September 30, 2025 • 41 mins
What if your clients didn’t need you in the room to feel fully served? We sit down with Guillermo Salas—born and raised in Philly, now raising four kids in Madrid—to unpack how he moved abroad, kept his real estate business thriving, and actually got closer to the life he wanted. The surprise isn’t that remote real estate works; it’s that leading with transparency and well-documented systems can grow your business while you live where you feel most alive.
Guillermo walks us through the pivotal lessons from COVID that shattered the myth of mandatory face time and opened the door to video-first service, no-attendance closings, and on-demand showing assistants. We explore the power of authenticity as a differentiator, the ego trap that keeps agents glued to tasks others can do, and the concrete SOPs that make “boots on the ground” reliable and repeatable. From time-zone routines that reserve afternoons for U.S. calls to morning rhythms built around family, we map a workday that respects both clients and life.
We also get practical about visas, first-week logistics, and why you shouldn’t move to your vacation. Spain won for language immersion, culture, and cost of living—but the family still pivoted from a sleepy coastal town to Madrid’s energy to match their actual needs. On the business side, Guillermo shares how global referrals, virtual brokerages, revenue share, and stock can stack durable wealth on top of deal income. We talk financial literacy for agents, lowering fixed costs, and turning expertise into products—courses, coaching, and playbooks—that travel anywhere.
If you’ve felt the pull to live abroad or simply design a saner, more option-rich version of your career, this conversation gives you the blueprint: systems over heroics, honesty over posturing, and multiple income streams over endless hustle. Subscribe, share this with a friend who needs a nudge, and leave a review to tell us where you’d build your life if the “how” stopped holding you back.
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Office number: 215- 607-3535
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Maria Quattrone (00:00):
All right, so today I'm excited.
Be the Solution Podcast.
And on the podcast thismorning, we have Guillermo
Salas.
And Guillermo is somebody thatI've known for many years.
Haven't seen him or talked tohim in a while, but go back to
at one point Guillermo had aRemax broker, a brokerage here
(00:22):
in Philadelphia.
And so I'm excited to talk tohim because now him and his wife
and family, uh, his wifeDanielle and family now live in
Spain and still continue to runa team, sell real estate here in
Philadelphia.
And so I my quote for youtoday, Guillermo, is this is I
(00:46):
make quotes specifically for myguest on my this quote is for
you.
Where there is a will, there isa way.
Guillermo Salas (00:57):
Absolutely.
And it's true, it really is.
People ask me all the time,like, how are you doing this?
And what I I've coached becauseI also coach, like the how is
what stops people, right?
Oftentimes we have thesedreams, and then you start
thinking about how am I going toaccomplish that?
And we just stop.
You know, COVID was a thing, itwas tough for everybody, but
the silver lining was it taughtus that I could do this already,
(01:20):
right?
Like we all did it.
We already did it.
We've already experienced howto sell remotely.
And we came out thatexperience, we were closer with
our family.
I didn't want to go back andnot spend that quality time with
our kids.
We had always dreamed abouttraveling around the world um
and taking a year off.
Now, COVID did teach us thatthere's no way I wanted to
(01:41):
homeschool my kids.
Like that was something Ididn't want to do.
So the backup plan was hey, Iwanted them to learn Spanish as
well.
Let's go to Spain.
It was supposed to be one year,one year turned into two after
the second year.
We sold everything other thanour investment properties in the
US, and we've now made uh Spainour home for the last four
almost four and a half years.
Okay, so let's go back for asecond.
(02:02):
So was so COVID was the uhinstigator of this move.
Well, yeah, I mean it's it wasalways our dream, right?
To to like live abroad, travel.
We love traveling, like that'sthat's one of the things we make
money so we can go travel andsee the world.
Um if you know anything aboutme, uh that's what we do.
(02:24):
We just came back from threeweeks in Sicily, yeah.
And now, you know, I'm I'mlike, well, how can I stay there
for longer?
Italy and wherever.
So you this was your dream.
Your dream was to live abroad.
It is, and to travel the worldand see, listen, we have we have
you know one life, and I wantto see the most of this
(02:46):
beautiful world that we have.
And uh we all we had theconversation.
Like, I love Philadelphia, bornand raised, go eagles, all that
stuff.
But I was always like, why dowe live here?
Like, you know, it's the coldis cold, it's humid.
Like, I want to see what theworld has to offer.
And we had this idea, but likeI said earlier, the how, like,
how do how do I move abroad whenI've got a brokerage, how I've
(03:10):
got a team, all my real estatesales are local here.
And again, so did the the COVIDpiece was like, all right,
well, we're we're we're lockedup in the last place we owned
was over there in Moorestown,New Jersey.
Like, we're here in Jersey,we're still selling real estate.
I'm not seeing clients face toface.
We're finding where there's awill, there's a way, like you
said, and we were able to figureout all right, there is this,
(03:34):
there's a path here, there'ssomething we got here.
And when the doors startopening up, we didn't want to go
backwards.
And so we've proven it.
Like to I stopped counting fora while, but at one point in
time, I did the calculation.
I've closed over 550transactions since I've been
abroad.
And customers, you know, allthe things that you think would
(03:56):
be an issue.
Uh, yeah, that first year, Ididn't I wasn't really upfront
about the fact that I wasabroad.
I think that I was living in adifferent country.
As soon as I sort of embracedit, more business team, right?
I now you're right, you'rewalking in, you know, in your
authenti authenticity, andauthenticity attracts it,
(04:17):
doesn't it doesn't dispel soright?
So you're authentic, you'rebeing the solution, and you
people attract your people areattractive regardless, it
doesn't matter as long as you'rein your authenticity.
I did.
I mean, and the reality is alot of the things that we do as
real estate agents don't requirephysical presence as much as we
(04:38):
feel like they they need to beor or that they were in the
past, which is video makes a lotof things easier.
Um, I am with an organizationfor the very few things that
actually require physicalpresence.
Um, I just need to put a couplethings in place.
So I'm with an organizationthat that is broad enough that I
can have uh people availablewhatever period of time to go
(05:00):
maybe do a video screening.
Uh nobody attends closingsanymore.
At least I I don't, and none ofmy clients do.
We haven't since COVID.
I mean before.
So when you Maria, when youstart thinking about like what
do you actually physically gotbe present for?
You really don't.
I I agree with you.
Yeah, I you really don't needto be present because I do 95%
(05:23):
of my listing appointments onthe phone.
I don't even do the Zoom.
Well, well, that's and but likepresent mean I mean physically
present.
You have to be present.
Like I'm in my clients' world,I'm serving them, I'm super
responsive.
Like, I gotta tell you, when Itell my my clients that I'm in
Spain, they're like, it's theconversation where real estate
(05:44):
just ends.
They're like, Cool, tell me howhow are you doing this?
This is so cool.
You're living your life, yourdreams.
It's never been a negative.
And I've actually talked aboutthis on other podcasts.
The one listing that I've lostis the one where I actually felt
insecure about it, got on aplane, flew back to Philly
because it was like a two and ahalf million dollar list in the
(06:04):
middle of Center City, and it'sthe only one that I've lost over
this time period.
Why they make they must havesmelled insecurity on me, like,
oh my god, you can't servicethis from abroad, or or and
that's the only one that I'velost.
All the other ones are like,you know, I just lean into it.
I'm like, this is who I am.
And like you said, if you'reauthentic, the people that want
(06:24):
to work with you in this mannerwill lean in.
The ones that don't, I wasnever meant to work with them
anyway.
And so that's okay, right?
How did you um so you have bootson the ground here?
So people can do the tours,like it's the same thing.
If you have a listing and youhave a buyer, buyer's probably
going to be represented bysomebody else in your
(06:45):
organization, I would imagine.
Yep, I refer it out, and I mean,I either refer it out or or
have a showing assistant, right?
There's all different ways youcan do that.
I've got a we have I have uh Icall them listing assistants, so
I'll send one of my listingpartners, uh send them to get
paperwork signed for people thatneed to sign in person that
(07:07):
I'll come into the office or notdocu-signed.
And I pay them a flat fee, Ipay $500, and everybody's happy.
It really is.
It's it's one of the thingsthat throughout throughout the
course of my career, I'vecreated systems and processes
and documented them.
And in fact, I I'm very closeto creating a course to teach
(07:28):
other people to do this becausein my organization, I've now had
somebody who traveled andwanted to do this and has done
this from Morocco, has done itfrom Portugal.
I have one who's leaving inNovember to do this in Thailand.
And it really is likeeverything else.
If it's you're authentic, youhave a system behind it.
We talked about a showingassistant.
(07:49):
I have a whole system behindit, like, hey, how that person
interacts with our client, howthey show the house, the
questions that they ask, howthey report back to me.
And they're just, you know, thereally the reality is we feel
like clients need us, and that'sjust the ego.
They don't need Yermo.
And frankly, they don't needMaria.
(08:10):
That's correct.
They need what they want is whatthe customer service or the the
the experience that yourepresent, right?
And I can duplicate the system,they need your system.
You build a system, they needthe system, they're buying the
system.
Yeah, they're buying theexperience, and I can teach
people how to do thatexperience, right?
Absolutely.
(08:31):
I 100% agree with all of that.
