Costa Rica-Real Estate Condos for sale in Guanacaste

As probably everybody who reads this knows, Costa Rica is an ecological paradise, where people come to have fun, get some rest, learn about Latin culture and enjoy all the tropical treasures found on basically the entire country. In a previous entry I was telling you about how I find so weird that Panama uses every marketing tool they can get their hands on to promote their country’s tourism, Costa Rica seemed to be a little slower in this matter, but not anymore.

Apparently Costa Rica Tourism chamber has begun a publicity campaign to promote their vacational destinations in to European travelers, specifically from Spain. The main reason why Costa Rica has decided to search for other markets is because the financial crisis in the United States has forced Costa Rican tourism officials to promote the country in other markets. For this, Costa Rica will be sharing a spot in the Central America booth at the Tourism Fair where each Central America country will have enough space to promote themselves separately from the others.

This will certainly increase the popularity Costa Rica has a tourism destination in Europe. Traveling to Costa Rica from Europe believe it or not, is in most cases cheaper than coming here from any other destination in America, so this market will probably a good thing for Costa Rica.

I finally chose the property in Guanacaste that I wanted and began the paper work to place an offer for it. The documentation process was actually faster than I expected and the real estate agents were incredibly helpful, it was almost like having assistants working with me the entire time.

I finally submitted my offer to the owners of the property for sale this morning. Guanacaste real estate is actually on demand because of the beauty of the place, the weather and the proximity to the most impressive beaches and forests in Costa Rica. As far as I know, the owner of the land for sale I am interested in has also received a couple of more offers and is analyzing which one will be best for him, I keep my fingers crossed.

If my offer is accepted, then my new adventure will be designing the housing project, Guanacaste has many beach hotels and vacation villas but hardly any long term home rentals so that is the market I want to pursue. I figure that once I get the place occupied I can continue my investments in Guanacaste real estate with the profits.

I have however, told my realtors to keep looking for other nice lands in the northern side of Guanacaste just in case this real estate investment doesn’t go through. I will probably come back with news on this in a couple of weeks; I want to share the entire buying Guanacaste real estate process with the readers so they can really see how all this works and get an idea on how to proceed themselves. Costa Rica properties are definitely a nice business adventure, not to mention that owning a piece of paradise is an experience I recommend for anyone and everyone.

This week Oriens Travel and Hotel Management made a huge step by including Guanacaste into their Luxury and affordable Hotels List on their website www.HotelPURE.com. They recently consummated a contract with Guanacaste Tourism Chamber that will provide assistance and service to all incoming visitors into the Liberia International Airport.

This alliance will increase the quality of services provided to Guanacaste visitors which roughly 50% arrive into the Costa Rica for vacation with no prior accommodation arrangements. They are also featuring some Guanacaste hotels in their website so people can get information beforehand if they need to. In the past the Guanacaste Chamber of tourism only had a booth where incoming visitors could receive brochures from different hotels in Guanacaste and would take care of booking by themselves, now with Oriens’ assistance they will be able to receive a better service where they can choose a hotel and booking will be made instantly by the Chamber’s staff.

I do have to admit that I find it really strange when people go on vacations to a foreign country without making previous hotel reservations, but apparently it is more common than I thought. Guanacaste hotels have different choices and price ranges and you can find everything for a small cabin to a huge ocean view villa or luxury hotels. Costa Rica is one of the most visited countries in Latin America and the paradise like atmosphere brings back visitors over and over again, some of those visitors never leave and begin looking for real estate in Costa Rica after a few visits, I should know.

This alliance will make things faster and better both for people vacationing in Guanacaste and the Chamber of tourism itself and hopefully it will increase the tourism traffic in the area as well.

I received a couple of calls from two of the Costa Rica real estate brokers I contacted after the holidays, apparently those two properties are actually owned by the same person yet handled by different realtors. One of the properties for sale is conveniently located close the Guanacaste Zoo Africa Mia and that is a huge plus since business in the area is quite prosper; the other property is located in the road to Santa Cruz, which not as good but the property is incredibly big.

