by Ivo Henfling

If you need ambulance services in Costa Rica to get to the hospital, make sure you know your Tico address so the ambulance will know where to find and will not get lost, or ask a local to give the ambulance the address. It's amazing how many people I sold a home in Costa Rica and it took them months to learn their address.

Because we don’t have any street addresses in Costa Rica, some of these hospitals might be a bit difficult for you to find, so it might be easier to call 911 and ask for an ambulance, so they will send a Red Cross ambulance.

If you don’t want to wait for the ambulance just hop in a cab and tell the driver “al hospital más cercano urgentemente por favor”.

By Ivo Henfling

If you have residency in Costa Rica you are obliged to be registered at the Caja Costarricense del Seguro Social  or C.C.S.S.  though this government mannaged health care system has long been broke. To see any doctors, you will need to start standing in line at 4:00 am to get attended and most of the time they’ll give you an appointment 6 months later. The system works though for those who do not have private insurance like I.N.S. or any other insurance company, you just need to be a bit patient and bring a book.

No matter where you bought a property in Costa Rica and decided to live, the time will come that you will need medical attention.

What I hear from retired people and expats coming from other parts of the world, is that the Costa Rican public hospital system and the doctors attention to sick patients is a lot better than it is in many parts of the world. I really don’t know because the two times that I was in a public hospital was to pick up my wife after giving birth to our kids, but that was 25 and 27 years ago.

By Ivo Henfling

Lately I’m seeing a lot of the inside of Costa Rica hospitals. Since I quit smoking 3 years ago, I started going to the doctor. I haven’t seen any doctor in my life and now suddenly I need to see all kinds of doctors. Most doctors in Costa Rica hold office in the same private hospital they operate in. In Costa Rica you don’t need to be referred to a specialist, you just make an appointment.

I have never been in a US hospital and the last time I was in a hospital in Europe was like 40 years ago but I hear from many clients that the Costa Rica hospital services and are outstanding and that medical services here are on a very high level. Most doctors speak excellent English because many have specialized in the US or in the UK.

by Ivo Henfling

Because I grew up in Holland it comes easy to talk about the topic and quite a few gay people email me asking that question: “are gay people moving to Costa Rica”. The answer is yes.

When I was a kid, there was a gay kid on my block and at the time nobody would talk about it. He was the first person on national TV with his partner, talking about his experiences of coming out of the closet.

Jeez, I knew when I was 12 years old that he was gay. His mom and dad were very religious, poor guy, he suffered a lot and his mom and dad probably too. That was like in 1972.

by guest blogger Jeff Lichtenstein

Most would read the title and think it's a weird story for a Costa Rica real estate blog. We all know that when the real estate market went bust in 2006, Florida was one of the most suffering states. Since both Florida and Costa Rica are both a strong retirement market and we are so close to each other, we always keep an eye out on what is going on with the Florida real estate market. When the Florida real estate market picks up, it shouldn't take much for our retirement market to pick up again too.

Many who have been planning to retire and had Costa Rica on their list too look at end up in Florida because they were giving property almost away in Florida while the Costa Rica real estate market maintained stable property prices, though we still have lots of retirees who move to Costa Rica for the weather and nature. No matter if you own Costa Rica real estate or you want to purchase, Jeff Lichtenstein, a well known realtor in Palm Beach County - Florida has an interesting story to tell.

By Ivo Henfling

This picture got your attention, didn't it? Well, that's what I needed because when I start talking about learning Spanish, most people don't pay attention.

Imagine, you get stopped in your home town by a Latin, asking in Spanish where the grocery store is located. What would you say?

Most would answer “why don’t you learn English”? Am I right or wrong?

The other day I saw a gringo in Escazu get mad at a Tico and shout at him in English. The poor sucker didn’t have a clue what the gringo was shouting at him. The Tico just turned around and walked away. This in turn made the gringo even madder. I enjoyed the scene from my car.

By Ivo Henfling

Do not lose any sleepless nights over the new Costa Rica corporation tax, GoDutch Realty has the solution for you. Now, if you own a Costa Rica corporation or Sociedad Anonima or S.A. you are supposed to pay tax on this corporation. The new corporation tax in Costa Rica is something that many property owners do not know how to handle. Especially those who not live in Costa Rica don’t know how to pay these taxes. GoDutch Realty is of course the first Costa Rica real estate company offering a solution to this. There has been talk about this corporate tax for a year and now it has happened. For the exact details on the what, the how and how much, you can read our last blog about it and for even more details go to our blog on the American European Real estate Group’s website.

