Wanderlost

Our story begins like so many people, sitting at home in a small suburb, wondering what life might be like elsewhere and watching House Hunters on TV  and dream of traveling to exciting destinations. Watching those people jump into it and say, “Let’s see what happens?”  By chance, we were watching an episode of House Hunters in Roatan, Honduras, and Alisha and I looked at each other, saying, “Wow, one day, we want to go to that place.”

Two weeks later, Alisha emailed me a Groupon for an all-inclusive one-week stay in Roatan for an amazingly low price. She jokingly added, “You never know…”

At the time, my friend and mentor Nishit told me that I worked too hard and had to learn to appreciate life, if I was to be truly successful. Later that day, I purchased two Groupons, one for Alisha and I and one for Nishit and his friend.

After a few days of back and forth, with Nishit saying, “You are crazy, and that is not what I meant,” he agreed to meet us in Texas to fly to Honduras. We were based in New Jersey at the time, and he was in Seattle, and both flights made the most sense from Houston.

But that was not really the beginning; that was just our first adventure together. When we got to Honduras, I said, “We have to do this the right way,” and I reached out to a local real estate agent named Steve and told him we wanted the “Full House Hunters Experience.” He showed up at our resort, took us to three properties, and gave us a tour of the island. Little did I know he would change my life and start us on our journey.

I know without Steve and Nishit pushing us, we would likely just be living in New Jersey with a quiet and simple life. But that day, after visiting the properties, Steve gave me some amazing advice.

 “I have seen you a thousand times. I know you and your dreams on House Hunters, and I am going to do your a big favor. I am not going to sell you anything to come live here for three, six months, etc. See what you think, and if Roatan is the right place for you, I will sell you any property you want on this island. But if not, I don’t want to sell you something and have you come back to me and curse me for selling a property you did not need. My business is based on happy customers, and I want to make sure you are happy here before you buy something.”

We took Steve’s advice, and with his help, we rented a property in Roatan for the summer, and I was able to work from Steve’s office at Lawson Rock and learned how life in Roatan goes.

Ultimately, we did not purchase in Roatan, but we made lifelong friends and learned a lot about the island, the people, and ourselves.