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Scott, thanks for correcting me in a way. It is Americans ripping off Americans. We place so much confidence in people that look like us and talk like us. For some reason we believe if they got off the plane and have been here that they have your best interest a heart.
I know a lot of people that just sign their bank account over to these people and allow them to spend their money having the power of attorney over their money. Not a little money but thousands of dollars.
That is unbelievable, maybe we just do not have that kind of money to take a chance with that I am so cautious.
Scott you are so right. Every day for the last year I have seen prices go up every time a new group gets off the plane. The property in my area has gone from 3,000 colones per sq meter to 20,000 in just a few months.
It is sort of reflective of what happened to us in the US when we lived in Washington State. We moved to Olympia, Washingto right after the California earthquake. The people from California were moving into Washington, they had sold homes at record prices and came to Washington with cash in there hands. This drove the prices up, but after the flow of money subsided the prices dropped. We purchased our home during the upswing, we had no clue. We had been living in Europe for 10 years and did not know what was going on. We purchased the home and one year later the prices dropped. They just begin to recover 10 years later. Plus the area we moved in was rural and they incorporated it under the Urbanzation ruling. This meant apartment housing were built in our community.
We know now that in the US you should go to the planning office before purchasing a home in an area you know nothing about and check on the plans for your community.
Most people I have talked to that are building homes here are persuaded that they will be able to sale right away if they want to move. You and I have seen homes on the market here for many years not months. The buyers are limited, ghe general public here can not afford them. I have talked to many people that think they are going to invest $100,000. in a home and turn it around and make $50,000 dollars.
That is a possiblity, one person we know did that but that was after he spent about $10,000.to advertise his house on line and in the news papers.
It is so surprising because most of these people that are going to make this turn around money are not in the real estate business and know very little about the market here.
We who have come into the knowledge have seen many sad stories. Our goal is only to inform to alert and give some thought. Not to decide for a person nor to point a critical finger.
Just trying to plant a word of wisdom.
You are right people have purchased land they have not even seen. It is very important to really check our beach property. Just recently we had a client that purchased beach property and she saw it but then was told that nothing could be built on it for several years because of some law they have governing development on that property.
It is hard to explain some of the pitfalls in purchasing property unseen over here and sending money to people you only got in contact with on the internet. It is a setup for failure.
I am almost believing that they must be telling people in the US that their is gold or oil on some of this land. People are acting like if they do not buy it they will lose out on a real investment opportunity. I live in Costa Rica and there is no way I would purchase land without seeing it and checking on the history of the land.
There is a 5 year clause, most people that move here will want to go home within 5 years. So 5 years from now there will be a lot of homes for sale and a limited amount of buyers.
My husband and I came during a boom time in Costa Rica during the investment 4% interest time. Everyone was getting 4% interest on their money. Then shortly after we were in Costa Rica for 4 months that high interest paying investment company went out of business and there were houses and land for sale at half price. Many of those homes were on the market for 4 years. They have recently been selling because of the new boom. In fact we purchased our home during that time. Sure glad we did.
I have live here for 4 years and have seen many homes built and have had a lot of remodeling work done on my home. Since I run a business, there is hardly a day that goes by that we are not negotiating something in regards to supplies or repairs. My exposure to how businesses operate in Costa Rica is extensive. No one is trying to discourage you and as I said why take it personal.
No, you did not miss it but you still are taking it very personal. We were speaking and are speaking in general and not questioning your ability. Sure they get permits here, sure they have rules about stopping at stop signs but they do not do it. There is a difference because in the States you have some recourse.
I can not speak for anyone else but my comments were not in saying that you did something silly or stupid. I believe I started with people that get off the airplane purchase property without checking all the resources. That apparently did not and does not apply to you.
Why personalize, I think we are trying to help others from going wrong. By passing on information. Today in my home I had 5 people that are building a home in Costa Rica and each one has and is having a different experience.
That is the problem we compare it to places in the US. Let me just say this, in Costa Rica the septic laws could not pass in the US, the electric laws would not pass the construction laws would not pass. You do not have streets nor sidewalks. No city council to govern or regulate communities.
You do not have to pay for all the permits and your contruction contractor does not have to be licensed or bonded. If we would do that in the US and pay the worker $2.00 per hour our cost would go down. The wrong thing to do is come to Costa Rica and spend based on what it would or would not cost in the US. In fact most of the neighborhoods people are building in over here they would not even think of building in, in the US. So, coming here and making a comparison is our problem and that is why we pay to much. We need to compare with what the Costa Ricans are paying here and not what we would pay if it were built in the US.
It is not getting ripped off. It is just paying a little to much, and what do we care. Let me explain this, it jumps the prices up for Costa Ricans and I care about that. No one is saying that you did the wrong thing. I thought we were keeping things sort of objective. For you, it is working but for many, many others it does not. In fact I would say for 85% it does not work for. We are just talking in general and not trying to rain on your parade.
Stay positive, we are just talking about things that can happen and do happen. We who have been burned would like to give bits of advice to keep others from being burned.
Our intention is not to rain on your parade.
I am not one to destroy a dream. There are a lot of happy people that even though they paid more it is less then what they would have paid in the US. The one thing that we do not understand is that because the price sounds good, how do we compare good.
When we first called a plumber and he told us the price we said that was cheap. Until our maid came the next day and told us we paid double the charge. It was cheap in comparison to what we could compare it to.
We were happy until we found out that we had actually paid double the cost. Do I think you are paying to much at $25.00 a sq meter. What is the price of satisfaction.
