Hilton “Chip” Chesson’s areas of expertise include real estate, banking, and general business. His personal focus is on marginalized communities and ethnic minorities with little access to housing. He received his Bachelor of Arts in Business from East Carolina University in 1969.

 

Prior to real estate, Chip was a banker with Wachovia. After being transferred from Greenville to Durham in April of 1968, his first assignment was to administer the new FHA 235 program. FHA 235 was a mortgage that subsidized interest rates as low as 1% for low-income families, allowing almost anyone with good credit to purchase a home.

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Chip's passion for this program led him to leave the bank in August 1969 and open a real estate and mortgage company with a local realtor, Reginald Rogers.  Chip’s focus remained on bringing purchasing power to families who were typically not afforded an opportunity to own homes. Over the next few years the company sold several hundred homes to families that had been “closed out” of homeownership. In the mid 70’s this program proved too costly and was ended.

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Subsequently, his focus shifted to Chesson Realty, his real estate business. The company initially served residential brokerage; home building, commercial, and office parks were added shortly thereafter. Because of a shortage of building lots, Sedgefield Development Company was created to develop subdivisions.

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In the mid 80’s Chesson Realty was sold to Tracy Goetz, which evolved into Berkshire Hathaway. Later, Venture Securities, an investment banking company, was formed to raise capital for Chip's realty developments.