The Perfect Marriage of Business and Pleasure
You can call her a dreamer, a master manifestor or delusional – but Zoë Hart has had a deep knowing that her life would lead her to the idyllic shores of Barbados. For just over six years now, journal entries and scripting the ideal working and life balance on the shores of her favourite Caribbean Island are finally unravelling in real life. Is this luck, coincidence or perhaps years of preparation meeting opportunity?
After nine years of marriage and three children, Stefan and Zoë Hart are living a full and fruitful life in a peaceful suburb of San Fernando, Trinidad and growing their family business Hart & Co. Real Estate Ltd. Barbados has played a significant role in the shaping of their relationship from dating to married life, as well as being the backdrop of many of their most cherished memories. The Harts have visited Barbados at least once per year for the past 14 years and made a point of exploring every nook and cranny and experiencing the culture from all corners of the island. Zoë has family in Barbados and these cousins have become more like sisters as the years have elapsed. Zoë describes landing in Barbados as a blissful, full body experience – her shoulders drop, she breathes a huge sigh of relief, and her soul feels perfectly at home and peaceful from the moment she steps onto the tarmac. For some reason, the colours in Barbados seem brighter and more vivid to her. She describes even the most mundane details of daily life, from the narrow cane field roads, the cobbled stone St. Lawerence Gap, the brightly coloured Bridgetown buildings or the scruffiest chattel house with vines growing on them as absolutely enchanting.
Being Trinidadians, the Harts are more than familiar with the Caribbean culture of drinking good rum, liming and eating delicious food surrounded by nature. The wild and wonderful rainforests and mountain ranges of Trinidad are a site to behold, but the turquoise blue waters, white sandy beaches and rugged coastal cliffs of Barbados will never get old in their eyes.
After the trauma of Covid-19 and the travel restrictions imposed by the Trinidad government, Barbados was their first travel destination in October 2021. Mandatory quarantine at the stunning The Crane Resort sounded exactly like the perfect segway back into a “normal life” with two little kids and one on the way. It was after many thick rum punches one night on the balcony of The Crane Residences that Stefan came up with their youngest daughter’s name, “Layne” (which he jokes could have been “Crane”) and thus baby Layne Elizabeth joined their family. A mere four months later she went on to have her first swim in Bajan waters on Dover beach at only 4 months old. Multiple Kadooment festivals jumping with friends and family, celebrating births, and even mourning the death of Zoë’s dad who passed in December 2021, solace was always found in beautiful Barbados. The question though was how do you uproot a family of five and a growing business to follow a dream on another island.
May 2024 brought the tipping point for the first domino in the lineup to fall. Out of the blue Zoë received a call from a Barbados Developer who called to introduce himself and his product. His goal was to sell his developments to the Trinidad market, and he saw the amazing reach of the Hart & Co. social media pages and he liked their style. Then in July of the same year, while on Mullins beach another Trini friend introduced the Harts to a developer who was working on a West Coast townhouse build and they secured another connection and opportunity to list. The second domino had now fallen, and it seem plausible to incorporate more business with the pleasures they always associated with Barbados.
Armed with listings and a growing understanding of the Barbados real estate scene, Zoë could no longer ignore the writing on the wall. Within the past year, the clamoring for variety and for true investment opportunities both within and outside of Trinidad was getting louder and louder. Owning second or third homes that could earn USD rental income was at the top of many seasoned investors to-do list, but the Trinidad market was falling short in that department for a multitude of reasons.
Another phenomenon that Hart’s experienced daily in their job is meeting many older Trinidadians who are empty nesters and are ready to downsize (or right size) their housing. The stories are all the same, they sent their children to universities abroad and strongly recommended and facilitated the opportunities for them to remain in the US, Canada, UK and even Europe to pursue a safer and more fulfilled quality of life. As a result, the older generation is at home in Trinidad working or retired and missing crucial time with their children and grandchildren. They are on the hunt for locations outside of Trinidad to create idyllic, multi-generational meeting points where the entire family can travel to spend blissful weeks out of the year making memories. Barbados has been a major go-to for many as it is an accessible travel hub and only a short hop from Trinidad.
The third demographic that was sliding into their inbox was younger families who were ready for a major change. They are craving a calmer and quieter island life where beaches are more readily accessible and their children can return to nature, reminiscent of the way that they grew up in a Trinidad 30 years ago. These special couples are ready to reinvent a life in a smaller, and seemingly safer society close enough to Trinidad that they can jump on a flight and be home in a flash.
Utilizing the extremely effective Hart & Co. method of listing and advertising the Barbados inventory meant that the word spread like wildfire that this company was now embarking on an inter-island mission, and it caused an up-surge of Trinidadian interest. Before long, Trinidadian developers were reaching out to share their plans for commercial and residential developments on the coral isle and they loved the idea of listing with a local agent who understood both sides of the coin. This was fantastic news, and it was all the encouragement that the Harts needed to dive headfirst into a mission to meet the right stakeholders in the real estate process – starting with developers, mortgage agents, attorneys and real estate agents who can help outsiders to achieve their dream of owning a second home in Barbados.
Then the unimaginable happened, a new land development in the parish of St. Thomas with sea views of the West coast caught Zoë and Stefan’s eye and they embarked on their own land purchase and learnt first-hand how to navigate the slightly different purchasing process. They know better than anyone else that no two purchasing processes are ever the same, but being in the non-resident buyers’ shoes gave them the unique perspective that they need to bridge the gap between both islands and to intimately understand both sides of the equation and thus carve their special niche.
Their journey now seems a shade clearer. The Harts can marry their passion for Real Estate and their dream of transitioning their family to Barbados while growing their brand and company. In the short term, they will continue to educate themselves on the Barbados Real Estate industry and gather suitable listings that would appeal to a Trinidadian and foreign audience. This also gives them time to truly understand their motivation of potential clients looking to buy in Barbados and master the art of guiding them appropriately. With such a deep passion and connection to both islands, these skills will come naturally to this motivated couple. This is the ultimate example of mixing business with pleasure.
