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Carlos Vidal
Carlos Vidal
Title: Real Estate Agent, Keller Williams, and Waltham City Councilor
Age: 42
Experience: 15 years
Carlos Vidal immigrated to the U.S. from Peru with his mother, his older brother, and not a word of English. An avid tennis player, surfer and self-professed gym rat, he loves to travel internationally with his wife. When Vidal was elected to the Waltham City Council in 2015, he was the non-white elected official in the history of the city – something he’s
very proud of.
Q: What brought your family here from Peru?
A: Back in the 1980s, Peru was going through their dark times of terrorism. The whole country was going through it. There was a lot of uncertainty about what was going to happen to the country. My mom and my brother and I moved up here because we had an aunt who lived in Braintree. That’s how I began living in the U.S. in January 1989 without a word of English. In Braintree back in the day, there were no English as a second language programs. You had to jump in and learn, so it was a real challenge. I think it would be a challenge for anyone, but looking back I was able to do it with some help from middle school teachers. We moved here for a better quality of life, like most people do.
I looked at it as an adventure. I was too young to appreciate what my mom was going through. She brought two teenage boys into the U.S. by herself – none of us spoke English – and she worked two jobs just to keep us afloat. My mom worked a lot so my brother and I had to make sure we were staying out of trouble.
Q: What made you want to sell houses?
A:Real estate was not always part of the plan. I did high-tech back in the late ’90s until that whole thing kind of blew up. At that point, I had already met my wife, Marisol, and we were getting serious. Then the company I was working for in Norwood was going to close their site and move to Texas. We were living in Hyde Park when I got laid off. My wife works in finance and [suggested I try real estate].
I started with a small mom and pop operation out of Jamaica Plain and after four or five months, I moved to Coldwell Banker in Waltham, where my wife and I had recently bought a townhouse. I stayed with Coldwell Banker for about 10 years and have been with Keller Williams for four years now.
Adriano Varano and I had always been friendly and worked together, but he was getting too busy and asked me to join his team. He generally works the selling side and I work primarily with buyers. I will work a listing, but most of my business is buyer representation. That’s my specialty. The team environment, the team concept is really working and presents a better picture to a buyer or seller. For example, right now I’m campaigning a lot, but the business is still there and I can rely on the team for the support that I need.
Q: Why get into government when you’re so young and have a job that keeps you busy?
A: When I have a goal in mind, I go for it. I wouldn’t say I love challenges because some of them are difficult and stressful, whether it’s business or politics. Right now, Waltham has a lot going on and being a politician, not everyone likes you. And in my line of business I need people to like me so I can sell them houses. It’s important, in my case, to be involved in politics because I want to give back to my community. My mom always told us to give back to the community that gave us so much, so here I am. It does take time. I’m busy. We don’t have children. We don’t have dogs. We don’t even have plants to worry about, so I have the time. I like real estate, but I also enjoy doing things in my community. I also am honored to be the first minority elected official in Waltham. It was a history-making moment for the city when voters trusted my ideas and didn’t pay attention to the color of my skin. And now I’m proud to be running for re-election.
I’ve always been a big proponent of improving the way the city communicates with its residents and making sure residents know what’s happening and are able to connect with different departments to get things done. In Waltham, like in many communities, who you know is important when you want to get things done. And that’s not fair. I made a resolution, along with the council president and vice president, to improve that process by promoting the option of obtaining a 311 system. I’m really proud of that. Next, we need to find a way to get a new high school built sooner rather than later. That will be good for everyone in the city.
Q: How long have you been involved with Waltham Public Access television?
A: Anchoring the local news is something I’ve been doing as a volunteer for years. I still do it. It’s hard to find time, but they’ll work around my schedule to tape it. I’m not the reporter, I just read the teleprompter. It’s another great way to keep up with everything that’s going on.
Vidal’s Favorite Waltham Restaurants (In No Particular Order):
- Charcoal Guido’s
- Taqueria Mexico
- Pho and Spice
- Shopper’s Café
- Gustazo