Yeah, it's like when they thinkwhen you think they need you,
like Irma or Maria, that's 100%ego talking.
That means you're not trustingsomebody else in your
organization that you built for20 years to do what you do, and
(08:51):
then shame on you.
Yeah, well, and the other partof this Maria that's really,
really important to and ispassionate.
I've actually my wife and Ihave created another company
around it called Expat Living.
Is you know, um, I'm 50 now,about to be 51 in January.
My my mom passed away at 52,and my mom and dad had talked
about traveling the world theirentire lives, and they never got
(09:14):
that.
You know, tomorrow's neverpromised.
That's that's my quote.
And uh, you know, we so oftenpush off the things that we
truly, truly want to do andaccomplish in life for this
promise down the road, and andthat you don't have that
promise.
And so that's for the peopleout there that that this is part
of their dream, they wish theycould do it.
(09:36):
One, you got to do it now, yougot to take action, right?
And number two, the the otherthing that keeps people back
beyond is is the sometimes it'ssort of the thought that like I
can't afford this or I can't dothis.
Well, you you can make incomeabroad, and two, when you're
making income in a high sort ofdollar market like the US or
(09:57):
like the UK or like Canada, andyou're spending those dollars in
a low-cost environment like aCosta Rica, Panama, parts of
Spain, man, retirement is somuch easier, or it gets a lot
closer, and your and yourstandard of living goes up way
high.
So, for all those reasons, I'msuper passionate about what
(10:18):
we're doing and how we're doingthis, and and then committed
myself to teach other people howto do it because a lot of
people want to do it, but justthey're afraid on how to, you
know, they don't know how thehow.
And like I said, the how to it'slike it's like where do you
start, right?
It's yeah, yeah, it soundsgreat, but where do you start?
I thought I'm like, you knowwhat?
I said, let's go to Italy orwherever, but in this case,
(10:44):
Italy, let's do a month and thenlet's do another month in 2026.
Let's do two months, two fullmonths and work, like regular
work.
Yeah, live, right?
Yeah, like live and work.
You know, the the cost ofliving is so much high, even if
we just rent it.
We're renting a like abooking.com, right?
(11:06):
An apartment.
It's not it's more money,right?
For that, because it's likevacationing, but we're not
vacationing.
But still, the cost of livingis less.
The cost of food, the type offood that you get to eat,
they're killing us slowly herein US.
I mean, you're talking by talkwith me.
In fact, that's why we said westarted X Patters.
I'm sick of this for all thereasons that you're just saying.
(11:29):
It's not just it's living thedream, living your full life,
but yeah, health-wise, I waslike, you know, we're running
this rat race and in thishamster wheel, and like we're
eating fast food 24-7 because wegot, you know, for those of you
that don't know me, though, Ihave four children.
The oldest is 17, the youngestis 11, and we were all at
(11:51):
different activities, and we'rejust in this grind of like
activities and eating bad food.
So, yeah, that they they moveabroad.
And listen, I don't want thisto be a thing, like I love the
US.
It's my country, there's somany great things about it.
This is the right path for me,right?
I get no judgment for anybodywho doesn't want to live this
life, but one of the factorsthat I factored, many of the
(12:12):
factors, like safety for mykids, right?
We they were probably gonna gointo sort of neighborhoods that
I didn't feel comfortable withanymore that I grew up in for
school.
Number two is the food.
Like I can actually read theingredients here.
And you know, we started beforewe even got on the on this
call.
My son's gonna go to universitynext year.
Like, he's gonna save hundredsof thousands of dollars.
(12:35):
He's gonna go to universityhere in the EU, most likely, or
even the UK.
And it's life-changing money interms of what he's gonna be
able to save, and he's notsacrificing level education.
So, again, there's so manydifferent factors that go into
this health, spending more timewith your family, live in that
dream.
I believe for me, it's superimportant to raise global
(12:56):
citizens and just experience theworld and experience different
cultures, and actually informsmy my business practices at a
deeper and better level.
And I feel like I can actuallysupport my clients better
because of it.
So I could go on and on and onwhy this why this sort of
lifestyle makes sense and why Imade the choice.
How did you end up in Spain?
(13:18):
So Spain was it's funny, Ithought my my favorite country
in Europe was was Italy, and itis one of my favorites.
Like we went there on ahoneymoon uh right before COVID.
We did sort of like what youwere talking about, Maria.
We like we would go, we startedout like going on vacation for
first two, three weeks, thenbecame a month.
August became our month becauseit's sort of a little slower,
(13:39):
it wasn't like dead business,but it was slower business,
slow, yeah, right.
And so that's why we go the andthe first week is two weeks in
September, and then when I comeback, it picks up.
Yep, so that's where we wouldliterally take off the month of
August and try different places,and we had tried California,
Costa Rica, uh Italy, and thenSpain was the last place, and we
(14:01):
just fell in love with it.
Obviously, a lot of people knowme.
I'm Puerto Rican, and so Iwanted my kids to speak Spanish.
Um, I didn't speak Spanish verywell, and so it was a personal
journey for me.
Like I needed to, we had trieda couple of different things,
and immersion was the thing wehadn't tried.
And so I actually put our kidsin uh public school in the
southern coasts of Spain in asmall little pueblo that nobody
(14:23):
spoke English barely, and theybecame fluent within a couple
months.
So that was a big driver for mefor them to learn Spanish, for
me to really uh get over thismental fear and hurdle of not
speaking Spanish uh as well as Iwanted to.
And with a name like Yero, man,like you don't speak Spanish,
it's it's embarrassing.
So it's okay.
Now you speak Spanish, yeah.
(14:45):
So yeah, now we do, and it'sactually our kids are starting
to learn French.
So it's interesting, it'sreally cool seeing them.
You're in southern Spain.
No, now I'm in Madrid.
So the first year we were insouthern Spain.
We thought it was what youthink.
Like you you go, we had thisbeautiful house which was so
cheap on a cliff, overlookingthe Mediterranean, and it sort
(15:07):
of was a story of why you don'tmove to where you vacation.
So, like it was great for thefirst few months, but then it
was just a little slow place forus for where we were in our
life.
The kids, you know, we all havefour teenagers practically now.
They were bored, and my wifewas bored, and so we moved to
Madrid, and we love, love, loveMadrid.
(15:28):
Absolutely.
I missed the water becausethat's that's my connection to
nature.
I love to fish, I love to be inthe water, but I get that in
other ways.
For instance, we spent a monthin Scotland just now in August,
uh, and the year before we wentto Ireland.
And how did you circumvent thewhole uh visa and all that?
So we didn't circumvent it.
My wife did, God bless her, sheresearched it all.
(15:49):
She figured out what visa wecould move over initially that
has changed, and and it's aprocess.
So, like we figured out how todo the different types of visas.
Again, that's why we createdthis company called Expat
Living, because people don'tknow this stuff.
And while the information isout there, especially with the
you know, with AI beingprevalent everywhere now, it's
(16:12):
great.
How do you do it?
Like, how do you take all thisinformation, compile it in a way
that actually you can get fromstep A to step uh Z in a way
that doesn't, you know, make allthe mistakes that we made.
We made a bunch of mistakesalong the way.
In fact, when we landed, welanded on a day that was a
holiday.
There was no food, there waseverything was closed down, we
(16:32):
couldn't didn't have internet,like all these things that you
don't think about.
People think about like, allright, how do I get my visa and
let me find some cool sexy housethat I can live in, right?
But there's so much involved interms of moving in terms of
logistics that we feltcompelled, like, all right, we
don't want people to have theexperience that we did.
We're gonna help them along thepay uh along the way.
So we've got some workshops,some classes, and um and some
(16:56):
one-on-one uh services that weprovide people who want to make
this move, and it's global,right?
It's not just in Europe, wealso cover South America, um,
and North America people want togo the other way as well.
Yeah, that's great.
Fantastic.
That's really fantastic.
I applied for my citizenship,so dual citizenship, that's also
(17:17):
an avenue that people can do.
And I just hired an attorney.
I did it the you know, theyjust send once in a while I get
an email saying, do this, andthen I do it, and it takes two
months for whatever I had to doto come back to me, and then I
send it away, send it to them,and so it's almost a year.
November will be a year Iapplied, and it's a two-year
(17:40):
process.
Yeah, so that's something thatpeople can do as well.
Absolutely.
So, like if you're if you'reLatino like like I am, you can
in Spain, if you live here twoyears, then you can actually um
with a couple other hurdles, youcan get dual citizenship or
citizenship relatively easy.
It's like a four to fiveminutes, four to five month
(18:01):
process once you've hit the thedifferent hurdles and the and
the requirements.
And if you get EU citizenshipand travel all around EU and
work there, and it's like it'sgosh, it's so cool.
But then a lot of thesecountries in the in the Europe
have these things where like youcan work towards that
citizenship piece, and it justmore opportunity, more options.
(18:23):
I agree, you know what I say?
I like to have options.
Yep, and it's not like I gotlike chastitized on social media
the other day because I wrotesomething about Italy and how
great it is, and this guy said,you know, I'm the problem, I
should leave America.
I'm like you know me, RyanStuman.
(18:45):
That's who wrote it.
He's a jerk, yeah.
And listen, I I think that's achallenge that we have in our
society right now.
It's not just black or white,right?
It's it's these far extremes.
