5 Tips for Combining Your Vacation with a Real Estate Scouting Trip

Many pre-retirement Baby Boomers like to combine their dream eco-tourism vacation in Costa Rica with a preliminary scouting trip to see what's available in Central American real estate. This is very easy to accomplish, but some advance planning can help you to best utilize your time.  Here are some tips: 

1)  Call our US office at +1-410-727-6444 to get an overview of the current market and also to talk about your objectives and some reasonable expectations.  We can help get you up to speed on the different regions of Costa Rica  and the terminology. Unless you're an Indiana Jones wannabe, the odds are that you will want to either look at the Central Pacific region (where the Del Pacifico and Los Sueños resorts are located), the Nicoya peninsula (Guanacaste and where the Four Seasons resort is found) or the Osa Peninsula (down near Panama- very pretty, but also very hot and very, very humid). If you're looking to retire full time in Costa Rica, you might want to look in the Central Valley (the areas around San Jose) This is popular with US retirees who want to live full time in Costa Rica because of the very mild weather and proximity to good hospitals.

2) Come stay in either a condo or house at Del Pacifico or at our Alma Del Pacifico Beach Hotel & Spa. We can arrange to have a rental car delivered to you; take 1 full day to explore the Central Pacific coast.  We can help you with an itinerary and can give you the scoop. Since there is essentially just one road, it's very easy to navigate the area.

3) Should you work with a Costa Rica real estate agent? Not really for your first visit. The level of professionalism and ethics is much different than in the US.  We'd recommend that on your first time, you look around the larger resorts such as Del Pacifico and Los Sueños and get a feel for what's available and whether it meets your needs.

4)  Plan a half day to tour Del Pacifico. Given some advance notice we can arrange a leisurely horse back tour of the resort, ending up at the beach bar at Alma Del Pacifico. Since sunset is pretty much at 6 PM year round, don't plan a real estate tour at 4 PM! The sun sets quickly.  To arrrange a tour, call our local office +1-410-800-4773 or our US office +1-410-727-6444.

5) Remember, we are here to help so give us a call (410-727-6444) or shoot us an email with your questions.

Foodies in Paradise...the Locavore Movement in Costa Rica

The New York Times(September 9, 2012) recently ran an article talking about the locavore or "farm to table" movement coming to Costa Rica. What condescending muck!  With a 12 month growing season for fruits and vegetables and  being right on the Pacifico Ocean, Costa Rica was locavore before locavore was cool.

Our ocean view Pavilion restaurant at the Alma Del Pacifico Beach Hotel & Spa has been getting rave reviews on Trip Advisor and our chef just uses local ingredients. Aside from wine (we get many fine wines from South America) about the only exception to this on the menu is our imported angus beef for that staple of the American teenage tourist diet, the 1/2 pound hamburger. Our menu regularly features fresh yellow-fin tuna, red snapper, and mahi mahi. Our onsite garden provides fresh herbs & vegetables for our restaurant- you  can't get more local than that!

C'mon down and chow down with us!

Retire In Costa Rica?

What does this actually mean? Over the past 10 years I've spoken to hundreds of people who have expressed an interest in this concept. For some, this means moving to Costa Rica full time while for many others, its means having a warm weather second home for 3 or 4 months of the year. At Del Pacifico, we have options for everyone depending on how much time you might want to spend taking advantage of your luxury resort home in paradise. For retirees planning on several months a year or longer, a 2 bedroom or 3 bedroom condo might be a solid choice. For the pre-retirement Baby Boomers, whose vacation stay is maxed out at about a month a year, the new Del Pacifico Residence Club is designed for you. 

Regardless of which option is best for you, the sport fishing, the surfing, the beaches and the wonderful people all remain exactly the same.

All Clear At Del Pacifico!

Everything is fine after the recent quake! The epi-center was up in Guanacaste  and all we got in the Central Pacific was a rumble and virtually no damage. In fact, Fernando reports that our total losses were one bottle of an orange flavoured liqueur which fell off the bar. 

Think about it,  a 7.6 quake and very little damage in the entire country and no damage at Del Pacifico. Why? Because Costa Rica has very stringent building codes and enforces them. Second, as our owners know, the construction at Del Pacifico has been done to a very high level.  This is a good example of why Costa Rica is different than buying real estate in another country like Nicaragua, Ecuador or Belize.

Thanks for the many calls and inquiries but we're happy to report all is well.  I just wish I had a video of Fernando running up the hill seeking higher ground when he heard that their was a Tsunami warning! (It was cancelled very quickly).

Now is he time to be planning your winter vacation so give us a call and we can help plan your dream trip!

Barry

Del Pacifico Announces Launch of New Fractional Private Residence Club

June 14, 2012 (Esterillos, Costa Rica) - Del Pacifico, a master planned resort community on the central coast of Costa Rica near Quepos and Manuel Antonio - announced today the launch of the Del Pacifico Club, a private residence club offering fractional real estate and carefree ownership.  Fractional real estate and residence clubs have grown in popularity because of the market conditions and buyers get much more home for the money, lower upkeep costs and the ease of ownership. Many consumers are finding it’s the smarter way to own an international second or vacation home.

Owners can choose from one, two and three bedroom villas nestled on a hilltop overlooking the warm tropical waters of the Pacific, and woven into the very fabric of Costa Rica’s rich cultural heritage and stunning natural beauty. Owners at the Del Pacifico Club will have exclusive access to the amenities of it’s sister property the Alma del Pacifico Hotel, ranked a top ten in Central America. Owners will enjoy private beach access, restaurant and bars, fitness facilities and their acclaimed spa.

“We are excited to add the Del Pacifico Club to the other real estate offerings at Del Pacifico", says Barry Strudwick, developer/partner at Del Pacifico - “The residence club will give the ability for people who love beautiful Costa Rica but realistically would only visit their home here 5-6 times per year.  They’ll enjoy a luxury home and the services of a boutique hotel for a fraction of the cost and none of the hassles associated with owning international real estate or a home in Costa Rica”, adds Strudwick.

The Del Pacifico Club offers fractional ownership in the seaside village nestled on a hill overlooking the Pacific. Additionally, the Club will offer one-bedroom Plaza Studios and two-bedroom and three-bedroom Villas. All the Del Pacifico Club units come fully and beautifully furnished with prices starting at only $39,000.

The Residence Club at Del Pacifico is a fractionally owned residential property. Buyers receive a 1/10th-deeded real estate interest in a world-class Costa Rican vacation home without the hassles of full-ownership. Like other forms of real estate, fractional residence club ownership interests can be sold, willed, deeded or placed in a trust. This proven real estate model has been coined the smarter way to own a vacation home, and has been successful in other elite destinations around the world.

Residence Club Partners of Asheville, NC, the management company at Del Pacifico Club, feels this model will change the future of second home ownership in Costa Rica forever. “In addition to a growing trend in fractional ownership and residence club home ownership vs. whole ownership, Owners are demanding more services and hassle free ownership that residence club owners enjoy at all of our clubs. Owner services at our clubs include a Club Concierge, housekeeping, onsite management and very unique custom experience packages, things you don’t get with the typical real estate purchase,” says Mandy Allfrey of Residence Club Partners.

The Del Pacifico Club is a private residence club within the Del Pacifico second home community near Quepos and Manuel Antonio, on Costa Rica’s beautiful central coast. Vacation and second home buyers interested in learning more about The Del Pacifico Club in Esterillos, can visit www.delpacificoclub.com