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Living (retiring?) in CR for PART of the year

5 years ago
Hello, all. I am new to the community, and have a question for you all.

First, I really like what I see so far...you all seem to really like CR, and I must say it's great to see so many of you giving what seems to be great advice for issues from crime to real estate.

My wife and I have traveled for years to Mexico for vacation, and have always considered purchasing some real estate with the intent to stay there part of the year, and rent it out for the other part to help pay for the investment. While we've never been to CR, I've recently talked to people that have (and LOVE it), and was told that purchasing real estate in CR is better as you're actually getting the deed (as opposed to "right to use" in Mexico if you're within 30 km of the coastline, like we'd be).

My wife is not interested in living there all year, as she wants to be close to our children (who are starting families of their own), as do I, so we're looking to stay for part of the year only.

My questions are;
1) Are there any gated communities of condos/homes that cater to this...have property management that helps with rental/maintenance when we're not there?
2) Are there areas that are close to the beaches (our preference) that you'd recommend?

I apologize if this has already been gone over, but have searched the threads and not found too much on this yet (it's probably there), so I thought I'd ask. Feel free to point me to one of these threads if you know of one.

Finally, we obviously plan on visiting any such property before buying, but I just don't want to spend an entire vacation running around the country...I'd like to narrow it down by using your thoughts first.

I'm awestruck at those of you that are living the minimalist life in CR, and maybe one day we'll be there, but for now we're really just interested in a community that's safe, by a beach, with good infrastructure and "rentability." Having other exPats around is a definite bonus!

Thanks in advance for any help!

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