Anyone have experience or opinions on prefab construction of homes?

Thank you.
Your informations, recommendations and suggestions are well accepted with great appreciation.
I am interested in buying 12 acre lot near Dominical through Costa Rica Real Estate Service.  However, I don't know anything about buying a land in CR and CRRES and am hesitating.
I hope to meet you and visit your home someday, if possible.
Be happy and healthy.
Young Lee

no2jw wrote:

Thank you.
Your informations, recommendations and suggestions are well accepted with great appreciation.
I am interested in buying 12 acre lot near Dominical through Costa Rica Real Estate Service.  However, I don't know anything about buying a land in CR and CRRES and am hesitating.
I hope to meet you and visit your home someday, if possible.
Be happy and healthy.
Young Lee

The main thing with who you buy from is to get your OWN attorney, do not use the seller's or realtor's.
And of course your own attorney has to be one recommended by various people, not just one. Takes some research to find a good one. To me, the realtor is less important. But then you don't want to buy from a crook, either! So do your due diligence which means ask people who live around that area what they think of the realtors and can they recommend an attorney.

The attorney is what counts more than who you buy from imho because the attorney has to make sure the Title is all well and good and try to get him to investigate that you have water and electricity availability and "uso de suelo" which is the right to build on it, and right to access it. If it's right on a public road and doesn't cross anyone else's property, no problem. You can also check the Registro yourself for the title and see if it has any liens against it etc.

Ask to see the physical water connection and the physical electric transformer that can feed your property electricity. I'd say generally speaking if you have a transformer there you will be able to get electricity BUT there may be a way of confirming this with ICE first as well.

Generally speaking if your land borders a public road at all then if there is water and electricity on neighboring properties you should be able to get it as well so ask to be shown the sources for hooking up.

You might benefit from this link: How To Buy Real Estate In Costa Rica

Ask about the road. Does it ever flood or get blocked off for any reason? Are there ever any issues getting to the closest bigger town (in your case maybe San Isidro). I have heard that area has some issues still, after the recent Tropical Storm Nate, so check on that. I've also heard in the past that some areas between San isidro and Dominical have water issues (drinking water availability) so check on that. The issue may no longer be a problem, so I'm just saying check, as I don't live anywhere near there but I did look in that area to buy before buying my properties near San Ramon.

The only other "bad" thing about that area - and again, I almost bought there myself so I do like it a lot! - is that the road to San Jose is a long and curvy one and has a high accident rate or did years ago anyway due to all the big trucks that use it and crazy drivers trying to get around them.

I will send you a PM.

Thank you everyone for all the information.  Just started looking at CR and this helps a lot.

sips

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Maybe you could use glass instead to cut down on maintenance.  :-)  Of course you still need the structural beams, etc but the less maintenance the better.

If you intend to us a lot of glass, make sure to have a very wide overhang to provide some protection from both sun & rain.
I mean about 8-10 ft. at least. 

I know this is a really old thread,  but I'm about to embark on a land buying trip in the Dominical/Uvita area.  I intend to build 3 tiny home for me and a few family members,  I would be interested in what contractor you used and your experience with them.

Thanks

Ziminar.....Are you going to use the services of a C.F.I.A. registered architect,that has been in good standing for years with this institution ? Many bypass this professional and live to regret it,just because they thought they were going to save money.

We used Gustavo Quesada of http://arquescr.com/es/en/ .  We built in 2014 and Gustavo has become a good and trusted friend.

Yes I will need an architect as we all want different things in our tiny homes (they will be foundation homes) I didn't realize there was an actual group for certified ones tho! Thank you

In my post above, Gustavo is certified.

Ziminar.........Whatever team you choose,make sure they are in the area where you are building.Many choose professionals from San Jose,when they are building no where close to there.They are not going to comeback,if they have to correct any issues or defects that might manifest anytime during your warranty.Our team was just down the road from our building site and made good on everything because they had to, their reputation is at steak..

My next search will be finding an architect in the area who works with a construction company would be ideal. Will be researching that next. Thank you so much for all your advice!

Ziminar.....Whoever you choose for a architect,make sure you get his carnet number.With that information you can find out if he is in good standing with the institute/CFIA.If not you have just some guy who does the architectural plans on napkins.

Rather than building 'tiny homes' I would suggest you build regular small homes similar to ones the many Costa Rican families live in. This is because tiny places... like a shed...can get very, very hot and without a decent overhang  keeping out the sun and rain.

Building with wood is not recommended there, as the insects will devour it, so most build with cement, block, steel and glass.

Our intent is to build a small foundation home but between 300 and 400 sq ft each. We don't want it to be the typical on wheels place. But thank you for the recommendation. Now if someone could recommend an architect in the southern Pacific that would be awesome

Ziminar.......Check out "Eco Maderas Del Sur". They are in San Isidro Del General and have a track record in the Southern Zone.Unfortunately some of these architects coming off big projects are not open to building small.At least you will find E.M.S. interesting .For cost effective reasons,the smallest they build is about 800sq.ft.

Maybe since I'm doing 3 they'll help out lol! Thanks again you've been so helpful. Everyone has