How Caroline Ceniza-L. Built 10 Rental Properties as a Side Business | Real Estate Investing Strategy

Caroline Ceniza-Levine (00:00)

It really lends itself to having to be.

creative and curious and flexible and willing to look at things that you might not have initially considered or maybe worried about taking that chance. And so I think for people listening to the show who might be already in real estate and thinking they have to grow, grow, grow, that’s not true. You might be better off maintaining what you have and improving that.

And then for people who might be thinking about real estate, might be saying, well, I missed all those low interest rates. Now is not the right time. It still might be the right time. And you just never know.

Quentin Edmonds (02:12)

Hello everyone. Welcome to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I am your host Q Edmonds and I’m excited to be here. I have another fantastic guest and I love the way she thinks. I love the way her wheels turn and we’re going to dig all into it. We’re going to peek through her lens and get her take on real estate and the different things that she’s doing within the space. And I’m so delighted to introduce you all to Ms. Caroline Ceniza-Levine Ms. Caroline, how are you doing today, ma’am?

Caroline Ceniza-Levine (02:43)

I am doing great Quentin, you set the bar so high.

Quentin Edmonds (02:47)

⁓

Well, listen, I appreciate that but I promise you you are the expert for today No one can do you like you and so we want to learn about you what you do peek through your lens and so It’s almost like a win-win. We can’t fail because you’re gonna tell us about you, know you and so I’m super excited today and ⁓ Listen, I just want to dive in. I want you to tell the people what your main focus is these days

If you want to give us a little bit of an origin story of kind of how you got into the space you’re in, we love that. And then if you don’t mind telling us where you are in the world. And so ma’am, you have the floor.

Caroline Ceniza-Levine (03:26)

Absolutely. So in terms of origin story, I think I had a pretty traditional upbringing. I didn’t come from entrepreneurs or from a family of real estate investors. And so for me, it was go to school, do well in school, get a good job, retire at 65. And that was initially what prompted me. I got into you know a great job. I had a career in HR. But I left the typical nine to five in my 30s because it just wasn’t long.

for a desk job, I started my own company. Having been in HR, I focused on career coaching. So I had hired at that point, thousands of people and I really wanted to be on the other side of that desk. And I still do that work. I still do career coaching and executive coaching, but where real estate came in was it was always an interest of mine. And as I was growing my career coaching business, I was really topped out in terms of I was working

a lot of hours and I was trying the usual things to scale a business, selling digital products and going from one to one to group and everything was changing the business and it wasn’t really what I was interested in. And so what I ended up doing and where kind of my appearance on this podcast comes from, because it’s a real estate podcast and I’m talking about a completely different business was when I

started thinking about growing that business, real estate became the way that I grew that business. Really just essentially starting a whole other business, funneling the profits from the career coaching business into real estate investments. Again, it was something that I was interested in. It was something that my husband could get on board with because of course we’re a team and we’re going to do this together. And so I…

built the business in my thirties and by the time I got to my forties and I was like, my gosh, this is, can’t be just doing this singly and grow it. That’s when real estate came in. And so it was a happy accident, but now we have 10 properties, including the ones that we live in. They are in two international countries as well as in the U S so we have two abroad. have eight domestic and

Most of them are long-term rentals, meaning a year-long lease. There’s one that is a vacation rental. That’s one of them abroad because it just makes more sense to do it that way. But it’s something that we can then use and our family can use when it’s not rented. We have it on home exchange and we can swap properties. And so there’s a lot of different uses for that. So, you know, in a nutshell, real estate is the second business that actually overtook

The first business, by the way, but that’s just an aside.

Quentin Edmonds (07:05)

Yeah, I love it. So I wrote down happy accident. I don’t know if I ever heard that before. My real estate became a happy accident. I absolutely love that because I always have a saying, probably when we get to this point where I say destiny has no wasted moments. Right. So no matter what we go through in life, destiny has a way to put something in us that makes us kind of who we are today. Right. So when I listen to you talk, you know, parents, not entrepreneurs.

But then you wind up your own business, right? Getting into HR, really not like, know, this is not kind of where I want to go. So you go into the coaching and then you’re like, okay, know, coaching is cool, but then you have this happy accident. So on your journey to real estate, what have you learned about yourself? What has this journey taught you about you as you went into real estate?

