Guys In The Zone: Costa Rica Real Estate

I subscribed to a new blog on my Kindle last night.  I am now paying .99 cents a

Using my brain and drawing

month for content that can be seen for free by going to  www.sharpbrains.com

I am willing to make this investment cuz, as many of you know; I am finding that there are brain changes afoot at this period in my brain healing. I am right around the 20 month period from my brain trauma incident, and I am finding the doing and learning of new things to be right up there with some of the more enjoyable things that I have ever done in my life.

In my recovery I have had numerous fascinating interchanges with people who really have come out of the woodwork of my life to check in on me and see how I’m doing with my healing. One of these was a man who is a successful therapist of some sort from New York. He is the one that suggested to me that I might look into adrenal fatigue as a possible cause of my depression and tiredness. That mixed with a touch of PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) can really goof a guy up. I set about addressing the symptoms of adrenal fatigue and I am now of the view that that bit of counsel was a huge help.

Right along with that choice morsel of guidance, he said “Ben, you should use your brain”. His feeling was that since I had parts of my brain now that weren’t being used, it was/is important to use my brain so that it is stimulated and I then can reduce the amount of atrophy in the parts that used to be used by what is now “missing” memory, and also the vision centers that my now blind left eye no longer needs.

This suggestion to “use your brain” is one of the coolest suggestions I think that I have ever had.  Now, as I go through my days, I am looking for ways to challenge the gray matter.  I am paying attention once again to Spanish as a language and am learning new words and aspects of the language that I didn’t know before. (I had gotten into a comfortable plateau with the language and had essentially stopped paying attention.)

I have also taken up drawing, which is becoming my heart’s desire. This is a very strong indicator of a fundamental change happening in my brain structure.

The high school that I went to was a private Quaker affair called John Woolman up in the foothills of the Sierras in northern California. It was a college prep type deal with a strong emphasis on the arts. The principal of the school was a phenomenal drawer-person.  He claimed that he could teach anyone to draw.

Now, this gent was no braggart. He was a very mild, soft spoken sort that was merely stating what he felt to be a fact. I was so far removed from being able to draw that I felt that this would be an interesting challenge. Right about in the middle of my second year with this man and his class, I handed him my drawing supplies and said “no you can’t” and left.

My drawings are nothing to talk about really, but they are an indication to me of the joy that I think we can all have, from the act of using our brains.

I’m sharing this thought as we start a new year.  I have recently tried to drink alcohol, after several years of not, and found that the effect on my brain was not so good.  It was really this that reminded me of my condition of being in recovery from brain trauma.

So, avoiding the conventional method of observing the digit change from 2011 to 2012, (I was in bed by 8:30) this benchmark is being observed in my life by writing this update… and drawing. I spent New Year’s day drawing the picture at the top.

The New Year coincides with the start of a New Season here in Costa Rica’s southern pacific zone. We have had a real press of visitors.  One would never know that there is a recession out there. I am among the worst offenders of being “unplugged” from the media world, and so I admit that I really have no idea what the media would like for us to be thinking at this moment. Maybe it is saying that there is a genuine recovery going on now, or maybe it is continuing the “end of days” mantra that it has been chanting over the last 3 years, I don’t know.  But, in looking around at the amount of activity that is going on in our little real estate office here in Uvita Costa Rica, and at the grocery store parking lot across the street, it would appear that people are still able to travel.

So, the blog mentioned at the outset promises to be a good find.  But I have also been using the web site www.lumosity.com.  I pay their annual subscription of $80 to have access to their “brain gym”.

Finally, as I progress along this path of recovery, each day presents new insights and reminders that “this moment” almost didn’t happen for me, and so I find myself fascinated by life’s moments, as they stream by. I try and slow them down so that this moment can really reach full saturation.

It is good to be alive.

Comments and Criticisms of a Wall Street Journal Article

There is a rather interesting article over there on that good ole U. S. icon, The Wall Street Journal. From where I sit, living as an expat in Costa Rica since 1999, I found the article, written by Vicki Berrong, a good read, and the comments at the end quite enjoyable as well. However, as with all things human, the article presents lots of opportunity for criticism and opinion, which I more than happily engage in here.

