These properties are found in the new growth areas of Costa Rica that allowing people to buy large lots and build affordable homes.

I just found out about a great retirement option for people who have been affected by recent events in the States. The people at Costa Rica Retirement Vacation Properties have come up with something that is the answer. I am usually quite stingy when it comes to endorsing other companies, but in this case I feel it is my duty as a relocation retirement expert to share this information with you.

Their unique program will show you how to live comfortably here on a monthly budget as low as $1500. You can do this without sacrificing your current lifestyle. Once you have your home and transportation needs taken came of, living for a lot less than you did at home is indeed possible.

They offer several property tours that really cover the whole gamut of what’s available for potential retirees taking all budgets and lifestyles into consideration. All this is showcased through their unique approach to using a new Lifestyle Property Tour format. This encompasses a 6 pack project tour that shows you all you could ever want to see.

I have been asked to personally endorse these projects included in the Lifestyle Tours by way of a stiff questionnaire and disclosure. To meet the criteria established, the properties will all have to show:

1    financial capability (disclosure)
2    Engineering infrastructure quality handled by capable firms
3    Area and amenities relative to cost
4    Location relative to needs
5    Property management capability when finished
6    control of what will be built

What I really like is the personalized attention they provide. They even offer a very thorough orientation and seminar option for all of their clients and are 100% customer oriented. I feel perfectly comfortable placing anyone who contacts me in their hands. This service really compliments my own business. I don’t know of any other company which provides this level of support to the client. They provide these services every day and their experience can make the difference between your success and failure here.

Over the last 25 years I have personally helped 1000s of people move here successfully. I have had the chance to see what works here and what doesn’t and know how much money it takes to live live here. Best of all you don’t have to sacrifice your quality of life or dignity by moving to other “so-called retirement destinations” like Nicaragua, Panama, the Philippines or Thailand where you really get what you pay for.

Costa Rica is and will continue to be the buzz word and Latin America’s retirement haven due to all of the amenities it offers. Recently, I had a woman on one of my monthly retirement tours who had been living in Panama. I asked her why she decided to take my tour if she was a Panamanian resident. She stated, “Costa Rica offers far more options and the quality of life is better here.” This is straight from the horses mouth.”

It is easy to over pay for something in Costa Rica if you haven’t done your homework.

“Is it safe to invest in Costa Rica?” This is one of the most frequent questions I get asked by the guests on my monthly retirement/relocation tours. During my nearly 30 years of living in Costa Rica I have had the opportunity to observe a lot of people make money and other lose it. I have also bought and sold a lot of property here and have currently have some sizeable money invested in property. Consequently, I have a good idea of what it takes to invest safely here and have seen many common denominators in cases where people have “lost their shirts” through poor investments, especially in real estate. The whole process basically boils down to perception and common sense. It is easy to over pay for something in Costa Rica if you haven’t done your homework.

Because there is corruption, bribery in Costa Rica and most people have heard or read about the horror stories, most English speakers assume that if someone speaks English they are trustworthy. This is the BIGGEST mistake you can make. Just because someone speaks good English or is from the States, Canada or Europe does not make the individual a good person. Some people here will take advantage of naive newcomers.

As I state in the fifteenth edition of my perennial bestseller “The New Golden Door to Retirement and Living in Costa Rica,” “One ‘dangerous breed of animal’ you may encounter are a few foreigners between 30 and 60 years of age who are in business but do not have pensions. Most are struggling to survive and have to really hustle to make a living in Costa Rica. Since they have no fixed income like a retiree they are desperate and will go to almost any means to make money including overcharging you. Notice I use the word overcharge. They may even have a legitimate business but most certainly try to take advantage of you to make a few extra dollars. Some of these people may own hotels, have tourism-related businesses, own restaurants or pass themselves off as local experts. Almost all of these characters have very convincing websites extolling their expertise and knowledge of the country. Most complaints we hear concerning people being “ripped off” are caused by individuals who fit this description.”

