Do I want a farm, or a Lot in a Development?

There are a number of options for what type of land a person, couple, or family might like to buy with respect to Costa Rica real estate. In the case of myself and my family, we wanted to be immersed in the culture and language of Costa Rica. So we made our land choice accordingly.

We bought inland near an established city of Costa Rica, but also in the country, and yet kinda near the beach. Weird sounding I know. The point being that our objectives that drove our land acquisition dictated where we bought.

In our land office, we hear numerous objectives and goals for why the people are looking to buy land. Some are looking to get the land now while it is affordable, others are wanting to enhance their investment portfolio, while yet others are making a life-style change and are looking to quiet the internal dialogue.

Lately, we have had a rather large number of people coming into the office asking for large parcels: “fincas” as they are known here in Costa Rica. This may be to develop into several smaller lots, or to simply have a large buffer around their family. Buying a finca in Costa Rica can be a bit daunting for a number of reasons.

When you are buying a property that is still in a large contiguous piece, you may be stepping into what is known as “possession” property. There is still quite a bit of possession property around in Costa Rica. When buying in a development, this is generally not a concern. The “possession” status of a property indicates that the owner is known as the owner and has been such for a long time. He probably has some paper work on the land from the original transaction and he can produce witnesses to the fact that he is the owner. These witnesses are usually the neighbors of the property. So there are some extra considerations to buying such property. These concerns are not prohibitive, but require a certain amount of expertise from the buyer’s legal counsel and real estate agent.

Having said all that, this is the type of property that is right now enjoying a tremendous amount of popularity in the Dominical area. Consequently as you, dear prospective land buyer in Costa Rica, are searching the web, and looking at all those listings… and when you finally find the one that is just right for you, there is a good chance that the finca won’t be there waiting for you by the time you make your travel arrangements and get to Costa Rica.

This is where a truly interesting service offered by the folks over at Horizon Properties enters the scene. A customized service for the express purpose of helping prospective buyers to acquire farms. The service generally starts from the moment you walk in the door of the office, but it can be done from the internet as well.

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