[00:00:00 – 00:00:28]

Carline Cadet Francios: And if I sense they’re a good people and they have a love for seniors specifically, then I want them on my team. If I have to pick between experience and inexperience, as long as they have the education, I would pick an inexperienced person who loves seniors, who love to serve them over an inexperienced person who don’t really care for our seniors, if I had to pick the lesser evil.

[00:00:29 – 00:01:04]

Intro: Welcome to the Share the Wealth Show, where minority professionals can learn to escape the racial wealth gap and catapult themselves into abundance. Your host, Nicole Pendergrass, grew her net worth from being negative to multiple six figures. Join her on her investigative mission to expose secret strategies of the wealthy so we can all have the tools needed to build the life and legacy we were created to possess. Now it’s time for the show.

[00:01:05 – 00:01:28]

Nicole Pendergrass: Hey guys, so we’re back again. This is the second part of the episode with today’s guests. I need you, if you have not heard part one, go back to the previous episode and listen to that first and then come back and join us here today. You need to hear the whole conversation. This is why we split into two parts. There’s so many nuggets, it’s so juicy. Go back and listen to the first part.

[00:01:29 – 00:03:29]

Nicole Pendergrass: So I believe that when we first talked that I had told you I was interested in the, residential assisted living like arena, but I was deciding between that and between multifamily. And of course, ultimately I went to multifamily and always thought that RLF would be part of my portfolio in the future. So I am definitely one of those who I’m still interested in this asset class, but I don’t wanna be hands-on. At least right now, I don’t wanna be super hands-on. I’d rather give that responsibility to someone else and I was still trying to figure out how can I be involved in that and add that to my portfolio and have another way that I can help create impact, right? So my thought was always that I would just maybe get a property that was, you know, the layout was good for seniors, didn’t have stairs and was just, it just helped better for the structure that it needs to be to accommodate seniors. And just rent it out at like a higher than long-term tenant rate for the rent of, you know, that particular unit or bedroom or whatever it is. But now that you introduced the whole idea of you can purchase an existing residential cent, a living facility, now I’m thinking like, oh, I could buy the whole business in the real estate too, right? So, if I was looking to buy a business, what would I need to look out for on anyone listening, if they would want to buy a business that’s pre-existing, what are the kind of metrics we’d need to look for to make sure that it’s a good buy? Like the profit margin is good. Like what, what would that look like on our end if we’re just want to purchase an existing business?

[00:03:30 – 00:05:48]

Carline Cadet Francios: So you’d wanna make sure that the business is bringing enough income. Some of it could be like most of the businesses that will sell is because they’re very poorly managed. The person probably don’t have enough confidence to present their prices. So they’re probably charging a lot lower than what it should be. So let’s say for example, you came in buying a business that is underperforming. But you know what you can get per room. But then the business is full. Like let’s say it’s at full capacity. So now you have a problem. You’re either gonna raise up the rent or you’re gonna give notices to the residents to leave. So pay attention to how the property is managed, how the business is managed. I mentioned property in business for a reason. Because the business and the property are two different entities being managed in one unit. And each one of them have to be managed effectively for you to have a good business where families will come in and wanna pay you what you believe you can get for it. And they’ll believe that it’s worth it. So I would ask for paperwork like taxes, for example, let me see how much the business made. But knowing how much the business could make, I don’t want people to say, let’s see you look at the taxes and you see the person really didn’t make any money. Maybe that’s why they’re selling it, because they don’t know what they’re doing. But you can come in based on what’s going on inside of the business, meaning whether it’s full or it’s halfway full or have you, and you take proper steps, making sure that if you don’t have experience, you get people…on your team who do have the experience. You mentioned on not being able to, not wanting to be completely involved for have you can hire an administrator depending on how much the business is making. You know, you have an administrator that’s running the business. That’s another way that you don’t have to be completely involved, but you fully own the business.

