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now, I have been participating at an appraisal seminar with a canadian company and have learned that appraisals are done by complicated methods, not the way Lucas said. So I called the municipality in Tilaran and asked what was the deal. They said that nothing of that is true. The hired company is not canadian but from Spain, and the land values country wide can be checked on the following webpages (c.r. tax department)
and this page explains how appraisals are done on buildings:
o.k. again. the rumor is spread by a guy named Lucas Mongrito, he is the leader of some kind of tico community group in nuevo arenal. he said to me on the phone that the c.r. government hired a canadian company to appraise all property in the country. he said that they simply knocked on somebodys door, asked for the price of their property which was $ 50 per meter at lake arenal, and they took that value for all and every single property around the lake.
Dear Scott
I just wrote a long comment to this subject, but when I pushed the send button I got dumped and all my text is lost. I probably went over time, but it is not possible to post a decent text in five seconds !! 😈 specially if I want to add some links etc. Could you please extend the time to be logged in to an hour or so ? I am multi-tasking here and do not want to logg in every time I jump back on your page.From what I have been reading before, only those who have a 30 day visa can apply for extension before the 30 days are over. Those who have a 90 day visa can not. Better check with Immigration or an attorney.
La Nacion reported the following day that weather conditions did not allow an immediate search, not a lack of resources (money ?) I guess it was a misunderstanding due to language differences ?
Chicken food “concentrado para engorde” (the stuff you buy at the vet store) has growth hormons and antibiotica. The first is necessary to guarantee a maximum weight gain in a minimum time, the second has to make sure that the poor animals don’t get sick. In the chicken fattening industry it is (off course) all about profit and each sick or dead animal can infect the whole litter. I don’t know how they do it at Pipasa or similar companies in C.R. , but I have literature where it says that they normally keep and fatten 25 chicken per square meter (2,5 chicken on one square foot), in closed barns, no fresh air, so sunlight….. The barn is never cleaned during the (4 to 6 I think ) weeks of fattening period. The animals are kept with the light on almost full time to make sure they sleep less and eat more.
In order to grow organic chicken, or produce organic eggs, one has to make sure to feed them organic food, and keep them outside during the day. They will not get as fat as fast, but they will be happy and healthy chicken during their short live.
[quote=”Scott”]It seems to me that in the past few weeks – with three big negative stories – Costa Rica’s reputation as a environmentally concerned nation has been severely damaged….
1. The new 163 KM road cut out of the earth with no plans and an extremely high probability that this has caused serious environmental damage.
2. The ongoing publicity campaign where some people are trying to promote professional, big-money chicken fights even though they are illegal but, which are apparently still very popular.
3. Lastly, while Costa Rica seems to have difficulty keeping petty criminals off the streets even after their 50th offense, Costa Rica doesn’t seem to have a problem wanting to extradite Paul Watson – a world renowned environmentalist – to Costa Rica to stand trial to face trivial charges of “putting a ship’s crew in danger” when he had been here trying to prevent the truly horrific shark finning off the coast of the country…
Would you agree?
Scott
[/quote]FULLY AGREE !! And there goes Mrs. President, trying to convince the world about happy Ticolandia ……
[quote=”VictoriaLST”]You haven’t mentioned the Lake Arenal region. Admittedly, there is no Walmart, but, at the moment, I am enjoying bright sunlight and a cool mountain breeze. At night, the temperature is usually in the 60s – no A/C needed. 70s to 80s during the day. Our water bill is $7 a month (unlimited water). Nuevo Arenal has a large and active x-pat community. And lets not forget the lake. And the rivers. And the food![/quote]
There is a Sort-Of Walmart in Cañas, 20 Minutes from Tilaran, it is called Maxi-Pali.
And for special food, one can connect a beach trip with shopping at Auto Mercado at Coco or Tamarindo.
you can buy a personeria juridica on the national registries webpage
homepage: http://www.rnpdigital.go.cr/index.htm
shopping: https://www.rnpdigital.com/shopping/login.jspx' defer onload='
you create an account (sign up) and then you can shop for a personeria and other documents (2800 Colones)
It is valid for 2 weeks, which is plenty for the bank.
If you buy a S.A. with an existing bank account, you go to the bank together with the seller and change the signers on the account.
[quote=”DavidCMurray”]Bill, your observation about the advisability of having a project manager looking out for the home buyer’s interests is spot on. One cannot possibly be too careful in supervising the building process.
I have a friend who bought a property with a beautiful view which he wanted to take advantage of. Left to himself, the builder oriented the house in the wrong direction!
[/quote]I have seen that happen…….property owner not in the country, contractore did probably not know where “north” was which is written on the blueprint…… A good contractor sets the corner stakes together with the owner, to make sure they are on the same page. Ticos have a different concept of positioning a house. If they have the choice, they often put the porch, entrance and nice side of the house right in front of the road, no matter of the better views in the back. Must be the culture I guess, they always have an open house, while we prefer our privacy.
Actually the old wooden farm houses last forever because they were build from Cedro which will not rotten and bugs don’t like it, plus they are pretty earthquake resistant. You can still build with wood, but it is expensive and high maintenance. A while ago I asked an architect about alternative building methods (straw bales etc.) and he told me that it is not allowed due to earthquake codes etc.
[quote=”DavidCMurray”]Elisabeth, you’re pretty close to what I suggested in the letter AM Costa Rica published last week.
[/quote]😀 and I could have said much more (and many many bad words)
[quote=”DavidCMurray”][quote=”costaricafinca”]
My suggestion is that if you are on a strict and limited budget, is to purchase an existing house.
[/quote]And I would take the exact opposite approach. If you buy an existing house, you do get a known, fixed price, but it is very difficult to know what the house itself is. Construction techniques vary and it is easy to cover up inadequacies with paint and skim coat concrete. Visual inspection tells you little about what you’re getting. You’re buying a pig in a poke.
What’s more, buying an existing house means buying someone else’s notion of what they wanted rather than designing from blank paper to create the house [u]you[/u] want and need. And remodeling any home involves double work and almost double expense. Everything you do to an existing house you must undo first . . . and dispose of the debris.
If you cannot afford all the house you need, design a house with expansion preplanned. Then, when resources are available, you can finish building the house you want.
But that’s just me . . .
[/quote]
100 % agree. And there is no reason to be afraid about building, actually it is fun to see your own ideas grow out of the ground. My experience, 90 % of the home buyers change part of the house immediately or after a short time. They buy a “used” home for the price of a new one (or even more), and then they rip out part of the money and start remodeling.
The example I have given was based on MY OWN HOUSE I built in 1998. Off course is 1 sq.ft. of porch much cheaper than 1 sq.ft. of bathroom. And a modern square house is cheaper than an Italian Style Villa with tons of “curls” and angles. Those numbers do not have anything to do with a quote to be presented to a potential client. An official offer is presented for the whole project, turnkey or however the client wants, not by the square foot. It is very different if a 2000 sq.ft. home is 2/2 or 4/3 …. the more walls, number of rooms and bathrooms, the more expensive is the house. Big kitchen = higher price. Granite counter tops, high tech appliances, wood ceilings and trims, high ceilings or cathedral ceilings, vinyl window/door frames, imported security doors………..and many more details make a big difference in price. When clients ask for building cost by square foot, they want some kind of reference or idea, not a commitment, and they understand very well that they have to provide a floor plan with details and measurements in order to give them a quote for their project.
I could not find the article, but I have been reading about the chicken fight problem (and also dog fights) in La Nacion. I would love to grab those macho-guys by the throat, put sharp spurs on their hands and feet, throw them in a pit and have them fight. Would be interesting to see how “macho” they really are.
