By Ivo Henfling

This week, Daniel Langlois, moderator of a forum on Yahoo called CostaRicaCentralValleyLiving asked me to reply on a small discussion some people were having.

I checked it out and though it a very interesting issue and as most of you know, I love to reply on a variety of issues, but mostly when I think people are sooooo wrong..... :-)

It went like this:

Posted question: Anyone know if $159k is a good price for a property in Grecia with a river
running through it and is on a mountainside? The property is 4800 sq meters and
is on a paved road at edge of town- thank you

Posted answer: IMHO (In My Humble Opinion)- yes, that is high. Does it already have electricity and water in place?

Posted 2nd answer: I second that....we bought 3/4 of an acre with a wonderful vista, 3 years ago
and paid $32,000.00...check around...be careful

I am loving it. This is what I enjoy about forums, all these questions and answers of people who don't have a clue, think they do and there are lots of IMHO's around.

Imagine this: I post a question on the forum, saying I'm planning to buy a Toyota Four Runner 4-wheel drive for $13,000. Is this expensive? And people say: "oh yes, I bought one last week for $3,000. NO clue about model, mileage, shape and color. But yes, it IS expensive.

If you want to learn a bit about what you should look at when you buy a building lot anywhere in the world and the reasons you should use a GoDutch realtor (because my people are well trained) if you buy one in Costa Rica, read on and see what I answered on that forum:

Like in every location in the world, it is impossible to say if a price is right for a property without having seen it and having all the information about the property. You have to take into account the following issues:

1. location, it can be in the middle of town with high land prices and it can be in the middle of nowhere with low land prices.
2. road frontage
3. if power is connected in front of the lot
4. if water is connected in front of the lot
5. how the water pressure is and if there is need to build a water reserve tank with a pressure tank on the property to get sufficient pressure
6. how is the topography of the property? How much flat land, how much buildable
7. Is the property sub-dividable into several home sites, which will give it more value?
8. How does the land drain? Is it necessary to make new drain ditches? Sometimes the land was subdivided from the original owner incorrectly into several lots and these drains and other issues were not taken care of)
9. you are saying a river goes through the land. Rivers have setbacks and other regulations. Some rivers have a 10 meter setback but some even 50 meters. You cannot build within that setback. The property might be worthless.
10. the property might have other regulations like a protection from the forest law, indicating you are not allowed to build at all.
11. how is the layout of the land? Could there be any possible future landslides ON the property? Or higher up on the mountain?
12. views are important to some, not at all to others, but a fact is that view property is always more expensive that property without views.
13. can that view possible be taken away by a neighbor building right in front of you? What are the regulations there? Two stories, three stories?
14. and last but not least: what are you prepared to pay and what is the seller prepared to sell for.

Many of these points show you would do well for yourself to use a (good) real estate agent to purchase a property, just to be sure you don't end up with all kinds of problems.

Our real estate agent in Grecia, Brooke Bishop, can show you her listed lots of all sizes and prices in the Grecia, Sarchi and Naranjo areas and does know all the answers to the above questions as our agents are well trained.

There are a couple of articles I wrote about this issues too:

Rainfall in Costa Rica, the change in weather conditions and buying property in Costa Rica

Rain damage to property in Costa Rica. When you plan to buy property in Costa Rica, make sure you look at your surroundings.

Ivo Henfling