[00:05:49 – 00:07:26]

Nicole Pendergrass: Okay, that’s a great. Great point because that’s how we evaluate some multifamily purchases. They’re not making as much as they could, but that’s because maybe they’re under market rent. Maybe there’s updates to the actual building that needs to be made. So going in and maybe rehabbing the building, which is the one business, can affect the other business, which is actually the residents. And maybe that will help the residents and their families be okay with paying a higher market rent. Because you’ve upgraded the facility in general. So it’s kind of almost the same as multifamily in that regard. So, okay, the last thing I’m gonna ask on this stem of the conversation is when looking for the people outside of the numbers, I know that having the staff and even having an administrator or things like that is really about the person. And you’re still managing people, right? People get sick, people need time off, people get stressed. You know what I mean? How do you interview or kind of vet the people that you are hiring to make sure you’re bringing in experienced people who actually also still care and have a heart and aren’t gonna just be like the government workers or the institution workers that we were talking about earlier, they don’t wanna give you all the information and blah, blah, blah. How do you kind of look at the staff in hiring and set that up for success in an acquisition of a residential assisted living?

[00:07:27 – 00:10:26]

Carline Cadet Francios: So I come in, normally when I do my interviews, I do it to where it is not just me asking strict questions because that’s what society says I have to do. I have a conversation and get to feel the person. Part of my background, I came from law enforcement. You know, so I kind of have a way, I think, I like to say, I can kind of sense evil and good. And I pay attention to my senses. And I want to make sure that they love what they do. Yes, you want to get paid. Yes, you want to be able to have good. A good boss that you work for, but at the end of the day, when your boss walk away, I leave you with my residents that I’m responsible for, that I tell their families that I will take care of them. I have to make sure that I’m leaving my resident with somebody who is in a sound place. So I look for other things like how the person…I asked for examples, if there was a senior that did something to you. For example, worst case scenario I’ve heard, a senior slapped somebody, you know, what did you do? And if that happened to you, what would you do? Things like that, and we have little conversation. And if I sense there are good people and they have a love for seniors specifically, then I want them on my team. If I have to pick between experience and inexperience, as long as they have the education, I would pick an inexperienced person who loves seniors, who love to serve them over an experienced person who don’t really care for our seniors, if I had to pick the lesser evil. So when I interview, when I speak to, and I like to start the interview and they don’t know it, but…when I pick up that initial phone call and I say, are you so and so, and they say yes, to me, that’s when the interview begins. Because now I watch how they treat me because they don’t know who I am yet. And that’s how you kind of like decipher the good from the not so good. But it’s a lot of prayer and paying attention. And if you made a mistake, you hired the wrong person, get rid of them as soon as possible. Do not wait, do not try to make them right. Don’t do that because we’re human. Sometimes we can do as many due diligence as possible and we still get it wrong. And if you got it wrong, the remedy is to fire them right away and replace them because you don’t wanna take that liability.

[00:10:27 – 00:10:28]

Nicole Pendergrass: Okay, perfect.

[00:10:29 – 00:12:08]

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[00:12:09 – 00:13:57]

Nicole Pendergrass: Actually, I lied. I said that that was the last question in this. I understand, but I have one more. So let’s say I’m on the other verge of, instead of acquiring an existing a facility or starting one myself. Let’s say I have the property, it’s ADA accessible, it’s good for seniors and what have you. And I just want to find a good operator that has a thriving business. Maybe they’re expanding or maybe they just, the facility that they’re at is not optimal for them and they wanna move their seniors over to, a new building, right? How do I, should I be even vetting the operator? To make sure that they are actually having the income to pay the rent that I’d be charging? And what is a reasonable expectation for just on average? I know it’s gonna be different for different areas and different people, et cetera, but like, what should you expect, let’s say for a single family home? I won’t even do multi right now, but if you have a single family home, what should you expect? Maybe even I don’t know what’s the easier way it’s for the building or per bedroom how or per resident, however, you want to say what should you expect if you’re just renting the facility and you have nothing to do with the business, because I know you can get a little bit higher than if you were. renting to a long term resident so, however, whatever is the best metric to kind of show that whether it’s per bedroom for the building for the resident, but what should you expect income wise for rent. And then how do you make sure that if you should even be looking at the operator of the building to make sure that it’s a good operator and that they can pay that elevated rent?

