Costa Rica-Real Estate Condos for sale in Guanacaste

So yes, the new blue prints came back with all the changes and additions possible. My Guanacaste housing project is now a reality, in blue prints but a reality. The next step is getting people hired for the construction, but that will be done by the architects themselves and of course purchasing all the materials, this step will also be guided by the architects.

Building houses for rent in Guanacaste was apparently a lot easier than I thought, the process has been slow of course but I am a firm believer that good things come to those who wait and I have been very careful with all the decisions I have made: from getting the right property for sale, to learn all the details possible about real estate in Guanacaste.  

Hiring the architects and designers to come up with all the things I want as a landlord and home owner and come up with the real needs of people interested in renting real estate in Guanacaste has been a fun but hard process, so far I have to admit I am pretty happy with the results so far.

It will probably take from 5 to 6 months for the whole construction to be finished and the details will be added. I already have amazing ideas of what I want the design to be like. Guanacaste is very lovely and warm place, the rainy season is a bit frustrating so there are details to consider when creating the home rental design. This housing project is going to be the first step I take into getting more and more into real estate in Guanacaste and I really want it to be perfect. Those are all the news I have for now.

Hundreds of countries from all over the world recently participated in the ITB (International Tourism Fair) in Berlin, Germany and apparently Costa Rica was not overlooked: the country won third place for their elaborate stand at the fair where they showed all the beauties of Costa Rica for everyone to see and enjoy besides providing tourism information to potential visitors.

The entire Costa Rica tourism stand was designed to give a small taste of what the rain forests in Costa Rica are and all the activities that can enjoyed including canopy, vegetation, and local animals. Visitors of the tourism fair were by far impressed with the showcase and all that is left is their arrival to Costa Rica for vacation.

Costa Rica beaches and all the wonderful rainforests are visited every year by thousands of people from all over the world. Costa Rica tourism is one of the most important economic activities and this award puts them on the map for those who hadn’t even heard of the country, especially in Europe. I am happy that the efforts the country has made to continue advertising its beautiful locations is paying up, after all Costa Rica is now my home and everything good that happens to the country is in fact happening to me and my family.

Another great thing and is that several Costa Rica tourists end up moving here after visiting the place, meaning that this is a great thing potentially for real estate in Costa Rica, which definitely makes us all happy. Who knows, maybe after my housing project I will have to build rental villas in Guanacaste to help with the economy, which will be just awesome.

I remember years ago while I was watching a movie with my family and most of the scenes were filmed in a jungle like location according to the titles in the film. That location was supposed to be San Jose, Costa Rica. Although these images were far from the truth I did get curious about this place.

Hollywood has exploited Costa Rica beaches, jungles and several other locations many times, however the picture they have portrayed of the place was usually a set up…nowadays the story has changed and I have to say that makes me happy.

In this season of the very popular show “The Office” one of the characters will be resigning his position to move to Costa Rica and they mention several times that he is moving here because he wants to live in paradise; Guanacaste seems to be the place of choice, mostly because of the descriptions.

Then I have noticed they mention Costa Rica a lot more often these days in different movies and TV shows. People are acknowledging the existence of this beautiful place and they are seeing it for what it really is: heaven on earth. Costa Rica real estate is definitely growing and although properties in Guanacaste are still priced too high for locals, profit can be made through fair businesses. Adventuring on an investment in Costa Rica real estate can be the first step to make things better.

In my case, I plan on really making a difference on how rentals in properties in Guanacaste work, greedy business men make money at first but sooner or later their cover is blown.

Today I will browse around for construction materials, one of the architects is here in Guanacaste to assist me and I have to admit I am pretty excited about it. Although the final blueprints are not entirely done, I wanted to check out materials, tiles, finishing touches and details available to start working on the look I would like to portray in the housing project. Guanacaste is also having the best weather right now.

Real estate agents in Guanacaste have also started contacting me to see exactly what is it that I am going to be offering but I am not sure I want to start giving away information so fast. The real estate market in Guanacaste is very much in demand so brokers are always on top of every single business that comes up. Costa Rica is indeed a paradise for real estate investors: cheap properties with luxury materials and awesome design in a heavenly location could only profit.

Actually thinking further into it I think I would like to handle this business by myself and not with a real estate company, might be harder and might take up much of my time, but it might be worth it. Any ways it is only a thought, at the end real estate agents know the business way better and I am just a newbie in the subject. Guanacaste real estate is in fact a huge market and maybe I can really used some else’s expertise.

There is so much to learn about dealing with real estate in Guanacaste I never thought I would be so busy. Through a some of my friends that have moved to Costa Rica and some of my neighbors I have collected several copies of different property rentals contracts, I wanted to study the rental laws in Costa Rica before I have my own contract done for the Guanacaste housing project.

After a while of reviewing some of these contracts, an entry I placed a few days ago came to mind: there is really no one supervising real estate in Costa Rica, landlords and property owners really do pretty much whatever they want. Some property rental contracts for real estate in Guanacaste were not even modified when the home was rented for a long term and they still use the vacation rental contract as the real deal.

