Iguana Land Company in San Ramon…

[DaveT]

(old message…bumped to top)…
Debbie,

Thanks for reminding me to update you about the visit to San Ramon and Iguana Land Company owned by Ben Cart.

Let’s see, where do I start? Ben has a very interesting and diverse background. He is an ex-instructor of airline pilots who did very well financially developing a commercial retail shopping center in south Georgia at a young age (mid 30’s). After that he came to a still undiscovered Costa Rica (15 years ago) and settled in San Ramon where he has blended in well with the locals and married a Tican woman. He is definitely the entrepreneurial type and before he was in real estate he was in the restaurant business and imported cars among other things in Costa Rica. He began buying properties around Costa Rica and now has 18 fincas (aka properties) of varying size with the majority of them (12) in the San Ramon area. About the properties themselves:

Here are the advantages or pros I witnessed to working with Ben/Iguana:

* Location – I found San Ramon to be everything as advertised: favorable climate conditions, nucleus of shopping centers and necessity type stores, 45 minute drive from the airport/San Jose, affordable cost of living, friendly people, etc.
* Infrastructure  Ben is moving dirt and all the lots he is selling come with turnkey infrastructure in place&that is a huge plus considering the plethora of other raw land developers that are requiring deposit money up front.
* Honesty  Again, you just get that intuitive feeling that because Ben is so entrenched in the area that you can trust him and he will be on-site to help any purchasers that he can.
* Prices  This is a tough one to gauge, because of the difficulty of getting comps, but I think Ben’s prices were market value based on what I saw. Most of the high elevation lots (1  2 acres) were priced in the $30,000 to $50,000 price range and ones with less desirable views could be found cheaper.
* Housing – By just venturing out to what most Americans would consider a suburb its amazing what you can save on housing costs  Ben said he can build a very comfortable 2000 sq foot house for $50,000 in San Ramon and I believe him&labor cost is incredibly low ($1.00/hr for construction  2.25/hr for a foreman) as I was told by more than one source in San Ramon. I can’t emphasize enough the advantages of having a bilingual builder who is plugged into the local community.

Here were my primary concerns:
* I did not see a lot of adjacent development activity going on in San Ramon  other than some log cabin homes that Ben is planning on using as rentals I didn’t see one house being built on any of the properties, which begs the question who and where is the target market? I saw a lot of investment type activity (i.e. farmers positioning themselves to sell their land), which make me think the area is about 3 to 6 months away. The research I’ve done is most investor types are playing it safe and paying more for land closer to the ocean/beach than wanting to develop virgin land for gated community type subdivisions. To reiterate, there are land buyers, but not anyone in the active stages of building houses.
* Another interesting tidbit is that most large tracts of land in Costa Rica are income producing, working farms  many of those are cattle farms which a few of Ben’s properties are directly next to. One of the friends I was with thought this was neat and just part of the cultural adjustment and my other friend thought it may take some getting used to seeing cattle share the roads and cowchips freely scattered (ha, ha).
* The roads are a work in progress around Ben’s properties. While unfortunately it did rain during most of our time in San Ramon the access roads to many of the properties were more difficult than other areas we visited. The roads should and probably will be improved over time.
* While Ben has a lot of contacts in the area I would anticipate any buyer having to spend a lot of time to monitor the build out (see Scott’s article on his mountain home) of any new home. I would think most buyers may prefer to buy an already existing structure v. building new, especially retiring baby boomer types.

What Ben needs more than anything is direction  he has so many projects simultaneously going on that he is doesn’t have a concise plan and strategy. For example, he is building log cabins on the side of a mountain, building a sales office, wholesaling under-developed properties, parceling/grading out lots, partnering with someone to possibly build spec homes, putting in infrastructure, etc. He has become so spread out that he has become under-capitalized and I think really needs a consultant type more than anything to help mentor him.
Personally, I am going to monitor this area closely, but there were other comparable cities that I thought offered an equal amount or more upside. Keep in mind though my motives are to invest with a short term (2 to 3 years) exit strategy and my plan be contrastingly different from yours  if anyone is looking to live/move to Costa Rica I would jump on this area and recommend without reservation.
I think the San Ramon area has a ton of potential  you do not have to worry about Ben being one of those fast-talking boiler room types who gives you a high pressure sales pitch to buy property. He came across very genuine, knowledgeable about the area, and passionate about Costa Rica.

Sorry for the long winded response  hope this helps. Feel free to ask any additional questions that I did not cover. Thanks, Dave

FYI  I met with Scott on my trip down, and am writing an article that will share my personal experiences of investing in Costa Rica real estate&I did make a purchase that I was extremely pleased with.

[dhsbooker]

Dave,
Thank you so much for taking the time to write this(not long winded at all)!! LOL. It really is helpful info. Ben does sound like he is stretched a little thin with all those projects at the same time. We will have about 17 days to explore when we go in Oct and I am also going to look at some property in the same area called Butterfly Dance(cann’t remember the spanish name right now. I also have a friend that I work with who is originally from Puerto Rico, but his brother lives in Costa Rica and said that he knows of alot of good deals. He loves it there so much he won’t even come back to the states to visit!
Thanks again,
Debbie
PS Where did you buy?

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