Costa Rica-Real Estate Condos for sale in Guanacaste

The former Pizza monster in Costa Rica Domino’s Pizza has now appeared and has promised to pay up the 122 former employers that left out on the street a couple of weeks ago.

People in Costa Rica were furious with the way the company closed its business by fooling employees into turning their restaurant keys due to a Health Ministry check up that was supposed to take place the next day, unfortunately the next day all employees arrived to their workplaces to find a dismantled location and no one to provide explanations at all.

Apparently they have set up a pay up system: former Domino’s employees that are owed less than 200 000 colones will receive all their money today, those who are owed more than 200 000 and up to 400 000 will get their money in two monthly payments and those who are owed more than that will receive their money in three payments. Thank God there is not a Domino’s Pizza in Guanacaste.

The way these people handled their financial crisis is really unprofessional, workers in Costa Rica don’t make as much money as workers in the US and they deserved to be treated fair and with dignity, hopefully all these people can find a job soon, although in Costa Rica, financial crisis hasn’t really meant loads of lay offs, some companies are cutting out on expenses and hiring is really not one of their priorities right now.

In my opinion they shouldn’t trust Domino’s Costa Rica and should get everything in writing, I foresee that the ones receiving all their money are going to be the ones that get paid up in full today; the rest will not see their full amounts. Domino’s Pizza really went far hear, the majority of businesses in Costa Rica are extremely serious and wouldn’t pull such a low blow to their employees. 

Yesterday as me and the wife went out for nice walk on the beach in the afternoon in Tamarindo we ran into some old friends from back home and ended up having dinner with them. Apparently they have been renting a nice small villa in Guanacaste for the past week and are actually here not only on vacations, but also planning on moving here for good.

When I heard this I had to let them know about all the work I have been doing learning about Costa Rica real estate and how much I have accomplished with my Guanacaste housing project that although is still in diapers, has me very excited. They told us that they first wanted to travel, Costa Rica was their second destination so far, but apparently they have been feeling so comfortable, they are considering Costa Rica as their retirement place. It was very similar to the day me and my family arrived into our first Costa Rica hotel and decided that we will be much more comfortable in a villa, so we rented a Villa in Tamarindo, of course the first place we stayed at was not Guanacaste, Costa Rica appear so beautiful we had to stay longer than expected.

A couple of months later I negotiated with the villa owner and made my first Costa Rica real estate deal ever, and bough the villa we were renting, our vacations were no longer vacations, it was a change of lifestyle, which I had to admit, I wanted to change and that was on my mind the entire time, we came to Costa Rica to explore the possibilities of staying and we did, no more stress or travel. Costa Rica welcomes you like not other place and apparently my friends felt the same way.

And again China comes to the rescue in the economic trouble Costa Rica gets into, apparently a total of $300 million in internal debt bonds were purchased by China as part of agreements to open diplomatic relations, after San Jose in broke 60 years of relations with Taiwan.

Don’t get me wrong, these are great news for Costa Rica, San Jose especially since most of the benefits will be going to that province. At this moment there are hundreds of Chinese workers living in San Jose temporarily to begin the construction of the Estadio Nacional in La Sabana. Also, China helped built the long boulevard that goes all the way trough San Jose downtown and will develop some sort of China town in Costa Rica near the Paseo Estudiantes, where there are already several Chinese stores and restaurants.

I actually think a China town is necessary anywhere in the world: the culture is colorful and the food is amazing, so Costa Rica is winning with that inclusion; another thing is that San Jose was becoming a dark, smelly and boring place and after all these changes take place the view of the Costa Rica capital city will improve a lot and it will no longer be the hideous place it was a few years ago. Another positive thing is that with the free trade agreement Costa Rica – China will mean that a lot of more products will be accessible to low income families and that is always a plus. 

According to the Banco Central de Costa Rica (the main banking entity in Costa Rica) the country has officially entered recession times and people should start taking stronger measures not to be affected by the financial crisis. This actually makes me proud of the country that has accepted as a citizen…while the United Estates fell hard in to recession Costa Rica financial status maintain itself floating nicely for a lot more time the financial entities in Costa Rica actually alert the citizens before hand, I wonder which is the developed country now?

