Estimated Reading Time: 5 Minutes Banks are pushing credit cards and Costa Rican courts stopped them. Finally! Years ago, we would all get hundreds of flyers in the mail. Companies offering all kinds of services and products, that we really didn’t need anyway. A few years later, the faxes started, in the middle of the…
Of course, you have heard of International Living. We have great news!! In 2012, GoDutch Realty was approved by International Living ® and their commercial division Pathfinder, as their representative for the Central Valley of Costa Rica. AND we are invited to attend their next convention in Cancun, Mexico 21-25th February 2012. Rudy Matthews and…
Estimated Reading Time: 5 Minutes Costa Rica has never really had a good real estate MLS system. The main reason is that the two Costa Rica real estate boards are very disorganized. Besides, most real estate agents in Costa Rica prefer a 50% commission of nothing instead of working together. This makes it harder for…
Have you ever been a character in a suspense novel? Well, I have! I would like to share this funny story about a Costa Rica real estate suspense novel with you. When you think you’ve seen it all, you learn that you haven’t. This is not a fairy tale. Though all the actors involved in…
We have plenty of strawberry fields in Costa Rica, imagine that! On New Year’s Day 2012, it was such a beautiful day, Dany and I decided to take a day trip to Poas. As usual, because we never use a sweater in Costa Rica, we forgot to bring any and I was cold for the…
Estimated Reading Time: 6 Minutes The long-discussed tax on corporations in Costa Rica was just approved. The first time I wrote a blog about the tax the Costa Rican government proposed on corporate tax was in December 2010, so the approval has taken quite a while. For now, Congress, as well as Costa Rican government,…
Of course it gets cold in Costa Rica. It just depends on what you call cold. I call 14°C 0r 57°F pretty cold. Many of us who have moved to Costa Rica come from cold places. Most of us relocated because of the nice weather in Costa Rica, amongst the best in the world. I…
Estimated Reading Time: Looking for a Costa Rica insurance agent? Nothing is better for business than good service to your clients. In my business, Costa Rica real estate, I have always tried to excel in service as in my opinion it means the continuity of your business and it is a lot easier to keep…
Lots of expats just moving to Costa Rica don’t know if we have any culture in Costa Rica or not. Costa Rica real estate agent Margaret Sohn told me she was invited by a friend to go to the Nutcracker ballet by P.I. Tchaikovsky and sent me an email after the show “It was fantastic last…
Estimated Reading Time: 4 Minutes Now that most of you are on holiday, and I am not, you might have some more time available to enjoy the work of Isaac Martinez. Isaac is a panoramic photographer and does panoramic photos and virtual tours. I met Isaac the first time in the year 2,000 when I…
Christmas in Costa Rica is quite different from what I was used to. Where I was born and raised, December is pretty cold. I’m from Haarlem, a city almost right on the North Sea, close to Amsterdam. Christmas in Haarlem, when I grew up, was generally under 32ºF and we could skate the famous canals…
Estimated Reading Time: 4 Minutes Talented musician Manuel Obregon is someone you’d want to check out. Many of you might remember Catalina, who was my assistant for quite some time. When I hired Catalina, I didn’t know that she is Manuel Obregon’s sister. Manuel is one of Costa Rica’s most talented musicians and now Laura…
You and I are probably both frustrated most of the time with the services some larger corporations give, like banks and the utility companies in Costa Rica and in many other parts of the world. Globalization and the large corporations are taking over. Therefore the client friendly smaller companies and mom and pop businesses cannot…
The new Costa Rica Dimex residency card is worrying some residents unnecessarily. Some online newspapers in English reported this week about the new DIMEX cards. But the information wasn’t clear what a DIMEX is. As a result, I have received several emails from my readership. They are worried about not being able to do any…
I just went through the nicest Costa Rica real estate closing of my life. Even though it was probably one of the most difficult ones too. I have had some really nice closings, But I’ve also had some real impossible ones. Allow me to explain. Well, during this transaction, we went through practically every obstacle…
I hope you’ve read part 1 of this blog series about the nicest real estate closing of my life. Not every Costa Rica real estate closing is fun. Who had expected that the bank appraiser obliged to seller to get involved in all kinds of extra payments? Especially because in Costa Rica, you buy a…