So many things have happened since we said goodbye to our last guests in November 2022.
After closing of the guesthouse we first took a well deserved rest of 2 months. It gave us time to reflect about our plans for the future. We knew it had somehow to involve hospitality and (old) houses, but we weren’t quite sure how it would shape out.
Estoi
By that time we had already bought the historical house in Estoi and we were working with Estudio ODS on giving shape to architectural plans.
The idea of buying old houses and giving a new life to them has always appealed to us so we thought that that could be an excellent business plan going forward. One that would combine 2 favourite activities of ours: renovating/decorating and hospitality (renting out).
However not so long afterwards, we realized that with the pace of planning permission in Portugal, we would be sitting idle, doing nothing, for most of the next years.
Real Estate
We kept in touch with several of our former guests and some of them confided to us that they were in the market for a house in the Algarve, so before we knew it, we had launched ourselves in house-hunting. We applied for a real estate agency license and started perusing real estate adds in order to acquaint ourselves with the market and helping out our first clients.
Not easy
We found out that being a former hotelier does not work well as a calling card in real estate. Time and time again we had to convince other real estate agencies that we were not cowboys and actually bona fide people with bona fide clients.
Enter Signature Properties Solutions
So in October 2023 we decided to join the team of Signature Properties Solutions, a boutique real estate agency in Santa Bárbara de Nexe, to acquire legitimacy and experience. Signature Properties is an luxury agency occupying a market leading position in Santa Bárbara de Nexe and around. Small team and highly professional people.
New owners
Signature Properties Solutions has been founded in 2014 by 2 Belgian ladies who saw in us the perfect successors to take care of their baby. Beginning of 2025 we thus became the new owners of the agency. Since then, we have slowly injected hospitality values in what is generally considered a very tough and ruthless sector. Nowadays we prioritize client needs and satisfaction, professionalism and know how and last but not least, transparency and honesty.
Basket of opportunities
From a banker to a B&B to a real estate agency. What we have learned in our recent journey is that we, as persons, can be much more flexible and adaptive than we ever expected. Yes, we could have continued working in the banking sector, doing the same, safe, secure and only sporadically exciting job.
Instead we learned to adapt, to identify and embrace opportunities when they came along our way. Opportunities are always there, but sometimes our fear of the unknown will cloak them in a cloud of uncertainty.
And we are not done yet, we have more plans… Soon to be revealed