[skilligan]

[quote=”bogino”][quote=”DavidCMurray”]
If you have a “premium” credit card (gold, platinum, titanium, vanadium, plutonium or whatever), that card may afford you some protection, but you need to check the credit card company for the details. It cannot absolve you from the need to buy the public liability coverage.
[/quote]

Agree with the above. Be sure and call your CC company for details but that can save you a few $$[/quote]

Don’t stop there, many credit card companies offer CDW insurance but rental car companies are becoming wise to this and forcing you purchase another type of insurance or fee should you chose to use your CC insurance. I use to use my CC insurance all the time but found that some rental companies will charge you a fee which could be higher than just accepting their CDW so make sure you read the contract before you sign anything. Also, some rental companies require a written document stating you have coverage in Costa Rica, however I’ve never been asked to prove it. In addition, some CC companies require you to sign the rental contract stating you declined the rental car’s insurance.

As far as i know, you can’t decline liability insurance and no CC company covers this anyway, it’s usually only coverage for CDW or collision damage waiver.

I have rented from Solid Rental car 3 times and had no problems with my CC insurance or the quality of their Jimny 4×4. I broke the 2×4 to 4×4 solenoid switch way out in Mal Pais and they sent out a new truck, no charges. Their prices have gone up quite a bit tho.

[skilligan]

[quote=”elindermuller”]Don’t forget to pay the new corp.tax in Costa Rica.
Plus the “timbre de cultura”

After 20 years in Costa Rica and dealing with property issues, I can not really see advantages of holding a property in a corp. and it is not a MUST. Many people have their homes or land in their personal names.
If you sell the corp. including the property, you don’t pay the property transfer tax, but now that they are charging that yearly corp.tax, this adds up to a nice amount too after a few years.

Plus, even if you have a “sociedad anonima” nowadays you can not really hide anything, except you are not an officer on your own corp.[/quote]

this i find a little confusing, Is the only benefit to have your property in a corp. to avoid property transfer tax and keeping your home government from knowing about your foreign investment so they can tax you? Pls, excuse my ignorance on the subject, I’ve read that relationships between Canada and CR have changed so that they’re able to see if Canadians have foreign investments presumably so they can tax you on it.

I’m struggling to understand why i should spend the money on a corp. as apposed to having it in my name? Seems like a lot of extra work!

[skilligan]

Hi everyone,

I was very pleased to see this article on the website as i have very similar goals in mind in terms of the area and construction. I was very pleased to see his costs for the pre-fab walls, seems very easy to construct/modify.

After visiting the St.Tereasa/Mal Pais area for the last 7 years and watching real estate prices closely i can tell you (but i’m sure most ppl here know) that land costs in this area are very high, probably higher than most coastal towns.

IMO, i think this person got a very good deal at 40k for 3 acres. As a comparison, you can find tiny ocean view lost (500m2) for around 40k. but as he says, on a slope, and not very many trees.

Prices haven’t really gone up or down in this area and they seem to (empty lots anyway) stay on the market for quite a while. In response to the question about $/sq.ft i think you have to consider transportation costs, this is a very rugged area with steep hills and poor poor roads. I would imagine transport would be very high.

Also, i didn’t see anything written about infrastructure, wether water/hydro was in place or not. They could be on municipal water/well water or a cistern.

My curiosity is with the construction costs, i’m wondering specifically what his topography is and how it affected transport costs. Also, labour rates and most importantly his cost for the concrete? These to me seem to be the biggest hurdles.

Perhaps we could get some insight from the home owner. I’d love to get his contacts info for the labour, architect, etc. as this is an area that i’d like to build in one day.

I’ve also been to the playa San Miguel area up the coast and love the remoteness and opportunity to get in early. However, land is mostly farms with little to no small lots (ocean view) in my price range.

I’m a younger person so these are long term goals for me. I’m good at home construction here in Canada and my hopes are to aquire land first (did i mention i’m poor lol) then build the home myself (with some tico help of course!) gotta learn more spanish first tho 🙂

tnx,
-Ian

[Author]

Posts