Expats Like Us
A podcast series exploring life as a U.S. Expat in Mexico. Topics include preparing to move to a new country, navigating your new home and finding your passion as a retiree.
Expats Like Us
Riviera Maya Real Estate with Nolan Clark
When Nolan Clark swapped the Canadian frost for Mexico's sun-soaked Riviera Maya, he didn't just find warmer weather; he discovered a whole new way of life. Now, as a seasoned real estate broker and developer, Nolan joins us to share the inside scoop on thriving as an expat and navigating the property market. We also learn about Nolan's career pivot, revealing how a passion for music and frequent conversations with fans led him to become both a popular local entertainer and a trusted real estate agent.
Our conversation takes a turn towards the unique experiences and advice for expats, punctuated by the allure of eco-conscious living in developments like Haven. Here, the mystical cenotes play a central role, and we discuss their significance to the Yucatan Peninsula's real estate offerings. We offer a transparent look at what potential investors can expect when diving into property rentals, providing a realistic outlook on returns and the importance of savvy marketing.
We are incredibly thankful for engagement and stories from our listeners, who have found their own sense of 'home' across the globe. Stay tuned as we continue to share the wisdom and wanderlust of those who've charted their unique international courses. We'd love to hear your comments and questions. Email them to expatslikeus@gmail.com
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My biggest advice to anyone who's the one, I guess one sentence would be don't buy pre-sale.
Speaker 2:Yeah, right, right, does it might never happen.
Speaker 1:Well, there's lots of reasons, but that's the biggest one there is. You know it may not happen, but also there's just. There's a lot of properties out there and if your expectation is to rent it out right, it's going to be a challenge.
Speaker 2:Welcome to ExPATs Like Us. A co-production with me, vita Margarita, exploring the world of US ExPat Life in Mexico. In each episode, we'll meet new people and hear their stories. We'll also learn more about ExPat Life and get a few tips on everything from making your move to settling in, to living your dreams and, most of all, having fun. Let's dive in. I'm your host, bob Bussey.
Speaker 3:And I'm Chris Kowalski and we are friends and expats who, in the summer of 2021, sold our possessions, retired from our jobs and made the move to Mexico.
Speaker 2:Today we're thrilled to be talking with Nolan Clark. Nolan is a friend and a real estate broker and developer in Riviera Maya. He's also an interesting guy who's well known in the area for his music performances, either with a band or solo. Nolan is here to share his experience in moving from his original home in Canada to living mostly full-time in Mexico and adapting to a new life in a new country. He'll also give us some insight into how real estate markets work here in Mexico and some of the best practices in finding a home in the area. Hi, nolan, and welcome to ExPats Like Us Afternoon. Bob, chris, thanks for having me on. Thanks for coming. So first thing, tell us about your pre-Mexico life.
Speaker 1:So yeah, as you mentioned, I'm from Canada. I grew up in Vancouver and I moved to the interior British Columbia. I spent about 15 years there. I had a 25-year career in the IT field, doing various things, from education at a local college to database development and application development, things like that Things. I moved in the fall of 2015,. So I've been here a little over eight years. I always had a love affair with Mexico. The first time I got here was, I'd say, 1990 or something like that, and I went to Mazatlan and I really enjoyed the culture, the people, obviously, the food and the climate all things Mexican. But I started a family early in my life as an adult, and so it took a while. And then, yeah, had some tragedy happen in my family and a divorce happened. So, yeah, that was kind of the impetus for me saying, okay, it's time to go Check it out and what was the process of making the move from Canada to here?
Speaker 2:What was that like for you?
Speaker 1:Well, it was relatively simple. I had just been divorced so I was restarting in Canada. I didn't have a whole lot of items that I had to sell. I had a home that I'd purchased, and I ended up just finding kind of a roommate guy who would take care of the place. I sold a lot of my possessions and when I got down here, I had a house that I had purchased in around the 2008. And so it was a relatively soft landing. I came down with my backpack with some t-shirts and shorts, a laptop and my guitar, and that was it.
Speaker 3:So did you start real estate as soon as you got here, or did you start?
