From 12 Vacancies to Full-Time Investor: Charles Rose’s Creative Finance Real Estate Journey

Charles Rose Jr (00:00)
I have so many of them, but I’ll I’ll share a recent one. How about that? So, so I got to a point, you know, where I was doing so good cash flow and properties, you know. I mean, I was living the best of both worlds, you know, making you know, me in a high earner W-2 and got my business going on. Then 2025, boom, 12 vacancies within a span of three or four months, right? So all of a sudden, you know, I went from being positive cash flow to negative cash flow, right?

Freddie Steen (01:59)
Hey everyone. Welcome to Investor Fuel Podcast. Real Estate Pros. I’m your host, Freddie Steen, and I’m today joined by someone I’ve been looking forward to chatting with. We know that a rose is just a rose by any other name, but

Ladies and gentlemen, investors all over the world, I have with us today Charlie Rose, who’s been making serious moves in the real estate space for quite some time. Charlie Rose, glad to have you here.

Charles Rose Jr (02:29)
It is so amazing to be on the show. Thank you so much.

Freddie Steen (02:32)
Thank you for joining. I think our listeners are really going to take something away from how you’re approaching not just your real estate investing, but also a piece of real estate investing that seems very curious to our audience, which is the way in which you handle financing. Also, I think it’s interesting that you have a very strong focus in single family homes, rental properties, buy and hold. So, first of all, for people who may not be familiar with your world.

Give us the short version. What’s your main focus these days, Charlie? And what markets are you operating in?

Charles Rose Jr (03:11)
thank you, Freddie. So yeah, so so for me, ⁓ so I focus a lot on what people probably call creative financing types of deals, right? If you have a lot of cash and you want to invest in it in properties with cash, great, right? But I like the idea of creating opportunities for other people through creative financing and what that looks like is is maybe using private money, maybe doing types of deals like owner financing.

I do all kind of deals like that, whatever makes sense for me and the other person. I create opportunities for people and myself. We create women opportunities together. And so I focus a lot more on those type of deals right now. originally I started with single family deals and as I was talking to you earlier, Freddie, like you know, now I’m scaling up into multifamily deals as well too.

Freddie Steen (04:50)
Love it. What what caught my attention about you was the way you’ve been able to handle that creative financing and those multifamily deals. That’s not easy, especially in this climate. What’s been the key to keeping that machine running smoothly? Yeah.

Charles Rose Jr (05:06)
Yeah,

absolutely. So a lot of people ask me that question. And so when I got started, Freddie, like I I, you know, I told you, you know, I I grew up in the Bahamas. I didn’t have any money yet to start it. And I literally come to the U came to the US on a one way airplane ticket. And so I always had that faith, determination that that if I’m gonna do it, I’m gonna I am going to like I will be doing it until the Bank Order policemen stop me or whoever, you’re like, I’m I’m not gonna give up, right?

And so I was like, I gotta find a way to make this happen. And while other people are saying these deals are hard to find or it’s impossible to do a nothing down deals, I was like, I gotta find a way. Because Freddie, I bought my first property at twenty-six years old, in when I was w in twenty nineteen. And ⁓ at that time, I I didn’t have all the money, but I had to figure out, you know,

I was like, okay, I could move some money around, I can get a 401k loan. Like I got around the right people. So I was able to figure out some things I can do to get that first property. so I was able to get that first property, it was a duplex in in 2019. And after that, I was like, I want to keep on growing from there. But the problem was I didn’t have the money to grow. So I had to figure out, okay, what can I do in order to make this happen? As I did more research, getting around the right people, asking the right questions.

