Can I make money renting my property in Costa Rica?

In almost every development, the breakdown of ownership is about the same. One third of all the owners live there fulltime; they are Ex Pats who have made paradise their permanent residence. One third of them are your typical snowbirds; they spend 3 to 6 months a year here, when the weather turns in North America, and then spend the summer months back home. Some of them rent their properties when they go back north, but many of them just lock the door and leave. They don’t need the money and don’t want anyone “sleeping in their bed.” The last third don’t live here at all. They either have a 3 to 5 year plan to becoming one of the first two, or they have no intention of ever living here at all, they just own the property as an investment. They come down as often as they can, depending on their lifestyles and their incomes, and they rent the property the rest of the time.

So, can I make money renting my property in Costa Rica?

Tank Tops Flip flops Newsletter edition no. 18

For those of your just joining us, you need to go back a few issues and read Newsletters 11 and 12.  How I came to Costa Rica part 1 and 2.

When we left our hero, he was in a jeep, loaded with beer, heading north from Manual Antonio to Jaco Beach, Costa Rica.  For those of you who have been asleep this entire time, I am the hero, by the way.  The drive was brutal.  This was not a road, this was a riverbed.  It reminded me of those old photos of the moon.  The pot holes were so big; you would literally drive INTO the pot hole, and come up and out the other side.  It was July, middle of the green season, and the Southern Central Pacific gets some of the heaviest downpours in the entire country.  Sure enough, we found out the hard way.  It was as if the sun just disappeared from the universe instantaneously.  It got dark so fast; we didn’t even really have time to react.  In my entire life I have never seen so much water fall from the sky at one time. 

They call this area a rainforest.  Key word:  RAIN.  The road turned into one of those water theme parks except we weren’t in a log, we were in a jeep.  “Save the beer!!!!” were the first words out of my mouth, as Travis grabbed the handle of the cooler.  “Hold on!  We are going in!” Huge ass water falls were shooting out of the mountain on both sides of us: the road beneath my tires just seemed to disappear and I felt like Noah and his ark.  We were sloshing and bumping, skidding and bouncing, and I thought for sure we were going to be washed over the edge of the cliff, gone forever.