Journey to Portugal: Jason G

Imagine moving to a new country and starting a life filled with fresh experiences and cultural shifts. Join us as we recount Jason Goncalves' captivating journey from Canada to Portugal, exploring the motivations and hurdles faced during this significant transition. With Portuguese roots and a thriving career in real estate, Jason offers invaluable insights into tackling the language barrier and navigating cultural nuances.

Discover the logistical intricacies of relocating to Portugal, from securing a crucial tax number to the advantages of transporting your car. Jason shares practical tips for overcoming bureaucratic challenges and highlights the importance of having an advocate fluent in both languages and local laws. Whether you're pondering a move or simply curious about the process, this episode is packed with strategies to ensure a seamless transition, emphasizing the benefits of professional assistance and careful planning.

Explore the unique aspects of life in Portugal, from its slower pace and community-centric lifestyle to navigating healthcare systems distinct from those in North America. Jason's personal experiences shed light on the charming yet sometimes challenging adjustments required, offering inspiration and advice for anyone considering a similar move. With practical tips on real estate, you'll gain a comprehensive understanding of what life in Portugal entails and how to embrace its relaxed pace and cultural charm.

Contact Jason!

Instagram @Jasong.imobiliaria 

Whatsapp +351924378705

Chapters

• 0:00 Moving to Portugal
• 4:35 Seeking Roots
• 15:24 Navigating the Residency Process in Portugal
• 26:19 Life and Healthcare in Portugal
• 32:15 Real Estate Transition Tips in Portugal
• 41:48 Purchasing Property in Portugal
• 48:00 Navigating Resources for Moving to Portugal

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Every day. The past is where it stays, way back a year ago.

Speaker 2: 0:08

I've changed for the better this time.

Speaker 1: 0:13

I thought I would never be fine, I strive just to stay by my side.

Speaker 2: 0:20

Dreaming of a life in Portugal, or maybe you're just curious about what it would be like to move here. My family and I began planning for our move way back in 2020. It took two more years to make it happen, and it has been quite an adventure. Before you pack your bags, listen in to hear the real stories of those who've already taken the leap. Every other Wednesday, we dive deep into the experiences of individuals and families who chose to make Portugal their home. Discover their motivations, the challenges they faced and the unexpected joys they encountered along the way. We'll explore their preparation strategies, navigating bureaucracy and the realities of building a new life in a foreign land. Whether you're seriously considering a move or simply curious about life in Portugal, these authentic accounts will offer invaluable insights and help you decide if this sun-drenched country is someplace you want to relocate to or maybe just visit on vacation.

Speaker 2: 1:22

Welcome to Mover, portugal Unpacked. I am getting asked questions left and right these days about why I moved to Portugal and how my American friends can also do this. So I felt like it was time to share stories from people who have made the move across the water to start a new life in a new culture. So I decided to reach out to friends here in Portugal to begin collecting interviews, and my friend, jason Consalves, agreed to share his experience.

Speaker 2: 2:04

Jason and I met a couple of years ago, shortly after I moved here. We lived in the same apartment complex and I just remember being so happy that there was someone close by who spoke English. But don't let his beautiful English fool you he is fluent in both English and Portuguese. This has been a huge help for him in his career as a real estate agent here in Portugal. Today he is here to tell us about his journey to live in Portugal, and maybe he'll give us a few tips on finding a place to rent or buy once you get here, if you're coming. Jason, thanks so much for agreeing to do this.

Speaker 1: 2:39

Thanks for having me. I don't know if fluent Portuguese is the ideal, but it's good enough to get by at least, so I can have a conversation and communicate fairly well, I think. I think compared to me.

Speaker 2: 2:53

I'm going to say you're fluent, so thank you.

Speaker 2: 2:58

I just have this vivid memory of it was our first day. We had just moved into our new apartment in the complex and there was a party downstairs and so we were like, oh, this is nice, we're going to get to meet all the neighbors. And I remember standing there thinking, oh, I cannot communicate with anyone here. And my Portuguese was even worse at that point. And I remember hearing you and thinking Portuguese was even worse at that point. And I remember hearing you and thinking English, there's somebody I can talk to. And you were very, very kind to me and told me you know, you'll get there eventually. And you know, a couple of years later I'm much closer to speaking Portuguese, but definitely not fluent myself.

Speaker 1: 3:40

Well, pretty good. I mean, the first year was a little bit of a struggle for me too. Well, pretty good. I mean, the first year was a little bit of a struggle for me too. I mean, I have a Portuguese background. My parents are both Portuguese, but I rarely spoke Portuguese back in Canada, so it was definitely a struggle for the first year. My telltale is if you can start picking up on Portuguese jokes, then you're pretty close.

