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First, go to http://www.amazon.com, do a search on “Costa Rica”, and spend $250 on books. When they arrive, read ’em all.
In the meantime, read everything that’s been written on this forum.
Then, spend the next hundred hours Googling “Costa Rica”, follow each link, and read everything that’s displayed on your screen.
If this still seems like a good idea, after you’ve digested all that, schedule yourself on George Lundquist’s four-day tour of the Central Valley which is aimed at gringos thinking of relocating here. You’ll see more and understand more if you’re well versed and have the advantage of George’s structured approach to the matter.
Plan to spend the balance of two weeks here, after George’s tour, just snooping around.
After all that, you should have a fair idea if this is a good idea or not.
In the meantime, try to find a conversational Spanish class, but don’t be discouraged by your lack of language skills. We speak Spanish hardly at all and get along just fine.
Hi, Marilyn,
Where are you staying in Grecia?
You can e-mail us at: daveandmarcia@racsa.co.cr or call 444-1782. And when will you be here?
Dave
P.S. I get enough spam that I delete whatever I don’t recognize the source of. Sorry if I deleted your mail by mistake.
The answer to your question is that it doesn’t matter where there’s high speed Internet access. Like everywhere else in the world, high speed Internet access is expanding. Whatever is true today won’t be true “someday”.
As things stand right now, many larger towns have DSL or similar telephonic access; the same and some other areas have cable access; and almost everywhere is an appropriate site for a direct satellite dish installation.
Marilyn and “gentleman”, if you’re going to be in the Grecia neighborhood, maybe we could meet for lunch or dinner. If you want to spend the night, we know a great B&B that may have space. Alas, we’re in the guest house ’til the main house is finished.
Dave
If you’re thinking of retiring here, the best advice is to concentrate on the Central Valley where about 75% of the population lives. It’s the most comfortable and has the best amenities. I think you’ll find the coastal areas hot and humid all year.
That said, I strongly recommend George Lundquist’s four-day tour of the Central Valley which is aimed at those thinking of living here. He’ll not only show you a variety of areas but a variety of housing options, shopping opportunities, medical care facilities, etc. And George is a wealth of knowledge about life in Costa Rica. Just spending four days with him is worth the price of admission.
Help me out here, Sr. Gringo, what’s “the U.S. income tax exemption for residents of foreign countries”?
scott and Scott are right on all counts. Your dollars will buy much more here than in the U.S. Whether you can live on those dollars, however, is another matter entirely. The virtual absence of property taxes, homeowner’s insurance, heating and air conditioning costs, etc, in addition to low cost utilities, food, housing, etc, give you an enormous advantage. Nevertheless, the lifestyle you aspire to will have a greater impact than any other consideration. If you insist on having those personal services such as the luxury theater tickets, a housekeeper and a gardener, relatively lavish restaurant meals, etc, your expenditures can easily outstrip your income.
Thank you, Joseph, for the permission to live our lives and be happy. I don’t know what I’d have done without you.
David, this is a much more complicated question than simply looking at today’s exchange rate. Scott’s suggestion to look at the minimum wage scale (set on an occupation-by-occupation basis) is a place to begin, but you must also consider the other major expenses of housing, food, fuel, car ownership, medical care, utilities, etc. These are much tougher to assess, but they’re equally important.
The government regulates the prices of some commodities, such as fuel and utilities, which makes their costs easy to determine (at least until the costs change), but land and housing costs and vehicle ownership costs vary enormously. You’ll have to dig very deeply to get good answers to your questions.
For Pete’s sake, YES, come down here and look very, very carefully FIRST THING. Get a reliable attorney to review everything; then get a second attorney to review the conclusions of the first. Insist upon your own marked survey and be there when the surveyor does it.
Look carefully, too, at any assurances that are made about future improvements or developments. If the roads aren’t in yet, if there aren’t utilities, if the promised community center and pool aren’t there, then how do you know they ever will be? And what will you do, and to whom, if they’re not?
I know nothing of WLI and can make no assertion about them, but in my limited exposure to the Costa Rican real estate industry, I’ve heard more than enough horror stories about deals done by allegedly reputable operators to know better than to take any chances. You, on the other hand, may have money to burn . . .
Our U.S. bank (Wachovia) charges us $2.00 per transaction in excess of (about) three a month if we use non-Wachovia ATMs.
What he said . . .
Just one caveat: In the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the insurance companies “totaled” some 400,000 flooded vehicles. The companies are always willing to sell the remains to whomever wants to buy them, to recover part of their expenses. Some folks have bought those totaled cars, cleaned them up, and are said to be exporting them. So if you’re looking at a U.S.-source used vehicle, spend the $25 or so and do a CarFax search on it using its Vehicle Identification Number. Then decide if you want to buy something that’s been declared a total loss.
