Should I Rent A Home in Costa Rica First? Or buy immediately?
My name is Michael Simons and I’m a professional Realtor here in Playa Hermosa, Guanacaste, Costa Rica known as the Papagayo. I’ve been a fulltime permanent resident since 2003 and I’m licensed with Costa Rica Guanacaste Association of Realtors.
Should I Rent A Home in Costa Rica First? Or buy immediately?
Nobody works harder for their clients than I do and nobody sells more real estate than I do. I have helped thousands of people purchase an investment property or relocate to our little paradise.
I will answer all your emails. I will answer all your questions and I will be there for you not just to sell you your property but after. And most important, I will become your friend.
Hope you join us. One of the most common things that you hear people say is, “Maybe I should go to Costa Rica and I should rent first before I buy to see if I like it.”
Well, in theory that sounds like a great idea and I wouldn’t discourage you from doing that. But here’s the problem that you need to understand might happen. First of all, you’re not going to find a beautiful house in your price range if you want to rent.
Let me tell you. I know exactly what you want. I want a three-bedroom house with a pool looking at the ocean for $1500 a month. Good luck! Those homes rent for $1500 a week and they rent a lot.
The vacation market right now is booming. We’re 20 minutes from an international airport. We have $500 million resorts going up. This is the place everybody wants to be.
So people are coming in and renting homes on a weekly or monthly basis. Think about this for a second. If I own a beautiful home, why would I rent it to you for $1,500 a month when I can rent it to him for $1,500 a week and still use it?
So you’re going to have a very difficult time finding a home that you’re accustomed to living in, in your price range. So that means two things you’re going to have to do.
A, you’re going to have to overpay for your rental. So you’re going to end up spending a lot more for your rental than you were planning or B, you’re going to have to lower your standards substantially and rent what we call a Tico home.
It’s not going to have a pool. It’s not going to have an ocean view. It might not even have hot water. Truthfully, it’s a very simple home. Those are the types of homes that you’re probably going to have to rent.
So you’re not going to get a very good understanding of what it’s like to live here if you’re living in a neighborhood that you might not normally want to live in.
The other problem that you have is many people want to use their homes maybe even six months a year. A lot of my clients are snowbirds. So you might be able to come down and find a place to rent for three to six months. But then what’s going to happen? When all of a sudden the owner comes back and asks you to move out, where are you going to find another place to rent?
The other thing that’s happening — and I just look at this as an investment thought. You’re spending — even if you found a place to rent at $1,500 a month, there’s $20,000 in a year that you’re just throwing away.
Real estate in the last year has gone up on average five to ten percent here in value. So if you’re looking at a $200,000 place, it has already gone up $10,000 or $20,000 in the last year.
You just spend another $10,000 to $20,000 on rental. I don’t know about you but that doesn’t make very good financial sense to me.
Come on down baby!
Should I Rent A Home in Costa Rica First? Or buy immediately?
Article/Property ID Number 5485
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Andrew Makarik
to@welovecostarica.comAndrew Makarik is the main editor of WeLoveCostaRica, a fan of this sunny country. He is also a loving husband and a has a lovely daughter. By being a devoted family man and the biggest Costa Rica fan, he wants to make more people feel at home there. WeLoveCostaRica unites people and helps them find new home or a new travel destination. This website is a friendly community where everyone can find not only information, but also new friends and travel pals. Andrew is also passionate about IT and programming, so he himself maintains a friendly atmosphere in this cozy environment of WeLoveCostaRica.com.
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Hi Michael, I am Sarah Yang, currently staying in Singapore. I am thrilled to have found you. My husband and I wish to relocate to Costa Rica, we have done a lot of research and readings about living in and buying property in Costa Rica online, but we are not sure about the reliability and accuracy of the information online. We are looking for someone who can provide us with some trustworthy information before we proceed further in pursuing our dream life in Costa Rica.
We wish to run a self-sustainable organic farm ( with our residential property built on the same 2-4 acre land). We will grow our own food ( fruits and vegetable – btw, we are vegan :). We do not intend to invest too much time and effort to develop a large-scale land (like 5 acre and above) or build any eco-lodge. I was wondering if you know the estimate weekly income one can make (in US$) from selling the organic produce in the weekly farmer market or the average income of running a CSA organic (community supported agriculture) organic farm ( small scale ) in Costa Rica? Is there any organic farmer community in Costa Rica I can join to enable me to find out some reliable information pertaining the above?
By the way, we are interested in elevated mountain property in central valley