With very little effort, you can make your Costa Rica home for sale much more attractive to potential real estate buyers and increase it’s sales value by following a few of our Help-U-Sell Your Costa Rica Home Tips:

1. No Smoking: If you are a smoker, we would encourage you to always smoke outside of the house.
2. Bad Smells: Try not to cook any fried food during the period you are trying to sell your home
3. New Paint: Paint the trim, columns, front door, and the light fixtures.
4. Good Smells: Make sure the house smells fresh but don’t over do it because some people are allergic to a variety of air fresheners.
5. Clean: Make sure the home is sparkling clean including all the windows and window screens.
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6. Green: Have vases of beautiful cut flowers around the house especially the living room and dining room with a few potted plants by the front door. This is Costa Rica and people expect and want to see lush vegetation and bright flowers and maybe some orchids. And at the low prices we can pay here, it’s a small investment for a dramatic and very effective touch.
7. Focus: Remove mirrors from over the fireplace (not applicable to our beach properties :-)) so buyers focus on the fireplace.
8. Space: Move furniture 2 feet away from the walls to make it look more spacious.
9. Tidy: Remove any moveable storage pieces in the kitchen and take all those magnets and notes off the refrigerator door.
10. Hygienic: Clean and regrout the bathroom floor tile and make sure you have some nice, clean colorful towels.
11. Colors: Put colorful bedding and matching window treatments in all the bedrooms.
12. Garage: Make sure the garage area is tidy, clean and free of any oil stains.
13. Pets: I can’t tell you how many stories I’ve heard about Realtors and their customers having the home seller’s dogs jump all over them. Please remove any pets and all traces of pets from the home when prospective buyers are visiting. Many people love animals but many are also allergic.
14. Questionable Art: Remove any erotic photographs or artwork that you may have around the house. Your taste may not be the same as the person who is looking to buy your home.

Some people may have seen five homes a day for weeks on end so make it easy for them to remember why your home is unique.

You may want to create an information sheet about your Costa Rica home for sale with a few good quality photographs for serious buyers to take away with them.

They may need to ‘think about it’ or ‘talk it over’ so if they have your well laid out, professional looking information sheet, they know that you are thorough, they will see that you care about your home and that makes it all the more attractive to them.

This home for sale sheet could include the following information:

1. Where exactly is your home located?
2. How long does it take to get to the nearest international airport?
3. When was the house last on the market?
4. How far to San Jose or the biggest major city in A: Miles and B: Minutes travel time?
5. Do you know who designed your home?
6. Do you know which builder built your home?
7. Do you know which architect designed your home?
8. Did you do your own interior design or did you have a professional to help you?
9. What are the exact measurements of the land in square meters and square feet?
10. How many square meters or square feet of construction in the house?
11. How big is the living room?
12. How many bedrooms are there? What sizes?
13. How many bathrooms?
14. Is this an individual house or condominium?
15. How much is monthly maintenance?
16. What services exactly are included for that monthly maintenance fee??
17. Is there a maid’s room?
18. How many floors?
19. How big is the garden in square meters and square feet?
20. Is there a swimming pool? If so what size?
21. In what year was the home built?
22. What type of construction?
23. How many telephone lines?
24. Is there cable internet access in your area? If so which company?
25. Is the owner of the property a person or a corporation?
26. What is your asking price?
27. Will you offer owner financing?
28. Has your home been featured in any architectural or real estate magazines?
29. What feature of your home have you most enjoyed?
30. What is the ‘folio real’ property identification number? (The ‘Folio Real’ number should be a 6 digit number follow by a dash and three digits like as in 000.000-000) and
31. Be as personal as you can and tell the prospective buyer what are your top ten favorite things that you will miss about living in this home?

Written by Scott Oliver, author of How To Buy Costa Rica Real Estate Without Losing Your Camisa and Costa Rica’s Guide To Making Money Offshore.

Andrew Makarik

to@welovecostarica.com

Andrew Makarik is the main editor of WeLoveCostaRica, a fan of this sunny country. He is also a loving husband and a has a lovely daughter. By being a devoted family man and the biggest Costa Rica fan, he wants to make more people feel at home there. WeLoveCostaRica unites people and helps them find new home or a new travel destination. This website is a friendly community where everyone can find not only information, but also new friends and travel pals. Andrew is also passionate about IT and programming, so he himself maintains a friendly atmosphere in this cozy environment of WeLoveCostaRica.com.