[Kevo]

Greetings to all,
We are beginning to explore various sites to land in once we retire. At the moment we are both under fifty (not for long, me anyway) and want to enjoy some of life while most of the body parts still work. One of the areas that I have searched and not been able to find any info on is our area of work. We would like to be able to continue working a little when we do "pull the plug". Both of us currently work as sonographers (ultrasound) here in the US. Is this an area open for us or should we consider something else? Another question we have come up with is the price of property. Some other areas we have looked at state that there is a local price and one for foriegners. Is this true in CS?


Thnx to all in advance, we look forward to chatting with you all soon.


Best Regards,
Kevo

[eleanorcr]

While it is not easy for foreigners to work in Costa Rica legally, you might stand a better chance with your skill.

Price of property - you may find a "Tico" price for property and a "Gringo" price for property, that's true. It depends on a lot of things. People on this forum recommend renting for a while before buying property to make sure that you actually like it here and to make sure you actually like the area you would like to move to. During that time, you can make some Costa Rican friends who would help you with your property purchase. When I bought property, a Costa Rican friend asked the owner the price -without me being present - and she gave him a price. After checking around with various knowledgeable people in town, we decided this was a decent price so I bought it and paid her price. I don't think it was the "Gringo" price. This different pricing also depends on where you buy property.

[ciclista]

Real estate is mostly slow-moving here, and SOME sellers are becoming more reasonable, especially once they realize that you're not just "browsing". That said, you must do all of your own research about prices and values because there are no formal resources (like MLS in the US) for this.

During the past two weeks we bought a condominium. At first we were offered virtually no discount from an asking price that was a little high, but after doing plenty of research, and finding more than one casa that we would be happy to buy for cash, the asking price and terms for each finalist became reasonable.

[Lunja]

Actually, there is a new MLS service - based on the type used in the US. The company is called Tierra Max. www.tierramax.com
The jury is still out on how well this will work and what will drive customers to it.

cindy

[costaricafinca]

Obviously, sonographers, are trained and working here already, so you are not offering a skill that is new to the country. It is very difficult to get issued a work visa, which you would need to be legally permitted to work here. And the salary would be very low to what you are possibly used to.

[Epicatt2]

costaricafinca, on 21 July 2010 - 10:32 AM, said:

Obviously, sonographers, are trained and working here already, so you are not offering a skill that is new to the country. It is very difficult to get issued a work visa, which you would need to be legally permitted to work here. And the salary would be very low to what you are possibly used to.

Not only that, but if the CR Govt did say they could work in this field in CR, I'm certain that the medical licensing process would be, to say the least, an involved and time-consuming process.

Just FYI . . .

Regards,

Paul M.
==

[costaricafinca]

...and in Spanish!