WHY WE DO THIS
We came back to Romania after twenty years abroad, without a grand plan, to start over in our native Carpathians. We lived in Georgia, Colorado, and Montana, traveling across North America from coast to coast. We saw the Rockies in the U.S. and Canada, walked under giant redwood trees, watched fireflies in Appalachia, and had moose graze in our backyard. We chased bears away from our trash and skied in places people travel across the world to reach.
We built a good life there. We also never fully settled.
Family brought us back to Romania sooner than expected. Once we returned, we saw the country differently: cities full of energy, festivals, music, fast internet, improving infrastructure, and all of Europe within reach.
We found the buzzing silence of the Carpathians unchanged. Spring birdsong concerts, maybe a bell in the distance, cattle coming home in the evening, a dog somewhere you can't see. The landscape is still intact and close to what it has always been, and never far from a city. While Romania has its challenges, it also has something increasingly rare: space, continuity, and a chance to get things right.
NOBS combines our expertise and experience with what we love to do.
Whether you want to be part of a community or just live quietly in the mountains for the favourite season, the Carpathians may have a place for you. If you love the mountain, you know. If you feel at home near the forest, you know.
Talk to us. Your little place in the mountain may help preserve a way of life.
WHAT INSPIRED US
Alin Useriu left a comfortable life in Germany to come back to his grandparents' house in the mountains. That decision led to Tasuleasa Social and eventually Via Transilvanica, a 1,700 km long, volunteer maintained trail that now runs through hundreds of communities across Romania.
The trail works because of how it was done. People walk, pass through villages, eat local food, and stay in people's homes. The places stay themselves, just a little more alive because someone showed up.
What Useriu built is remarkable if you understand the scale of it. And he has company. Many Romanians have come back after building lives abroad and put their energy into something here. We don't know all of them personally, but their work is visible and we are inspired by it.
We kept asking: what would it look like to do something like this, one home at a time? Romanians have a saying. "Omul face locul." - A place is only as good as the people in it.
We try to match good people with the right place.
WHAT WE BELIEVE
Every property decision in the mountains leaves a mark.
A person who moves into a village, fixes a house, lives there, and participates quietly has a different effect than a developer who builds at scale and moves on or the speculator who abandons a property while waiting for an increase in value. Treating land as a mere product tends to erode the community upon which it is built.
We guide people toward choices that preserve nature and fit the land and the community. This works better over time for everyone involved.
We don't take commissions from the people we recommend. We don't play games with declared values. Sometimes we say no, even when it would be easier to say yes.
We keep things small on purpose. Scale changes places in ways that are hard to reverse. If something doesn't fit, we'll say so. If a deal is wrong, we'll walk away. That's part of the job. If you are looking for someone to agree with everything, we are probably not the right people.
TOM
Tom left material science to study languages, then from college, worked as a translator and protocol officer at the Philippine Embassy in Bucharest. He has been authorised by Romania's Ministry of Justice as a certified translator since 1998.
He bought his first computer in 1988 and never really stopped. Networks, internet cafes, computer stores, the first digital English-Romanian dictionary sold in bookstores. Then two decades in enterprise IT in the United States: systems engineering, data centres, critical infrastructure for large companies. He got an MBA along the way.
The mountains were always there. Carpathians, Appalachians, Colorado, Montana.
An e-bike bought out of curiosity became the first of its kind to operate as a rental near Glacier National Park. With help from local partners, it grew into a small hotel, a general store, and a Montana operation built from a backyard. He has stories.
NOBS comes out of the synthesis of all of these old lives: the IT background, the translation work, the hospitality years, and the mountains.
CRISTINA
After graduating Material Science with an Engineering Degree in Romania, she worked as a database administrator and store manager. In the United States, Cristina went back to college spent her career in healthcare, working as a licensed dental hygienist across three US states. Doctors trusted her, patients kept coming back and colleagues kept in touch long after she moved on. She knows how to care. She has an eye for detail, that's her engineering training. She is also direct in a way people tend to appreciate once they understand it.
She could not continue her career as a dental hygienist in Romania as the job is very differently regulated. So she completed her ACPI real estate agent certification and she manages the office side of NOBS: client communication, translation intake, administration, and everything that keeps the operation running. She meets clients directly and is the main contact for Romanian professionals and contractors.
She is also the reason we have four dogs and two cats. Once abandoned puppies are brought in, they are hard to resist.
WHAT PEOPLE SAY ABOUT US
We don't have NOBS client testimonials yet. We are just getting started.
We do have eight years of running hospitality in Montana and 30 years of renting, buying and selling property in both Romania and the US. Our Astrid Cabin and Sky Eco Rentals both earned five-star ratings on Airbnb and Google. Both are still in operation by the new owners.
People trusted us with their vacations. They came back. They wrote about it.
Read some of the reviews above. We hold NOBS to the same standard.
Both locations still in operation by current owners.
ASTRID CABIN MONTANA
SKY ECO RENTALS