Just because I like parts ofthis doesn't mean I dislike
this, right?
I love parts of Spain.
(19:05):
There's parts that I don't loveas much, but it fits my
lifestyle for what I want andthe and the things that I want
for my family.
It doesn't mean that I don'tlike the US, I love the US, I
travel back very often.
Uh, I miss my family, I miss myfriends.
There's definitely downsides ofliving abroad, but when you do
it, there is a lot of there'salso a lot of upsides,
otherwise, yeah.
(19:25):
There's the absolutely I'mdoing this because the upsides
outweigh the downsides, right?
And then it's not say I'm nevergonna come back, who knows,
right?
As even though I I speakSpanish way better than I did
before, it's still my secondlanguage, and there's moments
where I'm like, man, I I wish Icould uh express myself the way
I could in in English, right?
(19:47):
And I've said it many times,like I'll I can speak on stage
in English, I can't speak onstage yet in Spanish, right?
And and and have aconversations that way.
Well, something to work towards,exactly.
Yeah, right.
So, how do you do your days?
Like, how do you break up yourday since it's your six hours
difference, right?
Six hours, right?
Six hour difference, yeah.
(20:09):
So I was like, Well, I'm curiouswhat you what how you do it.
I was thinking I would get up,do a couple hours of work that
doesn't require people, and thenI would work from like two to
seven or something.
Yeah, it's so it's funny.
I'm in a weird spot right nowbecause we're we I've I
mentioned that company expatliving quite a bit.
(20:29):
We're launching and growingthat thing, so I'm spending more
time working on that.
But before that, it was yeah,in the morning, I was sort of
just relaxing, right?
I because what happens isbecause of the six-hour time
difference, I didn't want to beworking from eight o'clock, nine
o'clock, seven o'clock my timeall the way to seven, eight,
nine in the that's ridiculous,yeah.
(20:52):
Right.
So, I mean, that's not that'snot the lifestyle you're going
for.
So I would I would get up, Iwalk my kids to school, I go out
and have coffee and breakfastwith my wife or a friend.
I picked up this hobby, it's asport here in Spain called
paddle.
And so I would go play that orwork out.
And then sometime earlyafternoon, I might do the work,
like you said, that doesn'trequire physical presence.
(21:15):
Like I don't need to be on aZoom or a meeting with anybody,
just knock that stuff out.
Then my meetings, I I just setthe expectation that I'm gonna
have meetings in the morningtime in US time, right?
So from my time 2 p.m.
to about 6 p.m.
is when I actually would havemy meetings, and I still have my
nights off.
(21:36):
So the thing with Spain ispeople eat later, they socialize
later, they start theirmornings later.
So it's been it's been veryrelaxing.
Um, I have all my calls and andall those things, sort of in
that time period from 2 p.m.
my time to about 5, 6 p.m.
And then after that, it's it'sfamily time and I'm I'm enjoying
(21:59):
time with them.
So it's not not, you know, thatdoesn't mean there's not days
where I might have a call thathas to probably be like 11 p.m.
my time, but it's very rare.
Like I can count probably on mytwo hands over the course of
those those years that I'veactually done that.
Yeah, that makes sense.
That's what I was thinking.
I'm I think Yeah, no, it's it'sgreat.
You know, the the other theother piece of this is we are a
(22:22):
global economy, right?
Every other industry is global,and and that's part of like the
opportunity for me is I now getto network and expand my
business globally.
So before I just had uh, youknow, I had a real estate team,
a real estate office in like onelittle neighborhood in Philly.
(22:43):
Now I've got a globalorganization, I've got people
all across the US, I've gotpeople here in Spain and
Portugal, and I refer businessout.
And and do you know here thereare some new construction
communities where all you haveto do is refer in the buyer and
you get a 10% commission?
Like, how beautiful is that?
Like just in Spain, in Spain,yeah.
(23:06):
So it's just more opportunity,more growth.
And for me, you mentioned Imentioned the hamster wheel,
like that's the problem with ourindustry.
Like you're only as good asyour last sale, right?
And so yeah, the move for mealso had a component of like how
do I build my influence, how doI build my my network broadly
(23:28):
enough so that I don'tnecessarily have to rely on
sales forever.
And I'm building multiplestreams of income, one of them,
which is hugely passive, by justnetworking and finding other
agents that are like-mindedacross the globe.
Yeah, absolutely.
It's uh there definitely isthat that hamster wheel.
(23:50):
I was thinking, I think aboutthat all the time.
Like I talk about it all thetime, like constantly.
Well, I mean, I talked about thepassion about my you know, my
mom passing away, but look here,this is another passion of my
like our industry is broken,right?
Agents, what who's teachingthem financial literacy?
(24:12):
Who's teaching them like, hey,great, you sold a bunch of
houses, where's that money goingto?
Like, where's your 401k?
What what are you saving forretirement?
And are you gonna be thatperson who is like walking up
those stairs until you're 90?
And listen, if you'repassionate about selling real
estate and you want to do 290,God bless you, right?
But again, it's about options.
(24:34):
You can do that, or if you dothis the right way and you build
residual income, have mailboxmoney coming in, right?
Then you have the choice tosay, Hey, you know what?
Maybe I don't want to continueto sell real estate to home 90.
Maybe I'll travel and live inGreece or Italy or wherever that
draws you, or or stay in the USand you know, if the beach is
(24:56):
your thing, land on the beach,right?
Whatever it is, whatever thingis, I don't think people really
know what they want.
Yeah, well, that that that'simportant, right?
So I've said it for many years.
People think they want money,but nobody wants money for
money's sake.
It's what the money will do fortheir life and and and the life
lifestyle they want to live.
And what the lifestyle is, andreally how much do you really
(25:20):
need?
You need less if you live incertain places.
Indeed.
Indeed.
Yeah, indeed.
You know, I think there'ssomething about uh we live well,
well, well under our with wellunder our means.
Okay, and we could live in somebig fat $3 million house.
(25:41):
We don't.
We have a town my townhousehere in in graduate hospital.
We have had this for like Idon't I know I can't even
believe we still live here,honestly.
We've been here for like 13years.
I mean, it's not important.
That's not important.
There's other things like welove travel, you know, we love
(26:03):
to travel, we like to be withoutrestrictions, and we don't like
to have we like having dead,and and uh there's there's uh
something also uh mentallycalming about that in the sense
of you're not you don't there'snot that stress, you know.
(26:24):
No, it is, and listen, I've I'vefallen into that trap over the
course of my life where had thefancy car, the fancy house, and
I've gotten rid of all that.
Like I drive an you know, notnot a fancy car anymore, or the
place that we live is nice, butit's definitely below the level
means.
And and what I value, what Ivalue for my family, and again,
(26:46):
this is just a personal thing,is the travel piece.
Like, I want experiences, Iwant experiences with my family,
with my loved ones.
That's why in this past yearwe've we spent a month in
Scotland.
We went to Dubai, uh, we'vebeen to Ireland, we're gonna go
to Bali, Bali in December.
Like, that's where I spend mymoney.
Is like, gosh, what a greatexperience to see all these
(27:09):
different so wait.
This year you've been to wherehave you been this year?
Uh this year, gosh, we startedin Dubai in February, then we've
been to a couple of differentbeaches along the coast of Spain
throughout the year.
Uh, we were in Scotland.
Uh, we were, I think Irelandwas last year, and um be Bali by
(27:31):
the end of this year inDecember.
We have uh that's that's a lotof places.
A lot of places.
We'll travel probably wouldn'tbe able to do that if you were
here.
No, and and you know, again, forthose of you who have families
and and kids in school, there'sa lot of vacation time in in
(27:51):
Europe.
So, like that that break fromfrom December into January is
huge.
Um, you know, we we live inSpain, so holy week, Easter is
like not just a couple days,it's two weeks.
So there's a lot of time wherewe get to travel, and and again,
that that made sense for us interms of what we wanted to do.
Um, there's there's moreholidays in Europe than uh we
(28:13):
never even knew about.
Yeah.
And everything it's crazybecause everything shuts down.
Yeah, and and because wherewe're at, family matters, right?
The it's really likefamily-centric.
Um, in fact, and not that itdoesn't matter in other places
(28:33):
that I've lived, but what Iwould say, one of the things I
don't miss about the US is thefirst conversation you have with
somebody, the first almost oneof the first few questions that
they ask you is they ask youwhat you do for a living.
What you do, yeah.
What do you what you do for aliving, right?
I've I've met people here andknown them for months, even
years.
I have no idea what they do,nor do they have any idea what I
(28:54):
do professionally, right?
We've broken bread, ourfamilies have gone on vacation.
Like it's it's the focus isjust different.
It's experiencing life,enjoyment life, and the things
that for me matter more.
Um, that doesn't mean I haven'tgiven up, like I've like, I
haven't given up my professionalgoals, right?
I'm still that is a big part ofof my aspiration and my my
(29:18):
thrive for for excellence.
But the family and experiencingsort of these things around the
world and and it just matterjust a little bit more.
Um, and you could be rich inthat as well, as well as money.
That's just a mentality of UApeople from the US.
You know, they don't bringtheir kids to dinner a lot of
them.
(29:38):
Um in Italy, for example, likeit's midnight and the kids are
out still, like babies andstrollers, like toddlers, three
year olds, six year olds.
