About Zarate Homes & Designs

When I look back, Zarate Homes & Designs was never really about starting a company. It was about building a life, taking care of my family, and making something meaningful out of the opportunities in front of us.

I was born in California, but I planted my roots in the Rio Grande Valley during my teenage years. The Valley became home. It's where I grew up, learned about hard work, met people who believed in me, and eventually started building a future of my own. Along the way, I met Blanca, and the dream became ours.

Blanca isn't just my wife. She's our designer and a big part of the heart behind Zarate Homes & Designs. I may look at a piece of land and imagine what we can build there, while Blanca sees the details that make a house feel like a home. Her eye for design and the way she thinks about how a family will actually live in a space have become an important part of who we are.

Then came Little Oscar. He's the future. Becoming parents changed our perspective. You start thinking differently when you realize you're building something your child may one day carry forward. It stops being only about the next house, the next development, or the next deal. You start thinking about what you're going to leave behind. That's a big part of what drives us today.

We started as a home builder in Harlingen. Over time, those homes became neighborhoods. Then came larger communities, land development, rental properties, and commercial projects across the Valley, from Mercedes and La Feria to the coast at Bahia Point. We've been blessed to grow, but I still get excited looking at an empty piece of land and imagining what could be there one day.

That's probably the simplest way to explain what we do. Sometimes that means helping a family walk into a new home of their own. Sometimes it means creating a neighborhood where hundreds of families will live. Other times it's taking a piece of land and creating a place where businesses can open, people can work, and a community can continue to grow.

Our faith is part of our foundation. We believe God has opened many doors for our family, and we try to remember that every opportunity comes with a responsibility to do something good with it.

The Rio Grande Valley has given our family a place to plant our roots. Now we have the opportunity to build on those roots. My hope is that years from now, Blanca and I can drive through the Valley with Little Oscar and point to the places we helped create. Not because we want him to be impressed by how much we built, but because we want him to understand why we built it.

For our family. For the families who trusted us. For the communities that gave us an opportunity. And for the generation that comes after us.