Moving to Costa Rica

COSTA RICA CORONAVIRUS UPDATE

Just recently, we sold my buddy’s townhome. I was the listing broker and another associate brought the offer. The buyer felt, that since it was a 12 year old property, the air conditioning units were dated and probably needed to be replaced. He asked for a $10,000 credit from my seller, to offset the cost of installing new units. It turns out that my friend had already replaced most of the condensers, and was going to send me the receipts to show to the buyer’s agent. When he spoke with his wife about it, she told him to just “split it” and get the unit sold, as she was excited to have it closed. You see they had a bigger and better property in mind, and needed to sell this first, before making an offer on the other one. She did not want to lose this other house.

I think she feels like money grows on trees, he said to me, and I feel like I am getting hustled.

A couple days later we do the inventory. After they had signed off on it, his wife changed her mind. There were some kitchen and closet organizers that she felt would go great in their future home, and asked her husband to see if we could have them excluded.
“So let me get this straight. You were willing to just give this guy $5000, but you want me to tell Simons that we might blow this deal up over $20 plastic tubs?”

Yeah.

I have literally seen two ladies, practically come to blows, over a $50 kitchen matt, as it was not on the list.

It is PRINCIPLE she demanded. But I WANT it, the other one screamed.

“I will buy everyone a new rug, as a housewarming gift!” as I stepped between them like a referee in a Championship Boxing Match.

Oh the difference between Men and Women.  Of course if the argument was over the well used BBQ out on the terrace then watch out….  

Cream and sugar with that sir?

COSTA RICA CORONAVIRUS UPDATE

Currently as of today, we have approximately 375 cases in Costa Rica with 2 deaths. There have been 2 confirmed cases in our Canton (county) of Carrillo, both of them being right here in our little town of Playas del Coco. The President of Costa Rica has made some tough calls, but I support him 100%.

1. Restrictions on all vehicle movement from 5 pm to 5 am. This is mostly to stop people from going out to socialize.  They are also limiting day time driving to one day a week, based on your last number on your license plate. You can only drive for basic necessities like groceries and pharmacies.
2. All beaches and public parks are CLOSED. There are no exceptions to this.
3. All churches and religious temples are closed, even though Holy Week of Easter is coming up.
4. No large gatherings or social events; all soccer games cancelled, concerts postponed etc.
5. The Borders are CLOSED to all foreigners.
6. All bars, casinos and nightclubs were forced to close.
7. All alcohol sales have been banned across the country.
8. Banks and grocery stores, now have special hours for seniors only, and most have shortened the total working hours. Our local Mercados are limiting the amount of people who can be in the store at a time, and only one person per family can shop. This eliminates groups gathering in these public places.
9. Any foreigner with residency, who leaves the country during this crisis, will immediately lose their status!

Boy did this last one set off a shit storm.