ABOUT US

The Carvajal Group was founded by husband and wife, Jim and Deena Carvajal.  After separating from the Navy in Virginia Beach, Virginia, Jim and Deena purchased their first home using their VA benefits. A few years later, a job transfer forced Jim and Deena into what they call "reluctant landlords".   Basically, that meant that they never had plans to rent their home.  Jim and Deena actually thought this was their forever home when they bought it.  But as circumstances and opportunities often present themselves, they chose to keep this home and rent it out.   They didn't have to look far to find a tenant because a family member needed housing so let her rent the house.  It seemed like there were always issues to deal with (maintenance, damage, etc). And many days they wondered why even hold onto the property when it seemed so much easier to just sell it.  But this family member needed affordable housing, so they held onto that home for a number of years.    After a series of job transfers across various states, they found themselves in Florida and owning several rental properties they acquired along the way.  Too good to pass up opportunities that presented themselves, and they were able to acquire different types of investment properties. 

About 12 years after the initial job transfer out of Virginia Beach, Jim and Deena sold their first home and made an outstanding profit. After analyzing those last 12 years of headaches, they realized that for those years someone else had paid down their mortgage, and had given them a small amount of cash flow per month.  Those “headache maintenance expenses” were really covered by the rent collected. This is when both Jim and Deena realized it was one of the best investments they had ever made. The conclusion was “investing in real estate was a great vehicle for building and maintaining wealth and security.”  They preach this message to anyone who will listen.

At the same time, Jim and Deena were working in corporate America and had been investing in their respective company’s sponsored 401Ks focusing on mutual funds. This grew at a very modest rate 2-3%.  But after leaving the corporate life in pursuit of real estate, they rolled those 401Ks into self-directed IRAs which now allowed them to buy additional properties and rent them out.

The Carvajal's have found so many reluctant landlords along the way whose stories were similar to theirs. They did not want to or could not sell their home, so renting it out was a tempting option.  But many owners are afraid of this because of the horror stories they hear from other people who may have had a bad experience with renting their home. 

The Carvajal Group Property Management Division was born out of necessity and today The Carvajal Group Property Management manages and leases out properties across Central Florida from Volusia county down to Polk County.  

When we asked Jim what makes them different, here's what he had to say:  We pride ourselves in excellent customer service and satisfaction. So much so that we believe our landlords will love to stay with us so we do not charge penalties for breaking their Management Agreement. If the landlord is not satisfied or if things do not work out for whatever reason, we only ask for 30 days to give our tenants the proper notice. We strongly believe our owners/clients have the right to use whomever they want to, and we strive to earn and keep their trust.  We believe in pulling away the veil of secrecy in real estate and being completely transparent with our landlords and our tenants.  

Jim continued by saying, "We ask that owners hand over an amazing property so we can get them amazing tenants that will care for their home like it's their own.  If that home is not amazing when we first come in, we work with the owner to get it where it needs to be.  Tenants want beautiful, clean housing and if you charge fairly for this, you can keep good tenants for years."

Deena also added: "We live in such transient times and tenants often get to the point where they may want to buy.  So they look first to the home they are living in and are happy to be there to help them understand how to become homeowners.  We have successfully helped landlords and tenants become seller and buyer to transfer that property to the tenants when they are ready to purchase.  And so those reluctant Landlords have found the process is not as scary as they imagined it would be. We make all this sound so simple, and it really is for us.  The less stress our clients feel, the better we feel that we're doing a great job."