Like most other things in today’s information marketplace, the best place to start looking for a Costa Rican property is the Internet. The sites addressing Costa Rican real estate split into three rough categories: Those offering services (brokers, lawyers, fixers, property tours), those selling their own properties (developers), and those offering third-party listings (newspapers, Internet classified ads). The first two kinds of sites can have good information, but should be taken with the proverbial grain of salt. For one thing, anyone with a few hundred dollars can set up a decent Web site these days, and it’s not proof of competence. For another thing, most of them directly profit from high real estate prices, so there is quite a bit of hype and their price quotes (if they offer them) will be a bit high. Still, those kinds of sites can give you an idea where price negotiations will start, especially if you’re in the market for a condo or a house in a gated community. These sites are also a good place to start researching the service people you will need to hire to complete your transaction. The best way to find them is through Internet search engines like Google.com and Yahoo.com, preferably searching with the name of the region you’re interested in (Jacó, Escazú) and the product you’re looking for (condominium, broker, etc.).

Newspapers and online classified ads will get you a bit closer to what’s actually available on the market, although once again, the prices are often higher than what a smart buyer would pay. It helps to read the ads with Chapter 4 (the geographic survey) open, along with a map, to check locations. Following are a few places to find these ads:

TicoTimes.net – The Web site of English language newspaper the Tico Times. The site’s classified ads usually include a hundred or so real estate listings, everything from houses to lots to condos to whole farms. You can be reasonably sure they’re up to date, since the sellers pay for the ads by the month. Since the properties are mostly listed by North Americans for North Americans, the prices are in dollars; and since the properties are listed on a site aimed at English speakers, they are generally not cheap, except for the occasional fire sale.

AMCostaRica.com – An online news site, AMCostaRica.com also has a classified ads section that includes a handful of property listings. Many of the ads come with pictures, although you can’t exactly trust them. As with TicoTimes.net, the ads are listed by North Americans, for North Americans, so prices will be relatively high and in dollars.

ForSalebyOwnerCostaRica.com – This site is the real deal, a franchise of the U.S. “4 Sale by Owner” brand. The Web site allows you to search a wealth of properties according to price, province, and type of property. 4 Sale by Owner doesn’t make money off commissions, so you can be sure the sale prices listed are what the owner is asking, though once again, since the listings are targeted at English-speaking foreigners, they’re often quite pricey. Still, this is an invaluable resource and great place to start your property search.

costarica.craigslist.org – Like Craigslist.org in other parts of the world, CraigsList Costa Rica features quite a few property listings. Remember, though, that it costs nothing to post on Craigslist.org, so you can never be sure if the prices and properties you’re looking at are for real or still for sale. Also, the readership of Craigslist.org are particularly urban (that is, affluent) buyers, and the prices on the site reflect that audience. Once again, it’s a great place to start, but watch the site for a few weeks to get an idea which kind of ads are worth reading, and which ones are trash.

Economicos.com - This is the classified ads Web site of Costa Rica’s principle daily newspaper, La Nación, and has hundreds of properties listed for sale. The site has a few drawbacks: For one, it’s in Spanish, and for another it’s weighted heavily toward the Central Valley. But overall, the listings on the site are very valuable for getting a handle on what locals are paying for real estate. Check the Spanish/English real estate glossary in the back for help with navigating the ads. To get started, just click on the Bienes Raíces button on the home page. Once again, since these are all pay ads, you can be certain that they’re fairly recent.

Multiple Listing Services – Do a Google or Yahoo search for “MLS Costa Rica” or something along those lines and you’ll get a lot of results. An awful lot of people have tried to start an MLS in the last few years, including the Costa Rican Chamber of Real Estate Brokers (mls-cr.com) and the Costa Rica Global Association of Real Estate (costaricare.net). Several independent ones (Point2’s homes.point2.com, click on Costa Rica) are also out there. Spend a few minutes with any of these or other Costa Rican MLSs, however, and you’ll quickly spot some problems. Brokers don’t do exclusive listings, so you can find the same property listed in several different places (often on the same MLS) with different prices. The free online MLSs aren’t regularly updated either, so the properties you’re looking at may have been sold years ago, or are now asking a much higher price. Even so, they’re worth a look to get a handle on the lay of the market.