I figure out like, you know, you don’t have to use your money to to buy the deals. And so that’s when I started tapping into private money and hard money and creative fight other type of creative finance. And in fact, I’ve learned 20 different ways to fund properties, literally. And I was able to not give up and and fit and some people, even when I did find out those ways, they were like, Yeah, well, but nobody really does does that. Or why would somebody ever like, you know, owner finance their property to you? Like

You know, they just want the cash, right? That’s not true. Like we think it’s true, but sometimes people maybe they don’t want to take a big big tax hit, right? If they sell the property, maybe they still want the cash flow, but then they don’t want to be the landlord dealing with the property. Or maybe they want to set up a steady cash flow to their to their children or grandchildren, right? So people have different reasons of why they would do these type of deals. Or why would somebody want to, you know, fund your property a hundred percent.

repairs and purchase. Why would they take all that risk? Right? People, these are the kind of thing things people asked me before I started doing it. Well, you know, people they they a lot of people are tired of their money sitting in their bank account making almost nothing, right? Maybe they can make what two, three percent with a high yield savings account. Well, they could make 10, 12% using private money with something that’s secured with a physical asset. You know, we’re not talking

Not against stocks or crypto or any other thing, but properties are physical assets, right? So pe so there are people out there who are willing to do these types of deals with you. And I’m just touching on a few of them. There’s so many different ways you can do it. So to answer your question about it being tough, yeah, it’s gonna be tough. if it was so tough, every if it was if it was so easy, everybody would be doing it, right?

And so I’ve always had the determination from a young age, with everything I went through, to even coming to the USA on a one one with one way airplane ticket with no money to pay my school fees, I’ve always had the determination of whatever I aim for, I’m gonna work pretty hard to get it. I may not be the smartest person, but I’m gonna work the hardest to get it.

Freddie Steen (08:28)
Proli, I have to ask because every operator that is that that watches our pod, when things get real like they did for you, can you just kind of dig a little bit deeper on how you handled under 30 years old your first real estate deal that required a phrase that shakes a lot of people in our audience, but which is sometimes necessary to get the job done.

To get the real estate deal closed, and that is bootstrapping. Can you talk a little more how you did that being under 30, being young, trusting your instincts, and what pitfalls did you fall into that you now know not to fall into?

Charles Rose Jr (09:15)
Mm-hmm. ⁓ man. So so yeah, I remember like, you know, I was like, I remember so young. I always wanted to like invest, do big things, but I didn’t know what I was doing. I mean, I was just like an island boy, grew up, you know, growing up an island boy climbing coconut trees. I didn’t know anything more than that, right? So but I w I knew I wanted to invest. I just didn’t know how. And I discovered something early on.

And I looked back at the at this, you know, to figure out, okay, so how can I how can I solve this problem? How can I how can I make this work, right? And and I I shared with you earlier, you know, I had to figure out I kind of follow up my system. My system is called, I call it a three gets, right? Whenever you want to be successful at anything, you do three things, right? Three gets. Number one, you get educated. You read books, you get you listen to podcasts like this amazing podcast here.

Keep listening because you’re going to be educated from me and so many other guests that Freddie brings on. So that’s so important. Number two is get around the right people. So what that looks like is going to conferences, going to events. And you know, if you’re listening to this and you’re like, well, there’s no events in my area. Well, we’re living in 2026, right? You can do all of that online. Like there are so many virtual conferences and events and

And even Facebook groups, like if you want to invest in wherever, like you know, Ohio, Birmingham, you just search Ohio investors, Birmingham investors, Charlotte investors, wherever you live, right? You can network online, you can be around the right people. The saying is so true, you’re the average of the five people you spend the most time with, right? So I I I tell my mentees and people I talk to, you know, if you are hanging out with five losers, you’ll probably be the sixth loser, right? If you’re hanging out with five winners,

Five real estate investors, whatever it is you want to be, you’ll be the sixth one. So getting around the right people is so important. And the third get is to get a coach or a mentor. Now you can do it all by yourself. You could probably figure it out. There are some people who do it, but you’re gonna spend a lot more time, a lot more money, a lot more pain and struggle versus finding someone who have been where you want to go, right? So I’m sure if you listen to all of the episodes.

that Freddie’s interviewing people, they have the success that you want, right? So listen to those people, learn from their mistakes. You don’t have to make it on your own. So it’s so important to have a mentor. So backing up to the point where me being ⁓ so I was 26 years old getting my first property, I had to follow those three things, right? I had to get educated. So what I did was I signed up for ⁓ a course and and read different books about real estate investing and then I got around the right people.

I joined the local real estate investors association. I started going to conferences, masterminds, or you know, if I meet someone like Freddy who who has the success that I want, have a cup of coffee and I make sure I buy the coffee. Don’t you make sure you do that, right? Because you want to give, right? You don’t want to just take from them. You’re already taking that knowledge. At least you can buy that coffee and and and just learn from them, right? And then and then I I finally made a decision that okay, I’m gonna invest in some mentoring. And so I was able to do that.

