I am so excited to have this conversation with you because I feel like we haven't really been able to chat in a while and I'm really excited because we're gonna be able to dig into what's happening in Algarve and for the listener, prepare. Because Veronica is just an unbelievable source of information for everything happening in Algarve and really has a good finger on the pulse of what's happening in Portugal. So if you are thinking about moving to Algarve or Portugal, I know that's why you're here, but she's going to be able to give you some amazing information, insight and resources into making your move possible. Veronica, what's up? It's so good to see you again. I've missed you, my friend. And do we ever decide Algarve or the Algarve? I'm sticking with Algarve because I saw the articles there. But if you want to say the Algarve, I don't think that you're going to upset, but 50% of the audience. Algarve, yeah. Cause Algarve is the West, so the West, Algarve is the West. And so you are saying the West. We're saying the the the West. Exactly. The the the West. But, but, but, but English is fun. So we just make, make rules up as we go. Okay. So you've been based in Algarve for how long? So I moved here six years ago. So it was 2017 that I moved here and went to Monte Cordo at first, which was a little bit of one of those towns that you need to watch out for because they're great fun in the summer, but they're completely shut down in the winter. And then I looked around everywhere and right next door to me, literally, you know, a couple of kilometers away was Villarreal de Santo Antonio. And so I ended up after doing all my research around the South because California girl, I need my beaches. I need my son, you know, very similar latitude. As San Luis Obispo County in California. So, ended up here. And at the end, after I looked all over the West, ended up right next door to where I started in Villarreal de Santo Antonio. And really that's a place, honestly, I think that you've made famous on YouTube with your YouTube channel, American in Portugal. You laugh with like a humble laugh, but I honestly think that you're a huge reason why, why it's on people's minds. There's a reason why, why it's on people's radar, because on your channel, you talk about it, you talk about it in a very authentic way. What has people moving to Villarreal de Santo Antonio apart from, from your channel? Well, I think, you know, it really is what you just said. The word, the key word that you used is authentic. It's authentic here. We only have three hotels and it's so special in that you've got a river. I'm looking out at the river right now. I'm looking at Spain out my window, right? Your lucky dog. To have something affordable to where I could have these beautiful views, you know, my rooftop terrace. You've got to come out. Okay. One of these days we've got to get you guys out. It's happening soon. Good. Okay. It will, it will, it will. Get it on my calendar so I don't escape like I'm doing tomorrow. Deal. But so, you know, when I'm on the rooftop terrace and in my kitchen windows, you have a whole wall of windows this way, a wall of windows that way. I can see the ocean. I can see the river. I can see Spain. The ferry is only like nine minutes and a few euros to get from here to Spain and you're in another country. So it's a twofer. I joke. It's a twofer. And if you go up North, it's so fun. The two cities that are kind of the sister cities up there, Alcoteim and San Lucar, and they've actually put a zip line. You can zip line from, you know, one place to the other. So you get on the little boat, you go to the top of the hill. So you zip line across two countries, two time zones. I mean, that's pretty cool. It's just, there's so much here. It's authentic. The square, one of the things that drew me to it after looking at all the other towns, the square is completely pedestrian. So traffic is not allowed. I mean, first thing of the morning, of course, they can pull the poles out that block the cars and you can drive for the deliveries for the shops. Just have that common space where you see grandma and the kids and, you know, grandkids and neighbors, kids all playing together and kind of policing each other. While the grandparents can either sit on the benches that line the square or in a cafe and you're just in this authentic, I think that's the word, you nailed it. Authentic, safe town. Because it was built on a grid, you know, and after the, um, the city was hit by the tsunami, there was nothing here prior to that. A lot of the articles say, oh, Villareal was destroyed in 1755. No, it wasn't. It didn't exist. They had just started planning for it at that point. So when they started planning for it, it was the marquee, big palm ball, great grid structure, which is great because we don't have the cars driving around. I love to Vera to death, but when I'm sitting in there kind of square triangle, the cars going by and the diesel is not, and if you have kids, you have to consider that, that safety. Um, we had a friend's birthday party where we all stayed overnight there. Cause we love to Vera. We go there all the time. It's a easy train, train ride, straight shot down there. And, um, our friend stayed in another hotel and we said, come by for breakfast. And they ended up saying, oh, we can't come. We just watch the pedestrian get hit. You know, because there's so much traffic in such a small area. So they had to do the police reports and everything. And we just thought, you