José Luis Nevado is the CEO and founder of Grupo Vive, a company with more than fifty employees (distributed between Seville, Valencia and Madrid) and which has sold more than six thousand properties in its two decades of existence. This engineer … electronics and master’s degree from the San Telmo Institute, he held several management positions at Abengoa before resigning and creating his own company in a field like real estate about which he knew almost nothing. Twenty years later, after beginnings that she describes as “very difficult”, she can boast of having survived the 2008 crisis – which wiped out more than half of her sector – and a pandemic, obtaining recognition and prizes such as best national real estate consultancy and management in 2024.
–He comes from a very modest family. What did your parents expect of you?
-My parents had no education and wanted me to pursue a career with professional opportunities. We were raised by a school of priests with great discipline, rigor and values. When I finished COU, I had to choose between economics, which is now called business administration and management, and engineering, which was a very versatile career. And I opted for electrical engineering in electronics. To pay for my studies, with a few friends, I created the first recovery class academy in Seville, in the Macarena district.
-Did it go well?
-Yeah. So much so that I created another one in the Bellavista area for agricultural engineering students, which was located at Cortijo El Cuarto. And when I finished, I went into the army. It was 1991 and there were many conscientious objectors who opted for welfare benefits, but I considered it important for me to do my military service.
-Because?
-Because you are leaving family attachment. You meet a wide variety of people that you don’t know at all and you step out of your comfort zone. The conditions in which I did it would not be those of today, you had to see the toilets of that time. I remember there were children crying at night but values like effort, discipline and teamwork were instilled.
-Perhaps these values have been lost or, at least, diluted. Would it be desirable to save some form of military service?
-I think so, but for both men and women. I went to the Marine Corps and in the Marine Corps I discovered another Spain. I thought that all the young people were studying, but I realized that out of the two hundred in my platoon, only four or five had studied. There were children who could not read or write and that was one of the first impacts in my life. I taught some, I loved doing it, even if some didn’t want to learn. They came from the countryside, they said they had land and why.
-What was your first job after finishing your military studies?
-I continued with my two academies, but they hired me at the VIP of the Argentine Republic (in Seville) when the payment terminals started to be implemented, which was easy for me thanks to my training, even though my job was that of a waiter cleaning the tables. It was the crisis of 93, after the Expo, and we were all looking for job offers on Sundays on ABC and Cambalache. Shortly after, an engineering company in Madrid hired me to automate industrial plants. Then I devoted myself to the chemical sector until 2000 when I submitted a CV for Abengoa. And they signed me because I happened to meet a company human resources manager at a polling station that I was supposed to preside over. He didn’t tell me where he worked or what he did, but he must have appreciated the way I handled the whole voting issue at my table. The fact is that the following week, Abengoa called me for a job interview and the person who interviewed me was precisely this man with whom I shared that election day. They made me permanent with my bonus and my good working conditions.
–Abengoa was then perhaps the largest company in Andalusia and one of the most important engineering companies in Spain…
-Yeah. It then had more than 18,000 employees and was present on five continents. And I gave it my all, like I did in all my jobs, and they promoted me. I ended up raising some issues directly with its president, Felipe Benjumea.
-And why did you leave Abengoa? At that time, that was the maximum for an engineer.
-I developed a software and application called 6Sigma to improve manufacturing processes guaranteeing a maximum of 3.4 defects per million opportunities. I led these projects for several years to improve processes and minimize losses, striving for one hundred percent efficiency. And I suggested outsourcing this line of business to several of my bosses and I hit a wall. Someone even told me not to worry too much, that if I believed in it, I was going to inherit Abengoa. I encountered all this rejection and the book “Death of a Salesman” by Arthur Miller fell into my hands, which tells the story of a 50-year-old man who is fired from his job. Tragedy occurs because he can’t find a job and contemplates suicide so his family can get insurance and survive. I realized this could happen to anyone and it made me think about my future. I had just had my first child and in Abengoa it was normal to be able, if you wanted to continue promoting, to have to go out of Spain, for example, to South America, and with my family situation, that was not an interesting option for me. And I came to the conclusion: if I was able to cope for others, I would also be able to cope for myself.
-What did your bosses tell you in Abengoa?
– That they didn’t understand it. They asked me to stay but I always left every job like that. I never received compensation.
-And your parents? Did they understand that you left such a well-paid job at a Nasdaq-listed company to go sell apartments? He already told me he didn’t know anything about it.
-Completely. I didn’t know anything, the only thing I had sold was an apartment with a real estate agency that charged me a fee. It was clearly a shock for them. My father had spent his whole life in the same company and didn’t understand it. They wanted the best for me and they did that reading you do: so many years of study to end up selling apartments. They got upset and we stayed apart for a while. I understood this as a father that I already was. But what I saw was that in the real estate industry, I had no ceiling. And in a few years we managed to have more than 40 offices throughout Spain, both owned and franchised. And I hired my two sisters. After all this, my parents already understood me.
—How did these beginnings go?-They were very tough. The first thing I did was study a master’s degree in real estate and become an API (real estate agent). Then, I developed a business plan and a strategic growth plan. But theory is one thing and taking to the streets is another. The first few months, I didn’t sell anything but I was right to hire a person who helped me a lot. The good thing I have seen in the real estate industry is that it has no limits. The only limit is your incompetence, that is, you can go wherever you want, as is the case in almost any business, a small supermarket or a clothing store.
-And what does it depend on to transform a small store into a textile multinational?
-It depends on each person. And work, work, work; and you also have to have a little luck. I made my strategic plan.
-What is the secret to being a good apartment seller, if we can say so?
-This man I hired gave me a very important lesson: that you have to know how to guide and push the client to take the plunge at the moment of truth. And the first thing is to always start with the truth first. There are people who have been looking for an apartment for a long time and can walk away when they find one they like. There are people who are afraid. You have to anticipate these objections and fears, human behavior is predictable and you have to understand it. In my job, this is very important. And I want to say that the vast majority of us who work in these sectors, what we do is help. In my case, not only when buying and selling, but in the entire process. The objective is for this client to understand that he has been looking for six months, that he likes the property and that tomorrow he may no longer be there. And that’s an opportunity.
-Are men or women more indecisive?
-Very good question. It depends. In Andalusia, with the exception of Malaga, which has 30 percent foreign buyers (triple the Andalusian average of 11.3), men take the lead, but decision-making almost always falls to women. As a general rule, women have a great influence, both in terms of selling and buying.
–He has signed six thousand sales in twenty years. What is the worst thing you have seen?
-A house that an elderly woman and her two children put up for sale. I remember they had the mother on the couch and she treated her horribly and the house was full of shit. I decided not to take this house and sell it but now, if I went back, I would call Social Services. This situation caused me a lot of pain. In inheritances and divorces, I have seen things very difficult and for little money. Having brothers separated in different rooms and me thinking that when they were kids they would play marbles together. What is life.
-Money destroys families, especially if there are many…
-You have to love money because it helps you have a better life. But inheritances are often complicated.
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