Greetings from sunny Costa Rica
The new highway from San Jose to Jaco and Puntarenas is fantastic. I can go from Escazu to Atenas in 20 minutes now. It’s a pity the Quick Pass just doesn’t work as half the time it will not let me through unless they read my Quick Pass manually and just yesterday I got a huge bill for almost $50 so I’m turning it in. I might as well stand in line and pay every time I go through. Those are the disadvantages of a second world country sometimes.
How wrong it was...
Many of you have probably received an email that went worldwide about Costa Ricans filling sacks of turtle eggs on the beaches and hauling them away, supposedly to sell them. Big surprise, somebody is trying to harm Costa Rican tourism and its ecological and protect nature. Check it out, its amazing to what extent some people go to badmouth a country and its people. So for those who had received this email and forwarded it to friends and family, now you can show them how wrong it was: www.hoax-slayer.com
Welcome partners
Welcome to our new partners of Your Costa Rica Real Estate, with offices in Playa Hermosa, Guanacaste and Paquera in the Nicoya Peninsula: Their office in the heart of the Guanacaste beach communities, Playa Hermosa, offers a wide selection of beach and ocean view properties as well as teak plantations and cattle farms. The office broker, Blu Stewart, is a retired sea captain and avid diver and fisherman and has been active in Costa Rican tourism since the 1970’s. The Paquera office is run by broker Jim Shaw came to this area in 1979 from California and is an established part of the local community. Jim lists a wide variety of properties located in the Southern Nicoya Peninsula area of Playa Naranjo and Playa Tambor.
Costa Rica: such a beautiful place
Real estate is picking up generally. Although there are still hardly any mortgages available, more and more sellers are offering short term mortgages to serious buyers. More and more buyers are coming off the fence now, seeing that Costa Rica real estate is very stable and most seller do not need to sell and hard bargains are hardly to be found. We have such low property taxes and most banks have worked the mortgages very intelligently by putting in low appraisals and not lending more than 70% of the appraised values when we were in the boom. This has paid off now and NO Costa Rican banks have shut down. So, if you are one of those looking for a bargain, you might find Florida more interesting. But if you are looking for a beautiful place to retire, keep the lifestyle you are used to and want to spend less money for this lifestyle, feel free to contact any of the American-European Real Estate Group agents for that beautiful retirement home or beach house.
Unfortunately, our Tamarindo affiliate partner has resigned from our Group and on a longer term, we will be looking for a new and serious affiliate partner that you and we can trust. I’ll keep you updated on this front.
Home Specialist
GoDutch Realty has started a new division so you, the buyer, will be able to look at new developments in different price ranges in the Central Valley. Rudy Matthews is a former Tampa, Florida resident with a vast and varied experience in real estate. Rudy is our primary Home Specialist and will provide you with an excellent perspective of "Quality Lifestyle Communities". Check out the new website www.costaricahomespecialist.com and look at the descriptions, photos and videos of the different properties.
Luxury Tax appraisals
To all who have not done their Luxury Tax appraisals yet: the tax people are working on it little by little, starting with the nice and upper scale communities, but will end up eventually at your doorstep. Just make sure you have your appraisal ready for when they come and claim you should pay. If you know you have to pay, just do that, as it easier and safer as the fine of ten times the tax is pretty heavy.
Check our website and keep it on your web browser so you can go back often. We have over 1,000 listings there, from Coast to Coast.
Ivo Henfling
President American European Real Estate Group
Valuable information
It is no secret that Costa Ricans are some of the happiest people on earth. And no wonder they are so happy, they live in paradise!.
With a gorgeous climate, beautiful scenery, fresh fruits and vegetables all year long, and lots of fun places to explore, who wouldn’t be!
I’m sure you are wondering how you can tap into this Pura Vida feeling. (read more...)
It’s estimated that Spanish is spoken by at least 350 million people around the world and is currently the 4th most commonly spoken language in the world.
If you are traveling to or living in Costa Rica now is a good time to learn Spanish.
In addition to being able to hear, see and practice your new language skills, here are a few other reasons to learn Spanish. (read more...)
Costa Rica has recently caught many eyes as a hot tourist spot but also as a great place to purchase real estate. With so much public attention and a vast number of tourists visiting Costa Rica every year, the country offers a great investment environment for real estate.
Go through our seven great reasons to invest in Costa Rica Real Estate. (read more...)
Re-Discover Costa Rica: Each region has agents and properties but also you can learn about the location culture and ticos life.
San Jose
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Heredia
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Alajuela
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Puntarenas
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Cartago
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Limon
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Guanacaste
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Another free service of American-European Real Estate Group Costa Rica Real Estate
Those who have more than 300 m2 construction should get an appraisal
We have been interviewing many people willing to do your appraisal for a fee. Fees run all over the map. I have found 5 companies that do appraisals for banks and other institutions, who have years of experience and will take responsibility if the government does not accept their appraisal. They will charge depending on the location of your property and the size of your property.
If you are interested in the appraisal, send me an email with your name, the name of ownership (in case of an S.A.) and ID number, the approximate size of construction and more or less size of your property and we will get back to you with the name and contact info of who you can contact to get your appraisal done.
Send email to ivo@american-european.net
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