know, and then it's so beautiful and hilly in Tavira, uh, the, um, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the older, retired people, the flat, because this is built on a grid and it's flat. It's very walkable. Um, so authenticity, the heart of the town, being that square, the ocean, the river, the two for just pain. I mean, it kind of like, where can you get all of this and the prices haven't gone crazy? Yes, they've gone up. lower than the West because the West is where kind of the package, a lot of the British package flyers come in. They come in with their package to the big hotels, right? So they fly in, get on a bus, go to those hotels. So they tend to know the West better and buy there. Yeah. Okay. So to explain a little bit of geography for the listener, most people, as Veronica is saying, most people will fly into Faro. So that's kind of the South Central point and then they'll go West from there. They'll go to some of the other cities from there as opposed to going East, which you'll hit Tavira and then further East, you'll hit Vilja de San Antonio, which Vilja de San Antonio has around 20,000 people. Is that right? Well, it depends if you look at the city or the county. So we have to remember it's a county and the city. It's like saying LA, LA, right? You have LA County, you have LA City. So it's about 10,000 in the city and the county is about 20,000. And then dropping from the north- And about 5,000 in the square? No, actually the square can't go more than a few stories high. So you really, it kind of sprawls out. And then the nice thing is, is we cannot grow. They can take any empty lots in the town and build on those, or maybe take something that's an older building and build up a few levels higher. But because we have the natural borders of the ocean, the river, and the preserves, it can't sprawl, where I'm seeing Tavira just really grow, which was a big issue in Orange County, growing up in Orange County, seeing how it just sprawled into LA. And then eventually it's just this huge mass of concrete jungle. And then it's spreading down into San Diego and up into the valley, which every time I go home, it's like, ah, don't make me go on this freeway. It's 10 lanes wide now and we're still stuck in traffic. Right? Crazy. So there's no good time, you know, when we were younger and it was like three in the morning, you still could like fly through town, 6am, 5am, you know, one or two in the afternoon. Now there's no, so I'm very sensitive to the border here, knowing that it can't get overdone, oversold. Got it. Okay. So let's chat a little about prices since you brought up how in your town, it's not really risen very much. It has risen a bit, but not as much as Tavira. Can you give us some indication of what has happened with Villa de Santo Antonio, with Tavira and maybe Faru? We'll kind of go that far West. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, you're talking three completely different communities, right? So Villa Real de Santo Antonio, smaller, authentic, Tavira authentic, but still more modern homes going around the outskirts, which are beautiful. You know, it's just, you're going to be a little bit further out from town, but it's still for the people that enjoy that, that's fabulous. And then going into Faro, which is kind of the big city down here, right? It's big and it's definitely industrial, but you still have some of the cute historic areas. So you can go to the area, which, you know, is on the Rio Formosa, one of the largest preserves in the world, blah, blah, blah. And you know, from that, you've got the historical town that you can walk around, but not that many people can live in it. And next to that, a very cute shopping street. So there's your kind of your basic differences. So pricing, Tavira and Faro are similar in pricing. And that you can get a house, 500,000, 600,000 for apartments in the downtown. The further you get away, it's going to get a little bit more discounted, but in Villa Real, you can still get a really nice place for a budget around 300,000 to 350,000. Wow. That feels expensive. How big are we talking? Like a hundred square meters? Yeah. Like roughly a thousand square feet. Yeah. Because mine was 150 when I bought it and I could sell it in a day for 300,000. I could make it even higher than that. Wow. So yeah, they've gone. So when you say doubled in price, they were already starting lower than anywhere else because there's not like tourist attractions. We don't have the big buses that come in here and you have to think Tavira still has some larger hotels. So you still will get some of those hotels that can contract out to EasyJet, Ryanair Jet, to all those big companies where they can bring in a chartered aircraft full of people from Great Britain, fly and get them on a bus and take them straight to the hotel. And then they kind of stay there. So they'll see the area and tend to buy there. And then definitely the same for the West. A lot of hotels in the West. Yeah. Albufeira. Do you see any like really high value towns that are popping up that foreigners are kind of moving to or even that Portuguese, they're like, this place is undervalued and all garb right now. And I want to invest in this place because it's coming up and prices are going to be really expensive in five, 10 years time. You know, I think I've seen some of the investment in Castro Morim. That's the county just north of us. So if you're on a 22, a 22 divides the Algarve pretty much from South Algarve