carmen y raquel two friends who will help you find your home
BY carlos matías
Carmen Robles and Raquel Ferrero work in MyHomeinAlaska as real estate agents with EXP Realty, their “broker”, an aspect they want to point out as indicated by the Alaska Real Estate Commission, when real estate agents act publicly as such, they must indicate the “broker” they work for.
Carmen is Mexican. And at a very young age moved to the United States, where her sister lived, and time and life took her to Anchorage, where she has put down professional and personal roots, and has also found love.
Raquel is also very young, but her case is different. Venezuelan by origin, it was her love (her husband) who came to this land to carve out a better future for the family. He was the pioneer. Raquel did not take long to join him. And, to tell the truth, knowing them both from a distance, through a videoconference, one feels the urge to pack a suitcase and take the first plane to Alaska.
THE BEGINNINGS It was Carmen Robles who founded Myhomeinalaska as a real estate agent with EXP Realty. And it is Carmen who gives me the first surprising statement: “Housing in Alaska is in high demand. With Covid and home confinements, the whole family has had to reorganize. It no longer works for a couple if one works outside and the other is home with the kids. Now we are all at home, without the option of going out to have a social life or working at the office. The house has had to be divided, becoming an office or two depending on how many people work; the children need a spot to study, a space to play, and another part for the whole family to live together. So, there is a need to adapt the current house, or to move to a new, bigger and better equipped one”.
A surprising statement? Yes, from the more than five thousand kilometers that separate Anchorage from Madrid, in Spain, ten different time zones, this Spanish journalist imagined a state, Alaska, where several Spains would fit, but with 47 times less people. Anchorage is the most populated city in the 49th state of the Union, the largest state in the United States and the third largest subnational region on the planet. The state with the lowest population density and the fourth with the least population. And of course, in the ignorance of someone who has never set foot on Alaskan soil and who is used to the human concentrations of the big cities of Europe and also of New York, Washington, and Minneapolis. I made the mistake (a big mistake) of assuming that selling a house in Alaska was like selling ice cream in Siberia. And I told them so.
“There is a lot of real estate demand for a fixed and stable home and a lot of demand for vacation homes as well,” adds Raquel. She herself is a living example of how lively the industry is. She came to Anchorage and in record time bought and sold three homes. Three homes. Three moves. Until she settled (permanently?) in her current one. That’s how Carmen and Raquel, two entrepreneurial women with initiative, met. And that is how Carmen became Raquel’s mentor. Today they are partners in this real estate firm created with official support, because the United States, and specifically Alaska, is still a land of opportunities. And they both offer themselves as friends, advisors, and consultants to help you find the ideal home to fulfill your dreams.
