By Ivo Henfling
 

Right now, while I am writing this blog, I’m having a tamal de cerdo, made by my mother in law and the rest of the family (see the picture on the left). This is a Costarican specialty that the locals eat for Christmas, but my mother in law makes them really well (I hope she reads this). I eat about 5 in two weeks and I’ve had enough, but I know people that eat between 5 – 10 a day. For breakfast, lunch and dinner. Like North Americans eat turkey for a week. If you want to feel at home in Costa Rica, you need to try one.

What is a tamal de cerdo

A tamal de cerdo is a steamed corncake made of corn dough, filled with all kinds of ingredients like cooked rice, pork meat (cerdo), peas and sometimes olives, raisins, carrots and many other ingredients, depending on how wealthy or poor the family is.

By Ivo Henfling

Many of you might remember Catalina, who was my assistant for quite some time. When I hired Catalina, I didn’t know that she is Manuel Obregón’s sister. Manuel is one of Costa Rica’s most talented musicians and Laura Chinchilla’s government’s Minister of Culture and Art. Manuel Obregón is a verty talented artist who found a way to combine Costarican nature and Costarican music. Simbiosis, piano and rainforest, is just one of many of his cd's that are worth listening to.

About 10 years ago, Dany and I were invited Cora and Marianela to a piano concert by Costarican musician and composer Manuel Obregón and we were surprised by how good he was. If you are not really involved very much in the Costa Rican cultural life, you don’t realize that Costa Rica does have great musicians and artists because they are not very well advertised.

By Isabelle Jones

I have a Christmas present for a smart buyer who is ready to accept a incredible deal when they see one: this absolutely gorgeous ranch home for sale in Atenas that is a rare blend of elegance, style and Value. Now you just need to make a reservation for your flight to Costa Rica and I will, out of my real estate commission, throw in 2 nights in a nice B & B in Atenas if you close before the 15th of February 2012. That will give you two months to get organized and see for yourself how great a deal this is. At closing, my broker, Ivo, will throw in another night, I have his word on this. First come, first served. 

Are you sick and tired of the noise of the city? Is it time for you to make those dreams come true and finally make the step to retire to paradise?The motivated seller has just reduced the price of his house near Atenas  to $399,000. That's incredible for this Stunning Custom built 3 Bedroom, 2 ½ bath Ranch home. The size of the property is close to 1½ acres or 5800m2.

By Isabelle Jones
 

My family and I relocated to Atenas in 2003 and have enjoyed the benefits of living in Atenas tremendously. We moved from Colorado, USA, not yet ready to retire and have been very happy since. Many of our clients, when searching for the right place to live, ask me “why Atenas and not anywhere else?” My answer is that we fell in love with Atenas, that’s why. Let me tell you a bit about it, so you understand why. 

Atenas is not a city but it is still a small Costa Rican town that hundreds of ex-pats from the U.S., Canada and Europe have chosen to call “home”.  Climate, natural beauty and location are just a few of those reasons.  Daily, you see both Costa Ricans and foreigners walking, jogging and biking throughout Atenas. 

By Ivo Henfling

Many North Americans don’t know you can buy real estate in Costa Rica with your self directed IRA (Individual Retirement Account) or your 401(k) (Retirement Savings Account). Canadians can use their RRSP (Registered Retirement Savings Plan. Very few Costa Rica real estate agents know how you can realize the purchase without running into trouble. You will need the cooperation of your IRA custodian and you need to have a Costa Rica real estate attorney who knows what needs to be done and of course a GoDutch Realty agent for your purchase.

You and I are probably both frustrated most of the time with the services some larger corporations give, in Costa Rica and in many other parts of the world. Globalization and the large corporations are taking over. Therefore the client friendly smaller companies and mom and pop businesses cannot compete anymore, unless they take care of their clients.

Personally, I try to give any business I might have to smaller organizations, especially those that give me a good service. If you live in Costa Rica or any other part of the world, we probably battle these same problems.

In October this year I wrote a blog  about the nicest real estate closing of my life, where I complained about the bad service Scotiabank is giving lately and that many of my clients, who I referred to them, are not satisfied at all. In the past, I did put in complaints with the manager, the supervisor and everyone else I could reach in that bank, but nobody cared.

When I grew up, people and companies cared about their clients. Nobody seems to care anymore, at least that is my experience with lots of services I pay for. But soon, there might be a change in this pattern.

By Rudy Matthews

This past Thanksgiving I went to Jaco Beach with my son, sister and niece. My sister and niece were visiting from Florida and their two favorite places here in Costa Rica are the hot springs and spending time at the beach. Playas de Jaco is located on the Central Pacific Coast, between Puntarenas and Manuel Antonio.  Jaco is the closest beach to the Central Valley area. The new highway from San José  to Caldera makes Jaco a favorite for tourist and locals.

Jaco beach and the nearby Hermosa Beach are known for surfing and Costa Rica just won its 6th consecutive title at the 2011 REEF Central American Surfing Games. My surfing days are behind me but I still enjoy body surfing and the waves are great in Jaco.

By Ivo Henfling

Costa Rica real estate agent Margaret Sohn told me she was invited by a friend to go to the Nutcracker ballet by P.I. Tchaikovsky and sent me an email after the show "It was fantastic last night.  And interestingly, the woman I was given a ride home by had spent a lot of time in Russia and said the male lead was the best male dancer she has seen. We are so lucky here to have quality artist (especially the symphony) basically cheap."

Costarican ballet choreographers Patricia Carreras and Maria Amalia Pendones have auditioned 150 children for the Nutcracker ballet from all over Costa Rica in the Classical Russian Ballet School in La Uruca, San José, to be able to put together the 2011 production.

By Ivo Henfling

This is one of those occasions that I get a call from a seller, asking me to list this Escazu view home he has for sale and he checked out enough realtors online to make an educated decision on who to list his property with. The seller and I have been living in Costa Rica for more or less the same amount of time, but he travels a lot and has a home in the US too. Therefore he decided to sell his home in Bello Horizonte, Escazu. I know the neighborhood well because I lived like 200 yards up the road back in the eighties, so I know the neighborhood very well. Over the years, I have sold quite a few properties in that Bello Horizonte neighborhood and right now, I have the house across the street also listed and even a building lot on the other side. Now, this might sound like everyone in the neighborhood is selling but that's not the case. For those buyers who are looking for a different lifestyle, living in Escazu is what you are looking for.

By Ivo Henfling

The new Costa Rica residency card is worrying some residents unnecessarily. Some online newspapers in English,  like AM Costa Rica, Inside Costa Rica and the Tico times reported this week about the new DIMEX residency cards but the information wasn’t clear what a DIMEX residency card is. For that reason, I have received several emails from my readership, worried about not being able to do any bank business without the new residency card. of course you will also need this residency card to buy Costa Rica real estate although you will be able to do that also with your passport.

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.

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.