[00:13:58 – 00:15:06]

Carline Cadet Francios: So it would be from person to person. Like if I were the operator coming in, I want to make sure that I’m going to operate this business and I’m going to make money also. So it’s all about negotiating. When it comes to like how much per se, it really depends because at the end of the day, you as the business owner and the investor, you wanna have, you have in mind what you need to make. You have your low amount that you have to make and you have the highest amount and you have the middle one that you’re gonna negotiate with. It’s gonna be the same with the operator. So it’s pretty much like together we come up, you know, as the… the person who owns it, you’re going to have your expectations and the operator would have their expectations. It’s pretty much a negotiation, pretty much. You’re not just going to say, I want this much, and they’re going to say yes. They’re going to sit down. They’re going to look, OK, if I need to do X, Y, and Z, I need to keep that much for myself. Maybe we need to look at the numbers and see how we can work together on that.

[00:15:07 – 00:15:33]

Nicole Pendergrass: Okay, because even I’ve thought about the idea of, even if you partner with a particular operator, like you find a good operator and you partner with them, like maybe they don’t have the capacity to purchase the building, but you do and you purchase a building with that operator in mind or, you know, hopefully that still works out, but then you can kind of negotiate upfront what that might look like depending on the kind of building that you get, or is that something that would be?

[00:15:34 – 00:17:40]

Carline Cadet Francios: That is something that you can look into. Because at the end of the day, some people want to get in this business and they don’t have the money, for the startup costs, you know? And another idea you may have is instead of having an operator, you might decide to have an administrator as part of your employees and they run the day to day and you might decide, you know, once a month, I’m gonna pop in, I’m gonna have a meeting, tell me what’s going on, blaze, blaze, and so on and so forth. And have an open communication to where if a family member really have a deep issue, that they can email you and have another level in the chain of command for complaints. But that’s also if keeping much of the income coming in is one of your strategies, that is also something you can look into instead of having an operator. Because the operator is gonna want more than the administrator would because the administrator is your employee and the operator is a business owner themselves because you know, they’re operating this business and then together, they are your partner and they want a certain amount, you want a certain amount and it’s pretty much a negotiation. But if you didn’t want that, instead of having that operator over everything by themselves, perhaps putting an administrator in place, that’s gonna run the building, making sure the paperwork is in order, making sure they’re… you know, your senses are what they’re supposed to be. They will know how to find residents. They will know how to speak to the family members. They will know how to assess a potential new resident. They will do everything for you. But then they are your employees. You pay them a per hour rate. And then if you choose to, maybe you can throw a little bonus here and there, but. That’s one of the ways that you can keep the bulk of your income.

[00:17:41 – 00:18:19]

Nicole Pendergrass: Nice. Okay. Find where would you find operators or administrators? Like are there particular groups that you can join or network in and like, where do, where do people in the residential assisted living community kind of congregate the people who are the operators and administrators and workers in that field. Or the particular like Facebook group or the particular mentorship groups you can join, or what is it that you can do to surround yourself with quality people and get to watch them from a distance, just kind of see how they interact before you start that negotiation or approach them with a partnership idea?

[00:18:20 – 00:20:28]

Carline Cadet Francios: Right, so there are a lot of Facebook groups to find administrator or operator, as you might call it on the Molto family well. Craigslist, you know, those employment websites. You want to make sure, especially if you don’t want to be involved. Indeed is one that I use a lot. If you don’t want to be involved, you want to have an administrator that have a passion for seniors combined with experience. And you want to be specific. You want to be specific to the size of your building. Let’s say they were an administrator for a very large ALF, and now you’re running a smaller residential ALF. You want to make sure they have that specific experience, because at the end of the day, they will know what to do, and that will minimize the number of questions that may come to your email. You know, and that’s one of the ways that you can make sure you get the right people in. Ask people about them. You know, ask them for their prior. Employers that they worked for two years ago, six years ago. And, and, you know, I’m not really too fond with calling current employers. Oftentimes it’s just like when we assess people for, to as tenants, you know, you call the current landlord, they’re going to tell you, oh yeah, they are the best tenant that you can find under the sun because they’re trying to get rid of them. Right. Yeah. Ask them for references and call those prior employers and find out how were they. Ask them for coworkers. Are you comfortable sharing with me some of the coworkers that you work with? Call them up and find out how was this person. So you can actually get a real gauge of what this person is really like before you hire them for them to be in full control of your facility pretty much as the administrator.