Everything started actually this year when some of the biggest companies in Costa Rica started making small lay offs, some Guanacaste hotels did cut off some expenses but that was not an issue caused by the recession at all, it was just the beginning of the low season in tourism only, anyways Guanacaste beaches have always been one of the favorite tropical destinations so, I find it really hard to see them go down anytime soon.

I have actually been telling you that the real estate market in Guanacaste, well, in Costa Rica has been doing good on rentals mostly for the past few months, people are not getting home loans, and also some of them have been losing their homes, probably not as often as they are in USA but they are and investors are making money out of this everyday.

I really hope people listen to the recommendations the BCCR is giving, it would be really sad to see the beautiful people in Costa Rica struggle as much as the North Americans are right now, they had to see it coming so hopefully they will do ok.

I have some good updates about the progress of my housing project in Guanacaste that I would like to share with you:

The architects have been hired and are currently working on the designs possible for the land that I bought, we had a meeting last weekend in San Jose, architects are funny people, they seem all serious at first but once they get excited about a project they go crazy, I like to see that kind of drive in a professional. They are going to help hire construction workers and everything and although they have not told me anything about the designs they are thinking about, I know they are up to something good.

In Costa Rica, Guanacaste is one of the driest places and working here in construction must be terrible, I admire all those construction workers everyday doing hard work under the sun. This whole adventure as a real estate investor in Guanacaste has really opened up my eyes to many things I didn’t consider before and I have to say I am learning so much and getting so much feedback from every single move I make on this housing project that, if everything goes well, I might go into another property search sooner that expected.

According to my plans, I will have workers already building things in a month or month and a half, hopefully I am not mistaken, and I really want them to start when the temperatures are not as warm but not in the rainy season, since things might get delayed. Right now, I am off to one of the nearby Guanacaste beaches for a lunch date with the wife. Happy Valentine’s everyone. 

People who like to invest in properties take their time and carefully pick their ventures, no matter where the business is located: as long as it is profitable, we are good to go. Some people though strive to look for a specific place where they can run their real estate investments and also have a comfortable, that is where Costa Rica becomes a golden opportunity.

The main reason I personally chose this location was because of the beauty of the place of course: Guanacaste beaches are extremely amazing and after coming to Costa Rica on vacations I just fell in love with the place and the very peaceful and comfortable lifestyle. Guanacaste properties offered a great variety of choices and the entire place is so amazing that I know for a fact that people would love to live here.

Another reason why I chose Guanacaste real estate as a business for me and my family was the fact that I could get better and bigger properties in Costa Rica for less money than I would in USA, not to mention that after retirement the least thing I wanted to do was deal with the hectic life in North America.

Getting to know the place is easy and managing the real estate in Guanacaste is actually a walk in the park, neighbors are nice and workers are trustable, education in Costa Rica is even better that in better developed countries and the culture itself is very rich and impressive. There was no way to go wrong with this decision.

The first property in Costa Rica I bought was my own home and after learning how much vacationers wanted a place like mine to enjoy their holidays and how many people are moving to Liberia for business I knew which path to choose: create a housing project for normal people, a place where people could move into and enjoy Guanacaste at its best.

Major international pizza franchise Domino’s Pizza has pulled a very low blow to its employees in Costa Rica and the Work Ministry as well leaving 135 employees out of work without previous notice and under very false excuses.

It all began last Friday during closing time, all employees with keys to all 9 Domino’s Pizza restaurants in Costa Rica were asked to leave the keys to all facilities with the excuse that personnel from the Health Ministry will be arriving early in the morning to run some check ups due to costumer complains. The employees came back to their work places on Saturday morning to find the restaurants dismantled and no one to give them any reason why. All the 135 Domino’s Pizza employees were out of work, without any excuse whatsoever.

