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My understanding is that UTA has first position on the property directly through Centam’s subsidiary in CR. Considering most of the permitting heavy lifting is done and some work as well, this is different in many respects from you know who. One hopes that some form of it will be built someday.
Regardless, the claims and prices were inflated and then the market deflated. Not a good combination.
[quote=”alexander69″][quote=”DavidCMurray”]A participant in this forum, GreciaBound, has figured out how to use photovoltaic panels to produce the 24 volt (I think) power he needs for his pool pump. You could search the forum and maybe send him a message.[/quote]
Thank you David, I have figured we will need 12.5 kwhs per day to power everything including pool pump, water pump, fridge and washing machine and the misc. stuff. I will look him up. A.[/quote]
That seems pretty lean. Your avg household will use about 30kw/day.
If you are going to build for the long term >10 years you should oversize as the system degrades by about .5%/year. After 15 years you might have to replace an inverter. If its roof top you also want to be sure that the roof can support the size of the array you need to install.
I would be curious to know the permitting obstacles for wind in CR. In the US its a nightmare.
Just because a company uses a call center to sell does not make it a scam. Unfortunately, for a lot of “developers” in CR and elsewhere, poor conditions for development combined with a lack of expertise can trigger a war for survival.
Of course the first casualty of war is the truth. Let the buyer beware.
sounds like a clay tile like a quarry tile that you might find in a fast food restaurant. They are some what porous (compared to porcelain especially) but really should not stain. If you apply the penetrating sealer (any grout/joint filler company makes or brands one) It will provide some ease of cleaning and especially project the joints. It may also slightly darken the color. These sealers are very viscous (thin) and a gallon goes a long way 800 – 1600 sf/gal.
One would think that a tile store in SJ would have this.
The road from Quepos well past Matapalo is done, no? Other than that it sums up pretty well, no permits, no construction, no financing, no experienced owners…no thanks.
My understanding of penetrating sealers is that they are for the joint filler or grout. They seal the joints to prevent staining. When they are applied they penetrate the porosity of the cement joint and evaporate from the tile surface. I am assuming that the tile is glazed or porcelain unglazed. If it is more of a Mexican saltillo then it must be sealed with an entirely different material. It is also set differently in most cases.
[quote=”Dr Jeff”][quote=”maravilla”]and then there is the San Ramon area which is only 45 minutes to the ocean, the temps rarely get above 80, and the nights are cool enough to sleep under a down comforter. san ramon has everything — good doctors, a big hospital, dentists, good food shopping, good hardware stores. lots of good property available on which to build. if not, there are some good rentals in the mountains. i love it here. no heating, no air conditioning; i have ceiling fans and a fireplace for those cool nights.[/quote]
thanks! did some research-looks very promising.I’d like to be a little closer to the coast,tho. Anyone familiar w/ San Isidro del General area?[/quote]
San Isidro de General is nice. Known as Perez Zeladon too it is about 30 minutes to ocean in Dominical. That beach is more of a surfer beach.
What is nice about the coast a little further north of Dominical is that you can get in the mountains just as quickly where it is cooler from good elevation combined with ocean breezes and the surf calms down somewhat.
The closest you might get would be terrazzo tile. Poured in place terrazzo requires considerable skill and more importantly a serious investment in equipment (terrazzo grinders aka italian lawn mowers) that run on 220V min. Plus the diamond stones etc.
If your heart is set on it and you want to settle for tile Wausau Tile in WI might have an outlet, they are the biggest.
I dont think I will get much disagreement when I state that too many people come to Costa Rica looking for “a deal” and not enough take the time to perform due diligence. That having been said I would offer the following in context of forum decorum; declaring myself as an expert as the world’s foremost authority on my opinion.
Do not buy on the basis of one person’s recommendation or lack thereof. With all due respect to backgrounds, experience and expertise ask anyone who listened to Jim Kramer in the last few years.
If you cannot view the property without a “good faith” deposit in place, RUN do not walk away.
Preconstruction is not a bad thing having been around a very long time. In Costa Rica as anywhere,knowing who the technical team behind the project is tells a big part of the story. Legal, Engineering, Accounting etc. How much has already been invested in the development? It’s one thing to take a small finca and cut in three pieces. Its another to Master Plan 600 acres. If there is any mystery here, refer to the previous paragraph. Larger developments need SETENA approval and will have accountability to INVU and MINAE (sp?) as well.
Compare. Really compare. In many situations price increases are actually “forced” appreciation not couched in reality in direct comparisons to like properties.
Spend time in the area that you are looking in. Not hours.
You are supposed to like where you live, right?IF owning the land free and clear immediately is important than preconstruction is NOT for you. No developer on any sizable scale (in and area similar to the one you are referring to)can any more afford to deliver all vital services, get folio numbers etc. than can they build a condo tower in the US without preconstruction sales or an enormous balance sheet. You need to understand the sequence of events, have confidence they are going to transpire and be willing to wait. In exchange you are supposed to get equity by way of under market pricing as well as a leveraged asset.
Good luck.