[00:20:29 – 00:20:30]

Nicole Pendergrass: Yeah, perfect.

[00:20:31 – 00:21:03]

Ad2: Are you enjoying this episode? Then stop what you’re doing right now. Head over to Apple podcasts and leave us a rating and review. It really helps our show get pushed to more people who are looking for the information that we’re sharing here. We have to share the wealth. If you listen to us on YouTube, make sure you like the episode that you’re listening to right now and subscribe to our channel, then share the channel with somebody else. There are people out there looking for the information you’re listening to right now. So make sure you share it with someone who you know needs it. Now back to the show.

[00:21:04 – 00:22:26]

Nicole Pendergrass: Okay. Wow. I love that this conversation has been so full of so many gems that, um, it’s this little morsels like we have a segment at the end that we ask, uh, all of our guests, thank you so much for being our guests, um, today and giving us so much information, but this final segment where we ask the same questions to each guest, the kind of. Get a feel for different people’s mindset when it comes to different questions and topics, but it’s called digest with the guest because our guests leave so many morsels and just. chewable bits that we really need to like savor and really digest honestly to get the full gamut of what was being shared today so we’re going to hop into that segment again Carly Thank you so much. I appreciate you. I know the listeners appreciate you, the wealth preneurs that are, um, consistent with us in listening and part of our community. So I can’t wait to see what happens with you next in your journey. And if anybody is listening who wants to get more information about this, we will have the link to her, the, uh, the document, the resource document you mentioned, we’ll have the link to that in the show notes, we will also have the link to your book with the name of your book.

[00:22:27 – 00:22:33]

Carline Cadet Francios: How to start an assisted living facility from start to finish. It’s available on Amazon.

[00:22:34 – 00:23:27]

Nicole Pendergrass: Nice. Okay, we will have the link to that in the show notes as well, because I want you guys to really dig in. And anyone who is listening who’s interested in this type of business or the asset class or having the business and the building, just it’s all, it’s fantastic. It’s so much impact that you can leave to the generation who paved the way before us. Right. And we want to keep them in mind, the seniors and make sure that they are living abundantly, right. And living with the support that they need. So in any case, okay, digest with the guests. Let’s digest. Orrin Buffett said diversification is protection against ignorance. I take that to mean that basically people diversify because maybe they don’t know what they’re doing and to spread that risk around, but like what’s your take on that? Is it a positive or negative thing? What do you think about that phrase?

[00:23:28 – 00:24:13]

Carline Cadet Francios: I think we can’t have all of our eggs in one basket. And I love Warren Buffett. He talks about how when everyone is fearful, that’s when you should jump head first and take the opportunity. I do believe being able to have multiple eggs in multiple different baskets is the way to go to build wealth and to leave generational wealth. God forbid something happens to you and you only have one stream of income, it is going to be very difficult for you to maintain like your current lifestyle if something happens to you. So having multiple streams of income, way to go.

[00:24:14 – 00:24:28]

Nicole Pendergrass: Definitely, I agree with that 100%. In the name, in the name, in the game of monopoly boardwalk or Baltic, what is your first purchase to win the game and why was the strategy there?

[00:24:29 – 00:24:34]

Carline Cadet Francios: I don’t play Monopoly.