Perfect Profile of a Costa Rica Real Estate Prospect

How I came to live on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica is a story about early retirement, tight budgets and lots of planning.

Because of being a long time expat, living in Uvita, and working in real estate, I talk almost on a daily basis with such people who want to know how to chart their course so that they can avoid as many rocks below the surface as possible.

I’ve copied some parts of the article here, and I’ll make comments on these points, but I encourage you give it a read in its entirety by clicking here. Even the title I find to be right on the mark: “Best Place to Retire Early” typifies so many folk that we talk with these days.  However, early retirement brings along with it the need to generate a bit of income in your new land of residence, which is a common aspect of our Costa Rica real estate consultations.

My best friend, Carol, and I began thinking seriously about retirement roughly 12 years ago. We knew we wanted to retire early, but we recognized that our small nest eggs (and the fact that Medicare doesn’t kick in until age 65) could make that difficult. Eventually, we concluded that living outside the U.S. would allow us to stretch our dollars and retire on (our) schedule. Thus was born a 10-year plan: five years to pay down as much debt as possible, and five years to find a home overseas.

What Vicki describes here is a perfect profile of visitors to our Uvita real estate office – I’d say realistically we talk with 3 – 5 of such individuals and couples a week. Please keep in mind that we are just now emerging out of rainy season here in Costa Rica which is typically a slower time of year as regards the number of visitors, so this number could easily go up now that we are in a busier time of year.

Besides enjoying reading Vicki’s experience in the article, I really enjoyed the comments that can be seen at the bottom of the article. I’ll address those at the bottom of this article.

How Big is Costa Rica Really?

After a total of seven trips to this small country (about the size of New Hampshire and Vermont combined, with a population of about 4.6 million), we found “home”

OK, so I’ve got a bit of egg on my face. As an authority on the matter of moving to Costa Rica, I have quoted this point VERY differently, and done so numerous times over the years, no doubt to many of the readers of this blog. I haven’t searched it, but I suspect that even in this blog there are examples of my erroneous comparisons of Costa Rica being the same size as Rhode Island or that you can fit six Costa Rica’s into Colorado.

I did some research based on Vicki’s declaration and here’s what I came up with, establishing that Vicki was spot on with her analogy and I was WAY off with my Rhode Island comparison, but somewhat vindicated with the nearness of my Colorado comparison.

• Size of Costa Rica: 19,730 sq. miles
• Size of Vermont: 9,622.8 sq. miles
• Size of New Hampshire: 9,350 sq. miles
• Size of Colorado: 104,185 sq. miles
• Size of Rhode Island: 1,213.9 sq. miles

Costa Rica Prices & Costa Rica Coffee

a cost of living at least 50% lower than in the U.S.—and good coffee

I’m not so sure about this cost of living comment. Maybe when all is said and done, it tallies up to this percentage of difference… maybe.

Us Guys talk all day long with folks who are wanting to relocate to our area. We have a certain amount of obligation to make sure that the old image of Costa Rica, which was certainly accurate at that time, needs to be re-adjusted in the current time that we are living in. Costa Rica is no longer an inexpensive place to live.

I got a kick out of Vicki’s $16.00 per gallon of gas statement – obviously a goof (unless that’s what gas costs in Playa Naranjo.  Frankly, I wouldn’t know). We are running at a little over $5.00, but some of the other costs are much higher here, namely vital staples like peanut butter and cheddar cheese – well any cheese for that matter.

About Costa Rican coffee – AWESOME! It is the best, and it’s cheap. You can pay buckets of cash for some of the marketed Jamaican Blue Mountain or Kona Gold, or whatever, or you can upgrade to a finer taste and gentler effect to the body by buying whatever, rot-gut, off-the-shelf, grocery store brand of Costa Rican coffee you like. When I visit the States, I bring coffee with me for the visit, or look for the Costa Rican blends in the health food stores there, where they charge a premium for the stuff.