The fact is that many people own a corporation in Costa Rica which in turn owns a property or several properties or a car. Others had their attorney constitute a new corporation to start a business in Costa Rica or planned to buy a Costa Rica property but never got to it for some reason and left the company without use. Now is the time to act.

By Ivo Henfling

In November 2009, I was introduced by an old client, who by the way didn’t buy Costa Rica real estate from me, to a very unusual couple. I mean unusual because they were much younger than most of my clients who come here to retire because they’re over the age of 60 and this couple was barely in their 30’s. Husband Ethan, the 7 month pregnant wife Antoinette and their 1 year old son Sir were moving to Costa Rica and were looking to purchase real estate. Antoinette and Ethan had been looking at properties for quite a while with different Costa Rica real estate agents and had one complaint: the agents didn’t listen to what the clients were telling them they wanted.

Now Antoinette and her family live in Alajuela happily and work hard at adjusting and learning Spanish. And I love ’em to death because they try so hard adjusting and trying to become full-fledged Ticos.  Antoinette even writes a very interesting blog that she calls Pseudotico - Trying to be a decent Costa Rican! Everyone thinking of moving to Costa Rica should read her blog, I definitely recommend it.

By Ivo Henfling

To be a real estate agent in Costa Rica, you really need to love what you do. I DO enjoy what I do, every day. When I get up in the morning, I know something is going to happen today that will make it another memorable day in paradise. I sometimes think about those people who for 30 years, day in day out, do the same thing over and over again.  I never do the same thing ANY day in my life and that is fun. Let me give you an example.

During Easter week I was going through the testimonials I received from my past clients and I found the longest one I have ever received. It was from a happy seller, whose house in Salitral de Santa Ana I listed in 2007 and was probably the most memorable sale I ever made in my real estate career, the listing is still online.  When you look at the pictures of the home, you will see why and that it shows that to be a good real estate agent you have to be smart, inventive and excel at what you do, but the seller needs to help the real estate agent a bit. My seller did and it was a win win situation for everybody.

By Ivo Henfling

You are selling your Costa Rica property and your buyer needs financing from a local bank. If your real estate agent is the only agent involved, it will make it for both buyer and seller much easier to deal with as the bank’s loan officers need a constant reminder to keep working on the document of this particular buyer. I have done many real estate closings involving bank mortgages and in many, the sellers freak out unnecessarily. This is why I am writing this blog, so you don’t have to freak out.

Most Costarican banks will tell your buyer to get an option to purchase – sale agreement for 3 months because they might need that amount of time to process the documents. I have seen some take that amount of time and others do their due diligence and close in 3 weeks. Ask your real estate agent to keep you up to date during the process, this helps to calm the nerves and the agent will need your help.

By Ivo Henfling

Before you sell your property in Costa Rica, you should plan for what can soon be an important issue for you. I mean, when you receive your check at closing, what will you do with it and how will you get the money to where you are moving to? I know, it sounds kind of weird but with today’s money laundering laws and before you get accused of being a drug dealer, you need to make sure you take the right steps.

First of all, by Costarican law, you don’t have to pay any capital gains in Costa Rica. You probably DO have to pay capital gains in your home country, so that is something to take into account. You don’t want to send a lot of money back home and have the tax department asking you where all that money came from.

By Ivo Henfling

Quite often I get emails from clients in the US and Canada who are looking to retire in another country and have read about retirement in Costa Rica. Some ask how many golf courses we have in the community and others how many homes there are in the community.

Some ask if you have any views from the homes in the community and what the community amenities are. For so many years Costa Rica has been in the news as one of the best retirement destinations in the world that some people have started to believe that Costa Rica is a community.

By Ivo Henfling

Well, guess what, they do things different in Costa Rica too. Whether you move to Costa Rica or retire to Costa Rica, you are used to do things a certain way. You do things different than people in other countries and other cultures do. We learn from our parents who learned from their parents and so on and so forth.

If your great grandparents came from Ireland or Italy or Poland, it makes a huge difference. Food, the language and the way you do things, it’s all different. Different doesn’t necessarily mean wrong. It has to do with culture, with growing up in an area where winters are harsh or summers are hotter than hell.

By Ivo Henfling

I am sitting next to Belize and I am in Cancun. Rudy Matthews and I are promoting Costa Rica living and Costa Rica real estate to future retirees, mostly from the US and Canada.

