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Jenny is 63 as I said if you have the money spend it. Enjoy your money, what is better then enjoying the fruits of your labor. That is not ignorant, that is doing what you want to do. It may not be my idea but then again who cares. Enjoy yourself to the max, be comfortable, bathe in luxury. We will stay around longer.
I just wanted to see if anyone was awake. Thanks for the come back.
What I said may be true in some cases but not in all. One womens opinion.
Alright, I have sat back long enough. Jenny, I’m sorry but you have no clue what you are talking about. You quote a couple of experiences of people you have heard of. I don’t think you have any desire to instill words of wisdom to anyone. You have some wild hair and feel the need to start something. This whole exchange looks to me to be kind of phony. That is one mans opinion…..and it’s not open for discussion.
Sure, I am just surrounded by people that have purchased property and are building houses. One just left my house sharing her experience about a small cottage that is 400sq feet that cost her $40,000. Sure, and you know that was the same attitude most of them had when I tried to help them. They thought I was trying to rain on their parade. Well, no skin off my teeth, it is their money. So, just let me keep my mouth shut. Last year we had 4 out of every 5 visitors that purchased land or built houses. They circle my area, some of them talk to me or call me at least once a week. Sure I am reading a funny book when I comment as I have. Sure and Santa Clause is real. Or they are all liars.
What would profit me in discouraging people trying to live a dream, none.
No one is going to protect your money and care about you as much as you care about yourself. So to get off a plane and come here hand someone a lot of money to do the right thing by you is crazy. Just plan crazy, and I do not care who does it. Having that kind of faith in a person because they are a fellow American is crazy. Like Scott has said most if not all are North Americans ripping off North Americans.
Wisdom, sure I have not lost a dime. That is wisdom.
400 sq ft for $40,000? – ROTFFLMFAO! These people sound like complete morons!! Hopefully, they will become disenchanted with Costa Rica and leave — Where did you say you live so I know not to go there to meet the idiots!
the new york times feb.3 has a two page article on the costa rican real estate market. It primarily deals with guanacaste and these prices will make some of your heads spin!
Not idiots, they feel like that themselves. They were quoted and agreed on a price of $15,000.00 but by the time they got telephone calls telling them about land prep and a lot of other problems they had already deeply invested. You can say they had a choice to just forget it after spending a lot of money or finishing it.
Lets, not call them idiots. Perhaps they were ignorant of a lot of things. You know in the US in most states you can not sale property to a person to build a house on if the soil is not tested first. That must not be the law here and if it is it is not practiced. Some of us have purchased constructed house and we are not aware of needing the soil tested and many other things about preparing the land to build on. This is where the money was spent.
If by this forum we can help anyone, that would be a blessing.
Jenny……I thought you said in the other threads you didn’t like to argue. Well then stop. We all have just as many success stories as you have nightmare stories and as many times as you have said in this thread that if someone wants to throw their money away then let them, or you have said if someone wants to live in the gated community and spend millions, let them. Well…….LET THEM! You aren’t helping (as you say) anyone with this back and forth arguing of hear say stories.
“Idiot” is the perfect word to describe someone who plants themselves in a Third World country and tries to build a house without doing any preparation or investigation. What makes these people think that the rules don’t apply in Costa Rica? When I hear horror stories like this, I wonder who is giving these people the advice upon which they chose to rely? I guess it really is true that people get off the plane in Alajuela and leave their common sense behind. I don’t like to see people lose money, and I don’t like to see people taken advantage of in the name of greed. But if someone doesn’t do their homework, doesn’t check references, doesn’t find out what it REALLY takes to do construction in CR, then what they get is what they deserve because truly, building a house in CR is NOT that complicated if you are working with professionals who DO abide by the rules and who DO get permits and who DO take their jobs seriously. I wish everyone could have the experience I did in building my house — my contractor was the BEST I have ever worked with even in the US. Even when I gave him thousands of dollars in cash (up to $9,000 one time) he gave me a receipt for every penny. He was frank about the problems with the lot and proposed ways to deal with it and told me upfront how much that would be. He told me repeatedly that having me be happy with the finished product was all that he cared about. I could not have asked for a more honest and forthcoming guy to do this work for me. This is not rocket science, but it does require some vigilance and some fact-checking — the same things that are required to build a home in the US.
