KGCI: Real Estate on Air - Discover the Secret World of Luxury Living on Portugal's Silver Coast with Hollin Stafford! - EP 46

Episode Date: April 25, 2025

Welcome to Real Estate Riches, where Kathy Burns empowers realtors to achieve the success they've always dreamed of. Starting her career at 55, Kathy built a thriving business that offers the freedom of time and financial independence. And now she's sharing her journey to help others do the same. Whether new to the industry or looking to level up, this channel is your hub for proven strategies, inspiring stories, and the tools you need to grow your real estate business. Join Kathy each week to explore global opportunities, successful systems, and expert insights to take your career to the next level. Get comfortable. Pick a video and start learning. Your journey to success starts now. Hey, everybody. It's Kathy Burns, and I'm here with Real Estate Riches, and I'm excited today to have my guest, Holland Stafford, and she is an expat in Portugal. How are you? Hi, hi, everybody. I'm doing great. How are you? I wanted to have a hundred to have a

Holland on, especially as an expat, because Portugal's such a hot spot. And if you're following me at all, you know that I'm doing a lot of conversations and videos and information all about Portugal, because so many people want to move there, invest there. And I want agents to start thinking bigger. Start talking to your whole sphere. Like, who do you know that's interested in living in another country? Holland is a perfect connector to be someone to help throughout the whole country. Because if she can't do it, she's got a whole team that she can refer that can. So how long, why don't you give us a little background? I know you're an expat. Where are you from? And how'd you get to Portugal? Sure, sure. So I'm originally from California. And I moved here in 2016 with my family. So next year,

it will be nine years. And we moved here from the Seattle area. So I was actually doing real estate in the Seattle area before we came. And when we got to Portugal, we realized, that the real estate business was quite different. We lack the tools and so forth, which you know, I can tell you more about that we have available in the states. And I realized that I would, I had a niche that I could fill because there were at the time actually, there weren't as many Americans here. And over the years, I watched as more and more people were coming and kind of struggling with the same things that we struggled with, you know, people not calling you bad and misinformation and all this sort of things. And without the MLS or a centralized place to go,

it was a little daunting. So I decided to jump back in the pool. And I've just absolutely, I just love it. I absolutely love, love it. Yeah. And your target market is the luxury market, isn't it? Yes, yes. We mainly focus on luxury. And I mainly have been working the last few months, Anyhow, I unexpectedly became a bit of an expert on the Silver Coast, which is an, I tell people all the time, it's the place to be investing now. It's still within an hour of Lisbon, and it's absolutely beautiful. And we've got several resorts up there, as well as just adorable little Portuguese villages. I mean, we kind of have something for everybody's taste. Yeah, I think that's important. Well, the luxury market, this is 2024, the end of 2024. The last

luxury market is doing really well. And there's a lot of investors that love the concept of being able to go buy a home or a condo, apartment, whatever it is, and have it rented out for the time that they're not there, even have it furnished and have it property managed all while they're there. So it basically pays for a vacation spot that they want to come back to because they know and love it, right? Yes, yes. That is something that we have people dealing. We have a lot of people that want to come from the states, but not necessarily be here for the entire year. And Portugal is one of the countries that makes it really easy to do that. There are some issues around the Schengen. You know, you have to be here for a certain amount of time. You know, if you buy a property,

it's really easy, though. And it's a lot of details to go into here. But I have all that information. If anyone is interested in, you know, they can contact me through you or one of my sites. And I'm happy to send it to them because it's really a great opportunity. And Portugal from south all the way north is just wonderful. It's a wonderful country. Yeah, it is, it's one of, it's the number two place in the world that people are drawn to right now. Costa Rica's number one, but Portugal's number two. And everything, I've only, I've only been there twice. I was there this summer, but didn't get a chance to see anything. I'm coming back next June. I'm in a Verve rally, if you know what that is with all these exotic cars going down, I think the Silver Coast. And I'm very excited about that

because I am a classic car girl, but these are the exotics. So high speed, high engines, fun. But one thing to get back to, there's so many people that are, especially in the luxury market, that are looking to invest in other areas where it's a combo of how can we make this fun, profitable and go like we want. And you mentioned that you have like a golf resort that you've got that's in that phase of construction where you can get in at the beginning prices and have even appreciation, right? Yes, I actually have two different golf resorts that I represent up on the Silver Coast, as well as another development that's just outside of the golf resorts. It's a development of 57 houses. And it's right around the corner. And within this very maybe 10 minute radius, you have