⁓ and through through master passive income and and it was so amazing. Like I I haven’t it is no I have no regrets doing that because that caused me to accelerate my success. So when I got to the point, Freddie, where I ran into obstacles, because you will run into obstacles. And and I remember like, you know, I had so many different things I was going through and I almost got discouraged, almost quit. I was like

I was so emotionally involved with investing in Charlotte, North Carolina. But that was a time when Charlotte was booming and one of the top, fastest growing cities, still growing, still one of the top cities in the US. And I just was struggling to buy properties. I I spent, you know, a couple G’s on like this coaching program and I had to convince my wife to do it. And she was, you know, it was like she was like, You better make me proud. And I, you know, felt like I wasn’t getting anywhere. I almost gave up. And I remember

So I I I remember like after like, you know, the deal a deal fell through on a property that I was looking at. And I remember driving home all like, you know, sad and down and nothing was working. I spent all this money on coaching and these events and all these different things. And a deal fell apart. You know, the seller ⁓ told me he was gonna sell me this property and but he never signed the contract. We were going back and forth for a month. Finally he said he’d sell it to a property he sold it to one of his cousins.

And I remember like being like so devastated because I was like, I was like, I put in all this time, money, effort, nothing’s happening. Then, you know, I have to go home to my wife and explain to her how, you know, we use our ⁓ savings for this coaching, and I have nothing to show for it. And I remember my wife said one thing. I thought she was gonna say I told so, but she didn’t do that. She said, you know, we didn’t invest all this time and money for you to give up. So get on the phone with your mentor.

And figure out what you’re gonna do next. So I jumped on the call with my mentor and we created this whole plan and we were able to successfully ⁓ open up new markets and start investing in properties that made sense for my business and everything took off from there. Right. So when I experienced these challenges and issues as a young person under 30, at twenty six years old, I had the right education, I had the right community, and I had the right coach.

to help me get through the problem. You know, people would love to see, you know, love to hear a story where somebody did it themselves and they were the superhero and did it by my own. But I’m not gonna tell you that because I I had help and most of the people we know who are successful, they all had the right people to help them go to that next level.

Freddie Steen (16:21)
Every operator I know has a moment where things got real. Maybe a deal that went sideways like you just talked about, or it could be a time they had to pivot fast. You mind sharing one of those moments for you? ⁓

Charles Rose Jr (16:33)
Yeah,

man,

I have so many of them, but I’ll I’ll share a recent one. How about that? So, ⁓ so I got to a point, you know, where I was doing so good cash flow and properties, you know. I mean, I was living the best of both worlds, you know, making you know, me in a high earner W-2 and got my business going on. Then 2025, boom, 12 vacancies within a span of three or four months, right? So all of a sudden, you know, I went from being positive cash flow to negative cash flow, right?

And all happened around the same time. Literally. Like I never know that could happen. Never planned for that. Who would plan for 12 vacancies, right? ⁓ I mean, I was putting something aside for vacancies, but like 12 a hit of 12 all at once was was hard. And I was, you know, I almost gave up, but I but I I won’t like in it’s in my not in my fiber and not in my very being to give up, but I felt like giving up, right.

I felt like just selling it all, just getting walking away from everything. but again, I remember being around around the right community. And and I and I’ll I’ll be honest with you, like I remember about to go to a mastermind. I kind of felt like embarrassed to go to mastermind because at this point, you know, I’m going in as a coach, I’m supposed to be one of the experts in the room. So I was dealing with a little bit of imparser syndrome. Like, you how am I the expert when I have like 12 vacancies? Right.