Early Monday morning they were supposed to meet with Domino’s Pizza managers to see about the vacations money, aguinaldos and all the law guarantees they are supposed to receive but again no one from Domino’s Costa Rica showed up to the meeting they planned for the employees. These types of situations are not very common in Costa Rica, given the fact that the work law is quite dependable and detailed, yet it some textile companies left hundreds of employees hanging in the past decades.

As for the Domino’s Pizza ex-employees, they are now getting advice on how to sue the company and prevent them from taking any work materials such as ovens, freezers and machinery out of Costa Rica since the sale of those items might mean they will get the money they deserve. If anyone knows a way to help these Costa Rica workers please feel free to leave a comment.

It is good to find out how Costa Rica is not letting the financial crisis get to them and finds different ways to keep their business and economy working regardless the situation. Not only have they been creating a plan to explode de European tourism market but also they have opened import markets that were previously closed due to several undisclosed issues, like tomato imports to the United States and Europe.

And it is probably because Costa Rica traditional markets are conformed by products and services that people need no matter what: tomatoes, flowers, bananas and well, Costa Rica tourism is one of the most important destinations in America. As I explained in previous posts, the real estate market in Costa Rica is keeping high number due to renting properties and not so much selling real estate.

Guanacaste is still a good place to run a business and the economy of the place has pretty much remain the same. Actually, besides Guanacaste tourism, another great business source of the area is cattle and the most important Costa Rica farms are settled here. Good meat is sold throughout the country and some is even imported to several locations in America due to its high quality.

My point with all of these babbling is that Costa Rica economy is completely safe…at the least for the moment, though I don’t really foresee much changes anytime soon and people should just continue with their lifestyle in peace. The country is dealing with the crisis better than bigger counterparts are and that should really help with our peace of mind as Costa Rica citizens.

So, I have great news about my real estate investment in Guanacaste: my offer was accepted and now the payment process has begun. I have to admit I got overly excited when the real estate agent called me to give me the news and I made a small toast and celebration with the family, I am also very happy with the way things worked out and haw fast and easy was the entire process.

Buying land in Guanacaste did require a lot of search and I did took my time to do everything, like any other real estate deal, I had professionals working with me and got a lot of “second opinions”. For now, I will be focusing in working with the architects to design a nice looking housing project, Guanacaste is full of great architects and home designers so, I will be working with a few of them to see which one hits the target.

I would like the housing project to be something in between an apartment complex and a beach villa, although it is not located at the beach, I would like to capture the feeling of Guanacaste and provide that peaceful feeling I have living in my own Guanacaste beach home. The process might be a bit slow but I am sure I will make the best of it…after all, if you want something close to perfect, patience and hard work are the keys.

This will be my second adventure buying real estate in Guanacaste, the first one was when I bought my current home, but it was already built and ready to move in, this one I am taking from the beginning and I plan to enjoy it as much as possible. Properties in Guanacaste are hot in the market right now, so this should not be difficult.

To continue doing business the biggest Newspaper in Costa Rica “La Nacion” has laid off a total of 100 employees since yesterday and has closed several newspaper supplements that have been out on the streets for decades.

La Nacion newspaper is the biggest publication in Costa Rica and apparently the financial crisis has also hit them they have even laid of some of their senior journalists and removed the printed version of their college focused newspaper Vuelta en U. Today every employee is being called in a private meeting to let them know one by one what will be the changes on their responsibilities and jobs, in the case they still have one.

Although it has been demonstrated that Costa Rica has had even worst financial crisis in the past, companies in Costa Rica are taking extreme measures to avoid being affected. In Guanacaste I haven’t seen much movement about the matter, but it could also be because of the high season.

We will have to wait and see what happens to all those journalists out of jobs, it is really sad that professionals in Costa Rica that have such caliber and experience have to go through such bad times. I really hope that tourism and real estate in Costa Rica doesn’t get as bad as other industries, it would be very sad to see more people affected by the financial crisis in Costa Rica.

I have noticed though that most real estate agents in Costa Rica are getting by with renting properties since the banks last year hardly gave out home loans, but the industry itself has maintain good profits.