More than 17 years living in the Manzanillo community!

Carlos Cuellar, owner of PropertyPros, is a former marine and Viet Nam veteran. When he was 12, he moved to Manzanillo with his Mexican mother and American stepfather. Born in Redwood City, California, Carlos divided his time between the U.S. and Mexico. After Viet Nam, Carlos settled in Houston, Texas, where his two grown sons, Shan and Mark are now living. Thirteen years ago, he returned to Manzanillo permanently. His mother and other family members currently live in Guadalajara.  Carlos, 60 oversees the daily operation of the business, including translation of contracts, buyer-seller communications, property inspections, meeting with various officials, ordering documents, and securing signage. He now enjoys dual citizenship, and is proud to be both Mexican and American.

Susan Dearing was born in Branson, Missouri, where she grew up working in the tourist industry. At age 8 she'd show visitors to Branson where the best fishing holes were for crappie and bass, directed them to the best "mom and pop" cafes, and stood on the main street corner lecturing on the crotophytus collaris (collared lizard). Of course, the brave tourists were the ones who petted the 13-inch-long male, sleeping on her shoulder. Susan paid her way through college by working for local weekly newspapers, and holds a degree in English. She worked in print media for more than 17 years, starting as a journalist, artist, editor, and finally general manager. Her real estate experience began in 1973, when she worked for Century 21 in the Chicago suburbs. The office she was with was the second largest in the state, preceded only by Chicago. She was in charge of all the advertising and publicity, and in her last year with Century 21, handled more than 400 closings. While manager of the closing department she was in charge of all aspects of the sale, communicating daily with buyers and sellers, attorneys, title companies, loan departments, and real estate agents.

Susan and Carlos at last year's scholarship fund dinner dance

After leaving Century 21, she worked many years an an independent agent, buying foreclosures, renovating them, and then reselling them. After moving to Mexico in 1987 at the age of 37, she made a disastrous mistake attempting to purchase real estate in Nuevo Vallarta, and lost her entire life savings. Part of the problem, Susan says, was that she didn't know the real estates laws in Mexico, spoke almost no Spanish, and trusted the wrong people. Following that financial catastrophe, Susan made it a point to learn about real estate laws, fight back, and will make sure her real estate clients don't fall into the same traps as she did.

Fortunately, Susan says, Manzanillo isn't teeming with corruption as was its neighbor, Puerto Vallarta, and it's easy in Manzanillo to find good, honest people to work with. In the last two years, she has seen a renewed interest by foreign investors in Manzanillo, making it a seller's market. However, it's a buyer's market, too, she says, because property values keep increasing, so buyers are assured of their investment increasing. In the past year alone, home and land values have increased by more than to 30%.

Susan originally came to Mexico to operate a dive shop, which she is still involved in, and as a PADI scuba instructor, still helps out occasionally. As to be expected, diving is her hobby and passion, as is underwater photography. Additionally, she designs web sites and web pages for her web site: www.gomanzanillo.com, and has authored two tourist guidebooks Order it at: www.gomanzanillo.com/guidebook/index.htm. She has also written more than 65 articles for Mexico internet web sites, several about real estate investment in Mexico. She has been used as a source about real estate for Travel & Leisure magazine, and in Tom Kelly's new book, "Cashing in on a Second Home in Mexico. How to buy, rent and profit from property south of the border." (He rates Manzanillo as being one of the top 10 best places to invest in Mexico.)

Along with Carlos, Susan is actively involved in the FEEC scholarship fund for poor children, works with the newly formed humane society (ARA) and also with PATA, and collects donations to give to two orphanages in town. She spearheaded the "Clean the Beaches" campaign in 1998, which lead the city of Manzanillo to found a special organization devoted to beach clean-up. Each year, her dive shop, Underworld Scuba - Scuba Shack, sponsors a beach and ocean clean-up in conjunction with the Ocean Conservancy and PADI's Project Aware.