This article is one of a series on life in the campo, or country living in Costa Rica, as my wife and I* experienced it on our visits and after moving to Costa Rica. Each is a sort of time capsule, the stories evolving with us as we have lived more experiences and delved deeper into the culture.

I never had any desire to sell real estate in the USA, but now that we live in Costa Rica, I’m sure I never would. In the USA, you’d consider it a marvelous thing if you heard of a home for sale before it’s listed. Here, the majority of the properties are sold word-of-mouth. There is no Multiple Listing Service, and in many places in the campo, the landowners don’t want to talk to real estate agents.

While buying land in Costa Rica is one of the easiest things you can do, it’s not so easy to buy good land at a fair price.

In a sense, it’s not true that there are no real estate agents out in the campo: Since licensing isn’t necessary, every tico (and many gringos) wants to help you sell a property. The Costa Ricans don't mind. They love to talk about land, how much it is, whether it’s worth it, and who might end up buying the property.

If I didn't have a sense of humor about it, I’d get more than a little irritated. When I move into a new area, I can't seem to leave the house without someone telling me about a "wonderful finca they know that is for sale..."  Actually, I don’t even have to leave the house. It wouldn't be so bad, except I know about all the properties that we are considering. To hear about them over and over and to have to gently let someone know I already knew about it is a bit of a trial. When I’m in a little town and I give someone a lift, I know I just signed up for an account (and since I have to watch the road, I can barely understand it at times) of all the properties that are for sale and why they would be great for cattle and why do I want to grow trees anyway? I have to be careful not to nod at the wrong time or I will agree to go look at some snake-infested finca that will require two hours on horseback to get to. An interesting adventure for sure, but not one I want to agree to without a purpose.

Because hitchhikers and people who drop by my front porch constitute the Costa Rican version of the MLS, pricing is a challenge. What happens is this: A person has a piece of property that they want to sell, and like anyone, they want to get top dollar. Unfortunately, with the popularity of Costa Rica as a retirement place, many people are coming here with money and no idea how much things should cost. So, for example, a person tells them, "This finca is for sale -- it is only one million per manzana." First of all, what is a manzana? You look it up in your trusty dictionary and it says "apple." Hmmm, one million sounds pretty high for an apple, unless it is an Apple computer. Asking around, you find out that a manzana is a measurement that is 7,000 square meters, or if you prefer, about 1.7 acres. The issue is that you have no idea if the land is worth that -- and there have been cases that people didn't realize that the person was talking in colones, not dollars -- with the conversion rate, as of 2006, that would be about 2,000 USD for 1.7 acres.

While good land is expensive, poor land can be priced just as high, because often the first price you hear is based on your perceived ability to pay, not the value of the land. I call this the "Gringo Double" -- ask for twice what it is worth and see if they will bite. Since foreigners have frequently paid twice what they should have, it’s hard to blame the ticos for trying. It wouldn’t happen if we weren’t in such a hurry. Costa Ricans take their sweet time on buying land. After all, this is a major event in their lives, and it is to be savored.

Thankfully, we have a Costa Rican business partner, Hector, who enjoys the long drawn out dance that is negotiating for land. But there has to be an exception to every rule.

When we bought our second finca, in Monte Cristo, it sort of dropped in our laps. Since everyone knows that Finca Leola buys land for reforestation, they all tell him about properties that are available. (They also tell our workers or anyone else they think will trickle it to either Hector or myself.) Hector was sitting in a soda, and a person came up and asked if we wanted to buy the logs on a property. Hector asked him if he was interested in selling the land instead. He responded that he really did want to sell the property more than sell the land, but he was selling the logs to make a mortgage payment. If we were going to consider buying the land, we had to do it very quickly, because the balloon payment was coming due.

Hector went with him right then and saw the land — and it’s not at all easy for Hector to drop what he’s doing to see land. It was very good, with lots of very interesting features, very rich soil, and native trees that had been planted and were growing very quickly. He asked if I wanted to see it, because he felt it was a very good price. I went ahead and walked the finca, and we decided it was worth getting. However, we had a problem at the time. All the cash was already tied up. Hector said that wouldn't be a problem.

In lieu of cash, the seller accepted some things we’d wanted to sell anyway: a jeep, an old pickup, and an ATV. We paid an additional 800 dollars and assumed the mortgage.

We closed on the property in under a week.

*We are Fred and Amy Morgan, originally from the US. We bought a dairy farm in Costa Rica to plant trees in its pastures, then later caught a dream of turning all the land we can to permanently protected, sustainably maintained forest once the plantation trees have been harvested for profit. Along the way, we made it possible for our former partner to realize his dream of starting a business of his own in his native land. He is featured in many of the earlier stories.

To read more about Finca Leola S.A. and how you can also invest in trees and at the same time help with reforestation, go to Own Trees with Us.