Speaker 2: 4:10

I'm still a long ways away. I'm happy when I know what the total is at the grocery store. Without looking at the little register thing, I understood the numbers.

Speaker 1: 4:19

Baby steps, baby steps.

Speaker 2: 4:20

Yes, well, tell us a little bit about yourself and what brought you to Portugal.

Speaker 1: 4:24

Yes, Well, tell us a little bit about yourself and what brought you to Portugal. Well, I'm Canadian. I'm from Toronto, originally Canadian, portuguese. I actually had a fairly difficult time in my last years in Canada. I only had one relative that was left. It was my father. He unfortunately was sick and I took care of him for about two and a half years before until he passed. And then, after he passed, I didn't have any family, direct family, left in Canada.

Speaker 1: 4:53

So I found myself traveling here like five, six times a year just to be closer to my mother, my, you know, my uncles, my cousins and everything. So a big motivator was to be closer to family. But also I always felt more comfortable with the idea of quality of life here in comparison to North America. So I think it was a little bit of you know, the morals of the people are a little bit different here and being closer to family. And then you know people take the time to to get to know each other. They take the time to, you know, get together, which in the North American rat race it's impossible. So I I think it was more so, but family was definitely the the main factor.

Speaker 2: 5:40

You know. It's interesting that I like that you said North America, because we lived in Washington State the last few years. We were in the States and of course that's close to Canada. We would go to Canada frequently. We had some friends there and I had an American friend who had moved from Seattle up to Vancouver, british Columbia, and I remember her saying and this was I don't know 10, 15 years ago she moved up there, but I remember her saying I'm, I want to go to a culture that is better than the United States, and at this point you know, canada is being called the little United States. I mean, it seems like the culture in Canada has shifted significantly. Could be because of all the Americans moving up there.

Speaker 1: 6:33

But it's shifted a lot in the last 10 to 15 years. Yeah, yeah, no, I mean, canada is just not what it used to be. I remember hearing glory stories about Portuguese people moving to Canada 40 years ago and you know, you can still buy property fairly cheap and make a good living and kind of set up your family. But with the way things are getting organized in the West, it's becoming more and more difficult with just taxes and it seems like there's some sort of agenda that's going on with pushing the West a little bit out of the scene. So there was multiple factors and when I moved here it was funny A lot of my friends ended up calling me saying like oh, the first year they're like, what are you doing? And then by the second or third year, I think I know of like four or five friends that had actually moved to Europe.

Speaker 2: 7:23

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 7:24

Because of what's going on over there. Yeah, so it was. Uh, it seems like it was a good timing for me.

Speaker 2: 7:30

Thus the podcast I thought, man, we need to. People need to hear the stories of those of us that have done this and what it looks like for us. So you have dual citizenship then, so you're a Canadian citizen and a Portuguese citizen citizenship then.

Speaker 1: 7:45

So you're a Canadian citizen and a Portuguese citizen. Yeah, so I am dual citizen. Um, so, both my parents with Portuguese heritage, uh, they were kind of enough to go to the embassy and make sure I was registered with Portuguese as well. Um, so it was a little bit of an easier process, but I essentially had to do the same things as, like if you were a North American coming here without, uh, besides the D seven factor. But I still had to do the same things as like if you were a North American coming here without, besides the D7 factor. But I still had to get a registered NIF, which is like your tax number, because when you're dual citizen but overseas you don't get the tax number, which was a little bit of a pressure for timing, because my shipping container came and I couldn't get my shipping container released without a tax number, and the rent per day on a shipping container at the docks is not cheap.

Speaker 2: 8:38

Do you mind sharing with us how much that is, just in case anybody out there runs into this.

Speaker 1: 8:44

So I think at the time it was around 680 euros a day. Oh my goodness, yeah. So I, uh, I buckled down pretty quickly to get my, uh, my tax number as fast as possible.

Speaker 2: 9:00

So there are a couple of tricks. If anybody's listening, a tax number is the equivalent If you'reS listener, which is the only other wheelhouse I really know. But it's the equivalent of our Social Security number, which we typically don't think of as a tax number, but that's absolutely what it is. So what are the tips and tricks? How did you get this nailed down?

Speaker 1: 9:21

So I mean, for example, we're in the OS area no-transcript. So luckily, if you are in a smaller city along the Silver Coast, there is a way that you can kind of bargain to get the appointment scheduled in Lisbon and then you can pay a fast track fee, essentially where it's like an urgency fee. At the time I think it was 85 euros, but I was able to get that tax number the same day.

