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[quote=”ticorealtor”]My question is how many people have used a lawyer for the process? I am taking a quick survey to see how much people have spent and who they used.
…a related question is, “How long can you drive in C.R. on your U.S. license?” – 90 days?
[quote=”EliZinon”]My wife and I are interested in buying a home in Costa Rica. Our budget is around 175,000.00. Where can we get the most out of our money? We have visited almost all of Costa Rica and love it all. Do you have any recommendations? We are thinking maybe we should rent somewhere in January before we commit to buying a place. Can you recommend rentals on the Caribbean or the Pacific side? The only area we don’t really love is up in Guanacaste area. Too many gringos! Thank you for taking the time to help us. We love Costa Rica!!
Cheers, Jay[/quote]
RENT RENT RENT by all means – but 1 month will not be nearly long enough; also make sure you include some of
the ‘green’ season as part of your rental period. If you are near the coast, clearly you like it very hot. Back from the coast an hour or so (e.g., the Puriscal/Orotina area) it’s not so unpleasantly hot, and $175K will get you a really nice place[quote=”maravilla”]there are several people with whom i am acquainted who barely made the $600 a month requirement for pensionado status, and clearly that, or even $700, which is what they had coming in, is NOT enough to live if you have to pay rent, or a mortgage. so it’s a good thing they raised the bar; it will prevent poor gringos from coming here. but i haven’t even a clue what i would blow $3500 on because i spend as much as i need every month and it’s never over $800. of course, my house is paid for, and i don’t eat out, but i do everything else i want to do on that amount of money. what comforts do you feel you would have to go without if you had only $1000 a month to live on?[/quote]
Not hard to come up with a list of possibilities;
as COMFORTS [admittedly, not NECESSITIES]:
-a mortgage [possibly preferable to renting, long-term]
-a nice place to live [but NOT Escazu]
-occasional car rental [independent exploration of the country]
-occasional boat rental [would like to catch a marlin at least once]
-high speed internet & cable TV [computer & History Channel addict]; also for improving Spanish ability
-eating out couple of times a week
-visit the grandkids couple of times a yearJust joined today & finished reading the 116 posts. So, to add to the pot, here are my 2 colones (0.38 cents) worth of comments.
-I first visited C.R. in 1979, and have been back about 8 times since, most recently last month. I lived in the slummy Cinco Esquinas de Tibas, above a zapateria full of illegal Nicos. Things have changed soooooo much, and not always for the better, as far as making C.R. gringo- [pensionado/rentista]-friendly. From afar, it looks to me that there is a gradual push by the government to reap a little more cash from norteamericanos [import duties,costs of gaining ‘status’, etc.]. If I had not had prior pleasant experiences, the chances of considering C.R. for pensionado status would be diminished.
-Several people have mentioned George Lundquist, and his 4-day tour. I did his tour. It was a huge body of information in an unfortunately short time. Well worth the money, I recommend it for anyone with no or some C.R. experience. BUT two caveats: first, George is biased toward some geographic areas, and against others, quite loudly, and what you want/need doesn’t necessarily coincide with his biases. Second, the expats you meet are unfailingly friendly and informative, but some of them have something to sell you. Sometimes the hard sell is off-putting, and sometimes it’s a soft sell and very easy to digest and welcome [for example, Arden, who contributes here occasionally, and the Tico lawyer, whose name I don’t recall]. George has a 1-hour video on the web summarizing his tour. It’s useful.
-Living on $3500 a month is much more feasible than on social security alone, or $1000, unless you’re young or indigent or both. There are some comforts one will not forego.
-I have never had a crime problem, petty or otherwise, in the 8+ times I have been in C.R., unless you count the CD I bought in 1979 [with dollars, but payable in colones] when the exchange rate was 8.5 to the dollar. Despite a handsome interest rate it has now lost 95% of it original dollar value.
-If you’re 1/2 of a pair, the importance of agreement in the move can’t be overestimated. I’m still working on convincing a skeptical spouse. Maybe I’m gaining groundjavascript:addSmiley(‘:roll:’);I’m guessing a big fraction of ‘returnees’ have this problem.