I do tend to run on about things. So I guess what had started as an article commenting on a Wall Street Journal article abut buying land and living in Costa Rica is turning into a series.

In the next article I will comment on a few more points in Vicki’s article, but I’m REALLY looking forward to getting into the submitted comments on the article.

Stay tuned.

Boredom... or relaxation?

“You can only walk the dog on the beach and read in the hammock so much.  I miss my work” – this from an expat who achieved “the dream”. He and his wife had retired from their successful business in the U. S. and had bought land and built a gorgeous ocean view home here in Costa Rica’s southern pacific zone.

Hearing this statement set my wheels to turning. I can’t remember the last time that I was bored. Natalie either, we both need to set time aside and make sure that we spend some time every week walking the dogs on the beach and reading in a hammock.  These activities are downright good for the soul. However, I can definitely see how there is a limit to how much one can do of these activities before they get to jonesing for some activity of a more productive nature.

I work with lots of people that are re-locating or who are looking to make a connection of some kind to the zone.  In the consultation phase, I focus on helping with understanding the various aspects of life here that are different from “back home”. How to buy property, how to open a bank account, a corporation, how to learn Spanish, how to get health insurance, where is there a decent dentist and so on. In my consultations, I try and touch on the various points that are a concern to all of us as we integrate with life here in The Zone.  Up till this point, I had never really thought about boredom-management being a line item on my consultation list.

One of my dearest friends is, well how to say… along in years. Yeah, that’s it. His life has been one of extraordinary and high achievement.  He’s at the point now where they won’t sell him life insurance, (well, they will but at the price its more realistic to say they won’t.)  He tells me that a “long term” investment to him is measured in months, not years.

This dear old friend and I started doing business together some time back.  I’ll never forget when he said to me “Ben, you’re keeping me alive”.

Here again, a man who had achieved what so many set out to achieve, and now his life is being enhanced by being included in what I do on a daily basis.  I find this fascinating.  Is there something missing from “the dream”?

I’ve got to work. I have financial obligations and am not in a position to retire. So I look for ways to do this while living in this foreign land. I truly believe that working here in Costa Rica is an act of creativity. In fact, it was my efforts to be creative and to think outside of the box that initially drew my attention over to some of the potential business “assets” that I have available to me.  How about an older man that figured things out in his day back in the States?  Would he be interested in sharing his thoughts and perspectives on my business efforts? “Ben, you’re keeping me alive” he says. This is what I call a fit.

My dear old friend and my clients mentioned earlier differ in that Old Friend is happy and content here. The other is moving back to the States.  Granted, there are lots of reasons for moving back to the States. When our kids have kids we tend to lose our minds and feel that being with the grandkids is the thing that has to be done, regardless of what it takes. However, I’ve met a number of folks here that say that the kids can come here to see them, by golly.

I wonder if the difference really might be the activity/boredom balance.

Now in my real estate and relocation consulting service, I include this point about boredom in the schpiel.  Costa Rica isn’t like the States where so much of one’s time is spent shopping as a form of pastime or entertainment. You lose this habit here pronto.  Shopping here in the zone takes about 2 hours, tops, then you’re done.

You can make a day of it, and many do, if you want to go up to the San Isidro farmers market on Thursday and/or Friday. Travel time from Uvita is just under an hour each way.  It’s also quite the adventure to simply stroll the streets of San Isidro and window shop. This can be a lot of fun, but it won’t ever be more than the occasional thing that you do here.

Interesting Ideas

There are some interesting and creative efforts that have been made by folks who have chosen to make Costa Rica their home. In an upcoming article I’ll tell you about some of these efforts.  I’ve even got a favorite that I’ll share with you.

First, I’ll take the easy road and tell you what I do. I run the real estate company: Guys In The Zone.  My partner Rod Martin and I have forged one of the deepest working/friendship relationships on the planet.  Knowing that you’ve got a partner through thick and thin gives life a depth that it otherwise doesn’t have and I’ve got this in Rod.

So, we call it the business of real estate, but the funny thing is, we spend the majority of our time doing things that really aren’t “real estate” by definition.