to the North Algarve. And you'll see that anything south is pretty much your hills and then the beach. Right. So coming south for the last exit before Spain and you pop into Castro Morim, which is a town and a county again that has a castle. And I've done a video on some developments there because one of the videos I saw was very negative. And they're like, oh, everything is wet and damp. And I'm like, well, that's not necessarily true because there are houses that have been built to a different standard. You know, so it's just speaking to what type of home you want. And you know, you can insulate, you can add, you know, different painting coats and different, you know, textures to make it not damp if you have an older home. So I thought, well, I'm going to go along with this guy who had four houses that he completely refinished from a historic state. That was really fun to watch those. And those have gone up quite a bit in price. So watching them as he built them. So I have a video on just Castro Morim. And I think in my own personal opinion, right, that when you have a castle town and it's so quaint and so amazing and it also is easy access to the river, it's, you know, Spain. And it's only for me, I'm always on my bike. I get there on my bike in 10 minutes. A beautiful green pathway that they've built that is so beautiful. And then I go take my bike to the top of the fort and I'll like have snacks on top of the fort. I'm like, I'm in a fort, I'm in a castle. I think there's still that excitement for us as Americans that you literally live around the castle, like under the castle wall. It's so cool. I think that's one that I'm seeing go up. I can't say it's for sure, but when you're talking supply and demand and they're really picky about building a castle morim. You do not want to build there. You do not want to do a rehab unless you're a professional. It's you better know the town. They're super picky. Yeah. Got it. Okay. So you'd rather buy something finished. Yeah. Either that or work with that local developer or, you know, doing internal changes generally won't flag a permit, but check, you know, check with the local architects. Historical is a tough, you know, we've had Americans that came here to town, they're in the historical zone and all they have gone through it and back and a German guy in Castrum Rim, he's it's been five years and he still can't get his approved. So, Oh no. Five years is a long time to wait for approvals. It's not going to happen at that point. Yeah. So Castrum Rim is like on a nature reserve. Is that right? Yeah. That's also part of the natural reserve. And what's funny about it is it comes in, I guess I'll have to do this backwards, but so here's the river and here's the L'Oreal de Santo Antonio, Castrum Rim's to the north of us and it drops down through our County and cuts our County in two. So it actually goes to the beach and then we're on the other side again. So it does this weird little loop down. Like arcs over it. Yeah. And so to get to the school that a lot of the children here will go to school because you basically get a free international school at Casella Vela. You drive through the other County to get to yours. Cause it just, I don't know if they wanted to have beachfront or what, but, and I think some of the other little towns between here and Tavira are, are really special places because they're on ocean, ocean. Like you can get pretty much oceanfront and those are still way undervalued, especially coming from California where we know, we know what's happened from the time we're kids till now. We only have so much oceanfront or river view places in the world in great places, you know, safe places like this. Right. Yup. And there's less of a threat I think of, of falling into the sea the way that, that California might in terms of people predicting it might fall into the sea. So I don't know if that's going to happen in, in Algarve. Okay. You know, it's, it's really funny that you mentioned just talking about like American culture and whatnot. We had an instance where we were traveling in Spain. When we lived in Madrid, we were traveling in Spain and we were in, we were in a town just outside of, of Madrid called Toledo. I love Toledo. Oh my gosh. That's one of my favorites. That's the old capital. Yeah. I don't even know that's the old capital before Madrid was the capital. It was my favorite town. And then Cordoba second. Yes. And we're walking around and we're, we're Kaylee and I are just in awe of the, the, the castle-y vibe going on. And our Scottish friend was traveling with us and he's, well, he's Scottish. He's, he had grown up in England as well, like lived there, lived in Spain for a bit. And he's like, I don't know why you guys are so excited. This will get old. And we're like, we're like, bro, it can't get old. Our country is like 200 years old. This stuff is like a thousand years old. Oh, more than that. Yeah. Thousands. It's crazy. Yeah. It blows our mind. And, and it, you know, it hasn't gotten old for us and I don't think that it really does for Americans. And if it does, don't like, don't be jaded, you know, don't be jaded. Enjoy it. Enjoy history. Like walking in history on a, a daily basis, especially if you live in a town like yours or a town like Castro Moreno. So that's cool. It's so special. And again, I guess that's another point of Villareal de Santo Antonio is jumping on my bike and being in a castle town, like 10 minutes, dude, and a beautiful, huge green biking path. And