Caroline Ceniza-Levine (07:57)

the biggest thing that it taught me was that you can change your mind about things. You can learn new things. And I would say that the, you know, one example of that is honestly the way that I approached debt. Again, had a pretty traditional upbringing, did not come from a family of entrepreneurs or investors. And so debt was something to be avoided, right? So you hear about this bad debt, bad debt, bad debt. I don’t trade on margin. I don’t feel like I make

risky bets, but I do have some mortgages against some of our properties and it is a business decision and it’s a business calculation and it’s neither good nor bad on the face of it. You have to run the numbers and do the calculation. And I think just embracing that and saying, hey, this isn’t such a bad thing. I can make a decision that’s different than

you know, maybe the thumbnail or the rule of thumb, right? That I might have made before. So that’s, you know, that’s one example. And then a second example is just getting into real estate in general, where, you know, I never thought of myself as a real estate person because I am not an architect or an engineer or into design or I don’t have any of those special abilities. And yet it made sense and it was interesting. And we just followed our interest and our curiosity and it worked out.

Quentin Edmonds (09:24)

I love it. You are to me the very definition of destiny has no waste of moment. Like you said, you know, not architect, not this, but you have your own superpower that you was able to bring with you to make you successful in the real estate space. And so I absolutely love it. That’s why I love talking to people like you, because I want people to know that you have your own destiny. You have your own superpower that you can bring to this business.

And so as you was growing, getting into the real estate space, you got 10 properties, you’re growing. Did you bump up against any adversity? And if you did, how did adversity look to you? Because deals don’t go up and down all the time. Sometimes we got to fit it fast. Things don’t always go our way. So how did adversity show up within your growth and your process?

Caroline Ceniza-Levine (10:45)

Yeah, for sure. The first properties that we owned were in Asheville, North Caroline. That was kind where we cut our teeth and we still have a couple of properties there. There was one property, we have three, we have two now. And there was one property where there was a mold issue, where there was some tenant turnover and we sold that property because it just seemed like a big headache.

20 years later, so it’s been two decades now, and there have been all sorts of ups and downs with other properties, we realized, wow, that might have been a good one to keep. So I think just that panic button where it’s like, turnover or a maintenance issue or this fix is higher, the price is maybe higher than we expected it to be, not panicking and

taking a step back, running the numbers, having a longer timeframe. That’s the stuff that happens with experience. Given, especially my temperament tends to be quite risk averse. And so I probably, if I were a bigger risk taker, maybe that wouldn’t have phased me, but it did. It phased me in the beginning and I felt like I sold too soon in that particular case. You know, another example is we thought that we wanted to grow, grow, grow. And so we were looking at turnkey companies.

and ended up buying five rental properties in Indianapolis. And they were in B-, C-plus type neighborhoods, and it was just a headache. And we ended up selling all of them to another investor. And so I think they’re happy, we’re happy, and it ended up being fine. But it was just more work than we wanted. We realized that

We need to be more specific about our criteria. We can’t outsource the scouting and the prepping for the market to another company. We want to do that ourselves. I know people who have been 100 % happy with turnkey investing, so that is not a dig on

we thought that we wanted to grow aggressively. We used a turnkey company. ended up being a portfolio that we ended up selling. It wasn’t in the quality neighborhood that we wanted to be in. we knew going in, you know, that it was a B minus type of C plus type situation. We hadn’t yet invested in that way. And so the cashflow was very attractive, but

we realized that we had to be more specific about our criteria and also that we wanted to do the scouting and the prepping for rental. And so that’s something that you learn as you go ahead. So we were able to come back from that and we’re happy with the portfolio that we have now. And so all is good.

Quentin Edmonds (13:45)

Absolutely. No, absolutely. I love it. I love it. So what is the next real goal for you and your husband? What are you looking to solve the scale next?

Caroline Ceniza-Levine (13:54)

So in terms of real estate, we’re really just looking to stabilize and maintain the properties that we have. We recently made a second international purchase. That’s something that we’re going to use for ourselves. That’s the plan. And so we’re excited to kind of get into more travel now that we have a base abroad. And so it’s more of a lifestyle play for us. We might at some point rent that property out when we’re not using it.

as we do with the other international property that we have. But it’s something where we’re not just looking at it as a straight investment. We really made our purchase around what’s something that’s going to work for us. And so that’s the stage that we’re at with our lives. We feel like we’ve managed our careers well and our money well and our real estate portfolio well. And now we want to just enjoy ourselves.

Quentin Edmonds (14:48)

I love it. absolutely love it. And so, you know, you talk about your husband, of course, consulting company, coach. I would love to know what is your perspective when it comes to relationship building? Has relationships served you well? Do you put a premium on relationships? Tell me your philosophy when it comes to relationship within business and within real estate, within both.

