Homes in Costa Rica - Adjust your expectations!!!

hey guys this is sara elena thanks for watching this video um well i helped me people move to costa rica so if you're looking for information on costa rica go ahead and check out the rest of this channel today i really want to get to the point because i want to talk about something really important home rentals i've done other videos on here that show you how to find rentals um kind of what to look for what to expect but in our work with clients so we help our clients or we actually find the first long-term rental for our clients for their move and there's just some things that i'm just observing and i just want to really give this feedback to the rest of you who are out there maybe looking for a long-term rental or you're going to be moving to costa rica and you're going to know that you're going to have to rent so there's some really important points that i just want you to understand number one being the houses down here are very different they are different than north america they are different than other countries um you know just central american in general you're not going to come down here and live in the same kind of place that you're probably living where you are now i know some of you understand that um and a lot of people say that they understand it but maybe i don't think some of some people really get it until they are here and they're living in it and they're feeling it and they're like oh this is different so you might be wondering well what are some of the differences and so i'm i'm just doing this video because this is something that i'm seeing people struggle with they're struggling with some of the differences things aren't maybe exactly what they thought it would be or the standards or the quality isn't to where they thought it would be but that's just what it is like you guys are choosing to come and live in costa rica so i want you to know that this is this is what it is there are homes of all different kinds of quality so yes you can have your super expensive luxury homes um that are just built with the top-notch materials you can kind of have kind of medium level homes and you know more cheaply built homes so number one just understanding that there's different kind of qualities of homes and everything really varies it is so different one house next to another are they're likely going to be completely different things whereas maybe in your home country things kind of have a certain standard of quality so i just want you to know that that standard you you're not gonna find a standard quality down here so just keep that in mind like you're gonna come down here you might get in your house your rental home and you might be like oh why doesn't it have this or what's going on with that over there that's just because that's just the way it is here you're gonna you're gonna see sometimes the layout's not gonna make sense it's not gonna make sense that there may not be screens and some things just won't make sense with the home but that's just a part of living in this country and that's when you have to learn to adjust and adapt and and maybe buy different things or you know make it your own a little bit but that's just part of it so there's some other points i want to go through here today in this video as you can see i'm not fired up about this but it's just it just just needs to be said um so in terms of just even the housing materials that houses are made out of a lot of them are made out of concrete so that's something that you might find a lot different you know concrete builds help because it's hot it's hot in costa rica it's hot you know it's hot here that's what it is uh depending on where you are you know if you're gonna live near a beach town it's definitely gonna be a lot warmer if you're up in the mountains central valley other areas you'll notice it to be cooler it'll be more comfortable but for the most part most homes are built with concrete so concrete's very popular you might see some other designs bamboo or wood or you know other other designs as well but just want to let you know you're going to see a lot of tile flooring so there's not any road you know there's no carpet i don't think i've ever seen a house that had carpet here so tile is what people use it's just what makes sense again that quality can vary as well depending on the build of the home you expect tile so your house may or may not have bars on the windows so somehow every just every home varies so much somehow a house may have bars on the windows and the doors a house may not it'll just depend so you know i don't think it hurts to have them but i've lived in a lot that didn't and that was fine too so just note that that's something that you might see as well doors may not shut perfectly so you know like in costa rica sometimes you're going to have a weird funky doorknob or something's just not going to work quite right or some window may not just perfectly shut like that's also just kind of the way it is um so just expect those things as well you know maybe in your rental everything may not be perfect i'd mention screens so like screens are something that a home may or may not have typically i see that they do have them but i have seen cases where there are no screens in the windows so if you know that this is something that's really going to bother you and that you're going to need then definitely make sure that you know we have to make sure that you check to see they have screens air conditioning is the same so um you know anyone moving to the beach um we've had people say oh no i don't need ac i'll be fine and then they end up needing going wow no this is too hot i need ac so if you think you know just if you're moving to the beach area try and get a place with ac if you can afford it um you know if that's because otherwise you might think you can handle it and then you're gonna be here and you might be really uncomfortable and then you're gonna go wow i wish i just got into place with ac so you know if you're unsure just get a place that has ac especially if you're on the coast and then ceiling fans are another thing some homes have ceiling fans some do not have ceiling fans so that really just depends you can always get a floor fan but you know some someone may walk in and go wow why doesn't this place have ceiling fans it's just again it's there's no real clear-cut standard here it just depends on what the owner decided to build for that property some things i want you to note about the kitchen so kitchens can vary greatly so you know you might have one of those little two burners you might have a gas burner stove plus an oven it might be electric usually i notice the stove units are smaller you know they're always again this just depends i've been in some houses that had like the standard oven the standard stove but then i've been in other ones that kind of had like more of a miniature version um so just keep in mind that those can be different sizes i've almost never seen a garbage disposal i don't think i've ever seen a garbage disposal here so don't expect a garbage disposal either um it's also possible that the sinks may not have hot water that's also very possible some do some don't so if you i've had some people say well how do i wash my plates in the kitchen and get them clean without hot water they do get clean with soap like they actually like even if it's hot or not they still do get clean and you can get all the grease off so you know if the place doesn't have hot water in the kitchen don't worry you'll still be able to clean your things another thing to note is i've noticed that sometimes the refrigerators can be a little bit smaller than maybe what you're used to it your rental may not have a standard large refrigerator it may it may not again i'm not saying that this is the case for everything um