they put the poles in so that the, you know, drivers don't come over. Yeah. Which is important to me because I lost two, my old, my old brother-in-law's like passed away by getting hit by a bike in a, in a bike race in Utah. So yeah, yeah. So to see those, you know, that it's completely divided, nobody can just swerve in or it's just such a safe path and they're making it to go all the way around to the other side of the castle and it's going to come down, I think all the way to the beach from the backside. Nice. It's going to be pretty special because I love riding my bikes and I go on the hills and the trails. I'll take the ferry, go up to the trails in Spain, but I stay off the main roads whenever I can. I just, I'm, I'm a mountain bike girl and that creeps me out on the roads. So that's a bonus. You know, even here between Villarreal de Santo Antonio and Monte Gordo, we've just got miles and miles of preserves. I was just biking yesterday and you bike by this beautiful little pond. You go, you know, hopping from cafe to cafe. So we biked it. Yeah, we biked to Villarreal de Santo Antonio on one set of trails with some really fun hills going up and down, get to Monte Gordo, which is all the beachfront cafes on this raised boardwalk. Then you go from there, you have your cafe and a subterrata, you hop back off the boardwalk and then you go through to the next set of preserves. And then we're at Cabela, Cabela Beach, and there's two great little cafes there. And then you go back and I was just breathing in the air and I was like, man, all these pine trees and the brown dirt and the pine tree needles have like fallen down and you're riding through the smell of just sage and fresh pine needles and pine needles that are, you know, they get even stronger when they fall. Oh, and I'm like, if I were back at home, I would have to like put my mountain bike in the car and drive up to the mountains. And here I am, I feel like I'm in the mountains, but you're not. You're like where the beach is right there. It's just, it's magic here. I can smell it now, honestly. You've described it so vividly. I can smell it now. I love it. I love it. I really do love it. And then just this morning, some friends that moved here because of my channel, they hadn't seen the megaliths in Dolomites. There's a ton of megaliths through Portugal. I think a lot of that we need to do a video on that, all the megaliths in Portugal. But there's one that's only 20 minutes away. And I was telling her, it's two standing stones. You stand in the middle of the energy goes like this. And it's really like an old fashioned jolt of coffee. And they both did it. They're like, oh my gosh, this is real. There's like energy coming through here between these stones. And that was just, you know, 20 minute drive up there. And then we popped by a little cafe that was closed. And then Monday, Monday's in Portugal. A lot of things are closed. Oh, I know. Mondays, Sundays, sometimes. Okay. So, so let's chat a little bit about the, the, the people that are living where you're at. Are they, are they into the same lifestyle, this kind of outdoor biking lifestyle, cafe hopping retirees as well? Is that kind of the, is that kind of the tilt of your tribe? I think it's different strokes for different folks because we have a lot that have had injuries and so they're kind of stuck to walking around town and they will do. We also have a beautiful river walk. So they'll do a river walk and we've got two cafes on the river. So sometimes you walk from one cafe to the other, from beer to beer. Or coffee to coffee. And then get another one for the energy back home. Oh man, I learned like it takes, it takes a lot more than a quick walk to burn those calories. A hundred percent it does. One of the joys of being here is eating and drinking here and you know, saying, oh, well, I gained some pounds. You know, I'll go biking. Yeah, I think that everybody that we've met the first year or two is about consuming as many pastries and, and cheap wine and beer as possible. And then, and then you get to a point where you look back at photos of when you first arrived and you're like, not unrecognizable, but definitely to the point where you're like, I need to do something about this. Yeah. Little chipmunk cheeks. Yeah, yeah, for sure. I think the cheap alcohol that you said, like in one of the videos, the one I did with Sandy, which nobody watches, watches amazing video because it's just about the olgarve and we put so much time into it. She's a poet and I'm like promoting her poetry book because we got her to write it. I was reading her poetry and I'm like, oh my gosh, you have to publish this. So she published it and she calls the green wine, green or vino, greeno. And it's so great. We just, we have a glass of wine and we talk about her poem and then we, you know, put all the pictures in. One of the most labor intensive videos and no one watches it. I think because I put poem, I'm going to watch a poem. Show us. Yeah. You got to be careful with the YouTube titles for sure. We have, we've had that bite us on multiple occasions. What he didn't tell you worked. Yeah, well, exactly. Exactly. Okay. So we've, we've talked a bit about where you are to Vera, a little bit about follow, but about a year and a half, maybe two years ago now we were chatting with you and also chatting with Nick about Olliao if I'm saying that right. Olliao. Yeah. What's happening there? Like, has it progressed? Has it regressed where what's going on with