By Rudy Matthews

A quirk of the housing economic crisis is that for the most part rental property in Costa Rica has held its own and has returned a better investment than the normal investment alternatives.

Rental Property in Florida

I held my breath when the housing crisis hit because I still have rental property in Florida. Over the last four years I have been 95% occupied. Florida, as you know, got hit very bad in the downturn and has yet to recover. I am sure there are pockets where rentals are better than other places so I feel very fortunate.

By Ivo Henfling

Getting anything done in Costa Rica, sometimes just needs a nudge and sometimes needs complaining publicly. Aren’t we all used to NOT tell people when things are great? Never give anyone a pat on the shoulder? Costaricans also like a pat on the shoulder, like we all do, I believe in them. But therefore, you first need to complain and then wait for something to happen. Most of us foreigners are used to complain and most locals don’t. AND, as foreigners, we have freedom of speech and people will actually listen to us. And that’s what todays’ blog is all about. AND about the mayor of Escazu deserving a pat on the shoulder.

By Shell Johanson

Being a Costa Rica realtor in Cariari is never an easy job. There are twists and turns in every deal. Patience and nerves are always on edge. It means putting up with a lot of things from the buyers as well as the sellers, without the other party finding out about it. It’s part of the job.  

But there’s one thing that I wish I could do something about, I’m going to call it the ‘Busy Bee’. We all know this person because we all have one near. It is usually a family member, a friend or a neighbor who thinks he/she is a fountain of knowledge and loves to share his/her opinions. Never short for words, that’s for sure. The ‘Busy Bee’ is very good at screwing up real estate deals.

By Ivo Henfling

I read this unbelievably interesting post on a forum from a US licensed builder in Costa Rica, trying to advertise his business of building container homes. I wanted to share this with you as it shows the totally wrong attitude, to my opinion, of someone who lives in Costa Rica and is advertising himself by saying the locals suck at doing construction.

This week, our preferred Costa Rica home inspector Tom Rosenberger, sent me a shocking post on the CostaRicaCentralValleyLiving Forum. This post gave me the idea of writing this blog because it might be educational for those who might have some construction plans in the near future or want to start a business in Costa Rica.

By Andres Henfling

Sometimes we need a break from the tedious day to day routine, so we decided to take a weekend trip to the beach. In this article, I would like to show you how you can take a full weekend vacation, enjoy a Costarican beach and spend no more than $300 for a weekend.

Saturday morning I went with my girlfriend Melissa to Jaco Beach by bus and arrived in 1 hour and 30 minutes from downtown San José. Fortunately, the bus took the new highway so it is not a tedious or uncomfortable trip. We arrived at 9:30 am and went to get a simple but centrally located hotel where we had all the facilities and places to relax the weekend.

The hotel, Villa Nazua, is located at 200 meters from the Jaco Beach main street and 300 from the beach. The hotel offers a pool and a nice terrace to have a great time. The condo of 3 bedrooms is only $60 a night, it is pretty nice, clean, air conditioned and there were only 2 more condos with families so we enjoyed the peace and tranquility.
 

By Ivo Henfling

It is all in a lifestyle. I was reading on Glozal, a social network for realtors worldwide, an article about active Adult (55+) communities, which reminded me of several clients who moved to Costa Rica in the past. After some years, they thought they would be better off retiring to a real retirement community in Florida, where thousands of people retire to every month. Some of them never come back to Costa Rica but the adventurous ones realize that they made a big mistake by moving to Florida to retire and eventually end up in Costa Rica again. Let me tell you why.

Most of us, during our lives and our career, have acquired a lifestyle. Some love to read a good book or enjoy a nice glass of wine, others cannot live without concerts and theater and other just like to read a good book or live a different adventure every day. And that is what my blog is all about today.

By Ivo Henfling

When we drove to Nativa Resort a couple of weeks ago, I noticed that on the new highway to Caldera, the Autopistas del Sol concessionary was doing landslide prevention different ways because in some places the rainfall is causing a lot of damage. They sprayed concrete on the hillside and drilled pipes into the mountains to take the water out and through the concrete, when they re-did part of the highway at the turnoff between Sabana and Escazu, This was the first time I saw it done in Costa Rica. A little past the beautiful town of Atenas, they are now making incredible use of the large rocks they took out before they put the pavement in.

As most of you know, Costa Rica's rainy season runs more or less from July from November but September and October generate the heaviest rains. Although in July this year 2011, we already had some incredible downpours. It looks like we're going to get more and more rain every year. While coming out of a real estate closing on the east side of San Jose with AE affiliate Barry Ashworth, I saw a car disappear in the water OVER a bridge. I don't know what happened to the driver or the car. That was VERY impressive.
 

By Ivo Henfling

I really enjoy my time off and my vacations. My wife Dany and I love to travel and get to know new destinations and when we like one very much we might repeat, once. This time, we went to Las Vegas and really enjoyed it. Impressive city, great shows, lots to do. We even went to see Rod Stewart, who still sings and dances. The food is fantastic, and while we’re not big eaters, Dany and I enjoy the Jumbo shrimp as big as two fingers, Oysters Rockefeller, New England Clam Chowder, Steamed Clams in White Wine & Garlic, King Crab Salad Sandwich, all under $15. Or the all you can eat dinner for $25 each, where you can eat yourself silly with crab legs, all kinds of sea food, Asian, Italian and a ridiculous amount of desserts. You're right, we are both seafood lovers. Meat we can eat in Costa Rica.