Stay busy after you retire in Costa Rica or Costa Rica vacations

#008 August, 2010

Stay busy after you retire in Costa Rica

Little by little I have tried to introduce new things to our newsletter, to show you how interesting Costa Rica is after you move here. You have worked all your life and now you suddenly find yourself in another country with a new language, a new culture and new surroundings to deal with and lots of time on your hands.

Of course, learning Spanish should be on the top of your list, or at least learning the basics. Forget about The Rosetta Stone and all that other stuff. Ask your realtor to recommend a teacher in your area.

This is another reason to buy through an American European Real Estate Group realtor as we are all specialists in our own area and know who you should choose as a Spanish teacher. It's cheaper than you think and if you find the right teacher it is more fun than you imagine. Just learning the basics will get you going, and the rest is practice.

As a realtor, I work for fun, so I don't have much time for other things. But many of my clients do all these fun things that one day I will be able to do, too, when I retire.

One of the most interesting people I have met in my 30 years in Costa Rica is Janine Fafard. For over 25 years, French-Canadian Janine has inter-mingled her tourism industry experience with studying, practicing and teaching yoga & energy psychology.

Janine is a Certified Professional Kripalu Yoga teacher since 1989 and a Certified Yoga of the Heart teacher since 1999. Janine has lived in Costa Rica for the past 20 years.

In 1991, Janine designed an inner therapeutic yoga practice entitled Soul Surrender, an amazing and unique self-healing journey. In addition to teaching regular yoga classes since the early 90's and leading workshops, Janine's commitment to service saw her organizing healing arts lectures, events & journeys for many people visiting Costa Rica.

She has also taught in various Central American countries, Canada, the United States, Mexico and Italy.

You just moved from a hard working life back home to your retirement in Costa Rica. You just received your furniture and your car from Customs and you need to switch off all the stress accumulated. Janine can help you learn to weed out the root cause of your stress! Learn to move from distress to de-stress and tap into your creative power!

Now, for those sellers that read our newsletters and are interested to sell their property fast, Janine also can be contracted to �clean� your house energetically.

Janine is located in Escazu, and you can read more about Janine and her workshops here.

Patrick Mulheren of the Costa Rica Real Estate Group, our San Jose East side specialist, has written an interesting article about the �Cool side� of town, where you can read about the reasons of why you should look at the Cool side of town when you plan to buy property in Costa Rica. Read more.

Now you're looking at all these different areas and, hopefully, you'll use one of the American European Real Estate Group preferred realtors, all area specialists and well trained to take care of all your real estate needs and who will make sure you do all the right things.

One of those right things to do is using a home inspector. Once you have found the property of your dreams and made an offer, you need to make sure this property doesn't have any problems.

Therefore, this month we would like to introduce you to Tom Rosenberger, a fully bi-lingual North American home inspector who has lived in Costa Rica from 1993 and has built homes in different states of the US and also in different areas of Costa Rica. Tom offers different types of home inspections, depending on your needs.

In Costa Rica, just like licensing for real estate is not obligatory, there is no Housing Inspection Foundation or a National Association of Home Inspectors in Costa Rica. Not being a North American myself, I am always surprised how North Americans tend to think that the North American way is the ONLY way and that North Americans tend to think Costa Ricans should build just like the North Americans do.

Wrong!!! Costa Rica is a different country, and things are done differently here. Many of you might not realize it, but building codes and ways of doing things like the construction of a home are different in a State like Florida than it is done in California or New York.

Why would you want to hire a Florida Home Inspector to do an inspection of a home in California? What does he know about the building codes in California?

For that same reason, if you are looking for a serious home inspection report on the home you plan to buy in Costa Rica, use one that has experience in building US standard homes and also homes in Costa Rica. Read more about this home inspection issue here.

This month, I'd like also to include a Testimonial sent by a client who is very happy with his choice of realtor when he bought his property in Puerto Viejo de Limon, on the Caribbean side. Manuel Pinto, our expert real estate agent for the Caribbean beach areas, has lived with his wife and daughter in Punta Uva, Limon, since 2002 after visiting the country for over 10 years.

Manuel and his wife Emmanuelle have established themselves as the real estate leaders in their area and also have the best vacation rental business in the Costa Rican Caribbean. Manuel speaks fluent English, French and Spanish.

Read what client Tom Keller of Finca Chica, Puerto Viejo, Cocles has to say about Manuel:

For many people, real estate brokers have the same image as second-hand car dealers; their only goal is to sell as quickly as possible, and they therefore will not reveal the whole story and will certainly not tell you the negative aspects of whatever they are trying to sell you.

I have had contact with realtors inside and outside Costa Rica and would not easily trust any of them. My wife and I bought a property in Cocles, Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica through Manuel's real estate company. I came to the conclusion that we had found a broker who is an exception to what I think is the rule.

I was impressed in several ways:

We were shown plenty of properties without getting the feeling that we were taking too much time and in fact were told that we should take our time and not rush into making a decision. Their words: "Listening to your reaction to different properties makes it easier for us to get a more exact feeling of what you are looking for and thus enabling us to help you find the right property".
All my e-mails were attended to without delay and with extensive information.
Most facets of legal situations and implications were explained in a very clear way and possible difficulties and dangers were pointed out.
Once we had decided on a property and were, from then on, dealing with Manuel Pinto is where the real difference was made for me.
Manuel Pinto was not just selling a property for the seller but acted as a responsible intermediate for buyer and seller. He was very straightforward and fair in his advice and in finding the middle road between two parties.
The buying contract was clear and correct and at the time of signing at the lawyer's office Manuel showed his expert legal knowledge when correcting "our" lawyer on certain elements in the contract and explaining to us what we were signing.
We still experience a service orientated attitude from him and his staff and we always feel welcome to come and ask for advice.

Manuel Pinto's philosophy is to my opinion the only correct and certainly the smartest one: treat clients well and fair and you will create loyal customers and build a good and solid reputation.

His reputation in this area of Costa Rica is indeed a very good one and I can and will recommend him to anyone looking to buy or sell in this part of the country."