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What is a good neighborhood or city to live in in Costa Rica to retire in and be close to working girls?
I have a lower middle class amount of money. I am wondering how much it is to buy a small house not in a ghetto in San Jose or by a beach with working girls. When I took the tour to the volcanic springs we passed small houses on the mountains with razor wire on the roof and bars on every window and large dogs in the yard. It made me think there must be a lot of burglaries.

How many trips have you made ? Rent for at least 6 months, visit other areas and figure out exactly where you want to live. As to your other question about handguns, Yes as a pensianado or rentista you can bring a handgun in country, they will collect it until all fingerprinting, paperwork and firing range qualification is complete. If you google gun stores in CR you will see some shops that sell guns and ammo. As to hollow points
I assume you have a revolver, .38 rounds are plentiful from there up I'm not so sure.
Good Luck.
Regards 911 Driver

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The happy hour is a device either for getting rid of social obligations hurriedly en masse or for making overtures toward more serious social relationships, as in the etiquette of whoring.- Brooks Atkinson

Don't buy anything until you've had a chance to determine if the situation is right for you...rent for a year and assess...don't lock yourself in! Enjoy the process, much better chance to make the right decision.

To be a pensionista temporary resident you need a lifetime pension of $2000 a month.

To be a rentitisa you need to show an income of $2400 for 24 months (usually shown as a long term deposit of $60K in the bank that you withdraw $2400 from per month).

To be a permanent resident you have to be a temporary resident for 3 years. Each temporary category has to be renewed every 2 years. So, if you were a rentista, you have to re-deposit $60K at for the third year and then apply for permanent resident on the anniversary date.

You can also apply as an inversionista (investor) - $200k investment.

Don't expect to live like a gringo. Cars are expensive. Importing cars is expensive (sometimes double the original price). You have to pay into the CCSS (caja) social security / health care. Almost everything is expensive (since the country went "green" on hydro-power, electricity is through the roof).

There's a guy that runs a page on Facebook where he puts up his budgets - he and his wife live on $2K a month.

As to neighborhoods, this is a diverse country. There are lots of small towns and places - San Jose is like LA - it is a province, a canton (county) and city - there are multiple cities / towns in San Jose county. Some places that are part of the 'greater San Jose metro area' are in different provinces (Heredia, for example).

Research. Learn how Costa Rica is organized and research locations. Check the real estate sites.

The gringo enclaves like in Escazu with gated communities are expensive.

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Any opinion or observation in the post above is purely presented for entertainment purposes and does not promote "sexual tourism" or "human trafficking". The laws of Costa Rica apply to all activities in Costa Rica. No warranty is expressed or implied. Void where prohibited by law. Your experience, observations or perspective may be different.

In exile in pu*sy prison

Brandon is correct DONT BUY ANYTHING until you have been here for awhile

If you rent here in the city and if shit goes sideways or if you decide you want to move and go to the beach or to the country you can without relatively no hassles you just move if you buy you are stuck with something you don't want until it sells and that can be along time

If you are looking to rent in the city I would try the Solar Bennet building Katy coner from the Holiday Inn I lived there for 3 years great building clean,secure,elevators, underground parking if you need it

It is basically ground zero you are within walking distance to everything

I rented a 2 bed 2bath overlooking the park with a parking spot for 900 a month the smaller ones that don't face the park without a parking spot are around 600-650

In the ten years I have lived here I never found an advantage to buying here I even rent the building ZONA is in

Best of luck
Jim

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Living The Dream

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This post is provided purely for entertainment purposes and free of charge on the part of the author. No "tourist or travel" promotion is expressed or implied. The author of this post was not provided any compensation for this hopefully entertaining contribution. Any posts regarding any event or hotel item are just my humble opinions only.

Facebook - Gringo Expats in Costa Rica Low tolerance for "I've never been to CR but want to live there and teach basketweaving" idiots.

The Expat's Guide to Costa Rica - Team Gringo Good folks - also low tolerance for the wanna-be hippies

http://www.arcr.net/ - like AARP, this is as much a business as it is an association (in my opinion).

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Any opinion or observation in the post above is purely presented for entertainment purposes and does not promote "sexual tourism" or "human trafficking". The laws of Costa Rica apply to all activities in Costa Rica. No warranty is expressed or implied. Void where prohibited by law. Your experience, observations or perspective may be different.

In exile in pu*sy prison

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Any opinion or observation in the post above is purely presented for entertainment purposes and does not promote "sexual tourism" or "human trafficking". The laws of Costa Rica apply to all activities in Costa Rica. No warranty is expressed or implied. Void where prohibited by law. Your experience, observations or perspective may be different.

In exile in pu*sy prison

Whoa now Johnny! Slow that roll a 'lil. Better to stay in a comfy hotel on a few visits while researching and traveling the country before deciding if you likey enough to rent a place!

I'm doing trip 2 next week. My plan is 2 - 3 times per year for 2017 and 2018. My base of operations will be La Amistad or Castillo(when open). I'll be Mongering and touring CR and playing Gringo Investigator. If I love it like I think I will, then I'll rent for a couple years. I plan on investigating Nicaragua and Panama during these CR trips too. Maybe I'll wanna rent in those places instead. But, I'm not pulling the temporary or permanent trigger till 2019 of after. I'm a U.S. Gringo and far from being fluent in Spanish yet. That's a combo that can spin outta control easily in a Foreign Land!

