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- Finding A Property
- Making An Offer
- Purchase and Sale Agreement
- Escrow Agreement
- Our Experience with Gathering The Escrow Documents
- Escrow Companies
- Closing
- Problems We Encountered and Tips For Buying A House in Costa Rica
- Conclusion
- Looking For More Information About Living in Costa Rica? Check Out These Posts
Online Options
Costa Rica does not have a multiple listing system (MLS), Zillow, or any similar real estate websites. This makes it more difficult to see what’s available online. Real estate companies do have websites with listings, but these don’t include everything that is available. Lower priced homes, especially, tend not to be listed online. Some agents don’t have websites at all, while others have outdated information. So how do you go about finding a house to buy in Costa Rica?
Real Estate Agents
Real estate in Costa Rica is mostly done on a local level. By that we mean that most real estate agents cover a specific geographic area, rather than the whole country. That means that it’s easiest to first figure out the general area where you want to live. Once you know that, you can ask around to find a reputable local real estate agent. If you’re not sure where to live, we have a couple of articles that may help. Check out: Planning a Long-term Visit to Costa Rica– Includes tips on what t...
Now that you’ve found a place you love, it’s time to start the legal process. Just like in real estate transactions elsewhere in the world, the first step when buying a house in Costa Rica is to make a formal offer (also called a letter of intent). This is just a basic letter that gives your intent to purchase the property from the seller.
Overview
Once you have a signed offer, your lawyer can start drafting the purchase and sale agreement (P&S). The P&S is the formal, legally binding contract between you and the seller, so it’s important that it includes all necessary details. In our P&S, we wanted some of the furniture that was in the house during the showing, so we made sure to write that in.
Payment Method
The P&S will have details on how the transaction will be funded. If you have bank accounts in Costa Rica and plan to use that money for payment, then you will be able to make a simple in-country transfer at the time of closing. However, many foreigners keep their money elsewhere. Because of money laundering laws in Costa Rica, it is not advisable to try to wire in large sums of money from a foreign bank account. We have heard horror stories of people’s money being held up for months by banks...
Closing Date
The P&S will set a closing date. Since most deals are cash deals and you don’t have to worry about delays from a lender, many are done in as little as 30 days. We did ours in just over a month.
You will need a separate escrow agreement if you’re using an escrow company to get your money into Costa Rica. It will be between you, the escrow company, and the seller as well. This agreement is fairly detailed and gives the escrow company the legal permission to be appointed as your escrow agent. It describes when the money will be released to t...
Getting all the documentation was easy for us, except the bank letter. The escrow company wanted the letter to state the age of the account, average balance, and be signed by a bank representative. Our bank, Capital One, only issued automatically generated letters that were not personally signed. To get a signed version, we would have needed to go ...
There are a few escrow companies in Costa Rica. The largest, which we used ourselves, is Secure Title Latin America. They have an office in San Jose. We started out using a smaller company, but they were getting essential details wrong in the escrow agreement (even the purchase price!) so we quickly changed to STLA. Escrow companies typically charg...
This was the really stressful part for us. We were waiting on some documents from the seller in order for our lawyer to finish the due diligence. Without the due diligence report and knowing that everything checked out legally with the property, we couldn’t close on time. So we ended up pushing back the closing date by a few days. The closing itsel...
Lawyers
Overall, the process for us was fairly good. However, like many things in Costa Rica, it can be slow. We were waiting for the due diligence report from our lawyers until the very last minute, with the closing date approaching, which was quite stressful. We had one major legal issue outstanding that could have stopped the sale completely. It would have been nice to have that resolved much sooner in the process. In our experience, lawyers in Costa Rica are not as experienced and knowledgeable....
Bank Transfers
Another difficulty we had was with sending the money. Our bank (Capital One) made it extremely difficult to send the money to the escrow company using our regular online banking. The escrow company had a bank account in the United States, where our bank was located, but we still needed to have a security code sent by text message. Although we have Magic Jack for international calling, it does not allow for automatic text messages. We tried to have a family member receive the text, but that di...
Even with the stress of buying a house, we are still thrilled to be homeowners! It will be wonderful to have a place of our own for our family. We hope this post helped answer some of your questions about buying a house in Costa Rica.
FAQs About Moving to Costa Rica– Learn the basics of moving. Covers residency options, buying a car, renting vs. buying, and ways to make money. Where to Live in Costa Rica: Planning Your Research Trip– Living somewhere full time is a lot different than vacationing. Check out these tips on what to look for in the areas you are interested in. Buildi...
4 days ago · $8,395,000. on market. Offered By: Manuel Antonio, Scott Williams. La Libertad. Papagayo, Liberia, Liberia, Guanacaste, Costa Rica 501014. 3 Bed 3 Bath 665 sq m. $7,800,000. on market. Offered By: Papagayo, Ewen Dusch. Unparalleled Beach Front Home In Hacienda Pinilla.
The price of real estate in Costa Rica depends on many factors, including location and size. Generally speaking, however, you can expect to pay anywhere from $50,000 to more than $1 million depending on where you buy property and how much land you are looking for.
Apr 22, 2022 · Step 1: Find a trusted realtor. Step 2: Visit properties and pick the perfect place. Step 3: Complete your own property checks. Step 4: Get a real estate attorney. Step 5: Negotiate the purchase price and write up an offer. Step 6: Complete a title search and place your deposit. Step 7: Close the sale.
Price. Advanced Search. Tamarindo Real Estate, Homes for Sale & Luxury Properties. Since its transformation from a small fishing village into one of Costa Rica's premiere tourist destinations, Tamarindo has rapidly grown to become one of Central America's hottest real estate markets.
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