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Patrick, I agree with your thoughts on living at elevation. My wife and I purchased about 7 acres near Platanillo, about 15 minutes from Dominical. The property havs great ocean and valley views and is at about 1,000 feet elevation, with temps about 10-15 degrees cooler than the beach. So there are definitely options in that area.

If you are interested in knowing more about the specifics of th development we purchased our land in, please let me know.

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Jim,

You may want to read up on a US law called FATCA. It essentially requires that international banks like those in CR MUST report the existence of deposits held, and income gained, by any US Citizen. So you’re not going to get any level of banking privacy by choosing a non-US bank.

See this link – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_Account_Tax_Compliance_Act

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I would also recommend that you speak to a tax attorney familiar with these laws, but here is what I have found out:

1) If you establish residency in a no-tax (or low-tax) state before you move to Costa Rica, you can avoid state income taxes. The key is that you need to be able to show that you moved and physically resided in the low-tax state for a period of time. That’s usually about 6 months. So my plan is to move to Florida (0% state income tax) for 6 months prior to relocating to CR.

2) Depending on your situation, you may be able to avoid US taxes on up to about $95,000 each if you become residents of CR AND spend less than 330 days in the US. This gets very complicated, and in that case I believe you would pay CR taxes, but it is something to look into.

Again, check with your tax attorney on all of this.

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I might add to all of this that your ability to do things like read traffic signs in Spanish will greatly influence what approach you take.  🙂   My wife and I traveled to CR for the first time about 6 years ago, and we just hired a service to pick us up in one city and drop us off at the next.  It was very convenient, the drivers were very nice and on time, and the cars were very clean.  We covered four different areas in 12 days – San Jose, Arenal, Monteverde, and Guanacaste.  I NEVER would have tried to drive in a foreign country and with a different language on all the signs by myself.  And we are very adventurous types.  But the roads that our drivers took from point A to point B often would have been  hard for us to understand.

Fast forward and we now have land we have purchased outside Dominical, and when we visit from the States (not yet moved down there), we rent a car at the SJ airport and hit the highways.  We are on the Costanera Sur in less than 90 minutes and are very comfortable on the roads.

One more thing – IF you decide to rent, make sure that you know what roads you will be driving on and the time of year you will be there.  The main roads are very good, but up in the mountains you will still find a lot of dirt.  And in the Green Season, a lot of mud and possibly rushing rivers/creeks.   Make sure that you have the right car for the conditions.  If you think you will be on dirt roads and with lots of potholes, or you are in the Green Season, don’t just get the cheapest 4-wheel drive.  Get something like the Toyota Prada, that can really handle the roads.  You will be glad you did.

 

Pura Vida.

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Jason, is that in a developed area, and do you get that service via wire-line or through satellite?

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You may want to look for this lady’s reports on Welovecostarica.com.   She went through the whole process and had a series of postings with pictures, video and some discussion on costs.

http://www.welovecostarica.com/public/3934.cfm

Good luck, and please share what you learn as well!

 

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Jason, I have done a little bit of research on the topic as well and it’s always a bit confusing as to what type of service you need to operate something like Vonage or Voice over Internet in Costa Rica.  Something high-speed enough to run a small business, for instance.  The property I have purchased is up in the hills in Platanillo in the Southern Zone and though it has electricity I don’t believe it will be serve by phone or Internet anytime soon.

 

What type of service do you use and how have you found the reliability, especially in the green season?

 

Thanks for your help!

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Hi everyone and Happy New Year. In my continuing search for information on building costs I came across this great article from someone building their home in the Guanacaste region. http://www.welovecostarica.com/public/3934.cfm. The final building costs , excluding such things as pool, landscaping, etc., averaged in the $110 /sf range. A bit higher than what I budgeted but still good info.

Hope everyone finds this helpful.

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