NJ

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If you see me at the bottom, please bring me my running shoes!

Absolutely right!

Real estate is much more speculative in CR and the market a lot less liquid, with financing not as widely available. Buying, for a gringo with cash, is easy...selling, hmmmm, "si dios quiere"! And if god is not aligned with your wishes, you lose!

Rent, rent, rent...once you know what you want.

Good luck!

I stumbled into the "Rent First and Buy Later" approach completely by accident, but it's definitely good advice. The ultra-micro climate of Costa Rica is just one reason to put in some serious scouting time prior to buying or signing a long-term lease. I live about 3 miles away from the Sportsmens Lodge and get about half the rainfall. It's also substantially warmer here on most days than at the SL. Every neighborhood of San José has its own personality and climate.

As for buying land and building... Go for it, if that's what you really want. However, there is a special circle in lower hell that is reserved for people who build houses in Costa Rica and people who talk at the Theatre.

There is plenty of stuff for rent throughout San José, near Jacó, and all points in between. Finding those places requires legwork, however. Not many people advertise on the Internet or in the newspapers. The Tico Way is simply to put up a sign in front of the building that reads "Se Alquila" with a telephone number. Take your cellphone or pen and paper, and walk the streets of the neighborhood(s) in which you are interested. You'll find plenty of places to get you started.

What does that mean? You have money saved, or plan on some kind of pension/SS/annuity to get by? Without savings, I would not count on living only on a pension. If the gov't shut down again, will you b able to survive? In the US, there's places you can go to get help, in CR, you get booted on the street.


No matter what neighborhood you to go, rich or poor, there are bars in the windows and barbed wire.

There is a lot of theft and the occasional bust-in armed robbery.

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Any opinion or observation in the post above is purely presented for entertainment purposes and does not promote "sexual tourism" or "human trafficking". The laws of Costa Rica apply to all activities in Costa Rica. No warranty is expressed or implied. Void where prohibited by law. Your experience, observations or perspective may be different.

In exile in pu*sy prison

How much would monthly rent be for a one person apartment somewhat up to US standards in such a neighborhood? Are buses nearby? I guess it not wise to walk around at night but would you think its about as risky as the gulch?

To be close to a large selection of working girls, you'll need to stay close to San José, Jacó, or one of a few other locations.

Costa Rica can be as cheap or as expensive as you want it to be. If you want to live in downtown San José, San Rafael de Escazú, or anywhere else and live like a Gringo, it's probably going to be more expensive than it was in the USA. Or you can choose to live inexpensively. Less than $1500 per month is a very comfortable income here in Costa Rica. My actual expenses are about $800 per month, including rent (850 sq ft, 2 bedroom, 2015 construction), power, water, cable, groceries, 10 Mbps Internet, air conditioning, car, private school and bus service for one K*D, etc. Anything over $800 per month goes into the alcohol, women, and travel fund. You can easily do the same thing for $2000 per month, if you need the high-rise condo with the Starbucks on the ground floor.

Where I live, a studio or one-bedroom apartment rents for about $250 - $300 per month. Downtown, double that. Shop at Walmart for $100 per trip, or shop at the markets for $30 per trip. You'll have to give up peanut butter and other USA-type stuff, or pay a fortune for it. Electricity bills here are tiered. If you use twice as much electricity as your neighbor, you'll probably pay 3 or 4 times as much. Water is cheap, but it's pretty much the same tiered billing. They will cut your water off with no warning if you are 3 days late with your payment. The electric company will let you slide for a month or so.

Crime in Costa Rica is a complex subject. You are expected to protect your stuff. It's not a war zone. All of that barbed wire, razor wire, and locked gates are simply the way people tell other people that they take care of their stuff. An unlocked door is an invitation for burglars. It's hardly even a crime. If the cops show up because somebody stole your TV, the cops will ask you, "Why don't you have bars on your windows, dumb-ass?" Crime here is almost entirely crime of opportunity. In other words, only the real hard-core criminals and the stupid are victims of crime in Costa Rica. I have never met a single intelligent person in Costa Rica who was a victim of any crime. Every single victim that I have ever met was "asking for it." I'm not saying that to be harsh or mean, that's just the way that it is here. If you stand out, if you look like a tourist (a clueless tourist), if you make yourself a target, then you will become the victim of a crime. All you have to do to avoid crime in Costa Rica is to keep your nose out of other people's business, don't go where you don't belong, and surround yourself with people who aren't as smart as you are. The criminals here go for the easy target, every single time.

As for walking at night, there are places where you can do that and places where you don't want to do that. If you're walking downtown at 3 a.m. and you look like a Gringo, everyone is going to assume that you're a Gringo tourist, and an especially stupid one, at that. Easy pickins. I walk around my neighborhood at 3 a.m. without a care in the world. Of course, it's a small community. I know who my neighbors are and they know who I am. They also know that I don't wear a gold Rolex and carry a wad of $100 bills with me at 3 a.m.

Costa Rica is a relatively crime-free country (particularly violent crime) for those who know how not to ask for it.