Some rental contracts are a little more professional and are basically what any normal home or apartment rental agreement would say, stating of course a few details included depending in the type of property offered. Real estate in Costa Rica is need of solid entity that regulates all of these negotiations no matter what: a friend of mine is paying half as much as another friend for the same kind of rental property in the exact same location.

Is a real estate law such a crazy idea? All businesses need to have regulation of some sort, that is how the world works and that should be standard in all businesses. Real estate in Guanacaste is extremely profitable as it is, I cannot think of an excuse to fool and scam people just because of their lack of information. Houses for rent and tenancy not regulated are part of the reason why the real estate business is so scary for most people, including me.

The very well known HGTV show House Hunters will be showing some chapters filmed in Costa Rica in the next few weeks, another good prove that the real estate market in Costa Rica is top notch international material.

In the show people from all over the world get together with a real estate agent who shows them three choices for them to check out and at the end they choose one of the properties for sale to buy according to their necessities and requirements.

This season House Hunters will be airing shows from different sides of the world including London and Asia, as well as Costa Rica. Properties offered in the show will be from very common places in Costa Rica where real estate is in high demand including Santa Ana in San Jose and probably some beach locations. So far I have no received information on whether or not Guanacaste real estate will be featured on these shows or not.

To be honest, I am really happy that Costa Rica real estate is being featured in such an important TV Network as HGTV the show House Hunters is one of the most watched of the cable network and this will show the lovely side of real estate in Costa Rica I am actually working on. I certainly hope a lot of people watch it and enjoy it.

I do know that in one of the episodes, they will featured some Santa Ana properties in San Jose, it is a very nice place to live, has lovely weather and is close to both down town and some beautiful coastal areas of Costa Rica.

So today I sent back the blue prints the architects sent me a few days ago with a couple of changes. I have to admit that they did an awesome work putting together everything I have thought of in paper, yet after looking at it I realized a few things needed to be a bit different to work better. Building a housing project in Guanacaste is definitely an interesting experience.

A few years ago Guanacaste was a normal rural area in Costa Rica, beach related town with country people, hard land workers mostly, yet after the tourism business grew in the area and more and people started investing in small vacations villas and huge luxury hotels, Costa Rica grew its economy with it. Liberia then had an international airport and the amount of visitors increased relentlessly.

The good thing is that since the beginning, real estate developers in Costa Rica were clear on the ecological preservation issue and have been trying to keep the place clean and the national reservations of Guanacaste untouched. The province has sure grown into a main city, but the beauty of the place is still the main attraction. My housing project in Guanacaste is part of that now and I want it to be an addition to the pristine scenery of the area, not ruin it.

I like the place I live in, Guanacaste has brought peace into my life and a new way seeing retirement, I feel part of the nature, the people and the traditions and those are important things in life, I want to offer that other people relocating to Guanacaste and not mess with it, therefore the changes I sent to the architects were definitely necessary, I truly hope they understand the reasons I have to make them.

I was sitting yesterday with my friends that are planning on relocating to Costa Rica and I was surprised to hear them talk about how cheap they though real estate in Costa Rica is, it made me think about myself a couple of years ago when I started my own relocating adventure.

And their thoughts about buying property in Guanacaste are definitely similar to what mine were: I was happy to be able to buy a beautiful luxury villa near the beach at a low price, a price so low that back home it would have meant that I was able to buy a modest home in a fairly nice neighborhood. Relocating to Costa Rica was not that hard and to be honest I enjoyed the whole experience and learned a lot.

But there is something that after living in Costa Rica for a while and after making friends that are Ticos I have to admit bothers me incredibly: Locals just cannot afford a home in this country, real estate in Costa Rica is not regulated at all and people do charge impressively high sums of money for real estate, the worst part is that us gringos are the ones that can afford those prices and pay them like it is nothing, allowing this to happen.

I told my friends they should do I what I did and negotiate the properties for sale they find interesting for less money than the asking price, recession times do not help bring many real estate investors and they need to learn that we are not the stupid gringos they think we are and if we are planning on relocating to Costa Rica that would be the best way to start helping our new community: moving to Costa Rica? Start living like a Tico then…

I think I never really got the chance to explain to you how I managed to drove around Guanacaste and find a nice property for my housing project. To be honest we left that morning without a clue of where we were heading, another thing we noticed is that most properties for sale in Guanacaste do not have any signs at all, so after a couple of hours of just driving around we came up with a solution: ask around.

Whenever we saw a good piece of land that seemed remotely interesting we just drove towards the next grocery store, house or gas station and asked about the property, since everyone in Guanacaste is so friendly they all pointed us out to the correct direction. Real estate agents in Guanacaste work very casual and it is nice to deal with such lay back people.

One of the properties for sale I liked I even got the owner’s phone number, left a message since it was the holidays and a few days later I received a call from a Guanacaste realtor asking if I was still interested in the property. Guanacaste is big and I couldn’t even remember which of the properties for sale in Guanacaste (all of it) was the one he was referring to.

After a few visits to a couple of different properties I made my decision, I am happy to announce that I have received the first design drafts from the architects today! I haven’t got a chance to sit peacefully and look at them, but just the fact that they are here gets me all excited. Hopefully this will work out nicely and I won’t have to go all the way to San Jose anytime soon.

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.