About two years ago the economy in the States started to tank. Many could see it coming but many more simply stuck their heads in the sand and prayed that it would go away and that the “party would go on.”

Well, it didn’t go on…it came to a dead stop and has sputtered and stopped ever since. Real estate markets plummeted and, this year alone, over a million people will have their homes foreclosed upon. The stock market plummeted too, although it has gone back up part way…but investors are more wary now than ever before. The average investor has pulled in his horns…he is lucky to have a job. He is not worried about “getting ahead”… he is more worried about merely “staying even”. The average person is scared…more scared than ever before. Talk of a “double dip” recession and trillion dollar deficits and health care plans costing trillions of dollars…it just never seems to end.

What of real estate in Costa Rica? Well, those of you familiar with the markets here know that there are developments galore that have simply shut down and/or closed their doors. Most of them depended upon cash flow to make progress…and cash flow slowed to a trickle, if not an outright standstill. Real estate is easily as bad as it has been in over ten years if not longer…and there is no end in sight, despite what some realtors say is “just around the corner.”

My wife and I moved to Costa Rica a little over 8 years ago and we started a website to simply tell others about the pitfalls of building and buying real estate in Costa Rica…kind of a “good, bad and ugly of real estate in the country.” And one thing lead to another and we received tremendous publicity (from Newsweek among others) and we continued to grow into one of the most recognized real estate and development companies in Costa Rica.

Naturally, we were hit by the slowdown too…maybe not as much as others because we are pretty conservative but we were still hit. And then…about two months ago, headed into rainy season, which is definitely the slowest time of the year…we tried something different. In an area where interest is virtually nonexistent during “green season” we offered a small casita or (studio apartment) for $40,000…with financing. We were overwhelmed and sold out within two weeks (only five units).

We also had a piece of land near the beach which we reconfigured and did the same thing…offering a smaller casita of one bedroom for $70,000 WITH FINANCING. Again, we were overwhelmed. Five reservations were made within two weeks. Oh, another thing…we have developed an almost perfect way of marketing to Ticos and this was something which was almost “discovered” by accident too.

We then refined our marketing even further and decided to try to market not only to “gringos” but also to Ticos as their economy was still robust.We published a Spanish website (www.cabinasenventa.com) and began advertising specifically toward Ticos. Again, we were overwhelmed. We reconfigured our ocean view property to smaller lots with the same size cabinas…$65,000 with financing…we have a waiting list of over 60 people.
We are excited. Is it making us a potful of immediate piles of cash? No, but what it is doing is giving us huge receivables and it allows us to build a phenomenal cash flow like there is no tomorrow.

Better yet, we have been receiving requests from landowners AND realtors who have “heard” that we are selling product. Realtors see it as their “last resort” and landowners want to joint venture us with us because we can still sell…albeit in a niche marketplace. We plan on having 2-3 smaller developments similar to this per year. The economy will NOT ( at least in our opinion ) turn around in the immediate future and we believe that, while our product is not for everyone, it does allow an awful lot of people to own a second or a vacation home with a relatively small amount of money down. Face it, the days of “let’s borrow on the house” are long gone and consumers have pulled in their horns. We have the perfect product.

Sound like something you might be interested in? We would like to show you the numbers if you want to make a good living here in Costa Rica. We know that we cannot oversee developments throughout the country…nor do we want to. We came down here to retire. If this sounds like something that might fit you…and if you can function on your own and have an entrepreneurial spirit…this might be the perfect business for you.

If you would like to talk further, drop us a note…or call.
mwqp1165@yahoo.com or call toll free at 1-877-614-8079 or my cell at 011-506-8841-5782 ( or just 8841-5782 from inside the country) from outside the country (don’t leave a message on my cell, I still haven’t figured out how to access the recordings! Hey, I never said I was a technology buff too.)

Randy Berg
WWW.CR-HOME.COM

Office- 011-506-2-444-0582 (Costa Rica)
Toll Free- 877-614-8079 (U.S.)
Cell- 011-506-8-841-5782 (Costa Rica)