Hello again everyone, I'm having trouble getting a feeling weather we should bother visiting Playa Las Lajas & Juan Hombron Cocle on our visit in April to assess areas to possibly purchase a small, modest Panamanian style beach front house. I have managed to communicate with local people from two of the other areas of our interest (Puerto Armuelles & coastal area outside Pedasi area), but I need some guidance on these areas. We would rather spend more time in the areas that make sense for our wants and needs since we only have so much time on this trip.
If you are familiar with either of these areas, and can tell us if we should still go if we are looking for the following things.......
-an area that is not totally built up with condo units etc along the water
-an area that still has Panamanian charm and character
-the option to find a house that is on a beachfront property, where the house is modest (1-3 bedrooms), doesn't need to be ultra modern or super american style (we like quaint)
-can fit into a budget under $200,000US, keeping in mind we dont mind if it needs cosmetic TLC (we are ok to paint, landscape, etc) and if it needed a roof, windows etc. could still come in at $150k so we can make changes, but is habitable as it is.
If you can tell me if this is or isn't what we may find in Playa Las Lajas or Juan Hombron, we would be grateful to find out ahead of our visit.
If it is possible and you know of a person or forum we can go to to find out what may be available for sale (outside of real estate agents), so we can see some examples that would be great too 
Thanks a million everyone
Playa Las Lajas Chiquiri & Juan Hombron Cocle
Are you going to spend 4 days here and buy something?? NO! this is NOT a good idea. Please, do not buy anything.
Contact my friend Eduardo ([email protected]) He is a realtor and knows Chiriqui. He is honest and ethical, and can give you better info than I can.
$200K is a very large amount of money in Panama. Someone will be thrilled to sell you a $60K house for that amount.
We don't plan to buy on our first visit, unless we somehow managed to find the perfect place, at the perfect price and had time to check it out, which I don't think our time will allow for anyway.
Thanks for the contact, i'll reach out to Eduardo right away. We definitely know houses right on the beach (walk out to the beach close) will be more, I haven't seen anything that low in price so far in either Puerto Armuelles or even Playa Uverito, they seem to be (even private sales via locals) around $150.
OK whew! OK, good.
Even simple Panamanian houses near the beach cost that much? Wow. I guess I have a different frame of reference living in this house that is considered fairly expensive by most locals, $385/mo.
Even vacant property on the beach front (depending on area) appears to be from $60k-$150k 
. this is why we don't think we want to wait 5-8 years to grab a beach house :-
even if we find we want something different when we move there for longer periods, at least we have the land we want, having been able to use the house as our vacation, we can always improve upon it or rebuild once we have sold our business.
I forgot to add that I just sent a message to Eduardo, thanks soooo much for his contact.
My advise is Pedasi.
Nice place, much verter.
DON"T BUY!!! Rent for a year before considering to buy anywhere. Have rented for 8 years now and would never consider buying.
Panama is very hot and i do not think i would spend alot of money there.I would rent for at least a year there to make sure you want to stay there.
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