[00:24:35 – 00:25:16]

Nicole Pendergrass: Oh, man. Okay. So we’re going to do a fictitious example. So Boardwalk is the most expensive property, like a class, expensive amenities, all the, all the things in the gray area, all of that. And Baltic is the cheapest property, probably like a C minus and maybe, um, voucher residents and you know, it’s just cheaper kind of area, not that many amenities, that kind of thing. So between the expensive versus the cheap property, if you were playing, what would be your idea for, what would be your first purchase in building your portfolio? What would be the first way you would go?

[00:25:17 – 00:26:07]

Carline Cadet Francios: It depends. I probably would go with the middle because if I pick the cheap one, there’s gonna be some remedies. If I have enough money, I might have to make it look a certain way or make it be a certain way so that someone can come in and it will be livable. But if I pick the higher end, I may not have the flexibility to add value or to do much because it’s already so higher end. So I think for me with my personality, I probably would stick in the middle somewhere, you know, like a B-type property or sort, do a little bit of fixing here and there add some type of value and then, you know, I find my ideal clients from there.

[00:26:08 – 00:26:25]

Nicole Pendergrass: Nice. And that’s, as you were talking, that’s what I was thinking. You like, you like a value add project, but not just like not a heavy value add, like a light value add project. Yeah. I’m kind of the same. I feel like, okay. In, um, oh, that one. Yes. What does wealth mean to you?

[00:26:26 – 00:27:31]

Carline Cadet Francios: Wealth means to me, freedom, being able to. I was having this conversation with my 15-year-old last Saturday, usually on Saturdays, we have a mommy education about money, because growing up, we don’t talk about money. So I make it my point to talk about money. Wealth means teaching my kids what I know that has helped, that has allowed me to have freedom, that has allowed us to live how we wanna live. Take vacations, go to the restaurant and be able to pick what we want without ever looking at the prices, being free, being able to not talk about the lack of money in the household. So in my household, we don’t talk about the lack of money. We talk about how money can better our lives than the lives of others that are within our wealth. And also, to leave something behind for the next generation coming up, creating generational wealth.

[00:27:32 – 00:28:34]

Nicole Pendergrass: Okay, I love that. And the sharing of information, I think that’s probably one of the biggest pieces of wealth, because if you just give stuff to someone or give wealth to someone and they don’t know what to do with it, they can just like lose it very quickly or spend it all and not invest it or grow it appropriately. So that’s…what this whole show is about is like sharing the wealth, which is the wealth is the information, right? What you do with the information is only you. So if you have a personality to take information and implement it, then you’re going to be wealthy and successful, right? But if you’re just gonna sit on the information, that’s a recipe for not disaster, but for just stagnancy, right? So I love that, sharing the information and teaching your kids. I love the money Saturdays. Oh, I need to start doing that. In some kind of way I’m always looking for little things to do with my kids that will help them learn, even at a young age, so that it can start just being part of their psyche growing up you know.

[00:28:35 – 00:28:42]

Carline Cadet Francios: Yeah you’ll be surprise how smart, they are. You know they are. yeah they’re very smart you’ll be surprised try and let me know.

[00:28:43 – 00:29:37]

Nicole Pendergrass: Yeah well I’ve done a little bit, and so what I mainly do is what I explained one time about investing and what that is that your money makes money babies because they always are talking with their baby dolls and things like that so she will if I ask her what’s investing she’ll say oh is getting money babies. I love that. I’m gonna like little things here and there but definitely gonna keep building on that. Okay so another question that we have is we ask each guest to come up with a question for the next guest. So the previous guest is actually, um, Avery El Duvernay and she asked for you, what’s the best business advice you would give to someone new who wants to jump into entrepreneurship, but they just don’t know how to start that journey.

[00:29:38 – 00:30:29]

Carline Cadet Francios: I would say get started, get started, build that momentum. We don’t have to know everything. I’m more of a, like informational hoarder. Like I will read, read, read, because I love to read, listen, listen, listen. And then I noticed that about myself a few years ago. And I learned once I know enough to get started, you know, find out what you need to do, whether you need to file with the state, do that, and then get started right away. Try to find your next customers. Because you build momentum and you push yourself to learn more because in business, you’re not gonna know everything. You learn more as you go. So if you’re waiting to learn as much as you believe you need to learn, you’re never going to get started. So I would say just go ahead and get started before you think you know enough.