And but I still went anyway. And I remember being open and transparent to share my story. And it was so encouraging for everyone in the room. They were so lifted up. Like, you know, whatever they were going through, they’re like, wow, like if Charles is going through this, we can get through whatever we’re going through. But not only that, they were also the right people in the room who were a bit further than me. You should always be in rooms where there’s people who’s a bit, you know, steps ahead of you and steps behind you, right? ⁓ because there’s people who steps behind you.

you’re you give back and you help with them. The people who have steps ahead of you, they can lift you up, they can share some things. And long story short, I was in the right room with the right people. And I was able to help people, but I was always I I was also ⁓ being helped through that. And these other expert investors, they we came up with this planned strategy

And what would have cost me over a hundred thousand. Literally, I got like multiple quotes. It would be over a hundred thousand to bring all these units back up. And it was so many different things, right? we were able to create a plan and strategy to to cut the cost down completely. and and I was able to get 10 of those 12 units up and ready within, you know, by the end of last year, literally, and ⁓ and and did it for about ten thousand dollars.

versus the a hundred thousand, right? And so, again, you know, you know, there are times when you be on this journey when you’re in this journey and things happen, right? You know, there’s there’s things that’s gonna happen in life, but it’s not about what happened, is what you do after what happens that makes the difference. And so you you will help me repeating it over and over again. Being around the right people, the right community makes a huge difference. Cause how do I imagine if I just, you know,

backed out of going to that event ready and was like, you know, I’m not good enough, or I’m this, I’m that, I’m gonna sell and I’m just gonna give up. Right. I wouldn’t be able to do what I did. I wouldn’t be able to like I like, you know, things took off completely. And not only was I able to get my occupancy back up, ⁓ I made the decision in March of this year to leave my W-2 income and and do my business full time, right?

And now my wife and my family, my wife is Dominican, so we live between Charlotte, North Carolina, and Santiago, Dominican Republic. We do have a property there too. So we have an Airbnb there. And so ⁓ sometimes like in life, like sometimes you experience the biggest oppositions, battles, challenges before that big breakthrough happens. And so ⁓ because we were able to overcome that that big obstacle, I was able to take that next transition.

that I that I’d always planned to do, which is to get into my business full time.

Freddie Steen (20:38)
That’s the kind of stuff people don’t talk about enough. And honestly, it’s what separates the folks that just dabble from the ones who stay in the game long term. Let me ask you this. What are your most what are you most focused on solving or scaling next? What’s the next real goal for you?

Charles Rose Jr (20:57)
Yeah, man. So that’s something that I had to like like really like think on is like, okay, what’s next? Like, you know, I know I want to do multifamily. I know one day I you know, my goal is to do hotels long term. That’s my long term vision is to open up like luxury hotels all around the world. I know I want to do that, right? So many different things, right? But a lot of these things are financial goals, which are which will come, right? These they’ll they will happen, you know. Yeah, I’m passionate about it. But ⁓ right now, like one of my biggest goals.

is to help other people be successful and realize their dreams. That like literally, like, you know, put aside all of my financial like I’m you know, I’m set like with my goals, like, you know, and and where what I’ve achieved, you know, to take care of my family. But what what I’m really supposed to do, like I I don’t know if you you heard saying ⁓ I heard I heard Dr. Miles Murdo say say this. I’m not sure if he coined it or not. He said the two most important days of your life. The day you number one, the day you were born

Number two, today you find out why. Right. And when I find out why, when I discovered my purpose is to help other people realize their dreams. So you know, that’s where I put my my first book I wrote, Journey to Success, Defy the Odds and Realize Your Dreams. When I when I discovered that, it was so profound for me. So for me, like I I work with other investors, I work with other people to help them realize their dreams. And ⁓ and they all and they end up doing way better than me. I love it. I love it when they do better than me, you know.

⁓ you know, like like like Teresa, one of my students. I mean, she was she signed like like Teresa’s story just like literally gave me the chills. Like she she signed up for coaching with me, Freddie. And she at the time had six kids and was pregnant with her seventh child, didn’t come from a rich family or anything, but wanted to be a real estate investor. Teresa she had a high risk pregnancy when she signed up for coaching. Her husband even wanted to do it, but she she did it anyway.

She closed properties in the hospital room with a in ho in the bed with a mobile notary. She was so determined. Two years later, Teresa ended up getting twenty five properties within two years. Right. so when I see stories like that, like for me, it is just is so amazing. Like I don’t even know if it’s selfish the but the great feeling I feel right now, but it’s so amazing when I when I see other people and my students, you know, far, you know, out out

pacing what I’ve achieved, you know, in that time frame, you know, and I have other students who’s passed the, you know, number doors that I have, but but her stories just in particular, just because I mean, you know, with with seven kids and a high risk pregnancy, she had another kid by the way. So now she have eight, just I’m just saying. when I hear stories like that, I’m like nobody has an excuse to be successful.

