In 2001, Nick Fong was an IT professional based in Chicago traveling throughout the United States and Canada. Friends from the MBA program at the University of Chicago invited him to join them for spring break in Cabo San Lucas. Little did he know how this would change his life. On March 16th, 2001, 13 of them rented two houses in Pedregal to start their party vacation. One the second night, Nick met the love of his life, Rocio Montana, who would become his wife and partner in Ronival Real Estate. Between 2001 and 2004, Nick traveled to Los Cabos as often as he could. He had started doing real estate in Chicago and finally moved to Cabo San Lucas in 2004. From 2004 to 2010, Nick worked for several brokers, bought some investment properties and learned everything that he could about buying in Mexico as a foreigner.
By 2010, he knew that he knew that he had to be on his own because of all of the ideas he had about marketing real estate that he could not put in place working for another brokerage. Of course, it was not the best time to strike out on his own with the economic collapse of 2008 and Hurricane Odile in 2014. Nick describes this as a difficult time but perfect to learn all of the fundamentals of the Los Cabos marketplace.
In January 2014, he was approached by HGTV to do an episode of Beachfront Bargain Hunt. He had a client i town, and this started his media career and the growth of Ronival. After another episode of Beachfront Bargain Hunt, the producers of Hawaii Life approached him to do episodes of Mexico Life, which he readily agreed to do. After about eight episodes, he shifted the on-air responsibility of his agents.
The business had grown substantially, and he started to add agents, staff and divisions to Ronival. The company now operates it real estate business, property management, vacation rentals, a call center and a media and marketing office as well as managing renovations and working with developers. As a result of having in depth data on trends, sales, and demographics, Ronival is able to help developers with new projects differentiate themselves on more than location and price.
Ronival currently has 92 agents, 70 full-time employees, 8 offices (with two more about to open) and a five-person media team. With six offices in Los Cabos, one i Todos Santos and Los Baririles, about to open in the Art District in San Jose del Cabo, and one in Los Paz, Ronival continues to grow. The company currently has an office at Mantarraya Residences at Danzante Bay and is considering opening an office in Loreto Bay. In January 2024, Ronival started business in San Miguel de Allende and is looking at other mainland locations.
Ronival Real Estate represents a significant number of large developments in Baja California Sur including Mantarraya Residences in Danzante Bay, Oceania in Cabo San Lucas, Rivieri and Turquesa in El Tezal, Laivi Art Walk in San Jose del Cabo, One Marina Place, and Cenit Los Cabos. Of course, Ronvial Real Estate also acts as both a buyer’s and seller’s agent for individual properties.
I became more aware of Ronival through our personal experience in purchasing our two one bedroom condos in Todos Santos at Santas & Sontos. Danica Taylor, our Ronival agent was amazing in paying attention to detail with every stage of the process.
It is clear that Nick’s IT experience has made a significant difference to their ability to market projects. After the HTGV programs, he started a podcast. He currently records at least one per week with guests coming to him and has over 160 podcasts available with information about almost every aspect of buying, renting, selling and managing real estate in Baja as well as about lifestyle opportunities in the region.
For more information about Ronival Real Estate and all of their related businesses visit their website at https://ronival.com/ or visit them on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/RonivalRealEstate
You can watch Nick Fong’s Ronival Real Estate podcasts on your favoirte podcast platform on on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=nick+fong+podcast
