Last month we closed on the sale of Casa Salita, the second property we purchased in Costa Rica. Though we bought it only in December 2017 (just over four years ago), we started thinking about selling it in the midst of the pandemic because we weren’t sure where rentals were heading, and the market for selling Costa Rica real estate was hot. However, we didn’t put the home on the [...]
A recent Twitter conversation reminded us about how we often refer to our rental properties birthing babies, when we tap the equity in them to buy more houses. We used a cash-out refinance of our two North Carolina rentals to buy our condo in Costa Rica. Essentially, our Asheville places birthed Condo Boom. You can also access your property’s equity with a home equity line of credit. We used a [...]
Wondering how should one start if I am looking to buy a single family in Costa Rica. I have been there a couple of years back and would look to have a place that we can use when travel and then rest of the time can use as vacation rentals. – Sushil We are not financial advisors or real estate agents, so we don’t give advice. However, we have written [...]
I live in Costa Rica also and I read a few of your articles. I was wondering, Instead of investing in Costa Rica real estate, Why not become private hard money lenders yourselves? That is what I do and it is pretty much a no-lose deal if you do it right. Any reason why you prefer Real estate?- Dan We actually are private lenders, but only on deals in the [...]
We have a lot to update you on! We closed on two sales in July: we sold one of our two Tamarindo condos; and we sold one of our three Florida condos. We also moved from a 2-bed condo in Florida to a 3-bed, to get more space. We considered and ultimately decided not to sell another rental. Finally, we have an unexpected offer in the works for yet a [...]
How are you determining (without MLS in CR) the value of the home? They ask for $400K just because they believe it is worth that price point. Most don't seem to have a P&L to back ROI. – Dom Yes, it’s true that there is no MLS, or Multiple Listing Service, in Costa Rica, so there isn’t a one-stop information site to learn at what prices properties sold for, what [...]
The numbers are in for 2020, and despite Costa Rica borders being closed from March through November, we were able to eke out a small profit across our three properties. We attribute this to one major factor – owning all three properties outright, with no mortgage to cover. When you don’t have a monthly mortgage (or 3, since we own 3 properties), you don’t need much income to break-even. In [...]
We own rentals in Tamarindo, Costa Rica, Asheville, NC and Jacksonville, FL. For 2021, Costa Rica was named the number 1 best place to retire by International Living. In a US News survey of best place to retire in the US, Asheville, NC was number 8 and Jacksonville, FL was number 13. It’s no coincidence that we own real estate in top retirement destinations – that’s one of the factors [...]
We don’t name all of our real estate – only the vacation properties, not the long-term rentals. All three of our Costa Rican units have names: Condo Boom, Casa Salita and Condo Reeves. From a practical perspective, we figured the names would help with marketing the properties. Having a name would make the property searchable on a vocational rental platform like AirBNB, without divulging the address. The names could also [...]
One of our readers wrote in with a question. It was lengthy and had personal details he didn't want to share, so it is summarized. In a nutshell, he owns a plot of vacant land in a prime area of Costa Rica but won’t be using it full-time. He was all set to start building a house on the land in March, but lost his job at that time due [...]
