Can't wait to move!

I know I promised to provide the name of our lawyer so I want everyone to know that Grettel S. Caldera provided us with exceptional service. She called and emailed frequently which helped immensely! Plus, after the home was purchased our property was registered with the Costa Rica government within one week which surprised everyone even Grettel! Grettel was recommended to us by our realtor, Colin Miller, since she works with his company, Buyer's Agents of Costa Rica. I am unsure if she works with them exclusively or not but if anyone is interested in her email address, please ask.

So, we have been working hard to get our Big Lake house on the market. The neighbors never came by to look at the place but we have received a call from a woman who saw our ad on Craig's List... If we don't have anyone interested by Wednesday, we have decided to officially list as a For Sale By Owner on the MLS. We hope to at least have an offer by the end of June but the market in this area is very tough right now...

I know a lot of people are wondering how they will contact us once we move. Since we don't speak Spanish very well, we have heard that receiving mail at the local post office may be difficult (remember there are no addresses in Costa Rica only locations). We plan to set up a Post Office box in Miami via the ARCR for important mail since they charge by weight. Otherwise, the computer will be our main form of communication. I suppose it's possible we may receive mail using the local post office so here is our "official" location:
Concepcion de San Rafael de Heredia, 50 meters east from Rio Turales

I guess we will go to the Post Office and introduce ourselves. Then, if someone wants to send a post card or something as a test, we'll stop by once a week or so and see if it arrives. I'll follow up on the blog and let everyone know how it goes. I have also heard that packages may never arrive since they are thoroughly "investigated" by customs officials and if they like what they see they will just keep it. Sounds interesting to say the least...

Well, it's time I do some more cleaning and packing. I'll try to write again soon. By the way, don't forget to bid for my items on Ebay !

Oh, Happy Days!

Yes, we finalized the purchase today! We now own a property in Costa Rica! Woo Hoo!

I realize I haven't written much in a while and I hope you understand that we have been busy with a capital B. Monday we wired the money to Costa Rica and visited the duplex to look at last minute fix ups. Later that night, we found out that the buyer we had lined up to purchase the duplex decided against it. So, Tuesday I updated Craig's list and immediately had someone interested! (how could we lose with a title "practically giving this duplex away!") Wednesday, Patrick met with a gentleman and his realtor and wrote up a purchase agreement. He came home and convinced me it was a good deal and we both signed. Yesterday he met with the gentleman again and received an earnest money check. In the afternoon, our realtor called from Costa Rica and said they received the wire and were setting up the closing for Friday (today). This morning we took the title paperwork to the title company for the duplex. When we returned home, we had an email from our lawyer stating the owner of the property was there to sign paperwork and receive payment. She also attached a copy of our corporation information.

Oh, plus, we have had the painter at our house so we have been busy packing more and moving furniture. We picked dreamy white for the entire house which looks somewhat pink but should highlight our new Tiffany-esque light fixtures. I know it sounds weird but it looks better than the old off white/yellow walls we used to have (you should see the difference!).

Patrick let me buy a turntable with USB connection so I am currently recording Devo New Traditionalist! I haven't heard this album in ages! The plan is record all my vinyl before we leave and then I can sell or donate the collection so we don't have to pack the whole thing. I have quite a large collection so hopefully I can get the majority done...

I expect to have our Big Lake house on Craig's List next week and possibly on the market with a For Sale By Owner company the following week (if we don't have anyone interested before then). The painting and new kitchen/dining room floor will be in by end of next week. We would like to have a closing before mid-July if possible so we will need to "practically giving this house away" also!

My Mom and Phil are coming to help us with our big garage sale this weekend. And of course we will make Phil help move furniture and my Mom will need to help put new shelf paper down. I hate doing shelf paper! Anyway, I will post information regarding our realtor and his company plus our lawyer later this weekend (or Monday if I am swamped as usual!)

I know I posted these photos before, but this is now officially "our house" (even though there are two houses). We'll live in the upper one and rent the lower one -or have friends and family use it!

Done deal?

The closing was yesterday and the owner of the property signed the purchase option. Our lawyer presented him with a down payment check and we wired the balance to our realtor's account in Costa Rica. The wire should appear in the account within 5 days (hopefully). At that time, our lawyer will again meet with the owner of the property and have him sign the final paperwork. Then, he is obligated to stay in the house until July 1st. We should arrive in Costa Rica mid-July. We will sign paperwork transferring the property to a corporation we are setting up specifically for this purpose and then we will be given the keys. Currently, the house is in a corporation set up by our realtor's company but we are the sole share holders.

So, I guess we are almost the owners of 4 houses (two in Minnesota and two in Costa Rica)! Wow! Hopefully we can sell our homes here before we leave but that is turning into a longer process than I imagined...

Now we need to concentrate on getting Azure's school set up. Classes begin on July 30th so we need to get her registered by the end of this month. We also need to start the process of becoming legal residents of Costa Rica because we want to make sure we do it legit. The ARCR will help us with this lengthy process.

finally signed a contract

So, we finally received and signed a purchase option for "our house" as I have been calling the property we hope to own some day soon. Since the other couple's option doesn't end until Saturday, we officially can not sign the final purchase agreement so it is technically only an option to purchase. But, from the discussions with our lawyer and realtor, it has become apparent that the house will be ours since the other couple still haven't gotten their financing. We will sign final paperwork next week.

As I promised earlier, I will share the name of our realtor and even our lawyer's name after all paperwork is finalized. I want everyone to benefit from the wonderful treatment we have received especially since Patrick has been reading about so many bad experiences others have dealt with in Costa Rica.

For now, Patrick has decided we should show close ups of pictures. Can anyone guess what this is a picture of (just leave a comment) -we're starting with an easy one. If people enjoy this game, we'll make them harder!

Busy, busy, busy

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I've been so busy lately! I am such a slow poke when it comes to getting my items up on Ebay. Generally it takes me 30 minutes per item! But I have been plugging away and so check back often since I am continually adding new fun stuff. Click here for all my items (and thanks for bidding!). Like I said before, I hate to give some of these treasures up but moving to Costa Rica is much more fun and exciting to me right now than having a huge display case full of "things".

Our realtor has been in contact with us a lot this past weekend. The company's lawyer is in the process of writing up our purchase agreement! Yeah! We still need to wait until the other couple's option runs out but they only have a few days left so we are very hopeful!

We had a garage sale on Saturday which helped us empty part of the garage. The plan is to have one at least one day every weekend until we move. Then we'll take all the unsold items to Salvation Army. Speaking of Salvation Army, we took another van full of clothes again today. Who knew we had so many darn clothes! It's kind of scary!

Anyway, I hope to get more useful information posted soon. So, please stay tuned!

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