Lane Simmons, In Memoriam

In Loving Memory of Lane

Lane Simmons’ experience in Mexico began in the 1970s, and he became a permanent resident in 1995. An accredited real estate agent in the state of Guanajuato, Lane was a Certified International Real Estate Specialist, an associate member of the Mexican Association of Real Estate Professionals (AMPI), a global member of the USA National Association of Realtors (NAR), and served on the Board of Directors of the Mexican Association of Real Estate Professionals in San Miguel de Allende.

Since becoming the broker of RE/MAX Colonial in 1997, Lane and his team helped hundreds of foreigners and Mexicans navigate the process of purchasing and selling real estate in the San Miguel de Allende area and throughout Mexico.

In 2000, Lane authored a real estate buyer’s guide for foreigners that was endorsed by the editors of two San Miguel newspapers, including Atención San Miguel. He wrote, was written about, and was interviewed for numerous articles in English-language newspapers in Mexico and international media outlets, including CNN, Money, Financial Times, Discover Mexico, and International Living.

Lane also shared his knowledge of living and investing in Mexico, as well as the Mexican real estate market, as a guest speaker at conferences and seminars internationally, and at the local college, Instituto Allende.

Having resided in several diverse areas of Mexico, Lane first visited San Miguel de Allende in 1991. Although he and his family enjoyed traveling to other parts of the country’s interior and coast, Lane, his wife Becky, and their Mexican children, Francisco and Gloria, chose San Miguel as their home.

Lane Simmons: Community Service

An article in Discover Mexico magazine portrayed Lane’s commitment to community service as a “shining example” of foreigners’ contributions to their adopted communities in Mexico.

After working as a volunteer at a children’s shelter and school, and with the Mexican Red Cross responding to emergencies and rescuing the injured during events such as San Miguel’s running of the bulls, Lane was invited to join the staff of the Police Academy as an instructor in 1997.

He received numerous commendations for his assistance to the area’s public security forces. Furthering his commitment to local public safety, Lane helped establish the San Miguel–based Pan-American Emergency Medicine Development (PACEMD) Program—an international effort to improve the quality of emergency medical services in Latin America, beginning in the state of Guanajuato.

As Lane once shared, “Obviously the medical care situation can be a literally critical issue for anyone here even temporarily, and this is something I had some experience with personally and as a volunteer first-responder with the local Red Cross. Many years ago, I helped establish a project called the Pan-American Emergency Medicine Development program that brings U.S.-trained emergency doctors to Mexico.”

His deep investment in public safety and wellbeing was not only professional, but deeply personal. “As a fellow human, in my case with a wife and two children here, I believe nothing is more important than our sense of physical security.”

Lane served on the Board of Directors of the San Miguel Community Foundation. The foundation, created more than 30 years ago, provided a pass-through service for Americans wishing to make tax-deductible donations to their favorite San Miguel charities. It also granted funds to causes with the greatest need—especially where other resources were not readily available from the community. Since 2002, the foundation donated more than $1,500,000 USD to the San Miguel de Allende community from its own treasury.