by Ivo Henfling

What if a burglar could not see anything, and could therefore not steal anything? Once in a while, like almost every day, we see on the news or read in the local papers that another burglary has happened. I hear the same happens in Ecuador and almost every country that is on a list of top retirement destinations like International Living or Forbes.

Countries with a lower cost of living have more security problems and the more burglaries happen, because there are a lot more poor people than in developed country that have a higher cost of living.

But do not worry, we now have the solution for your property in Costa Rica: fog protection.

By Ivo Henfling

I remember the times we had cows and horses in the streets of Escazu and you could build anything in real estate in Escazu you felt like and those are long gone now. There were no controls, building permits were not important and zoning did not exist. The 4 year Costa Rica real estate boom changed all that and suddenly we had quite a few 7 story condos. That was more or less the only thing the engineering department of the city of Escazu controlled, no more than 7 floors, due to the seismic code.

Not only traffic in Escazu has gotten worse, it is the same thing throughout the Central Valley and the entire world. When I grew up, we had only 1 car at home. My Escazu neighbor’s family has 6 cars now. The Municipality of Escazu has always been a little slow on things but in the last 2 years, things have accelerated.

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 Ivo Henfling

You might say that I come up with these crazy topics, but I can assure you they’re not as crazy as you might think. I am talking about the well known Bougainvillea, a beautiful plant with different flowers and spines, but later about that. Lets talk first about security. When you read websites from Costa Rica realtors, you will almost always see phrases like “gated communities”, “condominiums”, “secured access” and other things that show that it is important to take notice that you should live in a secure community but nobody tells you why.

By Ivo Henfling

Can I trust your home inspector to do a good job when I buy a home in Costa Rica, or will he be on your side, was a question that hit me like a truck at 100 miles and hour and left me speechless for a while.

I know she is reading this blog and I want her to know this was a great question, as it gives me an opportunity to write this blog. Here we go.

When I started selling real estate in Costa Rica, every time I sold a home, I was like praying nothing would happen to the house, at least for a while. Anything can go wrong, right? The roof can blow off, you can have termites in the rafters, the septic system clogs up and another hundred odd things can happen after closing. Landslides and many other things can happen to the land because of bad drainage for example.

By Ivo Henfling

Most people, when looking at condos for sale in Costa Rica, they look at how well the condominium is located to their needs, what amenities the condominium has to offer and how good the security of the community is. But many buyers of condominiums in Costa Rica forget how important all the legal issues are. And by legal issues, I don't mean the things that your attorney takes care of at closing.

I'm talking about many other issues that most don't think of when they are ready to buy a townhouse or an apartment, especially if the property is offered by the developer of the condominium or their sales people. Let me tell you a bit about all these pros and cons you should look at before you purchase a property in a condominium, no matter if it is a home site, a town house or an apartment.

By Ivo Henfling

Who knows what a Costa Rica condominium is really all about? Our real estate company has a wide selection of condominiums for sale in Costa Rica.

My webmaster has complained that I should write more about real estate and tell you less stories about the holes in the roads in Escazu or about the Bishop of San Jose trying to confess the citizens. Therefore, you will find more blogs about real estate related issues than ever before. But I promise, I will try to keep them informative as usual.

By Ivo Henfling

This week, Daniel Langlois, moderator of a forum on Yahoo called CostaRicaCentralValleyLiving asked me to reply on a small discussion some people were having.

I checked it out and though it a very interesting issue and as most of you know, I love to reply on a variety of issues, but mostly when I think people are sooooo wrong..... :-)

It went like this:

Posted question: Anyone know if $159k is a good price for a property in Grecia with a river
running through it and is on a mountainside? The property is 4800 sq meters and
is on a paved road at edge of town- thank you

Expo Construccion y Vivienda 2011

This tradeshow starts today, the 16th of March until the 20th of March 2011. The Expo advertises 200 companies will have stands, of which 10 are banks or lending institutions, 37 real estate developers and 100 different housing projects.

In the La Nación supplement  today, I checked the companies that will have space in the tradeshow. I can find find only 32 real estate developers (I might have missed one here and there) but 6 that have no website or have one that is unfinished. Nowadays, in the era of the internet, that is unthinkable.

By Ivo Henfling

Is it scary to live in a high rise building in Costa Rica? I was just in Panama City for a week (I will write more about this visit in the next AE newsletter) and looking at all those high buildings around me, I asked myself what would happen in case of an emergency in any of these highrises.

The highest buildings in Escazu and Sabana Park are 12 stories high I believe. Many of the buildings in Panama City show cracks everywhere, the buildings in Costa Rica are well built against eartquakes, as the building codes take care of this and they are well controlled on that. In Costa Rica, realtors tend to call these structures highrise buildings but many of you just call them condos.

By Brooke Bishop, your GoDutch real estate expert for Grecia - Naranjo - Sarchi

The Grecia Municipality offers a pretty good update about their Zoning Plan and Zoning maps. For those who are looking into buying Costa Rica real estate and especially in the Grecia area, I would like you to be aware that the information on the zoning regulations is published on the website of the Municipality of Grecia.

A regulatory plan is "a local planning instrument that defines a set of plans, maps, regulations and any other document, graphic or supplement, development policy and plans for population distribution, land use, roads circulation, utilities, community facilities and construction, maintenance and rehabilitation of urban areas. "

By Ivo Henfling, your Escazu real estate specialist

When you plan to buy property in Costa Rica, make sure you look at your surroundings. This morning I had a listing appointment in San Antonio de Escazu and saw the perfect example of what I wrote about in a recent article in our AE newsletter.

This home in the pictures below, was built maybe 3 years ago and they built it on what we call "gaviones", which are large cages of chickenwire filled with rocks, so they could get the beautiful views of the Central Valley.

This home was built at least 10 meters (30 feet) away from the river, as that is what the zoning indicates. In just a few years, the rain has washed away those 30 feet and the river is undermining the "gaviones" already.

Boston Scientific has the first 'green building' in Costa Rica

By Luis Edo. Diaz for La Nación on 05/09/2010 for La Nación

Source: La Nacion

The only building in Costa Rica certified as sustainable to the environment is located in Coyol de Alajuela.

For example, the floors are of cork, not wood, the wall paint is free of chemicals harmful to humans and much of the structure is made from recycled materials.

These and other details are part of the building of the Boston Scientific, which three weeks ago received the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environment), given by the International Green Building Certification Institute in the U.S.