Buying a condo to rent?

Asn13 wrote:

Hello all!  New to the forum - I live in Los Angeles and am doing research re: purchasing a beach condo in Costa Rica (or elsewhere in Central America, recommendations/thoughts welcome) solely as an investment, to rent out to others.

Do any of you have experience renting from afar?  Are there any location recommendations you have? (According to my research, Tamarindo seems like it might be the best bet for a high occupancy rate.  True?)  If I want to rent by night/week (rather than long term, monthly or annual), can I pay a local property manager to coordinate keys, cleaning, etc.? 

Advice/input much appreciated!

Hola Asn13,

Welcome to Expat.com!

Personally, I would strongly recommend against even considering it.  Unfortunately, I cannot say that I would trust any Gringos or Tico property managers here.  This is a different world.  You cannot live there and safely conduct business here.

First, anyone can call themselves a property manager here.  No license, no educational requirements.  Even if there were, there is no one to enforce it.  Had a neighbor down the road from me hire a Gringa "property manager" here over the past six months.  The so called manager took her money, rarely paid the bills that she was suppose to pay and never did provide a spreadsheet of any kind to show where the money went.

I would hope that there are some honest property managers here, I've just never met one. 

With the many, many horror stories I've heard over the years, I would not risk it.

- Expat Dave
Expat.com Team Member

ExpatDave - thank you so much for taking the time to reply!  Insider info much appreciated. I know this is the Costa Rica forum and I can post in other forums as well, but do you happen to have any insight/recommendations re: renting a place in other parts of Central America?  Just curious.

I agree with Expat Dave, save yourself the headaches

While I'm sure there are honest property managers, it would be best to do this, if you lived nearby.

As to your question re other parts of Central America, I can't say for sure but I would almost be willing to bet money that some of the other C.A. countries are worse re what the other forum members said, and I would never recommend anyone trust other gringos or Latinos to manage their property for them, except maybe in the short term like if you bought a property and needed someone to watch over for it until you come to live in/on it.

Even then I'd want to get to know the person well before trusting them, and get plenty of good referrals/recommendations. As to long term property management I agree with the others: save yourself the headache: don't do it.

And while I am not an expert on condo availability I'd also be almost willing to bet almost every area of Costa Rica has too many rentals and not enough people staying in them, especially in the rainy season which is most of the year.