subject: Where Should I Live While Building My Dream House Or Farm In Costa Rica? [print this page] What do you want to know about buying and building in Costa Rica. You bought land a while ago and are now ready to build your dream house or sustainable farm in Costa Rica. How should you go about this? In this article I am going to talk about renting a house, villa, or Tico house while you build.
How do you find this rental? Go to your special sites that talk of rentals like Flip Key, Masterpiece Rentals, agencies, information centers, or websites. Many sites are listed or available through rental sites that allow free listings or good prices. Ones that limit pictures and videos are very expensive and will most likely be rentals that pass this cost on to you and will cost you more.
The location and security of your temporary rental property is important. Is it close to the building site?
Consider several issues here:
Can you see the building site from your rental? This would be ideal.
What are the roads like leading to your rental site as well as your building site?
How secure and safe from robbery is your rental site while you are on the building site?
Is there a care-taker at the rental site? Is that person full-time? Who pays for that person?
Do you have to rent your own car or does the rental come with a car?
Is 4 x 4 required to get to either?
What is the water like at both sites? Is it drinkable?
Does each site have electricity?
When will you get phones to your building site? Does the rental site have phone service, internet. I can't imagine trying to build and not having phone and internet at your temporary living site.
What do you know of the renter? Do they live on site in Costa Rica? I would recommend a villa where the owner is on site. This person can be of great help in answering many questions.
Do you or the owner of the rental site speak the language?
What can they tell you of the area you want to build in and of the workers?
Find out the going pay rate in your building area and do not exceed this, even though you are coming from a higher paying area.
How long can you rent this site? What you are generally told about building time can easily be doubled.
Can you safely leave your rental site to go to your building site each day (highly recommended? Will your items and the owners home contents be safe? This is one of the biggest mistakes or oversights I see in renters. Please rent with this in mind.
Can you build a temporary structure on your building site to live in while building? This may entail a longer time than planned for, so be aware of the conditions. If you live in a temporary rental can you extend that rental time if needed? Also, be prepared for the rainy season.