They I mean the kids goeverywhere.
You go to restaurants, we'vebeen to restaurants, and I
remember in Abruzzo, the region,and they had.
(29:59):
It was an like an out insideoutdoor restaurant.
So big outdoor space, beautifulgarden, all this.
And then over there, they had alittle playground.
Yep.
Right there.
Just did our podcast for ourcompany this morning, and we
talked about that.
(30:19):
How we would have the parentswould get together on the side
of the beach, a littlechiringuito, they call it little
restaurants right off thebeach.
And there's a playground rightthere.
The kids would go play on theplayground or on the beach, and
the parents are sort of justeating and drinking and enjoying
each other's company alltogether.
And the kids would come in andthe kids and the parents would
flow out.
It is just a a complete familyexperience.
(30:42):
And we have our dog here.
We brought from the US, so it'snot just the kids, we got the
we got our pets as well.
Oh, I wonder how we're gonna getour cats with we had to bring
them.
Yeah, so there is a umdefinitely I would encourage you
to talk to Danielle if this issomething you're gonna do.
It sounds like you don't getyou get into citizenship, but
like we we studied all thedifferent airlines that take
(31:04):
care of like moving over thepets.
There's a process, all thepaperwork.
We have more paperwork bringingour dog over than for the kids
and our family.
Um I know it's a process, yeah.
I know.
I read I read about it.
At least the cats can come onthe plane, so they can yes,
yeah, yeah.
We we had to put our dogunderneath, and there are
definitely some airlines thattreat um pets better and are
(31:26):
safer for pets.
So definitely if anybody'sthinking about doing that, reach
out to us.
We're happy to sharerecommendations.
Yeah, I think you know, we livein a global world, it's great,
you know.
Real estate, I would say realestate's a vehicle to live the
life of your dreams.
Use it the way that you want.
Agreed, agreed, and uh the waythat you want, learn how to be a
listing broker, right?
(31:47):
Because it's all listings,listings, listings.
I mean, that's all do.
I didn't even believe I had Idid a talk yesterday at uh
aeronome country club aboutlistings.
So then I I pulled up myinformation and I was like, but
did 269 appointments this yearand 140 listings taken.
(32:09):
I'm like it's a lot oflistings.
There's a lot of listings.
I guess I'll end up with 200,but you know, they all not all
you need a lot because they'reall not gonna sell.
People aren't cooperative, theysay they are, they're not.
I cancel them or withdraw them.
(32:30):
I mean, you know, and then theother ones sell, but sometimes
they don't all sell.
Yeah, it doesn't matter howgood I am if the people aren't
cooperative.
There's a bunch of nuts outthere.
There are, and and what I wouldsay is real estate can get you
wherever you want.
I would I would package it withsome other some other stuff to
(32:54):
just to diversify yourportfolio, right?
Like I've owned a bunch of realestate.
We we had a large real estateportfolio.
Um, I've actually gotten rid ofmost of it because the
liability, the the the just sortof tired of running it, the
capital requirements to do it.
I've now I think people reallyneed to things talking about
like what's your expertisedigitizing it and using that to
(33:17):
create a stream of income andsell that that knowledge base,
the knowledge base, theknowledge base created a Yarmo.
I created a 90-day listingaccelerator, yeah, right.
People need help getting thatout there, but I create whether
it's creed, coaching courses,some uh ebooks, whatever that
(33:40):
like you can do that fromanywhere in the world, so that's
absolutely part of thislifestyle that that that we're
we're embarking on and haveembarked on is have that, and
then you know, the other pieceof it, and I hope you don't mind
me talking about this.
I I have revenue share, right?
For me, how's that going?
It's going great, like youknow, I've got uh about 70
(34:00):
agents world worldwide globally,and it's you know, they close
deals.
I get a small piece of it, andI get to help them grow their
organization, and it's you know,I help them grow theirs.
And if you can live morecheaply on ten thousand dollars
a month or fifteen thousanddollars a month or five thousand
dollars a month, whatever itis, that's just a couple of
(34:22):
agents that you need to do andpartner with them in a real
meaningful way so that if youdecide and wake up in the
morning and decide I don't wantto sell any more real estate,
you have options.
So this is all about options,right?
All about options, it really is.
And I tell you, I tell peopleall the time like I I was the
number one commercial agent ofone of the brands that I worked
(34:44):
at previously, and I got one ofthose loose sight, like nice
little things that is now sometrash pile.
I have no idea what it's at.
But when I my first year atEXP, they gave me $80,000 in
stock, and that's my 401k.
So I'm not saying like, listen,I I I believe in our in our in
our company, but go getcompensated in the way that you
(35:05):
deserve to be compensated so youcan live the life you want to
live.
I got a question for you.
I would like your opinion ifyou would want to answer it.
Sure.
So compass buys anywhere realestate.
Yeah, I I think it's great forwhat they're trying to
accomplish.
So I think there's this wholedivide in the industry about
sort of private listings.
(35:27):
Well, yeah, we got a lot moreagents that makes that more
possible, right?
For those of you watching mypodcast, I'm just not a big
believer in sort of thetraditional brokerage model
anymore.
And I see the brokerage modelbeing a loss leader for the
other revenue streams that domake the money, mortgage and
title.
So I I believe that the virtualbrokerage model is where
(35:48):
everybody needs to move toultimately.
The the costs associated withbut they're not that they're
they're not that, but they'realso not they've got a lot of
debt, they're not and like howare they even but first of all?
1.6 billion dollars seems cheapto me.
Yeah, does that seem cheap?
Well, when you when you're usingstocks all these brands, you
(36:11):
you can you can create whatevervaluation you want when you're
you were trading stock for it,right?
It's it just it doesn't appealto me.
It's not the model that I want.
Like, I I just don't believe ina model, it's not the model
that I would want for mybusiness where I'm not getting
stock, I'm not getting refshare, I'm not getting all these
tools and high splits and andand a cap, right?
(36:33):
Yeah, yeah, of course, ofcourse.
But from a standpoint of likejust industry-wise, they say
they're not gonna cipher off thebrands, but how does that make
sense?
Like eventually they will, likeeverybody else does, right?
Yeah, I mean, I I was an MAattorney before this, so I've
seen acquisitions, and what Ican tell you is most
(36:57):
acquisitions fail because of ofthe integration, and so they
have to say they're not going tochange things.
Of course, but it wasn'tworking the way it was, it never
happens though, it'll be slowand it'll it'll creep, right?
There's um two to three years,yeah.
There's we'll be back on we'llbe on this podcast and then
(37:18):
we'll again and again because Ilike to have people back on,
right?
I like to see the journey of myguests, and I like to do you
know, this podcast is aboutdeveloping relationships too
with people, absolutely, yeah.
So, yeah, no, what are yourthoughts about it?
I'd love to hear your thoughts.
Uh, I don't like compass, youknow me.
(37:39):
I mean, kind of, you know me alittle bit.
Anyway, I'm very direct andstraight shooter, and I wear my
heart on my sleeve, and I don'treally like them.
I don't like him, the CEO.
I'm gonna tell you why I don'tlike him.
I heard him speak and in gottabe in New York probably seven
(38:02):
years, maybe longer.
Talk about the agent, thesuperpower agent.
And then he talked about what Ididn't believe him.
Like, I don't trust him.
I think he's arrogant in theway that he speaks to people,
(38:25):
and there was a whole thing withhim and oh, who was it?
Maybe Gary Keller.
I think they had a big fight onstage.
Not like a fight, but a debate,and it was heated.
That's so that's how I feel.
There's maybe some stuff behindthere that we don't know, but I
(38:46):
I when I I look at just thebusiness model, you know.
I was at KW before.
I don't get it.
I know people like themarketing, and but for the
dollars that you could saveunder a different platform, you
can go invest your your ownmarketing and and deliver on
that stuff.
It's interesting.
Like I think the move is whatthey needed to do in light of
(39:07):
where things stand and howthings are changing.
I've done a couple of webinarsand talked about like the
operating expense that that werun under versus a company like
that runs our under.
You just can't compete.
And so if you can't competefrom an operating expense and
profitability, you're gonna haveto try and do something else to
do it to compete.
And we're just gonna keep ondoing our thing, what we do, and
(39:29):
we're I love it.
I love it.
And and so tell us about um thenew are you launching a course
or is it coaching?
What is it about the expatcommunity you're doing?
Yeah, so we're we're teachingpeople how to move abroad
without making all the mistakesthat we made.
And so uh the courses are outthere.
You can check onexpatliven.com.
Uh that's l-i-v-in, not withoutwithout the G.
(39:51):
And L I V I N expat yeah,expatlive l-i-v-in.com.
And we've got three differentofferings, we've got a variety
of offerings, but we got the thecourses like everybody does
with uh sort of do-it-yourself.
But we I just don't think do ityourself works anymore.
So all of it has some componentof of do it with you.
(40:12):
And uh it's a 12-piece coursewhere we take you, most people
again talk think about thebeginning part of it, like
what's my visa, what apartmentor house am I going to get?
But there's a a whole longprocess.
In fact, we created a method,we call it the expat method,
that takes you from thebeginning all to end so that
you're thriving once you moveabroad.
The move is only one part ofit.