Speaker 1:music, no. So I started. Actually I wasn't sure what I was going to do and I just I brought the laptop but I really didn't want to get jumped back into the IT environment. But someone did offer me a position doing some work with their hotel. But the rate I was going to be asking for was, she said, well, that's what doctors make. So it kind of didn't. It fell apart. There I could have done some contract work for companies in Canada that I knew, but I really didn't want to, so I kind of held off. I started playing guitar at a local restaurant here weekly and it was very interesting because just about every time I played I'd do a set you know nine, 10 songs and I'd put the guitar down and somebody would wave me over and offer to buy me a beer and ask me well, what are you doing over here playing guitar in this little, you know sleepy little town? So I would mention that you know I just moved to the area and I had a house you know that I'd purchased years earlier. And the question was always the same Well, what do you know about the real estate market? So real estate, actually, just it really did fall in my lap.
Speaker 2:So how have you adapted your personal lifestyle to living in a great question? It's not a foreign country to you anymore, but at the time a foreign country.
Speaker 1:So well, things like. You know I don't wake up to an alarm. Those are the things that I think are the nicest. You know, I wake up when the sun wakes me up, and you know the birds. I don't commute nine to five anymore, so things like that. Obviously, I've had to learn Spanish, which after eight and a half years I'm pretty good at it. I can get by for sure.
Speaker 3:Tell us about the transition to your new life in Mexico.
Speaker 1:Well, that was very interesting. My original plan was actually to come down here. I earlier, like maybe a year earlier, I had gone to Seulita, which is a town north of Puerto Vallarta on the West Coast, and I kind of liked that town. I saw a couple of properties I was interested in and my original plan was to come down here and fix up my house here and sell it and then purchase something over on the other side. I ended up doing the renovations. I kind of reignited my passion for this house. I put a pool in and things like that and I just started making some routes, you know. So getting to know people in the area, and obviously the real estate, as I mentioned earlier, started to kick off. So I just thought, why would I abandon this? It's beautiful over here, so there's a lot of pluses.
Speaker 2:Right, absolutely. So during this process, did you have any unexpected challenges?
Speaker 1:I wouldn't say they were unexpected. Nothing unexpected, I would say you expect to have a challenge with the language. I guess maybe something was unexpected. Was I missed playing highsocky?
Speaker 2:Oh, okay. Yeah, you really don't see a lot of that down here.
Speaker 1:I understand they're putting a rink in, so we'll have some nice things soon. I can't count.
Speaker 2:And, from your experience, what are some of the things people should consider when they're getting ready to start a new life in Mexico Another good question.
Speaker 1:So what I tell people is you know, try to find out, try to think about what's important to you. If it's going to be more of a sense of community, or, let's say, proximity to the beach and access to the beach, those things, those are two super important things and that's why we're down here. Right, it's to be at the beach as often as possible. Things like access to amenities, restaurants, those types of things.
Speaker 2:So Okay, and what are some of the things that people that you think? Have you seen people that did not really think through the process of moving down here and what sort of things that were they not thinking about when they did that?
Speaker 1:No, I can't say that. I do know. I know that there are people who have moved into certain, let's say I'll just say it down into Tulum. Let's say, 15 years ago they bought some land, they built a house in Tulum and Tulum has grown up around them. So they've been unhappy with the changes in that area, and that happens in Playa del Carmen. The hats happened in Cancun or Cozumel as well. So they've wanted to sell and move somewhere that's maybe a little quieter. Tulum is very I won't say, transient, but there's a lot of Airbnb properties down there now. So for people in our age category, I'm happy to show people down property down in Tulum that I like to. It's kind of a younger person's town Exactly.
Speaker 2:We shared on our expats like us Facebook page, I believe while back we shared a photo of Playa del Carmen in 1989, an aerial photo versus today, I think I saw that and it was, like you know, a couple little grass, a couple little bamboo huts in 1989. And now it's hundreds of thousands of people. Yeah, yeah. So yeah, you got to. You got to plan on there being some big changes for sure, potentially wherever you go. Yeah.
Speaker 3:So as a well known guy in the area, particularly because of your entertainment, your music, tell us about the work you did as a singer and a musician.