My thing is basically here in Costa Rica they handle business differently and their customs play into their business practices. We as North Americans do not understand that because our business practices are regulated by laws. We have building codes and standards that have to be adhered to. The may have some standards but no one enforces them.
The lack of knowledge helps one to stay in a bubble and a dream like state. We do not read or can not read about the corruption in construction so we think we are getting a good deal and all these people with such nice manners are treating us fairly and honestly.
As I say they know how to get our money. No one should in my opinion build a home and not supervise the building. Not even in the US. Price comparisons when the contruction worker is making about $2.00 per hour is no where in comparison. If we who have lived in the US do not ask for certification of work that will be well done and the access to lawsuits if it was not well done, housing would cost a lot less in the US. We pay for security but yet we come over here and all we need is a nice pleasant smile. I bet if the construction people at home knew that was all it took they would save a mint on purchasing liability coverages.
How do they come up with the figure of $25.00 per sq meter. They have discovered what we want to hear. They know if they say $45.00 they will run us away.
Jerry, that is a great testimony. The deals are here but it takes time and talking to people. Some properties here have been on sale for years. The deals are here but yours is the best I’ve heard. You can not find a deal on the internet you have to come here and check around, get to know people and the community. Great
In Costa Rica people just think how much they want to sell their property for and there is no base guide line as in the US. If I want to sell my house I just set the price I want and hope that someone is smart enough to buy it.
That is the same way with land. They are anxious to sell the land but they are not in a hurry. So they just wait for some US visitor to come in and purchase it. We are not the only purchasers of land but we seem to be the most foolish. We have more of a I have to have it attitude then others foreigners. When they see us getting off the plane the prices go up.
Maravilla, to most people coming to Costa Rica they think their deals are great deals. The reason they sound good is because they compare them to what it would cost in the US. Almost everyone I know here that has built a home could have built it for thousands of dollars cheaper. In fact the Costa Ricans are talking about the Americans paying double the regular pricing.
You can not know you are getting a good deal if you have nothing to compare it to. We purchased our home before it was appraised. It always bugged me I was sort of curious as to what it would appraise for. Well, we found out to our disappointment that is actually appraised for about $20,000 less then we paid for it. The only good thing about that is we paid much less the the person had initally said they wanted for it.
If you have nothing to compare your price to other then the prices in the US I would say you still are paying to much. Costa Ricans know how to stroke us, they know more about our habits then we know about theirs. So they know just what to say and do.
I attend a Costa Rican church and have Costa Rican workers, they tell me that the Americans are paying double the price for land, supplies and labor. This is not the first country that thought North Americans are stupid.
You did not perform any price comparisons, you took someones word and they said what you felt comfortable with hearing.
In order to make a good decision you need to have something to compare it with. Here in Costa Rica you can go to purchase materials and get a different price from each store you go to. That is for the exact same material, they do not have a lot of brand choices.
All the best to you, I can truly say if it is working for you that is because you are blessed and not becuase you did good homework from a distance.
Bad experience happen to people that do what we do not practice at home. Itis so amazing to me that someone would purchase property in another country without even visiting that country is setting themselves up to be taken. That is like walking in a drug neighborhood holding your wallet in your hand. You are asking someone to steal from you.
There are good experiences and bad. Most of those that I have come in contact with that have had bad experiences are people that put a lot of trust in someone they had never met. They just walk off the plane holding there wallets in their hand.
It is amazing how they hold it to the fault of the one that robbed them and not face the fact that they asked for it. That would happen anywhere in the world.
Yes you are right, about the medical assistance and the nonpayment of benefits for medicare overseas. So many other things come into play for people. Everyone has to experience it for themselves. You can not purchase the insurance you are talking about unless you are a resident. Just because people have been here a long time does not make them a resident. You would be surprised at how many people are here that are not legal residents.
Who can really say why a person is having the difficulty. I know two people that came to Costa RIca they had extensivie medical problems and they went back home. There reasoning was they could not afford it. They had not gotten their resident status. It takes some time to get the resident status.
If you know that you are going to make Costa Rica your home, just open your eyes to some very important realities that age brings on change.
Costa Rica affords the possiblity of having a lot of things most can not afford in the US. Round the clock nursing care in your own home is much cheaper then it is in the US. You just have to keep a little money back for emergencies. Good financial planning never needs to end.
Most of the countries I have traveled in the only time we have problems with those phrases is when you come in contact with citizen of the US. I love being called Negro here in Costa Rica and since I know what it means I love it even more. Of course many of us are not the color negro when they talk about you when you are not darker brown the call you morano. It is a matter of describing color or your complexion rather than race. I would suggest that most of the racism here is what we carry in with our luggage. You can look for it but who really cares, it is all about how you feel about yourself. The Negro here is sought after for jobs and envied to a certain extent because they speak english and if they are educated they read and write it as well. In Costa Rica the important jobs need bilingual employees and they do not care whether they are black of white.
The prejudice here is a matter of ecomonics. When you come here the thing you will have to adjust to is being called a gringo.
I have purchased a lot of furniture in Costa Rica and I know many places to go and purchase furniture including mattresses direct. Stay away from the main drag in Sarchi. If you like you can Drive through the town of Palmaris and find many factories. Stay out of Sarchi go to Palmaris it is a lot cheaper and most of the things that are sold in Sarchi are made in Palmaris.
If you are looking for Wicker or Bambo you can find some places in Narango or on the outskirts of Sarchi.
