Fact Finding Trip

There are a few companies / people who do this but unfortunately I don't have the names.  When we came down for the same reason we chose to tour the country on our own and in three weeks put on 2500 km. It was a great way to see the country and we made it to places where the tours don't go, in fact the place where we live has never been part of a tour and we would never have found it.  Best luck on your endeavors.

GabrielHippieman wrote:

I am looking at retiring and have never been to Costa Rica.  I plan on making a few trips to different places.  I would like to do a fact finding vacation and was wondering if there is a travel or tour company in Costa Rica that does that.

There are a few small mom and pop type businesses that give you "retirement tours" here.
Research them on this and other forums.
The one I took was 6 or so years ago by George Lundquist - he calls it Retire On Social Security or something. I don't know how it is, now; I think I heard he's given it over to someone else to run, but not sure.
Anyway it was a very good tour, my wife and I had a lot of fun on it and he is very knowledgeable.

There are a couple others based in the San Ramon area (but go to other areas, I'm pretty sure) that I can't recommend because I know very little about them.

I do think it's a good idea to take one with the following caveat:
DO NOT let them sell you a property while you're on the tour. Make a pact with yourself NOT to allow yourself to buy a property on the tour.

Now, George was selling property as well on our tour, BUT he was not at all pushy about it. I've heard some people can be pretty pushy and I have known at least one person who bought property while on a tour who ended up very sorry.

So take a tour, but don't get talked into buying property!

San Ramon is correct.......George has sold his share in that business.   Also correct when San Ramon says "don't get talked into buying property"!!!!  Very good advice!!!  Would also recommend when you are ready -  buy something already built - DO NOT BUILD!!!!!!  Lots of beautiful areas but be sure you research everything - weather, prices, touristy or not - depends also if you are planning on living there full time.

cratedivision wrote:

San Ramon is correct.......George has sold his share in that business.   Also correct when San Ramon says "don't get talked into buying property"!!!!  Very good advice!!!  Would also recommend when you are ready -  buy something already built - DO NOT BUILD!!!!!!  Lots of beautiful areas but be sure you research everything - weather, prices, touristy or not - depends also if you are planning on living there full time.

I'm not sure why some people say "Do not build!" a home.

The building issues I've heard about are mostly when people buy in a development, or are not on site on a regular basis (like every day, if possible) to make sure the crew is working and not goofing off, materials are not being skimped on etc. Even with a Development, it can be done reasonably as long as the Developer(s) are legit and have many positive references/reviews.

We built our house, my neighbors have built their homes, and hey, Ticos build homes here since time began... So I don't get the whole "Don't build a house" advice people give sometimes. It's do-able, with many fewer approvals from government, and much cheaper than in the USA imho.

We built our home easily and quickly, cost-effectively and with American quality (except a few little things we had to tweak after, very easily). I will say it helps if you have someone there who knows about quality materials, plumbing and electricity to make sure they're doing those things right.

You need to get all the ducks in a row re permissions, ahead of time; water, electricity, sewer, uso de suelo and so on. Get the approvals from the Municipalidad... Have a contract that says the house must be built which includes this and that etc, to quality standards, and by a certain time... with reasonable problems due to weather. (Best to start building after the rains or towards the end of the rains.)

With attention to the above matters, I see no reason not to build a home in Costa Rica. We did and are happy with the building process and with the house itself.

Well, you're one of the lucky ones!!!  Heard horror stories all over the place and our experience was terrible - yea the house that was supposed to be less than the States, ended up costing us double.  That's just the reality of it!  Not everyone was as fortunate as you.