Maravilla,
Thanks for sharing your great experience with us, that is good news. The things you said about people just not thinking it out. I’ve thought about all sort of conditions. My husband and I have travelled a lot and we have lived in several countries, but most of the people who are leaving the US now have never even visited a foreign country. When they get here and they can not understand the language or read any of the signs, I think they feel insecure and with this feeling they are frightened to a certain extent. Someone, talks to them in English and communicates in terms they understand, they drop their guard.
What makes it difficult is that they really trust and hope they can trust. It is sort of like saying why did that woman marry that man, well he knew the right thing to say. I am hoping someone reads these notes and see the encouragement but then also see some of the warnings. Your story is very encouraging, but as you said you did your home work and you are blessed with people that have treated you fairly.
And if these people didn’t treat me fairly, they’d have to deal with me afterwards, and that is NOT a good thing! LOL
I guess this is where the fast-talking, heavy-handed, persuasive salesmen circle the trusting gringos like a school of sharks, selling them property and then building a shoddy house. I remember reading a post on another board from a woman who had lived in CR for two years and had finally had enough and was moving back to the STates. She listed her reasons for deciding CR was not for her. 1) They spoke Spanish (DUH!); 2) there were bugs and snakes; and 3) it rains. For the life of me, I can’t figure out how someone could NOT know about these things BEFORE they pack up and move to another country. So I suppose you are right — people don’t have a clue what they are getting into and are gullible enough to trust anyone who speaks their language. I also suppose those people don’t last long in CR, and THAT’S a good thing!!! Of course, they also go home and bad-mouth Costa Rica and the people who live there, when their own bad experience is of their own making. As an example, who in this country would give some developer with a dubious professional history huge sums of money for the privilege of looking at a piece of raw land? It’s a feeding frenzy among the people hawking their product to unsuspecting gringos with a fat checkbook! And while it may all work out in the end for everyone, I still can’t imagine how anyone thinks this is a good business practice.
Maravilla,
When my husband was in the military I thought these things only happened to unsuspecting military personnel. It is unfortunate some have left and became discouraged with Costa Rica. It does have bugs but we have and exterminator, it does rain but then flowers are beautiful. We can visit home and that is what we do. Lately our visits have gotten shorter and shorter.
We love Costa Rica but of course I may be a little weird, I loved Germany, we lived their for 10 years. I turned 20 in Germany, 30 in Japan, 40 in Germany 50 in the US and 60 in Costa Rica.
If it had not been for my husband and mom I would have loved to stay in Germany. The thrill of jumping into a car and traveling to so many countries is exciting.
I am new to this message board….i feel like i am listening in to a conversation amoung a great group of friends…..
u are so right when u say Americans come and believe smiles mean honesty…..i believed it,,,,and still do since i have yet to be stung…it is refreshing if not believable….
thank you so much for sharing ‘words of wisdom’
i bought property near Nosara….and hope to move in 5yrs….so all the info i can get,….i appreciate…
i don’t know where to begin….what do i do first….who do i ask…who can i trust if i don’t speak Spanish?
Denise“hope to move in 5yrs….so all the info i can get,….i appreciate…
i don’t know where to begin….what do i do first….who do i ask…who can i trust if i don’t speak Spanish?”Get busy and learn Spanish. You have 5 years; plenty of time to be really proficient in the languange. Please don’t be another gringa who moves to a Spanish-speaking country and then expects THEM to speak English! It’s THEIR country. You need to learn the language if you want to particpate.
Denise, what a nice compliament. You would not believe all the changes that we have seen since arriving in Costa Rica. Your 5 years will go very fast and I am sure by the time you decide to retire some of the problems we are having now will all be resolved by the time you get here. It is a wonderful place to be retired. You meet a lot of great people. Welcome to the clan.
The problems I am talking about are just some of our communication problems. With the CAFTA agreement free enterprise in the telecommunications and insurance industry is suppose to be a probablity and not just a possibility.
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