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I have just posted a $130K top floor condo in Santa Ana which you can see at
Scott Oliver – Founder
WeLoveCostaRica.comPOSTED IN WRONG PLACE AND REPOSTED HERE…..
Posted Apr 01,2007 3:31 PM lynnebevan
We’ve only been in Costa Rica for two months, but we’ve already discovered everything that is being talked about on your web site is true. One ‘salesperson’ marked up the price of a condo by ‘only’ five thousand dollars and was caught red handed as the real listing agent showed up and quoted us the real price. It was actually kind of funny to see the other guy try to squirm out of it.
A five thousand dollar mark up down here seems to be almost nothing from what we’re seeing.Reply Delete Edit
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Posted Apr 01,2007 3:36 PM Scott
Would you please email me the name of the ‘salesperson’ who “marked up the price of a condo?”You can contact me here
I will move this posting to the ‘overpricing’ thread and delete this one …
Scott Oliver – Founder
WeLoveCostaRica.comI appreciate what you are saying ‘ebmfla’ but obviously I can’t force the real estate brokers that I recommend to go out there and only try to spend their time finding $75,000 properties when they will make far more money and spend the same amount of time selling $375,000 properties and there’s LOTS of people buying properties of that price and more. That’s capitalism no?
There was a time a few years ago when I recommended a couple of brokers because they focused on the more affordable end of the range but as always happens, as they became more successful, they started working with more expensive properties and will no longer even bother to reply to emails for someone looking for a $90K home.
My goal with my book and with my website is to try and give people the tools they need so that they can try and find these ‘deals’ themselves. I paid Vicky to write articles about how to translate the La Nacion advertisements from Spanish into English…
As it is, I choose NOT to feature a big percentage of the very expensive properties they send me…
Scott Oliver – Founder
WeLoveCostaRica.comI believe the ‘politically correct’ term is “less developed country.” (LDC) and “less developed” it may be but I prefer living here than any of the other so called ‘developed’ countries I have lived in so far ….
It’s like the word “civilized”. How civilized are we really? According to http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/civilized – cv·i·lized is an adjective:
1. having an advanced or humane culture, society, etc.
2. polite; well-bred; refined.
3. of or pertaining to civilized people: The civilized world must fight ignorance.Is the so called “developed” world meeting those criteria for being “civilized?” I would suggest that one glance at any of their major newspapers and a review of their foreign policy would give you conclusive proof that they are certainly NOT civilized.
And “developed”? According to Wikipedia – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Developed_country “The term developed country is used to categorize countries with developed economies in which the tertiary and quaternary sectors of industry dominate. This level of economic development usually translates into a high income per capita and a high Human Development Index (HDI). Countries with high gross domestic product (GDP) per capita often fit the above description of a developed economy. However, anomalies exist when determining “developed” status by the factor GDP per capita alone.”
Anomalies like more than 45,000,000 people (ten times the total population of Costa Rica) living in the US without health insurance…
Scott Oliver – Founder
WeLoveCostaRica.comgenn789 – I’ll compare Costa Rica to the UK and the USA if I wish because we have many buyers coming here from those countries and the “affordability” comparisons are incredibly relevant and what this Discussion thread is all about – thank you.
And are you suggesting that from now everyone ignores the Costa Rican laws on minimum salaries and pays much more than they are legally obliged to pay their maids?
And why stop there? Maybe we should we do that with every employee that we have? Where would that take us do you think? And who decides what would be a ‘fair wage’ for a maid?
What’s ‘fair’ for you would not be fair for someone else… Or maybe that’s what the ‘minimum wage’ laws are all about?
So please tell us what is your proposed solution to the problem?
Scott Oliver – Founder
WeLoveCostaRica.comebmfla:
The “people” of WeLoveCostaRica.com is ‘me’ – Scott Oliver and nobody else. As is made CRYSTAL clear on this site, I don’t personally sell real estate so it’s puzzling how you might come to the conclusion that I am doing my “own pricing.”
I also do not get paid a dime from the attorneys that I recommend on this site – NOT A PENNY! Although yes they treat me well and give me advice when I need it.
And yes! After shipping I make $7.71 on each book that is sold on the website… Whoopdedoo! What’s your point? Are you suggesting that I should give away my books? Isn’t that what all the most successful authors do?
And it’s easy to find exceptions in any market and then extrapolate on that:
I paid a grand total of US$93,290.17 for 4,300 square meters of picturesque land (46,268 square feet – just under one acre) in a gorgeous area of Costa Rica which includes a two bedroom, one large bathroom 1,638 square foot Cypress wood vacation home that was built on it… I have already been offered US$149K for it and I turned it down.
By all means extrapolate on that!
Can you find that in Miami?
