All Posts in Category: Buying Real Estate in Costa Rica

Buyers and Sellers need reliable information before making an important decision, listing a property for sale, negotiating the purchase of a property or accepting an offer to purchase.
In the United States the brokers and agent have a nice tool called MLS (Multiple Listing System). Here in Costa Rica you have to do extensive research to get good information in order to make an educated decision and feel comfortable.

It’s the real estate agents hymn: Location, location, location. You’ve probably heard the phrase before and may wonder what motivates agents to say the word three times. Basically, location, location, location means homes can go through large increases or decreases in value due to nothing more than their neighborhood. The sayings repeated three times for emphasis, and is considered one of the most important rules in real estate, while also often the most overlooked. You may find a nice property somewhere but if you ignore this phrase and it’s not in the right location for you it will grow old sooner then later.

When a buyer is searching for a property, no matter what type it is (Condo, Home, Lot, etc.) he/she does research to see what they can buy with their finances, they end up engaging a realtor and viewing properties in the area they like and within their budget.

On the other side, that of the seller, finding the right price to list their property is essential. They also contact a realtor, usually various realtors, to hear what they think the property should list for. Hopefully, the realtor does his/her own research looking for comparables, etc., views the property and gives a realistic #. But many times the seller comes back saying “OH, but I think my property is worth much more”, and they end up listing the property with the realtor that isn’t truly honest with them and tells them “I think you’re right” just to obtain the listing. This results in that the property stays on the market for an extended time with few showings and the seller is forced to lower the price down to what it should have been listed for in the first place. Wasted time.

It really does not feel like 10 years have passed since Mark started with ABC. Time flies they say and now I know what they mean with this.

When I first met Mark I was active with the Tamarindo Association in helping to get the police a temporary station. His place Cabinas Maleko was a great fit at that time and this is how we connected.

Mark immediately gave me the impression of an honest and trustworthy person. I then felt he could be the right person to join the ABC team and I offered him to work with us. I was very glad when he accepted and I knew short after I had made the right decision.

Our local real estate market is not huge, or very structured and regulated. There are several actors in it as well. Over a dozen agencies have presence in the area. Just like in any other modern economic activity, knowledge or the access to information could be the one and only key to success. ABC Real Estate is a reputable agency with close to two decades of presence in Tamarindo. The way we work and gather basic information of our line of work has proven to be very effective.

We live in a beautiful coastal area with a low density of population compared to living in a city. Even though there are no huge residential developments around, there is always someone willing to sell his/her property for different reasons. In the real estate business, there are good opportunities to perform as Tamarindo and its surrounding areas are a popular destination.

Some sellers have a well-thought sales price pretension. It might be arbitrary, based on what the property cost them, on neighboring properties they´ve seen sold or on their motivation to sell. Every case is particular and I have run into all sorts of sellers. Some are very stiff on the price they consider their property is worth, others are very motivated to sell soon hence are very flexible.

Is Costa Rica still an attractive location for those wanting to place their hard earned dollars in a secure investment giving them a decent ROI through rental income or hospitality revenue?

Looking at the statistics from the Costa Rican INT ⁽¹⁾ – National Institute of Tourism – any doubt on this concern will fade. It is clear that the country’s tourism sector was hit by the 2008 financial crisis, but it is even more obvious how the country’s comeback is even stronger. Since 2012 the yearly revenue from tourism is back at it’s 2008 level and growing steadily and firm far above that level ever since, with 2016 showing a yearly growth of 12.4%  and being 43 % above the 2008 level.

Making a property purchase can be an emotional event in one’s life, we work to make the buying, or selling, process as stress free as possible for you. Here’s a quick overview of the buying process.

When buying a property, anywhere, there are steps that are advisable to follow. Starting off one of the most important steps is to define the area you like.

• Once you’ve figured that out contact a reputable Realtor that works the area you’ve chosen, give him/her as much information you can about your parameters, along with your budget, and try to be as open, realistic and detailed you can. This will help your Realtor to get started in the right direction and provide you with the best options for you in that area. We here at ABC Real Estate work with a vast data base of properties that include properties up and down the coast around Tamarindo that is fed with our listings and those of Real Estate companies all throughout the region. This is a fantastic tool we use to provide our clients with complete and thorough information of what properties may suit you the best.