By Ivo Henfling

I’d like to share with you all an opinion by economist Vinzenz Smack, published in La Nacion on the 18th of July this year. I used to buy white pepper from Vinzenz Schmack 25 years ago and at the time, he was a pioneer in growing pepper in Costa Rica and a pioneer of Costarican Eco tourism.

He started the Laguna Lagarto Lodge  in the middle of nowhere in the 90’s, to attend the tourists who were just starting to come at the time, thanks to the promotion of Costa Rica by President Oscar Arias. 

Some of you might not know that former President Oscar Arias put Costa Rica on the map by receiving the start of International tourism coming to Costa Rica and later governments picked up on it by advertising Costa Rica as a green destination.

By Ivo Henfling

Yes, why keep money in your Costa Rica bank account if they don't even pay you 1% interest on your money. Invest in Costa Rica real estate through your preferred realtor Ivo Henfling and I can get you 6% at a bare minimum. You don't have your money in a Costarican bank account but sitting in some retirement fund like an IRA, a 401K or a Canadian RRSP? Why would you want to do this to yourself?

Why am I saying this? Because I just listed this perfect investment property that I sold the actual owner about 5 years ago and is waiting for this smart investor. I personally supervised the remodeling of this property and can assure you its well done. Meanwhile, the owner got sick and let it go a bit, so it needs some care and some more love. Its some hunidity problem here and there and check on the gutters, nothing like a big deal but the potential is incredible. And when I say its not a big deal, its not.

By Ivo Henfling

In last week’s blog I left you standing in line at the Orotina toll on the highway, so we’ll take it from there now. As soon as you get past the Orotina toll, you have to be careful not to miss the Jaco Beach turnoff on the right. If you do, you’ll end up in Puntarenas. From there, you’ll enjoy a one lane easy going drive for the next 20 minutes until you get to the Tarcoles bridge.

Once you drive down the hill toward the bridge, you can enjoy the view of the Carara National Park right in front of you. Slow down when you get to the bridge because many tourists park their car and walk on the bridge to see the crocodiles for which the Tarcoles area is so famous for. They do this awesome crocodile - birdwatching tour at the river, next time I'll go do it again and I'll tell you all about.

By Ivo Henfling

For several months, our friends Robert and Silvana Craig have been inviting us to visit them in Nativa, Tarcoles. Tarcoles is located in the Central Pacific, just before you get to Jaco Beach, for those who don't know the area. Robert and Silvana live part-time in Nativa Resort and I hadn’t been there in a long time. We have 4 dogs, just like having kids, are a problem to make more than just a daytrip. So yesterday we hit the road for a daytrip to Nativa and since Monday is some kind of a national holiday, the traffic was heavy though moving along. The Ticos love to complain about the highway and because it is so expensive but I paid like ¢1,500 ($3) toll to get to Tarcoles.

By Ivo Henfling

When you move to a new country or a new city, you tend to look for somebody or something that feels comfortable, feels safe and helpful in your new environment. Everything is new and even though you welcome the adventure, you like the security of what is known as the Human Thermal Environment.

by Ivo Henfling

When I started writing this article about the angry seller of Costa Rica real estate last week, I found out that there were more than only 5 points that made my life miserable on that last deal I did were I had an angry seller because the sellers decided to take the buyer’s offer.

Let me repeat point 1 again, so you don't have to go back to the other article all the time:

1. Yes, the Costa Rica realtor gets paid by the seller, but not until the real estate closing. The realtor does not get paid for advertising, gasoline, tires, phone bills lunches with clients and all efforts made unless he/she sells the property in Costa Rica. Just the fact that the sellers pay the real estate commission doesn’t give you the rights to abuse the realtor.

by Ivo Henfling

I have to let you all know about this totally rustic home in Escazu that I just listed because it is a very cozy home which has this incredible view of the Central Valley but because of the rains, I have not been able to take a decent picture yet.

Every morning I look out of my office window, where I can usually see the area of Bello Horizonte, but the rain hasn't allowed me to go take better pictures than I have on the listing.

What is living in Escazu about?

Most think that living in Escazu is all about highrises and traffic and shopping, but this area of town is totally the opposite. This is abotu quiet and green surroundings and views.

By Ivo Henfling

The famous Costa Rica rainy season, also called the wet season but baptized some years ago by tourism gurus "the green season" has just started. For most days, we have nice weather in the mornings and might have some rain in the afternoon. Some days might be a bit gloomy or fogged up and it doesn't rain all day long.

Yesterday, we had so much rain come out of the sky, I thought of Noah and his Ark, I was waiting for that Great Flood. As many of you know I am not very religious, but I almost started praying. Then I thought of the gutters and drains at my house and the damage rain can do to your property, which is when I though to write this blog. if you own Costa Rica real estate, you should read on....

By Isabelle Jones

I have lived in Atenas for almost 8 years now and I still enjoy it. Over ten years ago, two French Canadian pioneers started Vista Atenas and build some ranch houses there (one story), they tell me that this was kind of the middle of nowhere back then. 

This is where Howard my husband, Taylor my son and myself bought our first house and did our first spec-home which is was connected us to Ivo and GoDutch Realty. I went through training and since then I have been the GoDutch realty's representative for the area of Atenas selling the best real estate available in Atenas.

By Ivo Henfling

It is surprising what selling a house might do to perfectly nice people. When you need to sell your house in Costa Rica because for some reason you need to go back where you came from, and you have been waiting for a while for the right buyer to show up, then you suddenly might have to take this low ball offer that doesn’t make you happy at all, but you decide to go for it.

I just finished up the ugliest sale I have done in my Costa Rica real estate career, because my sellers wanted to take a bad offer and apparently thought it was my fault, though I never put a gun to their heads to accept.

Just like some of the abusive buyers we get, the angry seller is what takes the fun out of being a real estate agent in Costa Rica. From day one, after signing the option to purchase sale agreement at a sales price they really didn’t want to take. The sellers were never cooperative during the 2 months to closing, especially when the buyer was asking for perfectly normal procedure to Costarican standards.

By Ivo Henfling

I was just checking the statistics on the traffic we get on our GoDutch Realty website and saw that Rudy’s blog about dishonesty attracted a lot of interest from our readers last week.

I just realized that even though I have traveled quite a lot in my life, I am also guilty of not knowing the customs in some other countries and careful of not to be taken advantage of. Allow me to explain.....

When I grew up in Holland we used to go to a nearby beach during the summers, which was much visited by the German tourists.

By Ivo Henfling

Find out if Atenas or Escazu - Santa Ana is the lifestyle you are looking for. I have lived in Escazu and Santa Ana for most of my life in Costa Rica, which 30 years ago were small towns and most of us did their shopping in San Jose. There were no malls and no traffic at the time and life in Costa Rica was a lot easier back then, you didn’t need much to live well here.

Growth of Escazu in the 90’s and of Santa Ana in the year 2,000, have turned both into one big city almost, not much different from any small city in the US. Before that, most of the well to do Ticos and foreigners were used to travel at least once or twice a year to Miami. Some would even keep an apartment on or around Biscayne Bay for those shopping trips or those visits to the doctor.