I think Obama will be doing us a favor by winning the next US elections, which will send lots of US citizens our way, just like it happened in the 2nd Bush administration.

So there are lots of people here in the Casa Magma Marriott in Cancun to check out Costa Rica because living in Costa Rica is the way to go.

By Ivo Henfling

It is not so important to have a licensed agent to sell Costa Rica real estate or not, you just need to find an agent who puts love and care in your property purchase and that is what today’s blog is all about. The day after a real estate closing, I received a call from the buyers agent, complaining the appliances weren’t there. I told the agent that the appliances were not included in the property purchase.

The property was not advertised with appliances nor is it customary in Costa Rica to include them. The agent said that in the US they are always included and since the buyer AND the sellers are North Americans, they should be.

Beside the fact that we are in Costa Rica and not in the US, which I chose to ignore, I asked the agent if she had included the appliances in the inventory attached to the offer and to the option to purchase – sale agreement. She said she didn’t check….

By Ivo Henfling

When you move to Costa Rica, you will be making new friends in Costa Rica and I can assure you’ll enjoy so many different people from different places, different backgrounds and different interests. Most of us leave the family back home and though communications through email, Skype and Facebook are easy now, you will be away from most friends and family. Most of the friends you have are those you grew you grew up with or from the baseball team or the parents of your kids friends. And now you have to start all over.

Making friends with the Ticos

Most of us come here with the idea of making friends with the Ticos. Let me tell you a secret: you’ll have a hell of a time to become buddies with the locals.  I am married to one, and another Tica before her and I still don’t have Tico friends, even after living here for 30 years. Oh, if you invite the locals to your house, they’ll all come, don’t worry about that. But they will hardly ever invite you back. Sorry, mistake, they DO invite you back but don’t tell you where they live. Most will not get any further than the acquaintance stage.

By Ivo Henfling

I have seen it happen over and over: buyers fall in love with a property in Costa Rica they have seen on their own, because of a sign on a property or through a FSBO website; they make a verbal offer to the seller and both parties think they have a deal as soon as they agree on the sales price. Falling in love and showing it to the seller is problem #1 and having to deal with an offer and all related to the real estate purchase is problem #2. Problem #3 is that a lot of those deals go down the drain because both buyer and seller make mistakes for lack of knowledge. And these 3 problems are only a few reasons why you should use a real estate agent when you purchase a home in Costa Rica. 

By Ivo Henfling

Ten things to remove before you have a showing

I have a request for all sellers of Costa Rica real estate. Clean up your mess before you put your property on the market and maintain it well after that. Quite a few homes for sale in Costa Rica are in terrible shape or look like they are and the sellers think it’s the bad salesmanship of the real estate agent that the house didn’t sell quickly enough. I got news for you. Those homes that look well painted, have a nice looking garden, have all the curtains open, a nicely painted front door, uncluttered rooms and no dog poop in the hallway sell relatively quickly. Building lots look overgrown and the grass gets never cut. What view? Where is that building pad where the house should go? How do you mean your real estate agent should take care of that….

Have you ever heard of bouldering? Well, they do it in Providencia de Dota. Where the heck is that? It’s a beautiful little town tucked away in the Los Santos mountains, near the National Park Los Quetzales. Most of you have never heard of El Valle de Los Santos. Well, we have a real good Costa Rica real estate agent there, Tony Warren, who has lived in the Los Santos area for some years now. He was the one who told me about bouldering.

I am writing the Spanish version of our American European Real Estate Group’s website in Spanish and in his description about the area of Los Santos, he mentioned something about bouldering. Last time I saw the word, I probably didn’t have time to call him but now I needed to ask him what the word in Spanish is. Well, today you’re going to add another word to your Spanish vocabulary as it is Escalada de Bloque.

By Ivo Henfling

Moving to Costa Rica is easy, if you want to spend the money on paying your moving company to pack your dishes and everything else for you. It is also pretty easy to move if you just throw it all out and start new in Costa Rica by buying all new stuff. 

Moving Home Boxes are available online and you can do most of the work yourself, although we recommend using a profesional packing company or moving company, so everything will arrive in one piece.

Most don’t realize that they will have to pay taxes on everything they bring, as soon as the container hits customs in Costa Rica. But that is for another blog, another day. Today, I’m going to tell you about how to pack your dishes and breakable articles.