that city? And that city to the listener is just east of Fado. It's like really the next kind of city over. It had some interesting development going on, but where is it at now in 2023? For me personally, I don't like to say negative things and the town is just not for me. I mean, you can go on the riverfront and you know, we've eaten at the new bamboo. They have bamboo in the golden triangle, which is a fancy restaurant, absolutely delicious food. They're redoing the riverfront. I just, I've heard too many stories on safety and safety issues and it's just not there yet. The two places that I would say kind of watch out on your radar would be Quartera and Olliao, but there's still some rough, yes. Yeah. Some really rough groups there. And I would just do your research and it depends if it's for you. If you're kind of that edgy person that can like see it and have that vibe and be able to navigate through that, that's great. But for an older couple that looks like, Hey, I'm a tourist, that may not be the best thing because our friends, Cindy and Ray, that you see them in my videos. He does look like that. He just, poor dude, he was in Seville and someone tried to pickpocket him. He tried to get pickpocketed twice at the Oriente station in Lisbon. And it was the same guy. He tried to pickpocket him on the way up the elevator, you know, when you go up to the train station at the top and he had those cargo pockets and the guy's like trying to reach in his cargo pocket. He's like, dude, what are you doing? And then on the, then they went up to the top and they're like, Oh, there's nothing up here. It's an hour train. So they went back down where the cafes are at. And the same dude, just trying to do the same thing. He's a poor guy, he just says, pick me, pick me. And you always want to be alert in any, anywhere you go. It's safe in Portugal. I don't want to say it's not safe, but you get those few opportunists. And if you have that look, I would say those would not be towns to move to. But maybe if you're super young and you like that edgy scene and you know, money wise, it could go up in the future. But I haven't seen the price really reflect the state it's in. I would say if it was like a third the price of here, then that might be a good investment. But the other thing is also on the Rio Formosa, so like Tavira, you can't get to the beach. You have to take a boat to the beach, to the island. And so you, when the tide is low, it's kind of that mud flats, you're sitting in front of the mud flats. Flats? Not flats. Flats. So I think that's when you really want to go and stay there two or three months and see it. If it's for you, right? Yeah. I wouldn't buy it with just like a weekend trip because the waterfront's cute. Listen, I appreciate your honesty because I felt the same way when we visited. Now I felt like we walked in enough directions and areas around that city where it was like a riddle wrapped in an enigma or whatever the saying is for that. It was so odd because there were parts of it that looked like there was a lot of development going on. There were parts of it that were cute and quaint near the market and that there was activity and they were trying. But then you walk down one side street, it's not even like planned social housing. It's like unplanned housing and it's just underdeveloped. And when you have these two forces that sit right next to each other, it can create tension or destabilize things. I don't know how else to put it, but I totally get what you're saying and I agree. Maybe there's price speculation, which is why prices are the way they are there now. Developers are trying to- See, I wouldn't do that. You want to buy it. If you're going to buy it at I'm ready price, buy it at a ready price. If you're going to buy it because you know it's only going to go up in the future, has a potential of going up, then you buy it at a discount. But you don't pay today's prices if it's still got a long way to go. Because if you needed to sell, which again, I tell anyone who moves here, a real estate cycle is a 10 year cycle. Don't buy if you don't intend to stay for 10 years. Don't speculate. Don't try to flip unless that's your business plan. Same back in America when I was working with all the agents and training them in California. You have to teach these statistics that they need to be in it for 10 years and flipping is a business. You need to have a model for what if the market turns, how much money do I have? Can I get it at what's my rock bottom sale price that can get out of here? Am I at least going to come out even? I think sometimes you still get people that are speculating and it's just, it's not worth doing it. Is there going to be a boom? Is it going to drop? We don't know. If we knew that, oh my gosh, we're that crystal ball, we would all be millionaires. We would all be millionaires. Because I think everybody was like, oh, it's going to crash this year and I've only seen prices going up this year. That's right. That's exactly right. We can't, you know, and you can go by old economic standards, but we haven't had a COVID before. We haven't had, like the world is changing and yeah, you can kind of plan the future based on the past, but I think you need to know I'm buying this because I love this town. It's right for me. It's right for me today. It's going to be right for me in 10 years or 15 years because it's a home. So I love this advice and maybe I love it because this is the same advice I give people when they ask me. I