Speaker 2: 10:12

Oh nice, that's way better. Eighty five is way better than six, eighty Just yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 1: 10:19

So they did have to ask some questions. I'm almost certain that if you just tell them you want it, the same day, you can do it in Lisbon, but I had a justification reason, so that might have been an indicator as well. I didn't stick around to find out. I was in a rush.

Speaker 2: 10:36

I can understand that. Yeah, I think that these little things are we'll call them charming, for lack of a better word that you can go to one town in Portugal and get something done a certain way, or just go to another town and actually have more or less success, depending on the town. Yeah, you know, something else that I've noticed is and this hurts me because I don't have the language skills, but of course my husband, lucas, is fluent in Portuguese but most of the time we are more successful if we go someplace in person, because in the United States and I think Canada too, a lot of what we do is online or by phone. So you can call, there's an automated whatever that you go through. You don't necessarily talk to someone. Or you can go online and there's a chat bot that you can use, or you can send an email and have some kind of whatever. But here, it seems, in person is the best way.

Speaker 1: 11:42

I would typically recommend in person I'm a little old-fashioned in the sense that I like doing things in person is the best way. I would typically recommend in person. Uh, I'm I'm a little old fashion in the sense that I like doing things in person. Uh, because I feel like you'll get them done a little bit faster. Uh, but it's funny because portugal's, in certain senses, like chat boxes, things like that. They're really behind. But then also we have something like Envyway, which doesn't exist in North America and is super useful.

Speaker 2: 12:08

Yes, yes, it is.

Speaker 1: 12:10

So it's funny, depending on the situation. There are some things to highlight that are positives here, but I would say the slow pace environment will take a while to kind of get used to as you're moving here and then getting used to the fact you have to do things in person. Rule of thumb that I've noticed is you can do about three items per day between the wait time, the travel time, speaking to them. Three is the number of max items you can take care of in one day.

Speaker 2: 12:39

Well, and Lucas and I say don't expect to get anything accomplished on the first visit.

Speaker 1: 12:47

Yeah, fair enough.

Speaker 2: 12:48

I mean because so many times you get there and it's just if you live here and it's, and you're part of the home culture and this is where you've grown up, then you know all the things you need to take. But that's not always obvious to those of us that move here. That's not always obvious to those of us that move here. But speaking to your point.

Speaker 2: 13:11

That kind of goes along. What I just said goes along with the slower culture, which is an okay thing, right? I mean you just kind of get used to okay. So today was going to wherever and learning what I needed, rather than having the expectation of actually accomplishing the task, but I love what you said. There are some ways that they are so far ahead in Portugal. We didn't know this. We were on our way in a taxi to the airport and we know the taxi driver and I asked him. This is terrible and I shouldn't be saying it on my very first podcast doing this, but in the United States we have a ton of dead animals on our highways and we call them roadkill and it's because you know the poor little critters run across there and get hit by cars, but you hardly see this. I've not seen any actually here in Portugal. So I asked our taxi driver and he said there's actually little borders put up for the the big highways. They have a fencing that we can't see, but it keeps animals from going up onto the highways.

Speaker 1: 14:16

You mentioned it. Yeah, I don't think I've seen roadkill here.

Speaker 2: 14:19

Yeah, Isn't that crazy? Yeah, and it seems like it would be so easy to do, to just have this little. You know fencing. Obviously, I don't think it's like an every. It doesn't go all the way along, but where animals might be able to get up and it's a more rural place, they have this. This. I think it's a fencing is what he called it. Yeah.

Speaker 1: 14:41

That's a great idea.

Speaker 2: 14:51

Okay, I digress, but uh, so you were in Canada. You decide that you are are going to go ahead and move to be closer to your mom. What kinds of things did you have to do to prepare for this kind of move? Because you've already referenced shipping, your goods and the container storage. But this is a different kind of move, because you've already referenced shipping your goods and the container storage.

Speaker 2: 15:06

But this is a different kind of move, right Like for us, I think you have two pathways you bring everything and you. You do that path, or you sell everything and what you can fit into your suitcases is what you bring with you. So tell us about yours.

Speaker 1: 15:24

So I knew I wanted to. So my situation was a little bit different because I was leaving Canada essentially to become a permanent residence here. I still keep my Canadian citizenship, but I'm no longer a primary residence there, so with that there's a couple of advantages that I'm allowed to bring one car that's not taxed. So that's an advantage. You can bring one vehicle. Vehicles tend to be pretty expensive in Portugal because of the double tax in comparison to North America. So I was able to bring my car over, which I love my car, so brought, that didn't have to pay taxes on that. I love my car, so brought, that didn't have to pay taxes on that.

Speaker 1: 16:04

And because I was already going to bring my car on a shipping container, instead of renting half a container I decided to rent a full one so that I could bring all my goods with me.

