Robert Abuda has been a Mérida businessman for as long as he’s lived here.
Within six months of arriving, the garage in his house was operating as his hair salon. Then he set up new space in Santa Ana, and quickly outgrew that. Today the Robert Abuda Salon is a beehive of activity on the Paseo de Montejo.
So how did he find time to sell real estate as well?
“Time management,” Abuda says, while also crediting the staff he’s assembled over the years at the salon. “I’m lucky enough to have a good team. We’ve built up a little family in the salon.”
The idea to go into real estate sales came from the conversations he would inevitably find himself having with his customers.
“After referring so many people to a real estate agent, I thought I should be doing this myself,” Abuda says. Once his new career got off the ground, “it felt like a natural fit.”
Abuda has built four houses since arriving here 12 years ago when he was still in his 20s. Three of them were completed in the space of a year.
“So I basically understand the process of what it takes to turn an old colonial into a paradise.”
That helps him guide potential buyers through a fixer-upper property because not everyone can appreciate the potential of a “ruin.”
That’s what’s so special about Yucatán’s quintessential colonial houses. They have high ceilings and a quality of beauty that’s hard to replicate anywhere else. And the style of construction — no wood beams or load-bearing interior walls — allows many more options than people in the United States or Canada can enjoy, he says.
“With cement and concrete, anything is possible,” Abuda says.
Some foreign residents will tell him that he, in a way, was influential in their decision to move to Yucatán. They saw him on one of three “House Hunters International” episodes, including a “where are they now” follow-up that let viewers know he had opened a successful salon.
Abuda is proud of the solid reputation he has built over time in Yucatán, first in the salon and now in real estate.
“I’m not going anywhere,” Abuda says firmly.
Contact Robert Abuda at robabuda@gmail.com or 999-261-6001.
