Costa Rica mail–how does it work?

Is there postal service in Costa Rica?  Of course.  And believe it or not, the Costa Rica mail system is actually pretty good, considering everything. If you dropped a post card in the mail box here, it would take about 10 days to get back to the USA and then same thing if someone mailed you a letter from home. But ask yourself this; what do you really expect to get in the mail? There are no bills delivered by mail here, everything is on line banking and I seriously doubt you want your JC PENNEY catalogue sent all the way to paradise, especially since receiving packages is a little more difficult (I will cover that in a moment.)

Delivering Costa Rica mail is a bit different because there are no physical addresses here. Everything is a direction (100 meters south of the church, 50 meters west, blue house on right). But we do have zip codes.

What’s the cost of building a house in Costa Rica? How long does it take?

You read a lot of different information on the internet about construction costs and timelines. You also, unfortunately, read about a lot of “horror stories” of people who had tremendous issues getting their home completed. Fortunately, we don’t really have that problem anymore here in Papagayo Costa Rica. One of the best things that happened, in the 2009 Economic Crash, was that it was a big FLUSH, and most of the fly by night / crooked builders went out of business and left. The remaining contractors, many of whom are featured here on my website, not only survived those down times, but actually grew stronger because of it. I tell everyone, that anyone who could have survived those first few years, in any business whatsoever, is obviously doing something correct. So whether it is real estate agents or builders, hotels or restaurants, if they were here before 2008 and are still here today, they are probably pretty good at what they do. Also, the Papagayo area is booming. We have a LOT of construction going on. So obviously, the best builders in the country are going to come here, because there is business here. A good builder is in business to MAKE MONEY. You can’t earn an income building 1 house a year. So you are going to have a much harder time finding a quality builder in the more remote areas of Costa Rica, as only part time builders will live there. The top dogs are going to be here, where thousands of homes are going to be built over the next 10 years. Also, the most skilled workers are going to be here too, where they can have a consistent income laying tile, pouring concrete or doing cabinet work. In the more remote areas, you are going to be stuck with the least competent workers.