After reading Jesse Bogan's article, “Trouble in Paradise”, on the Forbes website, I was dismayed by the inaccurate portrayal regarding the amount of squatters in Costa Rica and the laws regarding them. The cases mentioned were anomalies that could have been prevented if the offended parties had followed the proper procedures and taken precautions which would be considered basic in any real estate transaction of that nature. They are not representative of the vast number of real estate transactions which take place in Costa Rica every year, and I would like to lay to rest some of the concerns raised by Bogan in that article by examining a selection of those cases, showing where the buyer could have prevented the issue, and briefly covering some ways you should protect your investment if you choose to buy real estate in Costa Rica.

In that article, Bogan names several cases where squatters have settled on a piece of land and caused trouble for the owner—then proceeds to report on one-sided opinions which...

Developing Real Estate in any country can be considered a craft, and it is more than procedural tasks to be checked off of a list. It is a combination of analysis and intuition, economics and risk, detailed planning and emotional selling, diplomacy and aggressive tenacity. Both sides of the brain need to be involved, all the time. In Central America, there are unique issues in the development process, and Costa Rica has its own very specific critical components. Hopefully, my advice will stimulate some thought for those in the quest to become a Costa Rica Developer.

 In my 22 years developing and selling real estate projects ranging from a single Fourplex to hundreds of condominiums and home sites, hotel/casinos, multifamily units, retail, and now Golf Course themed residential and mixed use communities, I have, thankfully, never stopped learning. In the articles that follow, I will attempt to distill some of what I have learned into something that will help you avoid the “brain damage” that can occur...