(40:33):
It's once you get there, how doyou thrive and actually live in
the in that environment?
Um, so we have that, we have doit with you, eight-week
workshops that we do together.
And then for those people whojust like, man, I don't I don't
want to figure this out on myown, just do it for me.
We have that offering as well.
And we have a uh privatecommunity that people can go in
and support each other and lotsof tools and resources and free
(40:56):
guides.
That's awesome.
Yeah, yeah.
And then surely I will becreating for you real estate
agents a course on how to dowhat I did with every step along
the way.
Like, how do I sell real estateabroad if I want to do that?
That's awesome.
Great stuff.
Really great to have you on.
Oh, thank you so much forinviting me.
Certainly, Guillermo, you arebeing the solution.
(41:18):
So thank you for bringing yourgreat energy this morning.
It's really good to see you.
And uh we got to do this.
Likewise, thank you for havingme.
All right, so today I'm excited.
Be the Solution Podcast.
And on the podcast thismorning, we have Guillermo
Salas.
And Guillermo is somebody thatI've known for many years.
Haven't seen him or talked tohim in a while, but go back to
at one point Guillermo had aRemax broker, a brokerage here
(00:22):
in Philadelphia.
And so I'm excited to talk tohim because now him and his wife
and family, uh, his wifeDanielle and family now live in
Spain and still continue to runa team, sell real estate here in
Philadelphia.
And so I my quote for youtoday, Guillermo, is this is I
(00:46):
make quotes specifically for myguest on my this quote is for
you.
Where there is a will, there isa way.
Guillermo Salas (00:57):
Absolutely.
And it's true, it really is.
People ask me all the time,like, how are you doing this?
And what I I've coached becauseI also coach, like the how is
what stops people, right?
Oftentimes we have thesedreams, and then you start
thinking about how am I going toaccomplish that?
And we just stop.
You know, COVID was a thing, itwas tough for everybody, but
the silver lining was it taughtus that I could do this already,
(01:20):
right?
Like we all did it.
We already did it.
We've already experienced howto sell remotely.
And we came out thatexperience, we were closer with
our family.
I didn't want to go back andnot spend that quality time with
our kids.
We had always dreamed abouttraveling around the world um
and taking a year off.
Now, COVID did teach us thatthere's no way I wanted to
(01:41):
homeschool my kids.
Like that was something Ididn't want to do.
So the backup plan was hey, Iwanted them to learn Spanish as
well.
Let's go to Spain.
It was supposed to be one year,one year turned into two after
the second year.
We sold everything other thanour investment properties in the
US, and we've now made uh Spainour home for the last four
almost four and a half years.
Okay, so let's go back for asecond.
(02:02):
So was so COVID was the uhinstigator of this move.
Well, yeah, I mean it's it wasalways our dream, right?
To to like live abroad, travel.
We love traveling, like that'sthat's one of the things we make
money so we can go travel andsee the world.
Um if you know anything aboutme, uh that's what we do.
(02:24):
We just came back from threeweeks in Sicily, yeah.
And now, you know, I'm I'mlike, well, how can I stay there
for longer?
Italy and wherever.
So you this was your dream.
Your dream was to live abroad.
It is, and to travel the worldand see, listen, we have we have
you know one life, and I wantto see the most of this
(02:46):
beautiful world that we have.
And uh we all we had theconversation.
Like, I love Philadelphia, bornand raised, go eagles, all that
stuff.
But I was always like, why dowe live here?
Like, you know, it's the coldis cold, it's humid.
Like, I want to see what theworld has to offer.
And we had this idea, but likeI said earlier, the how, like,
how do how do I move abroad whenI've got a brokerage, how I've
(03:10):
got a team, all my real estatesales are local here.
And again, so did the the COVIDpiece was like, all right,
well, we're we're we're lockedup in the last place we owned
was over there in Moorestown,New Jersey.
Like, we're here in Jersey,we're still selling real estate.
I'm not seeing clients face toface.
We're finding where there's awill, there's a way, like you
said, and we were able to figureout all right, there is this,
(03:34):
there's a path here, there'ssomething we got here.
And when the doors startopening up, we didn't want to go
backwards.
And so we've proven it.
Like to I stopped counting fora while, but at one point in
time, I did the calculation.
I've closed over 550transactions since I've been
abroad.
And customers, you know, allthe things that you think would
(03:56):
be an issue.
Uh, yeah, that first year, Ididn't I wasn't really upfront
about the fact that I wasabroad.
I think that I was living in adifferent country.
As soon as I sort of embracedit, more business team, right?
I now you're right, you'rewalking in, you know, in your
authenti authenticity, andauthenticity attracts it,
(04:17):
doesn't it doesn't dispel soright?
So you're authentic, you'rebeing the solution, and you
people attract your people areattractive regardless, it
doesn't matter as long as you'rein your authenticity.
I did.
I mean, and the reality is alot of the things that we do as
real estate agents don't requirephysical presence as much as we
(04:38):
feel like they they need to beor or that they were in the
past, which is video makes a lotof things easier.
Um, I am with an organizationfor the very few things that
actually require physicalpresence.
Um, I just need to put a couplethings in place.
So I'm with an organizationthat that is broad enough that I
can have uh people availablewhatever period of time to go
(05:00):
maybe do a video screening.
Uh nobody attends closingsanymore.
At least I I don't, and none ofmy clients do.
We haven't since COVID.
I mean before.
So when you Maria, when youstart thinking about like what
do you actually physically gotbe present for?
You really don't.
I I agree with you.
Yeah, I you really don't needto be present because I do 95%
(05:23):
of my listing appointments onthe phone.
I don't even do the Zoom.
Well, well, that's and but likepresent mean I mean physically
present.
You have to be present.
Like I'm in my clients' world,I'm serving them, I'm super
responsive.
Like, I gotta tell you, when Itell my my clients that I'm in
Spain, they're like, it's theconversation where real estate
(05:44):
just ends.
They're like, Cool, tell me howhow are you doing this?
This is so cool.
You're living your life, yourdreams.
It's never been a negative.
And I've actually talked aboutthis on other podcasts.
The one listing that I've lostis the one where I actually felt
insecure about it, got on aplane, flew back to Philly
because it was like a two and ahalf million dollar list in the
(06:04):
middle of Center City, and it'sthe only one that I've lost over
this time period.
Why they make they must havesmelled insecurity on me, like,
oh my god, you can't servicethis from abroad, or or and
that's the only one that I'velost.
All the other ones are like,you know, I just lean into it.
I'm like, this is who I am.
And like you said, if you'reauthentic, the people that want
(06:24):
to work with you in this mannerwill lean in.
The ones that don't, I wasnever meant to work with them
anyway.
And so that's okay, right?
How did you um so you have bootson the ground here?
So people can do the tours,like it's the same thing.
If you have a listing and youhave a buyer, buyer's probably
going to be represented bysomebody else in your
(06:45):
organization, I would imagine.
Yep, I refer it out, and I mean,I either refer it out or or
have a showing assistant, right?
There's all different ways youcan do that.
I've got a we have I have uh Icall them listing assistants, so
I'll send one of my listingpartners, uh send them to get
paperwork signed for people thatneed to sign in person that
(07:07):
I'll come into the office or notdocu-signed.
And I pay them a flat fee, Ipay $500, and everybody's happy.
It really is.
It's it's one of the thingsthat throughout throughout the
course of my career, I'vecreated systems and processes
and documented them.
And in fact, I I'm very closeto creating a course to teach
(07:28):
other people to do this becausein my organization, I've now had
somebody who traveled andwanted to do this and has done
this from Morocco, has done itfrom Portugal.
I have one who's leaving inNovember to do this in Thailand.
And it really is likeeverything else.
If it's you're authentic, youhave a system behind it.
We talked about a showingassistant.
(07:49):
I have a whole system behindit, like, hey, how that person
interacts with our client, howthey show the house, the
questions that they ask, howthey report back to me.
And they're just, you know, thereally the reality is we feel
like clients need us, and that'sjust the ego.
They don't need Yermo.
And frankly, they don't needMaria.
(08:10):
That's correct.
They need what they want is whatthe customer service or the the
the experience that yourepresent, right?
And I can duplicate the system,they need your system.
You build a system, they needthe system, they're buying the
system.
Yeah, they're buying theexperience, and I can teach
people how to do thatexperience, right?
Absolutely.
(08:31):
I 100% agree with all of that.
Yeah, it's like when they thinkwhen you think they need you,
like Irma or Maria, that's 100%ego talking.
That means you're not trustingsomebody else in your
organization that you built for20 years to do what you do, and
(08:51):
then shame on you.
Yeah, well, and the other partof this Maria that's really,
really important to and ispassionate.
I've actually my wife and Ihave created another company
around it called Expat Living.
Is you know, um, I'm 50 now,about to be 51 in January.
My my mom passed away at 52,and my mom and dad had talked
about traveling the world theirentire lives, and they never got
(09:14):
that.
You know, tomorrow's neverpromised.
That's that's my quote.
And uh, you know, we so oftenpush off the things that we
truly, truly want to do andaccomplish in life for this
promise down the road, and andthat you don't have that
promise.
And so that's for the peopleout there that that this is part
of their dream, they wish theycould do it.
(09:36):
One, you got to do it now, yougot to take action, right?
