I was born in Cancún more than thirty-five years ago, and just over ten years ago I began my path as an investor in the Riviera Maya.
For a long time I looked for something to invest in. When I asked other investors, the answer was almost always the same: to invest in a business you need a lot of money.
Those words never convinced me.
One day a good colleague and former boss told me about the first small houses going up in Tulum for $25,000 USD. I could not believe it. I knew it was time to invest.
And that is how my journey into real estate began.
After that first investment came my first rentals. I hired someone to manage the property and other people to renovate it while I was far away. It was a tiring process, full of lessons, but I got there.
I renovated that first little house and earned a good return, enough to invest in the next property.
With every investment I learned something new: how to read a market, how pre-sales work, how to write a rental contract, what a square metre is really worth, how to judge a location, how to read deeds and permits, and many other things, some more interesting than others.
But above all, I learned what it means to trust someone to look after a property when you are not there.
In time, my experience as an investor and my knowledge of the land where I was born made me realise I could offer something more: a service built on trust, personal attention and real knowledge of the market.
That is how Alma da Terra was born.