Estimated Reading Time: 4 Minutes We were victims of a professional, well-planned home invasion. It is everyone’s worst fear of any crime because it happens in your home while you are there. The criminals were in our home for over an hour looking for a safe and money that was not there. This is not a…
policemenTheWhen you move to Costa Rica, you should know how to recognize the different police forces, know what they do and recognize them. As you all know, Costa Rica has not had an army since Pepe Figueres abolished it on December 1st, 1948. The country needed a police force that came under the command of…
Estimated Reading Time: 7 Minutes Can you learn from other expat recommendations and their experiences? Of course, you can, those expat recommendations will help you tremendously to learn what they did right and wrong. So it won’t happen to you. A couple of weeks ago, I published an article Why Bill does not consider Costa…
Estimated Reading Time: 7 Minutes Bill, a subscriber on Ivo’s blog, does not consider Costa Rica for retirement anymore. Future retiree Bill (I changed his name), has been a reader since January 2015 and has read 30.5% of our weekly blogs. This is more than the average subscriber. His email, asking me to unsubscribe him.…
GoDutch Realty’s real estate agents all check property title before listing a Costa Rica property for sale. But, we still like to share our knowledge with buyers and sellers, so you understand better what we do for you. Many of you do not speak or read Spanish and it is not too easy to know where…
Estimated Reading Time: 8 Minutes Some want to work in Costa Rica, and it seems to be very attractive just to jump on a flight to San José and get a job in paradise. Is it that easy? There are over 275 high-tech multinationals in Costa Rica. Can you get a job with them? Or…
Estimated Reading Time: 5 Minutes If you decide to keep your AOL email account even after you move to Costa Rica, you will ask yourself soon why nobody gets in touch with you anymore. If you keep using your AOL email account, you will stop hearing from your beloved family members, your former neighbors and…
Estimated Reading Time: 5 Minutes Those who know me personally, know that wearing flip flops to work is normal for me. Every day. I also wear shorts. But, I do dress up a bit when I have clients who have never met me before. I live in a country where wearing flip flops to work…
When moving to Costa Rica or just visiting you will need to change money for your day to day expenses. Often, clients ask if it is difficult to change money and if it is really necessary. The legal currency in Costa Rica is the Colon. Nonetheless, U.S. dollars are used for more expensive items like…
Estimated Reading Time: 7 Minutes Now that you found this article, I’m sure you’re looking for a new lifestyle in Costa Rica. You’ve done the same thing all your life and you’re now totally fed up with it. It’s time you start thinking of yourself now and not everyone around you. Costa Rica is so…
This year, for the Holiday Season, I’ve decided to re-publish the 4 Most Popular Living in Costa Rica blogs 2017 as well as those that I wrote for the Tico Times. The Most Popular Living in Costa Rica blogs means those that were visited most and readers took at least 2.5 minutes to read them.…
Estimated Reading Time: 7 Minutes The closing date is coming up and there is so much to do before moving into your new home. Getting nervous already? Don’t! Use this checklist to make it easier on yourself. We do this all the time and you don’t. There are so many things you need to do…
Wondering how to get mail to Costa Rica once you’ve moved here? To get mail is really one of those tasks you should take care of BEFORE you move to another country. You have to take into account that we don’t have street addresses in Costa Rica. Getting a mailing address is another story. So…
I am a landlord myself. Dany and I thought it was a good idea to purchase a small 2 bedroom condo in Sabana as income property some years ago. Hey, I’m a real estate broker, so we should own some rental property too, right! First, we had several tenants from hell, one after another. Sadly,…
Estimated Reading Time: 3 Minutes Did you read Ned Nossaman’s Costa Rica poem last year? The title of this Costa Rica poem was Costa Rica ~ Pura Vida! in which Ned shared his feelings for Costa Rica with us. Is moving to Costa Rica a consideration for you? Ned wrote another Costa Rica poem, with…
Estimated Reading Time: 5 Minutes Moving offshore with your family is much easier than it was ever before. The internet made the world smaller and Costa Rica is now home to thousands of expats and retired foreigners, many of them Americans. Costa Rica is not just a place to hide dirty money anymore like it…