Speaker 1:Well, I was really just a kind of camp campfire singer up in Canada. I didn't do any professional singing at all. I jumped in on a couple of open mic sessions in Canada. But when I came down here I played music in my backyard and a few neighbors came by and they liked it. So they said, well, Lapa Lapa, which is a local restaurant here, they had just opened, taken, you know, by new management. So one of my friends kind of threw it out there that I should play there, and that's really what kicked off the music. I bought some equipment and started playing on Wednesday nights. And then, because I had the equipment, someone suggested I do some karaoke. So I started up a karaoke. That was on Monday nights. There's another restaurant that hired me to do karaoke and or play and I also did some hermit crab races over there which really took off. Through all of those events I became pretty well known in the area and also then I would shamelessly promote myself when the house was packed. I'd say by the way, if you're having a good time, I sell real estate during the daytime. So coming here and get a card. So I think you still do that, I still do that.
Speaker 2:That's a good idea and that's probably the way to do it. But, yeah, you're well known for for entertainment, but you're also known around here to me as the guy to talk to if you're looking to buy or sell real estate in the area. And how did you first get involved in that and what was the process?
Speaker 1:Well, I've been pretty lucky with it. As I said, it did fall in my lap, so I guess it was early 2016. I went down to Tulum. I talked to a couple of different brokerages and all of them told me that I could start the next day. So I won't mention which one I ended up getting on with, but I worked with them for about five or six months. I met a gentleman from Dallas who convinced me that, hey, you know what you could be doing this on your own. So I looked into it. I started up a corporation, and that was that. I got licensed, and the rest is kind of history.
Speaker 2:So what's the licensing process like here?
Speaker 1:Well, it's changed a little bit, it's. It was very difficult for me because I had to take a 120 hour course in Spanish, and that was before. My Spanish was very good, so they assisted, they helped, they were pretty good, and now it's. You can go through a different organization called Ampe. So I went through Sinetis and now it's through Ampe and they offer it in English. So I've actually just taken some, I guess, continuing education through Ampe, so I'll have that licensing shortly as well.
Speaker 3:I've heard in the area, there's a lot of people that present themselves as a real estate agent but they're not actually licensed. Is that something?
Speaker 1:you see, or that you come across, oh, absolutely, I call them the Bicycle Real Estate Agents. So when I first would put an ad out on a couple of the different pages and somebody would call me and say, oh, I've got a property that might fit, and I'd say, oh, let's meet at the coffee shop or somewhere, okay. And then I'm waiting outside and they roll up on their bicycle I'm not kidding you. So yeah, licensing is required here in this state and in Baja California, sir, but I think that's it. These two, and maybe Mexico State as well.
Speaker 3:So is there a way that one of our viewers, if they were looking for a property, that they could make sure that they're dealing with the lease Eventually.
Speaker 1:That's what we're trying to move forward with. Is actually, you know, requesting. Let's see your license, let's move forward from that.
Speaker 2:I do remember that when I first got the idea of moving down here, we had a friend that lives in, have a friend that lives in Playa del Carmen, and she said oh, if you want me to hook you up with a house or something, let me know she goes in Mexico, everybody's a realtor.
Speaker 1:Well, that's true too, I always remember that.
Speaker 2:And then so now, when I see people who are real to say they're realtor as, I always wonder you know, but we know that you're the real deal.
Speaker 1:So yeah, and I've been very lucky. You know, like I said through just word of mouth in the area, it's a small community, it's a very good, tight community. So, yeah, I've been, I've been very lucky.
Speaker 2:Yeah, very good. So do you sell, or is some of your clients, or some of your clients, spanish speaking people, or is it?
Speaker 1:mostly.
Speaker 2:Okay, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I've dealt with, but it's a small percentage. I would say five. Under fewer than 10% of my clients have been Mexican or Spanish speaking, but there are a few.
Speaker 2:Okay, so what's the current real estate market like here in Riviera Maya?
Speaker 1:That's a really good question. Right now is high season, so it's it's. You know it's hot. I guess I've sold five properties, four properties, in the last five weeks. So the first five weeks of 2024 got four properties sold or under contract. Anyways, covid was kind of weird, so everything just kind of was stalled during the COVID years and then the year when COVID was done, I sold three or four times more property than I ever had and then last year was a little slower. It was kind of got back to normal. So there is a high season and a low season. There's a cycle here.