you know i'm just saying that things can greatly vary so much that there is no one standard that if these things are important to you then i want you to look into them whenever you're looking for a place to rent like if you're like no i need a really large i just need a big standard refrigerator if you know that you need that then don't just assume that your rental is going to have that because that's not always the standard here also the furnishings can vary you know you know some some houses will come with the coffee cups and all the the blender and the coffee machine and couches and everything other homes may come a little bit more lightly furnished you know maybe they'll have a bed and a couch may or may not be decorated you know they may or may not have a tv so that's just there is no standard furnishing either so anytime you're looking into a rental you're going to want to see okay what furnishings actually come with the house and then ask the owner like or the property manager whoever's like sending you showing you the house like okay what comes with the house because it may turn out that you saw in pictures there's a nice big screen tv on the wall but that was from the other renter and they took it with them so you know don't just assume that everything comes you definitely should ask about what actually comes with the house are the things that are in the picture do they actually come with the house ants and bugs so i want to mention ants and bugs because you live in coast if you're going to come live in costa rica i don't know i don't think we've had any clients move like more to the city areas but if you're going to come live in costa rica whether you're going to be on the beach whether you're going to be in the mountains whether you're going to be wherever you are there are going to be bugs and there's going to be ants and there's going to be things now if it's like a complete like out of control infestation like yeah that's you should get that taken care of um but a lot of houses that i've lived in even nice nice homes have had ants or maybe termites i think this house i live in now has termites i just don't really see them but i can see like that they exist somewhere um that's really standard like that's they're like we live in the jungle like there's so much wildlife and the climate you know it's a little bit harsher for the houses i would say you know it's harsher for the buildings if you have a house i have people say oh i want a house up in the jungle i want to go live in the jungle you go live in the jungle and they go wow what's with all these ants and what's with all this stuff well you asked to live in the jungle so that's what you're gonna get so i want you guys to know if your dream is to come to costa rica and go live in the jungle make sure that you're okay with these things make sure that you're okay with very quirky homes and animal life and you know really being in there with nature the good and the bad um not even bad but you know they're there it does have its challenges so you're going to have to adapt in a lot of ways you're going to have to be flexible and if that doesn't sound like you then you're probably going to want to be more in a neighborhood setting where you're not going to have to deal with all those things as much another thing that we find in homes again every there is no standard sometimes the layouts don't make sense sometimes i walk in the homes i'm like why did they put this there huh that's an odd thing they have there that's just a you know i've some things that may seem like common sense to you or maybe a way that you would do it or that you would have built it or that would make sense to you may just not be what is in that house down here so that's just something to be mindful of again keep in mind that there is no standard way to really do things down here and storage varies so i know a lot of people that are moving you know versus vacation storage is something that is important i've seen houses with lots of great storage i've seen some houses with practically no storage at all so just keep in mind if you are moving you have a lot of suitcases you're coming with a lot of boxes what kind of storage do you have access to you know in your home and don't be surprised if it's not that much you know you might have to get creative another thing is there may not be a washer or dryer typically there should be a washer but if not you might have to get yourself a little tico washer those are pretty cool and they're very energy efficient and they're actually really great to use i like them not all houses will have a dryer so you know depending on what kind of house you're renting what your budget is who you're renting from you know that owner may not find that it's practical to have a dryer because they said well we live in costa rica we got plenty of sun and i don't need to use my electricity when the sun can dry my clothes for free so just keep in mind that that mentality exists too if you don't see a dryer don't be surprised but some homes do have dryers so again that's kind of hit or miss this video really the point is just to hopefully adjust some people's expectations on their rentals and what they could expect again it's not going to be the same for everyone i've lived in a lot of rentals i think i've moved like four or five times since covet even started so i mean i've moved more i don't know i probably moved almost into 20 homes since living here in the last six years so i do know i know my rentals i've lived in all kinds of environments i can say they all vary greatly and you know it's okay if you come and the rental that you have isn't going to be your dream forever rental home like you sometimes the market is unpredictable it just depends what comes up you just have to do your best to get yourself to something that's gonna feel comfortable until you can find something else and that's okay too you know my biggest advice would just be if you're gonna move here you're gonna have to be open to adapting you're gonna have to be kind of more go with the flow you're gonna have to not be so rigid and thinking that something has to be a certain way and if you can just relax and open yourself up and know that if you have a roof over your head and you've got food in your belly and you're not in any danger then you're pretty much good to go so everything else has a solution um so just be mindful of that so yeah that's all i really wanted to say today if this is your first video that you're watching of mine definitely go check out the rest of the channel i have a lot of information for people who are moving to costa rica i know i talk kind of fast so if this is too quick for you you can all maybe slow down the audio on youtube and you know so we have a relocation company that's why we're well that's maybe why you're watching um yeah we do we help people with the entire and all aspects of the move so one of those is searching for rentals and that is probably the most lengthy complicated part of what we do for our clients so that's why i'm on here and i'm just you know it's just a constant evolution and we're always learning and um everybody's experiences as well as they're moving down so yeah as always thanks for watching and i'll see you in the next video

Channel: Sarah Elena

Views: 29,790

Keywords: living in costa rica, move to costa rica, moving to costa rica, how to move to costa rica, retire in costa rica, costa rica expat, costa rica vlog, costa rica expat life, costa rica facts, costa rica expat living, costa rica travel, costa rica living, pros and cons of living in costa rica, expat in costa rica, work in costa rica, sarah elena, dirk and muriel, costa rica, sarah elena costa rica, costa rica 2021, costa rica culture

Id: azAPkAa35Gk

Length: 12min 48sec (768 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 17 2021