And number two, the the otherthing that keeps people back
beyond is is the sometimes it'ssort of the thought that like I
can't afford this or I can't dothis.
Well, you you can make incomeabroad, and two, when you're
making income in a high sort ofdollar market like the US or
(09:57):
like the UK or like Canada, andyou're spending those dollars in
a low-cost environment like aCosta Rica, Panama, parts of
Spain, man, retirement is somuch easier, or it gets a lot
closer, and your and yourstandard of living goes up way
high.
So, for all those reasons, I'msuper passionate about what
(10:18):
we're doing and how we're doingthis, and and then committed
myself to teach other people howto do it because a lot of
people want to do it, but justthey're afraid on how to, you
know, they don't know how thehow.
And like I said, the how to it'slike it's like where do you
start, right?
It's yeah, yeah, it soundsgreat, but where do you start?
I thought I'm like, you knowwhat?
I said, let's go to Italy orwherever, but in this case,
(10:44):
Italy, let's do a month and thenlet's do another month in 2026.
Let's do two months, two fullmonths and work, like regular
work.
Yeah, live, right?
Yeah, like live and work.
You know, the the cost ofliving is so much high, even if
we just rent it.
We're renting a like abooking.com, right?
(11:06):
An apartment.
It's not it's more money,right?
For that, because it's likevacationing, but we're not
vacationing.
But still, the cost of livingis less.
The cost of food, the type offood that you get to eat,
they're killing us slowly herein US.
I mean, you're talking by talkwith me.
In fact, that's why we said westarted X Patters.
I'm sick of this for all thereasons that you're just saying.
(11:29):
It's not just it's living thedream, living your full life,
but yeah, health-wise, I waslike, you know, we're running
this rat race and in thishamster wheel, and like we're
eating fast food 24-7 because wegot, you know, for those of you
that don't know me, though, Ihave four children.
The oldest is 17, the youngestis 11, and we were all at
(11:51):
different activities, and we'rejust in this grind of like
activities and eating bad food.
So, yeah, that they they moveabroad.
And listen, I don't want thisto be a thing, like I love the
US.
It's my country, there's somany great things about it.
This is the right path for me,right?
I get no judgment for anybodywho doesn't want to live this
life, but one of the factorsthat I factored, many of the
(12:12):
factors, like safety for mykids, right?
We they were probably gonna gointo sort of neighborhoods that
I didn't feel comfortable withanymore that I grew up in for
school.
Number two is the food.
Like I can actually read theingredients here.
And you know, we started beforewe even got on the on this
call.
My son's gonna go to universitynext year.
Like, he's gonna save hundredsof thousands of dollars.
(12:35):
He's gonna go to universityhere in the EU, most likely, or
even the UK.
And it's life-changing money interms of what he's gonna be
able to save, and he's notsacrificing level education.
So, again, there's so manydifferent factors that go into
this health, spending more timewith your family, live in that
dream.
I believe for me, it's superimportant to raise global
(12:56):
citizens and just experience theworld and experience different
cultures, and actually informsmy my business practices at a
deeper and better level.
And I feel like I can actuallysupport my clients better
because of it.
So I could go on and on and onwhy this why this sort of
lifestyle makes sense and why Imade the choice.
How did you end up in Spain?
(13:18):
So Spain was it's funny, Ithought my my favorite country
in Europe was was Italy, and itis one of my favorites.
Like we went there on ahoneymoon uh right before COVID.
We did sort of like what youwere talking about, Maria.
We like we would go, we startedout like going on vacation for
first two, three weeks, thenbecame a month.
August became our month becauseit's sort of a little slower,
(13:39):
it wasn't like dead business,but it was slower business,
slow, yeah, right.
And so that's why we go the andthe first week is two weeks in
September, and then when I comeback, it picks up.
Yep, so that's where we wouldliterally take off the month of
August and try different places,and we had tried California,
Costa Rica, uh Italy, and thenSpain was the last place, and we
(14:01):
just fell in love with it.
Obviously, a lot of people knowme.
I'm Puerto Rican, and so Iwanted my kids to speak Spanish.
Um, I didn't speak Spanish verywell, and so it was a personal
journey for me.
Like I needed to, we had trieda couple of different things,
and immersion was the thing wehadn't tried.
And so I actually put our kidsin uh public school in the
southern coasts of Spain in asmall little pueblo that nobody
(14:23):
spoke English barely, and theybecame fluent within a couple
months.
So that was a big driver for mefor them to learn Spanish, for
me to really uh get over thismental fear and hurdle of not
speaking Spanish uh as well as Iwanted to.
And with a name like Yero, man,like you don't speak Spanish,
it's it's embarrassing.
So it's okay.
Now you speak Spanish, yeah.
(14:45):
So yeah, now we do, and it'sactually our kids are starting
to learn French.
So it's interesting, it'sreally cool seeing them.
You're in southern Spain.
No, now I'm in Madrid.
So the first year we were insouthern Spain.
We thought it was what youthink.
Like you you go, we had thisbeautiful house which was so
cheap on a cliff, overlookingthe Mediterranean, and it sort
(15:07):
of was a story of why you don'tmove to where you vacation.
So, like it was great for thefirst few months, but then it
was just a little slow place forus for where we were in our
life.
The kids, you know, we all havefour teenagers practically now.
They were bored, and my wifewas bored, and so we moved to
Madrid, and we love, love, loveMadrid.
(15:28):
Absolutely.
I missed the water becausethat's that's my connection to
nature.
I love to fish, I love to be inthe water, but I get that in
other ways.
For instance, we spent a monthin Scotland just now in August,
uh, and the year before we wentto Ireland.
And how did you circumvent thewhole uh visa and all that?
So we didn't circumvent it.
My wife did, God bless her, sheresearched it all.
(15:49):
She figured out what visa wecould move over initially that
has changed, and and it's aprocess.
So, like we figured out how todo the different types of visas.
Again, that's why we createdthis company called Expat
Living, because people don'tknow this stuff.
And while the information isout there, especially with the
you know, with AI beingprevalent everywhere now, it's
(16:12):
great.
How do you do it?
Like, how do you take all thisinformation, compile it in a way
that actually you can get fromstep A to step uh Z in a way
that doesn't, you know, make allthe mistakes that we made.
We made a bunch of mistakesalong the way.
In fact, when we landed, welanded on a day that was a
holiday.
There was no food, there waseverything was closed down, we
(16:32):
couldn't didn't have internet,like all these things that you
don't think about.
People think about like, allright, how do I get my visa and
let me find some cool sexy housethat I can live in, right?
But there's so much involved interms of moving in terms of
logistics that we feltcompelled, like, all right, we
don't want people to have theexperience that we did.
We're gonna help them along thepay uh along the way.
So we've got some workshops,some classes, and um and some
(16:56):
one-on-one uh services that weprovide people who want to make
this move, and it's global,right?
It's not just in Europe, wealso cover South America, um,
and North America people want togo the other way as well.
Yeah, that's great.
Fantastic.
That's really fantastic.
I applied for my citizenship,so dual citizenship, that's also
(17:17):
an avenue that people can do.
And I just hired an attorney.
I did it the you know, theyjust send once in a while I get
an email saying, do this, andthen I do it, and it takes two
months for whatever I had to doto come back to me, and then I
send it away, send it to them,and so it's almost a year.
November will be a year Iapplied, and it's a two-year
(17:40):
process.
Yeah, so that's something thatpeople can do as well.
Absolutely.
So, like if you're if you'reLatino like like I am, you can
in Spain, if you live here twoyears, then you can actually um
with a couple other hurdles, youcan get dual citizenship or
citizenship relatively easy.
It's like a four to fiveminutes, four to five month
(18:01):
process once you've hit the thedifferent hurdles and the and
the requirements.
And if you get EU citizenshipand travel all around EU and
work there, and it's like it'sgosh, it's so cool.
But then a lot of thesecountries in the in the Europe
have these things where like youcan work towards that
citizenship piece, and it justmore opportunity, more options.
(18:23):
I agree, you know what I say?
I like to have options.
Yep, and it's not like I gotlike chastitized on social media
the other day because I wrotesomething about Italy and how
great it is, and this guy said,you know, I'm the problem, I
should leave America.
I'm like you know me, RyanStuman.
(18:45):
That's who wrote it.
He's a jerk, yeah.
And listen, I I think that's achallenge that we have in our
society right now.
It's not just black or white,right?
It's it's these far extremes.
Just because I like parts ofthis doesn't mean I dislike
this, right?
I love parts of Spain.
(19:05):
There's parts that I don't loveas much, but it fits my
lifestyle for what I want andthe and the things that I want
for my family.
It doesn't mean that I don'tlike the US, I love the US, I
travel back very often.
Uh, I miss my family, I miss myfriends.
There's definitely downsides ofliving abroad, but when you do
it, there is a lot of there'salso a lot of upsides,
otherwise, yeah.
(19:25):
There's the absolutely I'mdoing this because the upsides
outweigh the downsides, right?
And then it's not say I'm nevergonna come back, who knows,
right?
As even though I I speakSpanish way better than I did
before, it's still my secondlanguage, and there's moments
where I'm like, man, I I wish Icould uh express myself the way
I could in in English, right?