Speaker 1: 16:14

This is very much in the sense of it depends on the value of the goods that you have, and if you've invested quite a bit of money in certain goods, then I would recommend to bring those with you, because furniture can be expensive here as well, but I always liked investing in items, so packed, everything up, put on the shipping container, took over a month to get everything properly packaged though, because it's going on a shipping container on a boat for a long period of time in the open ocean, so you got to worry about like humidity, water damage.

Speaker 1: 16:53

So to pack one single item for a move, typically it's pretty simple, but when you're putting in a shipping container it's bubble wrap, sealant, bubble wrap again, and then put it in the bag. Yeah, so it was like a month of consistently doing that, but I went to the embassy ahead of time, organized my paperwork, notified them in Canada that I would be moving over, and then I actually had a contact of a lawyer that specialized in getting all your documents set up ahead of time. So once I had all my prep work done and all my paperwork done, all I had to do is send copies to my contact here in Lisbon and he could speed up the process. So by the time I even got here, my car was already registered as well.

Speaker 2: 17:42

Oh nice.

Speaker 1: 17:46

I even got here, my car was already registered as well. Oh nice, yeah, not the license plate portion, but the fact of the VIN number was already registered and existed in Portugal, and then I had six months to get Portuguese license plates for the car. So that was a huge, huge weight off my shoulders to kind of have people. And it's also one of those things where Portugal is very much still in kind of the wild west. You have to know which people to talk to and which ones not to talk to, because things can go bad pretty quickly if it's not a trusted source. So that's always kind of daunting and scary. But luckily, I mean knew this people through family, friends, and he's been in the industry for 30 years, so credibility, and he wasn't too expensive. I think I paid to register the car, take care of all my documents, transfer all the documents from the Canadian receipt to here and get everything registered. I think I paid 1500 euros. Yeah, wow, that's not as much as I thought. Think I paid 1500 euros.

Speaker 2: 18:45

Yeah, yeah, so that's not. That's not as much as I thought you were going to say.

Speaker 1: 18:49

No, no, no, it was actually. I was expecting to pay way more, Uh, and then when it was 1500, it was a it was a nice surprise, yeah, but um, but yeah, I mean it's definitely a process. I would say that if you're going to be doing a primary residence change, give yourself a good three months to get your documents in order, organize a schedule and even with three months of planning, there could always be delays.

Speaker 2: 19:16

Well, and you mentioned something really important we used an attorney also, and I think that that is just helpful. I know that once you get here, you have certain appointments that you have to go through to have your documents processed, and especially if you don't speak Portuguese, that can be quite daunting. That can be quite daunting, and our attorney spoke English and went with us to all of those visits as well and yes, I think it was, I want to say 200 euros each time, but he only had to go twice and there were three of us that he was helping get processed.

Speaker 2: 20:00

So in the grand scheme of things, I would rather have my documents processed and you also have an advocate that's there with you, because not that anybody's trying to do anything wrong. This, this, this and this and this is done wrong shoves the paperwork back at you next and figure it out.

Speaker 1: 20:25

You know right.

Speaker 2: 20:27

And perhaps there is something, because this is what happened to me. Actually, my attorney was there to say okay, well, don't give us our paperwork back yet because of this, this and this, and he knew about certain laws in Europe. I mean, I just would not have known to give pushback as an American. I would have you know if I had been by myself. I would have been like okay and left. So that attorney piece is really big.

Speaker 1: 20:58

Yeah, I mean, it's definitely takes a lot of weight off your shoulders the fact that you it's stressful enough traveling to a new country and making a decision to move to a new country, so having an attorney. In this case, the person I used wasn't an attorney, it's a specialized immigration person that has an office, but I obviously deal with attorneys. Now I have a couple attorneys on my team that specialize in people that are relocating from the US or Canada to Portugal, and I wish I did the same because it was so much easier with the attorneys. I still had a pleasant surprise with my guy, but I realized with the attorneys I know today it could have been way easier.

Speaker 2: 21:45

Yeah, well, one of the platforms that's going to be sponsoring this podcast, that I can't name their name yet, but um, cause they are finishing up all of their loose ends right now, but when? They're up and running. They're going to sponsor this podcast and one of the of their goals is to have a list of trusted attorneys real estate agents, plumbers, electricians this is a place to go to the grocery store.

