One step closer to our home purchase in Costa Rica

Friday the 13th was not so bad for the Jones family. Our realtor called last night to let us know that Manuel, the owner of the house we want to buy in Costa Rica, hasn't heard from the other potential buyers in 3 weeks. He was to receive a down payment from them last week and supposedly his lawyer can't even reach them! Good news for us.

So we are going ahead with a title check, inspection, and purchase agreement. If purchasing property in Costa Rica, make sure you always have a lawyer you trust working for you. The lawyer will need to translate all of the paperwork, which is obviously written in Spanish. Also, another important task the lawyer will need to do is check the title. The lawyer needs to ensure the person you are buying the property from is the true one and only owner.

Costa Rica is known for bad property exchanges. People don't need a license to sell property in Costa Rica so everyone tries to get in on the money. What typically happens: a "realtor" or "owner" will sell the same property to several interested parties. After "purchasing" the property, the buyers will find out that they don't actually own it and there is nothing they can do about it. The only way to avoid this scam is to have a lawyer do a title check. Don't avoid this step because no matter how trust worthy the owner or "realtor" seems, there is always the possibility that he has no right to sell you the property.

As a matter of fact, we were starting to get nervous about the money we wired to our realtors company last month because there are no guarantees. But it all seems to be going well. We did receive a receipt for the money from Scotia Bank. Whew! I'll just feel better when this is all done and we have moved in - ah! life in the slow lane!

It's a Jungle out there! Photo taken from the Rain Forest Aerial Tram in Braulio Carrillo National Park