Speaker 2:So right and it kind of mirrors the tourist season Precisely.
Speaker 1:People come down, they time they know they're going to buy or they're thinking about buying and think time their vacation with purchase Okay.
Speaker 3:I got a couple of questions about this development here that you're currently working on. So how does it work? Are they solar powered? Is there CFP here? Do they have wells? Do they have?
Speaker 1:Yeah, so yeah, welcome to Haven Haven Executive Estates. Yeah, so it's a bit of a I don't know snooty name, but so yeah, haven is a Gated community seven single family lots, good size, 13,000 plus square feet. We do have CFE at every lot line brought in, each lot has its own well as well, and we do a very a closed in septic system. So the septic chamber has five anti chambers or sub chambers for water separation. It has a biodegester, which is a requirement by law, and it has a basically just a holding chamber for the gray water, the final gray water, with a pump and that pumps out into enclosed planters, so a planter with a bottom and sides that's sealed and it runs, you know, several dozens of meters. So Basically, the water flows out from that, from your house, and into, eventually into your planters, and then just gets absorbed or evaporates.
Speaker 2:Oh okay. So it's kind of a whole little ecosystem.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it doesn't go back into the, into the cenote system below.
Speaker 2:Okay what about the water?
Speaker 1:that you bring into your house. Yeah, so the water is pulled up from the cenotes and that's why we're very careful with what we put back out of the house, right, so we don't want to contaminate the water that we're pulling up into the house. So describe what a cenote is, because people listening to this might not know cenote is really just a term for the underground water, but you know the sona cenotes themselves are typically thought of as the openings where the the ground has caved in. There's very, very few lakes or Ponds here. So cenotes, as you guys know, are where the land has kind of fallen in and now you can see the water flowing. It's crystal clear, normally because they get a lot of flow and, yeah, it's super clean water because it's been filtered. So when it rains it goes straight into the cenotes, which are probably 50 feet below the.
Speaker 2:Right ground level somebody. I read somewhere the other day that Mexico does not have any navigable rivers because of the landform that's so high in the central and it's so low on the site on the coast that there's no. You know, the rivers are either too fast or In like.
Speaker 1:In this area they're underground last year I visited Chiapas and I did see a river. There was a beautiful that. The valley there is spectacular. Okay, you're gonna go on vacation. I would definitely recommend checking that out so we could have taken the boat tour which actually goes up a navigable river.
Speaker 3:I'm worried we could take the road.
Speaker 1:we chose that road and we went up and just you know, your 2000 feet above the like, I don't know, a thousand feet, you're way up there anyways, and you're looking down and just the views were spectacular, right? So yeah, I think there are, but for sure, here in the Yucatan, I wouldn't think there's any navigable rivers, right yeah?
Speaker 2:So as far as the real estate market here, tell people what you know, what's kind of the low end of a house that you can get and what that would cost and and what would be included with that All the way up to, you know, middle range to the high end okay.
Speaker 1:So where I bought my first house in Mexico in 2008 was a little community called Chanchema wheel. I still have property for sale there for 110,000 and that is a basic two-bedroom, one bath house. It's got a front yard, backyard. There's no HOA there. The house itself is about 650 square feet and it would need some work so you may be able to pick it up for a hundred thousand us a USD. Everything I talk about in dollars is are in as far as money goes, is gonna be in USD. Yeah, and that's kind of the starting point. I would say, okay, typical sales for me are condos in the Tulum country club, where you guys you know are your area 200 to 250,000 for a typical two-bedroom, not penthouse, and then 300 to 350 for a penthouse, single family homes anywhere from 350 to well, this guy's the limit you know. So I've got a very nice villa for sale for 800,000 down in in In Tulum. I've got a Beachfront property for three and a quarter.
Speaker 2:So what do you get for 800,000 in Tulum?
Speaker 1:That's a beautiful house. It's Tulum style, which means it's got all the kind of the Not rough finishing but polished concrete and chacum which is the the wall finishing. I guess. Okay, three bedroom, three and a half bath, plus a big pool, plus a guest house, and then that's in a gated community as well.