Speaker 2: 22:24

Here's your common things that perhaps perpetuate a scam. However, sometimes we have uninformed people who think that they're informed enough to help us and we find out that really they're about as informed as we are. So then we've paid somebody and we have no new information right? I think that a lot of us that move here find ourselves in that situation. It's very frustrating, so to have people that you know. So when we link all of your stuff today, listeners, jason has said he knows some people. So as you're looking for houses, what things you might need to do to move to Portugal I can see you being a really good resource or connector for people. Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 1: 23:14

Absolutely Ideas to make it as easy as possible. Since we've already gone through it and that's definitely why I ended up in real estate was just because the process was a little sticky. And then the experience of going through trying to sell my first property here I felt like could have been done better, and then I decided not to list with that agent and decided to become an agent myself and did it myself and essentially hit the targets the targets that they said weren't attainable. So it was uh, it was funny how it all kind of worked out.

Speaker 2: 23:49

And kudos to you, because this is another thing that happens when you make a move like this is you end up with with two groups. I think of people, your new Portuguese friends that take a little longer to make, but are. I love my Portuguese friends.

Speaker 2: 24:05

I mean you know they are amazing. And then we have other people who have done this. Either they consider themselves either expats or immigrants and we all bond together because we offer you know resources to one another, as well as a common language usually. So I can see you being very helpful. I know you've already helped our friend group quite a bit in the purchase and sell and building of property.

Speaker 1: 24:36

Yeah, a little bit here and there, yeah.

Speaker 2: 24:40

So we're going to talk more about that in just a second not necessarily that project, but before we leave your personal move story, what do you think was the most challenging part of your move?

Speaker 1: 24:56

So my previous career was very high stress, high pace and always on the go, go, go, and I struggled for the first year to kind of get used to the rhythm here of how things are done.

Speaker 1: 25:11

So for me the biggest struggle was actually just going through the process of like, okay, I'm going to go here, it's an appointment, but this appointment will probably not achieve anything because I'll need another two or three appointments in order to achieve my goal. That was the biggest struggle for me, because I think we're just used to being, you know, bam, bam, bam, everything's done, let's go processed, and uh, it's a little bit of a struggle. So, and it's also confusing at the beginning of which office takes care of what, and then, depending on who you get that day, if they're not in a great mood, they'll probably just send you to the, to the other office, even though that's the office you're supposed to be at, and then you kind of got to go through a little bit of a loop, whereas today's day and age, I know exactly everything. So if someone tries to pass the buck, I'm like no, it's here, here, here, here you go, kind of thing.

Speaker 2: 26:08

Yes, that happens to the, that's not us. You need to go here.

Speaker 1: 26:15

Yeah, yeah. No, that doesn't work anymore. But I think it was just getting adjusted to the lifestyle here and like kind of you know, slowing down your pace and appreciating the time throughout the day a little bit more, and then you know, appreciating the fact that, ok, it's going to take a couple more appointments, but it's not that high stress lifestyle of you know, everything's go, go, go. But it was definitely an adjustment. That was my hardest obstacle on a personal level and I think from a paperwork aspect thing. It's just, it's the. The different offices between the city aren't all connected. So you handle something in one place but it doesn't necessarily mean it's going to be handled at the other city office. So you can kind of get into a little bit of trouble with that. Not big trouble, it's just the fact that it's more work and then kind of getting used to that. It's where not the entire system is integrated. If you have to make an adjustment, you have to make an adjustment across the board. But once you get, once you know that it's pretty simple and easy.

Speaker 2: 27:32

But there are multiple systems that are like that. Another one that immediately comes up for me is the medical system. I have never had to carry my x-rays with me to my different medical providers. It was oh, you're going to go to Dr So-and-so, we will get your records to them, and, of course, everything's digital in the US. But there are many systems here that are not integrated, because the expectation is that we are the intermediary and we are the connector.

Speaker 1: 28:09

Yeah, it's funny From a health standpoint. Are you going to COUF?

Speaker 2: 28:16

I'm going everywhere right now, so I got a toe in every pond in the medical system here.

Speaker 1: 28:24

Okay, All right, I decided to go with COUF right off the bat. Coming from a free healthcare system in Canada, there's some downsides to the fact of it being free healthcare the wait times, disorganization, this, that and the other. And then when you get to Portugal to have a healthcare plan that covers everything for less than 100 euros to go to a private hospital, I was like, yeah, no, I'll definitely pay 80 euros to have a super extensive health plan at a private hospital rather than getting into the public sectors. But that's just a personal experience, being Canadian and having to deal with the free healthcare systems.

Speaker 2: 29:11

Well, I have private but, like I said, we've gone public for a couple of things too. But my biggest glory story, I guess, is that unexpectedly I had to have cataract surgery. Like I had a very rapid developing cataract. Yeah, oh my gosh, it was anyway. But all of my appointments, the surgery I'd have surgery, all of my followup care and all of my medication total was 250 Euro. Yeah, and I had gallbladder surgery, which was also an outpatient surgery before we left the United States, and I paid 900. I didn't pay this all on my own. My school district paid a portion of it, but my insurance for myself and my daughter was 950, I think, per month, and for that gall bladder surgery I paid thousands after my insurance thousands of dollars.