Here is an example. About four years ago while conducting one of my retirement tours near Domincal I met a portly North American who called himself Gringo Mel (not his real name but similar). He owned a hotel at the time and billed himself as the best cook in Costa Rica among other things. I should have known that anyone who was so full of himself had to be a conman. Anyway he told me he waned show me some property that he was selling because the owner was out of the country. We went there and I fell in love with the place. It had an incredible ocean view and a couple of building lots. I told him I was interested and to find out the price of the land and home on it. He told me was $165,000 dollars. A few months passed and the property and home had not sold. On my next trip to Dominical I mentioned to a friend who lives and works in the area that I was interested in said property. She told me she had talked with the owner and the real price was around $120,000 dollars. This meant our friend Gringo Mel was charging a $45,000 dollars commission as the middleman or a or 30 percent for his services. Needless to say, I never purchased the property but almost got taken to the cleaners by a fellow gringo.

On your first trip to Costa Rica you will probably be besieged by con- artists anxious to help you make an investment. Be wary of blue ribbon business deals that seem too good to be true, or any other get-rich-quick schemes i.e. non-existent land, fantastic sounding real estate projects, phony high-interest bank investments or property not belonging to the person selling it. If potential profit sounds too good to be true, it probably is. There seems to be something about the ambience here that causes one to trust total strangers. The secret is to be cautious without being afraid to invest. Before jumping into what seems to be a once-in-a-lifetime investment opportunity, ask yourself this question: Would I make the same investment in my hometown? A friend and long-time resident here always says jokingly when referring to the business logic of foreigners who come to Costa Rica: “When they step off the plane they seem to go brain-dead.”

Here is more advice from my bestseller. One should be extremely cautious when dealing with foreigners who consider themselves experts in Costa Rica. Just because a person was a professional in his home country or has gone through the process of moving here does NOT qualify him to be an expert here. Some foreigners consider themselves experts just because they have lived here for a short time. Remember, anyone can build a website and say anything about themselves.

We know people who move here, and go into business and miraculously become experts overnight. Costa Rica is indeed a magical country!

Many naive newcomers have been taken advantage of by other foreigners who call themselves “experts,” but are really incompetent imposters. So, be careful!

We suggest that if you happen to come into contact with any foreigner who calls himself an “expert,” no matter how convincing he may be, do all of the following:

1. Ask for references from other foreign residents who have used the expert’s services. Don’t rely on the testimonials that appear on a person’s website. They may be slanted. If your expert will not give you any references, you will know immediately you are being duped or sold shoddy second-rate services. Also, try to contact the person’s last employer before they moved to Costa Rica. Again, if they will not give you the contact information, you can bet the person is hiding something. If a person who is not of retirement age claims to have been highly successful in his or her former country, they may be trying to cover up something about their background.
2. Check with the Association of Residents of Costa Rica to see if they are familiar with the person’s services.
3. Enter the person’s name in a search engine such as Google to see what comes up. Be careful because many of these rascals use an alias. There are even companies you can pay to do a background check if you suspect something.
4. Ask how long the person has lived in Costa Rica. If they have been here for less than 10 years, be careful. It takes years to understand this country and more than a year or two to know the ropes. Many of these neophyte relocation gurus and entrepreneurs mean well but just don’t have enough experience under their belt.
5. Find out what the person’s educational background was when they lived in their home country and if they have any formal training in the Latin American culture, studies or foreign investments. If someone was a plumber, janitor, welder or doctor, for example, prior to moving here, this does not qualify them to give professional advice in Costa Rica.
6. Beware of colorful, well-designed web sites built by the so- called experts to express their admiration for the country to attract naive foreigners. Many of these sites try to scare you into to thinking their services are the only ones that can keep you from being taken advantage of. In reality they are manipulating you into doing business through them.
7. Be cautious of publications that appear to be helpful on the surface but incessantly hype the services of the person(s) or organization behind them.
8. Over the years we have run into so-called foreign experts who live comfortably in upscale in “Ivory Towers” and gated communities in gringo enclaves such as Escazú. The majority of their friends are other English speakers, so they have never have really immersed themselves in the local culture. They are virtually still foreigners living among other foreigners. These people live in virtual isolation from the real Costa Rica. Few of them have any contact with Costa Ricans except for their maids and servants and rich Costa Rican friends from the country-club set. They rarely venture out of their safe environment to gather the necessary experience to confront real life situations here. Most live as if they were still in their home country, and give advice about a country and culture they really don’t know.
9. Most important find out if the person is truly fluent in Spanish. There is no way a person can have expertise unless he or she can communicate with the locals and understand the nuances of the local humor, culture and language. Beware: there are many foreigners who say they speak fluent Spanish with a vocabulary of only a couple of hundred words. I have run into many of them in my 30 years here.
10. Always ask to see a person’s residency card with their real name on it. Many Americans are working illegally here. Would you buy property from an illegal alien in the U.S.?