I will be meeting with both of the real estate agents in Liberia today so we can drive up to check properties together, one of them also mentioned having some other similar properties for sale in Guanacaste available so I will go with him and check it out.

Since I am not looking for anything specific the search should pay off today and maybe I will see something I like and worth to consider. My main idea is develop a housing project for professionals or students that come to work in Guanacaste, so I don’t really need any property at the beach or remotely close, I rather just get a good location with easy access to the main towns.

I have to start getting ready to leave, so I will catch up with you later, If possible I will bring back pictures of the areas so you can get a glimpse of what a good Guanacaste property looks like. I will also stop by the Red Cross and leave all the goodies I purchase for the people in the earthquake in Alajuela and check if there is anything else the need and come back with the info.

With the New Year one would expect of course many changes, yet they all seem to be coming up in a slow pace in Costa Rica. The first thing that appeared was a phantom increase in the telephonic bills that ICE established without permission of the ARESEP, it was found that the increase included both cellular phone rates and land phones rates and it was as much as a 10%.

In other news, The Terminal movie story is being lived at the Juan Santamaria Airport where a Cuban man has been living for the past 33 days, the 40 year old electrician cannot be deported but his entrance is also forbidden since he came into Costa Rica with fake documentation. The man will remain in the Costa Rica airport until he is declared a refugee.

Another big change are the free transportation tickets the Costa Rica government provides to senior citizens, which, due to inconsistencies will no longer be given away, from now on the CCSS will allow senior citizens the right for free transportation by having them present their ID card to bus drivers instead.

Also, Costa Rica will have their president elections in 2010 so many pre-candidates to the presidency have stated working on their campaigns included San Jose’s Mayor Johnny Araya and the very well known Laura Chinchilla, along with them former Costa Rica deputy Epsy Campbell, by the way things look, Costa Rica will probably have its first woman president very soon.

In Costa Rica tourism news there isn’t much to say, the hectic holidays may be over, but hundreds of people are still enjoying their vacation in the Puntarenas and Guanacaste beaches, a lot less crowded now if I may add.

A whole list of foods of regular consumption in Costa Rica will experience a significant price decrease during the first three months of 2009. Among these products we can find rice, cookies, pasta and bread, which are in the top ten products in the Costa Rica diet. It is estimated that although bread and pasta have already experience a nice decrease in their prices, they will be at least 10% cheaper in a couple of months.

These are great news for all of us, but mostly for low income families in Costa Rica since these products seem to be the easiest to afford during this financial crisis. Costa Rica is definitely not an expensive country, however salaries are definitely not good enough in most cases these price decreases in regular consumption foods are a great help for the common Costa Rica family.

Last month even the gas prices went down and driving to Guanacaste beaches during the holidays was possible for families that had already lost their hope on any vacation at all. It was not such a good year for big hotels in Puntarenas and Guanacaste since people decided to save money by staying at beach cabins or camp.  

Another good thing happening to the Costa Rica economy are the implementation of the Free trade agreement which will provide work for more Costa Rica professionals and help with the finances of the area in the next few months.

This weekend I went on a Costa Rica road trip to a place I heard a lot about but hadn’t had the chance to visit with enough quality time: Cartago. Costa Rica has 7 provinces and Cartago is apparently the oldest one, there is definitely a lot Costa Rica history in the place and the architecture of some places is just stunning.

The main thing that attracted me was the incredible cheap real estate in the location: huge lots and farms set at ridiculously low prices. There was even a sign stating that you could separate a lot for only 50 000 colones which is less than $100!

Costa Rica real estate is definitely cheaper than real estate back home; this really surprised me, especially because the entire place has lovely views, good soil and overall nice weather. Properties in Guanacaste, although they are not expensive, are priced way higher than in Cartago, and even knowing that it is because of the proximity to the beaches in Guanacaste, I have to admit that there is also a lot of beauty in Cartago as well.