Speaker 2: 30:14

Um, so when they said 250, I kept thinking this is just for the appointments. I kept waiting for the bills to come in and they just didn't. So yeah, yeah. I don't have anything negative at this point in contrast to say about that system, other than the fact that it was a shock to me when I had a mammogram and the lady chased me down the hall saying don't you want your? Your x-rays and I'm like I take those.

Speaker 1: 30:46

Yeah, I think the, the, the healthcare systems like maybe North America 45 years ago, where it's like, it's like everyone's doing a great job, the machines are new, but the mentality is like here's your paperwork and don't lose it, because you need to bring it back.

Speaker 2: 31:06

And if you're like me and you've had to go a few times, eventually they get to know your name and they talk to you. So yeah, it's, it's been charming to me. Again, I say charming for both ways. Sometimes that's the word I use when I'm less than charmed, but overall I love living here. But I do think it's an adjustment. So that leads me to my next question, which is how has life here been different than you anticipated? And I think you've kind of already answered it.

Speaker 1: 31:42

But when you anticipated moving here.

Speaker 2: 31:44

I know for me I saw a certain vision and then when I got here I was like, well, this is really quite different than what I imagined it would be.

Speaker 1: 31:55

Well, I mean, I came here so often to visit family beforehand anyways, so I had a little bit of a cheat sheet in the idea of what life was going to be like. To a certain degree, and because I had such a stressful end time in Canada before moving here, I decided to take. My plan was to take two years off and just enjoy life and relax. But being from North America, we can't last that long, so got back into the hustle bustle pretty quickly. But yeah, I don't know, I had a certain expectation, I think a more realistic expectation, from being here multiple times. So I think, transition wise, I didn't feel that much off what I was expecting.

Speaker 1: 32:44

Besides, kind of what we touched on, uh, you know just the pace of things. And it was also strange that you know you get invited to all these dinners and coffee shops and things that people make the time out of their schedule to to get together Right, um and it, whereas like North America, it would be like no work, work, work, work, work. I mean when I first moved here, uh, the first year I think, I spent more time with my friends from Canada living in Portugal while they came to visit me than when I was actually living in Canada and I would never see them.

Speaker 2: 33:26

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 33:27

So that was pretty comical, because I would have friends that would come and visit all the time and you know that those two weeks or three weeks that they would stay with me, that would make up for trying to see each other for five years. Yeah, yeah, so I think that was a pleasant surprise too, actually.

Speaker 2: 33:45

And there is an adjustment phase that you have to go through to get used to the pace of things I do. So I don't know if you know this, but I have another podcast and it's about burnout, because I too could not move here and just be like, well, I'm going to relax and enjoy my life. I'm like, no, I have to be doing something. So I started a podcast about burnout and it's really around educator burnout. But it's kind of transitioned to. Lots of people are burnout, especially in North America, and this piece of things is part of that Part of the burnout culture that has become everyone's lives in Canada and the United States. It is, if you're not doing, you should be doing. And Lucas, my husband, says pretty, he says you know the United States is. And I would say, well, north America, north America is very efficient. We have very efficient systems. We have very stressed out disconnected people also.

Speaker 2: 34:47

Yeah, very much agree, so yeah, so it does take a while to. For me it was like what do you mean? You want to go have coffee, what?

Speaker 1: 34:57

are you?

Speaker 2: 34:57

trying to get from me. You know, I don't, I barely know you. Why aren't you at work? So how do you have time for coffee? You have coffee every day. You know I was very cynical about people's motives and what they were doing. And now, well, this is your story, not mine. But I have to tell you I made everybody in my family mad. I hadn't been back to the United States for two years and I went back in the fall and I have two.

Speaker 2: 35:31

I have two adult daughters and my sister that were mad at me the whole time, saying you have to make a plan for the day. What are we doing today? And I was saying, well, I don't care, what are we going to do? And that just was never who I was before. But here it's okay to be that way, it's okay to not have a plan, it's okay to just do what you want to do when you want to do it.

Speaker 1: 35:57

You know, we still have responsibilities, but yeah. Yeah, yeah. So that's the nice adjustment side of things. I would say it is.

Speaker 2: 36:10

It doesn't necessarily feel nice at first. It feels foreign, like you said.

Speaker 1: 36:13

Yeah, well and funny enough, I haven't even gone back to canada yet really I have no desire to go back.