All those points that I mentioned above, the points about bank accounts, learning Spanish and so on? We consider these topics regularly as we work with people on real estate.  Who would’a thunk that a discussion about how to learn Spanish or quieting the internal dialogue would be involved with the business of real estate?  Well, it’s all part of the package.  When you sell real estate in Costa Rica, you become the single point of contact for folks that are interested in The Zone either as a place to vacation, invest, migrate to for half the year, or full blown live here. I gotta say, this makes life interesting.

In addition to this I enjoy writing articles such as this one for our blog (www.thezoneblog.com), as well as publishing articles in the local Montañas al Mar magazine.  I’m involved with CAP (Crime Awareness and Prevention) and just try and find things that need doing. The Guys in the Zone also run a couple of the local web site portals  that serve as visitors guides to the area (www.dominical.biz and www.uvita.biz).

I say all that to demonstrate why the thought of boredom is a strange one in my world.

I’ll be posting some examples of the creative ways that expats not only fill time, but support their lives while living here in this sparsely populated area of the world.

Boredom... or relaxation?

“You can only walk the dog on the beach and read in the hammock so much. I miss my work” – this from an expat who achieved “the dream”. He and his wife had retired from their successful business in the U. S. and had bought land and built a gorgeous ocean view home here in Costa Rica’s southern pacific zone.

Hearing this statement set my wheels to turning. I can’t remember the last time that I was bored. Natalie either, we both need to set time aside and make sure that we spend some time every week walking the dogs on the beach and reading in a hammock. These activities are downright good for the soul. However, I can definitely see how there is a limit to how much one can do of these activities before they get to jonesing for some activity of a more productive nature.

I work with lots of people that are re-locating or who are looking to make a connection of some kind to the zone. In the consultation phase, I focus on helping with understanding the various aspects of life here that are different from “back home”. How to buy property, how to open a bank account, a corporation, how to learn Spanish, how to get health insurance, where is there a decent dentist and so on. In my consultations, I try and touch on the various points that are a concern to all of us as we integrate with life here in The Zone. Up till this point, I had never really thought about boredom-management being a line item on my consultation list.

One of my dearest friends is, well how to say… along in years. Yeah, that’s it. His life has been one of extraordinary and high achievement. He’s at the point now where they won’t sell him life insurance, (well, they will but at the price its more realistic to say they won’t.) He tells me that a “long term” investment to him is measured in months, not years.

This dear old friend and I started doing business together some time back. I’ll never forget when he said to me “Ben, you’re keeping me alive”.

Here again, a man who had achieved what so many set out to achieve, and now his life is being enhanced by being included in what I do on a daily basis. I find this fascinating. Is there something missing from “the dream”?

I’ve got to work. I have financial obligations and am not in a position to retire. So I look for ways to do this while living in this foreign land. I truly believe that working here in Costa Rica is an act of creativity. In fact, it was my efforts to be creative and to think outside of the box that initially drew my attention over to some of the potential business “assets” that I have available to me. How about an older man that figured things out in his day back in the States? Would he be interested in sharing his thoughts and perspectives on my business efforts? “Ben, you’re keeping me alive” he says. This is what I call a fit.

My dear old friend and my clients mentioned earlier differ in that Old Friend is happy and content here. The other is moving back to the States. Granted, there are lots of reasons for moving back to the States. When our kids have kids we tend to lose our minds and feel that being with the grandkids is the thing that has to be done, regardless of what it takes. However, I’ve met a number of folks here that say that the kids can come here to see them, by golly.

I wonder if the difference really might be the activity/boredom balance.

Now in my real estate and relocation consulting service, I include this point about boredom in the schpiel. Costa Rica isn’t like the States where so much of one’s time is spent shopping as a form of pastime or entertainment. You lose this habit here pronto. Shopping here in the zone takes about 2 hours, tops, then you’re done.

You can make a day of it, and many do, if you want to go up to the San Isidro farmers market on Thursday and/or Friday. Travel time from Uvita is just under an hour each way. It’s also quite the adventure to simply stroll the streets of San Isidro and window shop. This can be a lot of fun, but it won’t ever be more than the occasional thing that you do here.