(19:47):
And I've said it many times,like I'll I can speak on stage
in English, I can't speak onstage yet in Spanish, right?
And and and have aconversations that way.
Well, something to work towards,exactly.
Yeah, right.
So, how do you do your days?
Like, how do you break up yourday since it's your six hours
difference, right?
Six hours, right?
Six hour difference, yeah.
(20:09):
So I was like, Well, I'm curiouswhat you what how you do it.
I was thinking I would get up,do a couple hours of work that
doesn't require people, and thenI would work from like two to
seven or something.
Yeah, it's so it's funny.
I'm in a weird spot right nowbecause we're we I've I
mentioned that company expatliving quite a bit.
(20:29):
We're launching and growingthat thing, so I'm spending more
time working on that.
But before that, it was yeah,in the morning, I was sort of
just relaxing, right?
I because what happens isbecause of the six-hour time
difference, I didn't want to beworking from eight o'clock, nine
o'clock, seven o'clock my timeall the way to seven, eight,
nine in the that's ridiculous,yeah.
(20:52):
Right.
So, I mean, that's not that'snot the lifestyle you're going
for.
So I would I would get up, Iwalk my kids to school, I go out
and have coffee and breakfastwith my wife or a friend.
I picked up this hobby, it's asport here in Spain called
paddle.
And so I would go play that orwork out.
And then sometime earlyafternoon, I might do the work,
like you said, that doesn'trequire physical presence.
(21:15):
Like I don't need to be on aZoom or a meeting with anybody,
just knock that stuff out.
Then my meetings, I I just setthe expectation that I'm gonna
have meetings in the morningtime in US time, right?
So from my time 2 p.m.
to about 6 p.m.
is when I actually would havemy meetings, and I still have my
nights off.
(21:36):
So the thing with Spain ispeople eat later, they socialize
later, they start theirmornings later.
So it's been it's been veryrelaxing.
Um, I have all my calls and andall those things, sort of in
that time period from 2 p.m.
my time to about 5, 6 p.m.
And then after that, it's it'sfamily time and I'm I'm enjoying
(21:59):
time with them.
So it's not not, you know, thatdoesn't mean there's not days
where I might have a call thathas to probably be like 11 p.m.
my time, but it's very rare.
Like I can count probably on mytwo hands over the course of
those those years that I'veactually done that.
Yeah, that makes sense.
That's what I was thinking.
I'm I think Yeah, no, it's it'sgreat.
You know, the the other theother piece of this is we are a
(22:22):
global economy, right?
Every other industry is global,and and that's part of like the
opportunity for me is I now getto network and expand my
business globally.
So before I just had uh, youknow, I had a real estate team,
a real estate office in like onelittle neighborhood in Philly.
(22:43):
Now I've got a globalorganization, I've got people
all across the US, I've gotpeople here in Spain and
Portugal, and I refer businessout.
And and do you know here thereare some new construction
communities where all you haveto do is refer in the buyer and
you get a 10% commission?
Like, how beautiful is that?
Like just in Spain, in Spain,yeah.
(23:06):
So it's just more opportunity,more growth.
And for me, you mentioned Imentioned the hamster wheel,
like that's the problem with ourindustry.
Like you're only as good asyour last sale, right?
And so yeah, the move for mealso had a component of like how
do I build my influence, how doI build my my network broadly
(23:28):
enough so that I don'tnecessarily have to rely on
sales forever.
And I'm building multiplestreams of income, one of them,
which is hugely passive, by justnetworking and finding other
agents that are like-mindedacross the globe.
Yeah, absolutely.
It's uh there definitely isthat that hamster wheel.
(23:50):
I was thinking, I think aboutthat all the time.
Like I talk about it all thetime, like constantly.
Well, I mean, I talked about thepassion about my you know, my
mom passing away, but look here,this is another passion of my
like our industry is broken,right?
Agents, what who's teachingthem financial literacy?
(24:12):
Who's teaching them like, hey,great, you sold a bunch of
houses, where's that money goingto?
Like, where's your 401k?
What what are you saving forretirement?
And are you gonna be thatperson who is like walking up
those stairs until you're 90?
And listen, if you'repassionate about selling real
estate and you want to do 290,God bless you, right?
But again, it's about options.
(24:34):
You can do that, or if you dothis the right way and you build
residual income, have mailboxmoney coming in, right?
Then you have the choice tosay, Hey, you know what?
Maybe I don't want to continueto sell real estate to home 90.
Maybe I'll travel and live inGreece or Italy or wherever that
draws you, or or stay in the USand you know, if the beach is
(24:56):
your thing, land on the beach,right?
Whatever it is, whatever thingis, I don't think people really
know what they want.
Yeah, well, that that that'simportant, right?
So I've said it for many years.
People think they want money,but nobody wants money for
money's sake.
It's what the money will do fortheir life and and and the life
lifestyle they want to live.
And what the lifestyle is, andreally how much do you really
(25:20):
need?
You need less if you live incertain places.
Indeed.
Indeed.
Yeah, indeed.
You know, I think there'ssomething about uh we live well,
well, well under our with wellunder our means.
Okay, and we could live in somebig fat $3 million house.
(25:41):
We don't.
We have a town my townhousehere in in graduate hospital.
We have had this for like Idon't I know I can't even
believe we still live here,honestly.
We've been here for like 13years.
I mean, it's not important.
That's not important.
There's other things like welove travel, you know, we love
(26:03):
to travel, we like to be withoutrestrictions, and we don't like
to have we like having dead,and and uh there's there's uh
something also uh mentallycalming about that in the sense
of you're not you don't there'snot that stress, you know.
(26:24):
No, it is, and listen, I've I'vefallen into that trap over the
course of my life where had thefancy car, the fancy house, and
I've gotten rid of all that.
Like I drive an you know, notnot a fancy car anymore, or the
place that we live is nice, butit's definitely below the level
means.
And and what I value, what Ivalue for my family, and again,
(26:46):
this is just a personal thing,is the travel piece.
Like, I want experiences, Iwant experiences with my family,
with my loved ones.
That's why in this past yearwe've we spent a month in
Scotland.
We went to Dubai, uh, we'vebeen to Ireland, we're gonna go
to Bali, Bali in December.
Like, that's where I spend mymoney.
Is like, gosh, what a greatexperience to see all these
(27:09):
different so wait.
This year you've been to wherehave you been this year?
Uh this year, gosh, we startedin Dubai in February, then we've
been to a couple of differentbeaches along the coast of Spain
throughout the year.
Uh, we were in Scotland.
Uh, we were, I think Irelandwas last year, and um be Bali by
(27:31):
the end of this year inDecember.
We have uh that's that's a lotof places.
A lot of places.
We'll travel probably wouldn'tbe able to do that if you were
here.
No, and and you know, again, forthose of you who have families
and and kids in school, there'sa lot of vacation time in in
(27:51):
Europe.
So, like that that break fromfrom December into January is
huge.
Um, you know, we we live inSpain, so holy week, Easter is
like not just a couple days,it's two weeks.
So there's a lot of time wherewe get to travel, and and again,
that that made sense for us interms of what we wanted to do.
Um, there's there's moreholidays in Europe than uh we
(28:13):
never even knew about.
Yeah.
And everything it's crazybecause everything shuts down.
Yeah, and and because wherewe're at, family matters, right?
The it's really likefamily-centric.
Um, in fact, and not that itdoesn't matter in other places
(28:33):
that I've lived, but what Iwould say, one of the things I
don't miss about the US is thefirst conversation you have with
somebody, the first almost oneof the first few questions that
they ask you is they ask youwhat you do for a living.
What you do, yeah.
What do you what you do for aliving, right?
I've I've met people here andknown them for months, even
years.
I have no idea what they do,nor do they have any idea what I
(28:54):
do professionally, right?
We've broken bread, ourfamilies have gone on vacation.
Like it's it's the focus isjust different.
It's experiencing life,enjoyment life, and the things
that for me matter more.
Um, that doesn't mean I haven'tgiven up, like I've like, I
haven't given up my professionalgoals, right?
I'm still that is a big part ofof my aspiration and my my
(29:18):
thrive for for excellence.
But the family and experiencingsort of these things around the
world and and it just matterjust a little bit more.
Um, and you could be rich inthat as well, as well as money.
That's just a mentality of UApeople from the US.
You know, they don't bringtheir kids to dinner a lot of
them.
(29:38):
Um in Italy, for example, likeit's midnight and the kids are
out still, like babies andstrollers, like toddlers, three
year olds, six year olds.
They I mean the kids goeverywhere.
You go to restaurants, we'vebeen to restaurants, and I
remember in Abruzzo, the region,and they had.
(29:59):
It was an like an out insideoutdoor restaurant.
So big outdoor space, beautifulgarden, all this.
And then over there, they had alittle playground.
Yep.
Right there.
Just did our podcast for ourcompany this morning, and we
talked about that.
(30:19):
How we would have the parentswould get together on the side
of the beach, a littlechiringuito, they call it little
restaurants right off thebeach.
And there's a playground rightthere.
The kids would go play on theplayground or on the beach, and
the parents are sort of justeating and drinking and enjoying
each other's company alltogether.
And the kids would come in andthe kids and the parents would
flow out.
It is just a a complete familyexperience.
(30:42):
And we have our dog here.
