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blackjackds: you can buy land anywhere near Tamarindo or anywhere else in Costa Rica for about $2,500 and up. It depends how you want to live. If you want to maintain your present life style, you’ll end up buying in a Gringo community, prices are high of course, but you can survive living with other Gringos. If you buy where some are suggesting in the central areas and you don’t speak spanish, you will get lonely very quickly. Your chances of surviving in an area where there are only indigenous persons, are slim to none. The other issue is resale. No one will buy your house if you build where these folks are suggesting. If you’re looking to invest, invest where the Gringos are and that’s on the Pacific coast.
If you want a steal, head to the Potrero-Surfside area. It’s near Flamingo. It’s Gringo and every house, yes every house is For Sale. Some nice properties around there. About 5 minutes from the beach. If you can hold off until this high season is over, you’ll get even a better deal. There’s a couple of houses sitting there right now that have been robbed, everything is gone including the wiring. You could get both for next to nothing.
Do not, I repeat do not build in Costa Rica without using the services of a North American qualified administrator or building inspector. You will, I repeat you will, be scammed from beginning to end, regardless of where you build in Costa Rica. You need someone, that is not an indigenous person to Costa Rica to manage your project.
Good luck on your project.
Buy a Suzuki Samurai. Take the door locks off. Weld the seats in. Put a start button under the dash. Lots of Samurais in CR. Easy on fuel. Go anywhere. Cost about $3600. It won’t get stolen and it won’t get broke into. Insurance is next to nothing.
Sprite: If you park your FJ anywhere in Costa Rica, it will be stolen or broke into when ever you’re not with it. Your insurance will be a couple of grand a year. Another $800 to the gov every year. What are you thinking?
Charlie: I am working with a fellow right now who bought a lot with his cash and obtained a mortgage through a National CR Bank. The bank pulled out and left him high and dry at he last minute, even after promising him time and time agian, all was a go.
Don’t fret about the unprofessional experience with HSBC. I’ve dealt with just about all the banks in CR. All the banks, bank managers and employees are the same. You have to learn to accept the culture. HSBC is as good as it gets.
Pura Vida
If it’s a new service implemented by ICE – Wait! It takes them a couple of years or more to bring themselves up to speed, with anything new or old for that matter.
Sprite: Come on down, build that house in the jungle near San Ramon, live the good life, pura vida. Here you can forget all that bad government stuff. Everything is great in Costa Rica. Everyone is beautiful, intelligent, moral with high work ethics. I just read in the paper that Costa Rica is ahead of Haiti for one of the best countries in the world to do business. Maybe you could start a business here. You already know there is no crime in paradise, what could be better. Please come quickly, the Ticos need you. Stop hanging out in the states with those stupid people in the public. When you get here you’ll find only the brightest minds. Give up that American way of life, live like a Tico. Admit it Sprite, you voted republican – twice!
It’s their business, why not let them advertise. At least they’re up front about what they do, unlike others in CR. If the Tico Times starts to deny advertising business that they feel may not be up to the American Journalist standard, then I suppose they wouldn’t be running many realtor ads, no architect ads and certainly no legal professional ads.
As far as those kind folks with the ad, getting your stuff back. I guess it depends on what has been taken. If they take your wife or kid, you may want to hire them, keep that number handy if you live in paradise. Anything can happen. If they just take your household belongings, who cares, pura vida, call the police.
Sprite: I’m pretty sure you will be modifying your liberal views on firearms after living in paradise a few years.
Sprite: You will not get a block house built in Costa Rica for $60. a square foot unless you go completely Tico style. That means small, no cabinets, no fence, no water system, tin roof, you get the drift. I am building right now in Guanacaste, the bills I am paying are right now, not yesterday. I believe the $65. price you got a couple of years ago, but not the luxurious part. That price is now at $80+ – not luxurious. You want an North American built house, expect $100. per square foot, right now. Next year more! Hurry up and get down here, man.
Forget the alternative building methods in CR, stick with what the Ticos build, Block!
I am a retired contractor from Canada and lived here four years now. I get permits for foreigners. SETENA, MINAE, Muni, all of those agencies. I have dealt with many members fo the CFIA. I have submitted formal complaints about architects to the CFIA and won!
Those fees you are referring to are set this way:
Architect#1 charged a gringo $5,000. The gringo paid. Architect#1 told Architects#2 through #2000.
Architect#2 charged the next gringo $10,000. The gringo paid. And so on. That’s how this works.
The members of the CFIA use their fee schedule to fool gringos. I pay my architect what I think his fees should be for a particular project. He completes his architect’s contract any way he wants, moves those fee schedule percentages around until they fit what I am paying him.
My architect lives in Santa Cruz about an hour or so from most of the places I am involved in. He gets $100 per inspection. Period! He works on my terms, as do all the other people involved with me.
Your architect fees depend on how complicated your building is to design and draw, not on the square feet or meters. Give me a description of your project and I can tell you how much you should pay.
Whatever you do, DO NOT pay anyone 50% down, on anything! They all want 50% before they start. Pay them nothing until you receive something of value from them. That’s how I do it and it works.
Remember it’s your project, your money and your the guy who is going to have deal with all the problems once they squeeze the last dollar out of you and flee. Once you pay someone in Costa Rica, their gone.
Good luck.
Here are a few things I would recommend for your roof. Make sure it has an overhang. For some reason, folks in Guanacaste are butting their tile against walls and using metal flashing to keep the water out. In Nicoya this won’t work. You need a overhang of at least two feet completely around the perimeter of your home. If you don’t need them, don’t use gutters. They fill with leaves often and if they aren’t cleaned by the time the rain comes, the water will back up.