Interesting Ideas

There are some interesting and creative efforts that have been made by folks who have chosen to make Costa Rica their home. In an upcoming article I’ll tell you about some of these efforts. I’ve even got a favorite that I’ll share with you.

First, I’ll take the easy road and tell you what I do. I run the real estate company: Guys In The Zone. My partner Rod Martin and I have forged one of the deepest working/friendship relationships on the planet. Knowing that you’ve got a partner through thick and thin gives life a depth that it otherwise doesn’t have and I’ve got this in Rod.

So, we call it the business of real estate, but the funny thing is, we spend the majority of our time doing things that really aren’t “real estate” by definition.

All those points that I mentioned above, the points about bank accounts, learning Spanish and so on? We consider these topics regularly as we work with people on real estate. Who would’a thunk that a discussion about how to learn Spanish or quieting the internal dialogue would be involved with the business of real estate? Well, it’s all part of the package. When you sell real estate in Costa Rica, you become the single point of contact for folks that are interested in The Zone either as a place to vacation, invest, migrate to for half the year, or full blown live here. I gotta say, this makes life interesting.

In addition to this I enjoy writing articles such as this one for our blog (www.thezoneblog.com), as well as publishing articles in the local Montañas al Mar magazine. I’m involved with CAP (Crime Awareness and Prevention) and just try and find things that need doing. The Guys in the Zone also run a couple of the local web site portals that serve as visitors guides to the area (www.dominical.biz and www.uvita.biz).

I say all that to demonstrate why the thought of boredom is a strange one in my world.

I’ll be posting some examples of the creative ways that expats not only fill time, but support their lives while living here in this sparsely populated area of the world.

Episode 12 features a candid look at community in the Southern Pacific Zone of Costa Rica. If you’re considering relocating, buying a house, raw land, or a commercial business in the greater Dominical or Uvita areas, we encourage you to watch. And, please feel free to share your comments or questions. Gracias.

Talk Show – Episode12 by GuysInTheZone

So, the Guys have moved, once again.  We are now located in the commercial center across from

Guys In The Zone New Real Estate Office in Uvita Costa Rica

La Corona and Banco de Costa Rica.  We’re right next to Sonia’s Uvita Information Center.  If you are checking out at La Corona, and you look to your right across the street, you’ll see this image –>

So, why’d we move?  Well I’ll tell you, and in the process you’ll not only get an idea of what rents are going for in Uvita Costa Rica, you’ll gain some insight into the basic differences between men & women, so read on!

We moved from the second floor spot we had because we found that prospective clients simply didn’t want to go upstairs.

The capper was when I noticed that my gal Natalie would come to the parking area and call me on my cell phone.  I asked her why she did this.  Why didn’t she just come on in and talk vis a vis?  She said because she had a sun dress on and so Continue Reading

Rod & Ben: It's been a long and amazing year.

I’ve never had a year quite like 2010.  Amazing, life altering, wonderful, scary and perplexing would be just a few of the descriptors that would sum this year up for me.

The Weather
At the start of the new year, we here in Costa Rica are still drying out from what has proved to be the rainiest “rainy” season in anyone’s memory.  Some say that the rains that accompanied Hurricane Thomas were the “100 Year Rains”.  No towns were washed away (that I know of), such as what happened to Portalon in ’07, but there were some deaths and certainly quite a bit of damage. Some lost their homes, and others are having to move lots of dirt & rock that slid down onto their properties and into their homes.  Roads were washed out, including the highway, south of Uvita.  Trucks were backed up and the country was at a standstill for days.

The Economy
The word “recovery” has been used quite a bit with respect to the economy.  I don’t benefit from a daily dose of media news coverage, so I’m never really all that sure of what the prevailing consensus is regarding the actual health of the economy, but from where I sit, it’s difficult to see how there can be a genuine recovery when there exists an un-payable deficit of $13+ trillion dollars in the US alone.  This doesn’t bring into account unemployment and the numerous other nations that are either belly up or very nearly so.

