Costa Rica Real Estate, from Coast to Coast, the Right Way!!!

The discovery of Guanabana.

Law Office of Attorney Roger Petersen

When you plan to purchase a property in Costa Rica you will probably contact a Realtor to help you find the right property. By doing so, you want to hire the best and most qualified Realtor. As a fully bi-lingual Real Estate Attorney in Costa Rica,  Roger Petersen is closely involved in many Real Estate Closings in Costa Rica with local and foreign Buyers, Sellers and Real Estate Agents in Costa Rica. Roger describes all about the role of a good real estate agent in your real estate purchase process. Read more...

Sarchi Realtor Brooke Bishop

Known for ox carts and souvenirs, Sarchi is popular with both tourists, and Costa Ricans.  Many people get their furniture from one of the many carpenters of this area.  Nearly all will custom build tables, beds, and other furniture for you for a fair price.  The souvenir shopping is the best in Costa Rica with lots of different art, wood sculptures, and trinkets. The old oxcart road can still be driven on in some areas of the Central Valley.  If you take the "old road" from Alajuela to Grecia, and continue on that road from Grecia to Sarchi, you are on the old oxcart road.  Once you pass through Sarchi, the road veers Read more...

Escazu Realtor Ivo Henfling

Sometimes I love that Pura Vida lifestyle, sometimes I just hate it. It is part of life in Costa Rica. But what does it mean? It means a zillion things. The Costaricans use it mainly as a greeting, like "hi, how are you".  Or as an answer to the "how are you" it means "I am doing great, I am fantastic, I'm as happy as one can be". It means that life is great. It means a lifestyle that is all about taking it easy, enjoy life. You will find more of the Pura Vida lifestyle around the beach areas than in the cities, but as a greeting it is used in both. Read more...

Home Inspector Tom Rosenberger

Building in Costa Rica or buying from a developer is not as easy as some might think. Every country in the world has different specifications and building codes. It has to do with weather conditions, geological specifications, things like earthquakes and hurricanes, rainstorms, and many other things. You guessed it right, what I am trying to say that Costa Rica is different, even for the home inspections. You are in Costa Rica now and not in the US. Do do the right thing, this is probably the last property you will buy in you life. A US home inspector works in the US and in Costa Rica, you should   Read More...

Very seldom I have seen something blown out of proportion like the issue over a home invasion in Atenas. I wrote a blog on one of my websites about it, as a blog is all about giving your opinion about things that happen in our community. Of course, there are people who agree and people who don't agree with my opinion. Instead of trying to scare people and writing bad stories about things that happen throughout the world, I thought it is more sensible to tell you about what you can do, no matter where you live, to try to prevent this kind of situations. Larry Laxson, a retired policeman and U.S. nationally certified as a security consultant tells us a bit more about what you should do to take care of your security. Read more...  

When is a holiday a paid vacation to your maid and your gardener? When you live in Costa Rica, you will for sure hire a maid or a gardener and this article will explain to you what your obligations are on vacation days and holidays. If you plan to have a business in Costa Rica, the rules are generally a bit different, depending on how often you pay the employee, by the week, fortnight or by the month. What are holidays in Costa Rica? You need to know as they are different than the ones you have had all your life. Read more...

Escazu Realtor Ivo Henfling

More and more people, when they retire, like to travel a lot. For that reason, many are looking to buy real estate in Costa Rica in a secure community, a controlled access community or a gated community.

When you buy a condominium - apartment - townhouse in a gated community in Costa Rica, you need to think of many issues before you buy or before you close and make sure you receive all the documents and read up on them. This article is all about these issues you should be aware of. Read More... 

-- Cameron, Diane and Jocelyn Farquhar in Atenas


Cameron and I wanted to take the time to let you know how much we have enjoyed working with your local realtors, Isabelle and Howard Jones; we have dealt with the Joneses, primarily Isabelle, since March 2007 when we made our first purchase here in Costa Rica which was on our first trip to Costa Rica!

Isabelle--called Isa by her friends-- made the whole process practically painless for us: she asked many questions first, in order to determine what we were looking for, by asking lifestyle, interests etc, then showed us homes that fell with in our area of interest; she took the time, to introduce us to a local attorney in Costa Rica, helped us open a bank account, and gave us advice on living in a foreign country based on her and her family's experience; In particular, both Cameron and I felt that Isa never pressured us, and in fact always gave us the pros AND cons of a property etc, which is something we never experienced in the States in dealing with realtors!

Since then, we have had several additional real estate transactions with Isa, including the latest, the sale of our home in Roca Verde in Atenas! We couldn't be more pleased with the level of professionalism, knowledge reliability and honesty exhibited by M/M Jones at every point!

We can truly say that Isa and Howard go the extra mile (and more) for their clients--we couldn't be more pleased!

Isabelle and Howard Jones expect to go the extra mile for all of those who plan to make Atenas and surrounding areas their new home. They fell in love with Costa Rica and Atenas in particular when they first visited the country in 1991. They fulfilled their dream/goal by moving to beautiful Atenas in January, 2003 from Colorado, U.S.A. Atenas is located halfway between San Jose and the Costa Rica Central Pacific Beaches.

When they looked to buy property they quickly found that a full service professional realtor for the Atenas area was really the only thing missing to make their move easier. After searching for the right way for over a year, they decided to become the American European Real Estate Group's affiliate for the Atenas area, since that would give them the opportunity to master the difficulties of real estate in Costa Rica. Howard & Isabelle have over 15 years of property/casualty insurance and computer sales.

They speak English, Polish and are pretty fluent in Spanish. Of course they are supported by the other real estate offices in the group for anything they or their clients might need. Isabelle and Howard expect to go the extra mile for all of those who plan to make Atenas and adjoining areas their new home.

Feel free to check out Isabelle Jones' listings here.