Working with a broker in Costa Rica is similar to working with a broker back home.

When you move to Costa Rica to retire you will have to have a place to live. Some choose to rent while many choose to buy as an investment. The Costa Rica real estate market has been one of the best over the last few years.

After you decide where you want to live and what you want to buy, you have to then select a broker. This can pose a problem because you don’t need a license to sell real real estate in Costa Rica. Since selling real estate is in vogue and there are a lot of gringo opportunists looking to make a quick buck it is hard to find an agent who looks out for your interests more than just making a sale.

On top that many foreigners who sell property here aren’t even legal residents of Costa Rica and don’t have permission to work. Would you buy real estate from a tourist in the U.S. Or Canada? Some of these characters just come down for the high season to sell properties and then disappear into the wood work. If you need to find them for anything, you can’t. Also many of these people have never had any experience working I real estate in their home country.

It seems that everyone is selling property in Costa Rica: cab drivers, waiters in restaurants, your friendly gringo neighbor, hotel employees and a lot of people without papers as I just mentioned. Even fugitives have gotten into act. AM Costa Rica on-line newspaper reported on September 3, 2008 than another U.S. citizen on the lam was arrested while working as real estate broker in an office on the Pacific Coast. In December 2005 and in December 2007 two other gringos wanted in the U.S. were arrested here. Both had been working as real estate salesmen. Many U.S. Citizens are hired illegally in the real estate business because of their English-language abilities.

I have dealt with almost every realtor in Costa Rica and only recommend Costa Rica Retirement Vacation Properties because they are 100% client oriented and honest. I send all of the clients on my monthly relocation/retirement tours to them and the level of customer satisfaction has been 100%.

Here is some advice from my best seller “The New Golden Door to Retirement and Living in Costa Rica” about  why it is important to work with a good broker and how to find one.

1. A good broker can help you find a fair-priced property.
2. Only a small percentage of properties for sale are in the newspaper.  A lot of brokers have their own listings, which they don’t share with other brokers.
3. A broker can save you time and aggravation by showing you just what you want. He will do this by pre-qualifying you.
4. Good brokers have excellent contacts and will help you with every ?step  of the process.
5. A good broker will know all of the good areas and will not waste your time showing you undesirable neighborhoods. A broker who knows you are working faithfully with him will go all out to help you find what you want. Be sure and to tell your broker from the beginning if you are working with other agents.
6. A good broker can form a relationship with you and truly understand your specific needs.
7. Working with a broker in Costa Rica is similar to working with a broker back home. If you are patient, loyal and have confidence in your broker, you will find what you want.
8. Brokers offer a wide range of properties. They sell a little bit of everything.: houses, lots, commercial property, condos, and even fincas (farms). Therefore, it is best to find a broker who specializes inexactly what you are looking for.  A person who sells at the beach cannot possibly be an expert in properties in the Central Valley.

Here are STEPS TO FINDING THE RIGHT AGENT:

1. Unless you have a specific recommendation like the one I provide above, Call four or five real estate agents in the area and ask them to name the best two real estate agents they know OUTSIDE their own offices. Whatever name pops up most often is likely to be your best candidate.
2. Go Google the agent’s name and see what comes up.
3. Ask that agent to show you their Costa Rica cédula (ID for legal residents) or work permit.
4. Ask how long the agent has lived in CR (5-7 years minimum).
5. Ask for a few happy customers to contact.
6. Ask your friends or other foreigners in Costa Rica if they have their knowledge of said agent.
7. Just as in a marriage, communication is a key component of the relationship between a homeowner and an agent. If the communication isn’t there, the relationship won’t work. So if your agent doesn’t return your phone calls in a timely fashion or disappears without warning for weeks at a time, you should probably find someone else.
8. Let’s face it, even homeowners who have been through several real estate transactions can benefit from a little advice from their agent. But if an agent doesn’t offer any advice, it could be an indication that he or she is not fully engaged in the process.
9. If your real estate agent is actually a waiter, waitress, musician or has another job, then you are probably not going to be happy with where their priorities are.
10. Keeps it in the family A real estate agent who shows buyers only properties that are listed with his or her brokerage could be subordinating the client’s best interests. Since selling agents earn a separate commission off a real estate transaction, agents who make listings just from their company available may be trying to steer that commission to the brokerage as well.