Caroline Ceniza-Levine (15:51)

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, for both business and real estate, relationships are key. mean, some specific examples, certainly building my business, you use relationships to get insight into the market, to get your first clients, to get references, to get introductions, for sure, for sure, for sure. And real estate, it’s no different. I mean, there are so many examples. Our favorite property manager, one that we settled on for our Florida properties.

is someone that I met in a real estate community. When they were in a different geography, when I was in a different geography, and then it both turned out we moved to Florida and reconnected because of that community and they were doing a great job for us. When we made our first international purchase abroad, it was actually someone from my business community, so from my career coaching business, when I mentioned that I was…

going abroad and they mentioned, I know someone turned out to be in the same town. Introductions were made and then they introduced us to who is now our lawyer, our property manager, our real estate agent, et cetera, et cetera. So there have been so many examples. I mean, we could spend the whole podcast just talking about examples. So it is absolutely critical to maintain those relationships, both in terms of rekindling old connections because you don’t know.

where people have gone, what they know, they might be able to introduce you to people abroad or whatever it is, or to people in different industries. And then it’s also making new connections, like joining a real estate community or meetups or associations so that you can meet potentially a fellow investor, a property manager, a real estate agent, or whatever it is that you need.

Quentin Edmonds (17:42)

I love it. mean, that’s fostering over the relationship, maintaining those relationships, honoring those relationships is everything. And like you said, you know, it can lead to so many different other avenues. And so make sure you have those health relationships is everything. ⁓ Ms. Caroline, I want to ask you, is there a topic that I have not brought up that you would like to bring up or is there any type of like maybe education motivation or inspiration that you want to tell our audience? If it is, we would love to hear it.

Caroline Ceniza-Levine (18:11)

Gosh, I mean, I think you’ve been pretty thorough in terms of talking about the most important topics. I would say because my background goes from career coaching, right? And this is a real estate podcast. And I had mentioned that real estate was that happy accident that I think this market in particular, both the uncertain economy, the K shaped economy, the frozen job market, you know, whatever you want to call it.

It really lends itself to having to be.

creative and curious and flexible and willing to look at things that you might not have initially considered or maybe worried about taking that chance. And so I think for people listening to the show who might be already in real estate and thinking they have to grow, grow, grow, that’s not true. You might be better off maintaining what you have and improving that.

And then for people who might be thinking about real estate, might be saying, well, I missed all those low interest rates. Now is not the right time. It still might be the right time. And you just never know.

And you can, you might be like me where it’s not your primary thing or was never your primary career. And yet it turned out to be such a great, great business for us and great lifestyle for us. ⁓

Quentin Edmonds (19:32)

I love it. Gems, gems that you are dropping. I absolutely love the value that you’re giving our audience. I really, really appreciate you. Listen, Miss Caroline, if someone wanted to reach out to you, connect with you, collaborate with you, or learn more about what you’re doing, how can they get in contact with you next?

Caroline Ceniza-Levine (19:48)

Yeah, the best way is my website, which is dreamcareerclub.com. And so when you land on there, it is on the career side of things because I don’t have a specific real estate shingle that I hang out. But I will say that on that page, there are a number of free resources. One of them is about FIRE, financial independence, retire early. And that is where I talk more real estate stuff. And so that would probably be the best.

thing to click on for the real estate listeners in your audience.

Quentin Edmonds (20:21)

Absolutely. Well, listen, Miss Caroline, I want to say three things to you. First, I want to thank you for your time. You are a consultant, you are a coach, so you know you can pay. There’s a premium for your time, right? So you know your time is very valuable. So definitely thank you for your time. Secondly, thank you for your story. Thank you for sharing just from an authentic place. Shut telling your story in a very way that is really, I believe, helping people that’s listening and that can take pizza and pizzas from.

and really apply to their own narrative. But then also thank you for your mindset. Thank you for your mind, your perspective, and bringing that mindset to this platform. I greatly appreciate you being here today.

Caroline Ceniza-Levine (21:01)

Well, thank you, Quentin, for making it so easy and asking.

Quentin Edmonds (21:05)

I

that. I appreciate that so much. So listen, y’all heard Ms. Caroline, y’all heard the value. You got the nuggets. Definitely looking at show notes, getting in contact with her. That fire sound fire in itself. So y’all know y’all need to get on that. So do that for sure. But definitely make sure you subscribe here. Because I keep telling you, we’re going to keep bringing up amazing people just like Ms. Caroline. So thank you so much, ma’am. I appreciate you. And to everyone else. We will see you on the next time.