December 11, 2009 - Is buying property in Costa Rica at half price possible? Over 7 years ago, my wife and I moved to Costa Rica to “retire”. We had studied for endless hours on the internet, called toll free numbers on websites and talked to scores of realtors who assured us that we would have no problems finding a home in our “price range.”
When we arrived here, the first thing we did was to contact one of the “realtors” we found on a website and see a home in our target price range.
Geographically, it met all of our criteria… except that it had mold on the walls, two toilets which didn‟t work… and the entire floor of the second level was covered with contact paper!
Obviously this didn‟t hit our “hot button” even though the realtor said that the price was “negotiable”. He assured us that, the next day, he would have more for us to see. He never talked to us again. And our price range was “around $100,000” SEVEN YEARS AGO.
We couldn‟t find another realtor to help us. Now keep in mind that the “baby boomers” (us) had not started to arrive in Costa Rica in earnest yet… so we were not exactly inundated with choices of realtors. And the ones on the websites, when we explained our situation… didn‟t bother to return our calls or talk to us a second time.
We didn’t stop and gradually we targeted in on an area where we wanted to settle… and because we couldn’t find a house already built, we made the decision to build (of course, we didn’t really know how much that would cost yet either!). And because we couldn’t find a realtor to help us find land in our “chosen area” we asked a local tour guide to help us. Of course, at the time… his willingness to help was interpreted as friendliness… more on that later.
Do you think that maybe we were a little confused by the message that no one wanted to help us find anything in our price range? Well, we were. Especially when we knew that the average Costa Rican earned maybe $500 per month and he didn‟t have trouble finding a home for considerably less.
We found a piece of property that we loved AND in our price range, more or less. (of course, we found out later that we overpaid by nearly $20,000… but more on that later, too) . Our new “amigo” (the tour guide) helped us with permitting, land clearing, finding an architect and just about everything.
All went relatively smoothly except for some misunderstandings with regards to fees and minor costs (mainly due to bad translation). After all was said and done, our construction ended up costing us approximately $40,000. And even with the cost of land being inflated, we still ended up significantly less than the first home we looked at, which was a complete disaster.
Of course, since those days, labor costs and costs of materials have gone up significantly. BUT… our point here? Not everything is as it seems and there are a myriad of ways to accomplish your goals when it comes to buying property in Costa Rica.
BUT… what of the title to this article? Is there really anything to it? Find out more in next week’s article about buying property in Costa Rica part 2.
Randy and Rhonda Berg have been living in Costa Rica for over 7 years and have a wealth of knowledge when it comes to buying a home in Costa Rica. You can contact them at: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it