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Many foreign buyers make the wrong approach when looking for a property on their own in Costa Rica. This mostly happens because they want to save themselves the realtor’s commission or they don’t believe the realtor’s expertise is necessary.
Unfortunately, there are many pitfalls when buying a property in a foreign country. Even if you speak the language fluently and the legal process doesn’t worry you, this might be a big mistake.
I have seen it happen repeatedly: buyers fall in love with a property they have seen on their own in Costa Rica. That can happen because they saw a sign on a property, an FSBO website, or a Facebook ad. They make the appointment and then make a verbal offer to the seller. Both parties think they have a deal when they agree on the sales price. But that’s when the problems start; you took the wrong approach.
3 Biggest problems
I can make a list of probably 50 mistakes and problems that you can encounter before closing. I get emails daily from people asking me to refer a home inspector, an escrow company, a lawyer, a surveyor, and other professionals. Then I don’t hear back from them when I ask which of our agents is assisting. I guess they don’t understand that if they want to shop around on their own, that’s fine. But don’t ask a real estate agency for free advice. But with my free advice in my blogs, it’s much easier to shop on your own.
Here are 3 are simple mistakes that happen all the time:
- Falling in love and showing the seller that you’re in love is your first problem.
- Having to deal with an offer and everything else related to the real estate purchase is your second problem.
- Your third problem might be when the negotiation goes sour because of a lack of knowledge or a shortage of tools.
Searching for a property
If you don’t want to use an agent to represent you, you can drive around neighborhoods you might like. Exclusive listings are uncommon in our market, so when you see a sign on a property for sale, you can knock on the door, save yourself the 5% real estate commission, and split the difference.
You can also go on Facebook and spend half your life looking at ads by sellers.
Licensed real estate agents
On Facebook, I often see comments like “real estate licensing doesn’t exist here” or similar. That’s not true. There are 2 real estate boards in Costa Rica. One is in San Jose – CCCBR – where you can follow a 3-day course; even if you don’t speak Spanish (the language that the course is taught in), and you become a licensed agent. Or you can become a licensed agent in CRGAR, where you learn how to be an agent in the USA (Costa Rica is not a formal state of the US or a US territory yet). The courses are in English and based on US laws, not Costa Rican ones.
Therefore, a licensed person is not neccesarily knowledgeable and able to assist you in the purchase process. More important, a license doesn’t make a person honest. So do your homework and find an agent who is honest, knowledgeable, or takes the wrong approach: look for property on your own.
Personally, I don’t believe in those real estate boards as they do absolutely nothing to form a real functioning MLS and unite the real estate agents and agencies in Costa Rica I was agent #0984 at the CCCBR (see image below) but turned in my license in 1995. Since then, I train my own agents.
The exact address
Buyers often ask for GPS or Google coordinates by email. Some buyers do this because they don’t know we don’t have a functioning MLS in Costa Rica. They are used to real estate agents having an exclusive listing agreement on the property, so they see no harm in asking for it. So when you’re looking for property on your own, it’s important to find out all you can about the neighborhood, the schools and the services available.
Real Estate attorney
No matter if you hire a real estate agent or not, you have to hire an attorney for the legal due diligence process and the closing. Make sure to hire a bilingual, well recommended notary public, and NEVER use the seller’s attorney for this.
Check us out!
Do you want to take the right approach? We make it all available for everyone; it is easy to find properties for sale on our website. Check us out, GoDutch Realty, read up on our blogs and newsletters, and you will see that we DO know what we are doing. I invite you to search for properties listed or ask any of our agents to assist you as a buyer’s agent.