Real Estate
Having said that, we are definitely benefitting from ”the recovery” in my Guys In The Zone real estate office in Uvita.  Business is brisk and folks are buying land & houses at a rate that can’t be described as a boom, but it’s a sight better than what we’ve seen over the past couple of years.

Explaining the Increase:

1. Much lower pricing on properties in Costa Rica’s southern pacific zone
2. Improved access to the zone.  The coastal highway between Quepos & Dominical has certainly opened up the southern pacific zone as a vacation destination to more tourists.
3. Reduced quality of life “back home”.  This can relate to: insecurity & concerns over the economy, un-payable taxes, health care, the year 2012, etc..
4. The desire to live life now, instead of waiting for perfect conditions at some undefined future time.

Whatever the explanation, there is certainly a new “type” of visitor, investor, re-locator to the zone. Point #2 has a lot to do with this.  Simply getting to the zone required a certain amount of hardiness and a sort of unique drive in the individuals that felt compelled to make the trek.  Now, with the completed Quepos to Dominical link, we are seeing a new flavor of human being here in the zone.

Personal
The year 2010 is going down in the journal of my life as The Year. It was a year of massive change and new experiences for this 51 year old, father of 3 (just when I thought I had seen it all).

I was very nearly killed, and as a direct result, I had an experience that has altered my views on life, God and to a very large degree, my fellow man/woman.

The account of my incident is fairly well documented, so I’ll not go into the details of it again here.  Suffice it to say that, I chased a thief, got blindsided by a bat to the head, spent a month in the hospital (CIMA) where they at first didn’t know if I was going to live. Then they didn’t know if I was going to come back sane, or with all of my mental faculties.  Then when it appeared that I was going to recover most of my former self, the losses tallied were a blind left eye, an interesting affliction called adrenal fatigue, and a persistent numbness in my face and sinuses affecting my ability to taste & smell.  I am now back to work and for the most part, back in the swing of things.

Personal Changes
I used to think that I wasn’t a judgmental person. For most of my life I have been known as a generally good natured fellow that looked for the good in people. I now feel a little different, thanks to this incident that so profoundly affected my 2010. To be the recipient of an across the board, around the globe concern, and the outpouring of love from all quarters, I came to realize just how judgmental I had actually been.  I now aspire to be truly non-judgmental.  What this looks like is based on the first hand experience that I have had with men & women both in the inner circle of my life, and extending out to beyond the periphery of my life, acting in ways that I now feel really show what most of us have inside of us.  I think that we all want so much to be needed, to live meaningful lives, and to really be of service to each other.  Modern life doesn’t offer much opportunity to really feel needed and feel like we can make a difference.

My incident must have provided this sort of an opportunity, because the outpouring of support & love that I received, and the people that I received it from, made me really stop and re-think my viewpoint on humanity in general.

Now, going into 2011, when I have an encounter with someone, anyone, and I do my knee jerk assessment of that person (I think you know what I mean),  I now know that what I’m seeing is the thin wrapping that we all bundle ourselves up with as we present ourselves to each other in our day to day lives.  It’s simply the way we want to be viewed by others.  But this has so very little to do with the core of the person, and how we/they will be when the chips are down.  We humans are quirky – and God love us.

As we start 2011, I wish to express to all those that contributed to my current level of health and well being, my profound, inexpressible appreciation and reciprocal love.  Your gifts to me have left me a changed man and I hope to be as generous and loving as you all, when I grow up.

Gifts

• Donations that nearly paid $110,000 in medical bills.
• Hours of much needed therapy & consultations for my diagnosed condition of PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder).
• Massages
• Chiropractic services
• Meals
• Music
• Fund raising benefits in my honor
• Lots of prayers, concern, visits and love
• Invitations to speak of my experience to local groups
• Have had people actually cross the street just to tell me they were concerned and how glad they are to see me up and about.

I have had some non-residents of the zone tell me that I must live in some kind of special community and that I must have some kind of special friends.

I am inclined to think so as well.  However, I wonder if maybe in reality it really isn’t all so “special” or unusual.  Maybe this is what humanity really is.

I’m hoping so.