Ana Castañeda

I am from Guadalajara, where I was born and raised. I studied architecture at ITESO in Guadalajara, and from there, I started taking several business development courses, such as a Business Development Diploma at Harvard Business School. I have always been interested in the business development aspect and the “approach” towards my clients, in addition to architecture: the public relations part, how I had to run my business, which has led me to where I am today.

In 2016, we expanded and started offering our boutique-style architecture services via my architecture studio HAC Arquitectura in Los Cabos. I came to Cabo as an architect who had already developed several projects and had been involved in projects from extensive commercial developments to luxury residential projects. I believed that I had the necessary tools to start immediately. But the truth is that the market is very different in Cabo, simply because nobody needs a house in Cabo. The people who come to buy a property or build a property in Los Cabos come with such great expectations. Most of them are foreigners and will develop activities different from those one creates daily in their main home. It meant, “I had to understand why people come here, their experiences, and with whom they come to live.” With this understanding, I mainly transformed my knowledge of residential architecture within a city into a vacation home.

That is why I decided it would be a good idea for me to get into real estate to have access to properties built by the owners of those properties to understand what they were looking for when buying or building that property. If I hadn’t taken that step, I would not have been able to have the understanding with my clients here in Cabo that I have now. I spent two years doing real estate before deciding to do a project for a luxury residence in Los Cabos. It was very, very important to understand how that psyche was to be able to “click” with the clients. Since coming to Los Cabos, we have designed and built luxury homes in developments such as Chileno Bay, The Cove at Cabo del Sol, Palmilla, Querencia, and Rancho Cierro Colorado.

As a founding member of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Baja Real Estate and Luxury Collection Advisor, I have had the fortune and honor to help clients find their dream homes here in Cabo. Working with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Baja Real Estate, Ian Gengos (broker), and Michelle Wilhelm (Partner) has been a full-circle experience as I share their vision of doing business beyond simple transactions. Their close attention to detail, which always translates into better customer service, has led us to create strategies to improve the products and processes we offer to all Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices customers.