say this, I say the same thing. And another thing that I, that I add to it is, you know, make sure that the price is something that you can afford if you love it and it's worth it to you. It's like buying art as well. Don't think that you're going to turn around and flip it and make a bunch of money. Just think of it as a 10 year plan or project. And that, that kind of covers your basis in terms of the cycle, the pricing cycle. But also if you love it, it's a place you want to live in, enjoy it in that regard and then it's fine. And if you can afford it, but obviously don't buy something that you can't afford. No, no, no, no. And I think a lot of the retirees, or at least from my channel, I tend to, yes, we have a lot of younger couples and people moving because of the shooting situations in the States. And one lady had told me, she says, Oh, Veronica, you know, we were looking for a retirement, but you know, there was just one of those alerts in Florida. Her daughter was in school and there was an Amber alert or no, it was in the school. They have an alert for like a gun alert now where the school goes on lockdown and these kids have been trained kind of like we had earthquake drills when I was a kid in California, you know, hide under your desk. So now they have a certain code, like, you know, how many buzzes or whatever that the bell does. And this lady's daughter had was going to the bathroom when that alert hit. So all the teachers bolted their doors and it was a real alert. You know, there was someone on campus that scary and her daughter, yes, her daughter couldn't get back into her classroom. She's stuck in the hallway. All the doors are locked. So she did what she'd been trained, which is go into the bathroom, try to lock the door, hide in the stall, put your feet up so they can't hit you. And you just thought, oh, my God, our kids, like she was so traumatized. So she says, that's it. We're thinking of moving now. And I guess it was close to like a Valentine shooting that was in Florida, which I don't remember. But she says it's just it's too much trauma. She says, so we're going to sell and move now because the safety concerns. Yeah. I mean, Kaylee, Kaylee and I as international school teachers, we had to deal with that as well. I mean, it's not just in the US, but yeah, we had to do like live shooter training and stuff like that to to make sure our kids were safe. Granted, it was an American international school. So I guess the kind of the ideology came from what was happening in the States. But I think as well, even though Singapore is super safe, I mean, it's right up there with Portugal in terms of safety. Don't come get you. You've got to watch your P's and Q's there for sure. If you do something there, you won't make it out of the country. There's too many cameras. No, no, no, no. They don't play that way. No. They're not going to put up with it. Okay, let's move back into the real estate of Portugal, especially where you are. What are rents like? We've talked a little bit about cost to buy, but we see a lot of people want to want to test out what these different cities are like. So how much are rents? You know, I guess drive it, test drive it before you buy it. How much? Well, first of all, I mean, the point is you really it's almost near impossible to rent here. You know, this is not a big city. They're here and a lot of them are under the market. Like if you see one on Idealista or one of those channels, it's usually gone the next day or sometimes it's fake. And that's the other thing I have to say, be careful. You know, just on the internet doesn't mean it's real. Anybody can do a listing. You can go put a listing up right now. Go try it on Idealista. It's 50 bucks and you can just do a private listing. So don't send money, you know, all of our stuff. Use an attorney, use an outside attorney that can hold the funds, check it before he sends anything, you know, use the survey or all that kind of stuff to make sure the person owns the property and make sure that that permits are correct and they've been filed correctly. We had a guy who wanted to buy into Vera and everything was going well and the transaction was going well because I have my agent that works there. It's amazing, I love her. But everything was going well. And then we sent out the surveyor who goes to the city first. So he goes to City Hall and he pulls the permits and takes them with him when he does the survey of the house, which is like a home inspection. They have a thermography gun, like they do a thorough inspection and he said, and they'll go to buy finances to you to make sure there's no liens against the property. Because remember, we don't have title here. We don't have disclosures. We don't have escrow. Like you're on your own. You give money and you don't get it back. There's three years in the court system. Good luck, right? Those people are probably gone by then. So you do all of your work up front because you don't go, oopsie, on the back end because suing is not, it's an option. But again, good luck. It's a lengthy process. So when the surveyor showed up, he's like, these permits aren't the same. Like you've changed us in a historical area, which is a big no-no. They can fine you. They can make you turn it back to the way it was. And it can be a huge expense. So no, in historical zone. So he said, these permits aren't correct. And she said, oh yeah, we know that. There's no permits for the changes that have been done. And we knew that when we bought