Scott Oliver – Founder
WeLoveCostaRica.comPlease feel free to post all the URLs in this forum where we can see the details of their “completed projects in Palm Beach County Florida.”
I would be happy to take a look and, if there is indeed proven experience, I would be glad to rethink our strategy for Costa Developers…
Still waiting…
Scott Oliver – Founder
WeLoveCostaRica.comYou might take a look at these:
American International School of Costa Rica
US calendar year
Cariari, San José, Costa Rica
website: http://www.ais.comAnglo American School
Bilingual = English & French
http://www.angloamericano.ed.crBlue Valley School
Escazu
http://www.bluevalley.ed.cr/British School
Bilingual = English & Spanish
http://www.infoweb.co.cr/britschCountry Day School
Escazu, Costa Rica
website: http://www.cds.ed.crEuropean School
Heredia, Costa Rica
http://www.europeanschool.comHumboldt College
Trilingual = Spanish, German & English
http://www.humboldt.ed.crLincoln School
English
San José, Costa Rica
email: director@ns.lincoln.ed.cr
website: http://www.lincoln.ed.crMarian Baker School
Bilingual – Spanish & English
San José, Costa Rica
website: http://www.marianbakerschool.comMonteAlto School
Heredia, Costa Rica
Bilingual = English & Spanish
http://www.montealtoschool.comPan American School
San Antonio de Belen, San Jose. Costa Rica
http://www.panam.ed.crSEK Costa Rica
Curridabat, Costa Rica
Biligual = English & Spanish
http://www.sek.netSaint Francis College
Bilingual = Spanish & English
Moravia, San Jose. Costa Rica
http://www.stfrancis.ed.crSaint Gregory
Tres Rios, Costa Rica
Trilingual = English, Spanish & French
http://www.sgs.ed.crSaint Jude School
Santa Ana, Costa Rica
http://www.stjude.ed.crSaint Mary School
Guachipelin, Escazu. Costa Rica
Bilingual = English & Spanish
http://www.saintmary.comSaint Paul College
Bilingual = English & Spanish
San Antonio de Belen, San Jose. Costa Rica
http://www.saintpaul.ed.crSan Lorenzo
Trilingual = Spanish, English & French
San Pedr, San Jose. Costa Rica
http://www.sanlorenzocr.comScott Oliver – Founder
WeLoveCostaRica.ocmI would suggest that at least 90% of the homes being being bought by gringos are NOT homes that the average Tico would buy on his far less than $1,000 per month family income.
The “affordability” of real estate for people earning the average wage is a problem in the US, the UK (where the ‘average’ home is now $393,000) and many other countries, Costa Rica is no different.
I proposed years ago that Costa Rica property taxes should be doubled on all real estate that is worth more than US$250K and that would bring in a huge amount of money that hopefully could be put to good use.
And again, please remember, it’s not just gringos, in the next two weeks, one of my recommended real estate agents is booked solid every single day including weekends with Mexicans, Venezuelans, Bolivians and some gringos but over that period she’s seeing more non-gringos than gringos.
Scott Oliver – Founder
WeLoveCostaRica.comConstructive commentary is always appreciated “apostle1” – snide comments are not.
Scott Oliver – Founder
WeLoveCostaRica.comHow do you find them maravilla? This is quite hilarious really … “some people should be given an IQ test before they are allowed to leave the US.”
Haa!
Scott Oliver – Founder
WeLoveCostaRica.comAs Realtor Bill Maes writes in ‘Costa Rica Realtor – A True Misnomer’ there are less than ten people in Costa Rica that are legally allowed to call themselves a Realtor. Bill Maes (who does not sell in Costa Rica) is allowed to call himself that …
But, if you search for ‘Costa Rica Realtor’ in Google you’ll find 1,500,000 pages and after seeing some of the total scumbags that are listed there, we were forced to use that term more on WeLoveCostaRica.com to compete with that…
David you say that “There is one agency operating in Costa Rica which openly admits to marking up properties which they regard as being underpriced and keeping the difference.” Would you PLEASE email me privately on that? I want to know all about that ….
Scott Oliver – Founder
WeLoveCostaRica.comNo matter what regulations there might be, these people are obviously “ethically challenged” and would rip people off no matter what regulations there are… There’s simply no way that they would not know that what they are doing is VERY wrong.
Scott Oliver – Founder
WeLoveCostarica.comPOSTED IN WRONG PLACE AND REPOSTYED HERE BY SCOTT
Posted Mar 29,2007 5:55 AM rshiver
I dont know why its shows the wrong time. Its actually 0955 in Flordia now. Scott..the park and fly is about 2-3KM from the Intl airport. It looks like some of the spaces are covered and I dont know the price or about the security. That is what I am trying to learn as I am considering leaving a car there while we are in the U.S.
