Working with a good real estate agent should feel like having your tailor custom fit you for a new suit. A custom tailored suit will fit well, look sharp, and not come apart at the seams a month after you buy it.

Similarly, the broker client relationship is based on information from the buyer processed by the Realtor based on experience and knowledge. Be careful of buying real estate with a WalMart mentality, and just shopping by price; it can set you on the fast track to frustration.

Shop Costa Rica Real Estate Macro to Micro:

Don’t fall in love with the perfect price or perfect property in an area which you know nothing about, or doesn’t provide the setting you envision for personal use or needs for investment purposes. In the exploding real estate market here, there is tremendous variety in what you can find online and in your real estate searches.

I recommend educating yourself on Costa Rica and committing to investment here and WeLoveCostaRica.com is probably the best website to help you with that and then research the areas which suit your general goals and weighing the pros and cons of each.

Once you have decided on a region that suits your goals on both a personal and investment level, only then you should begin looking at properties within that region that suit your budget and vision. This will insure not only that you find a property that will fulfill your dreams short term, but also will prove rewarding on a personal and financial level.

Because Costa Rica has such varied topography, incredible views, and varied levels of local infrastructure, prices of land vary greatly even within the same areas. Many people put too much focus on price per square meter and can miss an opportunity for a great value.

Price per square meter should be used as a reference point for comparing similar properties such as a flat home-sites within the same gated community or two development parcels on either side of CIMA Hospital: properties that have the same attributes but only vary in size.

However, the minute you start comparing price per square meter of a view lot in Jaco with one in Manuel Antonio, and one in Dominical you have set yourself up to be confused and perhaps blinded.

As we begin a new year, I am exited about what is happening along Costa Rica’s central pacific coast and I have put together a list of my top real estate picks for 2008. This list includes some of the best values around and ranges from a 440 acre beach front farm in Hatillo for $15,000,000 to a 1,300 sq. meter walk to beach location in Manuel Antonio for only US$160,000.

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If you have ever dreamed of living in the Manuel Antonio area and would like to know more about real estate for sale please contact our Recommended Costa Rica Realtors Daveed Hollander, John Wieland and James Drews by using the simple form below: