Acerca de Ronald Shore

I chose Portugal. Not because I was running from anything in the country where I was born, but because I chose to embrace a different way of life. This is an adventure for me. A third act. And if I can help others find this sense of possibility, so much the better. Before moving to Porto in 2023, I had lived most of my life in New York and Los Angeles—two wonderful cities where the pace is alive with excitement. Friends and colleagues competed with one another to see how many hours we could work before collapsing in a satisfied heap. Powering through adversity against steep odds was part of the thrill of it. And yet… Using ambition as a motivational tool isn’t a sustainable way to live—not for the long haul. When my husband of 30 years and I packed up our three dogs, filled a forty-foot shipping container, and took this leap of faith, we didn’t know what to expect but we believed it would be wonderful. Is everything perfect now? Did we find paradise? It depends on how you look at it. There is perfection and paradise in finding a place where we can thrive and find satisfaction. Working in Porto with the Kaya Team at eXp, helping English-speaking expats is a big part of that sense of satisfaction. What I always liked best about being a real estate professional is getting to know each client personally, understanding the subtext of what makes them tick, looking for the ways to help each of them find a home. That isn’t a hyper, go-go process, but one in which taking time to communicate and really see one another can be just as important as how well you understand the process of buying and selling property. Mind you, experience and knowledge matter tremendously. I am grateful for the twenty-plus years of experience I have with determining market value, negotiating complex deals, and fighting to get my clients the best deal possible. On this Portugal adventure though, I also revel in helping people discover new ways of living. Some seek shelter here. They find it. Some seek new challenges. They find them. Some seek to fall in love with a country rich in cultural history. They do. Finding a home is an emotional process. For foreigners, the differences in how it works here can feel overwhelming. And frankly, for Portuguese sellers it’s sometimes a bumpy ride too. Foreign buyers have different expectations. From the Portuguese perspective, some of those expectations can seem inadvertently insulting or unreasonable, while being perfectly legitimate from our perspective. Being a bridge between different sets of expectations and cultural norms is tremendously meaningful to me. It isn’t just doing deals, it’s building community. It’s building our future here. And that’s one heck of a third act. And… You can’t spell EXPAT without eXp.