Freddie Steen (23:40)
That’s big, especially when you’ve already got the type of long tentacles in creative financing, single family homes, you have an international footprint with your Airbnbs in place. So it sounds like the net next move, that next move can either compound things or create chaos depending on how you play it. So now I know a lot of people listening, a lot of people listening, Charlie, are either early in their journey.

Or looking to level up and I think they’d benefit from hearing this, when it comes to building relationships and growing your network, what’s made the biggest difference for you?

Charles Rose Jr (24:19)
Yeah. So I would say you know, going back to being in the right room of the right people, but to even go further, right? When you’re in that right room of the right people, because you know, we probably we probably heard it from other people all the time, you know, be around the right people. But when you’re in that room, right? And when you’re in the right people, be a I would say be a giver. And not just a getter. Like most people that they come to get. You know, they they say, like, let me pick if you’re listening to this right now.

And and and you want some help from someone, like stop saying, let me pick your brain. Don’t do that. Like that’s just it just sounds like a taker, right? How about you know, can I hear your story? I’d love to hear your story, how you got successful. How about saying, How did you do? Make it about them, not about you, right? So in order to network and level up, whether you at, you know, your you know, no property or the next property or wherever you are.

Is genuinely network with people. So be in those right rooms, but genuinely network with people. Genuinely give, right? I mentioned to you as I was at the mastermind, giving, pouring out, helping other people, even though I felt unworthy of being in the room at that time, right? My focus was to give. But while I was there, I ended up so many other doors open up for me, right? Where I was able to

also be poured into also to receive from from those who are steps ahead of me. So be that genuine giver. don’t don’t worry. I’m not saying give to get. It’s like you know going to church, you know, you know, people be like, you know, give this amount and whatever. I’m not gonna get into that. But we don’t give to get, right? We don’t give to get. But when you do give, doors open up, right? So focus on being a giver and everything will will will will line up in place. And I

And that’s what I’ve always done from I was younger, like even before I was into real estate investing, by being that type of person, doors always open up for me. Like even my college education, over $120,000 was paid on my education, being international, out of state. And I graduated college debt-free, right? And my parents didn’t make that. My parents made my mom made like $20,000 a year. My dad made $24,000 a year. so anyway, long story short, when you’re that kind of person, doors open up for you.

Freddie Steen (26:33)
Yeah. You can’t fake that. The giving. you know, relationships are everything in this space. all right, before we before we wrap, I do want to ask a couple quick questions about your background growing up in the Bahamas. Not so much about your day-to-day and school activities, but I kind of if you can go back into your mind to young Charles, now that you know what you know in real estate.

And you’re a real estate pro, what was the real estate landscape like when you were a kid? And what’s the real estate landscape now, now that you’re in the United States, around the the the the South in Charlotte? I’m sure you have relationships all over the country, West Coast, East Coast. Tell me about that. What have you seen the differences in real estate even internationally?

Charles Rose Jr (27:22)
Mm, man. so so yeah, growing up in the Bahamas, so for me, I remember I was always like, you know, inspired to get into real estate. I would I would be so amazed to like go in these areas where you have these nice, beautiful houses where people from all around the world, everybody wants to have a vacation house in the Bahamas, right? I was so amazed seeing it, right? I would always like look at that and like, you know, one day I want to do something like this. And

Like coming to the to the USA like years later, what I realize is that, you know, no matter where you are, there are opportunities. So in terms of the real estate landscape, when you talk about real estate landscape, are you talking about the opportunities in each area? I just wanna be clear before I answer that question, before I really dive into it. I don’t wanna give you a long answer which is not what you were asking me for.

Freddie Steen (28:12)
No, you are you are spot on. I mean, you because of your unique positioning here on the podcast, you’re you’re you were born internationally, you grew up here and in the Bahamas, and you still have this duality of Santa Domingo, your wife, and the travels that you all do, her being doing. If you were to juxtapose that to the market that you’re in now, what are some of the things that you could help?

