Cayman Is Home

Real estate professionals love to talk about helping guide clients on their “property journey.” Like most cliches, this phrase is rooted in a universal truth. Not about real estate, but about people’s homes and the life stories that they tell.

I’ve always had a powerful sense of place, a legacy from generations of Jewish forbearers and New Yorkers. I grew up in the Catskills and built my real estate career in Manhattan. But I’ve made my home in the setting of my happiest childhood memories: the Cayman Islands.

The Rhulen family immediately fell in love with Grand Cayman when my parents first visited in 1973. They bought their first home at Christopher Columbus in 1978 alongside my father’s brother and his family. My dad Peter was an insurance executive who appreciated the ingenuity of Cayman’s emerging industry, and he opened a captive insurance company here.

My sisters Sam, Blake and I cared nothing about the business; we were all about being with our cousins and friends in our “backyard.” Seven Mile Beach was our sandbox and the Caribbean Sea our paddling pool. My love for the ocean grew each year; I became a certified SCUBA diver as soon as I turned 12, the minimum age allowed at the time.

When I was in high school, my parents bought at the Great House. For nearly 30 years this has been our gathering place. My father’s sister and her family were a sunset stroll up the beach at the Commonwealth and my father’s brother at the Casa Caribe. We’d kick off each year with fireworks on Seven Mile Beach and celebrate birthdays and family milestones together.

After graduating university, I had a six-month sojourn in Cayman before moving to South America for two and a half years for work, while travelling at every opportunity. I returned to New York and entered the competitive arena of commercial real estate. I worked my way up to Senior Vice President at CBRE, navigating the fierce demands of the world’s leading market by embracing a client-first philosophy and service approach. I was fortunate that continued travel both with my family and on my own helped foster openness and curiosity about the world beyond Manhattan’s 22 square miles. I visited all seven continents but no place on earth drew me more strongly than Grand Cayman.

In 2010 mental visits to my “happy place” helped me navigate a health scare. I had tumor in my leg, and in preparation for the surgery it took to remove it, I’d picture myself floating on a raft off Seven Mile Beach. That was that. It was time to make my happy place my home.

The first Cayman address of my own was in the welcoming enclave of Snug Harbour, which mixes newcomers and longstanding residents with astonishing ease. My son and I now live in Governors Harbour, the quintessential family neighbourhood. My “commute” to Rhulens’ Seven Mile Beach office rarely tops seven minutes. I’m equally close to the Great House, where my mom still spends much of the year.

Perhaps befitting the youngest of three sisters, I love Little Cayman with a particular ferocity. I appreciate its simplicity and tranquility and hope it stays protected for my son and his generation to enjoy. My condominium there is a treasured retreat that I share with family and the closest of friends.

For us Cayman has been a place of certainty and security when we needed it most. We lost my father in 2018, my son was born in 2019 and my mom and I were here together for the peak pandemic lockdown in 2020.

I make my living as a professional advisor specializing in real property. I guide clients in making sound investment decisions. But as my own property journey shows, I understand it when Cayman calls to you with a conviction that only deepens over time. It’s where the heart is, and there is no place like it. Cayman is home.