Speaker 2: 36:21

I'd be truthfully okay, so when you go back, let me know I see a second podcast episode coming your way. It's going to be like Jason.

Speaker 1: 36:31

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 36:32

Did you experience? Okay? Well, when you're not doing podcasts for friends who you know beg you to do this. No, not at all are a real estate agent, so what's some advice you would give people about?

Speaker 1: 36:53

moving here or considering this kind of move. Uh, so I think the most important is having it's a trusted contact uh, your first point of contact, and that contact uh should have an organized team. To make things simple, it's terrible to say, but, portugal, because those items that we were talking about in city council aren't all aligned. The paperwork might not necessarily be 100% truthful and there have been horror stories in the past of people expecting to buy a certain property and then they're buying a property somewhere else. Uh, and as a north american hearing this, you're like how is that even possible? But it happens because the systems are not like how they are there and real estate is not regulated like it is in North America. Um, so essentially, anyone can become a real estate agent working under someone else's license, which is a little scary if you think about it, because our most important asset is essentially our house.

Speaker 2: 38:04

Yes, absolutely.

Speaker 1: 38:06

Yeah, and then it's just a bunch of people that you know might've just nothing wrong at working at a grocery store but like one day was a cashier and all of a sudden as an agent and you just called this agency and that might've been the person assigned to you.

Speaker 2: 38:21

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 38:22

So I think it's just having a strong point of contact of someone that you can trust, uh, someone that's gonna make the process easy, um, someone that can make things ahead of time for you and is going to give you truthful information about certain visas. Whereas, like, golden visa was all the rage and people still use golden visa as a sales tactic for North Americans, but it's like a five to six year delay to get your golden visa. So, realistically, it would be better that we set up all your paperwork, get your tax number, get everything you need in order to purchase the property and just start a D7 process Right, because that could actually get done within a year's timeframe.

Speaker 1: 39:12

Yeah, and you don't have to spend 500 grand 500,000 euros on property just because of the difference of the passport Right, and then wait six years. And then what happens is you're essentially stuck because you have to be here for the six years. And then what happens is you're essentially stuck because you have to be here for the six years, granted with some flexibility of time frame and this, that and the other. So I think it's just, you know, getting the right information from the right people and having a trusted contact is, I think, priority number one is just having that right person, and then I think from there everything else kind of falls into place, right, paperwork wise, this, all of that's taken care of for you.

Speaker 1: 39:55

If you're working with someone that does that entire process right. I think that's the best piece of advice I can give you is do your background research. You know, check the history record of someone of you know their sales performance or the lawyer, the law firm, whatever it is. Don't just take a referral and run with it. Do a little bit of research I think that's super important as well and make an educated decision without influence of others. It's good to have recommendations, but I still think it's important that you do your own research and pick someone that's trusted right.

Speaker 2: 40:38

I really appreciate that. So can you tell us a little bit about what you and your team do for people who contact you, who are wanting to move here from other countries? Because it's not just the United States, we have people moving from all over.

Speaker 1: 40:53

Yeah, yeah, I mean I had a Holland couple that was here yesterday. So I mean Europe to Europe. It's a lot easier. But the idea is we have an entire team in process. So first point of contact is me, where you know, gather your information, figure out what your wants and needs are, what area you want to be, and then we'll do kind of a mapped out research area of properties that makes sense for you and kind of dim down From there we'll do a little bit of an interview process to figure out let me get rid of this call real quick, sorry about that and then we'll do a little bit of an interview process to figure out let me get rid of this call real quick, sorry about that and then we'll do a little bit of an interview process to see, you know, do you want to have things in order beforehand or once you're here? Do you want to be part of the process or do you want things to be done before you get here, or at least the registered tax number right?

Speaker 1: 41:48

I've had overseas clients that have purchased property just from a video call and then they'll just come to the property once all the paperwork's said and done. That's a big one. I don't like that as much because it's a huge responsibility. Yeah, it is, so I prefer if you come and take a look at the property with me, um, but it's important to know that there's the streamlines in process, so there's proper lawyers in place that can handle everything for you. Um, if you, depending on the situation. I mean, we have some people from Israel that are coming and our lawyers are able to help them get their money transferred safely and correctly, um, so the team structure is there. Um, so we go through the step process and, based on the interview of what it is that you'd like done, that's kind of the way we try to do it.

Speaker 2: 42:44

That's amazing, yeah, I mean we. We bought our property sight unseen, but we had a really good point of contact person that was helping us, actually a couple of people that were helping us. However, we do know too I just want to put a plug in for this, because I know the people that we worked with had a lot, and I think you, you do too. A lot of people come here and they spend I don't know, three or four weeks traveling around seeing what looks right for them, and during that time is when they meet with the team and the team can then take them around and show them a variety of things and they get an idea for the lay of the land, the area that they want to be in and kind of the types of structures that are available here in Portugal, because they are uniquely Portuguese. You know, it's not. You're not seeing too many ranch style three bedroom, two bath homes here, with a, you know, basement and all of those things.