A 4/12 pitch is perfect and looks good to. If you are serious about a no leaky roof be sure to read CRbuilders explanation about how the screws make big holes. I would do it this way. Have your local Tico handy fellow strap your framing with treated 1X3 lumber. Then place 18 guage zinc roofing on top of the strapping. Make sure they set the screws without damaging the seal on the screw. They like to tighten these tight. The idea is to just set the washer so it seals the hole. Do this first part as if it were going to be your final roof.
When that is completed, place that same type of treated 1X3 strapping over the zinc. Install the colored metal roofing. On the colored metal roofing you will see a spot the manufacturer has marked. The screw goes where it’s marked, on the side of the metal roofing material. When you look at the roofing you’ll see what I am talking about.
What you accomplish doing it this way is that there is no area on the roof that can leak, ever! Even when the screw holes get big, no leaky. The screws you placed on the first layer of zinc are on the top side of the corrugated metal, screwed into the 1X3 strapping. These screws are completely covered by the second metal roof. Water can never get to them. The final metal roof has the screws going into the side of the corrugated metal. When those holes get big in the future, the water will leak thru, ending up on the first layer of metal, running off your roof, instead of into your attic or ceiling.
You can go with one layer of metal roof and use as much sealer and silicon as you want. Eventually your roof will leak. For an extra 800 bucks you have a roof that will out live you.
Remember to vent your attic and roofing system. Normally this isn’t done in Guanacaste. Big mistake. I put fans to move the air in my attic taking the air from the ridge of the roof and shooting it out the soffit area. Works like a charm.
My neighbor has a new house and the contractor put the same type of tile they used B.C.. They moved out on Sunday because every area of the roof is dripping, some places running with water. Do it right the first time and it’s done for ever.
Good luck
The area coverage is not the only consideration SETENA takes into account when deciding on requiring a study or some other formal process. SETENA can and does require environmental processes, such as studies, in what they determine as sensitive areas, regardless of the area coverage. Something to keep in mind before you buy property in a sensitive environmental area.
sue&chris: Dollar wise, no person can tell you what is coming exactly, because the details have not been worked as of this moment. Initially, the CR government hired a Canadian firm to develop urban development plan and regulatory plans.
To me this means, the property appraisal/valuation will be cloned after North America’s property valuation system.
Basically they want to modernized the property and catastro or land registries, and organize the country’s territory. This makes sense, as Scott mentioned, values are just not correct. The property registration system has many loop holes which could be closed by modernizing the system.
They will map the entire country which will provide municipalities with the information they need to accurately appraise land and collect taxes.
I think this is a smart move on the CR governments part. The country needs money for all the services we are demanding. It’s 2008 and we are still allowing sewage to pollute the rivers and oceans. This cannot continue and proper property valuation and tax collection systems are one solution to helping preserve the CR environment.
The tax rates mentioned in this thread by Scott will be applied to the new valuations.
Land valuation tables and the construction manual which lists the per-unit cost of materials are the two instruments used by the municipalities to assign a value on land and on constructions.
The luxury tax is not connected to this soon to be, revamped system. It’s my guess that if you put a value of $65. per square foot on your home in CR, then add the going rate per square meter for your land, which is different throughout CR, add the two and you’ll be pretty close to the appraised value.
Sprite: You pay property taxes on the appraised value of your property. If that value is under whatever the luxury tax rate is set at, you would not pay the luxury tax, but you still pay regular property taxes.
Tip: When your property in CR is first appraised under the new system, appeal it! I did this in Canada for many years and on every occasion won the appeal, both on residential property and commercial property.
In CR if you want to appeal something you have to do it fast, usually within 3 days of receiving a notice, in this case, your assessment. I’ll check in on this appeal time frame, so I can be on the muni’s door step, when the time comes.
grb1063: I have to disagree with you on this one. Ticos are helpful, but they are just as judgemental as the rest of us. As for the germaincs and french folks in Costa Rica, I have met many, all approachable and helpful.
Here’s a tip: A persons approach, elicits a certain response. If you change your approach, you will find all nationalities are approachable, even Americans.
Health Insurance: My wife and I tried the insurance offered by INS, but my wife had a minor pre-existing condition which put her insurance a little to high for our liking. We’re spoiled Canadians, when it comes to paying for medical.
We had the general medical the Costa Rica government offers. I had an incident that required a visit to the hospital in Liberia. I won’t get into that episode, but I canceled that insurance. If I had to go down that route again, I’d use the services of a vet:)
The insurance we have now is from an insurer outside of CR. It only covers major incidents, with very good coverage and a $1000 deductible. We pay cash if we need to see a doctor. $20 bucks a visit and we are happy with the service. I had a piece of metal in my eye, went to a great eye doctor in Liberia and he removed it for $40, along with a free check up a week later. No waiting! He’s my hero.
House Insurance: I really don’t know why we have it. It really doesn’t cover much. No theft coverage, no PC coverage. It must cover something, I’ll have to check.
The other part of insurance here, is that it’s government and trying to make a claim and get paid, from what I understand is not easy. I haven’t been through the system, but I have talked to a few folks that have been through the process. They weren’t impressed. Maybe someone esle on here could enlighten us about making an insurance claim. Does INS pay is my question?
You know your vehicle license plate costs about $600 a year right? That has nothing to do with your car insurance.
All these little things add up. Those who are dreaming of moving to paradise with a marginal retirement income, should really check into these types of issues before taking the leap.
Hopes this helps.
