Home › Forums › Costa Rica Living Forum › Finding a home in Central Valley
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May 13, 2011 at 12:00 am #203352JrovickMember
My wife and I are planning on a move to CR in the near future and would like to get hooked up with someone to show us some condo’s, zero-lot garden homes, etc in and around Santa Ana or similiar area near San Jose. We were recently in CR looking at Atenas, Grecia and San Ramon and have decided that being closer to a larger city but still outside of it with mountain views is what we want. Since there is no multi-list I am having difficulty deciding how I should go about finding the right realtor to show us properties. Searching the web I just don’t get a good vibe from some of the “sites” that offer tours and coordinate home searches. We are coming back the end of November and want to really concentrate on looking and finding something without wasting time. Any suggestions? Also, was thinking about the 2 day seminar offered by ARCR. Any comments on its value and information content. On the surface it seems like it covers good and important subjects but it appears to be tied to a real estate touring company. Thanks in advance for your comments.
May 13, 2011 at 8:16 pm #203353AndrewKeymasterThe ONLY REaltors that will be recommended on this site for the Escazu area are:
Martin Gill who you can see at:
[ https://www.welovecostarica.com/public/1643.cfm ]
And Mayra Claveria who you can see at:
[ https://www.welovecostarica.com/public/1370.cfm ]
Scott
May 13, 2011 at 8:37 pm #203354DavidCMurrayParticipantThe monthly ARCR seminar gets generally good reviews. There is so very much that’s different about living in Costa Rica that any opportunity to listen to the advice of knowledgeable others and to ask questions shouldn’t be passed up.
May 13, 2011 at 8:49 pm #203355JrovickMemberI tried submitting a contact request with the link you provided me on Mr Gil and would not go through. Do you have a direct email that you can provide.
May 14, 2011 at 12:17 am #203356AndrewKeymasterPlease use the simple contact form at the bottom of the article..
Scott
May 14, 2011 at 4:17 pm #203357phargParticipantMaybe one more thing to consider in ‘Finding a home in Central Valley’ is where the fault lines are. Somewhere I found a map on the web showing them but didn’t bookmark it.
I suppose it’s not that important because there are faults [geological and otherwise] everywhere.
One ‘fault’ is in accurate information about yesterday’s earthquake: reported as Richter 6.0, near Tillaran (10.105N,84.261W)by the USGS; and as Richter 5.9, near Orotina (9.8956N, 84.3329W) by OVISCORI.May 14, 2011 at 4:25 pm #203358DavidCMurrayParticipantAvoiding the threat of earthquakes in Costa Rica is a simple matter. Live in Minnesota. We have friends in central Ohio who report having had a 2.4 shaker in the last day or two.
May 14, 2011 at 5:30 pm #203359Bill55MemberI’d forget the Realtor. Rent for a while and get the feel of things. If you’re living in that area for a while you’ll come across something you like. Everything is For Sale in CR, so there’s no hurry to buy.
Once you find what you like you can just use a good lawyer to handle the transaction for you.
Rent at first, you’ll be glad you did.
May 15, 2011 at 11:31 am #203360aguirrewarMemberSOLID advice about renting 1’st
you get to know the area, temperature, stores, transportation and most IMPORTANT the PEOPLE around you
and you get all this information for FREE
May 18, 2011 at 7:12 pm #203361phargParticipant[quote=”DavidCMurray”]Avoiding the threat of earthquakes in Costa Rica is a simple matter. Live in Minnesota. We have friends in central Ohio who report having had a 2.4 shaker in the last day or two.[/quote]
101 years ago this month, Cartago was destroyed by an earthquake. A very interesting little book [en Ingles!] was written about it in 1910 by Leon Fernandez G. and Amando Cespedes M. As I recall, that may have been the impetus to move the capital to San Jose.
I have a PDF of this 60 page book (4.4MB) and if you’re interested, email me privately and I can send it [as long as I am not inundated with requests].May 19, 2011 at 2:00 pm #203362maravillaMemberand even if you are not on a faultline, there are still 250 volcanoes to deal with, any one of which can be a potential problem in plate slippage, etc. i am not near any faultline but that didn’t stop my house from shaking violently side to side. i keep asking myself what the hell i am doing living here when i left both california and alaska because of the earthquakes! sheesh.
May 19, 2011 at 3:04 pm #203363AndrewKeymasterWould it be fair to say that there has been far more property destroyed and far more deaths in the last 30 days because of tornadoes in the US than Costa Rica has lost due to volcanic activity, earthquakes or any other natural disaster in the last 25 years?
Scott
May 19, 2011 at 3:15 pm #203364maravillaMemberi wouldn’t want to go through a tornado or hurricane either. the problem with quakes is you never know when they will stop. thank god my house is built like a steel birdcage, but i wouldn’t want to be living on a steep slope, that’s for sure.
May 19, 2011 at 3:52 pm #203365DavidCMurrayParticipant[quote=”Scott”]Would it be fair to say that there has been far more property destroyed and far more deaths in the last 30 days because of tornadoes in the US than Costa Rica has lost due to volcanic activity, earthquakes or any other natural disaster in the last 25 years?
Scott[/quote]
It’s difficult to answer that one, Scott.
First, the geographic area of the U.S. is much, much larger, so the area of exposure is too. And the U.S population is about 75 times that of Costa Rica, so there are more people exposed to the risks. It would take a more in-depth analysis to arrive at any meaningful conclusion.
What we do know is that the weather is better here and, earthquakes and volcanoes figured in, the stress level is much lower. And then there are the people . . .
May 19, 2011 at 4:24 pm #203366phargParticipant[quote=”Scott”]Would it be fair to say that there has been far more property destroyed and far more deaths in the last 30 days because of tornadoes in the US than Costa Rica has lost due to volcanic activity, earthquakes or any other natural disaster in the last 25 years?
Scott[/quote]
well, maybe not so difficult to figure for short-term time periods.
April 2011 was very bad in the U.S., with 361 tornado deaths in a population of about 311,400,000. So, the chance of being killed by a tornado was about 1:863,000 in April. For nearly all other months in all other years, the odds against are well over one in a million. I have no way of knowing in a timely way what the odds are for C.R. and earthquakes, but I’m guessing they’re not much different. My brain hurts thinking about stats for 25 years – but what difference does it make? Statistics can always be made to fit preconceptions.:roll: -
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