it. And so I'm like, Raquel, tell them. They failed to disclose. Like that's a huge, you know, that's a huge violation in California. You lose your license. But again, here we know their license, they don't have any claim. Just like, oh, you're a gardener today, tomorrow you can sell homes. Like there's nothing. That's why you have to have an attorney because he's really the one. But anyway, so we ended up getting the permits and it closed. Let me pause there and explain that. Yeah. So what Veronica is saying here, you can correct me if I'm wrong, but it's always the agency that holds the license and then they hire the agents that come in. So the agents don't have to pass an exam, be certified or whatever, be licensed to do that job. So literally a gardener could switch and next day become a real estate agent and start selling homes. Correct? Absolutely. They call them a consultant, a real estate consultant for the ones that haven't gone through training. So if you see consultant on a card, you know that they haven't gone through a formal training. Doesn't mean that their broker might, may or may not have trained them. But when I was hired by Caldwell Banker here, the training was really about Caldwell Banker and not so much about law and practices. I just did my, I'm keeping my California license because that thing is a pain to get. The test was actually, state test was wrong. So I just did 40 hours of CEs and 40 hours of CEs is not 40 hours. It's like 200 hours and we're redoing law and you know, all the things that you need to know. And I'm like, man, the people that I, you know, that we're talking to here don't even need to do any of this, you know? And it's just that refresher that, and the reminder that, you know, there's, there's a lot to being an agent, you know, it's not a property finder. People say, Oh, they're property finders. I can find my own on Idealist. No, it's not. It's disclosure. But we have in a state called an AVID, which is the responsibility of the agent before they list it to go through and do a full walkthrough on the house and list anything and to pull disclosures from the owner, you know, has anyone died here? Has there been a fire? Have you changed anything to get them thinking? Because they forget, you know, people, it's not people are always dishonest. They just forget that. Oh yeah, we did. You know, we had, we had a mold issue. We had a leak. And so you go down every question to remind them. And then you pull disclosures from an outside source. It talks, are you in hazard zone? Are you in a flood zone, a fire zone, all those types of things. Because all you want to do is buy a house and get insurance and find out you can't have insurance because it's in a flood zone. Right. Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, there's a lot more to being an agent than just saying, I found you a house. It's, it's, anyone can find a house. Right. But also knowing the history. So there's projects right now that are housing projects that are for low income people and they're allowing them to sell them. So if you've lived in them a certain period of time, you can buy them and you can sell them. So if you have an agent, especially a sneaky one or one that doesn't know, or one from out of the area, we have problems with agents coming in who don't live in these areas. They don't know the neighborhoods inside and out. And they come in and they could sell somebody one of those and they may think it's a great price, but it's still double or triple what it should be sold for. And you're going to have a hard time selling that in the future. Right. You can sell it indefinitely, probably not for what you paid. So there's, there's just a lot of things where you need that professional, you know, you need. What are some things that either buyers or renters should know? Oh, you asked me about rent. I'm sorry. Oh, no, it's okay. There's just not a lot of rentals and if you need one, grab it. Don't look for perfect. Just look for it so you can get your D7. Get yourself in. Yeah. Just get yourself in, get yourself in, get yourself in because, and I've had people say, Oh, I have a 500 euro budget and I want this, you know, I want in the city square with three acres and you know, water view. And I'm like, like the city square is historical. There's no, you're going to live next door to your neighbor in a tiny place and no, there's no water views. Did you see where the square is? Like it's too well fit. And like, and so we always, you know, try to set realistic expectations and 500 is not going to get you anything these days. I mean, you need 800 to 1500 realistically. For a one to two bedroom place. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And then it just depends on location, right? If it's river view, that's going to bump it in location, location, location. So, and you know, there are actually three now that one guy offered to me to, you know, send out, cause I'll send out an email. If anyone tells me anything, I'll send out an email on your newsletter. I don't get paid for it. I just put you together with that owner and just say, he's a lawyer, right? Put him to it because there's, there's no money in it for the owner. There's no money in it for the, you know, person renting. So just put them together, let them do their thing. And you know, it's amazing how quickly those go, but he gave me three and all of them are like so overpriced. One is a one bedroom for 1300 on the fifth floor with no elevator. Right? Bring groceries