About Me

Yirlania Blanco, a real estate agent who has turned her profession into a lifestyle

“Freedom means that we take our lives into our own hands,” says Yirlania Blanco Ovares. The 35-year-old, who is originally from Heredia in Costa Rica, has succeeded in creating a balance between work and private life as a real estate agent and house remodel on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica. Her life motto is to always strive to live life to the fullest, with freedom and confidence in every step she takes.

After graduating from Nuestra Señora de Lourdes High School in Santo Domingo, she went to the United States in search of better job opportunities and improved her English at Norwalk Community College in Connecticut. Her experience abroad proved to be a great learning opportunity, and as a young adult, she quickly became independent, learned important life skills, how to manage her personal finances, and overall proved resilient and resilient to cultural changes.

Upon returning to Costa Rica, Yirlania attended Universidad Latina, where she earned a degree in Hospitality Management in 2013 and also learned about other areas such as customer service, accounting, finance, and human resources. As the youngest of three siblings, Blanco inherited her penchant for business from her parents, who are merchants and have their own business, at an early age. According to Blanco, it was mainly her parents who guided her and taught her the importance of investing.

Despite many setbacks, Yirlania Blanco has achieved professional success. From 2006 to 2009, she was a barista and bartender in Connecticut, USA, and later worked in the food and beverage department at the Real Intercontinental Hotel in San José and in 2013 as a receptionist at the Hyatt Place Hotel. From 2017 to 2019, Blanco judging motherhood and working as a tour guide in the family business, then invested in her first property at just 23 years old, a home she bought from her own savings after working in the United States. Yirlania remodeled the house to reflect her enthusiasm, motivation, and love of life, and eventually sold it for a profit.

It was through the remodeling of her house that she discovered her passion for real estate. After entering the field without much experience, her hard work and discipline paid off and led to her first real estate deal. With the proceeds from this sale, she bought a larger property in Rohrmoser, San Jose, which she in turn remodeled and sold a few months later, to later make another investment in a higher quality property with more proximity to nature that offers even greater opportunities.

In 2019, she came to Jacó as a vacation rental manager, joining the many residents who were uprooted to live in this tropical Costa Rican paradise and decided to put down roots in this area. Since then, she has never looked back. Jacó turned out to be a land of opportunity, where she made her third investment and found the balance between her personal and professional life that she had been looking for for many years. After obtaining her license as a certified real estate agent with the Costa Rican Chamber of Realtors (CCBR), she founded her own brand, Yir Blanco Real Estate, where she combines her experience in customer service, tourism, investment, interior design, and renovation with her love for her native Costa Rica. These are the key factors that have contributed to her success as a real estate agent.

For them, getting involved with their customers does not only mean finding them a house that meets their wishes and needs. This also includes other aspects such as trust and market knowledge, knowledge of construction prices and offers, as well as investment and economic trends in the region. What she enjoys most about her job is the fact that she gets to help her clients sell or buy their new homes.

As a real estate agent, she hopes to realize her own real estate investment project, as construction is another area that interests her and in which she hopes to position her brand in the near future. In addition to her passion for the outdoors, Yirlania enjoys spending her free time with her young daughter, who is already raising her to follow in her mother’s footsteps and embrace the values, challenges, and determination required to become a confident adult. Her pastimes also include horseback riding and biking on the trails of nearby state parks and experiencing Costa Rica’s beautiful landscapes.