Speaker 2:Okay so yeah, very, very cool. Some people, like you know, think they're gonna buy places as an investment is. Do you recommend something like that, or you know, is that a good thing or a bad thing?
Speaker 1:loaded question there's. There are some opportunities, but generally speaking, People they tend to get over. People will over-promise the return on investment potential and that's what gets people excited and they make the mistake of purchasing without really working through the numbers. I tell people to be very careful. You know, interview several different vacation rental management companies, because that's really who you're going to hand it over to. You're going to buy a property and you're going to give it to a vacation rental management company who will be promising you probably higher returns than you're going to see. Ask to maybe interview one or two of their clients as well and maybe have them pick them at random if they can. It's always better if you can augment through your own social media or your own networks, through work or wherever you know, if you can augment the promotion of your property. So I think it's a realistic expectation to expect that your property may be net zero and what I mean by that is you'll have enough rentals through the year that your HOA, all of your payments, you know, will be covered by the rental. So HOA and your property tax, which is negligible here, and your utilities, internet, et cetera. So Okay.
Speaker 3:You got anything, chris? Is it better for an expat to rent her own?
Speaker 1:would you say oh, it depends what they want to use the property for. If they, obviously. If they're going to come down here to live, I would recommend that they purchase something for sure, because then it's theirs. They can do what they want to it. Do you cover any rentals? I don't do any rentals at all. Yeah, but I do advise people to come down. If they're not sure, come on down, spend a month or two, rent a place and make sure that you you know that this is the place for you. A lot of my clients have visited the Riviera Maya over the last 12, 15 years and they already know this is where they want to be.
Speaker 3:So they'll just come down and it's my understanding, there's not currently an MLS type system here, but you guys are working on one. Is that accurate?
Speaker 1:Yes, that's correct. So, you know, somebody wants to look at just a sampling. They can come to my website. It's to loomexpertrealtycom. There's a big aggregator. You've probably heard of point two homes as well, so you can look at property all over the world on point two and you can, you know, zero down. But yeah, there's just.
Speaker 3:Do you find that there's a lot of homes that are for sale that are not listed on those sites?
Speaker 1:Not so many, yeah, but there's duplicates and you know this is where it gets a little complicated in the Mexican real estate market, where multiple brokerages have the opportunity to list the same property. So you might, I don't participate in those. It's called a non exclusive listing and it just doesn't make any sense for me to take a non exclusive listing where I might work my butt off for to try to sell that property and then some other brokerage sells it, so it just doesn't make sense. But you get these situations where multiple brokers have different pricing for the same property, or the property was sold a year ago but the owner didn't tell the other five brokers, so it's still listed up there and they use it as kind of a bait and switch tactic as well. So an MLS is overdue. Right, we're looking forward to it, yeah.
Speaker 2:I will say that my personal experience is, when we started looking at places, we looked at condos, like a lot of people do. We looked in Playa, we looked into loom All the ones in to loom that the guy took us to to show us all they were trying to sell it on was return on investment as a rental and it was going to be, you know, 30% return on investment and I don't know a single person that's ever seen that happen, that actually bought one of those. You know, or yeah it's, yeah, that's a. That's one of the things I think you got to watch out for down here. That can't be the reason. The reason has to be that you want to have something to do with Mexico, yeah, and perhaps live here, probably.
Speaker 1:So my biggest advice to anyone who's the one, I guess one sentence would be don't buy pre-sale. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Because it might never happen.
Speaker 1:Well, there's lots of reasons, but that's, that's the biggest one there's. You know it may not happen, but also there's just. There's a lot of properties out there and if your expectation is to rent it out, right, you're, you're it's going to be a challenge, yeah.
Speaker 2:So what's the best place for people to begin their real estate search? If they've been coming down here and they think, yeah, we could live here, where do they begin?
Speaker 1:Well, like I said, they can check my website out. They can call me. I'll give you guys my number. I don't text or phone call. I use WhatsApp almost exclusively, okay, but yeah, they can hit me up on the website, that's that's it. I'm happy to share the information, like. One of the things that I honestly enjoy is just sharing the information with people. I don't have to sell you a house, it's just. You know, I'll spend half an hour with somebody on the phone and just share the information and maybe they'll decide that, hey, this isn't the place for them.