have four golf resorts, three of which are just world class. So if you bought anywhere around there, if you like golf, it's there. But you also have a big lagoon in that area where people like to windsurf or kite board, stand-up paddle. I mean, if you are active, it's a very, very, I mean, it's a great opportunity to find a place like that and not be in the crowds that are closer into Lisbon. Yeah, yeah. And the fact that you said property management is part of Does it come furnished when they do that? Yes, well, you know. Okay, so it's the different resorts do it differently,

but you can have them furnish it. Of course, you pay for the furniture on top of the price, and then they do everything for you. They manage it, they market it, you know. It's really an incredible deal. And then if you bought outside of the resort, I have connections with locals that are doing the St. Running Management companies,

because we have so many people coming now. They saw the need and they are filling, you know, filling it. So, yeah, so that can all be taking care of. And I've partnered with a fantastic local family that's been in the area for generations and they build furniture right here in Portugal and they can do a mood board for your clients and, you know, really kind of make it more your home. You know, there's lots of options. Yeah, yeah.

Well, this is what, you know, the purpose of this channel is to help real, think different, you know, think bigger, get nuggets of how to do it. And we all have a database of our clients. And if you've been in a while, you're in the luxury market, there's a lot of people that are looking, they travel. I mean, travel is a big deal now. We are a global economy. So people are traveling around. But as an agent, you need to be on purpose to reach out to your sphere and say, hey, I have global resources. I can get you homes anywhere in the country. And just so you know, I personally am aligned with EXP Realty, and I have access to 24 countries right now and growing. But there's also something that's non-EXP related for any agency that's called Global Marketing Agent,

and that's where you can market properties all over the world as well. So for agents that are looking to expand their business, I'll have a link for you in the feed here so that you can access that and check it out. but I want you to think bigger. I want you to stop thinking just in your little hometown of how you go after finding and growing your business. You know, I met Ann Brightman, who is the owner of the firm that Colin is with on LinkedIn. And it all just snowballed.

And I learned more and more about Portugal. And it applied to Portugal. Anne came to Miami to learn more about that. And she's an expat herself. There's a lot of expats. that want to invest in Portugal. And the beauty of Colin, like if she didn't know a territory, you can refer within your company or even outside your company,

just like we can here in the States, right? Yes, yes. It's absolutely wonderful because, you know, sometimes people come over here and they might not know Portugal very well, and they'll think, oh, I want to go and, you know, stay somewhere or find a place somewhere near Lisbon, and then they end up going down to the Algarve and fall in love with, you know, which is down in southern Portugal.

and all of a sudden, you know, it's not maybe your area. And so, yes, we have connections all over from south to north, and there's some really wonderful, really good agents that they can work with. Yeah. And one of the things that I've done recently is align myself with a travel agent, a really good travel agent. And I'm thinking that it's so vast. It's different.

It's exciting. I'd almost want to go spend a month there and explore the whole country and get a feel for it. And along the way, know that I have a team that's working with me, the team of agents who could help me anywhere within that country and be able to refer me, help me with the money situation, the government situation, all the different pieces that would be important. You need to have a team.

That's one thing I love about the Brightman Group is they have that. And, you know, everybody works together, you meet together, and it's powerful. So I'm really glad to have you on here today and kind of give a feel about that. And my goal was to help agents start to think bigger and hear opportunities like you have there. Oh, we have so many opportunities and some really lovely people, local people that, you know, that I've made connections with that speak English. I know that that can be a fear of some people coming over. But things have really changed in almost nine years since we've been here.

and it is much easier process. And there are people to help you, hold your hand, guide you every step of the way. And even for me, I'm not an expert in taxes and all these other things, but I have made connections with the people that are and the people that I trust and I've vetted. So that when I tell someone about them or I refer someone to work with them, I know that they're going to get the service that I expect and to give, you know? And so, yeah, no, it's really great. That's important.

Well, thanks, everybody, and thank you, Holland. And if you like what you heard here, we're going to have all Holland's information so you can reach out to her directly. I'll have that link I talked about for the global marketing agent. And we will all hopefully learn something from this and you'll start to do better in your business thinking global. Thanks, everybody. Yes, thank you. So thanks for joining me on this episode of Real Estate Riches. Wasn't that great?

I'm sure you've got a nugget or two. I know I did. So if you liked it, please subscribe. share it with everybody make some comments we really find that invaluable and if you're thinking that you would love to talk about this a little bit more let's get to a business strategy call I'll have the link below let's see if we can't mastermind together and see if we can't empower each other that would be great so until next time signing off hope to see you on the next one