So, why owning a beach home in Costa Rica?

After our first posting in the blog, we started thinking of the real reasons behind our aspiration. We already live in Costa Rica, we do have a great property already in front of a rainforest preserve, and we can hit the beach in just under 2 hours to find a hotel or a rental...so why a beach home?

Well, in the last post we started painting a picture of our journey in real estate and discussed our top 5 lessons learned while scouting locations, talking to realtors, vacationing in different Costa Rica coastal locations, but we didn't mention that our first steps in real estate started a few years back.

Our current savings are the result of our income, a very disciplined budget management that prioritizes savings and also the profits of two properties we have bought and sold in the last few years. So we have some basic experience doing this, and now we want to do it for our vacation home in Costa Rica.

So, as you may have figured out already, we’re not americans, we are 100% born and raised Costa Ricans. We live in San Jose, up in the mountains (not all Costa Rica is beach front properties). And like many Costa Ricans we ambition to have a place where we can vacation, enjoy hot summers and just be near the water.

Yeah, for many americans or europeans, their first guess when talking to us as locals is that we all live at the beach, we all drink coconut water all day long, and we have monkeys as pets (I wish!) :-)

But the truth is most Costa Rican’s (2.5 million of the approximately 5.2 million citizens) live in the central valley, where the capital San Jose is and where most people work. It's city living, just like in any other mid-size city: traffic, stress, noise, people, traffic, office buildings, etc... City living with a twist though, because you can actually be at a national park or a forest hill in less than 20 minutes drive.

So, even though right in front of our house we literally have the starting of a rainforest reserve that connects with the country’s laregets national park, the experience is more like that of any US or european gated community.

People commute everyday, work is work, and neighbors say high from their driveways when they see each other (and like each other).

But beach living is different. Even for us as Costa Ricans, the relaxed, slow-paced and party-like ambience of most Costa Rica towns feels different. Its relaxing, its sunny, its warm.

And its also full of energizing parties, time with friends and family, adventure tours, water sports...

The truth is that the moment you get near the coast it just feels different. Like immediately as you get there you feel its a vacation.

So, since our last post was enjoyed by many, we want to explain why a couple of Costa Ricans would like to also have a beach property to enjoy. Even our families have asked us “why”? If technically we could get a hotel whenever we want, or rent an Airbnb…

And there are many stories of Costa Ricans that bought a property but never really used it, so the question makes sense. However, with Airbnb coming around, with so many people wanting to vacation here (Costa Rica receives about 2.4 million tourists each year), and with some funds available that depreciate due to inflation all the time, we think this is the thing we can do to put that money to work, save it in a real estate asset and have something we can enjoy with our friends and families.

So, in the spirit of using this blog as our motivational journal and ot ensure we remember why we are doing this, here we have listed some of our main reasons to buying a beach property in Costa Rica and maybe some of the reasons you should too:

1. WE CAN: We have the flexibility to do so now. We can all work remotely, and you could do it too. We believe that contrary to the many costa ricans that end up having a beach house that they don’t use, we can actually do it because we work remotely, we can flexibilize our schedules and we don’t mind the drive. If you are thinking of doing it yourself, think of how easy it is to fly directly to SJO airport or the Liberia International airport, you could have a home in Costa Rica and get here in around 4 hours from any major hub in the US; and once here you could extend your vacation while remote working if your job permits.

2. NOT JUST FOR US: We enjoy spending time with friends and family, together, in the same place. We want to be able to invite them for a weekend, or a week or two… Workations are a thing now, digital nomads are coming to Costa Rica all the time and even if your job doesn't allow you prologued stays, maybe you could think of opportunities to use it just to escape winters (thousands of Canadians, Germans and Dutch own properties here just for the great 2 months they can escape cold winters). And while having one you can also make some income by renting it out while you are not using it.

3. COSTA RICA IS GREAT!: People all over the world come here for that, why shouldn’t we enjoy it here instead of Paris or New York? We know the local market and can do this in a much better way with direct supervision of every detail, and if 2.5 million foreigners visit Costa Rica every year, well maybe we should enjoy it too instead of going to other not so great places that are close by.

4. Its Financially viable: It can actually pay for itself… or even generate something extra to reinvest in it. We have made a very solid plan to get us to make this dream a reality, and we reocmmend you do it not just to speculate on real estate markets or to try to make yourself a vacation rental mogul... do it if you love the opportunity of beach living, but do it when you are ready for the financial commitment and cultural embrassing it takes to have a home in another country (we'll probably write aobut this a bit more as we have been talking to lots of people aobut it).

5- Its the beach! C’mon , we love it: We already spoke about all those sunsets, pool time, beach time, and drinks we can have! That is in the end the aspirational image we have in mind and we know that the beach gives that sense of relaxation and regeneration we all need to have a happier, better life!

Wouldn't you agree these are good reasons? Tell us what you think and if you can find any other good reasons to having a second home, a vacation home, a beach-living paradise in a Costa Rica beach town.

Thanks for reading, and PURA VIDA!