Speaker 3:But yeah, well, that's very good I was going to say so as an expat. What are your favorite things about living here and what are your least favorite things?
Speaker 1:I was going to mention earlier Compromante de Domicilio. So this is one of the things that I try to teach people. Compromante de Domicilio, you guys probably know, is proof of address and that's one of the challenges. And it just seems that you know I joke with people that sometimes you need to bring your Compromante de Domicilio to buy a loaf of bread. That's an exaggeration. It just seems like Well, we know how that goes right, you're trying to get something done and you just don't have the right paperwork. Oh, do you have a copy of your passport? Yep, oh, but you need to. Yeah, today you need to. Okay, so there are some frustrations. I'm not sure. I love the beach. My girlfriend and I have a sailboat so we go sailing a lot. You know we'll hit Cozumel and do things like that. So just the outdoor living. You know there's a lot to do. The golf course here is fantastic. Yeah, absolutely yeah. I can't say that. I have one specific that I like the most Not being cold.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I guess that's probably it, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:That's. I think that's a big attraction for Chris and I too. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:I'll never be cold again.
Speaker 2:Yeah Right, I will never shovel snow again is what I always say. So if you had a list of the top things people should consider when making the move either just for themselves or buying property or whatever what would those things be?
Speaker 1:So I would consider sense of community. That's probably number one thing. Do you want to be near people? You know, when you wake up in the morning you look across the street, or you know the patio next door, or walking, you know, down the trail. Is that a new face or is that someone that you've gotten to create a relationship with? So the transient nature If you're buying down in Tulum, you're going to see a lot more because there are tons and tons of Airbnb. So that's probably number one. It's just what's more important to you a sense of community, or is that important at all? Proximity to the beach and access to the beach. So how close are you to the beach and how difficult is it to get onto the beach? Because not all places, even though you may be close to the beach, it might be a little more difficult to get on it. And then, obviously, you know things like amenities. We have a great pickleball community here, there's tennis courts around here, we can go walking and cycling, and obviously the golf courses that pepper the area as well, and the beach, you know, yeah. And I guess, lastly would be things to do and restaurants. So, and price, I guess that's the last thing too Right. So in some of those, the bigger centers, the prices are starting to go up. There there are US prices for sure.
Speaker 2:What do you think, chris? I think it's been fun yeah that's pretty much it.
Speaker 3:Do you have any more questions? No, I don't.
Speaker 2:I think you've answered them all Well. Thank you so much, Nolan Clark, and thanks for joining us on Xpats. Like Us. Hey, give us your website real quick Okay.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's toloomexpertrealitycom. Okay, and you can throw a www in front of that, okay.
Speaker 2:That's easy enough to remember Toloomexpertrealitycom. That's right, all right. Well, thank you very much, nolan Clark. Thanks, chris.
Speaker 3:Hey, thanks, bob. Thanks for having me on guys.
Speaker 2:You bet All right. In each episode of Xpats Like Us, we're going to teach you a new Mexican slang word. This is something you may not find in your phrase book or your online Spanish class or your Spanish app or wherever you're learning your Spanish. Instead, this is a term used primarily by Mexican Spanish speakers. Today's word is Metiche Metiche. I have no clue what that means. Can you spell it? That is M-E-T-I-C-H-E Metiche. Okay, and what does Metiche mean?
Speaker 3:It's a person who has his or her nose in someone else's business.
Speaker 2:Okay, very good, don't be a Metiche.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:Gracias, erika Kowalski from Mi Vida, margarita. We'd love to hear your thoughts on today's topic. Just look up Xpats. Like Us on Facebook or send us an email at xpatslikeus at gmailcom. You can also see the video version of today's discussion and all of our discussions on our YouTube page. Follow, like, subscribe and leave us a review. Thank you to today's guest, nolan Clark. Thanks also to my co-host, chris Kowalski, and our co-producers, erika Kowalski and Sherry Bosse. Most of all, thank you for tuning in to Xpats Like Us and thank you for interacting with us on social media. Next time we'll bring you more firsthand information about your international move. Until then, remember, our homes are not defined by geography or one particular location, but by memories of dense people and places that span the globe.
