Frequently Asked Questions

Complete Custom Homes - You have no time limit to build and can even build your own house if you want to.  You will have to meet all local building codes and permitting requirements.  You are also welcome to hire any other builder of your choice however most of our clients use us to build their home.  After all that is one of the biggest advantages in buying in our developments in the place.  We are like using the "Easy Button".  Building retirees custom homes in Costa Rica is our specialty.

We are building custom homes in our developments in Costa Rica for our clients starting at $100 per square foot. Here is a list of the standard building features you will find in your construction. These, along with our qualified workmanship, are your guarantee of superior quality and beautiful results.

• 1. Walls are built of concrete block or Covintec system with structural mesh and concrete stucco.  Covintec costs about 20% more than a concrete shell.
• 2. Floors rest on poured concrete.
• 3. Roof structure is made out of wood.
• 4. Standard roof comes with a lightweight steel sheets with a baked on paint finish for easy maintenance in an imitation Spanish clay tile style.
• 5. Eave troughs and chains are installed on all homes.
• 6. Cathedral ceilings with visible wood beams and tongue in grove wood slats finish will be featured throughout the whole home.
• 7. Interior and exterior walls are finished in the following manner:
• One coat of cement sealer,
• Two coats of high quality paint, one color of your choice for the exterior and one color of your choice for the interior, from our selection.
• 8. All plumbing installations respect national building codes and are linked to a septic tank and drainage field system. The main water hook-up is not included.  Water is at your lot line somewhere and you will only have to pay to have the line brought to the connection to the house.  We don't include this in the price since depending on your lot size, the distance from the water main on your lot to the location of the home may be quite a ways.
• This comprises all faucets, sinks, porcelains, 1 hot water heater (60 Gallon) and shower or bathtub as indicated in the blueprints. All indoor showers to have standard glass enclosures.
• 9. All electrical installations respect national building codes. The main electrical hook-up is not included.  Again for the same reason the water hook up was not included since it depends on the distance from the hook up to the house
• The electrical system comprises all wiring, electrical switchboards, light switches, lamps and ceiling fans as indicated, to be chosen from our current selection.
• 10. All indoor and terrace floors are finished with ceramic tiles, to be chosen from our current selection.
• 11. Windows will be made of white PVC Vinyl. Doors are to be selected from our actual selection.
• 12. Kitchen and bathroom cabinets are in wood and feature ceramic countertops. Bedroom armoires are wood crafted.  Granite counters are not included at the $100 per square foot construction rate. (upcharge for granite)
• 13. The pool will be painted and includes a complete pump system with chlorine filter and all the accessories as required and necessary.  Pools are an extra charge and are not included with the home but this information is pertintent since many owners end up having pools installed.
• 14. The carport will feature a concrete floor and a metal structure roof with a Spanish style finish.
• 15. All materials, such as tiles, faucets, sinks, porcelains, lights and ceiling fans will be chosen from our broad current selection. An alternate selection will imply an additional cost.
• 16. We offer you a complete team of professional supervisors: engineers, architects and surveyors, all registered with the national boards of their trade.
• 17. All our personal is insured against injury on the job site in order to eliminate the owner's liability.
• 18. Our labor is guaranteed for one full year after delivery. Any defects on the installation of fixtures and fittings of manufactured items will be repaired in a timely manner. Only manufacturers' warranty will be applied to the manufactured items.

Dominical is a surf town, you will have a blast.  Just be careful of a few things.  One is that the ocean on the Pacific Costa has some strong undertows.  If you ever found yourself being drawn out to sea, don't fight it, swim Parallel to the beach and try swimming in either further up or further down the beach.  In Dominical the beach is pretty shallow for a ways out so you won't have a problem unless you get out over your head.  There are also lifeguards stationed at that beach, one of the few beached in Costa Rica to have them.  They are there since this is a popular surfing beach and surfers sometimes get in trouble, hit by a board, etc and also because there is a known undertow in Dominical.  Watch the size of the waves, sometimes they are fine, other times they are gnarly. 

The second concern is just to keep an eye on your stuff.  Don't leave anything expensive at the beach while you go swimming, don't leave stuff in a car when not there, etc.  Lock your room, lock the windows, etc since this is a tourist town and there are some people trying to live the surf bum life and not have to work and crime is easy on unsuspecting tourists.  Dominical is loaded with kids.

Here are the high points you want to do while in Dominical.  Go to Hacienda Baru (there ar tours from nearly every hotel) and do their zip line.  It is only about 10 minutes from Dominical and costs about $35. 

Eat lunch at Maracatu (mostly vegetarian) restaurant and go there for ladies night (I think it is Tuesday.  They have live music there. 

