One of the most common things we see with property purchases is the understandable initial excitement and joy of the idea of purchasing a property in a tropical paradise like Costa Rica.

Unfortunately, as it is well known, high emotions tend to cloud rational thought, and that could lead to buying a property that while it looks beautiful initially, could hide many underlying issues. That’s when due diligence comes to the rescue. In other words, people were right on using the Spanish saying that goes “El diablo está en los detalles” (The Devil is in the details) in these cases.

Beyond paradise

Property in Costa Rica, like in many other countries has many different layers besides the initial astonishing view, that can later bring out issues that someone who is inexperienced with the local legal system, could not notice. That’s why inspections and appraisals are vital in the quest of purchasing a piece of paradise.

Hence the reason why Outlier Legal, with the interest of protecting your investment, elaborates a detailed investigation of not only the property, but also all the legal and administrative details that go with such, this report is usually referred to as the “Due Diligence Report“, and we cannot reiterate enough its importance to all our current or future clients, if they want to become property owners in Costa Rica. A Real Estate lawyer will guarantee that all the procedures are done according to the Costa Rican Law.

“An investment in knowledge pays the best interest”- Benjamin Franklin

Red flags in Real Estate investments

For example, a property might look fine -even with an added beautiful home and decoration- yet such a home could have a lot of different complications or legal problems that are unfortunately very common, such as no access to basic utilities (water or electricity), the property could have been constructed without its due permits from the municipality (local government) therefore is illegal, the owner of the property could be late on paying property taxes, that in accordance to Costa Rican law will carry over to the new owner of the property if he/she buys it, among many other potential risks or hazards.

In Summary

This is why we fully believe that getting a full knowledge of what our clients are purchasing is predominant above any other matters, because before any possible investment, our client’s legal well-being comes first, and this is why the Due Diligence investigation reports are necessary. With it, we can inform our client on the entire situation of the property, in order to insure and guide the purchase of the right home, and most importantly to help accomplish our client’s outlier dreams.