are worth more to them as cash generators than they would fetch from an acquirer.

That could change. Private equity firms have bought coaching and events businesses in adjacent fields, and consolidation among apartment sponsors accelerated in 2026. A sale of FortuneBuilders or a recapitalisation of Equity Street would be the first true liquidity event of his career and would finally put a market price on his holdings. Until then his realised wealth is the sum of distributions taken over two decades, not the result of any single transaction. We see little sign that the partners are preparing for one.