By Ivo Henfling

Water in Costa Rica is nowadays pretty clean in the dry season and very affordable. Most households in Costa Rica do not pay more than $30/month. If you spend more than that, you have a large household or you have a leak. No matter where you will buy a Costa Rica home for sale, you will probably be connected to A y A. Today there are very few areas that have water managed by the city or by a  coop. Water in Costa Rica is relatively cheap and is generally managed by A y A which means Acuaductos y Alcantarillados. But if you are looking to purchase Costa Rica real estate with your preferred GoDutch realtor, ask him/her where the water supply is coming from.

By Ivo Henfling

To purchase Costa Rica real estate you should ask a professional and responsible real estate agent to help you with. You will be moving to another country with a different culture than your own where they speak a language you don’t understand. Do NOT try to save yourself the 5% real estate commission by going through For Sale By Owner websites or real estate agents you have not thoroughly checked out before dealing with them. Buying a property is one of those huge investments you make only a few times in your life and you should do it right. Use Google or other search engines to its best advantage and you can find the good news and the bad news about any real estate company and its agents.  

By Ivo Henfling

There are lots of retirees in Costa Rica and some way or other, they all communicate with their children and grandchildren back home. If the Queen of England can use email to communicate her decisions to her subjects as you can see in the photo, you can too. The computer age has changed us all tremendously and every day we learn new things, even though we think we are incapable of doing so. 30 Years ago, my mom and dad were living in the Canary Islands, Spain and we would talk to each other about once a month. When we were talking, we didn’t know what to say to each other or we wanted to say too much at the same time. Writing a letter was something like, do I really need to do this every month? Then we got Skype and other VOIP and now we have Facebook. Further down this Costa Rica blog, I’d like to share a great video about Facebook that my mom shared with me today, by email.

By Ivo Henfling
 

I just went through the nicest Costa Rica real estate closing of my life, even though it was probably one of the most difficult ones too. I have had some real nice closings but I’ve also had some real impossible ones. Well, we went through practically every obstacle that anyone could ever come up with, mainly because this sale involved bank financing through a Costarican bank. I had the perfect buyers, the perfect sellers and the perfect bank employee in one room, quite a feat on itself. I am having a very low opinion of bank employees lately, but Nataly was incredible and unusual responsive and cooperative. This was a deal with a lot of heroes in it.
 

By Ivo Henfling
 

Not every Costa Rica real estate closing is fun. When you purchase Costa Rica real estate and you have a Costa Rica bank mortgage involved, the documents mentioned in part 1 will pre-qualify you (or not) and once this is all approved by the bank, you can go on to the next step.

The paperwork mentioned in part I is mostly the same in every Costa Rican bank, but make sure you ask the documents enquired for the mortgage with the bank you will be working with. My nicest Costa Rica real estate closing was done through BAC San Jose and thanx to an ourstanding bank executive and very cooperative buyers and seller, this real estate closing had a very happy ending.

Your realtor should be able to help you on the property tax certification. Some property owners will have paid their Municipal and property taxes for the whole years but being able to show a receipt is not enough.

By Ivo Henfling
 

A Costa Rica real estate closing can be a nerve wrecking issue if you don’t know what you are doing or if you’re not in the good hands of a knowledgeable realtor when you purchase Costa Rica real estate. I just went through the nicest real estate closing of my life as described in part I and part II. The long and tedious closing process of filling out documents and more documents after that to apply for a Costa Rica bank mortgage is just like driving a bad Costarican road, it is full of potholes.  And going through an even more nerve wrecking Costa Rica bank appraisal and even a home inspection done by the same appraiser will get anyone heartburn.

By Ivo Henfling 

Costa Rica speeding fines are becoming a major topic in all newspapers and on Costa Rica online forums. The Costarican Ministry of Transport is installing cameras on the roads that register the most accidents and Costarican legislation changes the traffic fines from ridiculously low amounts into serious fines that are higher than you will find in many 1st world countries. The cameras have reduced 90% of the abuse of crossing the speed limit. Eeven though people are talking badly about the installation of these cameras, opposed to some others, I don´t think Costa Rica real estate will be affected by this. In fact, most who will realize that this is done to make the roads safer, will agree with me. For those who complain tourists will get a speeding ticket I can assure that most other countries in the world also have traffic laws and speding tickets. These expensive tickets make Costa Rica living much safer though.

By Ivo Henfling

My mom and dad had Costa Rica retirement dreams over 30 years ago, and they made them happen. At the time, retiring to Costa Rica was an incredible adventure and it still is.

My mom and dad didn’t buy their home in Costa Rica from a GoDutch Realty agent, because GoDutch Realty didn’t exist at the time. Big mistake! So they lived here only for like 6 years and moved on to the Canary Islands where they were not happy again. Guess why? Just joking but trying to make you clear why I wrote this blog.
 

By Isabelle Jones

I have been living in Atenas since before the boom and I can assure you my family and I still have a blast. While many retirees moved here since 2004, which is when I started selling real estate in Atenas seriously, there was only one real estate agent in Atenas and surrounding areas. Most have moved away again after the boom was over and we’re back to an easy going life as it was before.

The biggest advantage Atenas has received thanks to the boom is the much better choice for grocery shopping, restaurants and all kinds of services, while the opening of the new highway has made our visit to Escazu and San Jose a lot easier. This also gives us the necessary access to medical services, religious services and going to the movies for example.  We do have a great farmer’s market here.

By Ivo Henfling

Costa Rica punctuality, or so called Tico Time, will be a very important part of your lifestyle if you plan to move to Costa Rica and buy a home here. I consider myself a punctual person, even after living in Costa Rica for over 30 years. Writing a blog about this occurred to me after a seller of a property in Ciudad Colon got really mad at me for not showing up on the time that he thought we had agreed on. I had another appointment at the same time and I keep an electronic agenda on my computer and my iPhone, so you can probably guess what I decided to tell him. I think I said it nicely though.