Last week Kristina and I headed to Vegas and not just for fun. Where else can you see Elvis in a pink Cadillac and meet over 500 people interested in international real estate? Just when I thought things couldn't get any hotter for our real estate project in Costa Rica, we also hit a major new milestone.
We were in Las Vegas to sponsor the International Living event held in Las Vegas at the Red Rock Hotel and Casino. "Live and Invest Overseas" The event was the largest event held to date by International Living, with 550 people in attendance. I had two presentations during the event, one on the advantages of living in Costa Rica and a general assessment on the market for lots and custom homes. The second was on our project, Pacific Lots of Costa Rica, about our lots and home sites, our custom home building services, examples of views, details about our 4 day discovery tours and ways to come visit the properties.
At the end of both programs we'd had over 400 people sign up for either a tour, our DVD about Costa Rica, the newsletter about the Costa Bellena area or our drawing. I asked a number of these attendees why our project was so popular and here are a variety of reasons why people want to visit, plus a glimpse at Elvis, who seems to be alive and well in Las Vegas.
- Many who'd thought they were going to retire on the equity in our homes and stock portfolios in the market suffered significant losses in equity in the past two to three years.
- Costa Rica is still a bargain.
- Government intervention in the economy assures that all Costa Ricans have access to education, health, and nutrition services.
- Costa Ricans have not entered the race for status and conspicuous consumption.
- The cost to buy a home there is affordable when you consider costs in many other parts of the world.
- Costa Rica is much nicer than many other places.
- Ownership is deeded and fee simple and property taxes are very cheap.
- Costa Rica is below the hurricane belt.
- If you decide to become a resident,Costa Ricahas one of the oldest Pensionado (retiree) programs on the planet, health care coverage will set you back about $250 per year! Even if you don't become a "declared" resident and you just stay as a "tourist" you can buy health care coverage for around $1000 per year.
- Costa Rica is a well known health tourism location with thousands of foreigners going there each year for elective surgery, hips, knees, face lifts, implants and dental work? Although Costa Ricaspends less than $600 per capita (per year) on healthcare as a nation yet they live longer than most North Americans!