Check out San Clemente (tons of broken surfboards, a shrine to Elvis, a hippy bus, cool place). 

Go to dinner at the hotel Domilocos at the restaurant "Con Fusion" mostly pastas and pretty cheap but great food. 

Go to the dance club "Roca Verde" on Saturday night (on the highway just up the road from the main entrance to town and about a $3 cab ride.  Great place, good dancing, packed. 

Go to Paz Azul Waterfalls to swim one day, ask someone how to get there.  You can also go to Don Lulu's Nauyaca waterfalls if you are bored and want to do something one day, ask about tours from any local hotel, huge waterfalls that you can swim in, huge, did I say huge, but you have to ride horses for 2 hours each way and the cost is maybe $45 per person including lunch. 

In terms of warnings, be careful of Tico guys that want to take you to their house (I'm thinking like you are my daughter), and wear bug spray at dusk (prime time for bugs) or stay indoors around then.  If you are taking the bus from San Jose, again just watch your stuff while you are moving around.  The same as you would in any big city. 

Also make a color copy of your passport page that has your picture and other information on it.  People like to steal passports in foreign countries, keep the copy with you and leave the real one hidden in your house but don't forget it when you leave.  Stay together, Be smart....

Our water is artesian spring well water plumbed to all of our home sites, unfiltered and testing better than nearly every municipal water system in the US.  It comes from the top of the mountain above us, there are two wells and holding tanks as well.  Average water bills in town run less than $50 per year further contributing to our low cost of living.     

 Do you sell ocean front property? 

Costa Rica does not sell ocean front, the first 200 meters above the high water mark are public lands.  You can not own ocean front in Costa Rica although some hotels and condos have been built on what is referred to as concession property, but that property is leased, not owned.  Our developments are on the hillside above the ocean on land that can be owned.  We have ocean view but not ocean front.  Our lots are all less than 3 miles from the beach and many are much closer.  We are up the hill for the view.  Learn About Maritime Concession Here.

 Being near trhe beach tends to bring a few unfavorable characteristics.  Bugs are much more plentiful at the beach than they are up the hill.  Salt air is bad for most equipment, appliances and automobiles.  The Costanera highway runs right along the beach and since this is becoming a major truck route, along with the trucks comes truck noise from Jake Brakes and general truck sounds.  The beaches are almost all public except for a tiny part of the coastal area that falls within a marine national park    

Initially a "mother farm" known as a Finca, is purchased for development and subdivision.  Once the infrastructure is completed and the agencies responsible for the approval of these improvements have signed off on the work, the municipality will then allow segregation of the individual lots.
The properties are then registered with the Costa Rican Land Registry. Each lot is recorded at that time directly to the name of the owner purchaser.  Each lot has its own registry number. Ownership of each property is through registration to a corporation, which is registered in the Costa Rican Mercantile Registry. All titles of ownership to the land and registry information for the corporation are available from the appropriate registry office.  Each development is held as a separate corporation that is debt free.  As each parcel is sold off, it is literally purchased from that corporation.

Title insurance is available, as is gap insurance to cover the time the parcel is purchased until the segregation is complete and formal registration to the new owner is finished.  Most owners do not bother with this insurance since the process is just a matter of waiting for completion, usually no more than a year or two.  Many phases have already been signed off on and title is immediately available to the purchaser.

The developer we represent does all work complete with great respect for the environment, using sustainable wood products. All of their developments are on prior pasture land and we never clear primary forest. They maintain natural buffer zones and protected areas within the developments, in excess of what is required by law. They also give a percentage of all sales toward environmental protection.

All of the properties within our developments are fully serviced by public roads, with water and electric hook-ups at the property lines of each lot.  In Costa Rican developments, Roads must meet municipal standards which currently require 7 meters width.  Cement culverts and catch basins are also required.  Electrical lines are installed by the developer based on the engineering requirements of ICE, the public utility for electric in Costa Rica.  ICE also provides telephone and DSL for Internet.  We install the water system within each phase.  Water must meet municipal standards as well and are monitored by AYA, the public utility for water.  Our water is from artesian springs and of very high quality. 

Some phases are sold "pre-developed" and the completion of the installation of the infrastructure is still in process.  The public utilities must sign off on installation before the municipality will grant the final urbanization plan and allow individual segregation of lots.  This takes time and patience is required.  When you purchase land that is not yet fully titled, you still have complete ownership and occupancy rights to that parcel.  Some phases have taken longer than others to get signed off on, which can be frustrating to both the owner and developer.  Once final segregation is approved, individual titles are issued to the segregated parcels and registered in the Folio Real system in San Jose, the online property registry.