up that staircase, buddy. Yup. You, you, you're sending that to like your under forties email list, right? I send it to everybody and then people are like, Oh, you know, maybe we could do it without stairs. I'm like, you know, I sent it out to everybody, but really the minute you stub your toe or you hurt your ankle, how are you getting home? Like you, you do need an elevator. You know, you can maybe hobble up one set of stairs, but five. Or have your groceries delivered and just let the, let the, let the grocery person suffer. Yeah, exactly. Let the grocery person suffer. Kaylee does that to drivers all the time. Oh, I want to ask you because there are, yeah, exactly. Tip them. So there are some issues that we run into in the North of Portugal, like humidity issues, mold issues with apartments. Are there any things like that that people should look out for either when they're buying or renting? No, you have to do a full visual yourself and you have to have the survey or do it as well because it's just going around with the thermography gun. You can see the hot spots and the cool spots. It actually shows you on your wall. Like, so you can see, he has the energy efficiency and a, is it an F if it's an F it's probably an F buddy, you know? And then, and then people complain later and go, Oh, you know, it said it was bad energy efficiency. Why did you sit down? Well, it's raining outside and clearly there's no insulation. So the water is going to find any way in. And we just had those nasty storms, right? Which we love because we need water in the Algarve, but crazy storms last November, December. And if there were any cracks in any of these places, the water came through. So we were going around to our friends. And so you really need to have a surveyor come in. You know, if it's an apartment, do a really good check. Look, you know, under windows, windowsills, anywhere where you think water might come in. And look for, you know, any cracks or any places that look like they've been painted over or sealed over and ask why. And then just have your attorney put in a clause. If we see mold or da da da da, we can get out. And it doesn't have to be within that third, one third time, right? Cause you can get out of a contract third of the time. Generally. Nice. Nice. So Veronica, I've got to ask you a question. Cause we asked this to all of our guests and I'm switching gears pretty big here, but, cause we've been talking a lot about real estate. So you have, it is fun. I love it. I love real estate. You have a ton of experience in Portugal and living abroad here and traveling and just living to your fullest at Expats.Fair where we believe that living abroad transforms lives. How has living abroad transformed your life? I think for me, it's given me the home in Europe that just is magic to me. It's brought magic into my life because we all want to travel to Europe. We all want to have extended vacations in Europe. So to live here in my beautiful, authentic, quaint town where you say hello to everybody and they say hello back cause we all know who we are. And then other people say hello to us, right? Cause they see us on, on YouTube. Like, shoot, do I know them? But so to have that friendly, sweet town and to have my river and have my ocean and I'm retired, but I do, you know, the YouTube and then I help with the real estate stuff. But you know, tomorrow I'm off to Granada. It's just a road trip. You know, we're just jumping in a girlfriend and we're jumping in our car. It's, you know, four and a half hours to Granada and then Nerja and then Cordova and, and you know, back through the Pueblos Blancos. And if we want to from Cordova, go to Toledo, my favorite medieval town. I mean, it's magic, the history, the vibe and the ability to retire. Because I think, you know, a lot of my audience, I know you have a wider audience. A lot of my audience is kind of West Coast because they're kind of looking for that, you know, beach surfer kind of vibe. They can sell their homes and buy something here and have everything handled so they can retire at 35, 40. There's the health insurance component, right, that disappears because you can get a good plan for 50 bucks a month. That's I think the kind of the anchor that keeps people working as they're afraid they won't have health insurance. So if you take that out of the equation and it's a $50 fee and you've got your money and it's earning money and you can live and you buy your place cash, like your expenses aren't that much. It's for me, it's travel expenses and food, right? So it's that freedom of knowing I don't have to work. I got to retire early and I get to see Europe and, you know, it's freedom, it's magic, it's Europe magic, it's Portuguese people magic. Agreed. It's everything here, it's so special. And I'm not, I mean, I really, I'm not kidding. Every time I get off the highway and straight in front of me is the Castro Mourn Castle. I'm like the little kid. I'm like, Cindy always does that. It doesn't get old. It doesn't get old. John doesn't get old. John, it's been going on six years. Yeah. Nice. Going on for six years that I get off that freeway and I'm just like, you know, the history, the culture, all it's amazing. So I know that we have left some topics on the table, but we'll table them later because we will absolutely have you back. I always love talking to you. If you want to check out Veronica, she has a YouTube channel, American in Portugal. So you can go over to our channel and check out the video.