This should eliminate 95%+ of the bad/poor agents….

Lately, a lot of space has been devoted in the  media to the economic melt down in the U.S. People there do have reason to be alarmed. The situation is downright scary.

I don’t know what it is but I really feel removed form the whole thing living in Costa Rica. All of the events seem to be a world away. People say eventually there may be a “trickle down effect” here, but I don’t see it yet. Remember the old  saying “The bigger they are, the harder they fall”? I say the bigger the economy the harder it is hit in an economic crisis. Large economics like  U.S., Mexico, Venezuela and Brazil in this part of the world have traditionally been more adversely affected by economic downturns. It’s like a small business versus a big business. A smaller business can adapt, change and roll with the punches a lot easier than a large corporation with a lot of employees and offices.

Fortunately, Costa Rica only has just over  four million people. Puebla, Mexico alone has that number of people. People are accustomed to living with a lot less here than in the U.S. Furthermore, Costa Rica can grow 90% of everything its fruits, vegetables and grains. So the country is self sufficient to some extent. We also have abundant water for our crops, personal consumption and energy.

Costa Rica is the solution to a lot of what is happening up north in that “smaller is better” in most cases. People from the U.S. can come here to live or retire and simplify their lifestyles without sacrificing their quality of life.

People ask how Costa Rica’s hot real estate market will be affected by the events up north. Noted Costa Rica Economist Gilbert E. Arce  recently stated in La Nación Newspaper. “In the real estate sector the effects will be mixed. On one hand there will be less resources for acquiring property on the local level.  However, on the other hand, investors, especially foreigners, will try to limit the exposure to risk by means of safe real estate investments in Costa Rica.”  Costa Rica Rica’s real estate market may be the solution to its devastated U.S. counterpart.

The growing popularity of Costa Rica as one of the most popular retirement havens in the world has given birth to an industry of retirement related businesses.

The first being retirement tours. When I started in the retirement tour business almost 30 years ago there were no retirement tours in Costa Rica. There wasn’t even a book about retiring here until I wrote one in 1988.

By popular demand in 1996 I conducted my first retirement/relocation tour. Since then my tour business has grown by leaps and bounds. In the process my monthly tour has been evolved and improved to the point to where it is today. The majority of the improvements have been made as a result of my clients feedback and suggestions. Originally, I didn’t include visits to homes on my tours. However, everyone who moves to Costa Rica has to have a place  to live, so I now include a carefully selected cross section of homes and properties for all budgets. This way my clients gain a perspective on the housing situation here, thus enabling them to make the right decision about where to live or buy.

Another good thing I did was to obtain license from the Costa Rican Tourism Institute  (ICT) to legally conduct my tours here. The idea is to protect my clients and guarantee the high quality of my tours. This is a tough two-year battle with lot of screening and background checks. NOT everyone who applies is granted a license to operate legally here. Unfortunately, enforcement is lax and there are companies offering tours in Costa Rica with NO licenses or regulations to protect their clients.

Due to the overwhelming success of my tours other less qualified Americans have tried to imitate them but with little success.

The newest endeavor to try and cash in on Costa Rica’s hot real estate market are real estate tours. No license is required to sell real estate here nor are there any tours of this type which are legally sanctioned. In general, what you have are rogue tour operators and Johnny Come Latelys sponsoring these so-called real estate tours. The agents have NO real estate license, try to prey on their naïve countrymen and neophytes, are often be tourists without residency status, have only lived here  short time, don’t speak the language or know much about the culture, are here to make a fast buck, are wet behind the ears,  have never been in the tour business and are most likely working illegally. Would you buy real estate form a tourist or from a tour operator in your home country? Not if you have a an ounce of brains.

I have found one company with experienced honest real estate agents who do conduct a well-organized real estate lifestyle tour. All of their salespeople have prior experience in the States in the field of real estate and have worked in the travel business. My clients have been extremely pleased to work with them.

The company is Costa Rica Retirement Vacation Properties and they 100 % client/service oriented. Their tour is excellent and designed to help future land owners find the answers to all of the questions, not waste time and zero in on their specific needs so they can make the wisest choice when it comes to buying a home in Costa Rica.

Don’t leave your brain on the plane when you come here.