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I see Randy Berg keeps on saying outrageous stuff again in today’s AMCR with his ‘WORST REALTOR in Costa Rica” advertisement and now he says his “website is now the most visited of all Real Estate firms in Costa Rica” and he is “now the most widely read “real estate author” in Costa Rica.” I was thinking that more people read your site and your newsletter Scott. Do you know?
Although we have real estate for sale featured on WeLoveCostaRica.com I don’t consider my website as a real estate website, it is primarily a website about living and retirement in Costa Rica.
With regards to Randy Berg’s website being “the most visited of all Real Estate firms in Costa Rica.” That’s simply not true… There are other real estate websites that have higher rankings than Randy’s.
According to http://www.Alexa.com 56.4% of Randy’s website users are from Nicaragua (which is extremely odd) and 40.5% are from the USA, he has a traffic rank of 664,055 compared to WeLoveCostaRica.com at 302,076 (where #1 is the best) and 58% of our users are from the USA, 15.7% from Costa Rica, 8.3% from the UK and 4.6% from Canada…
So from a traffic standpoint WeLoveCostaRica.com is visited far more than his site (about 1,000 per day) and in staying for an average of 5.39 minutes, I can say with great confidence that our visitors probably stay for much longer and clearly visit more often.
Nearly 10% of our VIP Members have visited WeLOveCostaRica.com over 100 times!
As for Randy being “most widely read “real estate author” I guess that would depend on your definition of “author.’ From what I can see, he has written a few articles but has not written any books.
On the other hand, as you can see from this site, I have written two books on Costa Rica real estate, one published and which sells on Amazon, the most recent September 2009 book is in digital format plus I have written hundreds of articles on WeLoveCostaRica.com plus Costa Rica’s Guide To Making Money Offshore in Bull & Bear Markets.
As was confirmed at [ https://www.welovecostarica.com/members/forum/openthread.cfm?forum=1&ThreadID=2861 ] Randy – or whoever handles his marketing – tends to get a little carried away with numbers and superlatives.
Scott Oliver – Founder
WeLoveCostaRica.comAlso, if you go to compete.com (which I tend to like better than Alexa) you’ll find the following:
Monthly unique visitors:
We Love Costa Rica: 9,096
CR-home: 392
Properties in Costa Rica: 18,726
(comes up first in Google for search term “real estate Costa Rica”–after 3 pages in Google, I still didn’t see CR-Home)392?
I guess that conclusively answers the traffic question then eh?Randy must do a lot of marketing in Nicaragua although I am not sure why… Do you have any idea?
Scott Oliver – Founder
WeLoveCostaRica.comRandy makes three recent claims. One, his is the most visited, most read website. We’ve dealt with that.
Second, he claims to be the worst Realtor(tm) in Costa Rica. Of course, he isn’t a Realtor at all.
Third, that he’s the worst (non)-Realtor in Costa Rica.
Well, one for three would get you a major league contract in baseball.
I have heard that he is moving; perhaps it’s to Nicaragua (I hope!)
Whatever he is, I agree that he’s the worst!
He claims to have a 99% positive client rating!I missed Randy’s advertisement in AMCR today, since I don’t usually look at the advertisements.
But you got me wondering, so I checked it out. Now I don’t know much about the guy, except what I
just read on his site, were he listed six points, but a lot of it made sense and more than half of
what he said I would guess Scott would agree with. One must filter information one is given, verify and
make their own decisions. I don’t agree with everything that Scott says, but I agree with a lot of it and
find his website very helpful. I will likely spend sometime seeing what Randy has to say. Just my 2 colones.Listen folks, this guy is bad at what he does. I bought land from him and later found out that the land that I purchased was not the land he showed me.
His response to my issue was “well you are responsible to do your own due diligence”
It was a very eye openning experience.
There are others that read this forum that have had the exact same thing happen.
It is not slander, it is fact.
There is quite a bit of info about Randy Berg on ARCR website, not much of it positive. check it out.
I have not checked Randy’s site out more yet, but I did check out his name on the ARCR site.
If nothing else, he does seem to offer a great example of the number of different ways that
you can get into trouble buying property in CR.The collective Randy Berg experience serves to demonstrate a critical point:
DON’T BELIEVE ANYTHING YOU’RE TOLD!
Unless you can afford to lose the total purchase price and still be financially comfortable, take every precaution.
No matter whether you’re dealing with Randy, with one of Scott’s preferred real estate agents, with some other real estate agent, or with me, don’t believe a word of what you’re told. Check out every detail (EVERY DETAIL) for yourself through experts you select and whom you’re confident you can trust.
Have your own attorney (not one recommended by the real estate agent or the seller) check every detail of the property’s title in the National Registry. Then have a second attorney check it again.
If somebody shows you a piece of property that you like, have your own surveyor survey it and mark the boundaries. Know what you’re buying; don’t take anybody’s word for it.
If having electricity, water or a phone are important to you, go to ICE and the local water utility and check on availability. If Internet access is important to you, verify its availability.
If you’re planning to actually build on the land, don’t take the real estate agent’s word or that of the seller. Get an architect of your choosing to evaluate the buildability of the site. Have a soil engineer test the soil.
Unless you are rich beyond my dreams, you probably cannot afford to make a mistake. Take your time up front and get all the answers from folks who are committed to looking our for your interests rather than their own.
There are too many horror stories out there about Randy and others not to take this to heart.
David…
Excellent advise and well stated… short sweet and to the point. The cost of all of this “due diligence” is minor compared to not doing it…
Omit just one of these “guidelines” and it could cost you 10 times or more to “fix” it, if it’s possible to fix.
Several times I have seen properties that have a “building site” already excavated, and checked into them and found that the subsoil was too permeable… one was even washing away after a tremendous downpour whilst we were waiting for the soil engineer’s report!
Water, during the rainy season especially, will find the easiest route to take to follow gravity… be VERY sure you know what’s going on below and around your building site or you might just find your house moving!
Many people have said do your “due diligence” before you buy… it’s nice to see it capsulated so efficiently here…good job
Brian
I have done no business with Randy Berg, but am sure that not every real estate deal has been ‘bad’. As DavidCMurray pointed out,”No matter whether you’re dealing with Randy, with one of Scott’s preferred real estate agents”, I am also certain that not every deal/partner that Scott has advertised on his website…unbeknown to him… has always proved to be 100% truthful.
And pay attention as he emphasizes, ‘DON’T BELIEVE ANYTHING YOU’RE TOLD’!
And also as enduro states “The cost of all of this “due diligence” is minor compared to not doing it…”
If you have read a posting by ‘sunnysadie ‘Problems with property infrastructure’ further down this page, merits the need for independent lawyers.
And Scott, hope your ‘numbers’ stay as good after you ‘make the change’ charging admission to access this site…
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