Charles Rose Jr (28:32)
Yeah.

Freddie Steen (28:39)
other investors with if they were trying to make that square that circle. What’s

Charles Rose Jr (28:46)
Yeah,

like like if they want to invest in in in the Bahamas or the DR or wherever. Yeah, absolutely. so a lot of the investment principles are literally the same wherever you go, right? Now, when you get into the laws and to the you know, the you know, the the exact the rules, regulations, every a country and city might look a little l a little bit different, right? But when you invest, you want to invest for cash flow. You wanna like some people they invest for appreciation.

It’s great. I tell people appreciate the appreciation. Like, you know, we love how you can buy a property today for 100K and then it might be worth a million dollars 30 years from now. Great, right? But don’t invest for that. Appreciate it, but don’t invest for that. Up invest for cash flow. Make sure your property is cash flowing every single month after your mortgage, after your insurance.

Taxes, all your expenses, even reserves, make sure you’re cash flowing. Right. We like properties like cash flow anywhere from four to four to five hundred dollars a month, right? If it’s a really good deal and maybe you’re putting nothing now, maybe you can go go as low as two fifty to three hundred. But you wanna make sure your cash flow wherever you invest, right? Those principles are the same. And then if you wanna invest in another place, is g find the experts in the area. We tell people all the time,

Build the business first, right? That’s we tell all my students. And what that means, don’t just go if you want to invest in in Puerto Rico, Bahamas, Dominican, wherever it is. You want to build your business first. You want to build a team of experts on on the ground who’s going to make sure you buy the right properties. Cause if you just go buy, I’ve seen people do it. And I I have friends ready who just bought a property. they saw this great deal online or whatever, or listened to this person, and they bought a property. Now they’re stuck with this property.

It it ended being in a bad area. and it’s just, you know, they’re just stuck with it, right? But if you build a team of experts, they’re gonna tell you, no, don’t buy in that area. I won’t, I won’t manage properties on that street or whatever it is. You wanna build your team first, your property manager, your legal team, you wanna do all that first, right? That 30, 40 days or however long it takes you to build a team will save you so much money long term.

But in terms of the investment principles, they are the same. In fact, Freddie, so as I mentioned to you, taking this new step on my journey, you know, I have my real estate portfolio, you know, thank thank God, that takes care of my family and it takes care of my bills. but because of my passion, because of my purpose to help other people, I I’ve launched my my speaking, right? I where I’m where I speak and everything.

And I started that from you know, you know, before I, you know, left my job, but I’m doing it even more. I’m taking more opportunities. And one of the opportunities that came up, you know, thankfully I was able to like land I have something on the calendar almost every month where I could share with people. But one of those opportunities came up for in Canada and ⁓ which is in September, which is awesome. I’m super excited for it. they want me to teach the investment principle. Now they’re gonna bring somebody in to talk about the Canadian tax, you know, I that’s not my area, right?

but i’m gonna be teaching the invest investment principles that are the same anywhere you go in the world. so it’s it’s so amazing that you know no matter what real estate landscape you’re in if you want to be investor you can do it what one person can do you can do if I can do it and all the amazing guests that Freddie’s bringing on the show can do it then you can definitely do it.

Freddie Steen (32:14)
All right. Before we wrap, I have to ask you, as I said I would, if someone wanted to reach out, connect with you, maybe collaborate or learn more about what you’re doing, what’s the best way for them to reach you, Charlie?

Charles Rose Jr (32:26)
Yeah, so it’s two different ways I would say. So I’m on every social media as Charles Rose Jr. So that’s Rose Like the Flower, Charles Rose Jr. and then after you finish listening to Freddie’s podcast, then you know, play mine next, the breakthrough investor, where we share more valuable content if you want to learn more. that that’s the two ways how people can find out more about me or learn more from me.

Freddie Steen (32:51)
Perfect. Well, listen, I appreciate your time, your story, and your perspective. We need more people in the space who are doing it the right way, Charles. Thanks again for being here. And for those of you tuning in, if you got value from this, as you always tell me you do, make sure you’re subscribed. We’ve got more conversations coming with operators, just like Charles Rose, who are out there building real businesses. We’ll see you next episode.