In Guanacaste, lots for sale can be found costing at least twice as much than a Cartago property, this makes me think that maybe in Costa Rica don’t know how impressive this area is and that maybe it is under priced, if only the Tourism Chamber of Costa Rica showed a little more of the beauties inside the country these locations could be a lot more appreciated by visitors. The inside of Costa Rica is full of green valleys, lagoons waterfalls and awesome forests, why is it that they only advertise the beaches in Costa Rica?

Now that all the running around during the holidays is over, we are still a little bit overwhelmed from all the eating and partying of the past couple of weeks. Yesterday we decided to spend the day chilling in another Guanacaste beach, a little further away from our Villa: Playa Avellanas. Costa Rica apparently has lovely beaches everywhere and this one was awesome: good waves, not so crowded, incredible views and fresher air than Tamarindo and Flamingo beach.

I went there because a friend of mine talk to me about a new development project called CR Beach Homes and they apparently have nice luxury Guanacaste Villas for sale. I drove around looking for some other properties for sale in Avellanas, just in case and I have to admit that I found quite a few interesting ones. There were small beach cabins, nice houses and ocean view villas…great choices for sure. Although since yesterday was a holiday I only looked around, gather some emails and phone numbers and I will start the real search on Monday.

Buying real estate in Costa Rica has actually become quite easy for me, while learning and giving advice to other I feel very confident about finding a nice deal on a Guanacaste beach home pretty soon. I want to find something similar to what I own right now and start renting it for vacationers, which is definitely a good business in this area. Beach hotels in Costa Rica are sometimes a bit pricy or people are actually looking for a little more privacy and it is amazing how easy it is to rent beach villas in Guanacaste. Hopefully I will find a nice property to invest on next week.

So yesterday we spent the day at Tamarindo beach. Guanacaste has incredible beaches, this one in particular is very well developed and has many awesome hotels in the surroundings, there is even a Golf course nearby, massage parlors, souvenir shops and stores, restaurants and a couple of beachfront bars.

There were a lot of people enjoying the day: surfing, sunbathing, doing exercise there were even people trying to fly kites, it was quite nice to see whole families having fun and enjoying the day. I do own a small lot in Tamarindo, I am not so sure what to do with it but some real estate investors in Guanacaste have contacted me to develop villas for rent. Costa Rica has many of these types of villas for rent in most beaches; people seem to prefer these because of the privacy and the price, which is definitely lower than staying at a hotel.

Tamarindo beach in particular is a bit crowded for my taste, there are several other beaches in Costa Rica a lot more secluded and way more peaceful, but we decided to spend the day here because of the easy access to commerce, grocery stores and because I had to check on my property in Tamarindo. I am going to give it a thought about the Villas for rent idea, who knows, it might be an interesting business after all. I wouldn’t move to Tamarindo just because I like my house where it is, but the drive is quick and I could just hire someone to take care of the property for me.

After sightseeing through Guanacaste beaches with the in laws and actually driving all the way to San Jose, so they could get a glimpse of the city life in Costa Rica, there are a few thoughts that cross my mind.  What I first noticed was that the new traffic law in Costa Rica is definitely working: we stayed there one night and people are definitely afraid of taking the car out, even on the news you can see a lot less car accidents than usual. People are going out for sure; they are just being a lot more responsible about it.

I did see a few properties in Guanacaste and in San Jose that sound like an awesome deal, but the real estate market in Costa Rica is on vacations these days, anymore research will have to be done after New Year’s. Apparently buying properties in Costa Rica during the holidays is near to impossible since both realtors and property owners are gone until next year. I didn’t waste my time though; I got pictures of beach properties and lovely houses in nice neighborhoods in San Jose, got the realtors information and left messages to everyone involved with the properties I fancied.

The family had a blast: we saw butterfly gardens, the national theatre; we went to at La Fiesta del Maiz, which can basically become my favorite fast food joint ever: they serve fresh sweet corn and chorreadas with sour cream, the best you can find, at ridiculously low prices. The only place I wished I had time to take them but couldn’t was the rain forest, they went back home with a smile on their faces anyways and I have to admit, I have become a great Costa Rica tourist guide, I should start a tour company at least in Guanacaste.