Meet our Instructors
Cleo Aquino - President / Lead Instructor
Real Estate professional with a bachelor’s degree in finance and certificate in philanthropy and non-profit work. Twenty years of combined experience in the Expatriate Tax, Education, and Real Estate Instruction. Experience in curriculum development, classroom management, and program development
Accolades:
2021 - 2022
AREAA Chicago
Treasurer
Carmen V. Chucrala, MBA - Vice President of Development and Expansion /Lead Instructor
Carmen Chucrala is the founder and Managing Broker of Habloft LLC, a Chicago based brokerage focused on real estate investments and portfolio diversification. She is also the co-founder of SPIRE Real Estate Education along with her business partner Cleo Aquino
Under her direction, Carmen provides an umbrella of services for clients to protect and grow their investment dollars. By leveraging her experiences in accounting, software implementation, and real estate investments, Carmen and her teams are developing a “one stop shop” business model that combines real estate and accounting services for small to mid-size businesses. Her client base is a network of real estate investors requiring expertise in diversifying their real estate portfolio, drafting business plans with five-year goals while creating compliance and due diligence systems. The objective is to build passive and active income.
Carmen takes pride in her Colombian heritage. It is from this perspective that she understands the entrepreneurial path one must undergo to achieve success for themselves and for their family as an immigrant. As a co-founder of the Chicagoland Latino Investor Organization, Carmen leads this Latino-driven initiative to serve as the voice for housing providers, property owners, and investors when policies compromise the ability for families to create and preserve generational wealth.
Carmen is the co-Founder of SPIRE Real Estate Education, Inc whose mission is to create successful paths in real estate for individuals seeking to become real estate professionals. Her contribution is to build partnerships with brokerages and companies to offer pre-licensing and continuing education coursework, and onboarding and training development programs. The purpose is to educate, innovate and train the next generation of real estate professionals.
Carmen holds a Master’s in Accountancy from the Keller Graduate School of Management with a dual bachelor’s degree in marketing and finance from DePaul University.
Accolades:
Best Selling Contributing Author -
Latinas in Real Estate
https://www.latinasinre.com/#authors
2020-2022
NAHREP- Chicago
Government Affairs Director
2021
Global Real Estate Council
Committee member
Multi License Real Estate Managing Broker
IL, TN, FL, IN