[00:30:30 – 00:31:28]

Nicole Pendergrass: Yes, and I think we touched on that at the very beginning too, because you were saying how you just started and you didn’t know what you didn’t know. You just were making all the mistakes and going back and forth. 50 times to the, or maybe a thousand times to the different offices and making and finding out what you needed to know. Um, but you were taking those steps and moving forward. So yeah. Um, I think that’s a great answer. Entrepreneurship is never a straight roadmap. And even if you’re following someone else’s footsteps and trying to see what potholes you can avoid the journey, their journey is never going to be the same as your journey. So there’s going to be potholes that they never experienced that you will just have to learn for yourself. But is building up that that strength to just keep pushing through regardless of what happens, so I love that with that answer um now, do you have a question you want to leave for our next guest it could be. Anything. To be business related it can be funny could just be whatever you want.

[00:31:29 – 00:32:20]

Carline Cadet Francios: So, because I deal with seniors and they have already lived their lives and now they’re just you know chilling and I like to ask them things like. You know, I’ll pick my age and I’ll say, when you were my age, what did you do? What were you like? And what do you wish you could have done better? And I tell you, the wisdom I get to learn is beyond my imagination. So for the next guess, I will say, what did you wish you did a few years ago? I don’t wanna put a number to that years. And then I wanna say, take it back on that and say, if you did what you thought you wanted to do, how would that have affected your life today?

[00:32:21 – 00:33:34]

Nicole Pendergrass: Okay perfect I was just typing that down, so I have it next time I love it that’s a really good question okay I can’t wait to see who who is next and who gets that question how to answer it um okay. Thank you, thank you again, I mean this was fantastic we had little technical difficulties at the beginning and near the end, but we made it happen. I really love it. I love the information. I love your journey. And just the strength that you’ve endured going through and pushing through and just still being able to give impact to people in need and having that passion for, you know, for the elderly and the generation before us. So I really appreciate your work in that area. And I know the listeners do too. How else? We will have the links to your website to the…the resource page you have to your book and all of that in the show notes. But how else can the listeners connect with you if they want more interest and information, maybe on being one of your mentees and your students or, you know, finding out more about residential assisted living.

[00:31:29 – 00:34:13]

Carline Cadet Francios: So Carleen Cadet Francois all across social media and Carleen Cadet Francois dot com. Reach out and listen. Someone helps me because someone paved the way somewhere, some way or another, because I’ve been able to live my dreams. And even though I did a lot of work to get myself there, some way, some where somebody paved the way to where now I have the rights to want these things that I want and to get them accomplished. So if I can help someone, I’m open to help.

[00:34:15 – 00:35:14]

Nicole Pendergrass: Perfect, I love that, thank you. And that is your contribution to sharing the wealth. And I really appreciate that. Everyone, please share this episode with someone who you know is interested in alternative ways of building wealth and creating an impact. So if this resonated with you, if you thought that there were other gems dropped here, even if you’re not looking at residential assisted living. There’s so much other information and mindset and strategy that we discussed today that I really believe is just so impactful for you going forward on your wealth building and entrepreneurial journey. So please share this episode. Um, like subscribe wherever you’re listening or watching us, um, to make sure that this gets shared with more people who are interested in building wealth. So thank you so much, Carlene, again, and we appreciate you and everyone. I’ll see you next time.

[00:35:15 – 00:35:40]

Outro: Did you love this episode of share the wealth show? Be sure to connect with Nicole by following her on LinkedIn, Instagram, or Facebook. If you picked up any of the gems that were dropped by today’s guests, make sure you not only put them in your bag, but if you know of someone who would benefit from this information, don’t keep it to yourself, share the wealth and make sure to leave us a rating and review. We’ll see you for next week’s episode. Subscribe so you’ll be notified.