IF you are looking to invest in a real estate holding in CR that you do not intend to live in, that is possible through a self directed IRA. There are about a dozen custodial entities that can facilitate that. These custodians are not fee based and are therefore disimpassioned with regard to specific investments. You can also partner with yourself on it or someone else or their IRA assuming it is a qualified plan. Most 401-Ks Roths Keoghs and Sepps fill the bill although annuities are a no no as I understand.
I cannot speak as knowledgably as Scott on the rest, however I am led to understand that the Patriot Act has at least contributed to the offshore funds recalcitrance to doing business with US investors. I would also make a tongue in cheek argument over the validity of S&P ratings comparability taking the MBS into play.
Good luck.
Although I would generally approach anything out of this source with some skepticism, it would be interesting to see just how the deregulation of the insurance industry under CAFTA plays into this. anyone know?
I do admire your passion. I also agree that your freedom is what you make it. The US has been on a path of change for a very long time now and a good 50 years after Mr. Lincoln’s words were written the establishment of the Fed became the cornerstone of that change. Those warnings of course go back well before his time. The destruction of the dollar has been an on going method to as I mentioned here a while back create an environment where the profits are privatized and the losses socialized. Heck, a silver quarter today for the value of the metal will still buy you a gallon of gas just like it did in 1963, its last year of issue. 90% of that value has been destroyed since.
The key component here is conspiritorial maintainence of the health of the banksters both public and private. No one entity, NO ONE is more complicit in that than the US government itself. It is a conscious and methodical effort to artificially maintain unrealistic home values to keep Fonie and Fraudie and FHA from imploding and taking down the whole financial system. Were that to occur your economic warfare would certainly ensue, IMO no? There is no better con that to say you are doing someone a favor in the guise of ripping them off. Anyone who was introduced to Madoff will attest to that. More so, how about you get 8000USD to buy an inflated 250000USD house that without that credit you could get for 100000USD.
This is the greatest arguement for moving your money out.
First of all, oil is the lifeblood of all of the developed world economy including the up and comers like China and India (those cherished bastions of human rights). It is incredibly naive to think that the dominance of the USD as a trade reserve currency will “end soon”. If it does occur in an exclusive sense it will become part of a hybrid of currencies and not flipped or optioned to say the yuan or euro. So it begs the question whose currency will contribute most greatly to the strength of the hybrid benchmark? Seriously,does anyone sincerely believe that China’s recently reported growth isnt as fabricated as the real estate recovery as reported by the NAR in the US? Really! Yes China your factories are closing by the tens of thousands there is no market for your exports your goodwill for the quality of your output is in the crapper (love that stinky drywall)but you grew 9 percent…ummm ok.
There are plenty of new technologies in Alt energy that are emerging or have emerged, the REAL problem is that they rapidly become proprietary through purchase or theft to the same corporate interests in short order and the US goverment is complicit in that activity. The problem isnt ingenuity, there is still more of that in the US than anywhere, the problem is keeping that ingenuity in the public domain. Fix the patent and monopoly law in the US and in Costa Rica for that matter since they honor US patent law and lot of the rest will fix itself. Dont hold your breath on that either.
So what triggers this “crash” that is referred to? What are the elements of this “economic warfare”? What is also not being considered is the effect of market manipulation of commodities in general, not just oil. I am surprised Scott does not weigh in on this. I am personally still waiting for someone to convince me that there is a shortage of oil. There only appears to be a shortage of MARKETABLE techological alternatives on both the supply and demand side. Why? There is no shortage of exploratory technologies…ask Petrobas.
Let’s not kid ourselves, altough like the sign says, we love Costa Rica, the economic warfare that is spoken of, will most likely inflict most of its damage in the urban sector where in Costa Rica as elsewhere most of the population dwells. Moreover, it would be merely a prerequisite to be prepared without respect to location, as it has been proven in this thread that success is possible in remote locations anywhere. Heck I can take you through a populated area in NY where four interstate highways converge on a ten mile trip to Pennsylvania and you will never see a paved road.
Cheers.
You already know the answer to that Scott…seriously.
As far as hiding criminal activity behind a corporate entity I have only two words – gold mansacks.
Here is what I do not understand. After 5 mostly inactive years from what appears to be a non performing company, people still entrust significant sums and refuse to perform due diligence prior to the purchase and even after. Then after the deal is in flames they suddenly learn how to use a search engine? The worst part is that the developers in preconstruction that have enlisted stirling technical teams, are debt free and moving ahead in the strictest accordamce with the regulatory environment that is the new hallmark of building Costa Rica are lumped in with the riff raff albeit sometimes only passively, however that is ehough and is unfortunate for all parties.
That is pretty funny…fact is though at least in recent memory the NPP has been a sort of “forward looking” honor and a mechanism for political posturing on the committee’s behalf. Bringing to mind recipients Arafat and Kissinger validate that. Its kinda like being nominated to run in the Kentucky Derby. Hundreds are nominated over a year in advance, but only 20 run and one wins. Of course count on Fox to boil it down to fit…does anybody know if Joe the Plumber got a nomination? I recall hearing where Beck said the teabaggers should have got it. What a riot!
