Carlos Royal
Retired Realtor, ® entrepreneur, author, lecturer and inventor.

Born in Oklahoma in 1943, Carlos and his family migrated to sunny California in the late forties looking for a better life. Carlos developed a strong work ethic early on, working twelve to eighteen-hour days with his father in the fields picking cotton, potatoes, corn and grapes. He attended Arvin High School and graduated in the top third of his class with a major in mechanical arts. He was class president, captained the football, wrestling and swimming teams and received the outstanding athlete award upon graduation in 1960.

After graduation Carlos joined the US Navy for four years. There he graduated #1 in his electronics class, and received special training in computers, radar, guided missiles and weapons control systems. While in the Navy, he had a “TOP SECRET” clearance and was on the commissioning crew of the guided missile frigate, the USS Harry E. Yarnell. His military service included action in both the Cuban water crisis and the early buildup of the Vietnam conflict. He made all ranks and received an honorable discharge in 1964.

After serving his country, like most returning veterans, he planned to go to college on the GI Bill, but instead he discovered real estate. He left college behind to get his real estate license in 1966. His first eight years in the business were spent in San Bernardino, California, where he received his real estate broker’s license and obtained a Certificate of Real Estate from San Bernardino Valley College. He quickly earned a reputation for being creative, innovative and a top producer, with his name going on the transaction board 31 times in a single month. To understand the significance of this, an average agent only sells one home every other month.

Carlos used video to sell real estate in the late sixties before VCR’s were invented, and he was one of the first to put a real estate office in a regional shopping mall in the early seventies. He was featured on the front cover of The Real Estate News Observer where he was described as a young broker on the move in California. He formed one of the first broker co-ops called Real Estate One. Today this would be called a franchise. He was a founding member of the first real estate exchange group in San Bernardino. He developed and taught two classes at San Bernardino Valley College: Tax Factors Affecting Real Estate and Real Estate Investment Strategies. He has personally purchased over 600 homes for fix-up and resale.  
In the early seventies, Carlos and his wife decided health and quality of life were most important and moved away from smog-ridden San Bernardino to the cleaner air of Valley Center in North San Diego County. There they purchased a twelve-acre avocado grove as the place to raise their family. Carlos operated a one-man office from his home and quickly became one of the leading land brokers in the area.

When financing became hard to obtain in the mid to late seventies, Carlos co-authored with Max Hollis Basic Steps to Using Private Money, which sold five thousand copies in hard cover. When interest rates went to 22%, he pioneered a graduated interest rate loan with Central Federal of San Diego to help complete one of his larger transactions. He traded $8.2 million in government bonds to Central Federal for their distressed/foreclosure properties.  When prices became so high in the late eighties and early nineties that few young people could afford housing in California, Carlos wrote the book The Magic of Lease Options or How to Rent for Less and Make a Fortune.

With their children grown, Carlos and his wife Donna moved to Del Mar, California, thinking about retirement. But it was not to be, as real estate values plummeted in the early nineties and many borrowers defaulted on loans they had invested in for their retirement.  Plus, about this time, son-in-law, Jon Faure, asked Carlos to “teach him the real estate business.” So, for the next seven years he operated Sea Royal Realty. During this time, he rebuilt his wealth buying houses as investments. He retired in 1999.  

For five years, from 1993 to 1998, Carlos hosted a weekly radio talk show, The Radio Real Estate Market on KCEO am 1000, plus he did the Jazz FM98 Real Estate Market Report. He has been a guest speaker at several state Realtor ® conventions and has conducted real estate and finance seminars on a national basis. He has subdivided land, built houses, manufactured RVs and even tried his hand at a reverse migration project in North Dakota.

As we enter the 21 st century, Carlos Royal just can’t quit. He continues to be innovative. While traveling with Donna in their motor home, he saw the need to reduce the stress when driving a large vehicle in the mountains or narrow streets. Most passengers feel they are hanging over the edge or going off the road. So Carlos invented a simple safety device for trucks, vans, RV’s and SUV’s. It is called the Lane Locator™. It attaches to the windshield and allows the driver and passenger to see at a glance the vehicle’s lane position. He has filed for a patent for this unique invention. It is one of those “why didn’t I think of that” products.  

Carlos and Donna have spent the last two years traveling in their motor home and have just recently purchased a new home on an acre in San Marcos, California. They plan to spend their leisure time planting a vegetable garden and three thousand daffodil bulbs. They both love flowers.

Carlos and Donna, his high school sweetheart, have been married 40+ years and have two grown children, Vicki and Wesley. The Royals like theatrical plays, motor-homing, fishing, photography and sporting events. To be truthful, Donna likes photography more than sporting events. “Retirement is great,” says Carlos. “We are always finding new exciting things to do. We have taken several classes at Adult Education, attended Photoshop seminars, plus we enjoy time with our grandchildren, Ashley and Austin. Do not ask me what I do all day. Ask me how I do it all!”

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