By Ivo Henfling

It is not so easy to find an affordable 2 bedroom Costa Rica condo for sale in a great location. There are large condo buildings are popping up around Sabana Park everywhere. It is just like all those condo buildings that are going up in Panama City, they look beautiful, very city like, but who the heck is going to buy them? Most start at $450K. But just by sheer luck, I found this 2-bedroom and 2-bath condo for sale on the first floor, nice and clean environment, selling for just $10 under $135,000. This condo was built in 1989 and is located in a much nice neighborhood than most in this price range can ever be.

By Ivo Henfling

How can you compare The United States to Costa Rica and other countries if you are planning to move overseas or retiring to a different country?  I thought it well worth it to write a blog about it because of the results you get on this website as a comparison between living in the US and living in Costa Rica and the reasons for these differences, which is where your own due dilligence comes in. I get questions all the time like” how much income do I need to live on if I move to Costa Rica? Well, it depends on your lifestyle. The website I am talking about shows you how relative the data you will find on the internet are. As a source, they used the CIA World Factbook. When you do your due diligence, make sure you compare apples and oranges or talk to a responsible real estate agent.

If Costa Rica were your home instead of The United States you would……. (My comments are in Italic.)

By Rudy Matthews

I remember ten years ago when I first discovered Costa Rica, which is when I decided to relocate to this beautiful country. A friend invited me to join an outdoors group in Florida and they planned a tour to Costa Rica. The tour was strictly outdoor activities such as white water rafting, canopy, hiking, horseback riding and anything else that was active. The nature of Costa Rica made a lasting impression on me and I always told others that Costa Rica was probably like Florida use to be many years ago. The beaches in Costa Rica are still mostly natural and do not have the rows of condos covering any view from the street to the ocean. There are plenty of palm trees and natural plants and flowers along the coastline in Costa Rica.

By Ivo Henfling

When you move to Costa Rica, you will of course do so as legal as possible, which means, you will become a resident in Costa Rica while you keep your own countries’ passport.

This will give you a residency card, also called a cédula de residencia. To become a legal resident, you not only need to cut through all the red tape that becoming a resident in any country of the world will oblige you to, now you also need to become a member of the Costa Rica social security system, called Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social or CCSS.

You will, besides the CCSS, want to have a complementary medical insurance that I.N.S. (Instituto Nacional de Seguros) offers.

By Ivo Henfling

Every time I travel out of the country, it surprises me how much tastier fruits and vegetables are in Costa Rica. Just like those crab legs I enjoy so much when we travel and enjoy the seafood that we don’t have in Costa Rica, I enjoy the fruits and vegetables in my daily diet when I’m back home. Costarican tropical fruits and vegetables are larger, taste better and are even juicier.

I’ve always enjoyed the huge range of vegetables Costa Rica has to offer. Just going to a farmer’s market and see the huge choice of vegetables that many of you won’t even know make my mouth water. My wife is Costarican and she loves to cook and I love to eat, though I am not a big eater. But I enjoy the different vegetables she uses in her cooking. You’ll find a lot of vegetables available you might know from oriental cooking, like Thai, Vietnamese and Indonesian kitchen.

By Ivo Henfling

Living in Escazu has lots of benefits and depending on the lifestyle you are looking for, these benefits might fit you and your family’s view of what moving to Costa Rica should offer to you or not.

I moved to Costa Rica 31 years ago and have lived in Escazu quite a few of those years. When I first moved to Escazu, I remember stopping at the Mas X Menos grocery store in San Rafael, which they called a supermarket. Yeah right. Escazu had two churches, a soccer field, a couple of bars (cantina’s) and cows in the streets. The highway to Santa Ana didn’t have toll booths and there were no cars. For serious shopping you had to go to San Jose as there were no decent stores in Escazu.

By Diane Farquhar

Nowadays, you, as a Costa Rica Property Owner, have many sites available on which to feature your rental property in Atenas, many of them good, reputable sites. What they cant tell you, and what you don't know until much later in the process, is the quality of the tenant. These sites have great tips, and written guarantees you can purchase that mostly protect the tenant, but you STILL don't know what type of prospective tenant you are dealing with.

 A lot of time is spent asking and answering questions before you find (you hope) the perfect tenant. At the "interview"---there should be one--you make your decision  with crossed fingers, based on first impressions and sugar-coated promises to take "excellent" care of your home; As a Bank Manager for many years I can tell you the interviewee usually  puts his-or hers-best foot forward. I  hired a few doozies over the years, and learned, the hard way, to base my decision on other factors not always related to the subject at hand!

By Ivo Henfling

If you want a knowledgeable Costa Rica real estate agent to represent you as a buyer’s agent, you need to do some serious research. Of course you want the best realtor in town to represent you. But how can you find that Costa Rica realtor? The only way of doing this is spending some serious time and effort online because your next real estate purchase is going to be one of the most important ones in your life.

Looking at Costa Rica real estate websites, you will find that most of them only offer properties for sale and some very basic information about real estate in Costa Rica in general. But do you really want a listing agent to represent you as a buyer or are you looking for an agent who knows more about Costa Rica real estate than anybody else in the business?

By Isabelle Jones

Steve Jobs affected our move to Costa Rica much more than I would have ever thought. Losing Steve Jobs recently and the release of his biography has affected so many of us in many different ways. As a very private icon, his death has allowed more personal details revealed about him than ever before. 

I worked for Apple Computer for 14 years so Steve Job’s death made me stop and really think about the impact, inspiration Apple had on the world.  I resigned from Apple in 2003 to finally pursue our goal of moving to Costa Rica and we have never regretted it.