Speaker 2: 43:52

You have those things, but it's very Portuguese.

Speaker 1: 43:54

So yeah, no, I mean, we have a great option of ruins. So we're technically uh, we also have a renovation team. I set up a renovation team for foreigners because I found that when I was getting referrals, sometimes there would be a referral tax on top or not referral, but like a stranger tax on top where it's a little bit more expensive than it should be. So we set up, we're doing a ruin for a French couple, and that's kind of a nice way to fast track. You know the project process because something already exists there. You just have to stay within those parameters and then build a brand new house, but only having to use a license for, let's say, a roof, for example, which makes things a lot easier. So those are like little tricks and tips that make life a lot easier as well.

Speaker 2: 44:53

Well, you know, something that realtors do here in Portugal too which this is not how it is in the U S is they help find rentals. So if you're moving here and you're having a property renovated, your realtor is also your best friend and helping you find a place to stay again where you're not going to get scammed in some lease that has you on your keister, you know, a few months after you move in, so they really help you with that. So realtors actually have a very unique position here in Portugal to be one of the best friends that somebody moving over can have in their corner.

Speaker 1: 45:32

Yeah, you almost become like a distant relative, like that weird uncle. Weird uncle that kind of helps to figure everything out and you see, once in a while that's a. That's kind of how you end up being, yeah.

Speaker 2: 45:46

Yes, well, I think that's going to be very helpful. So I think we're about ready to finish up, but before we go, tell me what do you like most about portugal?

Speaker 1: 45:58

I think it's it's quality of life, I think it's the fact that you can travel all across Portugal in a short period of time and see so many different things, from mountaintops to beaches, and you don't have to drive very far, right? I mean, from where we are in the Oeste area, we're only 45 minutes from Lisbon, three hours from Algarve, two hours from Porto, you know, three hours from Sete de Estrela, and then even interiors. There's theseo, you know, three hours from Sete de Estrela, and then even interiors. There's these beautiful, you know, all stone little villages in the mountain ranges in the interior of Portugal, and then, I mean, you can be in a mountain in the morning and then the beach literally a couple hours later.

Speaker 2: 46:46

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 46:47

So I think I think it's just the quality of life here and the moral compass of people here are a little bit different. I think there's a little bit of a charm to that, where people have a little bit of different morals and different expectations and you know, it's not just the cutthroat go, go, go, kind of thing. I think that's the best way I can explain it.

Speaker 2: 47:12

Yeah, I love that. I like the same things, so all of Jason's contact information will be in today's show notes in case he inspired you to begin this process for yourself. Jason, thank you so much for being willing to come on the podcast and share your story.

Speaker 1: 47:33

Thank you for the invitation.

Speaker 2: 47:49

And then it was fun. Today's episode was produced and edited by me. The theme music is the song A Year Ago by Nefex. If you know someone contemplating a move or visit to Portugal, please share this podcast. It's as simple as copying the link you use to access it and sharing it with others you think would benefit from it. You can find Move Air Portugal Unpacked on Apple, spotify, amazon, youtube and Buzzsprout at taughtbuzzsproutcom. A final place you can access this podcast is on the Path to Portugal community, located in the school platform that's schoolskoolcom. On this platform, you can also access Ask Rudy, a tool to answer your most complex and simple questions about relocating to another country. If you want to understand the move abroad process, simplify the steps for efficiency and save money, ask Rudy. And for those of us wanting this to be part of a bigger life change, the Path to Portugal community also offers the Living Brave program. This is a program offering you the tools to move forward and align your life through brave action, as well as the community support and accountability you've been needing. All links to all platforms can be found in today's show notes and at taughtspotcom. Be sure to comment, like and subscribe wwwtotspotcom. Be sure to comment, like and subscribe. Just a gentle reminder.

Speaker 2: 49:32

Mouverre Portugal Unpacked is for entertainment purposes only. It should not take the place of professional or legal advice. The views, thoughts and opinions expressed by the host and guests are their own. They reflect nothing more than that. All experiences are expressed through the filter of the individual and hey, this is Portugal. We can all have very different experiences doing the exact same thing here. So please do your own research and discuss your options with qualified professionals before making this or any other decision. And a final note any opinions or thoughts expressed during this podcast are not meant to malign any group or organization. This is Melissa LaFleur. Thank you for unpacking today's portion of the path to Portugal with me.