We brought from the US, so it'snot just the kids, we got the
we got our pets as well.
Oh, I wonder how we're gonna getour cats with we had to bring
them.
Yeah, so there is a umdefinitely I would encourage you
to talk to Danielle if this issomething you're gonna do.
It sounds like you don't getyou get into citizenship, but
like we we studied all thedifferent airlines that take
(31:04):
care of like moving over thepets.
There's a process, all thepaperwork.
We have more paperwork bringingour dog over than for the kids
and our family.
Um I know it's a process, yeah.
I know.
I read I read about it.
At least the cats can come onthe plane, so they can yes,
yeah, yeah.
We we had to put our dogunderneath, and there are
definitely some airlines thattreat um pets better and are
(31:26):
safer for pets.
So definitely if anybody'sthinking about doing that, reach
out to us.
We're happy to sharerecommendations.
Yeah, I think you know, we livein a global world, it's great,
you know.
Real estate, I would say realestate's a vehicle to live the
life of your dreams.
Use it the way that you want.
Agreed, agreed, and uh the waythat you want, learn how to be a
listing broker, right?
(31:47):
Because it's all listings,listings, listings.
I mean, that's all do.
I didn't even believe I had Idid a talk yesterday at uh
aeronome country club aboutlistings.
So then I I pulled up myinformation and I was like, but
did 269 appointments this yearand 140 listings taken.
(32:09):
I'm like it's a lot oflistings.
There's a lot of listings.
I guess I'll end up with 200,but you know, they all not all
you need a lot because they'reall not gonna sell.
People aren't cooperative, theysay they are, they're not.
I cancel them or withdraw them.
(32:30):
I mean, you know, and then theother ones sell, but sometimes
they don't all sell.
Yeah, it doesn't matter howgood I am if the people aren't
cooperative.
There's a bunch of nuts outthere.
There are, and and what I wouldsay is real estate can get you
wherever you want.
I would I would package it withsome other some other stuff to
(32:54):
just to diversify yourportfolio, right?
Like I've owned a bunch of realestate.
We we had a large real estateportfolio.
Um, I've actually gotten rid ofmost of it because the
liability, the the the just sortof tired of running it, the
capital requirements to do it.
I've now I think people reallyneed to things talking about
like what's your expertisedigitizing it and using that to
(33:17):
create a stream of income andsell that that knowledge base,
the knowledge base, theknowledge base created a Yarmo.
I created a 90-day listingaccelerator, yeah, right.
People need help getting thatout there, but I create whether
it's creed, coaching courses,some uh ebooks, whatever that
(33:40):
like you can do that fromanywhere in the world, so that's
absolutely part of thislifestyle that that that we're
we're embarking on and haveembarked on is have that, and
then you know, the other pieceof it, and I hope you don't mind
me talking about this.
I I have revenue share, right?
For me, how's that going?
It's going great, like youknow, I've got uh about 70
(34:00):
agents world worldwide globally,and it's you know, they close
deals.
I get a small piece of it, andI get to help them grow their
organization, and it's you know,I help them grow theirs.
And if you can live morecheaply on ten thousand dollars
a month or fifteen thousanddollars a month or five thousand
dollars a month, whatever itis, that's just a couple of
(34:22):
agents that you need to do andpartner with them in a real
meaningful way so that if youdecide and wake up in the
morning and decide I don't wantto sell any more real estate,
you have options.
So this is all about options,right?
All about options, it really is.
And I tell you, I tell peopleall the time like I I was the
number one commercial agent ofone of the brands that I worked
(34:44):
at previously, and I got one ofthose loose sight, like nice
little things that is now sometrash pile.
I have no idea what it's at.
But when I my first year atEXP, they gave me $80,000 in
stock, and that's my 401k.
So I'm not saying like, listen,I I I believe in our in our in
our company, but go getcompensated in the way that you
(35:05):
deserve to be compensated so youcan live the life you want to
live.
I got a question for you.
I would like your opinion ifyou would want to answer it.
Sure.
So compass buys anywhere realestate.
Yeah, I I think it's great forwhat they're trying to
accomplish.
So I think there's this wholedivide in the industry about
sort of private listings.
(35:27):
Well, yeah, we got a lot moreagents that makes that more
possible, right?
For those of you watching mypodcast, I'm just not a big
believer in sort of thetraditional brokerage model
anymore.
And I see the brokerage modelbeing a loss leader for the
other revenue streams that domake the money, mortgage and
title.
So I I believe that the virtualbrokerage model is where
(35:48):
everybody needs to move toultimately.
The the costs associated withbut they're not that they're
they're not that, but they'realso not they've got a lot of
debt, they're not and like howare they even but first of all?
1.6 billion dollars seems cheapto me.
Yeah, does that seem cheap?
Well, when you when you're usingstocks all these brands, you
(36:11):
you can you can create whatevervaluation you want when you're
you were trading stock for it,right?
It's it just it doesn't appealto me.
It's not the model that I want.
Like, I I just don't believe ina model, it's not the model
that I would want for mybusiness where I'm not getting
stock, I'm not getting refshare, I'm not getting all these
tools and high splits and andand a cap, right?
(36:33):
Yeah, yeah, of course, ofcourse.
But from a standpoint of likejust industry-wise, they say
they're not gonna cipher off thebrands, but how does that make
sense?
Like eventually they will, likeeverybody else does, right?
Yeah, I mean, I I was an MAattorney before this, so I've
seen acquisitions, and what Ican tell you is most
(36:57):
acquisitions fail because of ofthe integration, and so they
have to say they're not going tochange things.
Of course, but it wasn'tworking the way it was, it never
happens though, it'll be slowand it'll it'll creep, right?
There's um two to three years,yeah.
There's we'll be back on we'llbe on this podcast and then
(37:18):
we'll again and again because Ilike to have people back on,
right?
I like to see the journey of myguests, and I like to do you
know, this podcast is aboutdeveloping relationships too
with people, absolutely, yeah.
So, yeah, no, what are yourthoughts about it?
I'd love to hear your thoughts.
Uh, I don't like compass, youknow me.
(37:39):
I mean, kind of, you know me alittle bit.
Anyway, I'm very direct andstraight shooter, and I wear my
heart on my sleeve, and I don'treally like them.
I don't like him, the CEO.
I'm gonna tell you why I don'tlike him.
I heard him speak and in gottabe in New York probably seven
(38:02):
years, maybe longer.
Talk about the agent, thesuperpower agent.
And then he talked about what Ididn't believe him.
Like, I don't trust him.
I think he's arrogant in theway that he speaks to people,
(38:25):
and there was a whole thing withhim and oh, who was it?
Maybe Gary Keller.
I think they had a big fight onstage.
Not like a fight, but a debate,and it was heated.
That's so that's how I feel.
There's maybe some stuff behindthere that we don't know, but I
(38:46):
I when I I look at just thebusiness model, you know.
I was at KW before.
I don't get it.
I know people like themarketing, and but for the
dollars that you could saveunder a different platform, you
can go invest your your ownmarketing and and deliver on
that stuff.
It's interesting.
Like I think the move is whatthey needed to do in light of
(39:07):
where things stand and howthings are changing.
I've done a couple of webinarsand talked about like the
operating expense that that werun under versus a company like
that runs our under.
You just can't compete.
And so if you can't competefrom an operating expense and
profitability, you're gonna haveto try and do something else to
do it to compete.
And we're just gonna keep ondoing our thing, what we do, and
(39:29):
we're I love it.
I love it.
And and so tell us about um thenew are you launching a course
or is it coaching?
What is it about the expatcommunity you're doing?
Yeah, so we're we're teachingpeople how to move abroad
without making all the mistakesthat we made.
And so uh the courses are outthere.
You can check onexpatliven.com.
Uh that's l-i-v-in, not withoutwithout the G.
(39:51):
And L I V I N expat yeah,expatlive l-i-v-in.com.
And we've got three differentofferings, we've got a variety
of offerings, but we got the thecourses like everybody does
with uh sort of do-it-yourself.
But we I just don't think do ityourself works anymore.
So all of it has some componentof of do it with you.
(40:12):
And uh it's a 12-piece coursewhere we take you, most people
again talk think about thebeginning part of it, like
what's my visa, what apartmentor house am I going to get?
But there's a a whole longprocess.
In fact, we created a method,we call it the expat method,
that takes you from thebeginning all to end so that
you're thriving once you moveabroad.
The move is only one part ofit.
(40:33):
It's once you get there, how doyou thrive and actually live in
the in that environment?
Um, so we have that, we have doit with you, eight-week
workshops that we do together.
And then for those people whojust like, man, I don't I don't
want to figure this out on myown, just do it for me.
We have that offering as well.
And we have a uh privatecommunity that people can go in
and support each other and lotsof tools and resources and free
(40:56):
guides.
That's awesome.
Yeah, yeah.
And then surely I will becreating for you real estate
agents a course on how to dowhat I did with every step along
the way.
Like, how do I sell real estateabroad if I want to do that?
That's awesome.
Great stuff.
Really great to have you on.
Oh, thank you so much forinviting me.
Certainly, Guillermo, you arebeing the solution.
(41:18):
So thank you for bringing yourgreat energy this morning.
It's really good to see you.
And uh we got to do this.
Likewise, thank you for havingme.
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